*Bzzz bzzz

Charlotte woke up to an alarm she had put in place yesterday. Looking at her phone she sighed.

Mars 24… it’s been two months since I was forced to leave my house… Really, why was I chased out, I just didn’t want to go to college…

She hugged her knees. After what happened the day before, she was feeling melancholic. To her parents, even if they had chased her out, she still loved them. To her friends, Ellen and Dordives, she hadn’t talked to them that much lately, even if they went out last Saturday, she felt it was not enough now.

Her past lover and at present a good friend, Jean… They broke up because he didn’t understand what she wanted to do, this project, she had always thought about it and he gave it no heed. He said it was something crazy and it had no way to be realized.

Really, I told you what I wanted to do and you ostracized me… How would one feel after that… And you never even apologized to me…

Staying in bed for some time while looking at the ceiling, a single tear went down her left cheek.

After working up some strength, she got up from her bed and went to her desktop to see how much she had now. After buying everything she needed for the first machine, she started her AI again.

She needed funds as fast as possible, she couldn’t care less if she was condemned because of it, she had greater crimes on her back she should avoid!

Hmph, after working an entire night you can only get as far as 60 thousand Gers, heh, how shameless.

She couldn’t help but deride herself, if she had done this from the start, she wouldn’t need to give one of the blueprints she had made. It was too late to blame herself though.

“I’ll leave you for now, I need other things.”

She had left around 10 thousand Gers on her bank accoun. Right now she needed a place to build her machine and some equipment to make it possible.

Going out after having a fast breakfast, she looked for places she could rent, were far from the uncalled eye and was secure enough.

After spending all day going between various real state companies that rented any and all types of places, she finally found a warehouse in the outskirts of the city. The closest station was 30 minutes a walk, and there was close to no buses going around. Going there in person, she saw it was bigger than she thought, it had a length of 10 meters and a width of 8.

She had come with an employee to show her it.

“Impressive, just what I wanted.”

“I’m glad you like it, Miss Eschete. Now, for how long you want to lease it?”

“Two months should be enough, I hope to finish this as fast as possible.”

“Ok, we can go back to the company and we can finish the contract.”

“Let’s.”

As she was serious and without any mood to fool around, the employee had not attempted to lighten the weather. He felt that if he was to do something, his throat would be sent flying.

When they arrived to the real state company, the process was faster than Charlotte thought it would be, taking only around half an hour. Finalizing the contract, she paid the two months of renting directly, it was 3100 Gers in total and she was given the key to it immediately,

The contract was valid until the end of may, for this one extra week, she would pay another 100 Gers at the end. Which she didn’t care at all.

“Thank you, goodbye.”

Charlotte said crisply and went to buy the safety measures for the machine, like anti radioactive vests that fully covered her body. As well as disposable material that was going to be used to make everything work: nails, glue, welding and the like.

Once the purchases were over, she took a taxi and went to the warehouse, it was close to 7 in the evening, so she told the taxi to wait while she stored some things and to take her back again.

When she arrived at her home it was past 8.

What a day. But now everything that’s left is to the main ingredients to come.

The next day she went to buy some flowers to Dordives, she was going to pay it now and make it be delivered on her wedding day, in case something went wrong.

Next, she bought some clothes for herself and went to take pictures of herself. She was going to send these to Ellen, as she was constantly saying how cute things looked good on her. On the photo set, she told the photographer to make it look as cute as possible.

Finally, she went to her parents’ house. She was going to spend the afternoon there.

It was a little unnerving for her after what they had done, but she wanted everything to be okay. At least this way, if something were to happen, no one would have any regrets left.

Her mother was a little bit taller than her and her father was taller by a full head. They spent the afternoon in her parents’ shop. They sold vegetables and natural things, as well as some receipts to make dishes out of the things the people bought.

At first it was a little problematic as her father was a little ashamed of what they had done to their ‘baby’. At least no one fought that day, sadly her brother was living in the capital in an interchange he had this year and she couldn’t see him to say to him a silent farewell.

On Wednesday she received the first batch of items, so she could start doing something with it. She went to the warehouse and started welding and nailing everything she could and wouldn’t pose any problem later on. She finished after only two hours as there wasn’t much she could do without every part ready.

She came back to her room at 3 in the afternoon. There she saw she had received a message from James.

“James:

Hello, miss Frecks, I’d like you to know that we finished it this morning. It somehow looks like a transparent vase, like water, but is completely solid, a strange combination indeed.

It’s going to be arriving at your city this Friday's night, how do you want to exchange it?”

Charlotte thought for a while, remembering at what she had looked before: ways to exchange things without being noticed by the other party.

“Frecks:

Hello Mr. James, I’m going to leave the machine that can duplicate money along with the blueprint of a machine similar to what I’m building in a locker, it’s going to be sealed with a numerical padlock so there won’t be any problem, I’ll give you the password and location Friday morning.”

“James:

Understood, until then, stay healthy.”

“Frecks:

Thanks, you as well.”

Now, everything is coming. Let’s finish it all now.

She said as she looked to her desktop, she had had it for almost three months now, and it was the start of this race.

Without you I couldn’t have completed it as fast… Sigh, maybe I’d buy another one?

When she thought of this, she noticed she didn’t have to give them this particular one, she just could copy the completed AI and give it to them!

“Heh, truly an idiot… Am I not?”

Charlotte looked at her stocks and made up her mind, she was going to withdraw everything she had now, tomorrow she was going to need it to make some corrections to the machine she was building in the warehouse, so she needed her desktop there, she also needed to copy everything to make sure it worked properly.

“First of all, let’s buy another one, I’ve enough funds.”

Withdrawing everything she had from the stocks market, she was impressed at how much she had made: 213,843.39 Gers!

Even if there was some loss while withdrawing it, she could bear it.

She went to the same tech store where she bought her desktop, bought another similar one, albeit it was red and not black as the one she had right now.

She made someone transport it to her floor and then went entered her room with it, alone.

She had also bought three memories so she could save all the information she had and keep it as a safety measure.

In one of them, she saved all the data she had gotten from her own desktop, the first batch of files that started this, along with all the blueprints she had and the material she had downloaded to try to understand the fifth force.

On the second, she saved everything about her AI, all the progress and connections it had made during its operation the last month.

The third one was to be given to James, in there she was saving the second blueprint and making it impossible to be copied. If someone was to try and copy it, it would be deleted in that instant as well as any kind of transferred information. It worked like that when trying to normaly copy-paste it, to print it or if they taked a normal screenshot. She made it so it couldn’t be easily shared. But if one was to transcribe it from the screen to paper, it would be useless.

“Hmp! I hope you don’t screw it over!” She said, hoping for him to make a copy of it and deleting everything.

She then started to copy the AI program to the newly bought desktop. After it was done, she made it so it couldn’t be modified or reproduced in the same way as the memory disk, and then reduced its efficiency to 50%. From what she had understood, it was enough like that.

Finally, she disconnected her desktop and moved it to the warehouse. She made sure to keep it closed and without any dampness.

She dropped at her bed when it was close to 9 in the evening.

Tomorrow I need to put this one in the locker and then start seriously working in the machine…

“Heh, I wonder what’s it gonna do…”

She whispered as she felt her consciousness fade away. Letting it be, she went to dreamland.

Thursday morning, she received the second batch of materials.

“The only remaining ones are 100 grams of pure uranium and the problematic one.”

She said as she was taking everything to her warehouse.

Connecting her desktop in the floor, she started to work on what could be done.

Looking at it all, she was sure she could finish it today, the uranium was the last material needed and would be arriving Friday morning, it worked as a catalyst and the problematic material was the receiver of all the energy it was going to be released. At least, that was what the theory had told her.

Getting it all together took her almost all day, she had arrived at 10 in the morning after getting everything, and she finished the preparations at 6 in the afternoon.

“… I didn’t store the new desktop on the locker…”

She took a taxi to her house so she could store the desktop with the degraded AI in a locker as fast as possible. She also needed a numerical padlock, she could buy it in a convenience store but she wasn’t sure it would be as secure as she desired.

Not having any option, she bought the most expensive one she could find and went to rent a locker somewhere in downtown.

After renting it, she hurried to her room. Arriving at almost 9, she was again so exhausted she didn’t want to do anything anymore. She had to, so there wouldn't be any complications.

“No new messages, no news regarding the hacking… Everything’s still fine.”

As far as she knew, she could be monitored right now by the ones who had sent her a message, but she couldn’t care less. If there was something she understood this week, it was that the message she received last Sunday was a warning to be careful and not a threat to her life.

If that was not the case, then they could have apprehended her already, even kidnapping her.

“I’ve not eaten well all this week… I should make something good now.”

Forcing herself to prepare something substantial, she went to the kitchen. To her surprise, the owner’s son was there.

“Fancy seeing you here, huh?”

She said as she approached him. He was startled at her voice, he turned fast, as if he had been caught committing a crime. She chuckled when she saw his reaction.

“Oh, it’s you, miss Charlotte.”

“Please, drop the formalities, we’ve been living together for, say, two months now?”

“Hehe, yes, so, uhm Charlotte, why are you here?”

Rolling her eyes at his nervousness, she answered with a, “what’s there to do in the kitchen apart from preparing dinner?”

“Oh, right. True that haha… Why so late, tho?”

“Well, I’ve been busy all this week, I arrived not too long ago. What about you?”

“Me? I’m also eating something… Though, it’s more of stealing food than anything else.”

“Ah? You’re stealing? Why?”

“Erm, I was craving some, so I came here.”

“Hehe, you should take care of your habits, eating this late is bad for your body, you’re still growing no?”

“Uh, yes, but isn’t that the same about you?”

“Well, yes, but I’ve not eaten anything since noon? I think, also, I’m way older than you and sadly, I won’t grow anymore.” Charlotte said as she patted her own head. Indicating that her height would stay the same.

“Well then… I guess I should be going…”

“Why the rush? Keep me company while I eat, you can eat your thing wthout worrying that I'll bust you off.” She said as she approached the fridge and started taking things out.

“Didn’t you say the contrary just now?”

“Did I? If it’s done occasionally it shouldn’t be a problem. C’mon, let me cook.”

“O-oh, sorry, please do so.”

He was impressed by her mature allure, even if she was shorter than him, it was still impressive by how she talked, moved and behaved. This boy fell in love for the first time in his life that night.

It was a wonder to her how could someone be so innocent. He kept stuttering with whatever indecent remark she made, his eyes darting around. They shared some thoughts and stories in such pace that time just flowed unnoticed.

After sharing dinner and talking some more with the teen boy, Charlotte bid him farewell and went to her room.

This’ll be the hardest weekend of my life.

She thought as she finished reading things and went to sleep