[Date: 16th of August 1977]

[Time: 23:45:23]

[Location: The Maker Institute’s F.I.R.M. 2 Building, Washington D.C. - USA]

Loud footsteps being caused by polished shoes hitting firmly against the waxed tile floor, were heard throughout the narrow, white walled, windowless and almost doorless hallway. They progressively got louder and louder before suddenly coming to a stop.

6 clicking sounds were heard before a final ring affirmed their confirmation and the sound of metallic locks, like 4 giant electric motors whining on a double door, were heard unlocking. The door squeaked as the owner of the footsteps pushed his right hand on the right door, allowing himself in.

A few more footsteps were tapped before a sudden voice was heard.

“Good evening, Dr. Harlow”,

A female called out, both welcoming and greeting the man.

“Good evening, Sarah. How are things progressing?”,

The man replied, with a coarse and tired voice.

The American accents on both their voices were unmistakable, solidifying as to where they were and which language they spoke.

The room they were both in was barely lit, only a few lights shining here and there coming from computer monitors, a few gadgets and contraptions. However, the room was quite large.

There were no windows to speak of, as the two of them were 8 levels below ground. Apart from the two voices coming from the two of them, there was also a small humming coming from a nearby ventilation system, supplying both with clean and fresh air.

There were about 6 tables in the room, each possessing 2 to 6 monitors and laptops, 90% of which, were turned off. The 6 tables appeared to surround a circular contraption at the very center of the room.

It was both unusual and yet intriguing to the eyes. It had a circular base, metallic in nature and black in color. It had 3 cables, about 10 inches thick in diameter, connected to 3 ports at 3 points around said base.

Above the base, around the ceiling, there was a sort of ‘Holographic’ screen, fully surrounding the top. It appeared to dynamically change between fluctuating graphs and entire lists or quickly scrolling numbers and letters.

However, the center piece of the entire contraption was what was in between.

Hovering, spinning clockwise at a rate of 4 turns per minute, was a glowing, almost sapphire blue hued, cube. It was a mere 20 centimeters cubed in size, spinning around slightly offset by 12 degrees.

Each side was plain, pure black in color, but each had lines running vertically and horizontally through them, causing the object to look a lot like a Rubik’s Cube toy. And from those very lines, was where the beautiful blue light was emerging from.

The Doctor took a seat on a chair behind a desk off to the side of the room. He settled down a cup he held on to his right hand, right next to a picture of a smiling little girl.

“Everything seems normal. Numbers are stable, temperature has been holding nicely ever since the last update and it appears the I:DI/OM System doesn’t seem to be having any problem with adjusting to it”,

The female informed the Doctor.

“Good. Any progress with the Raw Output Power?”,

He asked just after taking a sip from the cup he had just set down.

The sip was slow, as he worried that he might burn himself from the still boiling coffee in his mug.

Sarah walked over to a nearby laptop, 2 desks away from the Doctor. She clicked a few keys and the screens changed slightly. She simply looked at the new windows for a second, before responding to the man.

“6 hours and 23 minutes ago, it registered 67.90 Current Units. It declined for almost an hour, 53 minutes exactly, down to 59.02. It remained at this value for the next 3 hours and 7 minutes before raising to 87.11 in the mere span of 24 seconds. It has remained at said value”.

“Hmm… was there a fault in the Power Supply?”,

Harlow asked opening his own laptop from in front of him.

“No sir. We thought the same thing, but upon a check, everything appeared fine. Maintenance Records going back to 2 weeks also confirm that the equipment has been in perfect working condition. However, we did find out something…”,

“Oh?”,

Sarah turned around, looking deeply at the beautifully glowing blue color. She raised a smile before returning to looking back at Harlow.

“It appears to be trying to communicate”,

“Communicate? Impossible. It’s not even at the Generation Stage”,

“We found it odd as well, until Mr. Pierce proved it”,

Harlow looked upwards at the standing female. His eyes were sharp and oozed a suspicious aura.

“Jax was here?”,

“Yes sir. He came by when you left to see your daughter. He wanted a report on how it was evolving. It appears he plans on taking it, before we can finish”,

Sarah replied, taking a seat on a nearby chair, facing the Doctor.

Harlow however, stood up and smacked his hands on the table, laying them down flat on it and pressing down hard, as if he was trying to break the wooden surface.

“WHAT!? On who’s authority?”,

Sarah span around in the chair and now faced a table with a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse on it. She moved the mouse slightly and the screen on the monitor lit up. She then pulled up a file at the top left of the screen.

“*cough* *cough* This email is addressed to Sarah Wixville and Hayden Harlow. My two prodigies! How are you? Good? Good. So, here’s the thing, the bosses upstairs are getting real riled up about this new project of yours. They’re complaining about something like ‘we’ve put too much money on this new form of A.I. We cannot wait any longer. We do not care at what stage it is, it has already shown great Power Output and Compatibility. You have 2 weeks to finish it, if it’s not, we will end our funding and take possession of our assets’. As you can see, they’re not in the greatest of moods. I’ve tried to buy you some extra time, but they did not budge. Long story short, you two better have it finished by end of August. I’ll come by on the 15th to see how progress is. With some luck, you two would have finished it by then. Your dearest friend and worst enemy, Jax Pierce”,

As Sarah finished reading the file out loud, Harlow could only stand in both surprise and shock. But deep down, he was truly feeling fear. Sarah looked his way with a sort of fake smile, as if she were trying her best to cover her worries.

“I didn’t notice the email until this morning. I guess all the work has just been keeping me too busy—”

“When…”,

Washington asked with a slight quiver to his voice.

“It was sent on the 13th, but Pierce said the 28th will be the deadline”,

Washington took a deep breath before a troubled smile took his lips and a single word emerged from his mouth.

“Fuck”.