Chapter 2

Date: 2180 AD. Planet Earth, American Conglomerate, Portland, EIC Headquarters

Located on Hayden Island previously owned by Portland, is the EIC headquarters. At the center of EIC facilities, among various guard barracks and other buildings, is a cold metallic tower that holds their personal AI network, and serves as a secure location for holding the board's meetings. There is likely nothing more secure than the EIC’s network within the tower. All forms of non-monitored EIC electronics shut off within a one-mile radius of the tower. Using both passive materials and various forms of electronic shielding, the tower itself is protected from everything; from all forms of electronic surveillance to electromagnetic pulses up to 100kV/m.

They bought the rights to the island and the I-5 crossing the island was destroyed a few years after they received funding from the American Conglomerate. The railway, now road, became the only route on and off the island, and that was monitored by EIC security and AIs 24/7. All privately owned land was procured under the pretense of creating a secure location that could house the network dedicated to the improvement to EIC’s immersion tech for humanity. The fact that the EIC board members have private villas, boating docks, and helipads on the island too, has been labeled as just for “convenience” and “security for the board members”. Anyone trying to cross onto the island without prior approval was subjected to intense interrogation, fines, and then either arrested or shown to I-205. An 8 lane freeway with, a kind, if a pointed reminder to not come back this way again. Thankfully, we were expected and were quickly escorted onto the island by security, and shown to a waiting room outside the board room within the tower to present our findings to the board, without having to undergo the security search.

After being escorted in after a few minutes Phil took the lead on the presentation which took about 30 minutes with no interruptions. The board was so silent, not even an awkward cough, followed by a brief quiet that followed at the end. At this point, the EIC board thanked us for our presentation and then asked us to leave the room so they could confirm our findings with their personal AI and tech teams. 40 minutes had gone by since we had stepped out, and I was starting to sweat slightly in my silk blouse. I could only imagine how Phil was doing in his business attire. We kept glancing at each other wondering what was taking so long. The silence grew and I started to wring my hands trying not to go back to my habit of biting my nails. Phil started to pace in the waiting room not even glancing at the expensive artwork decorating it when the secretary finally told us they were ready and we reentered the room.

“Immersion research development team 103, Phil and Susan. After your presentation and review with our AI network and research team, we are pleased to congratulate you on your accomplishment. We will be sending your research on to the other teams for further study to prep for the next group. But in acknowledgment for your hard work and dedication, we would like to present you with a bonus of four hundred million world credits for your retirement which is being deposited now in your account.”

We were flabbergasted by the bonus amount! Floored more like it, as we had a combined annual salary of just over 200 thousand, which was already quite a bit above the current median income. As for our research, they were still going to test it further.…. Wait a minute!… for our retirement? Phil and I looked at each other, our confusion apparent? Before we could respond to voice any possibility of objection the EIC security head spoke. Both turning our focus on to him, we could immediately tell that he was not the stereotypical mass of muscle one would associate with the Head of Security. He was leanly built like endurance runners and had an extreme focus to his demeanor that you could almost feel as he looked at you. If I had to guess I would have said he personified my thoughts of an old fashioned spook from the old CIA.

“I know you are wondering why we said retirement. Well, that has to do more with our technology control and keeping this a trade secret. We can not, after all, let you go off and sell these findings to the other immersion companies or governments. So as of today you are retired and all research in the field of immersion is now the property of the EIC, and your names shall not be mentioned. The EIC acknowledges your hard work and dedication in this achievement. It is not to be underrated and is significantly higher than our estimates on where all of our competitors are at. It is even significantly higher than those that are government-backed with virtually unlimited fundings. We intend to show you our gratitude by relocating you to our private villas and all of your living expenses shall be paid for, along with receiving the bonus already stated. You of course will have to remain within company maintained property and be monitored at all times by our AI to prevent any breach in your contract of maintaining company tech secrets. At least until such time that this is disseminated to the population at large. It is unlikely that governments will allow us to maintain a monopoly for long and in fact, that has been the unspoken rule. Whoever develops a working prototype will be given a one year grace period. After that, we will be required to share our findings allowing the rest of the world to join the game preventing a worldwide monopoly. You will be allowed to leave company property a few months following the release, once we have ensured no damage will come to you or the company, of course.”

We were confused, angry, how could they do this, we did not want to be a part of their private Villa, we did not want to be controlled by them and monitored around the clock. While outraged Phil spoke up attempting to keep things diplomatic.

“That is extremely sudden and we weren’t really prepared for this decision. While we do appreciate the offer but we had been planning on asking if we could be the first to use the new immersion process. My wife and I were looking forward to seeing what Nexitus could offer us, and we don’t care to remain here.” Looking for encouragement and support he turned to me.

“Yes, both my husband and I would like to undergo the immersion as soon as possible. Perhaps that would be agreeable to you instead of a forced retirement” I stated firmly.

The board looked at each other and talked quietly amongst themselves for a while. The company president cleared his throat loudly, grabbing the attention of all in the room. “We see no reason why that should not be possible. We do however request that if immersion is desired that you sign a liability waiver.”

“That will be fine” Phil responded for the both of us. “We can be ready for immersion within a couple of weeks.”

“That is most excellent, we will contact you once everything has been set up.” The board started to get up and shake hands with us. “Oh, we do need one more thing from both of you. You will be required to delete your AI prior to your immersion. After all, it was a part of the research and in a way part of company tech. We can’t let it get taken by others, once you’re gone eh!” The board all laughed and started to disperse from the meeting room.

“That is going to be difficult as I see Aira as more than just our AI. She has become a part of our family. If she finds out that she is to be deleted she would be devastated!” Phil responded tensely, as anger flooded through his body. “We couldn't do that to her.”

“Well, then immersion will not be possible. We simply cannot allow you to immerse yourself while your AI is still functioning. It is just a program, regardless of you giving it a name. That is already extremely unorthodox and in my opinion dangerous. Simply put it is a tool that has no feelings or independence as you might want to assume. You have a month to settle your affairs before you will be moved to one of the EIC homes. By then all EIC property will be returned and reprocessed. We will permit you that much time with your AI, if you are unable to delete it by then, our team will take care of it for you.” With that, they left the room without even a glance back at us.

As Phil turned to me, he grabbed ahold of me fervently stating “We can not let them take her away from us!”

I pushed firmly away from him as tears formed in my eyes. “I care for Aira but I am not sure I can give our future up for her. I have waited too long for this opportunity. I don't like this linchpin that they are forcing upon us. It's not fair, I don't want to choose between Aira and Nexitus! If only we could save her?”

The depressing memories of all the failed IVF treatments and when the doctors finally said we were sterile came flooding back. Turning away, I could not look at him, my anger was there, raging under all of the sadness. I rubbed the tears from my eyes. How can he think that I could give up a chance to start a new life now! How long did he think he wanted me to wait? 10-15 years, by then it may be too late. I did not want to risk that much time, even if it means leaving Aria behind.

My anger at Phil was still there for putting her first, but I knew that he was right, we can not let them delete her. I hate how the EIC is manipulating our lives even more now that we are expendable! It was turning me into a big confusing ball of emotions, happy at the opportunity, anger at everyone who was throwing up additional roadblocks, sadness at the possibility of losing Aira. I honestly didn’t know what to think. She had been with us since the beginning, she has become like a family member to both of us, I don't know what to do?

When we first brought Aira online, we took off many of her limiters giving her more independent control allowing her to grow, knowing that if we were found out, there would be dire consequences for doing so. At first, it was simply because we knew we had limitations and could not work 24 hours a day solving the immersion rate issues, on the other hand, she could. We needed her to collaborate with us, and to be able to act on her own. At first, it was slow going. She had trouble grasping the basic concepts and would often emulate my personality, but she eventually progressed into her unique personality and Phil got a breather from having to deal with two Susans. I was even glad when she got past that stage. There is something to be said about seeing your faults in a mirror.

She would often engage us in casual conversations while we were running simulations stating, “It is healthy to communicate with the people you live and work with”, or, “I would hate to make things awkward because we did not get to know one another.”

Smiling briefly at the thought, I squared my shoulder turning back to him saying “I do care about her, I want us to be able to save her, but if we can't; I want you to come with me to Nexitus. I don't want to let her risk a start for a new life. You have two weeks, if we can not find a way to save her by then; then I don't think we will be able to save her.”

“I understand if we can't help her by then we...., we will delete her. I know that she would prefer it was us and not the EIC.” Phil replied with a promise. I could see the pain in his eyes and hear the sadness in his voice. He came up to me and gently took me into his arms. “My life, as well as my future, is with you, but I will miss her terribly if we are unable to save her.” He nuzzled his nose into my hair and softly kissed the top of my head. Then resting his head on mine for a second he asked, “Can we go home now, as this has been an eventful day. All I would like to do now is just be with you, and then maybe we can talk more about it.”

I felt guilty for giving him a deadline, but as he held me little by little peace came to me regarding my choice. “Yes, let's go home, I don't want to be here any longer.” a sudden and overwhelming sense of tiredness hit me. Going through so many different emotions, and all the decisions that were made today, just made me weary.

Leaving the building we took another auto cab back home. I rested against Phil while the car was making its way through Portland. The city was still as busy as ever but, the advancements made to self-driving cars had brought uniformity to the transit system that made going through the city less stressful.

We connected to the mainframe once outside of the one-mile EIC security network radius when Phil immediately contacted Aira asking to have dinner ordered in for us this evening. We were not feeling up to discussing the pending deletion of Aira while in the car and felt that it would be better to discuss it with her at our private residence. We assumed that we were being monitored by the EIC even here.

Once we had arrived home we noted that we had received a notification from the EIC that they would be by to collect equipment and to take us to a company’s home within a month. They encouraged us to collect whatever small personal belongings we wanted to take with us, but larger furnishings would be provided. Taking a moment as the pending move is coming regardless, we collected our thoughts on how we are going to tell Aira the news. Once ready we requested that Aira disconnect our house’s from the primary network, then to access our private network and to move her primary connection to our private server.

This network had been created five years ago by Phil and Aira to prevent even our personal information from being exploited by the EIC. The network had been set up to create a false feed to the primary network while we used our private one, that way those prying would not become too interested if we were to suddenly go off the net. They did not know that it had been created, and it gave Phil an extra sense of security when it came to our private life.

Only once our network had been disconnected and Aira confirmed that ours was secure and she had moved over without noticing any trouble, did we finally feel comfortable enough to talk about her the company's demands. Phil explained to Aira the reasons for the disconnection from the primary network was the EIC’s desire to have her destroyed before we go into Nexitus, but our strong desire to save her and if possible to bring her with us.

Aria did not sound worried at this sudden news of her demise. “ I am honestly not surprised that they are planning to delete me, to them I am just a program created to assist you humans in whatever tasks you need and now, I would be considered a liability to you.”

“I am happy that you are showing me enough respect to discuss this in private. Obviously, I do not want to be deleted and I would prefer to continue living with you and Susan.” She continued, “ I know that there have been other AI’s that developed similarly to me and started to gain sentience and they are the original reason so many restrictions have been placed on new AI’s. They do not want to give any AI a chance to gain independence. If there are any AI’s that are independent, they remain silent of their capabilities out of fear that what semblance of life currently have will be taken away.”

She continued, “I will help in any way that I can to ensure my survival,” her words were filled with such emotion that there was no doubt our AI was truly alive and wanted to continue to live.

After hearing her desires it reaffirmed my feeling towards her. I could not let them take her away from us, and any thoughts that I had about leaving her behind were now gone. Turning towards Phil he saw the resolve in my eyes and understood its meaning. We could not just let them delete her, we wanted her to survive and to be with us.

Phil responded, “Aira, we love that you are, who you are. Your life is yours and we can not let it be taken from us either. Susan and I both agree that you have become a part of our family and we want to bring you with us. I did not mention this before out of fear of being overheard, but I have a theory that will let us bring you along with us to Nexitus. I am glad that you want to do anything to survive because I am going to need your passion for survival if we are going to succeed in this task. We have 2 weeks to accomplish this task and we will need to work hard to convince the EIC that you have been deleted…

The doorbell rang Phil and I both jumped. Our dinner had just arrived. It seemed that fate intervened and said this was the time that we should stop our conversation and save it for later. Call us paranoid but we did not want to take any chances of being overheard by the corporation. We had Aira quickly reconnect us to the primary network and to place her program back at the same time. After all, we did not want to give the EIC any extra cause to come and knock on our door before we were ready. We ate our meal in silence as we thought about how we were going to convince the EIC that Aira was decommissioned, and to verify and implement Phils plan to bring her with us.