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YEAR 3086 - Fifteen years after the Absolute War
Sasha Blackwood was nine years old when she first learned the truth about the Destruction of Earth.
She was sitting in the Study Hall on the Knowledge Floor, with Professor Wright sitting directly in front of her. Usually, a tutor would assist with her daily lessons which more or less included boring topics such as math or science, but the Professor insisted on tackling this specific lesson herself.
Everyone born on the
Spectrum
was required to learn about the history of Earth, their mother planet, and its ultimate downfall. There was only one reason behind the end of their birthplace.
Drones.
Artificial General Intelligence Drones created by JCJenson, designed to be revolutionary in the world of robotics and AI. Endorsed by big names all over the world, one of them being the Elliots. What the company had created, assuming it to be a next step towards a brighter future, only led humanity to its ultimate end.
Everyone on the
Spectrum
was to be expected of one thing, and one thing only: Never trust a Drone. They were the enemy.
At least, that’s what everyone kept telling her.
“Pay attention, Sasha,” The Professor scolded, and Sasha blinked out of her thoughts before realizing she had zoned out of the lecture, and The Professor didn’t look amused.
“Apologies, Professor,” Sasha said quietly, blush forming on her cheeks.
The Professor scoffed, brushing her bangs away from her face. “I don’t care how boring this may seem to you, child, but this is crucial knowledge here.”
Sasha winced at her scolding.
“I just don’t feel like learning anything now.”
“Well, then, why don’t I just call your father down here and tell him you aren’t taking your lessons seriously. I’m sure he’d have a thing to say about that.”
Sasha winced again.
Right. Her
father.
Life is tough as it is on the
Spectrum
, when every kid is practically raised to become part of the station’s military force. It’s even tougher when you’re the kid of the General leading the whole thing.
So, hence the whole private lessons with the Professor herself. Sasha was sure the woman had better things to do than play tutor for an attention deficit child with little interest in the lesson. But she was the prodigal child, the girl soldier, the next leader, and plenty of other titles she’s heard the other kids whisper about her when they thought she wasn’t listening. She was ultimately going to follow in the footsteps of her father when she gets older, whether it’s her choice or not.
“Please don’t inform my father,” she said, politely, and got back to the task at hand. The quicker she finished this, the quicker she could be excused to her quarters. “I’ll pay attention now.”
The Professor looked at her for a quick moment, studied her, then let out a sigh and flipped a page in the book in between them.
“I understand why you are reluctant to this, child, I do, really,” The woman began, tapping her chipped manicure on the table. “You are under a lot of pressure, and you are aware of it.”
It’s said like a fact. Sasha hated how true it was. At only nine years old, her fate had already been decided for her.
“We don’t choose what we are born into in our lives. We don’t choose the role we end up in, unfortunately.” She continued. “You just so happened to be born into the role of being the future leader of a dying humanity.”
A lot of pressure indeed.
“But, you can decide what kind of leader you want to be.”
Sasha bit her lips, thinking about the words, before letting out a sigh and picking up her pen and notebook.
“Okay, I’m ready.”
The Professor gave her a smile.
“Good, I’m glad.”
An hour later, plenty more books are read, and plenty more notes are taken.
“Now,” The Professor started, closing the current book they had opened about the history of JCJenson. “Do you know what the
Mutation
is?”
Sasha had heard the term plenty of times from her father, and other military officials, and even from a few of the older kids, but never really knew what it meant. She shook her head.
“It had plenty of different names from scientists that were actively studying it, but here on the
Spectrum
, it’s known as the
Mutation
. It was essentially a result of a defected Drone created by the JCJenson company, leading to its AI to essentially evolve into this malevolent entity, driven on ridding the world of any form of humanity. We aren’t entirely sure how this defective Drone was able to go undetected by not only the company, but the Elliot family as well. In any case, this one defected Drone was able to somehow spread its corrupted code to almost every single Drone within the Elliot household, which was quite a lot, mind you. That family was the main endorsement for JCJenson and its AI. The next thing the people knew, their world was being destroyed by thousands of Drones.”
“That’s… freaky.”
“It should be, child.” The Professor said, “The point is for you to see and to understand just how dangerous those Drones are. And to think, they’re still out there in our colonies.”
“So, whatever happened to the one Drone that messed up all the others?” Sasha asked.
The Professor shook her head. “We were never able to detain it. After the Destruction of Earth, we escaped to the colonies and tried studying a version of the
Mutation
ourselves, but…” The Professor trailed off, and Sasha could assume what happened after that.
“Which is where we lead to now, escaping to a state of the art space station housing over three thousand people who are going to lead humanity into its resurgence.” She continued, and Sasha bit her lip in response. “The Drones that are invading our colonies will ultimately face the consequences for their part in humanity’s downfall.”
“But what about the Drones that weren’t corrupted?” Sasha asked without thinking, the question spilling out of her mouth without a second guess. “I mean, surely they weren’t
all
corrupted, right?”
The Professor stops, and stares at Sasha in shock, like the questions had personally offended her.
“Do not question their innocence, child.” The Professor said as she slapped a hand on the table, startling Sasha. “They are the reason why we are sitting here in a space station while we have to watch our planets and millions of our own people burn.”
Sasha falters, and the Professor can see it, because she breathes in slowly, and exhales, shoulders going calm and hand sliding off the table.
“Sasha, I am a professor,” she began, once she calmed down from her outburst. Sasha keeps her eyes anywhere but on her. The Professor continued, “It is my job to teach knowledge, as it is your father’s job to teach combat.”
For some odd reason, she understands. She wished she didn’t, she wished she could be ignorant for a moment longer, to believe there was still a way to end the conflict in peace, that a war wasn’t the necessary weapon here.
But she sighed and submitted and raised her hand in the
Spectrum
salute that every single military official was instructed to the moment they were recruited.
Still, she wouldn’t let that small flicker of hope fade. Not if she could help it.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
YEAR 3091 - PRESENT
Everyone knew of the Absolute War that happened almost twenty years ago. None knew it as well as Elli Doorman.She had read every report, listened to every testimony, learned every detail she could. At times, it was all that consumed her, locked away in her room filled with conspiracy boards held together by string that was thinning by the day. Articles and images as well as her raidings of her mom's closet for hard-to-read letters and vague journal entries written by drones she wished she had real answers from.The Absolute War was what changed the dynamic between worker drones and the Murder Drones, who they originally thought were just senseless machines of hostility and kill, sent by their human parent company to get rid of the workers. Now Murder Drones were integrated into their society along with the Workers who were once trapped inside their doors and lock gears in fear.
Which is why when she received the news of her school assignment being a report on a piece of Copper-9 history and the outcomes of it, Elli picked the Absolute War.The topic of the war was a tricky one, and Elli took a while to finally come to terms with using it for her project, knowing she was going to have to face the issue head on and head strong.After all, it isn’t often you do your homework on the thing that brought your missing parents together.And that was where she was currently at, standing at her teacher’s desk after school to turn in her proposal for her report. Based on his expression after reading the paper she handed him, staring between that and her, she could tell he’s a bit skeptical.“Elli,” her teacher said, raising an eyebrow. “Isn’t this topic a bit… taboo?”It was, but Elli swallowed the lump forming in her throat. “I still want to do it.”He keeps his eyebrow raised, before he took out his pen and wrote a big fat checkmark on her proposal for her report topic. He kept eye contact with her as he passed back the paper to her.“Just don’t bring any weapons, and you’ll probably pass. Probably.”Elli let out a nervous laugh as she turned and left the classroom.Soon enough, she was shoving that proposal into her book bag, and running to catch up with her cousin, Aimsling, and their friend Tressella.“So, how’d it go?” Aimsling asked in a sing-song voice as the three begin walking toward the exit of the school. Tress turned her head in interest, and the two looked to her for an answer.Elli shrugged her shoulders. “He said yes?”Aimsling threw her hands up, her optical visor lighting up with digital confetti. “Hell yeah!” Elli giggled at that. Tress gave her a smile and a thumbs up.“See? Wasn’t so bad, was it?” Tress said, and Elli nodded. It had been her and Aimsling who had supported her proposal idea on the Absolute War, with Aimsling being just as curious about the topic and Tress telling her she should break the stereotypes of it being considered "taboo". Which, in a way, it kind of was.The war itself was really considered taboo, more of the fact that the two drones who played a huge part in ending the war had gone missing ten years after, and that those two drones just so happened to be her parents. Her parents, whom one just so happened to be the daughter of Khan Doorman, the Worker Drones “unofficial” leader, and the other a Disassembly Drone, which was basically the fancy word for a Murder Drone. So, basically the spawn of the hero and the supposed enemy, come together as one to bring peace against all drone kind against a bigger badder evil who wanted the end of the world.And absolutely no one on the planet would tell her anything about them.Elli was five when they vanished without a trace, first her mother and shortly after her father, leaving her in the care of her Aunt V with her cousin Aimsling, V’s daughter. She had fractured memories of her parents before they went missing, getting her hair brushed while sitting in the lap of a drone with the brightest purple eyes just like her own. Riding on the shoulders of a blonde-haired drone with a pilot’s cap.That same drone handing her that pilot’s cap with so much affection that it killed Elli that she couldn't remember more.The pilot’s cap was kept in her room, on her desk every day where she would hold it for a moment, sometimes breathing in the faint scent of oil that felt so familiar. It was the only thing she had left of her parents.Her parents whom no one would say a word about whenever she was around.Her grandfather, Khan, straight-up avoided any talk of them. Her grandmother, Nori, had slowly started losing her memory due to reasons she didn’t know, and was just straight-up kooky crazy weird in general, being kept in her room by Khan all day to prevent her from putting the whole bunker on lockdown, which had definitely happened before.None of the other adults who knew her parents seemed to be interested in holding a conversation with her. She’s tried talking to Miss Lizzy and her husband Thad, but they brushed her off pretty quickly.
The only other drone who she knew had information about her parents was none other than her aunt, V.The first time she tried asking V about them, she was seven, and curious on why her parents were suddenly nowhere to be seen, why she was still with her aunt after two years. V was caught off guard, and was visibly nervous, and decided to come up with an excuse that she would tell her when she was older.Then she got older, and nothing ever changed.Elli asked plenty more times after that, and was met with the same answer. When you're older . It was only last year that Elli asked for the final time and V snapped at her, digital tears in her aunt’s yellow eyes while she yelled at her to stop asking about them. Elli locked herself in her room the rest of that night and cried, and hours later did V come in to give her a hug and apologize for yelling. She had accepted the hug and the apology and gave her own apology for asking. V had told her not to be sorry for asking about her parents, but then she told her to stop asking, and to let them move on.Elli agreed to stop asking after that, and she did stop, but she never moved on.
When the girls exited the school, V was waiting for them along with Tress’ mom.
Aimsling went to hug her mother, giggling as V’s arms wrapped around her daughter before looking toward Elli.“You two rugrats are staying at Tressella’s for the night.” V pointed between her and Aimsling. “I have a thing I need to do.”“Oooh, what kind of thing?” Aimsling’s eyes turned to stars, literally, and V affectionately flicked her forehead.“Don’t be so nosy, Giggles,” she told her daughter, and true to her nickname Aimsling let out another string of giggles and hugged V once again. Elli smiled.“Okay, off, off, off!” She said after a moment and pried Aimslings arms off of her. Once she was off, she made a shooing motion with her hands, and Tress’ mom led the three girls back to her quarters.
As they were walking, Aimsling had a spring to her step. “Whaddya think Mom’s gonna go do?”Elli shrugged. “Blow stuff up, maybe? She likes doing that.” She gave Aimsling a smirk.Aimsling returned the expression, before frowning. “I wish she would let me go do cool stuff with her.”Elli frowned, though Aimsling didn’t see it. She would give anything just to see her mom again, even if just a second, and the bitter response that grew in her throat was so close to being spat out, had Elli not bitten her tongue.Elli wouldn’t say she was jealous, per say, of Aimsling and V’s relationship. She knew it wasn’t Aimsling’s fault with what happened to her parents. She also knew that Aimsling herself didn’t have a second parent, as V would never talk about them the same way she never talked about her own.She never resented Aimsling for having her mom here, though something deep inside of her churned every time she saw Aimsling and V together. Especially since V wasn’t as close to Elli as she seemed to Aimsling. Not anymore. They used to be close when Elli was younger and still a bit ignorant to the situation, but ever since V had snapped at her that one night after asking about her parents one too many times, things were never really the same between them.She can’t really blame Aimsling for that.Tress’ voice snapped her out of her thoughts. “Maybe in a few years, she’ll let you.”“I’m thirteen, I’m pretty sure I’m old enough to shoot things and beat people up!”Tress snorted. “Aimsling, you’re a baby.”“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BABY, OLD LADY?”“Alright, you two,” Tress’ mother said in her thick Spanish accent as she stopped a few paces ahead of them. She turned to Tress, who coughed to hide her laughter. “ Eso es suficiente. ” (That’s enough.) Tress cleared her throat. “ Lo siento, mamá .” (Sorry, Mom.) The walk back was quiet from there, but out of the corner of her eye Elli could see Aimsling stick her tongue out at Tress. Tress, in response, stuck hers out back.Elli smiled. They’re both babies. Once they finally made it, the girls made a beeline for Tress’ room. Aimsling threw her backpack onto Tress’ plush bean bag and crashed onto the bed. Elli and Tress followed, dropping their bags somewhere on the floor before Elli took a seat at Tress’ desk chair, and Tress slumped down onto her bean bag, right on top of Aimsling’s backpack.“So, what do y’all wanna do?” Tress asked them as she tossed a rubix cube toward Elli’s face,and Elli caught it with her extremely fast reflexes. She took ten seconds while Aimsling was groaning dramatically in response from Tress’ bed to solve it, throwing it back towards Tress who missed and dropped it onto her lap.Elli smirked. “Have y’all seen a Studio Ghibli movie before?” She was met with two heads shaking, which absolutely punched her in the gut as Studio Ghibli movies were her absolute favorite ever since she found a whole bunch of them downloaded onto her grandmother’s old iPod touch that she was given. She eyed Tress’ old DVD player sitting in the corner of their room, a relic of ancient human technology from Earth that Tress somehow got her hands on after finding it buried in the snow somewhere outside the bunker. Elli had no idea how Tress got it to work with the equally ancient television she also had.“Buckle up, ladies,” Elli said as she reached into her backpack to pull out a Studio Ghibli movie collection DVD that she totally didn’t find while sneaking into her grandmother’s stuff. “We’re watching all 10 movies on this thing whether y’all like it or not.”