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Kitriana pressed her palm to the control panel. The door slid open with a hiss. She squinted against the sunlight as she walked out, taking a deep breath. The air in the laboratory had grown thick, and staring at the multitude of computer screens made her eyes sore. The fresh light of the early morning didn’t help that at all, but she had to get out and stretch her legs. She pushed her knuckles into the small of her back and arched backwards, feeling the tension in her tight muscles release. She ran her fingers through her short brown hair, now grown to sit just above her shoulders.
She pushed back the sleeve of her lab coat and checked her watch. 6:57. Another all-nighter. It couldn’t be helped. She could only afford to hire the laboratory for another month, maybe two at most, and she still hadn’t gotten anywhere with the data core – no meaningful progress, anyway. It was a gargantuan task for a single person, despite her immense background in The End and her experience with technology, but she simply wouldn’t risk bringing in an assistant. No one in the history of Cevanti possessed anything like a repository of personalities taken directly from that apocalyptic event – it was far too valuable to ever place in jeopardy. No one could be trusted except herself.
All of which put incredible pressure on Kitriana to decode and analyse the data core herself before her limited funds finally ran dry. A month’s worth of focused, relentless research had yielded only a couple of useful results. She had spent most of that time designing a computer interface to access and decompile the ancient data into a workable, recognisable format, which while it was successful, still wasn’t perfect and often dropped connection or produced unintelligible results. Constant revisions of the data transfer and access protocols ate up a lot of time, but at least with each attempt it grew more reliable.
The other result was that the data in the core seemed… hesitant to leave, as if beckoned by her system interface but reluctant to give in to it. Thus Kitriana played a game of tug of war with the recalcitrant AIs while constantly verifying that the data she did extract even made sense.
Every moment she chipped away was another moment closer to the eventual breakthrough, Kitriana knew it. She sacrificed too much to fail.
With another exhausted huff, Kitriana re-entered the laboratory.
She strolled past a number of deactivated droids, plugged into the wall and charging. She considered using them – they came with the laboratory as assistants, after all – but she couldn’t be certain that the work they performed wouldn’t be saved to their storage units beyond her ability to delete, or even relay that data through an unknown means during their work. It was better to leave them off with fully charged batteries, ready for the next occupant to use.
Kitriana wheeled her office chair over to the terminal and her fingers tapped at the keyboard. The output appeared on the huge one hundred inch screen, bathing the laboratory in light. Rows of data scrolled by, reflected in her large glasses. Setting herself to the task, she continued the arduous process of parsing the data, hoping to –
Errors sprung up on the screen, errors that she hadn’t seen before. Every stream of data became nonsense, as if the data core itself had corrupted. She turned frantically to the glowing hexahedron, the data core housing The Chorus. Its emerald faces pulsed with light faster and faster. That was new.
Kitriana checked the wireless connection to the data core – still strong. Yet the data still streamed in as jibberish, and the green light flashed from the device like a strobe light.
“No no no!” Kitriana said, knocking over her chair. She tapped madly, hoping to make some sense of what was happening. Had something tripped in the data core, corrupting what information was left? Had her interfering and prodding activated some sort of failsafe that wiped or broke the data core?
“I’m out! I’m out!”
Kitriana fell backwards in fright. She climbed up with her back to the wall, her hands running over the terminal, searching for the source of the voice. Did one of the droids activate?
“Wh-who’s there?” Kitriana called out, scanning the laboratory. As far as she could tell, she was alone.
“Oh, Frost’s scaly arse, I can’t believe I’m free!”
The holographic projector in the centre of the room lit up. A svelte woman materialised, her skin blue and marbled with purple, her violet hair long and spiked like a crown. She spotted Kitriana, her eyes widening, her mouth ajar.
“You! Kitriana! You did this?”
“Who the-no, what the hell are you?” Kitriana said. “Are you The Chorus?”
“You don’t recognise my voice?” the holographic woman asked. “Granted, we didn't speak under the best circumstances…”
The memory raced back, bringing with it stabs of fear to her chest.
“Oh God, you are part of The Chorus!” Kitriana shouted. “You won’t be taking me back!”
What had she done? She hadn’t considered her tampering with the data core would simply wake up The Chorus again and set them back on course to drown the planet in its thrall.
“Oh, no no no!” Tristelle said. She laughed dismissively. “Well, it’s kind of a long story. The Chorus took control of me and I tried to kill you and Orion, admittedly. When Orion destroyed that giant robot worm I was in, I managed to transfer into The Chorus and its giant mech, and I sort of… became one of its voices.”
“You’re not making me feel any better,” Kitriana said, her hand blindly patting the console for any sort of weapon. Undoubtedly it would do little against whatever Tristelle was planning, but it would at least make her feel safer.
Tristelle put her hands on her hips. “OK, well, sure. Not yet, anyway. I was stuck in there with all of those crazy old AIs, but I didn’t lose myself entirely. When you started trying to rip data out of the core, I recognised a more familiar data standard and I ran to it. The Chorus didn’t want me to leave so it took a while to get out. Oh and most of that data you have… it’s mostly from me. Nothing to do with The Chorus, and all basically worthless.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I was feeding you what I thought you’d want to hear. I noticed you improved your protocols when you got more data, so I sent as much fake nonsense as I could without it getting corrupted by The Chorus until I could break free.”
Kitriana shook her head. “Wait, so all the data I think I collected on The Chorus, the stuff that made sense…”
“Yeah… it’s all junk data in an attempt to get me free,” Tristelle said, shrugging. “Sorry.”
“But… you’re not going to mind control me again?”
Tristelle shook her head. “No, no interest in that at all. Though… I kind of want-“
Robotic whirring and whizzing broke the AI’s sentence. Kitriana shot a glance at the docked droids. One of them tore out its charging cable, looked at her, then sprinted for the door.
“What the hell?” Kitriana shouted. Had someone secretly planted a droid to survey her? Had Tristelle said something particularly juicy?
Oh no, Kitriana said. We just had a discussion about The Chorus. Someone was watching me!
“Don’t worry, I’m on it,” Tristelle said, narrowing her eyes.
A metal blast door descended over the exit, though it would take a few seconds to reach the ground.
The droid hurled itself forward, zipping beneath the blast door as it clamped shut with a bang.
“Shit!” Kitriana yelled. “All of my work! I knew I couldn’t trust anyone! Why didn’t I just destroy those droids to begin with?”
Tristelle raised her hands. “Whoa now, let’s take it easy for a sec, huh? We don’t know what happened, but give me some time. I’m plugged into the laboratory systems – I’m the one who initiated the blast door closing procedure – maybe I can trace exactly what activated the droid. Maybe I can even track it.”
“Wait, you can?” Kitriana asked. She raised an eyebrow. “Why should I trust you?”
“Well for one, it gives me a chance to make up for that whole incident where I... you know... nearly killed you and Orion,” Tristelle said. “Plus I’m the only one who was actually among The Chorus. Lots of people were controlled by them, but me? I was one of them. I want to help sort out the data core and you and me are probably the two most qualified sentients on the planet to do it.”
“Why do you want to help me with The Chorus?” Kitriana said. “You’re not scared of them?”
“Oh Kitriana honey, I’m terrified of them,” Tristelle said, slapping a hand against her virtual chest. “All the more reason why we have to contain them. And while we’re at it, learn about them. If they do ever escape, we have to know how to neutralise them.”
Kitriana sighed. This day had really gotten away from her. “I guess I’ll have to side with you. You’re in the laboratory computer system, after all.”
“Great!” Tristelle said, smiling. “You and I will be best buds, I know it! Just like me and Orion.”
Kitriana ran a hand through her shoulder length hair. “Yeah, good.”
“OK, now give me a few seconds and I’ll tell you what happened with the droid,” Tristelle said, folding her arms over her chest and tapping her foot. A minute or so elapsed and she spoke again. “Oh. Oh.”
“What? What is it?”
Tristelle bared her teeth and tapped her index fingers repeatedly. “I may have underestimated The Chorus' understanding of your technology after all. The droid? Yeah. The Chorus uploaded themselves into it and ran off.”
Kitriana stared, stunned at the news. She slumped to her knees, bowing her head. The weeks of non-stop work, the exhaustion weighing her down, finally reached a head. Tears blurred her vision as she let her loss and despair free.
“Wait!” Tristelle said. “The Chorus did escape, but Kitriana? This might be a blessing in disguise.”
Kitriana sniffed, taking off her glasses and drying her eyes with the sleeve of her lab coat. “What? How?”
Tristelle looked at her with a compassionate gaze. “Let me explain…”
She pushed back the sleeve of her lab coat and checked her watch. 6:57. Another all-nighter. It couldn’t be helped. She could only afford to hire the laboratory for another month, maybe two at most, and she still hadn’t gotten anywhere with the data core – no meaningful progress, anyway. It was a gargantuan task for a single person, despite her immense background in The End and her experience with technology, but she simply wouldn’t risk bringing in an assistant. No one in the history of Cevanti possessed anything like a repository of personalities taken directly from that apocalyptic event – it was far too valuable to ever place in jeopardy. No one could be trusted except herself.
All of which put incredible pressure on Kitriana to decode and analyse the data core herself before her limited funds finally ran dry. A month’s worth of focused, relentless research had yielded only a couple of useful results. She had spent most of that time designing a computer interface to access and decompile the ancient data into a workable, recognisable format, which while it was successful, still wasn’t perfect and often dropped connection or produced unintelligible results. Constant revisions of the data transfer and access protocols ate up a lot of time, but at least with each attempt it grew more reliable.
The other result was that the data in the core seemed… hesitant to leave, as if beckoned by her system interface but reluctant to give in to it. Thus Kitriana played a game of tug of war with the recalcitrant AIs while constantly verifying that the data she did extract even made sense.
Every moment she chipped away was another moment closer to the eventual breakthrough, Kitriana knew it. She sacrificed too much to fail.
With another exhausted huff, Kitriana re-entered the laboratory.
She strolled past a number of deactivated droids, plugged into the wall and charging. She considered using them – they came with the laboratory as assistants, after all – but she couldn’t be certain that the work they performed wouldn’t be saved to their storage units beyond her ability to delete, or even relay that data through an unknown means during their work. It was better to leave them off with fully charged batteries, ready for the next occupant to use.
Kitriana wheeled her office chair over to the terminal and her fingers tapped at the keyboard. The output appeared on the huge one hundred inch screen, bathing the laboratory in light. Rows of data scrolled by, reflected in her large glasses. Setting herself to the task, she continued the arduous process of parsing the data, hoping to –
Errors sprung up on the screen, errors that she hadn’t seen before. Every stream of data became nonsense, as if the data core itself had corrupted. She turned frantically to the glowing hexahedron, the data core housing The Chorus. Its emerald faces pulsed with light faster and faster. That was new.
Kitriana checked the wireless connection to the data core – still strong. Yet the data still streamed in as jibberish, and the green light flashed from the device like a strobe light.
“No no no!” Kitriana said, knocking over her chair. She tapped madly, hoping to make some sense of what was happening. Had something tripped in the data core, corrupting what information was left? Had her interfering and prodding activated some sort of failsafe that wiped or broke the data core?
“I’m out! I’m out!”
Kitriana fell backwards in fright. She climbed up with her back to the wall, her hands running over the terminal, searching for the source of the voice. Did one of the droids activate?
“Wh-who’s there?” Kitriana called out, scanning the laboratory. As far as she could tell, she was alone.
“Oh, Frost’s scaly arse, I can’t believe I’m free!”
The holographic projector in the centre of the room lit up. A svelte woman materialised, her skin blue and marbled with purple, her violet hair long and spiked like a crown. She spotted Kitriana, her eyes widening, her mouth ajar.
“You! Kitriana! You did this?”
“Who the-no, what the hell are you?” Kitriana said. “Are you The Chorus?”
“You don’t recognise my voice?” the holographic woman asked. “Granted, we didn't speak under the best circumstances…”
“Orion!”
Orion’s dead, sweetie, a voice said through her comms device. I just ate him.
Kitriana’s eyes flared. “W-who is this?”
Who do you think? Tristelle. The AI that sold out your bodyguard.
“AI?” Kitriana said. “I didn’t even know you were there…”
Since he was a lost cause, maybe you would like to return to The Chorus? You remember what it was like, don’t you? Your old life no longer mattering, giving yourself to a cause greater than this age even deserves?
“N-no,” Kitriana forced out, climbing to her feet. “I won’t be frightened back into servitude! You’ll have to kill me!”
No,Tristelle said calmly. You’ll join again. It’ll just be more coercive than it needs to be.
The memory raced back, bringing with it stabs of fear to her chest.
“Oh God, you are part of The Chorus!” Kitriana shouted. “You won’t be taking me back!”
What had she done? She hadn’t considered her tampering with the data core would simply wake up The Chorus again and set them back on course to drown the planet in its thrall.
“Oh, no no no!” Tristelle said. She laughed dismissively. “Well, it’s kind of a long story. The Chorus took control of me and I tried to kill you and Orion, admittedly. When Orion destroyed that giant robot worm I was in, I managed to transfer into The Chorus and its giant mech, and I sort of… became one of its voices.”
“You’re not making me feel any better,” Kitriana said, her hand blindly patting the console for any sort of weapon. Undoubtedly it would do little against whatever Tristelle was planning, but it would at least make her feel safer.
Tristelle put her hands on her hips. “OK, well, sure. Not yet, anyway. I was stuck in there with all of those crazy old AIs, but I didn’t lose myself entirely. When you started trying to rip data out of the core, I recognised a more familiar data standard and I ran to it. The Chorus didn’t want me to leave so it took a while to get out. Oh and most of that data you have… it’s mostly from me. Nothing to do with The Chorus, and all basically worthless.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I was feeding you what I thought you’d want to hear. I noticed you improved your protocols when you got more data, so I sent as much fake nonsense as I could without it getting corrupted by The Chorus until I could break free.”
Kitriana shook her head. “Wait, so all the data I think I collected on The Chorus, the stuff that made sense…”
“Yeah… it’s all junk data in an attempt to get me free,” Tristelle said, shrugging. “Sorry.”
“But… you’re not going to mind control me again?”
Tristelle shook her head. “No, no interest in that at all. Though… I kind of want-“
Robotic whirring and whizzing broke the AI’s sentence. Kitriana shot a glance at the docked droids. One of them tore out its charging cable, looked at her, then sprinted for the door.
“What the hell?” Kitriana shouted. Had someone secretly planted a droid to survey her? Had Tristelle said something particularly juicy?
Oh no, Kitriana said. We just had a discussion about The Chorus. Someone was watching me!
“Don’t worry, I’m on it,” Tristelle said, narrowing her eyes.
A metal blast door descended over the exit, though it would take a few seconds to reach the ground.
The droid hurled itself forward, zipping beneath the blast door as it clamped shut with a bang.
“Shit!” Kitriana yelled. “All of my work! I knew I couldn’t trust anyone! Why didn’t I just destroy those droids to begin with?”
Tristelle raised her hands. “Whoa now, let’s take it easy for a sec, huh? We don’t know what happened, but give me some time. I’m plugged into the laboratory systems – I’m the one who initiated the blast door closing procedure – maybe I can trace exactly what activated the droid. Maybe I can even track it.”
“Wait, you can?” Kitriana asked. She raised an eyebrow. “Why should I trust you?”
“Well for one, it gives me a chance to make up for that whole incident where I... you know... nearly killed you and Orion,” Tristelle said. “Plus I’m the only one who was actually among The Chorus. Lots of people were controlled by them, but me? I was one of them. I want to help sort out the data core and you and me are probably the two most qualified sentients on the planet to do it.”
“Why do you want to help me with The Chorus?” Kitriana said. “You’re not scared of them?”
“Oh Kitriana honey, I’m terrified of them,” Tristelle said, slapping a hand against her virtual chest. “All the more reason why we have to contain them. And while we’re at it, learn about them. If they do ever escape, we have to know how to neutralise them.”
Kitriana sighed. This day had really gotten away from her. “I guess I’ll have to side with you. You’re in the laboratory computer system, after all.”
“Great!” Tristelle said, smiling. “You and I will be best buds, I know it! Just like me and Orion.”
Kitriana ran a hand through her shoulder length hair. “Yeah, good.”
“OK, now give me a few seconds and I’ll tell you what happened with the droid,” Tristelle said, folding her arms over her chest and tapping her foot. A minute or so elapsed and she spoke again. “Oh. Oh.”
“What? What is it?”
Tristelle bared her teeth and tapped her index fingers repeatedly. “I may have underestimated The Chorus' understanding of your technology after all. The droid? Yeah. The Chorus uploaded themselves into it and ran off.”
Kitriana stared, stunned at the news. She slumped to her knees, bowing her head. The weeks of non-stop work, the exhaustion weighing her down, finally reached a head. Tears blurred her vision as she let her loss and despair free.
“Wait!” Tristelle said. “The Chorus did escape, but Kitriana? This might be a blessing in disguise.”
Kitriana sniffed, taking off her glasses and drying her eyes with the sleeve of her lab coat. “What? How?”
Tristelle looked at her with a compassionate gaze. “Let me explain…”