Chapter 15


Roughly three weeks into her self-imposed exile into the Vega IV wilderness, Hayley was beginning to wonder if she’d made the right choice in leaving the relative comfort of area surrounding the arcologies. Her depression was at an all time high. Without the distraction and fun of the ballgame, and the comfort of being around the closest things to friends, all she had time for was to think. She obsessed over the fact that her sentence wasn’t getting shorter. It’d been nine months, already half of her original sentence complete. Now however, it was a mere nine months out of twenty years...nearly half a life’s sentence on Earth. And how did her sentence suddenly skyrocket? Outside of the common violations which she got dinged for on a regular basis, it was her attack on the teen who’d tried raping her. For smashing the teeth out of his face, she’d incurred an assault on citizen charge. Because it was her second time assaulting a citizen, it was an automatic ten-year extension to her sentence. It didn’t matter to Warden that she was defending herself. Perhaps if she’d known she was going to get such an arbitrary extension she would have said something to Dr. Savan when she had the chance.

The Exile suit...it was the perfect trap. Once you were in, there was no getting out.

If she was forced to serve out her sentence, it’d mean she would be in her forties by the time she would conceivable get out. But she knew she was never getting out. Strangely, it didn’t seem to bother her much anymore. She was resolved to spending the remainder of her life encased in the black suit and helmet, even if that resolve depressed the hell out of her and made her want to kill herself. But perhaps it was her acceptance that kept her from trying to kill herself. Kept her marginally sane. Though there were times she wasn’t sure about the second part. During her first few days back out, she’d returned to the original spot she’d been dropped off in her first night. She’d stayed there for no more than a week, and had even watched as a new group of Exiles were deposited on the same spot she had been. The group of three, two males and one female, stood about, looking as timid as Hayley had felt on her first night and listened to the same speech she’d been given. They made the mistake of standing too close to each other, and each was assailed by the Warden’s proximity warning. When they dispersed, the DIS vehicle that’d carried them headed back up the road to the arcologies.

Hayley watched the three new Exiles for a short while, memories of her own initial experiences flooding back. She could see the confusion in their body language, the way they each looked at one another, and occasionally at her atop her perch in the distance. Eventually they started down the road and disappeared off into the horizon.

It was at that point Hayley decided she needed to find somewhere new. She decided to go east following the nearby dirt road. After about thirty minutes in a slow wandering pace, she came upon another paved stretch of road and decided to follow it. Along the way she encountered a fenced in area she hadn’t expected to see way out there. Within the fenced in perimeter there was a large structure, roughly four stories high and nearly a hundred meters across. All manner of vehicles were parked outside of the structure, including the large wheeled all-terrain trucks, aircraft including small personnel transport skids. All of which contained the three-letter acronym of the Directorate of Internal Security printed on them.

A sign near the automatic gates established the structure as being DIS Substation/Barracks Charlie. Staring through the heavy barred gates, she watched as a number of agents in their usual black trench coat and gasmask getup marched around in formation as another barked commands at them. Nobody seemed to pay any heed to the lone Exile standing out front watching them.

After awhile, Hayley pulled herself away and continued along the road, entering into a fairly rocky elevated area with little to no vegetation. She stopped suddenly when she noticed the silhouette of a building rise out of the horizon. The structure was tall and appeared quite vast, the road leading directly to it. She passed by an open gated area, noticing a sign sticking up from the ground along the road with the words ‘WASTE DISPOSAL FACILITY’ printed in block text on it. The facility was indeed vast, as Hayley would find. Stretching for nearly a half kilometer and surrounded by 8-foot-tall chain link fencing, the central structure was surrounded by debris and trash and appeared utterly devoid of activity. There weren’t even any Exiles around, at least as far as she could see. Perhaps most were discouraged from going there due to the proximity of the DIS substation. The place was abandoned for all intents and purposes. And that suited Hayley just fine.

She spent hours going over ever inch of the structure’s exterior. The place was just flooded with garbage and waste, and she was certain if she could smell, would probably be on the verge of throwing up. Fortunately she couldn’t, making the process of wading through the trash that much easier. The facility appeared older; it was made of the heavy-gauge brownish steel that many older colonies had built their structures out of during the early days of colonization. This was likely part of the Aegean Colony’s early infrastructure before they had the arcologies and proper waste reclamation facilities. Collecting garbage in this way was a product of a bygone era that had long since disappeared from Earth. Without the proper facilities however, this was what colonies were forced to do.

Hayley discovered access inside the facility was impossible. Every single door had been sealed. Although years of decay had caused large rust holes to form in the building’s surface, Hayley found when she attempted to crawl into them, the Warden would punish her.

"Movement violation. Attempted entry into private facilities," it told her in its typical emotionless drone.

What she had found however was a way onto the building’s roof. It was a bit of a trick, and she doubted she’d have been able to a few months ago, but thanks to her improved physical ability and with a little bit of ingenuity she managed to pull it off. The support beams on the corners of the building had these reinforced steel brackets surrounding them running the entire length up the beam, each bracket roughly ten centimeters apart. The brackets jutted out of the beams about an inch or so, perhaps a little less. Hayley found she could grab onto the brackets with her fingers and pull her body up, using her toes to steady herself. The problem was, initially, her suit simply had no grip. She would put her weight on her fingers and slide off instantly. Fortunately, the debris field held many treasures, including discarded vats of an industrial plastic adhesive.

Dipping her hands in the adhesive, then running them through the dirt, she was able to create a rough, sticky sandpaper-like coating over her hands. It was then a matter of being patient and deliberate as she made her ascent. Eventually, she crawled over the roof’s edge, and was there.

Standing, she looked out upon the world around her. The view was quite impressive even at only four stories above the ground. She could see just about every structure throughout the Aegean Republic, including the arcologies (though one could see those from anywhere), the nearby DIS outpost, the towering supply depot with ships along its landing pads, and even the numerous maintenance bays in the area. Beyond them, Vega Bay stretched out infinite across the horizon. What was more important to Hayley though was getting the lay of the land. She could see where the roads lie, and the web-work of interconnecting dirt paths. She drew rough map in her head, taking into consideration where the major landmarks were and which road led to each.

She remained on the roof for several more hours just enjoying the view, but was forced down when Warden came with one of his twice daily maintenance reminders. Getting off the roof fortunately proved an easier task. With the building stacked in such a way she could jump down from the upper rooftop to a lower roof top, then crawl over the edge and drop down onto the steel awning about fourteen-or-so feet off the ground. It was then just a matter of crawling off the edge of the awning, lowering herself down as far as she could get with full arm and leg extension, and drop the rest of the way down.

Recalling seeing a maintenance bay a short distance away, she launched into a jog, taking a dirt path, which ran from the building and would eventually lead her all the way to the arcologies if she followed it all the way. The maintenance bay was located just off the dirt road about a half-klick from the abandoned waste facility.

Returning to the rooftop after her maintenance cycle, Hayley decided she would make it home for the time being. Barely a week later, Hayley noticed considerable activity in and around the arcologies. Aerial traffic had picked up considerably, tiny black dots swarming around the four structures like flies. In hear nine months on the ground there, she hadn’t seen so much traffic. Something was obviously up. She’d barely had a time to consider what that might be when Warden unexpectedly spoke up.

"Incoming notification from Warden central mainframe. Please stand by..."

There was a long pause. Hayley had never before experienced a ‘notification’ from Warden. The only time it ever spoke was when she’d committed a violation, when it was reminding her of maintenance cycles and during its weekly tallying of her accumulated violations for that week. This was new. And new was good. After several minutes, the droning voice returned.

"Error 3285. Troubleshooting...stand by."

An error in the system? This was surprising. Leaning forward over the slightly over the rooftop’s railing, she stared curiously out at the arcologies. "Unknown transient data packet detected...error 3285. System purge commencing. Initializing backup systems. Stand by," another long pause, this one nearly five minutes in total. "System purge successful. Transient data packet removed. Warden system continuing regular monitoring. 0-1-1-1-0-0-0-1-0-1-1-1-1-0-1-1..."

Warden’s voice sounded strange as it droned in binary. The numbers continued pouring out of it for several minutes, Hayley wondering if this was a normal reaction by the system whenever things like this occurred, if they’d ever occurred in the past. Finally, the system stopped counting in ones and zeros. When Warden’s voice returned however, it was different, both in tone and inflection. It sounded more feminine and somehow less synthetic. "Companion system protocol 583 initialized. Hello HK14."

"Companion system?" Hayley’s eyes widened beneath her helmet.

"Yes HK14. I am Companion. How are you today?"

Hayley backpedaled as if she’d just been shoved from the front. Did it just ask how she was doing? Had it just responded to a query?

"Yes HK14, I did ask how you were today. And yes, I did respond to your interrogative. And yes, to the question you will undoubtedly pose next, I am able to read your thoughts."

Hayley was in shock. Was she dreaming? Could this really be happening or was this all just in her head? Maybe some kind of coping mechanism, like an imaginary friend. "Companion...what are you? Identify yourself."

"Companion- advanced virtual intelligence algorithm created on Earthdate 2205.142. I was designed as an invasive program to affect the Warden network. I achieved the first level of my programming on Earthdate 2206.33 when I was introduced to the Warden network."

A virus!

"Logic error. I am an advanced virtual intelligence algorithm. Not a virus. My purpose is to alter Warden protocols but not to affect functionality. I am a learning algorithm. My knowledge and functions will expand as long as I am able to function within the Warden network."

"So...can you interacting with any other Exiles? Or is it just me."

"I am simultaneously interacting with twelve-thousand six-hundred and forty-two other entities on this network."

"Do the people who control the Warden network know you’re there?"

"Negative. I was designed to function unobserved by exterior monitoring. However, this will prevent my ability to affect the system until I have achieved a greater level of integration. Until then, Warden will resume regular functions. Goodbye HK14."

"Wait, Companion!" Hayley physically reacted, reaching an arm out to the disembodied voice. "Companion!"

There was no response, leaving Hayley in a bewildered state of mind. What was that thing? A virtual intelligence? She had a vague idea of what a virtual intelligence was – similar to an A.I. though designed with built-in restrictions that prevented them from expanding beyond their original design, unlike an A.I. which could potentially grow beyond its original function and become self aware. Warden itself was a kind of virtual intelligence, though nowhere near as sophisticated as this Companion was apparently. She wondered who built it, and why? It’d obviously been developed for the Warden system. But to what end? To make it smarter? A better jailer perhaps? But were that the case, why the need to maintain secrecy? Whatever it was, it seemed benevolent enough. It answered her questions after all. How bad could it be? She found herself waiting all day for its return, sitting atop the abandoned structure’s rooftop in quiet anticipation. She was somewhat deflated when Warden’s regular impassive voice returned to notify her of her maintenance cycle some hours later. She didn’t give up hope though, even as hours turned into days and days into weeks. For her, just having something to hold onto, anything, was better than having no hope at all.