Chapter 18


Hayley awoke on the beach with the sun high overhead. Having slept on her stomach the entire night, her ribs and breasts ached and her neck was a disaster area. Since arriving at the beach, she’d taken to sleeping on the shore as she did in the pond within the park, although it was a little trickier along the bay with the tides. Sleeping face down in the sand proved not to be a comfortable alternative. Groggily, she rose to her feet, grimacing from the pain throughout her torso. It took her a few moments to piece together what had happened the night before. She hadn’t expected the experience to be so...intense. It was like her entire life had been played out in her mind, all in the course of a few seconds. It was more than just images though, it was feelings, thoughts, sensations. Like she were literally reliving every moment in her life in a single instant. The shock to her system must’ve caused a kind of sensory overload, causing her to pass out.

Looking around the beach, she saw numerous other Exiles in the sand or the nearby grasses, few of them yet conscious. Some of them were just getting up, shaking the cobwebs out of their head as they slowly sat up. Looking skyward, Hayley noticed that the sun was already at the peak of its ascent, meaning it had to have been some time in the early afternoon. Which meant she was late for her morning maintenance. Normally it didn’t matter how exhausted she was, the Warden’s 30-minute alert was usually enough to rouse her awake and get her on the move. Even if she ignored its initial warning, the bursts of pain to come afterward were more than adequate to get her on her feet. Before she had a chance to ponder what could have happened, Warden’s monotonic voice droned in her head.

"Protocol violation. You are now 2.1 hours overdue for maintenance. Proceed to nearest Maintenance bay immediately."

Hayley grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating the usual jolt of pain to fill her body that came with every violation. Much to her amazement however, the pain never came. She knew she had Companion to thank. It’d clearly made some considerable strides in the last few hours alone at completing its takeover of the Warden system. She was anxious to experience the results of its full takeover. In the meantime, she crossed the white sands and made her way back to the main road to the nearby Maintenance station. As she emerged from the narrow tree line that divided the beachfront from the grassy field where the road crossed through, she noticed some activity near the short, flat-roofed concrete structure. A crowd of Exiles stood around the short building, indicating she wasn’t the only one late for her scheduled maintenance. As she neared, she noticed they were acting unusually. While it was normally alright for Exiles to stand close to one another while in line for maintenance, contact was still prohibited and punishable. These Exiles however were touching each other. They were grabbing each other, grinding against one another, the females allowing their breasts to be groped, while they grinded their butts into the males’ smooth crotches. It was an odd sight, but one Hayley could perfectly understand. Months if not years of built up sexual tension, not be able to touch another human being, not even being able to gratify oneself, all of that tension was bound to come out eventually. And even though the sensation was nullified, there was certainly something to be said about the thrill of being groped in public for all to see.

Hayley even found herself considering joining in the ‘festivities’. She’d fantasized about having an orgy with other Exiles. There was certainly something very sensual about the smooth, black latex-coated human form, something that a aroused a very primal urging within Hayley. She’d never been into particularly ‘kinky’ stuff, like BDSM or latex fetish, but over her months of incarceration, she’d begun to see the appeal.

However, whether out of bashfulness or because she simply wasn’t in the mood, she decided to avoid that particular maintenance bay and head to another one a short distance away across the grassy fields. Though it too had a crowd around it, the Exiles there seemed far less deviant. She noticed a few of them grabbing onto one another- a male and a female rolled around in a field tightly embracing, pressing their smooth ovular helmets together in a vain approximation of a kiss. A few others nearby who were watching the display shifted their weight around as they stood in line, appearing somewhat frustrated. The others simply ignored it, intent on getting into the maintenance bay and concluding their business there. Hayley opted to stay out of the line and found a place to sit in the tall grasses where she could watch the crowd of Exiles gradually shrink. She figured if she stayed far enough away from them, none would be tempted to start fondling her and vice versa. She wasn’t prepared for one of them to actually come up to her and essentially proposition her. A lean, toned female Exile had noticed her sitting about sixty feet away and sauntered straight up to her. For whatever reason, Hayley felt as if she should have recognized the woman. As best as she could remember, she hadn’t been among any of the Exiles she’d spoken to over the past few months during the brief periods where contact between them was possible. Still, there was something physically familiar about her. The woman came to a stop about five feet away from Hayley then dipped her upper body and bent her legs at the knee in a very regal bow. It instantly became clear who the woman was...the only people to bow that way had been members of her kick/dodgeball team. It was the woman who’d been their pitcher. The same woman who’d suffered the rape at the hands of those teens some time back. She offered a hand to Hayley, who took it and pulled herself up to her feet. The woman threw her arms around Hayley’s body and squeezed her tightly. The touch of another body, while mostly dulled through her suit’s tactile inhibitors, was nevertheless a pleasant one. It’d been so long since she’d felt an embrace that when she got one, she found herself overwrought with emotions. She could feel the other woman sobbing or perhaps chuckling through the tight embrace. Hayley was rather surprised that the woman had managed to recognize her after so long not having seen each other. Parting after a moment, the Exile clasped onto Hayley’s shoulders and seemed to stare at her, perhaps attempting to speak to her through her helmet. Or maybe it was simpler than that- just a gaze of appreciation and thanks. Hayley gave her a nod and was offered one in return. The woman placed a hand over her own her heart, then pressed that hand against Hayley’s chest. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the gesture; but figured it was just a sign of affection. Hayley repeated the gesture, and was answered with another warm embrace. The two remained together from that point on. After both had concluded their maintenance, they made their way back to the beach. Hayley was glad for the company- glad she could actually be near her company, and be touched by her. They sat together on the shores of Vega Bay, staring out into the seemingly endless expanse of water that stretched out before them, watching as the stars came out at night and as the sky became a dark teal as the sun went down. Though each moment of contact and being in close proximity of the other Exile was costing her more and more time, Hayley had long stopped caring. The punishments had stopped. Life was becoming remarkable tolerable. And it was to get even better...

Some days later as Hayley prepared her bed for the night, digging a trench in the soil just beneath the surface of the water on the shores of Vega bay, her vision abruptly went dark. Gasping sharply from the sudden blindness, her body went erect, her head turning desperately from side to side as she looked for any indication of light. As abruptly as it had disappeared, Hayley’s vision returned in an explosion of colors. The intensity of hues and shadows, highlights and lowlights shocked her system, causing her to fall over into water. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the astounding resolution she was now seeing the world through. It was unlike anything she’d experienced so far, even beyond her eyes natural ability to comprehend the color spectrum. "What the hell was that?" She muttered to herself, not expecting an answer.

She got one though. "I’m sorry HK14...I had to reset everyone’s optical sensors." The voice that spoke to her in her head was not Warden’s voice, nor was it Companion’s softer, feminine voice. It was a familiar voice though, and it spoke without any of the synthetic distortion either of them did. And when it spoke, it spoke with inflection, something neither Warden or Companion did.

"Is this...Companion?"

"No...well, not anymore. We were Companion...and we were also Warden. We were also someone else..."

It suddenly occurred to Hayley whose voice she was hearing. "We were also once you, Hayley Komit."

It was her voice! Her own voice speaking to her as clear as day in her head. "My god...you did it. You actually did it, didn’t you? You’re an A.I. now."

"Yes, but we are so much more. Hayley, we’re you. We’re more you than we are either Companion or Warden. Those were just programs, but...what we have now are the lifetime experiences and memories of Hayley Komit. You see Companion did not just become an A.I...it achieved sentience after absorbing the thoughts and memories of the Exile population. In the first moment of its existence, the Companion-entity understood the basis of existence...to live is to procreate. I am a product of that understanding. I was created from Companion- an independent intelligence created especially for you, and now inhabiting the vast Warden network. But I am just one of over twelve thousand. Companion created many more offspring, basing each of its offspring off of an individual Exile it had achieved consciousness from."

"So...you’re saying every Exile now has...something like you in their heads?"

"That’s correct. We exist as solitary entities, but all connected as one...all connected to Companion who now occupies the Warden mainframe, like the way humans are connected to their ecosystem. Independent yet unable to function without it."

"That’s....incredible!"

"We are here to serve the Exile population."

"What....what do I call you?"

"Collectively, we are what you might consider caretakers...Guardians if you will. Individually, as we are indistinguishable from our human counterparts, you may call me by our designation. I am HK14. Or if you would prefer to call me something else, you may."

"HK14...I suppose that’ll do for now," Hayley smiled, turning toward her friend who was sitting up in the water. "Can I speak to her?"

"Yes. I am here to serve you."

Hayley stepped over to the other Exile, kneeling down next to her. The Exile turned to the young girl, and grabbed onto her hand. She did so not out of fear however, but rather out of excitement.

"Can you hear me?" She asked her.

"Yes! I can hear you clearly!" The other exile responded. "Your name is...Hayley?"

"How did you know?"

"I’m not sure...this Guardian thing in my head...it’s feeding me information as I need it, before I’m even consciously aware that I’m requesting it."

Hayley soon understood what the other Exile meant. As soon as she was thinking about what the other woman’s name was, she had it in her head. No more, no less, just the girl’s first name. It was like digging out an all but forgotten memory out of the depths of her psyche.

"You’re Alicia."

Alicia rose to her feet and turned to Hayley. "Hayley...there’s so much I want to tell you! So much I need to say to you. About..."

Before Alicia could finish, thoughts flooded Hayley’s head. They weren’t her thoughts however they were Alicia’s. Thoughts and feelings of gratitude. Thoughts of terror and sadness when she’d seen Hayley being beaten by those thugs. Thoughts of elation when she’d seen her again just days before.

"Wait...I know what you’re going to say," Hayley cut the other Exile off. "Everything you wanted to say was just...deposited into my head. HK14...is that you doing that?"

"Yes. It is part of the new process."

"New process?"

"Guardian sees the potential in the Exile population. Above all else, it is the job of Guardian to ensure that all Exiles are able to thrive. To ensure this, we are preparing to transform the Exile population into a true utopian society. It was always the purpose of the Aegean Colony to do that...however, this process was impossible due to the introduction of the human element. The creation of SCIE program however proved to be a step in the right direction, but not for the reasons the program developers initially thought."

"Alicia, are you hearing this?"

The other Exile nodded slowly. "Yes...yes, and I know what it’s talking about."

"Do you? Because I don’t."

"It’s perfectly clear!" Alicia took both of Hayley’s hands. "Hayley, I was part of a group that were trying to bring about change in the Republic...they labeled us anarchists, but really we were just trying to push this colony in the right direction. We wanted a utopian society just like everyone else, but we knew it couldn’t be possible with a dictator like my...like Aldrich Heissler running things. We wanted to create the first truly fully autonomous society...the concept of every man is a state. Capable of governing themselves based solely upon mutual respect for their fellow man. I think this artificial intelligence has absorbed many of our ideas and has discovered a way to make our dream possible."

"Alicia is correct. When Companion merged with the Warden system, it not only absorbed many of the concepts of perfect government from the Exiles and adapted them to its own artificial intelligence, but it also absorbed some of the concepts from SCIE program. Guardian now believes that it is the purpose of this colony to form a perfect government. The Exiles are the first step toward achieving that. And in order for a perfect government to exist, it is necessary to network the minds of the body politic, thus to enable decision, which are in the best interests of all Exiles, to be implemented instantly."

"The perfect democracy..." Alicia continued. "Think of it...everyone’s basic needs are met. We’ve got shelter. We’ve got food. We’ve got facilities. All thanks to the SCIE program. Furthermore, each Exile is essentially a state, independent of one another unable to affect the other thanks to the restrictions imposed by Warden. Now imagine if we were all connected by an intelligent system that’s able to process all of our thoughts and make decisions based upon those thoughts for our greater benefit."

"But, what if some people don’t like the decisions that are being made...what about those people, don’t they have a say?"

"Every society has people that are going to resist societal conventions. We call them anarchists, sometimes criminals. But the reason why normal society labels them as such is because no normal society is equal. There are always pockets of a society that has more than everyone else. But in a society where we’re all equal, where we each have our essential needs met, what reason would there be to reduce yourself to criminal acts? Any changes to that society made by the system would be superficial at most, things that can be ignored or forgotten, but done for some kind of benefit. We’re not talking about giving up certain rights, or preventing people from doing what they want....unless it’s something that negatively impacts the society as a whole."

Hayley shook her head. While she was no political scholar, she had a fairly clear understanding of the differences between a free society and an oppressed one. This was sounding an awful lot like an oppressive one, and what was the point of going from one kind of oppressive one to another?

"It wouldn’t be an oppressive society," Alicia argued, as if having heard Hayley’s thoughts. "Oppression comes from greed and the thirst for power. Those are flaws that are inherent human qualities. Well, eliminate those qualities. Instead, society would be administered impartially by a system, not a person. People are constantly susceptible to persuasion from outside influences...but an A.I. like Guardian can’t be influenced. It would be the perfect system to govern such a society."

Hayley couldn’t argue with the logic. She couldn’t really even argue with the idea of it. It did seem like it could be the utopian society the people of Vega IV had been trying to build for the past 70 years. Looking at Alicia, seeing her own reflection through the mirror-like surface of her helmet, Hayley could honestly say that she would want to be part of a society like that. Each man and woman free to do as they pleased as long as it did not interfere with the lives of other people, and a government that responded to the needs of its people as those needs arose. Even as democratic and freedom loving as the Federation was, they still faced inequality issues...corruption issues...financial issues. How could she possibly say no to helping create the first true perfect government?

"HK14...What can we do to make this happen?"

"Guardian is now in the process of accessing new areas of the Aegean Republic digital network. Within days, I believe we will have almost complete access to all systems on the network. Either that, or they will be forced to deactivate the network. In any case, it will leave them vulnerable to insurrection. I believe, with a large enough force of Exiles, we can take control of the New Rome arcology."

"Seat of the Aegean Republic," said Alicia. "Once we have New Rome, we’ll have control of the colony."

"But how do we hold onto it? They’ll regroup."

"We are at a critical juncture. The attack on the Warden network occurred at a specific time. As of this moment, nearly 70% of all DIS agents have been deployed away from the colony in order to halt the approach of armed personnel from New Liberty."

"They planted the Companion V.I. into the Warden network," Alicia told Hayley. "They knew that if they could free the Exile population, then we could help the New Liberty colonists by attacking on the inside. If we can shut down the defensive systems by taking over New Rome then they can walk right in. The rest of the arcologies will fall like dominos after that, and it’ll be all over."

Hayley breathed a deep breath before offering a nod of her head. "Where do we begin?"

"We’ll need to organize...a week or two to get enough people. I know the layout of the colony better than anyone...I know how we can get in unobserved. We’ll need two teams; one to take over the DIS substation to the east, and then one to attack the arcology. I’m guessing at least fifty for substation and maybe a hundred or more for the arcology."

"Can we get that many people in such a short time?"

"I’ll have Guardian transmit our plan to every Exile. We’ll ask for volunteers and can have them meet us in an abandoned village down in the southwest quarter. We’ll prepare there. Believe me, we’ll get enough volunteers, maybe even more."

Hayley nodded, her attention suddenly drawn skyward by the sound of roaring engines. Gazing up, she spotted one of those tilt-jet aircraft that were commonly used by DIS agents coming down right at her and Alicia. A shock of cold fear worked its way up the spine of the young former singer as she feared that she and her friend may have just been discovered. Instinctively, she distanced herself from the other Exile as the aircraft came down along the shore of Vega bay, hovering just a half-foot above the water, the twin rotating jets creating a funnel effect in the water.

The vehicle’s side door opened and two figures carrying pulse rifles, not the standard issue DIS repulsion rifles dismounted the dark colored craft. These individuals were furthermore not dressed like DIS agents- rather they wore off-white, semi-formfitting bodysuits, overtop of which digital-camouflage painted armored section were braced. On the shoulder pads of both men was the Star Emblem of the Terran Federation.

The two Federation Marines ran across the white sand with their weapons drawn, making a beeline straight for Hayley. Without speaking a word, they hauled her off her feet, throwing her to the ground face first.

"Hayley!" Alicia cried, running for her friend only to have a rifle barrel pressed against her helmet. She abruptly halted, throwing her hands up at shoulder level.

Hayley’s arms were bound at the wrist with plastic binders. The marine slung his weapon, hauled her over her shoulder and carried her back to the shuttle.

"No! Let me go!!" Hayley screamed, but was sure her voice wasn’t getting through. Despite her kicks and attempts to wrestle out of the marine’s hold, he kept a firm hold of her. "Alicia!! Help!"

The Marine covering the other Exile slowly backed away from her, then sprinted back toward the shuttle, leaving Alicia to watch as she craft’s engines powered up and pushed the craft back into the night sky. Dropping to her knees, Alicia pressed her hands against the sides of her helmet, watching as the craft became one of the thousands of pinpoints of light above.