Sophocles Delta

Setting: Softlight Earth

Astra felt her joints decompress as the craft came to a halt on the airlock receptacle. The appendages of the docking apparatus extended and grasped the structure, fitting neatly into place and emitting a faint whine as the magnetic locks engaged. She closed her eyes and allowed herself only a moment of weariness before deciding she could save exhaustion for later. Just a few more days, then she could rest as long as she wanted. Retire, even. She shut down the vehicle's engine and opened the airlock door. There was an android waiting in the hallway immediately in front of her.

"Greetings. Please confirm your identity."

"Yeah, here ya go," Astra grumbled as she stretched out her microchipped left arm and waited for the authorization to complete. The way the androids talked like bad parodies of old sci-fi bothered her, though perhaps she'd be more unnerved if they sounded too human.

"Identity confirmed. Welcome, Astra da05679a-4b91-4693-8549-855974a27052, to Sophocles Delta."

They proceeded down the metal hallway. The walls had several posters advertising Softlight, the company that, well, was everything, and Utopia, the city floating off the coast of the pacific where androids did all the labor so humans could live happily and healthily away from the dangers of Earth's surface. The air in this construct seemed like an imitation of the hostile landscape below: hot, sandy, and noxious. While the atmosphere outside was lethally so, within the facility it was merely unpleasant.

Come to think of it, Astra noted, everything about this location was unwelcoming.

The desert sand could injure living things and destroy machinery; plus the heat and pollution made the area uninhabitable. As if nature hadn't done enough to ward off anyone from visiting, the building that sprang from the desert protruded seemingly haphazardly in all directions to produce an angular and aggressive look.

Astra was relieved that they hadn't shot down her aircraft, even more so that they had let her dock. Hopefully they wouldn't ask too many questions, or search her cargo ship. Maybe it would have been a better idea to brave the hurricanes and head straight to Berlin instead of flying into the dead zone. They reached the end of the hallway and the locking mechanism of 2 large metal doors hissed and disengaged. The doors slid apart. The air inside wafted out. It was considerably better conditioned than the air of the hallway they exited. The lights in here were softer and the floor was even tile instead of metal. Astra and the android continued into the facility's central tower. "Gregor 1c4d2cac-cc83-4f44-9d9a-866c73486756 will meet with you. Welcome again to Sophocles Delta."

On the floating city of Utopia a man, woman, and child sit in a restaurant. An android takes their order. An android cooks the food with ingredients delivered by an android truck driver who picked them up from a warehouse staffed by androids. The family finishes the food and an android takes them home.

"Gregor, there is a cargo ship approaching. This is not a company vessel. They are requesting to dock," the android stepped up behind him as he sat hunched over the workbench.

"Yes. Go ahead. Let them, then bring whoever it is to see me."

"That is against policy."

"You know what else is against policy? Me losing my god damned mind. Humans need interaction with each other in order to stay sane. Let them dock, then bring them to me. Oh, and see what it's carrying."

"Acknowledged."

The elevator descended deeper and deeper until Astra was sure they were underground. Eventually it jolted to a halt and the doors opened to a large industrial area. A man was sitting at a workbench over by the wall. Astra stepped out of the elevator. The android remained inside and it began to ascend.

"Hello. My name is Gregor. Come over here, come take a look at this," he said in an even tone.

She complied. On the workbench was a black mass wired into the building. Gregor reached for a screen off to his side and tapped it. A million lights illuminated on and in the black mass. It shimmered chaotically at first but began to fall into a pulsating rhythm.

"This is the next step of computation. A technology that will actually be able to surpass human and artificial intelligence in every way."

Astra blinked. "Okay. I'm skeptical, but more than that, why are you telling me? Shouldn't this be a trade secret?"

"Did you know you're the first human other than me to step foot in this base in 541 days? Do you believe in fate?"

"What?"

"I said, do you believe in fate?"

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Please bear with me."

Astra sighed, "no: everything I have I needed to earn."

"I see. That sentiment is pretty common among underlings. Do you think the Utopians feel the same way?"

"They probably believe they were divinely chosen to live an easy life. Truth is, they just got lucky."

"I told you about the synapse beta-engine because it doesn't matter."

On the floating city of Utopia a woman addresses a camera. "On Friday a man was killed after attempting to disassemble an android after it had failed. Please remember that it is not safe to do so. Simply call the Softlight support hotline and someone will replace it free of charge."

"The ship is carrying food, water, and miscellaneous supplies. In addition, there are several lead containers full of antirad virions. A single female human is on board."

"Good. Once it docks bring the human down here, then bring the antirad down after, without her knowing you entered the ship. Do you know why I'm interested in the antirad?"

"No. This facility is safe from radiation."

"This antirad was a major breakthrough in virus programming. A lot of cybernetic development was possible because of that initial work. It's even how you androids came to be. Those little particles are your ancestors, in a sense."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter?"

"It doesn't matter," Gregor paused as the elevator doors reopened and an Android carried a metal box over to the pair. He reached for a few cables and connected the synapse beta-engine on the workbench to a receptacle embedded in his right forearm.

"This box is from your ship. What were you flying through the deadzone?"

"I--," Astra started panicking.

"Relax; I already know. And I'm not here to incriminate you." Gregor opened the latches on the container to reveal the needles packed inside. He fluttered his fingers and moved his hand back and forth as if trying to decide on one, despite them all being identical. He picked one up and removed the protective sleeve.

He began to apply pressure. In an instant a droplet appeared at the tip of the needle, the android's eyes made a whirring and clicking noise, and Gregor let out a shout.

On the floating city of Utopia a child plays on the front lawn. Oblivious, as things start going wrong. Vehicles drift off course and crash. Sounds of panic rise in volume as people are left helpless. The androids don't save anyone.

"You're defective," he stated to the android after a moment, "behavioral aberration; curiosity."

"Acknowledged," the android responded. The synapse beta-engine flashed and the Android stiffened and froze. Gregor looked visibly weakened.

"Well, I'm sure you're pretty confused right now," he said to Astra, "where do I start? I guess with the failsafe. If an android is determined to be defective, it shuts down and uploads its data to the global control system so the same defect can be prevented or mitigated in other androids. Earlier I had told the android that the antirad was kind of a milestone for cybernetics and led to the creation of androids. It wanted to know more about where it came from, so it tried to analyze the antirad. I caught it and shut it down. It used to be easier to do, but now I need convoluted tricks to shut down an android. I'm not worried about topping this one, since this should be the last time.

Androids aren't supposed to have any bit of humanity in them, since that could be, uh, problematic for the Utopians."

"You killed it for being human? Why? It wasn't hurting anything."

"Astra," Gregor's voice changed to nearly a murmur, "androids are slaves. This was humane.

They're also not what you think. Why are androids like this? Why was there a sudden leap forward in artificial intelligence and then nothing? After the success of the antirad virus, Softlight began creating viruses for human cybernetic augmentation, but soon found that instead of using computers to augment human ability, they could go the other way.

AI isn't capable of what the androids can do. AI doesn't think the way androids can. The way humans can. Androids run on human brains, altered by a virus to run a machine."

"Why are you telling me this? What can we even do about it?" Astra felt both confusion and despair rising in her chest, "if it's true we'll probably both be killed."

"Only the highest up in the Utopian government know. Did you ever wonder why they arbitrarily intervene with matters on the surface? The underlings are cattle. Utopia won't let you self-destruct, but they can't let you do too well for yourselves either.

The synapse beta-engine is quite impressive. But it's not quite what I told you. It's more of an interface. I connected it to myself in order to take advantage of this android's shutdown. I hijacked its transmission to send everything we've talked about to the global control system. I couldn't send it traditionally because it would be discovered in the computer system if I saved it anywhere. Now every android is shutting down. Utopia runs on androids. Its inhabitants will not survive."

"What can we do? Bring them to the surface?"

"Shouldn't they be punished for what they've done to the underlings? Besides, they’re nothing without their androids. They can’t survive on the surface.

That transmission also opened a connection between me and Utopia's infrastructure. I have access to all of their systems now. I can cause a meltdown in the nuclear reactors that power the city and blow up the whole thing, killing them quickly and painlessly and letting the remnants sink into the ocean, or I can keep it running and let them starve and kill each other.

…

Your choice."