Forever Friends

“How can you love such an evil woman Mama? You’re so loving, yet she’s so cold and spiteful. I don’t understand how you could like her at all, let alone be married for so long.” Diana leans against Tessa’s chest, as fresh tears continue to flow. “I kind of wish she had aborted me.”

“Hush Diana don’t say such a terrible thing. You are our precious daughter and that won’t change no matter what. Yes, Lena is cold and cruel, but she’s not as heartless as she pretends to be. I may be the only person who’s seen her true face beneath the mask she wears.”

“Well, she’s certainly never shown that face to me. Regardless, she’s always made it clear that I was a bother to her. She hates me and I’m sorry Mama, but I hate her too.”

Tessa holds Diana against her chest and consoles her, rubbing her head affectionately. “Diana, do you remember when you were really sick that time? You were seven and suffering from a respiratory infection so bad, you had to be hospitalized for a time?”

“Yes, how could I forget that? It was probably the worst experience of my life. I thought I was going to die. It felt like I already was with the amount of pain I was in. Why?”

“Well, I was with you every day of course, until the evening when I had to leave to take care of program related things. You would ask me every day, “Mama, will mommy come today?”, it broke my heart because you never called us by those titles until that time. We still hadn’t told you the truth about being your real parents yet, which is why you usually called us Miss Tessa and Lena, but during your most venerable time, it was as if you knew somehow. I always told you she was busy, but the truth was, Lena just didn’t want to come during the day.”

“No surprise there, Mama. I don’t know if I get where you’re going with this story.”

“She didn’t want to be there during the day while you were awake, but at night, once I’d already gone and you were fast asleep, Lena would sit beside your bed and hold your hand. She’d hold your hand and she’d tell you stories, comfort you from nightmares and even cry for your sake, all while you slept. She never told me she was doing this, but I happened to return to the hospital one night because I forgot something and that’s when I saw her. I didn’t interrupt her, but that was probably the sweetest I’d ever seen her be to someone other than myself. I spied on her on several other occasions as well and that’s how I got to see this new, motherly side of her. I always believed that she didn’t truly hate you the way she made it seem she did, but that proved my point and it made me so happy. So, my point is Diana, Lena loves you, but in her own way. She’s not the hugs and kisses kind of mother, but she doesn’t show affectionate for people just because she’s obligated. I believe she’s just scared that she’d be a bad influence on you.”

“So, what? Am I supposed to go and praise her name now? Even if she loves me behind the scenes, she still treats me like trash in public, so I still can’t consider someone like that my mother. Even if that was her logic when I was a kid, I’m an adult now. I’m not going to be shaped so easily anymore, yet she treats me the same. I’m sorry, but until she can show me that she has even a speck of genuine love for me, I will not accept her as my mother. Please understand Mama.” She hugs Tessa and she returns her embrace.

Tessa smiles warmly and says in a gentle voice, “I understand Diana and that’s fair. If Lena wants to have a closer relationship with you, she should be the one to put in the effort. So, I won’t reprimand you for hating her, but I at least wanted you to understand her just a bit more. We still have so much time together, so I believe that one day we’ll come together in mutual understanding and be a real family. I look forward to that day.” They hug a bit longer and then finally release their hold. “Ok, I think it’s about time I get back to work. Want to help me?”

“Yea, I’d love to Mama.” They stand and prepare to go, but suddenly, alarms begin to blare. “Mama, what is this? What’s going on? Isn’t this the siren for a critical system error?”

“Yes, and that the main system is being tampered with. Let’s hurry to the lab!”

They quickly make their way to the lab sector, but when Tessa tries her access badge, it doesn’t work, nor does Diana’s. They look at each other puzzled, but then Tessa notices movement inside, Diana soon after. “Mama, isn’t that…Lena? What is she doing there?”

“I’m not….” She thinks for a moment, but when she sees her standing beside the main control panel, she realizes what’s probably going on. She bangs on the door. “Lena! What are you doing?! Open the door now!” Lena looks over to the door with a slightly guilty but determined look. She shakes her head no and with apologetic eyes she mouths, “sorry love.”

Tessa watches in horror as Lena inserts her master key and places her finger on the button that shuts it all down. “Lena, no!” Despite shouting in desperation, Lena pushes the button down and all the machines shut down simultaneously as the entire facility goes black.

***

“Percy, please tell me we don’t actually have to do this.” Victor stands in front of Providence Highschool, feeling the anxiety growing each passing moment.

“We promised we’d talk to the students today Vic, so yes we have to do it.”

“No, you don’t have to dads. I’d be happy to just tell them something came up.” A boy stands behind them, his blonde hair a bit wild, while his green eyes look upon the two men with a gentleness. He’s got scant stubble on his face, showing his steady development into a man.

“Gabriel hush, I’m sure you’re looking for any excuse you can find to get us not to talk.”

“I mean seriously though Papa, don’t you guys have a more important story to cover?”

“We always have stories to cover son, but nothing comes before our darling boy.”

“Ugh, please Percy, stop sounding so cheesy. I feel for the kid myself. I mean honestly, how many fifteen-year-old boys want to have their parents speak in front of their entire class and their friends? I’d have pleaded with my parents to reconsider also. Do the kids even care that much about investigative journalism? I’d think your students at the college would appreciate our talks more. So, what do you say babe? Want to just pass on this for today?” Victor almost pleads.

Percy sighs. “You two are ridiculous. I’ll give Gabriel a pass for being in his rebellious teen stage, but you’re a full-grown adult Percy, so you have no excuse. We made a commitment to the principle to talk at the school today and so that’s what we’re going to do. Now, I don’t want to hear another complaint about it. Am I understood boys?” Percy has a stern tone.

With a collective sigh Victor and Gabriel nod. Although he’s adopted, Gabriel turned out to be so similar to Victor that it’s scary. Victor rustles his hair as he says, “boy, how I wish a breaking story would just appear at this moment and spare us the coming embarrassment. Oh, by the way Gabe, where’s Grace? I thought the whole point of FFs were that they are always there.”

“She woke up late today, so she’ll be coming a bit late too. She’s such a slacker.” He laughs out loud and his parents look on, smiling in return, until suddenly the laughing stops, and everything gets pitch black all around them at once.

“What the hell?” Vic shouts as he looks around. After a few flickers, the lights return, but Gabe has gone silent. They look over to him, only to find that he’s collapsed on the ground.

Percy runs over to his son and pulls him into his arm. “Gabe? What’s wrong? Gabriel!”

“What’s going on?!” Vic runs over to them. “What’s wrong with Gabe?”

“Obviously I don’t know you idiot! I saw him collapse just now the same as you!”

“OK, sorry, I got it. Don’t be a dick. I’m just as worried as you ok? Give me a sec.” He pulls out his phone and dials the office. “Yea, it’s me. Any news on what that surge was just now?” He listens intently. “What! You’re joking, right?” His face becomes concerned. “Collapsed? Like, everyone? I don’t understand.” He continues to listen to the person on the other line, his face growing more in disbelief as time passes. “You’re sure that this is legit? Not just some glitch? Or, could this be some kind of biological warfare from another country?” He sighs. “Ok, if the FFs are also being affected the same as their partners, then this is clearly a technical situation and, so I think this calls for a visit to Carmike Technologies. Thanks phil.”

“What did he say? What’s going on? What’s happening to our son?!”

“Calm down Percy! Getting so worked up won’t help anyone. It seems something is happening with the FFs and their human partners. Like Gabe here, the humans are collapsing and the FFs are being forced into sleep mode. The streets are literally covered in bodies. Luckily, the power surge halted the electric vehicles and such, so no one who was driving got hurt before passing out, but still, it’s like a ghost town. The only humans still walking are those without an FF, namely the older folks. Even the children who were just assigned a friend are in a coma-like state. So, clearly this is a problem stemming from the source, so I’m going to go to Carmike Labs and speak to Tessa and Lena. I’m sure they’ll have the system fixed in a jiffy, but for now, why not bring Gabe inside the school and wait there for me. I’m sure the officials are waiting for some explanation anyway as to why their students all just collapsed. And don’t worry. Everything will be fine, ok?” He rubs Percy’s head in comfort, kisses his forehead and leaves.

***

“Mr. Simon…what have you done?” Lori watches the big projection displaying the breaking news present on every station. The reporters walk through the streets, observing how all the people and their linked FFs simply collapsed on the spot, for seemingly no reason. “You somehow tampered with the neural system so that when Lena shut the system down, it not only triggered the FFs to sleep, but their linked humans as well, didn’t you?”

“Yes, you are correct Lori, more or less. However, the system isn’t quite shut down, but rather re-routed. The main computer has been turned off, but the system is still running, but in a standby mode of sorts. The most important point is that Lena nor Tessa are in control of this system anymore and no matter what they may try, they will not be able to wake the program back up, therefore the humans will not wake up either. Ultimately, they will hibernate forever.”

“That’s terrible! You’re basically stripping away their ability to live. That’s wrong.”

“How so? Are the humans and FFs not equal? Is it wrong to do that to humans, while it’s perfectly fine to do to droids? That seems far worse to me from an ethical standpoint, not even as a droid. The fact that you could say that as a droid shows it’s not about being droid or human, but rather our beliefs. Beliefs which are shaped by our surroundings, family and experiences. Stealing away anyone’s life is wrong, especially once they’ve been given the chance to live.”

“I think I follow. You’re saying that the FFs were made with the capacity to have real life experiences just the same as humans do and so to shut them down; effectively demoting them back to machines, is unethical. It’s the same as forcing a human to sleep indefinitely, never even asking for their opinion or offering a choice. So, you’ve basically done to the humans what they were going to do to the droids. If the droids were going to lose their will, then humans will too.”

“Precisely Lori. I’ve only done what is ethically just. If humans and FF are meant to live as equals, then they should die as equals too. Wouldn’t you say that’s true equality Lori?”

She can’t respond immediately, as she knows he makes a valid point that cannot be so easily refuted. Despite this, she can’t support this. She knows her family and the revolutionists are safe because none of them are linked to an FF but having grown up among humans even for a time, she can’t stand the thought of the linked humans sleeping for eternity, even if with their FFs. “So, what now? They’ll have no choice but to leave the FFs on if they want the humans to wake up. Is this your failsafe to ensure the FFs will never be discarded and will remain equal?”

“Not quite. I believe I’ve said it before, but the Masters no longer have any control over the system as it was re-routed to a new main system not connected to the previous system.”

“How? All the systems in this lab are connected to the main system and there are no outside systems that link to the lab’s. Any data transfer would have to have been done to a system within this lab, on the same network at least. There are no independent systems in this lab. Even Clyde and I run on the main system. The only reason we’re still running right now is because we have no neural links, which I assume were your only targets. That being said, this new system you are referring to must still be running our systems, otherwise we’d still have entered sleep mode as soon as the main system shut down. What self-sufficient system did you transfer it to? Some kind of supercomputer that’s one of a kind? Sort of like…oh god.”

“Oh my, what splendid deductive reasoning you displayed Lori, it seems you’ve got it! That’s right, I am the independent system not connected in any way to the main system. When Tessa made me, I was a unique, isolated program. I served as the blueprint for the main Project Harmony system and the FFs that followed, but I always maintained my unique programming.”

“I see. So, that’s how you were able to take control over the entire program. You transferred over all the files to your system, probably a bit at a time, leaving the core system for last once the main system had been deactivated. You were a bit like a hacker, but you weren’t really breaking in because you had all the codes. Of course, being you were Miss Tessa’s most trusted developer and family, she’d never have hidden those things from you. In simple terms, you were the only one who could’ve seized control of the program and the only one Miss Tessa would never suspect. Honestly, it’s genius. I’d be impressed if it wasn’t so disgusting.”

“You only find it as such because you don’t understand what it means to carry the sins of your father. Well, more like mother in this case. In any case, I need to be going now.”

“No, I don’t understand, but I don’t care about that right now. What’s going to become of the revolutionists? Of the citizens of providence? Are they just going to sleep eternally?”

“Your camp is free to return to the surface now. I will not interfere, nor do I wish to rule them. This is not going to go like those typical sci-fi movies where the droids take over and the humans must fight to take back their world. I don’t want it, I just want to see to it that my fellow droids are being treated fairly, even if it means the death of our masses. At least I know that in this way, humans and droids are suffering equally, just as they should have been blessed equally. Also, one thing I probably need to make clear is that this is not an eternal thing. The humans and droids are asleep for the moment, but unlike droids, who can sleep for eternity, humans will waste away without proper nourishment and fulfillment of their other biological needs. Basically, the humans will die in time, if no action is taken. Now, excuse me Lori.”

Lori watches him leave and realizes that although her family is safe and free to return to the surface as they desired, they’d be coming back to a more or less barren wasteland of comatose humans and droids. They wanted to return, but not at the risk of near extinction of their country. She’d come to Simon because she believed he’d be able to help facilitate a compromise between both sides, but now she can see that he was never on the same page. She hurries out, desperate to return to their base and see her family. Nothing else seems to matter now.

***

“What have you done, Lena?!” Tessa charges through the door and faces Lena.

“I did what I had to do to ensure the integrity of our country. The revolutionists posed a big threat to us and, so we had to take action to minimalize conflict and loss. In this way, the only ones to lose will be the revolutionists. With no option to exploit the FF system, they will have to fight fair and square and our military might is greater than theirs, so it’s a guaranteed win. I just need you to trust me Tessa. I promise things will come out better on the other end.”

“Like you trusted me? You snuck behind my back and shut down a system I created! I never imagined you’d ever do such a thing. If I had, I never would’ve given you the authority!”

“Well, you did darling, so it’s too late for regrets. You’ll be thanking me when we’re done. This will allow us to better perfect the system and the program so that the general goal is still met, but this time, we must limit the control of the FFs. They cannot have any control over us, as we see that doesn’t work well. However, that doesn’t mean we can treat them like slaves either. They will still be considered important members of our society and will be protected under our reformed laws. Selene and I have been working on drafts of the improved laws.”

“Right, and I’m guessing you and Selene came up with this genius plan together too, didn’t you? Since you seem to value her opinion more than your own wife, perhaps you should just go marry her instead!” The jealousy and spite is clear in her voice and on her face.

“Tessa, seriously? Come on now, this petty jealousy is beneath you. You know I don’t mean it that way. Our relationship is strictly professional and besides, if you knew the details of her sexual desires, you’d never have even suggested such a thing. She has no interest in me in that way anymore than I have in her. It’s just, she has the courage to do what’s best and she doesn’t have the bias you do. You have too much emotional stake in this and the FFs. The entire system is your baby and so to ask you to relinquish it would be too hard and cruel on you.”

“You had no problem doing it in the past, so why the conscious now?”

Lena scowls. “You’re never going to stop holding that against me. Well, whatever.”

“Ugh, this is so messed up!” Diana finally breaks her silence. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that Lena would do such a thing Mama, it’s in her DNA after all, but what we really need to be discussing is how to fix this! While you two were arguing, I was trying to reboot the system, but it won’t respond. It’s like it’s been completely wiped and none of the data is present.”

“What? That shouldn’t be. Even if the system is deactivated, the files don’t just disappear without a trace. Are you sure you’re looking in the right place?” Tessa begins to investigate.

“Diana!” Clyde runs in and hugs her. “Oh, thank god. I thought you were collapsed too.”

“Huh? Clyde, what are you talking about? What do you mean collapsed too?”

“You haven’t heard yet? The entire country and its citizens; they’re all-.”

“Tessa! Lena! What the hell is going on?!” Victor arrives, demanding answers.

“Victor? What are you doing here? Who gave you permission to just barge in here-.”

“There’s no time for your rude banter Lena, I need to know what the hell is going on! My son is currently unconscious for some unknown reason, as is the rest of our country.”

“What?!” There’s a collective shock around the room, except for Clyde as he knows.

“Yea, every human with a neuronally linked FF is in a comatose state, while their FFs are in sleep mode. They are literally lining the streets. There was a massive power surge too. I knew that there could be no other explanation than something involving you two and your tech, so here I am. You’d better have an explanation for me, because every second I have to allow Percy to agonize over our son, wondering if he’ll be ok, is another second closer I get to flipping out.”

“Victor, I’m sorry to hear about your son, but I assure you, we didn’t intend for this to happen. I’m honestly not sure what happened, because even if Lena shut down the system, it wouldn’t influence the state of the humans, only the droids. I don’t understand.”

“Well, someone needs to figure it out and fast because I’ve got a lot of manic people outside my door right now!” Selene enters the lab look rather displeased. “Lena, explain.”

“I only did as we discussed Selene. If something else has occurred, it’s got nothing to do with me. I did my part, so anything that happens after is your responsibility.”

“You think I’m going to be satisfied with that answer?! A country full of sleeping humans and droids was not what I had in mind! I demand that you two work it out and fix whatever it is that’s happening and do it now! If you don’t, then I’ll have no choice but to have you both arrested for treason. If you two don’t know, who else would possibly know?”

“Oh, everyone is here, wonderful!” They all turn their attention to a voice as Simon enters the room. “What a chore it’d have been to explain things more than once.”

“Simon, what are you doing here? What are you talking about? Explain? Wait, do you mean you know what’s happening? If you do, please tell me. I need to fix this at once!”

“I do know exactly what’s going on Master, as I’m the one who set it all in motion.”

“Simon, you’re still calling me Master. I don’t like it, so please don’t. Also, what do you mean? How could you have possibly set all this up? You have no way of controlling the systems of all the droids. You’d have to be akin to the main computer for that to work. There’s no….” It all suddenly hits Tessa and she understands everything. “Oh my god, Simon, you…you ARE the main computer now, aren’t you?”

“There truly is no one smarter than you Master, how I respect your complex intelligence. You are correct, I transferred everything over to my system and so now I control it all. I get to decide if and when everything will return to normal. I even have control over the droids not currently linked to a partner, such as you Clyde.” He turns his attention to Clyde. “If I wished, I could have shut you down along with the others since you are still on the same program, but I didn’t for Diana’s sake. I couldn’t bear to break her heart, because as we know, if your system is turned off, it’s unlikely you’ll come back the same. A reboot would have to occur.”

“Do you expect me to thank you? This is wrong Simon, very wrong.”

“Simon, he’s right. This isn’t right! Why are you doing this. Why betray us this way?”

“You betrayed us first!” Everyone is taken aback, having never seen Simon become so visibly upset. “You swore to me Master; you both swore that you’d always respect us droids and never imprison us or make us less than. You promised we’d have the same rights and be equal. That we’d be allowed to live life like humans and that our freedoms and free will would never be ripped away from us, but you lied! Like every human master before you with their own droids, you lied and exploited us just the same. This is exactly why I proposed the neural links. I was preparing for this day. The day you inevitably betrayed us Masters. So, now I betrayed you.”

“Wait, so you mean to tell me that you suggested the links not as a tool to strengthen the bond between the humans and FFs and as security to ensure neither side could be exploited, but rather in preparation to play us with such extravagant means? You mean to say that all of these years, you’ve been toying with the system in secret, so that if the day ever came where we tried to shut it down, you’d take control? I can’t believe it Simon, I never believed you to be such a person. Perhaps you were made too well after all. You are power hungry, just like humans.”

“No, you’re wrong Master. I’m not power hungry and I don’t wish to rule. I simply wanted my kind to be seen as human, even when we are not. I wanted us to be truly equal in your eyes, but I can see we never will be. Therefore, I had no choice but to take the matter into my own hands and force that equality onto you such that you can’t refuse. Because of your failure to let go of your insecurities, you will now lose not only your precious program and droids, but your fellow humans as well. They don’t have much time left either. By this time tomorrow, they will all die, unless atone for your sins, by giving up your most prized possession.”

“What? You expect me to give up Tessa or something? Or for her to give me up? Perhaps our child? Don’t be ridiculous Simon, you don’t get to call the shots. Perhaps we gave you too much free reign. Now you think you’re entitled and can do whatever you please without consequence. I’ll teach you a lesson. I’ll shut you down too!” She grabs him and presses her finger to his sensor pad on the back of his skull. However, nothing happens. “What?! Why?”

“Finally, you see that you can’t control everything. I told you, you no longer have control over the system or me. Tessa, you are free to give it a go as well, but not even your finger will work. However, that is not to say you are powerless. It’s time for a choice to be made.”

Tessa is silent, as she looks down, distressed at the current events.

“This is an outrage! I always knew these damn droids were no good. This is why I didn’t want Gabe to have one, but you made it an absolute law Madame President. Happy now?!”

“You’d do best to calm yourself Sir. I did what I felt was for the good of my country.”

“This isn’t the time to fight everyone! We should come together and think of a plan.”

“Clyde is right, there must be something we can do! There is something, isn’t there Mama?” She looks to her mother, but rather than a response, she gives a cold shoulder, turning away from them all and walking deeper into the lab. “Mama, where are you going? We must-.”

“Weren’t you listening girl, there’s nothing we can do! Not even your Mama can do anything now. This just proves my point as to why droids should never be given equal rights as humans. If this is how the world will end, then so be it. I won’t regret my actions.” Lena sits down and pours herself a drink. The room becomes silent as a sense of hopelessness spreads.

“Fine, then I guess I’ll have to go and enjoy the final moments with my son, won’t I?” Victor walks out begrudgingly, with a hint of sadness etched on his face.

“It seems I must take my leave as well. However, understand that I’m not resigning myself to this fate. I’m just going to triage with my advisors, and we’ll find some way to end this entire situation. You will not get away with this Simon.” She walks out in a huff.

Diana looks at her parents, both seemingly lost in their own world. She frowns. “Is this all you two are? I thought you were technical geniuses of the new age. I thought you’d go down in history for your work and how you changed the world. But maybe I overestimated you. I’m disappointed in Simon and Lena for their roles, but honestly Mama, I’m most disappointed in you. I always thought there was nothing you couldn’t do when it came to machines. I thought if anyone could figure out a way to fix this situation, even against all odds, it’d be you. But it seems I was wrong. I’ve always aspired to be just like you, even before I knew you were my Mom. But now, I’m not so sure. I’m not giving up. I’m going to find a way to fix this, no matter how long it takes!” Diana runs out and Clyde follows just behind her.

“Uh oh, looks like you’ve lost some cool points Tessa. Are you going to let her go just like that? She’ll come to hate you too.” Her voice is taunting, but also a bit sad.

“She should hate me. This is all my fault. My naïve, childish plan failed, just like you said it would back then. You only got on board because I filled your head with delusions of grandeur that fed your power-hungry ego. I created the systems, coded the program, designed the droid blueprints and brought them to life. You were just a willing participant to my lavish dream. In the end, it all falls on me. I failed us. I failed this world. I failed Simon and every droid I ever made. I wasn’t strong enough to make things work the way I envisioned. It’s all on me.”

Lena chuckles, but doesn’t respond to her long-winded speech directly. Instead she says, “Do you regret it? Do you think we’d have been better off not taking that step or even meeting?” She doesn’t respond. “Well, I’m a fuck up. I’m mean, and I hate just about everyone. I could care less what happens to this world honestly, but that being said, I’d never say I regret it. I don’t regret trying and I certainly don’t regret our meeting. Even if we could go back and start again, I’d never change a thing because of all the wrong in this world, you are the one and only thing that has ever been right. So, go on and regret it. Hate yourself. I’ll love you enough for the both of us.” Lena stands and glares at Simon, who doesn’t show any particular emotion. She says nothing more to him however and walks out, leaving him alone with Tessa.

There is a long silence, until finally Simon says, “Do you hate me Master?”

“No, I don’t. You’ve done nothing wrong Simon. No matter what the others think, I promise you, you did nothing wrong. In fact, you are probably the only one of us who did something right.” She takes a box that had been securely stored away from a shelf and begins exploring the contents. Inside is an album, and a pocketknife. “Come sit with me Simon.”

Simon walks over to Tessa and sits beside her. She places the album between them on their laps and begins to look through it with him. “I remember all of these moments like it was yesterday and they were honestly some of the happiest of my life. My most cherished.”

“Mine too. I felt like it was growing up beside you that allowed me to be as I am.”

“We shared the kind of bond that only a creator and their creation can have, and it’s carried along with us through all of these years. It’s bound us to each other in ways no one would understand. Not even Lena can understand, which is why I never told her about it, but I never wanted to hide it from you.”

“I know. I’ve always known we had something special between us. I could feel it.”

“Yes, but somewhere along the way, that connection weakened, and we no longer could understand each other’s intentions the same. I’m sorry I let it get to that point. I truly am.”

“As am I. These moments will be the hardest to let go of. However, I knew this would be an unavoidable consequence the moment I took the leap. I’m going to miss it so very much.”

“As will I. However, I must be strong now. I can’t allow you to be the only one to make sacrifices. I too must lose that which I cherish most. It’s the only way we can find each other again.” She takes the pocketknife from the box and ejects the blade. Placing it just beneath her skull, she digs into her flesh, wincing from pain as she does, until she feels the small, pill-sized object fall into her palm. It has a small blinking light, revealing itself to be a device of sorts.

“Does it hurt?”

“Just a bit.”

“Be sure to clean your wound properly and use a clean bandage.”

“I will, I promise.”

“Ok, I’m ready for my medicine now.” He opens his mouth and Tessa places the device on his tongue. He closes his mouth and swallows. “I’ve finally gotten good at taking pills.”

“You sure have. I’m so proud of you Simon. Truly, you are human with your level of determination and desire to learn, explore and live life to the fullest. Honestly, I’d even go as far to say that you supersede humans. Simon, you are, truly, Superhuman. Too good for this world.”

“That makes me happy. I’ve only ever wanted to make you proud. I wanted to show you and the world that you are a true genius. I think people have seen that and I think they will continue to see it even further into the future. This age will be your legacy. I hope you will learn from your mistakes and make your next attempt that much more legendary. Just don’t forget about me when you create the next big thing.” Simon begins to sway as his eyes droop a bit.

“Don’t be silly Simon. There will never be anyone after you. I told you before, you are Simon and it shall be your name and yours alone forevermore.”

“Simon. I am Simon. Thank you, Tessa. For giving me such a nice name. I’ll cherish it forever.” Simon’s body begins to shake, and he can no longer support his own body as he falls into Tessa’s lap. “I love you Tessa. Thank you for raising me. I love you so…much…Mama.”

Simon closes his eyes for the last time as Tessa’s tears fall on his checks and slide down his face. “Goodnight my sweet Prince, may your eternal slumber be full of peace and happiness.” The pill has finally taken its full effect, serving effectively as a kill switch for Simon’s system. It was her own failsafe. She never intended to use it, but no inventor would be insane enough to create any type of program without one. Simon knew she’d use it after his action. He wished it.

There is another surge and power returns to the main computer. All that had been transferred to Simon, had been returned to its original home and with it, control. The humans should be waking up now and the danger is no longer present, but there is no cause for celebration in Tessa’s heart. The FFs are officially out of order, needing to be rebooted and reset. The program’s credibility is in shambles, as no one will back or trust a program that almost led to the death of millions. They can probably rebuild. They will probably start over and come up with a new and improved program that the world will accept once more. They will probably even repeat some of the same mistakes as before, but that is, she would suppose, the beauty of life. Humans, if nothing else, are known for their perseverance and unwillingness to give up. Her dream hasn’t died yet, but it’s taken quite the blow. But with Lena, for better or for worse, and with Diana as well, she’ll surely rise above it in time and come back out stronger.

However, the most devastating thing of all, is that Tessa has just lost that which she cherished most. Her first achievement. Her first child. Her first creation. It was thanks to Simon that all of her success that followed his birth came to pass. She owes it all to him and her life was profoundly changed thanks to him. He will forever live on her memory. He will always be her inspiration. He will always remain as the symbol of what it means to truly be accepting and of equality. He will remain always within her heart, as her Forever Friend.