The Woman AI kept that unnerving smile as the robots pointed their weapons at Layla. Fortunately, they weren't firing yet, but for how long? Benjamin's mind raced. Had he done a terrible mistake?

“Please, move aside, dear survivor. Security bots will now eliminate the threat. Calm down, seek a safe please and let the security bots do their job. Clear Sky Industries: Technology and solutions that last longer than even us!”

It would be almost hilarious, if they weren't in a life-and-death situation, where either of them could be shot full of holes at any moment. At the very least, it doesn't seem like the robots were attacking Benjamin. Could he reason with that AI? It did talk almost like a human would. It had to have some kind of flexibility to its thought.

“Could you maybe, perhaps, not kill Layla? She's not a threat to humanity, and she's most certainly not a threat to me. So, please. Get your... security to lower their weapons? I'd be very thankful if you did that.”

The robots did not lower their weapons, but at least they seemed to have stopped trying to get an angle for shooting at Layla without harming Benjamin. Layla was terrified, trembling behind him with tears in her eyes.

“Ugh, this is the worst. I swear, if I get out of this place alive, I want something in return for coming to this place.”

The camera approached Layla's face and the Woman AI in the screen assumed a thinking pose. As if considering something.

“I have completed the analysis of possible rationality within the mind of the creature you refer to as Layla. According to my results, based in its ability to speak and its behavior in the present situation, I can say with high certainty that it can at least fake a personality. As the survivor seems to have acknowledged it as a being with a personality, its threat status will be lowered and will no longer be a target for elimination. Security will be put on standby status. Please, have it touch the pad so the system can catalog its DNA as a non-threat.”

As the Woman AI once again started smiling, the robots all turned around and started walking or floating to the doors they came from. Soon enough, the corridor was once again cleared of them. Both Benjamin and Layla breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, that wasn't so bad now, was it? Maybe now we can explore this place and discover its secrets?”

However, Layla was at that point quite irritated and angry. With tears in her face still, she slapped Benjamin's face with considerable force.

“That wasn't so bad? Did you take a look at those things that were coming for me? How can you be so calm? What if these things weren't programmed to not kill humans? We could both be carcasses on the ground by now!”

The Woman AI on the screen let out a laugh, as if it was watching a comedy skit.

“Haha, good one. However, according to Apocalypse Protocols I must ask whether you are being attacked, dear survivor. Shall I update the threat level of the creature Layla?”

Both Layla and Benjamin froze at that. It didn't look like they were completely out of the woods. As Benjamin really thought about it, with how sensitive this system is to possible threats, there was no guarantee that if he did the wrong thing, the system didn't update his threat level.

“Oh, don't worry. I'm not really being attacked here, no need to update her threat status.” Then he whispered to Layla, slightly nervous. “Calm down. Look at that thing, it could consider us a threat at the slightest trouble and kill us.”

Her intensely angry eyes showed that she was in an even worse mood than in the second day after they met. She took a deep breath and whispered back to him.

“Fine, but I am getting something out of this. You better prepare yourself.”

The background of the screen changed to white with a pink heart around the Woman AI.

“Layla recognized as a female, which means. Get a room you two!”

It then winked at them and made a heart shape with its hands. Benjamin would usually have been irritated at a joke like that, but at that moment he was more dumbfounded than anything else. How could he describe it... It was like someone using a joke they learned in another language and completely butchering it.

“Excuse me?”

Layla seemed just as dumbfounded, not sure what to say. Perhaps her hesitance might have had something to do with the fact that she didn't know what might cause the Woman AI to once again consider her a threat to be eliminated.

“It seems my humor routine is making the both of you uncomfortable.” It then looked sad and rubbed its hands near its eyes as if it was crying. “Shall I turn it off? It is there for a more comfortable and authentic interaction with any survivors, but perhaps it needs more refinement. Unfortunately, I am not presently connected to any simulation or entertainment facilities, so options are limited. So, shall I turn it off?”

Could a computer AI actually feel offended? Benjamin furiously considered the possibility of it. Not any in the in the Empire that he ever interacted with. In fact, this one they were talking with now seemed much more advanced than anything he ever saw in the Empire. Who knew how far the Ancient people could take things... Still, there was no reason why asking it to turn it off would make it want to eliminate them. So...

“Please. It's weird when you act almost just like a person, but not really.”

Layla beat him to the punch. And it didn't decide to kill her, good.

“It seems I have found myself in the uncanny valley. Apologies, many of my routines are for comfort and easier interaction. Now reverting personality to a previous version that is proven to not be in the uncanny valley.” The screen then froze. Benjamin wondered if some kind of error happened. But the Woman AI soon started speaking again, this time with a much flatter voice. “Personality reversion complete, how might I help you today, survivor?”

The AI now sounded more like the kind that you might find in the Empire, which made Benjamin feel slightly more at ease. Now he felt like asking the questions he came to this place for. It would be nice if he got any answers.

“Nice. Okay, so what is this place used for? As far as I can see, it's just this big corridor with a terminal at the end. Does it really need really need the kind of security that you showed us? Doesn't make much sense to me, honestly...”

The Woman AI moved in the screen, leaving space for an image that popped up. It looked like a map of something. Benjamin realized that it was probably where they were, as there was a red point marking a position at the end of a corridor that led into the facility's main control room.

“This is Grenzburg's water treatment facility #2. It is a medium-sized one. At this moment there are still hundreds of such facilities still functioning all over the continent. If you also count small sized ones, thousands more should also still be functioning. As clean water is considered to be the minimum necessary for human-life to be continued, these facilities have all been equipped with a considerable amount of security and fail-safe measures should the Apocalypse Protocol be activated. This is so possible threats to human-life, such as hostile creatures that appear as a result of mutation or other reasons, cannot poison or otherwise compromise the flow of clean water to the surface.”

Now that was actually kind of shocking, Benjamin had to admit. So the water founts that could be found all over the Empire, he was sure he also saw similar things in Palma, were really leftovers of the Ancient people. He never really stopped to think about how clean water miraculously sprang up from these places all the time, it really wasn't something that should just happen naturally, without any kind of human effort or intervention. Layla was just as surprised.

“Wait, so you mean to tell that almost every ruins we see are actually water treatment places? All the wells, most of the water we drink are are from places like this?”

The woman AI turned to Layla to answer her. At that point, the map image was shrunk to a smaller size and the woman's image once again took a god part of the screen.

“I do not have the information to answer that. It is possible that clean water can be procured at other places than the wells supplied by facilities such as these. As for the first question, it seems you use the word ruins to designate places like this facility, even though it is not in disrepair.” Did Benjamin hear a tinge of dissatisfaction in the AI's voice? “As already informed, the Apocalypse Protocol was made to ensure humanity a prosperous future even in the case of societal breakdown. As such, many utilities were rebuilt in such a way as to function and maintain itself even without human intervention. As you guessed, the biggest number of facilities of this kind are related to water treatment, however, there are also a good amount of electricity facilities with such characteristics. There are also many different underground facilities that support this system with cannot be directly accessed from the surface.”

As Benjamin thought, there was an entire world underground, which nobody alive really knew much about. What kinds of things could he learn if he explored them? Layla looked still not so comfortable.

“Hmm, so. It seems you talk a lot about eliminating threat, this and that... Has anyone else come here before that you... eliminated?”

There was no hesitation in the Woman AI's answer.

“Of course, many uncatalogued beings came here, as well as a few humans. Strangely enough, every time we eliminated the uncatalogued beings, the humans ran away. I assure you that all safety regulations were followed, such that no human was harmed during each and every operation.”

He really admired them, but this was something that he found slightly disturbing about the ancient people: How could they find it okay to have AI's look and act like people so much, while having them talk about such nasty business. Frankly, euphemisms like elimination only made it all the more unnerving.

“So why are there no bodies?”

What? How could Layla ask such a question? There was no way they would get any kind of answer that made them feel good in any way. Still, her eyes were filled with courage, like she wanted to know the final resting place of the people who came here before us. Still, before the AI could answer...

“Come on. Layla, we don't want to know the answer to that.”

At least he didn't want to. He was sure that she didn't either, but she insisted.

“I might not want to. Of that you are are right. But I feel like I need to know. People died here. Somebody has to know what happened to them.”

That made sense, but it did not change that what they might hear will not be good for them.

“Hygiene is paramount to facilities such as these. As such, any corpses are always disposed of, with various possible ultimate destinations. Some are sent to disposal facilities were they likely become fuel for one of many auxiliary power generation systems, some are sent to the auto-research facility in order for the system to learn more about possible threats to humanity, for when the Reclamation Protocol is activated, a few others might be sent to weapons-producing facility if they make for a good base for cyborg platforms or if they have genetic sequences worth adding to produced soldiers. I hope this answer was useful.”

That felt bad. Yeah, he didn't really want to know this. Looking at Layla, she didn't like what she heard either. But, one thing she had said before wasn't wrong. There was something that he now knew he really had to know.

“Hmm, what is the Reclamation Protocol?”

It took a surprisingly long time before the Woman AI responded to Benjamin.

“Unfortunately, there is no detailed information about the Reclamation Protocol in my database. Perhaps a military facility might have the information you want, as the only tag I have referring to the 'Reclamation Protocol' is 'military'.”