25

For the next twelve hours, Aiden continuously drifted in and out of consciousness. At one point he saw himself in the dark sewers being dragged, then he was out on the streets, and then on a bed. He saw many faces while lying, most were people whom he did not recognize, and a few were dressed like doctors. However, he saw that his brother, Liam, was there with every single face that he saw, looking down with an expression of worry. Then, for the next few days, he was completely out. When he finally woke up, he was alone on a bed in what seemed to be a hospital. He was wearing hospital fatigues and he could see that his arms were burnt worse than he thought. He felt bandages all over his back and did not want to know how it looked like. After a while, a woman whom he presumed to be a nurse stepped in. She looked surprised that he was awake, but quickly recover, came and gave him various scans.

“Where am I, and how long was I out?” Aiden asked the nurse as she scanned him.

“You are in a hospital of the HLF Mr. Scivit, and its Sunday, January first, 2297.” The nurse responded.

Aiden didn’t say anything else, he had been out for a few days, and he knew that the decennial announcements from the Estos TAC II were today. When the nurse finished her scans and looked as she was about to leave, Aiden cleared his throat, coughed a few times, and asked her “Hey, is it possible for you to call a number that I give?”

The nurse asked Aiden to wait a few minutes and quickly returned with a pair of com-specs. She asked Aiden for the number, but Aiden insisted that he could still at least operate specs even in his current stated. The nurse shrugged, left the specs on Aiden’s lap, and told him that he simply needed to press a red button on the side of his bed if he needed anything. Aiden thanked her and after she was gone and closed the door, Aiden called Liam. A few moments later, Liam answered with a questioning voice not knowing who called.

“Who is this, I am in a meeting right now so if you don’t mind to call later I …”

“It’s me, brother,” Aiden said, interrupting Liam.

There was a short pause, but when Liam talked again he sounded like the luckiest man on Earth. Aiden could hear that Liam quickly excused himself from whoever he was dealing with, and heard a door shut.

“Wow!” Liam exclaimed, with genuine happiness, “I thought I’d lost you. First degree burns all over, second degree burns over your back, and even some third degree burns on your shoulders. You were drifting in and out of consciousness for like, forever. The doctors looked like they didn’t know if you’d survive but still fucking told me that you should be ok even as you didn’t wake up after two days. I don’t even…”

“I am fine, I feel much better now,” Aiden said, trying to calm his brother down from the excitement. They continued to talk for around ten minutes, with Aiden recounting the many details during his mission. Liam listened intently, but eventually, their conversation was interrupted as Liam’s meeting decided that he was needed.

“Well, I will see you later then.” Said Liam.

“You too, take care.” Replied Aiden.

He terminated the connection and took off his com specs. Then, he pressed the button near his bed. When the nurse came, it was with a medical specialist. Aiden told the nurse that he was feeling hungry, and she left leaving Aiden alone with the doctor. The doctor greeted Aiden, and Aiden returned her the greeting. She then told Aiden to turn around and show her his back. For the better part of the next few hours, Aiden’s bandages were replaced and various creams and ointments were rubbed onto his burnt skin. The doctor looked both impressed, terrified, and curious at how Aiden could have possibly acquired these injuries as by the expression which Aiden caught out of the corner of his eye. However, she did not ask any questions.

After she was done, the doctor told Aiden that his wounds would be fully healed in around a week, although he should be able to leave the hospital in two days. Aiden thanked her and she left just as the nurse brought food in. Aiden ate like a monster and quickly asked for another serving, which the nurse happily gave. By the end of the day, Aiden was feeling refreshed and energized when Liam came to visit him. He embraced his brother and though he saw tears in Liam’s eyes, said nothing.

Epilogue

Representative Rosa Ristenel of New York sat proudly as the news coverage of the decennial plans replayed in front of the one hundred and twenty-eight members of the HLF alliance parliament, where representatives from major dark zones all over the world gathered. She was in Paris, which was the first city where the light zone was captured by the HLF through a series of smart maneuvers with the regional AI. It was a major victory for the HLF, but now, something bigger was happening. The Estos TAC II has suggested various policies requiring corporations to actually start devoting a percentage of their revenue towards the reconstruction and provision of the dark zones. The order was effective immediately and was being sent to regional AIs. The entire council cheered at the statement and almost laughed as the camera focused on Serp Pros’ face which showed a mixture of anger and surprise as he heard the announcement.

She saw her assistant tap by the side of his ear and walked towards him leaving her seat. She was extremely pleased to hear the news that the director of counterintelligence of Bureogis Anderson Plemis had finally decided to grow a spine and fight for what he believed. He had led a resistance force of security and intelligence officers to take control of Bureogis when he learned that Serp Pros wanted to dismantle the TAC IIs. The CEO, however, managed to escape during the fight was relocated to a secondary Bureogis station in the northern part of the city. However, the news meant that the HLF now had control over the Bureogis campus, which would soon mean control over the city’s light zone. In addition, Ristenel was pleased to hear the Elizabeth Medugis and her fellow officers were freed from their imprisonments without any major injuries since CEO Pros was apparently too busy to personally torture the captives the week before the decennial announcements. Ristenel though about Liam, and thought that the man could finally free himself of his conscience if he knew that Elizabeth was fine.

Both Aiden and Liam had proven themselves to be useful assets. However, although they, and the HLF, have won many victories recently, Ristenel know that the fight is far from over. Many cities will continue to try to dismantle their AIs in place of new ones. There will be bloodshed as light zones are gained for the HLF. And even with those victories, it will be a long time before the distinction between light and dark zones can disappear completely. It would certainly be after her death that humanity can even be close to their former glory.

However, what mattered to Ristenel was that she was part of the effort, which she certainly felt part of. During her two days at Paris, she has managed to convince around eighty delegates to amend the Declaration of Rights of the Humanity Liberation Front, and needed just a few more votes before her amendment to the founding document could be passed. Ristenel was surprised that so many delegates were so open to her suggestion, but realized that she still had a lot of hard work to do to get the final few votes secured. The amendment would finally change the purpose to the HLF, so that their fight did not necessitate the destruction of all artificial intelligence, but rather recognizes their value and encourages their use towards the end of human prosperity.

At that thought, Ristenel remembered a beautiful quotation that she once saw on a book, from a speech by an American Abolitionist in the nineteenth century named Wendell Philips:

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.”