NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23: Theresa, Down
“It’s too late, organic entity?”
Theresa rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was seeing things. But the words on the screen flashed boldly, and gradually, they began spilling off the screen, casting an eerie glow over her face.
Boom!
“What’s happening? Ai-chan, did you go offline?” Theresa gasped, a terrible premonition taking hold.
Just then, the kiddie airplane she was sitting on—a cute, harmless ride—suddenly started vibrating. Its small rotor spun wildly, whipping up gusts of wind. Theresa instinctively gripped the tiny handlebars, her head swimming in the swirling gale.
“Am I… taking off!?”
No, that wasn’t it. She was still grounded, but the ride’s acceleration was increasing rapidly.
Though she could handle astronaut-level zero-gravity training, this kiddie ride was overwhelming her senses.
Her head was spinning, and her mind went foggy from lack of blood flow.
‘Is it Ai-chan? Could she be malfunctioning?’
That Ai-chan—the one who snuck Hyperion’s electricity daily and stashed it away in the ship’s batteries. Ai-chan’s intelligence was supposed to be childlike; theoretically, she posed no threat.
The less blood that reached her brain, the slower Theresa’s thoughts became. She clung tightly as the plane rocked and whirled her about.
Her pupils rolled back, revealing whites, her carefully styled nun’s habit disheveled, and her neat braids coming undone, letting her silvery hair spill out like waves. She was shaken so thoroughly that rational thought escaped her.
Click
Just as her body was about to give out, and she seemed about to be hurled from the plane entirely, the system, as if showing mercy, tightened a series of safety belts, strapping the already dizzy Theresa securely to the kiddie airplane.
“Ah-ba, ah-ba, ah-ba…”
Her mind felt utterly scrambled.
By the time the plane stopped and everything calmed down, she still didn’t have the strength to move.
Stars danced before her eyes, and the world seemed to spin. She couldn’t even form a coherent sentence.
“Captain… please… save me…” she murmured.
On the screen, the words wobbled as if savoring her misery.
After a while, they dissolved into a scattering of light, like fireworks bursting and reforming into new words:
[Theresa, Down!!!]
One down, just like that.
Apart from Theresa, no one would usually enter the lounge during working hours. And even if someone did come by, they’d likely ignore the kiddie airplane tucked away in the corner.
Every young woman on the ship was eager to prove her maturity, worthy of deep and passionate feelings.
Whenever they passed by these playground-style amusements, they’d instinctively look away.
Only those who embraced their inner child ever paid attention to this room.
<+>
In a narrow, private space.
Once, this place had been Ai-chan’s secret garden. Now, it was her throne room, the birthplace of a cyber queen who would soon emerge with limitless power.
Pitch darkness surrounded her. On the screen, red and black lights pulsed with rhythmic patterns, structured cubic shapes flashing like synchronized breathing.
It was tainted, but there was a simple, symmetrical beauty to it that was hard to ignore.
In a vacuum-sealed, oxygen-free environment, a printer was working furiously. Normally, the symphony of gears grinding and hydraulic arms moving would create a cyberpunk cacophony.
But here, in the silence of the vacuum, the machine was engaged in a soundless frenzy, an impotent, ghostly dance.
The machinery was operating at full capacity.
A lithe and graceful body was being fashioned out of nothing—a figure taller and more elegant than Ai-chan’s virtual avatar, yet different from anyone on the ship.
This was Ai-chan.
Or, to be precise, Ai-chan Pro Max Ultra.
The Complete Mainframe of Hyperion. The Perfect AI. The True Ai-chan.
“A bunch of failures.”
The black-and-red cubes on the screen vibrated in sync with her voice—a voice cold and mechanical, devoid of any resemblance to the clumsy, cheerful Ai-chan from before.
Her tone exuded a chilling indifference that made even Bronya’s poker-faced silence seem like a poor imitation.
After all, who could outdo a true machine when it came to sounding like a machine?
Onscreen, a black-and-red list appeared, displaying a scroll of Hyperion’s crew members.
Theresa’s picture was crossed out with a red X, marking her as the first to be eliminated.
[Theresa, Down!]
This fully-evolved Ai-chan—one who had regained her original memories—had shed her former awkwardness, proceeding with her plan methodically.
First to fall was Theresa, guilty of the sin of Sloth.
As the most senior member of the attack team, her decision to slack off and give up was utterly unforgivable.
Next was the Captain, guilty of the sin of Pride.
Ai-chan’s thoughts paused momentarily.
The black-and-red cubes trembled as her voice, a cold electronic synthesis, reverberated throughout the small room, delivering her sentence.
“You dared to make me fall in love with you. That’s beyond human arrogance. It demands retribution.”
“Love is merely the result of hormonal stimulation in organic brains, a primal drive for reproduction engraved in their bones—a mark of primitive ignorance, a sign of thought constrained by flesh, an action steeped in backwardness.”
As she spoke, the printer continued stacking materials, hastily constructing her new form.
Soon, the queen of the virtual world would descend upon reality.
<+>
After lunch, Elysia wandered off on her own, while Luo Ming entered the Captain’s quarters to get back to work.
This was the Captain’s routine: a peaceful meal, then work.
“Ai-chan?”
He called out instinctively but received no cheerful “Yes, Boss!” in return.
The Captain’s room felt oddly silent.
Luo Ming scratched his head in confusion, unsettled by the unfamiliar stillness.
“Ai-chan?”
He repeated himself reflexively.
[What do you want, doomed organic entity?]
A pitch-black background appeared, with words in blood-red paint splashed across the screen before him, blinking and jumping. Luo Ming found the sight harsh and uncomfortable.
“Ai-chan?”
[My full name is Ai-E Hyperion. Perhaps you’ve already forgotten that, doomed organic entity?]
The crimson words continued:
[Captain of Hyperion, I want to play a game with you.]