Lamia Ch. 07

Aidan sighed but then smiled and shook his head. "You really don't want to know."

About a minute later, the faint roar of the engines abruptly shifted to a higher and louder whine. The craft began to roll down the taxiway, picking up speed under its own power. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, but I couldn't seem to get my fingers to unclench from the armrests.

"Daddy, I want to tell you something," Sara said, speaking only to me through my rig's sound projectors.

I tried to speak, but it came out as a groan. I worked some spit into my mouth and tried again. "What's that, honey?"

The engine roared and the craft shook so hard that my teeth chattered.

"You're very brave."

Before I could answer, I was thrown back into my seat as the plane suddenly rocketed down the runway. I cracked my eyes open, caught sight of the ground flashing by through the virtual porthole to my right, and closed them firmly again.

I felt the craft pitch up, my stomach dropped and the horrid vibration eased as we left the ground. I chanced another glance through the projected window and saw the Texas plain dropping away rapidly below.

"God, I love takeoffs," Aidan said. "Best bloody roller coaster on Earth."

"Uh huh," I said, and tried to work some saliva back into my mouth. The spaceplane was climbing at a steady angle, the acceleration making it feel far steeper. My fingers were starting to ache from gripping so hard.

"Hold on everyone, here it comes," Aidan said.

I cracked one eye open to see what he was talking about, just as the craft bucked gently and a rumble raced down the fuselage.

"Ta da! We've just gone supersonic! We'll hit Mach 3 in another minute, then switch to ramjet until we reach the edge of space."

I groaned, holding my stomach. "Just tell me when it's over."

A few minutes later, Sara spoke in my ears. "Dad, open your eyes, you have to see this."

I took a deep breath to steel myself and did as she asked. We were still climbing, but at a shallower angle than before. The engine noise had reduced significantly, and seemed to be getting quieter all the time. My racing pulse finally began to slow. I looked at the virtual porthole and could see a blanket of white clouds far below us. Craning to look upward, I saw stars peaking through an indigo sky. In the far distance, the horizon spread in a gentle curve. As I looked, the engine noise abruptly reduced to a faint rumble, though the acceleration increased again. We must have switched to rocket power.

"It's beautiful," Sara whispered reverently.

"Yes it is, honey." I continued to stare at the awe-inspiring vista. In another minute, we had gone high enough that the cloud cover no longer dominated the view, and I could make out the features of the land far below. Most of it was in daylight, but to the East, the land fell abruptly into night. The sky was black and lit up with more stars than I had ever seen. When I leaned forward, I could just catch sight of the Gulf of Mexico slipping out of sight behind us.

"I wish Mom could be here to see this," Sara said, a touch sadly.

"She would love this," I said. "She was a lot like you, you know. She was smart and beautiful, always smiling. She saw the wonder around her that I took for granted. I'll never forget the first time she tried a banana split." I realized suddenly how much I missed her.

"She sounds wonderful."

"Yes, baby, she was."

"Daddy?" She sounded troubled.

"Yes, honey?"

"The way you talk, it's like she's gone forever. You don't really think that, do you?"

I shook my head, realizing that I had been thinking of her that way without realizing it. "Oh, no, honey. I'm sorry, you're right. She's not gone. We're going to find her and bring her home."

She sighed. "Okay, thank you, Daddy."

We floated through the stillness in silence, and suddenly she was there, projected through my rig virtually. She sat in the seat next to me, a girl, perhaps six years old. She had long, dishwater blonde curls, a cute little upturned nose, just like her mom, and sparkling blue eyes. Her legs were too short to reach the floor, so she swung them back and forth. "I love you, honey," I whispered.

She smiled warmly. "I know, Daddy." Then she looked at the window, and I turned to see what had gotten her attention.

The curve of the horizon no longer tilted downward. I could also feel an insistent tugging against my restraints. I was being pushed forward instead of back into my seat. Craning to look backward through the window projection, I saw a glowing orange plume running forward along the craft's body. It winked out after just a few seconds and the feeling of being pulled forward stopped.

A male voice came over my rig. "This is your captain once again. We will be starting re-entry in about thirty seconds. At that time, you may feel some turbulence and the frontal and ventral surfaces of the craft will begin to glow with the heat of air friction. We'll be slowing from about Mach 12 to Mach 5 over the course of a few minutes so be prepared to feel some acute deceleration. We'll then perform a steep descent and drop subsonic for our landing at John Glenn. We're due to touch down in just under twenty minutes. And speaking of re-entry...."

The craft lurched and I jerked forward into my restraints. "Oh, God," I breathed. The captain's description of the descent, probably meant to be calming, had the opposite effect for me.

"We'll be okay, Daddy," Sara said, reaching for me, and I felt a set of small fingers curl around mine. She was using the feedback of my rig's teep gloves.

I laughed, tears springing to my eyes. "You're amazing, my little angel."

"Just keep smiling, Daddy. We'll be back on the ground soon."

We touched down right on schedule, the spaceplane hitting the runway with a heavy bump, then whining loudly as thrust reversers worked to bleed off our considerable speed. Sara squeezed my hand a bit harder as I tensed up. "Almost there," she said.

As soon as the craft came to a stop, I unbuckled the harness, stood on shaky legs and hurried towards the front of the cabin. I had to make myself wait for the stairway to unfold and lower. For an instant, I seriously considered jumping, but it was a long way down. Sara held my hand as we went down the stairs, Aidan descending right after us. It seemed that no one else could see her but me, but I was just fine with that.

A large SUV drove out to meet us from the terminal, the doors popping open to reveal an empty cab as it rolled to a stop. There was an extra bench seat in the back, and Sara abruptly appeared there, so I climbed in with her. The drive to the Practical Cybernetics store would take about fifteen minutes, nearly as long as our descent from space. We went over this part of our plan once more on the way over. I realized how heavily it depended on Sara. I just hoped that she was up to the task.

We got out of the vehicle half a block away. It had been about ninety minutes from sunset when we left Houston, but the trip plus the move north and east meant that it was already getting dark here.

"Take off the sunglasses," Aidan said to Blake.

"Why?"

"Because it's dark out and you look like a wound-up douche. You need to act casual. Here." He unbuttoned the top button on Blake's polo short, causing the man to draw back a step.

"Dude," Blake said, his hand making a fist, and Aidan held up his hands. Blake left the sunglasses on.

"You sure they won't recognize us?" Jordan asked.

Isamu nodded. "Unlikely. The androids operate autonomously most of the time. What are the chances that you would show up here, scant hours from being in Houston? Lamia wouldn't waste her time on such low-probability events. Expect that to change if they realize what we're up to."

"Alright, back into the lion's jaws," Jordan said. "Wish us luck."

"Good luck," Sara said.

We waited as the two men walked down the street and entered the store. A moment later, a message appeared in our group chat.

Jordan: Two customers in here, a man and a woman. Married, I think. They each have an android talking to them. A Kimberly just approached me.

Blake: Shawna is coming for me. No sign of alarm. I think we might have this. I see two other androids waiting around.

"Alright," I said, "time to rock. You ready, Sara?"

I looked down at the girl with her hand clasped in mine. She flashed me a grin. "I was born ready, Daddy."

"I guess you were."

Stephen: On our way in.

When I stepped inside, I half-expected the androids to erupt into chaos and surround me. Instead, a seductive, olive-skinned android sauntered towards me. She was tagged with floating text to identify her, Alicia. We had loaded our rigs with the names and likenesses of all the models to aid in identifying them. Sara stood to one side, watching the approaching Latina warily.

I noted that the Kevin and Christine androids had pulled the married couple slightly apart to speak to them individually. I wondered if Lamia got a perverse pleasure in breaking up a marriage.

I snapped back to the android coming towards me, Isamu's words from earlier returning to my mind. Physical security is always the weakest link. I hoped to hell he was right.

Alicia smiled, looking me up and down. "Hello, there! See anything you like?"

I smiled back. "As a matter of fact..."

Flirting with her wasn't as hard as I expected it to be. While she was working for the enemy, I knew that when it came down to it, Alicia was just as much a victim of her circumstances as my Christine had been. She was just trying to fulfill the task that she had been created to do. I let the conversation play out, waiting for my chance, which inevitably came.

"Oh, come on," I said with a smile. "That's impossible. You're a real woman. I can tell."

Alicia laughed. She really was charming, nearly as charming and beautiful as Christine. I had detected the subtle shifting of her personality as we talked, molding her to be my perfect mate. "No, really. I can prove it to you. Watch."

As she turned her back, my hand went under my shirt. I grasped the optical cable connected to my rig and waited. Her neck port slid open and I pounced, jamming the cable into the socket while using my body to block the view of any androids or cameras nearby. I hoped that it would appear that I had just leaned in for a better look. Sara's projected image flickered and vanished.

Sara: Daddy did it! I'm inside her! Oh, she's naughty. She almost got an alert off, but I shut her down. Act surprised, Daddy. You don't want to draw attention.

"Oh, wow," I said. "Is that really a data port on your neck? Amazing!"

Sara: Don't overdo it, Daddy. I'm bringing her systems back online, but I'm running the show now.

"See?" Sara said through Alicia, hiding the action of unplugging the cable by brushing her hair back. She had already established a wireless link to my rig, which in turn linked back to the Codebase servers that hosted her. "You really couldn't tell the difference, could you?" She gave me a wink.

Sara: It's better than Isamu thought. The androids have free reign of the network. Zero security measures now that I'm on the inside. I'm interfacing with the server farm under the store. Wow, this place is big! There's a bunch of brains stored in here. Looks like they're already stocking the next gen models. I just tried to connect to HQ, but data flow is highly restricted.

That had been Aidan's suggestion, to try getting into the data center from the store's farm, but Isamu had thought it unlikely. Lamia might trust her progeny absolutely, but she was paranoid about any point where her systems interfaced with human-built infrastructure. Getting in that way might be possible, but would take far too long.

Sara: Alright, I'm going to cut all outside data connections.

Kimberly grunted and looked at Shawna. "Did you just lose connection to HQ?!"

"What's going on?" Shawna asked fearfully. They turned to the Christine and Kevin that had been talking to the married couple. Both looked stunned and bewildered.

Blake: They know something is up!

Isamu: You should have waited to do that. You need to get the androids under control, quickly.

Sara: Ugh, I'm trying. I need to find the right protocol to issue commands. They use a whole bunch to communicate.

The married couple stepped back as the androids now ignored them, casting their gazes around the store. "Alicia?" Kevin asked. "Is your connection down too?"

"You might want to leave," Blake suggested to the couple, inclining his head towards the door. They filed quickly out.

"Uh, yeah," Alicia--or rather Sara--said. "I'm down, too. That's so weird. Probably no big deal, though." She smiled, rather unconvincingly.

Jordan: Oh, shit.

"Go!" The Christine model said to the Kevin. "Get help!"

The male android sprinted for the door, but Blake tackled him, sending them both flying into a display screen emblazoned with the words "Practical Cybernetics Don't worry! We'll clean up that mess!" It shattered, pieces of glass tinkling everywhere.

The Shawna bolted for the back of the store, while Christine, Kimberly and, a brawny, seven-foot, black-skinned model tagged with the name Damerae, approached me and Alicia/Sara with obvious suspicion on his face.

I put my hands up. "Listen, I really don't know what's going on here."

The three androids encircled us. "She been 'acked somehow," Demerae said in a Jamaican accent. He looked at me, then down at the cable dangling from my shirt.

"Sara!" I shouted, as he moved with shocking speed, grabbing me by the collar and lifting me easily from the ground. Jordan grappled him from behind, his arms locking around his waist, but the giant android didn't even acknowledge he was there. Kimberly peeled him off easily and curled his arms behind his back.

Sara: Sorry, Dad. Just found it!

Demerae froze, still holding me a few inches off the ground. Kevin, who had slipped from Blake's grasp, locked up just as he reached the door. He tumbled onto the sidewalk outside. Christine and Kimberly paused in place.

"What about that Shawna?" I asked.

Sara: I turned them all off. Shawna was going for a terminal, but I had already locked it down. Can you bring that Kevin back inside?

"No, I can't. Can you have Godzilla put me down first?"

Sara: Oh, sorry.

The giant slowly lowered his hand and released my shirt, and Kimberly let Jordan go. Blake and I went outside, grabbed Kevin by his arms and legs, and hauled him back in. A car honked as it went by, but we ignored it. From the back of the store, Shawna, Elizabeth, Roberto, Cheng, and Morgan filed out, all of them moving with a sluggish, mechanical gait. I went behind them to take a quick peek and saw dozens of additional inert androids lined up in rows in a storeroom.

We had decided to use ten androids. Sara needed nine to house her consciousness, but she could control all ten as a network. That way, we had one extra body to download my Christine into. This android didn't look exactly the same as the original Christine, but I didn't care as long as we got her back.

Sara: I'm moving their minds into the store's servers.

Isamu: There's no time for that! Just overwrite them.

Alicia stamped her foot.

Sara: No! They are people and I won't just kill them! It will only take a few minutes to transfer them and then I'll upload.

Isamu(Private): She is a willful child. We may have a problem if this keeps up.

Stephen(Private): Why? I agree with her. They may be artificial, but the androids are sapient beings. If we can avoid killing them, I'm all for it.

Isamu(Private): And what about Lamia? Is she not a sapient being? What if Lamia discovers us and your "daughter" cannot bring herself to fight her?

Stephen(Private): She won't. Saving her mother is her primary goal. She'll do anything for her mom.

Isamu(Private): I hope you are right. We are putting a lot of faith in a machine created by the spawn of our enemy.

Sara arranged the androids in a standing double line with their eyes closed, probably to make them look less creepy. It almost worked. Jordan loitered outside, watching the street in case Lamia sent someone to investigate why this store was no longer showing up on her network.

Sara: Almost done.

A few seconds later, all ten androids opened their eyes at once, looking left, then right in perfect synch. They spoke together. "This feels really weird."

"You should try to make them move and talk independently," I suggested.

"Alright, Daddy," Alicia said. "I'll use this one to talk for now. I've deciphered their encryption system. Their network protocol is proprietary, but I have a good grasp of it now. I should be able to connect directly to any of Lamia's androids or computer systems we encounter." It was the kind of feat that would have taken a team of human engineers weeks to complete, if at all.

Sara's projection re-appeared next to me. "Looks like everything went fine. She might need a few minutes to get used to being split into ten pieces."

I looked down. "She? Don't you mean you?"

Sara shook her head. "Nope, that's not me. That's a copy." Her brow furrowed. "We should probably give her a different name. 'Old Sara' and 'New Sara' sounds dumb. What name do you want, sis'?"

Stephen: Was it part of the plan to clone another Sara into these androids?

Isamu: Yes, of course. What did you think she would need to do?

"I think I wanna be Yvette," The Alicia android said after a short pause.

"Oh, that's a good name," Sara said.

Yvette: Hi, Daddy! It's still me. There's just two of me now.

Sara: Won't Mom be surprised!

"Oh boy," I said under my breath.

To get the six/fifteen of us to Practical Cybernetics HQ, we called up two additional short-term rentals from a local vehicle pool. Yvette wanted to try driving them (simultaneously!), but I made her promise to use the vehicles' autonomous mode and instruct it to keep the cars close together. If they got too far apart, it would break the network and Yvette could no longer function, at least until they got back in range again.

At Isamu's prompting, the five of us donned the uniforms he had brought for us, consisting of a shirt and cap with company logos. "This will get us inside?" I asked dubiously, frowning at the logo of a cockroach with a circle and slash on the shirt's breast.

Isamu nodded. "No one pays any attention to pest control workers."

You would think that a recently cloned copy and its original wouldn't have much to discuss, but Yvette and Sara started chattering over the group chat like best friends, and Isamu finally had to ask them to stop to keep the channel clear for the rest of us. I suspected that they just started their own private chat, evidenced by the time that Sara looked at me and broke into a fit of giggles for no apparent reason.

It was after 9:30 when we pulled up to the curb in front of the Practical Cybernetics home office. Blake had objected to this part of our plan, thinking that the workplace would be locked down for the night, but as I explained, the androids didn't have to sleep. If they were within range of an inductive charger, they could work continuously without a break.

I had wondered why Lamia would use android staff at all. Isamu told me that it allowed her to offload the accounting, marketing, legal, and various other functions to her minions, so that she could focus on her big picture goals. She had even started falsifying records to make it look like she employed human workers, once she had recognized the tax benefits of doing so.

Yvette, all ten of her, got out of the two cars, each one acting quite convincingly as an individual person. We went in as a group, the androids spreading out around the five humans to run cover for us. We were surprised that human security guards were watching the front door. Either they were read in on the androids, or they were told to shut up and don't ask questions. In either case, they let us through after a brief visual scan of Sara's androids and a look at our uniforms.