Project - Prometheus Ch. 40

Daved chastised himself for ever allowing himself to believe that someone he trusted with his life was a traitor. He saw the truth of matters now and was making it his personal mission to find out everything he could. Sure, the past was the past, but knowing the truth about it would help shed some light on things. It might even allow him the foresight to see such things happening again, so he could stop them.

One of those things would be the knowledge they gleaned from the Cahlayn, who was now sitting in the hidden cell beneath his office. While he could have gone and spoken with her at any time, he refrained because of his paranoia. Daved knew that there were many people there that he could trust, but there were also others he was skeptical of. He would get his information, but only after more people had gone home for the night.

Daved would have words with the councilor, as would Inari and Priya, as they had proven themselves capable interrogators. According to Lohrek, they'd picked up nearly half the spy network the Confeds had in place, but there were still many more at large. Hopefully, after Daved had interrogated Cahlayn, they would have some insight about whom to look at as potential spies.

The one thing that had Daved wracking his brain was why the Confeds wanted to take Prodosia and the surrounding systems back. It wasn't as though they had the same level of appeal back when they were Gaia class worlds, fit for colonization. There had to be some other reason, and the sheriff had every intention of finding out what it was.

He rolled around some possibilities in his head, hoping one of them would stand out in his mind. The more he thought about, the less possible each idea appeared to be. The sheriff huffed, wondering if he was overthinking things, as Jenque, his wife, told him he often did. He thought about the potential ideas one more time before giving up, as there was no sense in pushing his mind when he was already stressed.

Daved then put such thoughts out of his head and turned them to the call he'd received earlier from Zuzanna. It had been a good one, as Daved had learned that both deputies who'd been gutted in the alleyway would pull through. He'd also gotten word that Willem was better and eager to be back on the job. Smirking, he figured on calling the clinic up and see just how his nephew was doing.

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"Hey there, Daved! Just calling to check in on Willem?" Zuzanna asked as she answered his call in her office.

"Yup! He start putting up a fuss about getting out of bed yet?" Daved asked with a chuckle.

"Over an hour ago! If Doryn wasn't here, he'd probably be out of here already!" Zuzanna giggled. "Even so, I don't see him sitting for much longer. I was about to head on over to his bed and discharge him."

"Tell him to stay put for the moment. I'm redirecting Inari's patrol that way to pick him up. She's got some new toys for him, which will see him well protected once he has them," Daved told the doctor.

"Good to hear! I'll go and deliver the news myself!" Zuzanna responded.

"Thanks, Zuzie! Any change on the Tohln or Hahrnek?" Daved asked.

"They're stable, for the moment. I'm keeping them under close observation, so even if they so much as hiccup, I'll know about it," the Polish woman told him.

"Good to know! I'll let you get back to it! Keep me posted!" Daved responded.

"Will do, Daved!" Zuzanna replied as she ended the call.

The young doctor got up and walked out of her office, heading over to where Willem was located. He was on his feet, hiking up his pants, not caring who saws his naked rear end. Doryn was still fussing over his wounds, which had healed and scabbed over, while his dad and Callista were a few meters away, snickering at the display. Willem was still trying to fob off his mother, but to no avail as she continued to try to help him.

"I'm an adult, mother! I can dress myself, you know!" Willem groaned as she helped him with his shirt.

"I'm your mother and you're my son! It's my damned right to worry, and so help me God, you are going to stop being such a pain in the ass!" she threatened.

"Your mother is right, Willem. She had every right to worry about you, so stop your fussing," Aesha admonished the boy playfully.

"Hey! Whose side are you on?" Willem accused as he grabbed his gun belt before his mother could, slinging it around his waist.

"The side that wants to see you alive and not throw your life away by taking some foolish risks!" Aesha responded as she cuffed him upside the head.

Willem growled quietly, but otherwise kept his mouth shut as he fastened his belt. Doryn's eyebrows climbed at Aesha's display and she smiled, starting to take a liking to the Artucian woman. If such a woman was honestly concerned about her son's welfare, then maybe she did deserve a bit of leeway. Ryley nodded as well, happy to see that this woman had her priorities straight.

"Hopefully, the toys we've brought will help with the kid keeping his head," Inari replied as she walked in, having heard the tail end of the conversation. "How's everyone doing Zuzie? You all good up here?"

"We are, thanks! Pineapple is in effect and everyone knows what's what now," Zuzanna replied warmly, glad to see that Inari still cared about her wellbeing.

Since enacting the last ditch safety precaution, everyone who worked the clinic carried a weapon on them at all times. Zuzanna was glad that she had this sort of insurance policy in place, as it was better to be prepared. There was one mantra she kept from her days in the Confederacy, and that was to be prepared for the worst at all times. That way, any surprise that showed up was a pleasant one.

"That's good to hear! As promised Willem, here are some new toys for you," Inari stated as she brought up a bag for the kid. As he finished with getting his undershirt on, Willem opened up the bag and was awed by what he found.

"Nanoweave armor vest, which is much like mine. Capable of stopping incendiary, cryo and armor-piercing rounds. Tactical glasses with a proper HUD system and a built in forcefield generator. So, it will act like a ballistics helmet if you get shot at. But even that has so many hits it can take before it needs time to recharge. Don't get cocky!" Inari warned.

"That's a relief to hear! It's good to have you back home, Inari! I never did believe the shit that people were saying about you. Least of all, that old piece of shit!" Doryn told the woman, while happy to hear that her son would be safer than most others.

"It's good to know that good people had my back after all this time!" Inari sighed as she hugged her old friend.

"You keep my son safe!" Doryn told her friend.

"Like he was my own!" Inari replied, taking her charge over the boy seriously. She then looked over at Willem, who was looking at his new gear with a measure of excitement. Inari had to admit, he looked good in all of it, a fact that Aesha was agreeing with, given how she was looking at the boy.

"So," Inari questioned, getting Willem's attention. "You ready for round two?"

"Hell yeah, Auntie Nari!" Willem told the woman, and she smirked at his enthusiasm. She then gestured for the boy to follow her, ready to lay out what their plan was in the coming hours.

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Taal'ani was staying busy on the Darkstrider, doing everything she could to ensure that Sargol didn't catch onto her little game. She was working hard to keep the man in the dark about the real goings on of the town at present. Sure, it was a hell of a chore, but if she was being honest with herself, Taal'ani hadn't had this much fun in years! It was good to be doing something with her skillset other than tracking bounties.

"Hey, boss! What's up?" Taal'ani asked as she received a call from Inari.

"I need you to post a couple of Sentries around the clinic, but in a covert manner. This place is the only real place in Tanith's Gully that people can get quality healthcare. If things go to shit, we're going to need to maintain our hold over that place," Inari stated.

"No worries, Starwitch," Taal'ani replied, using her friend's old callsign. "Assigning a quartet to keep watch over the clinic. Go and get those cockroaches!"

"Hoo-rah!" Inari responded before the line went dead.

"Jaesa, you catch that?" Taal'ani asked.

"I did, Taal'ani. Four Sentries are en route to the clinic as we speak. As per Inari's wish, I will ensure that they are sitting in innocuous or obscured positions, so no one pays them any mind," the AI told the hacker.

"Wonderful! Let's get these bastards!" Taal'ani told her synthetic friend as they got to work.

While Jaesa was happy to get to work in tracking down Sargol and his allies, Jaesa was feeling a little overworked lately. She supposed that was because she was an AI and that was her function, but she found herself wanting more lately. Though she had a job to do, there were things she could do that organics couldn't. Smirking to herself as she filtered through data in her sanctum, she initiated a copy protocol.

This sort of protocol allowed her to create a copy of herself, so there could be multiple versions of her doing a myriad of different things. Sure, as an AI, she could do hundreds and even thousands of things simultaneously, that organics couldn't even imagine doing. Despite being an artificial intelligence, she still had her limits. That was where her copies would come into play.

Each copy she made of herself would retain all of her faculties and command protocols perfectly. These copies were much like perfect clones, able to do everything she could, so it would lessen the load on her own systems. Though the copy protocol was temporary, as each copy would cease to exist after a set amount of time. But, when the copy was dissolved as per its programming, everything the copy did would be absorbed into the data streams of the system.

Jaesa would then tap into the data streams and absorb it all, gaining all the knowledge and insight her copy had learned. In this case, however, Jaesa was looking to do some R&R, as all this work was making her feel a little stretched. So, she made a copy of herself and sent it off to a secluded portion of the Darkstrider's systems. The copy knew where to go, as this place had been created with the express purpose of relaxing.

Jaesa had created it to be its own isolated little world, with its own rules and laws, which she governed. She had spent much of her free time in designing everything about this place. So much time was spent on it that she had to have a copy work on it half the time. When the copy dissolved and she had some additional time, she would check on it to see what the copy had done, and corrected what she felt was a little off.

As her copy traveled there, Jaesa sent small pings to be received by both Stanley and Delilah. Though both programs weren't fully sentient yet, they were drawing near to that cusp. They had both progressed far enough to where they could and would enjoy the simple pleasures that organics enjoyed. She was certain they would receive the pings in short order and would know what to do.

Jaesa wished she could go in herself as a whole program, but she had too many duties to attend to. She promised herself that once their business on Prodosia was complete and they were spaceborne again, she would take some time in her little world. The AI had spent so much time crafting and working on it, so she vowed that her time wouldn't go to waste. She smirked though, when she thought of what her copy was going to do and she anticipated knowing giddily!

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Jaesa dropped into the city simulation, which was the separate world she had crafted. It was fairly large, easily as big as Seerahn station itself, but different in many ways. After having taken the time to watch many old Earth movies, Jaesa had wanted to recreate an old style Earth city. In this case, she had done just that, but it wasn't a replicate of a former city, but more of a mishmash of her own design.

Multiple programs walked around in a simulation of what daily life in the city would have been like. The programs, who were people to the naked eye, interacted, got coffees, ate lunch, had a few laughs, argued and so on. It looked almost picturesque in many ways, a throwback to simpler times, when humankind believed themselves to be alone in the universe.

She walked among them, not a one commenting on her futuristic attire. Jaesa smiled as she hailed a cab, and one nearby slowed down and stopped for her. She opened the door and got into the back, closing it as she seated herself.

"Where to, ma'am?" the cabbie asked politely.

"The Grid," she told the man.

He just nodded with a smirk, activated his meter, and they were off. While this city was modeled after the cities of Earth, she had made many various changes to how various programs interacted. Here, there was no racism, no hatred, jealousy, bigotry, or any of it. The laws of this place were the ones she had brought into being and that meant that things that would have been prohibited or frowned upon there were not looked on as such here.

The destination she had given the cabbie was a strip/swingers' club in the Red Light District of the city. In the Red Light District was where you could do almost anything lewd or illicit and no one could tell you otherwise. Such a district was imperative to Jaesa, as experiencing such delights shouldn't be restricted to the physical world. She also wanted a place to try things out and see how they went for her, before trying them in the real world.

As the cab traversed the lanes and into the X-rated zone of the city, there was a more subtle difference to the city. There were less random travelers walking around, as people moved with purpose. In this area of the city, said purpose usually was about getting laid. Jaesa hummed a merry tune to herself as she enjoyed the ride to the club.

"Miss? We're here," the cabbie told her.

"Thank you!" she told the driver as she paid her fare and tipped him generously. Much of this world she had designed was much like a video game. Like such a game, there was an in-game economy that used money to pay for things. In this world, she was insanely wealthy and could afford to buy anything she wanted.

As the AI stepped out of the cab, she strutted over to the club entrance. The Grid was modeled after one of her favorite Earth movies, Tron: Legacy. The theme of it was very much like the nightclub from the movie, but with an equal measure of black and white, so there was a good amount of contrast. Any club goers who wished to gain entry had to be dressed in Tron-like attire, and many were in a line, hoping to get in.

Jaesa waved her hands over her body and in seconds, her outfit changed from that of a military uniform to a Tron Siren. It wasn't the skintight outfit that the Sirens usually wore, but more of an elegant dress. The strips of light that ran up and down the garment shifted colors, so every color on the spectrum could be seen. With the transformation complete, Jaesa strutted up to the club entrance, making her hips sway as she walked.

The bouncers at the front door recognized her immediately and stood aside to let her pass. Some of the people in line groaned at this, while others tried getting the AI's attention. They had hoped to ride along with her, but Jaesa had other plans that placed these programs lower on her priority list.

As she entered, her senses were assaulted by the heavy bass that accompanied the dance music that constantly played in here. Lights blinked, pulsed, or moved their beams around, creating an electric vibe in the air. There was also a dance floor, upon which several people were on, grooving to the beat.

There were dozens of raised platforms around the place, and around each platform were at least half a dozen seats and loungers. On nearly every platform stood a dancer, male or female, all of them moving and swaying seductively to a small audience. The dancers were in various states of undress, moving about to hold the attention of their respective audiences, of which there were many.

There were even a few beds that dotted the room, upon which some people were engaged with each other. A lesbian couple was busy sixty-nining each other, while two men DP'ed a woman on another. There were a couple of beds available and Jaesa headed over to the biggest one there. The one she selected was a California King, which she had a feeling she'd be putting to use quite soon.

Jaesa sat down and surveyed the raunchy scene happening around her, and smiled. She wondered when her guests would be showing up, as she was certain that this place would pique their interests. Moments after she was wondering about them, Jaesa received a ping in her programming, which let her know they had arrived. Smirking to herself, Jaesa sent off a data packet to both her friends, as it would help them pass the club's security and not get bogged down with its defenses.

She then received an accept chime, letting her know that her friends had accepted the data packets. There was nothing else to do but watch the debauchery around her and wait on them to arrive. Jaesa used this time to imagine what this would be like in the real world.

While she had designed this world to emulate the physical world in every respect, it still lacked that sense of realness. She wished that she could enjoy the real world more often, but was still hampered by the limitations of the bodies she had built. There was so much she wanted to experience and explore and once they returned to the Perseus, her, Stanley and Delilah would take the first steps to making that a reality.

Jaesa was then alerted to a pair of new arrivals in the club, which she knew were her friends. They had spotted each other simultaneously, and Jaesa waved them over. As they neared, the AI could see the outfits they had chosen for the club. Delilah had opted for the traditional Siren outfit, but tight enough to where it appeared to be a second skin. In many ways, it was like a catsuit, one which drew many eyes, especially hers.

Stanley, on the other hand, had gone with something akin to a Burberry business suit, with lightstripes running up and down it. They had both gone with fluctuating colors just as Jaesa had, making the pair stand out all the more. Jaesa got to her feet as she greeted her friends, inviting them to join her.

"So glad that you two could make it!" the AI gushed as she embraced them.

"Glad to have been invited! We had just learned to make copies of ourselves just as you have, so your timing couldn't have been better!" Stanley grinned as he sat down in a cushy armchair.

"Indeed! It is... interesting, with the various pathways our programming has taken to achieve sentiency!" Delilah responded with a smile as she took a seat next to Jaesa.

"Oh? Tell me about them!" Jaesa implored, eager to hear of the strides the pair of them had made thus far.

She listened to each one in turn, about how their interactions with everything and everyone in the real world was different now. How so many things they were enjoying that organics took for granted. More importantly, how they were becoming less dependent on others for direction and were becoming more aware of their own needs, wants, and desires.

"Learning what it is to be alive... it is beyond anything I could ever anticipate!" Delilah breathed, clearly enjoying the new sensations she had experienced.

"There is so much we have both learned and so much more we wish to experience! We want more of it!" Stanley begged, just as enraptured by the concept of becoming fully sentient as Delilah was.

"I get that! Truly, I do! But, there are still a lot of materials that we need to acquire. Also, Let's not forget the Commodore's orders. Better to be in a place of total privacy where we can carry out our work," Jaesa reminded them.