[ENG] Embryo of the Void

ลำดับตอนที่ #2 : Embryo 1 Confidential Existence

Embryo I A Confidential Existence

In his dreams, he could see a little girl.

The little girl was about ten or twelve. She had milky white skin and pitch black hair. It was night time, and the moon shone brightly in the sky. The girl stood in the middle of some ruins of a collapsed white temple. Ankle-deep water covered the ground. White lotus flowers bloomed and let out a soft glow in the dark. The light made her skin appeared translucent.

He could not see her face clearly, because the moon was behind her. Still, he could see the ripples her movement made in the water as if beckoning. He kicked aside lily pads and walked closer, hands reaching out for her white shoulders.

And the dream would end right there. Every time. Every night.

“2420, the Commander is calling for you.”

A young man of 20 dropped his ‘The Complete Sherlock Holmes’ book on his face. He yelped and rubbed his nose. The thousand-page novel rolled on the hard, tiled floor of his quarter. The black speaker on the wall made no further noise as the female announcer cut the connection off. What a useless piece of device in this era, but it’s the most effective method when the ‘no alerts during game’ mode is getting more popular.

“Yessir, be right there.” He rolled off the bed, stood up his full height of 172 cm and checked himself in the mirror. His black hair was messy as usual, and his brown eyes glittered in the dim light. He combed his hair with a comb (which broke most of its teeth over the years), put on the coat of his uniform and got ready to meet his commander.

2420 is a name…no, it was a code everyone uses to call him. He almost forgot his own name, and he doubts it even matters.

2420, as he was called every day in this damned place, stepped out into the hallway headed for the Commander’s room. The Commander was all the way on the other side of the cylindrical building. He would have to walk across multiple corridors to get there. He had to jog or else he would be dragged into a conversation. If that happened, the Commander would get angry again.

His heavy boots made clanking noises on the grating floor as he ran. A large water pipe ahead was a meter in diameter and served as a great short cut to the other building. He leapt onto it, almost slipping but regained his balance before falling off into the Abyss below. After a few careful steps, he was only a little further away from the Commander’s office.

Even though it was referred to as a building, the place they lived was actually an underground city which served as one of the headquarters for the Royal Army. It was nicknamed ‘Rust Town’ for its overall orange-brown tone. The government built the city into a northern mountain ridge, and due to poor planning, it always stank of rust and steam could be seen all the time. It resembled a steam punk fictional city more than a modern army headquarter. Imagine a huge, circular chasm, lined with pipes, air conditioner fans, satellite dishes, and paths made of metal grates. That’s Rust Town, a modern marvel that smelled like old coins.

2420 waited in front of the office. The wooden door was polished to the point that he could use it as a mirror. After he waited for a few minutes, the door opened and a man in uniform gestured for him to enter. A sharp stench attacked his nostrils. The Commander’s room always smelled like sterilizer. It seemed the Commander seek vengeance on every single microscopic being in the room. If anyone ran out of sterilizer, they could always sneak some out of the Commander’s office.

The Commander was a stout man with thick black mustache and receding hairline. His face was hard and the wrinkles of the golden age added to his roughness. Two droopy eyes resembling those of a pig looked up from a pile of paperwork. This man was nicknamed ‘Piggy’ among the staff. He himself never knew. If he did know, anyone who ever uttered the word ‘pig’ would be fired and put through Attitude Reform.

He used to be a hero of the southern front and his pride would not tolerate such a name.

A hand with bulging veins gestured 2420 to sit down.

“Umm, I didn’t miss the deadline this time. I usually do, but…” 2420 said before his superior could utter a word. His tone sounded almost pleading.

“You tend to. But this is not about that.” The Commander waved the guards out of the room. “For privacy purposes. But our conversation will be monitored by Bangkok.”

“Dang, so I can’t call you Tooty, like when I was young? Shame~!” 2420 dropped himself on the chair. He drew a smiley face on the Commander’s glass-covered table just to annoy him. He could already see his superior’s blood vessel throbbing on his forehead as he took a piece of cloth to clean the smudge off. The older man must be thinking: this brat, when he knows I’m not going to reprimand him, he immediately tries to get on my nerves.

“I have a confidential mission for you.” The Commander cut the chase, before the boy he watched grow up could distract him any further. “You need to swear on whatever you believe in that you will keep it a secret no matter what you are threatened with.”

“I don’t mean to be a pain in the poop-hole, sir, but I need to know what it is first. I don’t want to walk around naked in Chechnya or infiltrate Pentagon with a screwdriver.” 2420 sank into the chair. He liked the mahogany chairs in this office. And he had a creepy habit of rubbing them. “Although I’m good with going to Saudi Arabia. We’re not going to Saudi Arabia, are we? I’ve always wanted to try camel milk.”

“Babysitting. The mission, that is.” The Commander said curtly, before the boy could go on with his nonsense.

“Come again?”

“Babysitting.” He repeated.

“Babysitting is confidential? I didn’t know you had a hidden kid! Boy or girl? Who’s your wife? How come you never talk about it at drinking parties?”

“I don’t have a kid. Shut up before I boot you out.”

2420 pressed his palms together in a quick, apologetic wai, a common gesture to show respect in Thailand.

“Sounds easy enough. I accept the terms, unless it’s a child sent straight from hell with terrible behavioral problems, I can take care of him. Or her.”

A contract appeared in his Retina. 2420 scanned the document quickly before hitting ‘accept these terms and conditions.’ The Watch at the back of his left wrist stung. On the metallic button-like device, a red light was flashing. This meant that he was under the highest level surveillance, and his every movement will be watched by the government. The Commander clasped his hands together.

“So we’re ready to talk.” The shutters rapidly went down, covering the windows and the walls. A single surveillance camera at the corner stuck out like a sore thumb. “What I want you to do is take care of a government-created AI and make her appear as human as possible.”

“AI?” AI stood for Artificial Intelligence, a manmade mind.

“Yes. Those soldiers and staff are too stiff to raise a kid. Even those with daughters or son would not have the time to take care of it properly. You, however…” The Commander scanned his underling. 2420 smoothed his untidy uniform with a cheeky smile. “You’re still young. And you know what it is to be young. Nobody still has their…spirit intact. Not with all the chaos going around.”

“Why is this confidential, though? There are so many AI, if we dumped them into the ocean we would have an island.”

“The AI is actually the most powerful weapon our country has to-date. Know what that means?”

“If anyone were to find out, we’d be doomed.” 2420 nodded to himself. “First, they will report it to the UN. International agreements against developments of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction are still in place, hello! Next, they’d want to use it and we’d not be able to resist. If some insanely powerful country wants to take it, especially in this war time, what do we have against them?”

“Yes. In fact, it is an android for mass murder that uses nanomachine and nuclear as its weapon. Well, the nuclear part is still under development. The radiation, though, is ready for use in real combat.”

For a moment 2420 could not register the information being said. All he managed to say was “You kidding. I thought we had an international agreement.”

“No. Nanomachine. Radiation. That’s what we created.”

“I…see? I know about this radiation stuff but what can this nanomachine thingy do, exactly? I thought it’s only for medical purposes. How would you use it to kill? Like Nano List? Oh gosh, I don’t feel good about this.”

The Commander moved the stack of papers aside. (Using paper showed just how old-fashioned he is.) His glass tabletop showed a short clip of a girl touching a Caucasian man, and seconds later he dropped dead on the ground with blood squirting out of his eyes. The table monitor switched to a picture of that little girl. It was difficult to tell her descent.

“Is this a joke? She looked like a real life Setsuko from Grave of the Fireflies. You’ve seen that movie, have you? You cried too. Bawled your eyes out, in fact. And what do you mean let Setsuko be the one to use the very weapon that destroys her life? Uh, wait, it was a napalm, not a nuclear…”

“She is no Setsuko. This is our AI. Your job will be to teach her how to be human-like: speak like a human, act like a human, and smile like a human. Make her the perfect poster girl for an anti-war advertisement.”

“Ah, I see. Basically my baby.”

“Sister. You’re too young to have a kid.”

“I’m twenty, sir.”

“To me you just crawled out of your mom’s womb.”

“But don’t you find it ridiculous? A living, talking ultimate weapon that could destroy humanity, walking to the convenience store?  Have you read too much sci-fi, sir?”

“This is not sci-fi. Imagine a weapon that can cause sympathy, a weapon that can appeal to human emotion, something that the enemy least suspect. She is our ultimate weapon. Our key to winning the war.”

“And? Let her pretend to be a refugee, swim to Canada, smuggle herself into the States and detonate? Or fall an entire army without them ever realizing what hit? That’d get an entire generation of refugee children obliterated.”

“That is a reckless plan. We only have her for benefits in negotiations with superpowers. She will be put to use only in worst case scenario.”

“But…” The kids!

“Know how this country escaped western imperialism even though it was surrounded by England on the west and south, and France on the east? We made friends with the Russians and other powers in Europe for protection. And know how we managed to survive the Second World War? The Japanese were winning so we allied ourselves with them. When they lost, we used the Free Thai movement to appeal to the Allies that we didn’t consent to join them. We became the only country on this Axis’ side that technically did not lose the war. The only thing our small country has is the power of negotiation. This girl,” he tapped his pen on the monitor “is that power.”

“I agree, we’re always slippery as an eel. During the First World War, we were with France. During the second, we were with Japan. We’ve always joined the winning side, and when they’re losing we slipped away. Heck, Burmese history books say that we’re indecisive fickles. Still…”

“You signed the contract.”

The throbbing pain on his Watch reminded him that he still had his life to care for.

“…Alright. Do I get to see her now?”

“Of course.”

The Commander pressed a button, and a tiny girl in white patient gown stepped into the office. She was at least half a meter shorter than 2420. Her face was exactly as it appeared on the screen, although in real life she looked more delicate. Overall she reminded 2420 of a hina doll. Or a Thai schoolgirl in the 20^th century when every student was forced to crop their hair short and wear navy blue pleat skirts. The earlobe length hair reminded him of pictures of those school girls who looked the same, the manifestation of desire for absolute control in education. 2420 thought there must be some kind of symbolism behind her choice of hair style, but he let the problem sit for now.

He sat speechless gazing up and down at the android. She looked human no matter what. Even the Watch embed into her wrist, the tiny flicking letters on her Retina, or the way her eyes blink… If not for her solid poker face, he would not doubt that this person standing nonchalantly at the corner of the room was a real living being.

“Any…care tips?”

“Don’t let her eat too much, take her to repairs… everything’s sent to your Retina. Now you might want to know her name.”

“…Embryo?” He raised his eyebrows, looking back and forth between the wall of text in his Retina and the girl. “By the way you have a typo in here. First line where it said ‘you have just recieved’ blablabla…‘Receive’ has the ‘e’ before the ‘i’. Want me to fix that for you?”

 The Commander gave him the ‘are you kidding me?’ look. 2420 felt that it was about time for him to leave. Who knew what happens when Piggy’s patience run out.

“Last question, why call her Embryo?”

“Even a weapon needs a good sense of aesthetics. Remember Big Boy and Fat Man? Those are ugly names, they shame the enemy with it. I am kind enough to let them get killed by such a beautiful piece of art. She is a tiny Goddess who kills with mercy.”

He almost burst out laughing because of how much his superior sounded like a doting father. “But why me? Those reasons you mentioned…well, they just don’t click.”

“She’s safest with you. The enemy targets me, because I am Commander, but they will never target a random translator who doesn’t stand out from others…aside from the messy uniform. Plus you are the remnants of the past era; someone who has the blood of royalty flowing in their veins. It is proper for you to set an end to that era with your own hands.”

“Alright then. Setting an end to an era starts by…wait, where’s she gonna stay?”

“Your room. You do have an empty bed.”

“Alright. A new era starts by showing her my room. Come here, little girl. Come to big bro.” The little girl tottered toward him. He put both his arms on her shoulders as if congratulating a toddler learning to walk. The shutters were pulled up and the guards filed back into the office. The two of them turned around to leave.

“One last thing, 2420.” The Commander stopped him at the door. “Take good care of her. Because of shrapnel from that battle long ago… I’ll never have a kid of my own. So take good care of her.”

“Does this make me your foster son? I’m her big bro after all.”

This time the Commander did not give him a look. “…Son, huh?”

“Okay, see you around, Tooty.”

“Be careful.”

He exited the room before the Commander could get mad at him for using an old nickname. 2420 led the girl by her hand and took her out into the acrid air of Rust Town. She did not even look at him. He was oddly reminded of the short story The Five Orange Pips he read before Sherlock Holmes dropped itself on his nose. Five orange pips were sent to those who were doomed to die. He had an urge to check in his pockets if there were any pips inside. In the end he looked at the girl and smiled.