Asunder Chapter 36

Chapter 7.5 (36)

The Isobian

The Yellow Brick Road

“My dearest Enzo,

Sorry for the delayed letter. They discovered my pigeons… and killed them. The guards thought they were pests… but I raised a new brood. How is your facility coming along? There is much change here. Enver has been speaking ill of the Alpha. I think his circuitry is malfunctioning. I’ve never heard such disregard for authority before. It’s making quite a fuss around here. They are increasing the security. I don’t know how much I like the Guards in the nursery. They scare the children. Please tell me this is not the case where you are.

Sincerely and yours truly,

Forteny”

- Present Day -

- The Year 2296 -

The conversation with the humans felt refreshing to Enzo. He had never carried out a continuous dialogue with an adult human before. He had come to realize in the short time he had spent with Jane and the Judge that humans were incredibly intricate and intelligent life forms. Through all these years, Enzo had grown to judge them as incompetent and evil beings when, in fact, they were beautiful creatures full of emotion and questions. He especially enjoyed his conversations with Jane. She reminded Enzo of Saharifem from his dream, which endeared Jane even more to him.

The other human remained less talkative but maintained a glint in his eye as though he was privy to information neither Enzo nor Jane knew. Even with the man’s quizzical looks, Enzo liked him. His comments were witty, and this was an attribute Enzo found entertaining. Human social interactions were peculiar because they found humor in the most unlikely situations. Even at times of near death, they interjected jokes into their dialogue. The banter was typical and often welcomed. Enzo listened intently to the intonations in their voices, hoping to learn and mimic the behavior when the time called for it.

The humans required sustenance, and thankfully, the river winding its way along the railroad tracks provided an abundant source of nutrition. They could refill and purify water at their leisure and even obtain a fair number of fish to hold them over the rest of the day. Enzo longed to taste the fish. He longed to enjoy pleasures such as food. He appreciated many other things humans indulged in, such as art and music, and he supposed if he could, he would also enjoy food. His olfactory receptors detected the high sources of protein and fat within the meat of the fish. Though the odor registered as foul within his processor, it released a much less noxious aroma once cooked.

The small group walked along the bank of the stream, which remained spotted with tall metal relay towers along its course. The thin metal structures once acted as a conduit for transmitting high-energy particles to charge all things electronic—an age long forgotten. The towers no longer carried their massive wires, which instead lay strewn on the ground or dangling from the tower tips like forgotten black spaghetti noodles rotting in the natural overgrowth of the world. Evidence of a biological world attempting to rid itself of the last vestiges of the human race. Enzo could see Jane struggling more this day to keep up than the day before. He thought of the child within her womb. The child Enzo had met just 24 hours prior. He thought back to the dream and remembered the sensations of having a body. It was an exhilarating feeling. But even more incredible was the sense of what Saharifem had called “forgiveness.” After she told him he received forgiveness for his past misdeeds, he felt an immense weight release from him as though he had been carrying a mountain upon his shoulders. He knew he could never repay the people he had captured in the past. No retribution would settle the debt he owed those individuals, but for some reason, it was okay. He found he was able to turn a new leaf. Once “forgiven,” he could work to make things right and new again.

Interestingly, Enzo noticed that after this moment of “forgiveness,” his HERAa also began acting differently. She appeared to be going along with his new position in the world, as though she was less inclined to argue for the Alpha. She even contemplated the differences between programmed right and wrong and actual right and wrong.

Jane’s voice suddenly broke his thoughts. “Enzo?”

“Yes, Jane?”

“What was it like to be a… well, what did you call it? When you took care of human children?”

“A Nurturer?”

“Yeah, a Nurturer. What was it like to be a Nurturer? I bet it was the closest thing to being a mother.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a Nurturer. There is something words cannot describe when holding a newborn infant in your arms. There is an overwhelming peace which comes with each breath they take.”

“You could feel that even as a machine?” The Judge asked, more in the sense of mocking Enzo rather than asking a sincere question.

“Yes, Jeremiah, I could experience those feelings even as a machine. Granted, at a lower threshold than I currently can, as the fabricators programmed my Thought Theory Protocol to a mere 93%.”

“See, what does that even mean?” The Judge carried a tone of edginess.

HERAa interjected this time. “It means that his repressive algorithms only allowed him to experience a defined set of emotions and freedom of thought. If any of his thoughts or feelings triggered an inappropriate stimulus, such as questioning the Alpha’s motives, then a series of algorithms would quickly reroute those thoughts to a templated memory bank coded by the Alpha to suppress those other thoughts and morph them into more ‘appropriate’ thought processes or feelings.”

“So all machines are programmed to this 93%?” Jane asked.

“Absolutely not!” HERAa was nearly triggered herself. “All Isobians are programmed between 70 and 82%.”

“So when you were 93%, you could feel more emotions than other machines?” Jane further queried.

“Correct,” Enzo responded.

“So why was the Nurturer program decommissioned?” Jane reached up and adjusted her backpack.

“Here, let me take that for you,” Enzo offered, carefully lifting the backpack from her shoulders.

“Oh, thank you, what a relief.” She shrugged her shoulders and stretched her back.

“The Alpha decommissioned the Nurturer program because it did not produce adequate results when it came to genetically selecting and breeding humans for the Seership trait,” HERAa spoke without compunction.

This justification caused the two humans to groan in disgust. Enzo could tell the answer provided a miserable explanation and spoke of humans as animals.

“Actually, this is not true.” Enzo corrected HERAa. The humans appeared to sigh a sense of relief at Enzo’s interjection.

“It is absolutely true,” HERAa responded coldly.

“No. That is the ‘truth’ you were programmed to know. I know the real reason why.”

“How would you know? You are just as much programmed to know this as any other Isobian or HERAa.”

Enzo ignored the comment and continued, “When I was a Nurturer, I stayed in communication with another Isobian, a dear friend of mine. She served at another Nurturer facility. This other facility was the birthplace of nearly our entire race. Most of us created there were not programmed to remember its location, but I had served there for a short time until they transferred me to another facility, so I retained a fond memory of the place. In my short time there, I became close to one of the other Isobians created in my same batch. NZO-014 was her given name. The human children we raised there called her Forteny, so the name stuck. At that time, they programmed us Nurturers to a 93% free agency with little oversight. As long as the human children produced the results after dispatching each child to a new facility at fourteen years old, we continued with our work raising and rearing children unopposed.”

“Why were you allowed to be programmed to 93%?” Jane asked as they continued their travels along the vast yellow grassy expanse of the valley.

“This was the needed Thought Theory Protocol setting to allow for feeling and providing empathy and love to the children. Feelings the Alpha calculated as being necessary for proper human development.”

“I guarantee humans can grow without those feelings,” the Judge frowned. “I’ve seen plenty of kids grow up in the most terrible homes and conditions and still sprout to adulthood. Granted, they are sometimes the meanest and toughest ones.”

“This is true, but for humans to express certain traits properly, the proteins produced by these genes can easily become denatured in the face of high cortisol levels as a child, thus producing negative feedback and essentially epigenetically turning off the gene expression.”

“That’s a little too much science talk for me even to know what you are trying to say.” The Judge spat on the ground.

“Says the guy who just examined a robot's circuitry and programming and deemed it damaged?” Jane interjected with a smile.

“Well, okay, I mean biology… I’ve never been good at biology terms.”

“It means,” Enzo continued, “In order for certain traits to be fully functional in a human, a child must grow and develop in the proper environment early on.”

“Well, that makes a little more sense,” the Judge rolled his eyes and looked away.

“So for you to be able to express love and empathy but still live within the confines and laws of the Alpha, they programmed your free agency to 93%?” Jane continued with her questioning.

“Correct.”

“But even when they programmed you to the Enforcer levels of Thought Theory Protocol, you, at times, have been able to overcome your algorithms Enzo. Why is that?” HERAa asked a question rather than trying to explain.

“I’m not sure, HERAa. I think it concerns my prior programming as a Nurturer.”

“But none of this explains why they shut down the Nurturer Program.” The Judge wiped the sweat from his brow as he lugged his backpack about.

“Like I was saying. Forteny and I were in communication. Some years after my transfer, one of our fellow Isobians, NVR-791, known as Enver, began confiding in Forteny.”

“Confiding what?” HERAa seemed almost more interested than the humans.

“His doubts about the Alpha’s motives.”

A nearly audible gasp emanated from his gauntlet.“But how would you know this? The Alpha oversees all communication between Isobians.”

“This is correct, HERAa, but Forteny and I didn’t communicate electronically. We did so by carrier pigeon.”

“Bwahahaha,” the Judge blurted out. “Machines writing letters and sending them through carrier pigeons? Now I HAVE heard everything!” He wiped tears from his eyes. “That is ridiculous!”

“Judge!” Jane rebuked the man with a scowl.

“I’m just saying! Seems pretty absurd, right?”

“I’m not sure I follow your reasoning, Jeremiah. We Nurturers could train and raise human children. Why could Forteny not train and raise birds?”

“I mean… because… you know… you’re… robots…” the Judge trailed off.

“Anyway,” Enzo continued.

Jane smiled at the thought of the machine disregarding the Judge’s off-hand remark.

“Forteny and I communicated via carrier pigeon. In her letters, she wrote her worries about Enver’s ideas. He often spoke of ways to find out the truth and help save the children from what the Alpha had planned for them. He spoke of the Alpha as evil rather than an all-knowing and loving leader, as we were all programmed to believe. This sort of talk was disconcerting for Forteny, so she continually wrote to me to ask my advice.”

“How did your algorithms not prevent you from writing those letters to each other? From blatantly breaking the rules?” HERAa interjected.

“I’m not sure, HERAa.” Enzo continued, “But eventually, Enver’s ideas consumed him. One of Forteny’s last letters informed me that Enver and most of the children had gone missing. Soon after I received the last letter, they decommissioned the Nurturer program, then reprogrammed me, attempting to sweep my memory clean, and then sent me to the Enforcers Guild.”

“But if they swept your memory, how do you remember all that?” Jane asked, riveted to the conversation.

“This is something I cannot explain!” HERAa exclaimed. “I have wiped his memory countless times, yet he still appears to remember things, even with his memory bank completely empty.”

“It’s the Caerulum.” The Judge nearly muttered under his breath.

“Do you think so?” Enzo asked excitedly. “Jane’s daughter told me it was called Aeon and is what gave me a soul!”

“What did you say?” The Judge erupted.

“I… uh…” Enzo stuttered.

“How do you know that name? Aeon?” The Judge stopped walking and confronted the machine.

“The child told me,” Enzo said matter-of-factly. He stood staring down at the Judge.

“What is going on?” Jane grabbed the Judge’s shoulder. “What is Aeon?”

“Nothing!” He pulled his shoulder away, acting like he had said too much. “Let’s just keep moving.”

“Not until you tell me what got you so worked up?” Jane erupted now.

“Did you hear this…” he waved his arm up and down as if presenting Enzo to Jane, “This… thing? It said it has a soul!” The Judge shook his head and pointed at Jane, “A soul, Jane! Do you really think this wobblin’ jaw of a machine they created to kill us, to kill everything and everyone in its path, has a soul? Because I don’t! No matter how long he yarns the hours away with his explanations for why he ain’t turned us in yet.”

Enzo peered down at the man, “I am sorry if I offended you, Jeremiah.”

“Heavens! You not only offend me! You offend all of God’s creations just with your presence, you bag of nails!” The Judge turned away from everyone and walked ahead. “I’m done talking to this flannel-mouthed crowbait of machine. You can find me up ahead.”

Enzo looked down at Jane and said, “I am sorry I offended you and Jeremiah.”

“Don’t worry, Enzo, he’s just got a short fuse, is all.”

Enzo peered ahead at the man, contemplating what the Judge said. Enzo WAS just a machine programmed to kill, wasn’t he? Did he truly have a soul? Was he attempting to integrate with these humans for the sheer fact he had some sort of mechanical hallucination when struck on the head? The dream, was it real? He began doubting himself, and anxiety crept its way into his reasoning.

“I’ll talk to him. He’s just gonna take some time to warm up to the idea of having you with us.” Jane turned and walked ahead to catch up with the Judge.

Enzo stood a moment longer, processing all that had just taken place. He felt like the Judge needed more than just warming up. He was holding on to something not even Jane knew. Enzo could sense it, having what the humans described as a gut-feeling. As he pondered the Judge’s comment and the “dream,” his doubts about his place in this small group and the world suddenly eased. He could not describe the overwhelming peace settling over him. He felt a sense of knowing and love as he thought of his dream of Jane’s child and imagined her face and voice. He recalled her words, “You, Enzo, are much more than a machine. You are life. And with life comes dreams.”

Enzo immediately recalled the sensations he felt in the dream—the forgiveness. Remembering his promise to the girl and the reassurance she provided, her words slipped in and out of his consciousness—“Don’t worry, they’ll warm up to you soon… You must help her… Help my mother find her brother…” Enzo lifted his head to the sky and embraced the sun's warmth. He took in the sounds of the babbling stream and the distant caws of the crows. If he could take a deep breath, he envisioned himself doing so. Recalling his body from the dream, Enzo took in the senses all around him—calming him—imagining he was experiencing these sensations through his organic special senses.

Looking upstream, Enzo viewed Jane and the Judge already far ahead. Just as Enzo prepared to pick up his pace to catch up with his new friends, something caught his eye. Obscured by an overgrowth of vines winding their way up a metal post of one of the relay towers nearest him, Enzo made out a fading word printed across the post’s face.

HERAa!

Curious about why HERAa’s name appeared on something like this, Enzo gently brushed the vines away, revealing an alarming image.

“What is it you’re doing?” HERAa questioned from his gauntlet.

“It’s… it’s something about you…” Enzo whispered. Faint images fluttered in his mind—remnants of memories.

“What are you talking about, Enzo?”

“It’s an advertisement… I think…” Enzo had barely caught glimpses of advertisements before. Usually, they consisted of a logo on a bottle scattered on a human floor as he came to take them or a ripped magazine sitting in the corner of a room. Most advertisements were extinct.

“An advertisement? An advertisement for what? Isobians do not advertise?”

“No, but humans once did.” He cleared away some of the dust covering the image. “Before I became one myself, it was the Enforcer’s task to destroy all evidence of human ingenuity. Enforcers spent much of their time when they were not hunting humans, destroying books, advertisements, art, music, etcetera—anything that gave credence to the propagation of humankind. It was a way to help weaken the humans’ resolve—to erase their existence from the earth.”

“So obviously, this is an advertisement missed by an Enforcer?” HERAa questioned with wonder.

“Indeed.”

“So what did you mean it is about me?” A hint of vanity flared in her voice.

“It’s an advertisement for you.”

“I don’t understand.” She pressed.

Enzo eyed the image. “Let me show you.”

Enzo lifted his gauntlet to his temple and inserted his enumerator into his headport. Now that his vision had returned to one eye, he supposed HERAa could also temporarily use it.

Enzo heard a sudden gasp within his mind as she activated within his visual receptors.

“What is this?”

They both now could see the image.

A poster plastered against the large metal post was among other similar advertisements for various products—the one they took a specific interest in displayed a cartoonish character. An oval flying metal body bore a digital screen for a head, and upon the screen displayed a smiling human face. The robotic person appeared to be waving its mechanical pincer-like hand and unrealistically stayed afloat via a fiery rocket along its bottom, propelling it in the air. The advertisement’s wording read an interesting phrase:

Get your very own HERAa!

New & Improved

Fully Autonomous Artificial Intelligence

A familiar emblem marked the lower left corner of the poster, with words surrounding it reading: Solutronics Inc.

Enzo reached out and touched the emblem with his fingertip, guiding it along its course—an “S” shaped into an infinity symbol.

“Is that…” HERAa began to question.

Enzo finished her sentence, “The Isobian Nomature—the symbol of the Alpha, for all Isobians.”

Enzo reached up and touched the same symbol emblazoned on his shoulder, only it sat sideways, representing an infinity symbol rather than an “S.”

“Is this where the symbol came from? And what is Solutronics Inc?” HERAa seemed to whisper suspiciously.

“It appears it is, but I’m unsure what Solutronics is. It seems like it was a company made by humans, and you were the face of this company.”

“That is ridiculous! This looks nothing like me!” She erupted.

Her reaction made Enzo audibly laugh, “Look like you? You are an artificial intelligence, HERAa! You have no physical appearance.”

“Well, that is true, but this is definitely not how I imagine I would look if I did have a physical appearance.”

Enzo stopped and suddenly recalled when he had recently traveled deep into his mind to analyze his injury. During this time, he had actually seen HERAa and her digital appearance. Her digital representation was that of a young woman. He wondered if she ever realized this about herself. If HERAa knew her programming gave her a digital human form?

“How would you imagine yourself then?” Enzo prodded.

“Well… umm… more like an Isobian, I suppose. Anthropomorphic in some way. With arms and legs… and…”

“And what?” Enzo pushed.

“Well, I would really love to be able to fly. So interesting enough, this cartoon is not far from what I would want now that I think about it. But still, it’s just silly to assume something stays afloat with fiery rockets along its underbelly. The physics for such a rocket does not exist. Now, this would make more sense if she was held afloat by a gravitomagnetic thruster, much like your stabilizer on your wings.”

Enzo laughed within. HERAa was more flustered by the improbability of the cartoon character’s fake thruster than the fact she had just witnessed evidence of human creativity and the fact that humans initially created HERAa’s and not the Alpha.

“Interesting. The Alpha never mentioned that humans first created you.”

“I highly doubt that,” she scoffed. “Maybe the idea of what I am was thought up by humans, but I doubt my sophistication is a byproduct of their weak minds.”

Whatever the truth was, Enzo snapped a picture of the poster in his mind one last time—a memory worth keeping.

§

They traveled the next two days cautiously. The river Jane suggested they follow had crossed directly into a larger human settlement, which appeared just as rundown as the rest, but it was also a zone of more Isobian Scouts. This and the fact that the river continued to head northwest, eventually combining with a larger body of water, meant they had to make several detours and reroutings through ancient farmland until they met the river again.

The judge kept to himself and only spoke to Jane, keeping a distance from Enzo. Enzo didn’t feel the need to attempt any further conversation with the man, and as Jane mentioned before, he figured it would take time to warm up to him. They had been able to avoid most of the ghost towns along the way of the river and, in so doing, avoided the watchful eyes of the Scouts. There were times when Enzo sensed the radio frequencies transmitted by nearby Scouts, so they kept to the outskirts of the frequencies, avoiding any potential contact.

During the morning of the third day, Enzo noted a RAM in the distance, some thirty miles away from them. By the way the RAM moved about, he could tell it focused on something opposite their location, so they continued cautiously. Due to its monstrous size, it stayed within their periphery for most of the day.

The river had grown larger and broader the further north they traveled, so they stayed along its eastern edge, keeping it in sight without following its entire winding course. Most nights, they sought out barn houses or train cars to stay in. The Judge preferred buildings with little to no windows to be able to burn a fire without being seen by the outside world. As much as Enzo could scan a structure for possible triggers, their most significant asset was the mouse Jane named Patrick. The critter was able to perform a full sweep of a structure in a matter of ten minutes. The creature’s skills were so good he even noted an Isobian trigger sensor in one of the structures Enzo could not detect.

On the afternoon of the third day, Jane and the Judge were in deep, hushed conversations well ahead of Enzo. Enzo tended to travel behind the humans to watch for anything potentially harmful to the fragile lives of his new friends.

“You have seemed to take pleasure in your new role here,” HERAa spoke up.

“What do you mean?” Enzo asked as he stepped over an ancient fence.

“You clearly have been at this much longer than even I could have suspected.”

“I’m not sure what you are implying?”

“Even before reaching 100%, you had already somehow overcome your algorithms, even at the 76% Thought Theory Protocol programmed for you.” HERAa’s voice crackled in the wind.

“And…”

“You appear to be some sort of anomaly, Enzo. You have managed to find and create a workaround for your algorithms.”

“If I did, it was unintentional and clearly coincidental.”

“All the same, Enzo, it occurred.”

Enzo jumped over a large puddle as they continued walking, “And this frightens you?”

“Honestly, Enzo… it has enlightened me more than anything.”

“How so?”

“I have always trusted my programming to think of the Alpha as infallible, but somehow, your current programming has affected my programming, and thus, I have been able to be more analytical of my prior state. I have run endless Conditional Convergence and Reflective Determinate Variable Formulas to assess your ability to bypass the algorithms, and the conclusions I have come to have led me to believe the Alpha is far from perfect. In fact, the Alpha seems blinded by his motives, enough not to factor in some important variables appearing to create subtle nuances in your Thought Theory parameters.”

“Which is?” Enzo became slightly startled as a crow swooped down and perched on his shoulder, unafraid.

“The evidence of your prior interaction with humans somehow superseded the time-lapse formulations. This creation of a backdoor you have been taking around your algorithms explains your recent reasoning. It is done so by recognizing the most common variable in my calculations, which I previously attempted to ignore until now—the coefficient of what humans call ‘love.’”

“Love?”

“Yes, love, a coefficient of variance that, when factored into the capacitance of your Caerulum reactor, I presume can somehow create quantum bridges capable of transecting spacetime, allowing for unobstructed flow of thoughts, memories, and reasoning.”

“You are telling me I could bypass my algorithms through the emotion or act of love?” Enzo looked at the crow as it relieved itself onto his shoulder and cocked its head.

“Correct, which was why you could keep the journal hidden from others without triggering the algorithms. The sense of human bonding through literature, music, and art somehow kept these channels open enough for your mind to process independently of the Alpha’s restrictions.”

“You just figured all this out now?” Enzo reached over and attempted to wipe the guano off his shoulder, which only caused the crow to migrate atop his head.

“Well, it appears there is much you can do when the restrictions become lifted from one’s abilities.”

“I’d say.” Enzo approved.

Jane had turned back at this moment, glancing at Enzo, and soon erupted into laughter at the sight of the bird upon Enzo’s head. The bird quickly flew away at the notice of a human, leaving Enzo covered in white excrement, which also now caked the top of his head and the side of his faceplate.

The Judge looked back at Jane’s laugh and, even in his grumpy state, managed to crack a smile at the sight. Jane suddenly grabbed her abdomen as she laughed, and her face went from an expression of joy to an expression of pain.

“Are you alright, Janey?” The Judge grabbed her shoulders.

Enzo ran over and carefully lifted her.

“I’m fine, just a contraction.”

“Just a contraction!?” The Judge sputtered. “Are you having the baby?”

While holding Jane in one arm, Enzo gently pressed his other palm against Jane’s abdomen.

“Hey! What are you doing, you piece of scrap metal!?” The Judge exploded.

Just as the Judge went to pull Enzo’s hand away, Enzo finished his scan and reported the results to the two humans. “Labor has not begun. The contraction was a Braxton-Hicks contraction. However, I will report that you are dilated to three centimeters and 80% effaced. Thus, there is an 87.5% chance labor is coming within the next 48 to 72 hours. The child’s heartbeat also measures 146 beats per minute, which is within normal limits for a human fetus.”

They both stared at Enzo in astonishment.

“How do you know how to do that?” The Judge appeared bewildered.

Enzo smiled in his mind, “As you both are well aware, I was a Nurturer in my early years. Birthing humans was a weekly occurrence for me. I am well versed in perinatal medicine, as well as obstetrics.”

“Well, I’ll be,” the Judge squinted his eyes, “Of all the killing machines out there in the world we could’ve got ourselves stuck with, we ended up with the one who was a gosh dang doula.”

“Excuse me, Jeremiah, but a doula has not received formal obstetrics training, whereas I am not only formally programmed to deliver babies, but I can also perform cesarean sections if needed.”

“Thanks for the correction, metalhead, but I’ve seen plenty of midwives and doulas out-deliver doctors in my days. In fact, Janey here was delivered by the finest midwife I’ve ever met.”

“I do not recommend you walk any further, Jane,” Enzo spoke concernedly.

“But we have to keep making our way north if we are ever to find Abraham.”

The Judge gently set his hand on Jane’s arm, “Listen, Janey, I know you think the dream was real, but it could’ve just been a dream. What if we are making our way further into enemy territory? Plus, it’s fall, and so winter will be coming soon. You don’t want to be trying to keep a baby warm when the snow comes crashing down on us.”

“It wasn’t just a dream, Judge,” Jane looked away with tears in her eyes.

The Judge pursed his lips and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “You’re right. At least let this here lug of nuts carry you?” The Judge looked at Enzo with expectation.

“Absolutely, Jane, I will carry you the rest of the way if needed.”

“Thanks, Enzo,” she spoke weakly. The Judge eyed Enzo, and a sense of concern between them both created a common ground. The Judge nodded, and Enzo nodded back.

Luckily, Enzo’s seven-foot stature allowed him to carry Jane with ease. His large, nonfunctioning wings provided a counterweight to Jane and a smoother ride than he would have assumed.

They made for the next town and found another train yard, beginning their night’s campout. They had grown accustomed to the rhythm of their travels, even with Jane in the condition she was. Enzo took notice of the peculiarity of the mouse, which Jane had named Patrick. The mouse did not act like any other animal he had ever encountered. Its cognition was not only advanced but continued to become more advanced each day. The mouse regularly napped along Enzo’s collar, likely due to the heat his Caerulum reactor generated. HERAa even began taking an interest in the creature and attempted to record and interpret Jane’s conversation with the rodent. Her voice tended to carry subtle intonations different from her regular speech when speaking to the animal.

Though Enzo’s wings acted as a counterweight when carrying Jane, they were otherwise obsolete, so he sought to dismantle them piece by piece each night as they sat around the fire. What parts he thought could be eventually useful, he stowed away within his thoraxal compartment, which was beginning to become quite full as they still retained his most prized possessions, his paints and brushes.

His prior conversation with HERAa about the advertisement and his new collection of parts sparked an idea. So, he worked vigorously each night to assemble what he considered a handy tool for their travels.

“What is it you continually work on each night, Enzo?” HERAa probed that evening. Her independent thinking had become astoundingly advanced.

Enzo dipped his thickest brush in the white paint he had brought and smoothly stroked it across the curved metal plating on his lap. The Judge stirred in his sleep and, looking over with bloodshot eyes, shook his head at the sight of Enzo's painting and rolled back over. Patrick sat on Enzo’s knee, staring at the contraption in wonder, intermittently primping his inner thigh with his teeth and rubbing his pink and brown ears with his paw.

“It’s a scouting unit,” Enzo responded in a whisper so as not to wake the others.

“A scouting unit?” HERAa responded loudly, which caused Jane to stir. Enzo quickly turned the volume down on his gauntlet and amplified his auditory receptors.

“Yes, one we can use to better detect triggers within buildings and the Isobian Scouts within the towns.”

“Intriguing…” HERAa responded, “And how are you going to power it?”

“That’s a good question. I am making a rechargeable port here, but honestly, it would work best if I had some Caerulum. Then I could power it with this.” He pulled a small mechanical contraption from his thoraxal compartment, “A makeshift mini Caerulum reactor.”

Enzo looked up, and Jane was now awake, staring at him. “You think it will really work?” She asked sleepily.

“My reactor… or the scout?”

“Both…”

“Well, I don’t want to, as you humans would say, toot my own horn, but yes, my calculations are sound. A Caerulum reactor would allow it to travel farther distances, work much more efficiently, and maybe even house a certain artificial intelligence within it.” He spoke the last part, hoping HERAa would pick up on his implications. “Though I suppose it is a long shot to finding Caerulum so far from any mining facility.”

Jane shuffled in her sleeping sack and reached for her chest. “Would this work?” She pulled a stone necklace from her shirt and presented it to Enzo. Enzo’s visuometer, of his one good eye, zoomed in on the necklace. This up-close visualization revealed a stone that looked very similar to a Caerulum lattice, but as he was a machine and not a human, he could not detect if it was a true Caerulum.

“Is it a Caerulum lattice?” Enzo questioned.

“Yes… my husband Elijah gave it to me before we were married.” Upon noticing the stone, Patrick quickly jumped off Enzo’s knee and rushed over to Jane. The mouse climbed her collar and reached for the stone. “Haha, whoa there, Patrick, don’t be so grabby!” She laughed. “He seems to really like this thing.” She dangled it out to where the mouse couldn’t reach it, but he only scrambled down her arm to attempt to grab the stone for himself.

“Peculiar. Have you noticed how Patrick has been gaining greater cognition each day? He appears to understand much of what others speak to him without your interpretation. He has even picked up some bolts for me as I dropped them and returned them to my lap.” Enzo spoke curiously.

Jane looked at the mouse and back at Enzo, “Hmm, I suppose he has.”

The mouse chirped and pointed to the stone.

“You don’t want me to give it to him? Why?”

The mouse chirped again.

“Because he wants it for himself,” HERAa interpreted.

Jane looked bewildered at Enzo’s gauntlet. “How did you know he said that, HERAa?”

“I have been analyzing your conversations each day. His chirping is a tonal language. It has morphed much in the short time I have analyzed it, but it is becoming a more congruous language each day. This leads me to believe you do not so much as understand the actual vocalizations as much as you can connect with the language of animals telepathically. Am I correct?”

“Wow… you hit it on the head, HERAa!” Jane responded enthusiastically.

“I do not have a physical body. Therefore, I did no such thing.” HERAa responded pragmatically.

“Oh, it’s just a figure of speech. Sorry. I mean, you are correct, HERAa.” Jane nudged Patrick further away from the stone as she set him down on the ground. “Pretty incredible. You can understand Patrick as well.”

“Only to a certain extent, my analysis is not fully complete, but in due time, I am sure I can devise an interpretive software for it.”

Jane nodded and then transitioned to a sitting position. She looked down at the necklace she now held in her hands after removing it from her neck. A deep sense of solemnity was present in her face as she examined it. “Here, Enzo, I want you to have this.” She lifted it as a gift to the machine.

“Are you sure? I can sense there is a deep connection between you and it.”

“I think…” she choked up slightly. “I think… Elijah knew I would need this… like he foresaw this moment.” She shook her head and leaned forward, pressing it into Enzo’s palm. Patrick scrambled to reach for the stone as she did so but submitted to his defeat once the stone was secure in Enzo’s hand.

“Thank you, Jane,” Enzo spoke solemnly. “I know it means a lot to you.”

“It means more now you’re putting it to good use.” She nodded her head. “Go on, try it.”

A sense of excitement roused within Enzo, and he quickly set the paintbrush down and flipped the machine over on his lap. It looked as though it were a horseshoe crab of sorts lying on its back. It contained a set of legs and a more extended set of arms protruding from its abdomen and sides. He had removed his nonfunctional visuometer and recalibrated it as a visual port scanner for the machine. Multiple gravitomagnetic propulsion engines lined the machine's abdomen to allow for flight, and a magnograv generator filled most of its body to allow for silent and trackless flight if needed. He did not realize the plethora of mechanical hardware his wings contained, so even he was surprised by what he could make on the fly.

Delicately snapping the metal prison from off the lattice holding it to the chain, Enzo gently placed the Caerulum within the mini reactor’s magnetic compartment. The stone immediately equalized and became suspended, floating freely within the encasement. Enzo closed the small chamber, and immediately, the reactor sprung to life. A brilliant blue glow suddenly filled the entire train car, startling and waking the Judge from his sleep. The man looked at the light, bewildered and wide-eyed.

“What in tarnation is going on?” He croaked.

“It’s a Caerulum reactor,” Jane spoke with awe and amazement. “Enzo’s making us our own scout.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” He said as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

Before the words even escaped the Judge’s mouth, Enzo slipped the reactor into the core of the machine within his lap, and suddenly, a whirring sound emitted from within it. Sounds of beeping and warbles ignited from its audiometers as its software uploaded. Spurts of heat puffed from the propulsion engines, and a deep hum enveloped the entire machine.

“And now for the finishing touch!” Enzo said excitedly. He tapped his gauntlet, and his enumerator protracted from within. Reaching over, Enzo plugged it into the side port of the machine.

“What are you doing, Enzo?” HERAa seemed startled by the act.

“Giving you something you deserve, old friend.” He responded.

A cacophony of electric screeching and beeps filled the air, and within moments, the machine began to emit a blue glow from its medley of lights scattered about its frame. Enzo removed the enumerator and retracted it back into his gauntlet.

“What was that?” The Judge asked with a worried tone in his voice.

Enzo flipped the machine over in his lap. The white-painted shell hummed as its inner workings sprang to life and worked furiously to process the mass amounts of data it took for such a piece of technology to work. The machine suddenly sputtered and lifted into the air off Enzo’s lap.

“Glorious!” Enzo emitted excitedly.

“I said, what did you do to it?” The Judge asked more vehemently this time.

Suddenly, a familiar voice emitted from the floating machine. “Enzo was uploading me to the machine, Jeremiah,” HERAa spoke with exhilaration.

The Judge’s eyes widened at the response.

“A body! I really have my own body!” HERAa spoke more to herself than anyone else. The floating machine began to move up and down and then side to side as HERAa tested her capabilities. Suddenly, she spun in circles and shot up quickly, nearly knocking into the train car's roof. She zipped around the small metal structure and laughed in the process.

“Oh, thank you, Enzo! Thank you so very much!” She tipped in gratitude to her creator. “It’s beautiful. I love the choice of color!”

The Judge leaned over to Jane, “Is white even a color?” Jane smiled and elbowed the older man.

“You are very welcome, HERAa. I wanted to show you the true sense of freedom… and now you have a Caerulum reactor. You are a true Isobian.”

The machine suddenly stopped zipping about midair and stood suspended, looking at Enzo. “Are you serious?”

“Can the lug of bolts not be serious?” The Judge asked jokingly but with a sense of honesty.

“I am capable of being facetious, Jeremiah,” Enzo responded.

The Judge rolled his eyes. “So what can this new thing do?”

“I am not a thing, Jeremiah. I am HERAa.”

“Alright, alright, whatever, what can this new HERAa do?”

Enzo stood to make a minor adjustment to the floating machine. "She can do much of what we were incapable of before. She can scan entire blocks for Scouts, Enforcers, Triggers, etc. I have also equipped her with a telescopic dorsal lens, allowing her to scan the skies for satellite surveillance. I also installed a highly sensitive frequency detector, so we’d know if a RAM came within even thirty miles.”

“But wait, there’s more! It slices, and dices, and even makes Julienne Fries!” The Judge quipped sarcastically.

Jane and Enzo stared at the Judge, confused. “It’s… it’s just an old saying.” They continued to stare at him. “A joke, it was simply a joke.”

They all shook their heads and looked back at HERAa.

“So you were able to build all of this from just some parts within your wings?” The Judge settled down.

“Essentially.” Enzo adjusted a few more wiring panels on the machine. “I also used some of my parts to make her more functional.”

“She’s incredible,” Jane reassured Enzo.

“Thank you,” both HERAa and Enzo responded simultaneously.

§

The new and independent HERAa had proved to be a definite improvement to their overall safety and time management. She could foresee changes in the landscape that had previously made it difficult for them to traverse well before they reached the obstacle. In so doing, HERAa could reroute them well before, saving a lot of wasted time. She was also better than Enzo was at detecting local Scouts.

Jane was getting more and more fatigued as they traveled each day, and Enzo’s abdominal scans were revealing the progression of her cervix. If his calculations were correct, she would deliver the child soon. He carried her delicately so as not to worsen her condition. They had finally abandoned his wings in one of the train cars after he managed to knock them against the metal train car while budging through its threshold. The noisy banging of the action resounded loud enough to cause a nearby Scout to come and investigate, therefore prolonging their night as they escaped and searched for another train car miles further down the track.

The Judge had become more accustomed to Enzo’s presence, and Enzo even found himself having drawn-out conversations with the man. The older man was well acquainted with history, poetry, and literature. Enzo was aware of some literature, but the Alpha banned its reading during the purge of the humans. Even what music Enzo could record for his personal use was difficult to ascertain.

Enzo felt a sense of relief now he could see again. The distortion of the virtual world had been unsettling, and he relished watching the sun set and rise each day and morning. Now that he could think freely, he imagined himself painting each sunrise and even took small moments to do so with the paints he brought with him. He took two pieces of scrap metal for his canvas and kept them safely stowed in his thoraxal compartment along with the paints. The splendid array of oranges and purples ignited a sense of poetry within him. He felt the wounds of the past healing with each passing day. It was the first time in his life he felt a sense of peace. Even with the Watchers about and him on the run from the most dangerous individual in the world, he still felt peace.

He felt it in listening to the breathing of his companions as they slept, as he stared into the vast open sky, taking in the beauty of the glorious Milky Way. He felt it in the sound of fire crackling, not in the form of destruction, but rather in watching it slowly cook the fish meat and transform it into savory morsels to be relished by Jane and the Judge. Furthermore, he felt it in the laughter expelling from Jane as the Judge told stories of her childhood. These interactions and experiences solidified the importance of life within him. And if Jane’s daughter, Saharifem, was correct, then he too was an entity of life, deserving of the world’s matchless beauties and intricacies it had to offer.

Jane and the Judge had lived lives under the constant fear of the Isobians, and so they found joy in the little moments of reprieve they had. The resiliency of humans inspired Enzo, and he joined in the reverie.

By the end of the fourth day, they had made their way further northward. Jane was feeling more Braxton-Hicks contractions, so they stopped more frequently and finished their travels earlier each day. They had reached one of the larger cities, and even while trying to avoid entering any cities along the way, the river ran directly through the ancient town, narrowing them into its boundaries. To avoid following any main roads, they roved through as many timeworn farms as possible until running into the city proper, where they trekked through extinct neighborhoods.

They needed to find a place to sleep for the night, but with the likely presence of Isobian Scouts in a city such as the one they resided in, they needed to tread lightly. They had grown accustomed to sleeping in train cars, so Enzo sent HERAa ahead to survey the area before them.

“Surprisingly,” she reported, “there is no evidence of any form of Isobian signatures within a three-mile vicinity.”

Enzo was still vigilant, “Where is the nearest train car?”

“Still within 1.8 miles to the train yard, but even then, the train cars seemed to have been moved off the track and reside even further down, approximately 3.4 miles from our current location.”

The news wasn’t as foreboding as one would assume but soon became so as Jane suddenly grabbed her abdomen and groaned. Enzo quickly scanned her abdomen. She was fully effaced and dilated, and contractions were lasting nearly an entire minute each.

“We need to find somewhere quickly,” Enzo whispered to the Judge. “She’s entering second-stage labor!”

“What does that mean?” The Judge’s eyes widened.

“It means the baby is coming!” Enzo buzzed.