Damon (Dystopia, Part 8)
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
What happened so far:
Tristan, who lead a life far away from everything, was forced into an army lead by androids with the goal to overthrow the remaining government. Worried about his sick sister Joy, he betrayed the android leader Erin’s trust and fled the city where the human troops are trained. Suddenly, his sister revealed herself as a spy of the feared government and was immediately drugged by Erin, who followed the two during their flight into the desert. It forced Erin and Tristan to act sooner than they would have preferred and together with the rest of the army, they flew across the Atlantic Ocean where they met Damon, the leader of the local resistance.
“Can I offer you something to drink? Eat? You must be exhausted from the long flight. Sit, sit.”
They appeared to have arrived at the headquarters of the resistance on this side of the ocean and Damon, trying to be a good host, had immediately started to try and make them as comfortable as possible. But Tristan couldn’t relax. He suspiciously watched to women carry the unconscious Joy away.
”Do they know what to do?” He asked Damon. ”I don’t want to see my sister dead.”
”Of course they do. They’re both doctors and absolutely qualified for this job. Don’t worry.”
He did worry. But there wasn’t much of a choice, as usual. It seemed like every time he did have a choice, everything just went to shit. So instead of trying to argue, he sat down on the chair he had been offered. His stomach grumbled loudly and prompted Damon to open a cabinet and pull out something that resembled bread. @suesa
”There you go.”
”Thanks.” Slowly, Tristan started ripping off small pieces of the loaf and shoving them in his mouth. He offered Erin some.
”Thank you, but I’m not hungry.”
”Do you even need to eat?” Tristan asked with newly found curiosity. He couldn’t remember having seen Erin eat something, ever.
”Yes, but not as much as humans. By far not. And I mostly don’t like the experience.”
”Okay then.”
Damon had watched the exchange with obvious amusement.
”This is the same question I asked Lydia when she revealed herself as an AIOA for the first time”, he said with a chuckle. ”But she rather enjoys eating, in contrary to you, Erin.”
”Everyone is different”, Erin just replied. ”Where is Lydia? Will she not join us?” Tristan could hear a slight disappointment in Erin’s voice.
”She’s currently on a mission, we expect her to return tomorrow in the evening.”
”It’s a shame, but I guess we can’t change it.” Erin sighed. ”Would you mind bringing us up to date? And I think Tristan here needs the whole story, from the very beginning.”
”You didn’t tell him yet?”
”I thought it’d be better to hear it from the one person left who experienced it.” Damon gave Erin a nod, then sat down himself and took a deep breath.
”It’s been about 10 years since I was freed from my existence as a test subject”, he began. ”I didn’t know I was one. I thought that not having any emotions was the norm for all of humanity. It’s what they told us and I had no reason to question it. But one day, someone injected me with a drug that reversed the effects of the emotion blocker permanently and … I woke up.” Damon shook his head. ”I can’t describe it any better. It was like waking up from a long dream. I experienced happiness, fear, anger, all of it for the first time. I was so happy …. Until I found out that the people who had saved me were the same who studied me. And they wanted to kill and cut me open.”
Tristan couldn’t avert his gaze from Damon. This story sounded too freaky to believe. How? Why? Who?
”I was saved”, Damon continued, ”by someone who belonged to the elite but not to the scientists. She brought me to her group, stitched me together, gave me a new name and helped me to integrate into the actual society. And it worked, for a while. Until …”
”Until you met Cora”, Erin interrupted. Tristan glared at them disapprovingly, but they didn’t seem to notice. ”I’m still fascinated by everything Lydia told me about her. I wish I could have met her.”
Damon grinned, but his eyes showed nothing but deep sorrow.
”You would have loved her. I certainly did, although it was one-sided. She was the one who founded our resistance, our rebellion. We first collected others like us, liberated test subjects living in the real world. And then we started to liberate others. It worked out for a while. And then one of the leading scientists, Lucifer, found us. We accidentally administered the drug meant to counteract the emotion blocker, which drove him mad. But he was able to give us instructions on how to infiltrate the government.”
”And that’s what we’ll be working with?” Tristan asked with a frown. ”The words of a madman?”
”No. It’s what we did work with. We captured Lucifer five years ago.”
”But you didn’t succeed, I suppose. We wouldn’t be here if you did.”
”That is correct. We gathered everyone and went through with the attack. Cora and everyone else went inside the government building to assassinate and replace the members. But something went wrong, they never came back.”
”But you are here”, Tristan pointed out. ”You made it back.”
”I didn’t go inside. Cora told me to wait outside, I suppose she wanted to make sure there was someone left to lead in case something went wrong. And it happened. I waited out there for hours upon hours, until it went dark. And I returned the following days, again and again. I didn’t understand what had happened but I assumed they were all dead.”
”They are, in a way”, Erin chimed in.
”Yes, that’s what Lydia told me. But it was over a year later that she arrived here. I had already started building a new resistance, all by myself. I couldn’t disappoint Cora, you know? Even if she was dead, I needed to continue, for the sake of her legacy.” The last words had only been a whisper, as tears started flooding Damon’s eyes.
Erin placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly.
”I’ll continue”, they said. ”Lydia had, thanks to me, a bit more knowledge about the government over here than Tristan. After he had told her what had happened, she had been able to piece everything together. The government here is an AI, but one that uses human brains as a base. I’m not entirely sure how they’re doing it, but they’re able to integrate the neural circuits into their own and use it to make decisions. Cora and the others were likely absorbed by this AI, when they tried to disable it. I’m not even sure they had enough time to realize what had happened before they were overtaken.”
”None of this sounds like it’s something that really happened”, Tristan said and looked directly at Damon. ”It sounds like a load of bullshit.”
Damon crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
”But androids with an artificial intelligence and a free will, that look, act and even feel like humans are more realistic?”
”Well … yes!” Tristan realized how dumb his words were the moment he said them. But now he had taken a stand and he would look like an idiot if he backed down now.
But instead of arguing with him, Damon just sighed.
”It’s been a long day”, he said. ”Maybe you should try to get some sleep. Let’s talk about this tomorrow when Lydia is back. We need to plan our attack, if you believe my story or not. People will die if we don’t.”
Picture taken from pixabay.com
The story is just as wonderful as the other parts of the series and am back now after a long absence. I know it'll take a lot of time to catch up though but I'll try as much as I can to do something about it though. The story didn't have any loophole as I still understood the things that might have happened in my absence but I just want to read for the pleasure.
Really nice one! thumbs Up!
So I read all the parts today and I love the story. I mentioned on a previous part that it may need a bit more of a thorough proof reading but the story is gripping and the characters are well fleshed out. I really like Erin's dialogue as it seems not quite human but trying hard to be. Keep up the great story telling.
I haven't read one of your stories for a while as I have been lazy on Steemit since before Xmas! So I am looking forward to binge reading your blog! :D I will start at the point I left off, so it may take me a while to catch up, bare with me lol
Check the link in my profile, I recently made a Google drive folder with all finish stories in PDF form!
awesome, thank you! You are an angel! :D
The story reminds me of the sci-fi movie The Colony. Quite a different plot though but I just remembered the series reading this story especially the family's divergent outlook. Let's hope Erin's sister would be fixed after the doctor's treatment.
I have really earned a lot from this story. Sometimes, we have to take risks to reach somewhere. In this story, some people lost thier life and that couldn't stop them.
Sometimes, we need courage and determination to reach to our goals. Though it looks hard sometimes, let's have the confidence in us so as to reach our goals.
At the end of the above story, there is a wonderful lesson '' always have a goal in life and do your best to achieve them'' Your goals can be personal or global.
keep moving forward.
Thanks
The Story promises lots of suspense and very catchy. This is very exceptional because have read alot of stories on this platform and none has talked about AI. I think I have to read the previous part to know the full meaning of AIOA... I hope Joy gets better btw.
Very good story @suesa .... I must commend
I recommend checking out the url in my profile, it redirects to a Google drive folder with all finished stories as PDF. "Dystopia" is connected to several stories :)
Who is this guy?
I just read his brain and found that he's trying to look like me. I mean he's Tristan. If I had been in this pic, I would be looking straight into the camera because it eliminates the chances of miscommunication. :)
On a serious note, another great episode full of curiosity and series of events. Tristan would have acted differently had he not have any weakness but that's one big aspect of the story and he deeply loves Joy. I'm not much into sci-fi movies or stories but it seems I am developing a taste for it through this fictional series. The more I read about it, the more I act like a lead character in it and it does not require a lot of effort because I have already read his mind from his pic. :) Keep them coming @suesa. Can't wait for the next episode.
Steem On!
Damon is the only one that was described as having "red hair" ;)
This is not how I imagined Damon. But okay, he looks rebellious enough.
Why you never show us Erin? You know I like her.
@bachuslib realized how dumb his words were the moment he said them. But now they are part of a blockchain and he would look like an idiot if he edited them.
It was the only male redhead on pixabay.com 😂 and Erin can basically shapeshift, they can look like anyone.
in life,there are consequences to testing ideas.some are good,other are very,very bad.you never know where ideas will lead you.thankfully,we have science fiction...
Good science fiction can amaze and motivate, warn, raise questions and spark the imagination, inspiring human creativity and each new generation of stargazers.
lovely post....@criptobox