The Enemy of My Enemy? Pt. 2/Chapter 20
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“There’s one of them!” yelled a female commanding officer at the sight of a female android dressed in armor and mesh emerging from Patricia’s car. But the colonel suddenly stood at attention when Patricia stepped out. “Ma’am! We have the area surrounded.”
“HOLD!” a womyn leading an infantry of men yelled as they approached with weapons drawn. “She may not be the Councilwomyn. She may be an android! We have reports that the one that tore a path through here after the first company arrived earlier looked just like her.” She pointed to two overturned trucks and an armored vehicle lying on its side. When she saw Kylan and Stan in the car she snapped orders, “Arrest them!”
Before the armed men could approach, the overturned vehicles exploded as seeker missiles found their targets. Kye heard the voice of Barris bark over a megaphone as the Girls and all of the Replico androids rushed out of the surrounding buildings. “Surrender! We have control of this complex and the security systems! You are outgunned, outmatched and outclassed! Soon we will have control of ALL of Replico’s machines! If you harm our friends, you will be destroyed!”
“Think about it,” yelled Jared, one of the adult scouts, as they appeared among their own army. “You can keep taking orders from them and get yourselves killed or you can join us and enjoy the benefits.” He kissed one of the Girls to make his point. The deprived and exploited soldiers immediately turned on their superior officers now that the wymyn were no longer controlling the androids or A.I.s.
“No one is getting hurt!” Kylan roared. “There’s been too much fighting! This isn’t what Portia intended and I’ll bet she’s still the one doing the controlling. Now please take us to her. Where’s Barris? Barris?”
Barris was speechless when he saw Patricia. He was always among Portia’s many admirers, but Kye had never seen the surly older scout at a loss for words. Finally he found them, “Are you human?” he said to her. “If you were the inspiration for Frank, then I now know how he succeeded. My name’s Barris and I would be honored to make your acquaintance.”
It was a pitiful one-liner but Barris didn’t get much practice. Patricia Mariner was flattered, though. It had been a long time since she had the attention of a man. Even someone such as Patricia felt lonely since the death of her husband even though he was away on business trips much of the time anyway.
She actually blushed. For a man who could have his way with ever-youthful androids to show so much interest in her was a refreshing feeling to her as a woman. Not as a “womyn.” And he wasn’t too bad looking either, a bit rugged but… “My name’s Patricia. Patricia Mariner.” she said with uncharacteristic shyness, “Nice to meet you.”
“The Councilwomyn? You’re Phillip’s mother?” Barris said undeterred.
“Yes,” she replied, “They usually don’t show officials on television for security reasons.”
“You don’t know where he’s been!” Stan hollered with a broken voice as he stumbled from the car. He was quickly carried by their gynoid escort.
“It looks like I’ve been in a much better place than you, you fart… Oh, I’m sorry Miss. It is ‘Miss’ isn’t it?” Barris was obviously making a fool of himself, but that only flattered Patricia more since her revelations didn’t discourage him. For Barris, it was nice to have a beautiful woman show unprogrammed interest in him and he wanted to get to know this person who could inspire the creation of someone like Portia.
“We have all gotten used to only using Mz. but, yes, it’s Miss. We should really go see Portia, though,” She said urgently. “Frances should be with his wife. Maybe we can talk on the way?” she added and Barris jumped at the opportunity.
Strangely, Frank Stanley didn’t seem troubled by Barris and the woman he once loved finding appeal in each other. Stan loved his own wife far too much to be jealous now and was happy to see Patricia smiling again after all she had been through with Phillip Jr. And he was glad to hear that Phil was getting better.
The insight shown by Portia impressed him more than learning everything else that she had done in his brief absence. And they saw even more signs of her handiwork in the destruction she left in her wake as she had cleared a path into building.
“So she got that sword working, huh?” he said as they passed dismembered security droids and gashes in the walls where it cut through unhindered. “I was just trying to be romantic with her, but she’s always made the most of things.”
Kylan could not contain his guilt any longer. “Frank. We kissed,” he said, “but that’s all. We were both in a vulnerable place. She never betrayed you, though.”
Stan was quiet for a moment. “It’s okay,” he said at last from the cradled arms of one of their Girls. “On the way to that meeting place we had talked about if only one of us made it back. I didn’t want her to shut herself down, Kye, or erase everything that she’s become. I love her. She really cares about you and you are the truest friend we’ve ever had. So I told her to stay with you if you would have her. I told her to help you be happy and she said that she would… for me.”
“She showed me what Daniella had done,” Kye said bitterly. “I wasn’t just going to leave you. You should have seen how happy she was when I demanded that we go after you! That’s when she kissed me,” Kye became more subdued. “I’m sorry, man, but I really liked it. I mean I really, really liked it. But if it’s okay, she gave Mitzie to me to share her… love. I think I want to stay with her. Can you help her be more like Portia?”
“It’s cool,” Stan seemed calm. “I care about you, dude. I knew that you could find happiness with the Girls and I’m glad that you decided to. What about Aura?”
“I don’t know,” Kye said. “I’m still pissed at Daniella and Aura still reminds me of her. But I have to admit, I really like her too.”
“Awesome!” Stan beamed much to Kylan’s confusion at such a delicate moment. But that was just his way. Kye had to remember that Stan and Portia were swingers when it came to the Girls. “Portia can now do a better job of programming than I can. I don’t know if I should be proud or jealous?” he mused as they entered the room leading down to the central A.I.
“I don’t know if she still can!” Lori rushed up to Stanley with a look of great distress on her face. “Frank! You have to come quick; Portia needs you!” Without another word she ran to the elevator shaft and rappelled down to the lower level.
Pain overcame Frances Stanley’s battered face at Lori’s plea and two of the new gymnastic Girls quickly took him and rappelled him to the A.I.’s chamber. Kylan came down close behind them.
They entered the chamber together. Mitzie, Phillip and Aura were already there. Barris and Patricia soon joined them.
After defeating killer robots and overcoming so many obstacles, Portia was now facing the greatest battle of her life and there was little anyone could do to help. This was a battle in cyberspace. A battle that was unlike anything she had yet encountered.
Stan broke free of the Girls and stumbled clumsily to her side and Kye joined him. Portia had since removed her head coverings and sat slumped in a chair with a cable running from her port to her Thinking Cap. The box was already connected to the Replico A.I.’s control console.
She looked unharmed, but she was in more danger than could be seen. Her eyes stared vacantly forward and her jaw slowly opened and closed as if she were trying to say something while her head occasionally twitched. Her fingers seemed to reach out for help only to collapse at each attempt. Stan began to sob openly.
“What happened!” Patricia yelped at the sight of her incapacitated twin.
“I think she fried her circuits trying to take over this fucking Brain-Building,” Lori said painfully.
“She programmed her Thinking Cap to try and initiate the shutdown codes from the satellites and use them to transmit new programs,” Mitzie said to Stan. “We only got as far as shutting down the androids in this part of the country before the A.I. started to network and fight back. We were able to cut it off from the others but it was only a matter of time that it would regain control and defeat the viruses that we planted. It’s very powerful.”
“Portia hooked herself up and threw everything she had at it,” Phillip recalled. “Mitzie and I tried to monitor from the outside but it became too complicated for us to keep up with. She wouldn’t let us disconnect her. I tried Uncle Frank… I tried.”
“She was able to lock up the system well enough for us to take over the control rooms and cut the A.I. off from the transmitters. We made a womyn show us how,” Barris seemed regretful.
“So she’s just a robot after all,” Patricia mumbled as she gazed at the disabled Portia.
“No. Not at all!” Stan growled. “If I peeled away your skin and tissue and bones it would not make what you have under the hood any better than Portia. I can’t believe you just said that after everything you’ve seen!”
A loud voice filled the room.
“WARNING. SYSTEM FAILURE IMMINENT. SHUTDOWN SEQUENCE COMMENCING. UNABLE TO INITIATE BACKUP PROCEDURES. MANUAL OVERRIDE MUST BE ESTABLISHED… ESTAB… MUST BE… MUST BE…”
The dying A.I. had no idea what kind of override they had planned. Just as its power extinguished so did the lights. Soon the emergency lights came on.
“Hi, Honey,” Portia said but there seemed to be something odd in her manner.
“Portia?” Stan looked at her hopefully but her gaze was still empty.
“You look tired,” she said in a pleasantly detached tone. “You should rest while I fix you something to eat.” She looked around the room and smiled vacantly. Her words sounded as pre-programmed as any other robot. “Who are all these people, Darling? Are we having a party? I love parties! I should get some refreshments.” Kylan could not contain the sorrow that came over him. “Why is everyone so sad?” Portia said with naïve false concern. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No, My Love,” Frank said with gentle affection. “We’ll just have to start over, that’s all.”
As he held her and rocked her quietly under the onlookers’ respectful silence, the life seemed to come back in her eyes and she focused on Patricia, “So. I’m ‘just a robot,’ huh?” Stan’s eyes went wide with anticipation and he moved to face his lover. “Oh, Baby, what did they do to you?” she said when she looked at him coherently and saw his injuries.
The emotion seemed to overwhelm both of them and Stan ignored his pain as they kissed passionately for a long time while everyone felt hope returning to their lives. “I’m sorry I scared you, Frances. I had to switch to my default setting before I really did get fried.” She glanced a smile at Lori.
Lori was filled with joy and confusion, “Phillip and Mitzie said that it was too powerful for them to help. How were you able to stop it?”
“I wasn’t really,” Portia contemplated. “What I did was that I gave up.” Everyone looked puzzled except for Kylan and Stan who understood more about Portia’s battle techniques than anyone else there.
“I gave it back its control,” she continued. “But I waited until we gained total control. Then I gave it my control. I gave it our control. I gave it TOO MUCH control.” Her strategy was becoming clearer. “I was pretty sure that after The Great Mistake, the wymyn made sure that they had failsafes installed in case that ever happened; I just made sure that it did. And now,” she said as she rose while lifting Stan in her arms, “it’s memory and data banks are a clean slate. My Sweetheart's fifth-anniversary gift to me will be our gift to the world. It is going to remain here in my place and help get this world straightened out. I need to get my husband to our clinic… and a bath!” she added. And Stan was thinking of having Portia and one of the nurses join him.
The End
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