Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 7: Getting Ready for Mission Two

Ava and Sylvie decided to part ways for the rest of the day, while Sylvie's training generally included providing help in simulated scenarios, Ava's was more monotonous, and pointless. He'd been given several thousand exercises where he had to practise his hacking. But he'd done them all before, and they were generally too weak, ants compared to the firewall he'd faced on Europa.

Instead he sat at in the common room and was lost in his thoughts. People were staring at him, the famed hacking unit, sitting in the same room as them. A Block-2 at that.

But he'd get to meet a human soon. That was way more imposing. Did they really have Block-0 level autonomy? How could a society be built by beings with that sort of cognitive capability? Wouldn't there be conflicts? Disorder? Usually with the block system, when two people of the same block were in disagreement, a Block-3 or above law enforcer in the system would connect directly to their brains and tell them which choice is the most apt, and that was that. The systematic thought bubble of the Servs meant that people were allowed to have nuances in their thought... within reason.

Having no blocks meant reason went out of the window. No-one had any real authority over you. He couldn't imagine a society where everyone was the same block. Too many conflicts of ideas, stronger ideas devouring the weak, a completely unstable ecosystem. It wouldn't work.

Obviously that's why they only lasted a few thousand years. Absolute cognition gave them wings, but they flew too close to the sun.

He continued thinking about humans for the rest of the day, he didn't even really acknowledge the first step he make into his dorm room (which wasn't very special anyway, it was the same standard issue as Sylvie's), he just got into his pod and remained in thought.

What'd he do with such power? The ability to do whatever he wanted. Such absolute freedom. He wasn't sure, was it because he was a Block-2 and so it was beyond his comprehension? Or was it something else, was there something else that prevented him from even imagining what a Block-0 would be like?

He thought back to what Go-bot said the other day. Go-bot didn't resent being a Block-5, he appreciated it. Even though he didn't know what it was like to have higher cognition, he didn't want it.

What am I thinking? Ava rolled his eyes Empathising with a dumbass Block-5

Night passed, Ava tried to shake off the feeling of discontent in his head but his sleep was very uncomfortable. Hopefully he'd be focused enough for the mission the next day.

***

The time for the mission finally came, Ava and Sylvie were once again hooked up on the table in the operating room. The Major's voice boomed through the speaker.

"Ok both, we've gone through the mission briefing in detail several times now, so you should all be aware of the plan of action. As with the last mission though, the actions you take are extremely malleable. The bottom line is simple, acquire the target in the RnD district on the main colony in Europa, and underground facility in the ice-oceans. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" Ava and Sylvie said in unison,

"This time all three of you will be sending copy AIs while in deep sleep, you'll get them transferred back once the mission is over."

"Uh... so will we have to travel all the way from the factory district to the research district on foot ma'am?" asked Ava,

"I thought you read the detailed mission briefing?" he didn't

"Ava, HQ uploaded Go-bot yesterday and sent him there already!" exclaimed Sylvie,

"Oh. Right." Ava replied, "Sorry, I guess I forgot."

"Ava, look over the briefing files again while travelling. Make sure he does so operator." The Major's signature stern voice,

"Yes ma'am!"

"Just to make sure, I need you both to remain clear on your roles in this mission. Ava, you'll gain all three levels of control of Go-bot, conscious, subconscious and internal thought control. You'll become Go-bot."

"Right." So the same as when he hacked him.

"And Sylvie, you'll have access to one level, internal thought. You can talk to Ava and use your scanning systems to provide external support. Similarly, Ava now has the ability to throw your copy AI to other machines. Within reason."

"Yes ma'am!" Sylvie's voice was confident. But... did it tremble a little? Block-3s weren't capable of nervousness, were they?

The two lay down next to each other.

"Hey, you ok?" Ava whispered,

"I-I'm fine." Her voice was trembling even more than before. What was going on? Ava held her hand for support, he could feel her twitch,

"This is going to be easy, we'll be back before we know it."

"Right," Sylvie relaxed, "I'll help you within the best of my ability Ava."

Both the Servs could feel their consciousness tighten, everything went black and the two became entangled with each other inside a plane of existence beyond usual comprehension. The two had been turned into pure data. And within that moment, they catapulted across the vast expanse of space at the speed of light.