A New Night

Educator vs. Educator

The Triumvirate continued to move in closer. I could see now that it was not only the robots. There were also New Humans and the slightly more purple-colored AI among them. There would be no chance of winning a fight against all of them without actually killing sentient beings. I thought this would be fine with my companions—who all sat panting and exhausted. If I could avoid both a physical fight here and/or sacrificing myself, it seemed that they would put up with my foolishness.

When the Triumvirate got within ten feet of us, they stopped.

Over a loudspeaker, the familiar, calm tone of a yellow emergency drone said, “Creatures of Lower Earth, please raise your hands, paws, wings, and tails directly up. You are not in any sort of danger from us attacking. But we must assure that you are no longer a threat to anyone, including yourselves.”

As it spoke, a second emergency drone circled outside the city—where Krebba and her Hunters were climbing down.

Gar gave me an urgent look.

We had to buy time if we wanted them to escape. I didn’t have a plan, though! This made me panic until I felt Romalla perched on my shoulder. While exhausted, she glared them down, unafraid. If only she had the robot body instead of me. Romalla would have told them all off and fought like a badass. Well, either that or she would do something that would complicate the situation.

Complicate the situation …

I knew then what I had to do. With a nervous and strained voice, I stepped forward and said, “I want to raise all those things, but I don’t have wings or a tail.”

There was a pause, and I could hear the awkward and confused silence from both sides of me.

Then, a small robot shaped like a silver ball with various black circles on its surface rolled in front of the rest of the robots. It stopped and created a beam of light above it, quickly forming a holographic image. It was the Educator I’d met twice already—the Doctor. She said, “Jackie?”

I shook my head, confused.

“You are … her offshoot,” the Educator said and exhaled heavily. I had the distinct feeling that this wasn’t aimed at me, though. I couldn’t help but feel concerned for her … and wonder what had happened to Jackie. She had spoken very ominously when we last met, but I hadn’t expected her to disappear.

Still, my duty was to my friends … and even my new allies. While she seemed to be in legitimate pain, and while I felt empathy, I had to buy time.

So, I replied, “Bassella.”

“Bassella?” she asked, no doubt trying to figure out what in the hell I was saying.

“Bassella,” I said, giving an unhelpful nod.

The Educator’s eyes widened as she finally understood that I was saying my name. “Wanerva,” she replied.

Without a clever retort, I resorted to a babbling strategy. I tapped my chin and said, “I don’t know a Wanerva. I know of a Dimitry … Jackie … Dro … Scraa … Krebba … Gar … Romalla … Krogallo … Camolla. Those are all the people I know.”

“I’m… sorry,” Wanerva said, sounding like she’d been caught off-guard. She wrinkled her forehead and gave a confused expression. “Look, we just want to make sure that we get you back to the city. So, please follow the instructions given.”

“That’s right,” I said, trying to make my faux confusion more convincing. “Your drones said I was supposed to point my wings and tail upward, but I don’t have those. So I didn’t know if they’d shoot me if I didn’t obey that detail. You know … robots. I’m not a robo-racist against them; I just didn’t know if there would be a glitch.” My armpits began to feel itchy as the beginnings of stage fright set upon me.

Wanerva cocked an eyebrow at me, likely trying to figure out whether I was joking, stupid, or lost beyond imagination.

“I also had a question,” Romalla said and hopped off my shoulder to the ground. I hadn’t thought she could understand me in the slightly different language of the Triumvirate, but she seemed to even speak it without much issue. “How high do you want my wings? All the way up from here, or should I stand on Bassella’s head to get them taller?”

Wanerva’s face became even more wrinkled.

“I think the ball creature wants us to get on our backs and put all our paws and tails in the air,” Scraa said through chattering teeth. I wasn’t sure if he was also in on what we were doing, but he was certainly helping the cause. Then, as if to help sell the bit, he crawled onto his back and pointed all his paws at the sky.

“I would prefer death to that!” Dro roared. His tone seemed serious, and his eyes glared gravely. His anger made me even more unsure whether he was in on the bit. “We will not show submission to inferior predators who required our help to defeat the Queen. It is beneath us to do such a thing. A terrible and cowardly thing.”

Dro paused, his eyelids closing a few times before his entire head began to hang a little. I noticed a glance in Scraa’s direction. His shoulders slumped, and his voice became dull. “I won’t do something so cowardly ever again … especially not in front of a bunch of large shellfish and a speaking coconut.”

Gar glanced between each of us as if we were all morons. He looked ready to pounce. But then he quickly glanced at the side of the ledge, where Krebba was nearly out of sight. His confused expression vanished, and he made his face expressionless.

The fresh crab-bots behind Wanerva merely stood and swayed. They looked, if robots could be so, very confused and perhaps frustrated. Wanerva now looked beyond frustrated at the show we were all putting on. Her face was red, and I think it might have already exploded by that point had it not been for the fact that it was digital.

“You see, neither the Night People nor the Hunters have guns,” I said to her, lifting my index finger as if the thought had just occurred to me. “The hand-raising thing doesn’t really make sense to them. And I think you have lost Dro’s respect in this matter. Maybe it would help if we were arrested by … someone else? You might have an easier time with that.”

“You are creating a diversion,” Wanerva said, a vein popping over her temple. I noted that her ability to give death glares did not match that of a Hunter. In fact, the longer I compared the two, the less threatening Wanerva became. It gave me a sense of … confidence?

“That’s not fair,” Romalla said to Wanerva with a scolding tone. “Your instructions are vague, and it’s making us nervous! Bassella talks a lot when she’s nervous; Dro is so out of sorts that he has come to a spiritual realization about his life. And Scraa … well, Scraa is probably just thinking about dragons. That does not mean that you get to accuse us of trickery. I am a priest of the Sleeping God, and I take offense at your heresy.”

As the robots watched us, the New Humans began to come closer, passing by the robots on either side of the platform. It seemed that they wanted to watch the show from a better vantage. I guess that made sense.

Wanerva, however, was done with it. One look at her red face was enough to see that. Her digital form disappeared, and her ball rolled closer to us until it was at my feet. Then, the ball aimed one of its black eyes upward, and she reappeared. With an index finger pointed at my face, she said, “You will have destroyed the entire Hunter culture if any of them return to their jungle. I swear that-”

Without thinking much about it, I curled my toes, took a hopping skip, and punted the spherical holographic projector off the side of the Sky City. We all watched it disappear past the clouds, into the depths of the jungle. Wanerva’s shout became like a ring echo that was quickly gone.

Everyone froze.

After a moment, it was Romalla who broke the silence. She said, “We need a different person to speak to, hopefully one that is less confusing.”

The robots made no indication that they’d heard. Each of the shield-bots took a step forward. The crab-bots extended the small chest-arms that contained the sleeping drug. Like an army, they marched in step. They looked prepared to easily overwhelm us from both sides.

I just hoped we had bought enough time for it all to be worth it for someone. We were so close to the frozen wire and our escape. On the other hand … it was physically a little too close. I took another step away so I couldn’t see the ground below. Though I wanted to escape, I had no desire to needlessly look down on the towering snow-capped mountain that overshadowed both the Wall and the sprawling jungle. I took a few short breaths.

Gar, Dro, Romalla, and Scraa each gave wistful glances at the frozen wire just within reach. Again, I wondered if the Triumvirate would shoot us if we made a break for the wire. They were pretty set on their methods of non-violence. But since they thought we would doom the Hunters and People of the Night as entire races, I thought there was a good chance that they would make a violent exception just for us.

When the shield-bots were within range, Dro used his staff as a spear against them. His strikes put several useless dents in their plastic shields. This only bought us a few seconds. I faced the same direction as him and hoped that Gar, Romalla, and Scraa could do something against the forces coming from the opposite way.

Suddenly, the shield-bot in front of me stopped. There was a scraping sound before it leaned and fell into the water with a splash. It took another falling in the same way for me to realize what was happening. An AI in the body of a bluish-skinned teenager had its hands on the shoulders of the nearest crab-bot—knife in hand. They grabbed the robot and swung their body, off-balancing the machine while also cutting through wires with the knife. This sent the robots off the ledge and into the water.

When this happened to a third robot, it tried to catch itself. So, two teenage New Humans delivered low spinning kicks at the backs of its legs, causing the machine to fall sharply on its back and tumble into the water below. I turned to look behind us where another AI, this one with pinkish skin, and more New Humans mimicked the attack.

The remaining shield-bots hesitated for a moment and then turned to face their attackers. This was all the opportunity that we needed. Dro rushed forward and impaled the back of one. Romalla and Scraa went in the same direction and began pouncing and slicing at any cables they could find.

Gar ran in the opposite direction and used his bare strength to throw a distracted robot into the water. I joined him, punching with my machete and tossing them like he did with surprising ease. Within a few minutes, all the robots were in the ocean.

All that remained were us and about a dozen masked AI and humans—the ones I had thought were there to attack us. Instead, they removed their masked and faced us with winded but smiling countenances.

My companions regarded them, if warily. I could hardly blame them for their distrust of the Triumvirate. Even I found it hard not to make an excuse to get out of the Sky City without another word, just in case these young Triumvirate were playing us somehow.

But I scratched the back of my head, where I felt my tension building, and said, “Thank you. Are you … more of Jackie’s students?”

One of the AI—a being with silvery skin, no indication of gender, and little evidence of even being artificial—stepped forward. They wore the same kind of clothing as the New Humans, loose-fitting material that looked somewhat like canvas. Their silvery skin was not metallic looking, but more like the silvery blue of the sky on a winter day. With a voice like any other person, the AI said, “Yes, Jackie told us about what happened, and we decided to come and help. My name is Kleo.”

“Thanks,” I repeated, feeling both a loss for words and a growing nervousness.

“You don’t have to worry,” Kleo said, lifting their hand. “We do not agree with our people’s decision regarding keeping you all imprisoned here.”

I cocked my head a little. I didn’t know much about the AI here—other than their history and that they had also helped us. But it struck me as odd that one branch of AI would branch out against the rest. Still, I felt it might be rude to ask.

Kleo watched me carefully, however. They smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I’m familiar with history and your era’s unfamiliarity with our kind. We AI used to be one entity, a hive-mind, if you will. As the Triumvirate progressed, however, we noted the potency of variety. Variables in intellect, interests, limitations, and ingenuity served humans well. So, we limited our mutual connection, divided ourselves into individual consciousness, established a self-determined lifespan, and reproduced through strategically randomized code generation.”

“Nerd,” one of the New Humans, one with a hat and a pink ribbon dangling from it, said to Kleo.

Kleo blushed brightly.

The New Human with the ribbon faced us and said, “We had a history lesson a few weeks ago, and Kleo here was talking about how they would have convinced the ancient New Humans to trust us without the need for educators. Seems they finally got their chance.”

The other New Humans giggled, and Kleo begrudgingly joined in.

“I must leave,” Gar said, stepping forward and ending the moment. He then turned his head to face me directly. “Given all we’ve done, I consider us even.”

I nodded, unsure of what else I could say to that. Then I remembered the entire reason I had worked with him in the first place. I said, “Don’t forget about the Immortal Golems.”

“Though it may take time, we will focus our energies on getting beyond the Wall at the place where you climbed over,” Gar replied, revealing that he had, in fact, been watching us from the beginning of our journey in the jungle. Finally, he moved toward the ledge and lowered himself down. Before his head was gone from view, he looked at me and said, “Try not to die before then, Bassella.”

Dro gave me an inquisitive look but then seemed to drop the matter before it was even given voice.

Kleo stepped back to make way for two New Human teens carrying large plastic objects. They were the flying mechanisms similar to hang-gliders—the same vehicle that Romalla had chased upon our arrival to the city and which I had accidentally flown into a building. Each was currently folded into the shape of a surfboard. They were much larger than the gliders we’d seen before, more fortified, and made of transparent plastic.

“We thought you might need these,” Kleo said.

I felt a small surge of nervous energy go through my body as I was handed one of the hang-gliders. I turned it in my hands until I found a button. I pressed it, releasing the wings and the holding bar. On the holding bar was a control panel with a joystick that seemed rather simple. On both sides of the glider were little unfolding baskets with straps and buckles.

Kleo pointed at the New Human with the ribbon who had teased them earlier. “Anzo was a little more than excited to customize your gliders with entertainment controllers from your era. You wouldn’t have been able to stand it if you had to listen to him go on and on about how appropriate it was.”

The young Triumvirates giggled again. Anzo—the New Human with the ribbon—didn’t mind laughing with them.

I found myself wishing I could stay longer. I’d spent so much time being chased around by authorities in this city, I thought it all had to be like that. But there were people here, real people who were kind and much like the friends I had made up until now. It would have been nice to have met them sooner and seen the Sky City from the vantage of a guest instead of as an intruder.

Kleo handed the other glider to Dro.

“Thank you again,” I said, for the third time, feeling a little embarrassed and too flustered to say more. I looked at Anzo and awkwardly babbled, “I … like your ribbon and … I wish I could have known you all longer. And … that Jackie could have been here.”

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to find her,” Kleo said, downcast. “She left us all letters saying goodbye but nothing else. We think … maybe … she decided it was finally her time to go.”

I nodded, remembering that she had also implied as much to me.

“Take care, and be sure to visit … I mean, once you all reach the space age, not when this place is being demolished,” Anzo said with a smirk, reaching up and yanking the pink ribbon from his hat. He approached, beckoned me to lean a bit, and tied it to one of my solar panel ears. Before I could protest, he said, “Don’t worry, I have a thousand of them.”

“It was a pleasure to really meet people from the lands below,” Kleo said with a smile and waved their companions to leave. They all pulled their masks back over their faces. “Get going; more drones will be here soon.”

With that, the young Triumvirates were gone. It seemed Jackie really did have an influence on even newer generations, so many millions of years later. I now understood why the Educators were chosen for their mischievous nature. It made them question … and fight back when they knew their authority figures were making a mistake. I wondered if the original AI had known that this rebellion would count against them. Who knows, maybe they had counted on it.

Dro turned to us and said, “Scraa and I are coming with you over the Wall. I have many tomes, which I will need your help translating while we work together to face the Immortal Golems. I will ensure that we all strengthen and do not become lazy and weak simply because we are in a group.”

I smiled. Maybe it was a mistake, but I now considered Dro and Scraa more than just my temporary allies. They were my family now … even though Dro was definitely the cranky uncle.

“We have to go, Bassella,” Romalla said and pointed her wing at a wave of incoming yellow lights coming from the beach on the far side of the water.

It was time.