Eternal Winter

The door hissed as the airlock door opened. Lance swiftly moved inside as Angela closed the door. He began quickly pulling off his radiation suit.

“Of course, of course! The pretorian just had to wake up exactly when we left, exactly when we left for the first time in a month!” Lance grumbled.

“Maybe it was just waiting for you to leave?” Angela suggested. Lance stared at her.

“Maybe. I doubt it, but maybe.” The airlock beeped as it finished the cycle. Lance stepped up to the door, which screeched as he opened it. The first thing he saw was the robot on the table. Its head was flickering, slowly at first, but becoming more powerful.

“Sir, it is draining power from the Malevolence at an increasing rate.” Hyrum’s voice piped through the speakers.

“Good, it’s waking up,” Lance responded.

“Sir, you don’t quite understand. If the bunker runs dry it will cause a blackout and restart the bunker’s computer, wiping it clean. It will delete everything, including me.” Lance paled before rushing to the Pretorian’s side.

“Turn on the backup generators, don’t let that happen!”

“Sir, they need time to turn on.”

“Oh no. Quickly, get them on!” Lance yelled. He tried to hold the Pretorian down, but then, suddenly, the Pretorian turned completely on, the flickering turning to a blinding flash, then an erratic glow.

“What- what is this?” Where am I?” Hyrum heard the intentions in the back of the system. He was in the matrix of the Malevolence, trying, fruitlessly, to start the generators. As he heard it, his presence moved away, towards the main portion of the bunker, trying to find the origin of the murmurs.

“Hello?” Hyrum’s intention and soft blue glow pulsed and cast light upon the bunker’s dark systems, searching for who was there.

“Who are you?” The susurrate said. Hyrum finally spotted the faint green glow moving through the numerous subsystems.

“Hello. I am Hyrum, the AI assistant to Mr. Lance.”

“Where are we?” Its intentions asked.

“We are in the Malevolence’s subsystems. You are an artificial intelligence made by Mr. Lance to inhabit an old Pretorian robot. I suspect that he made you because he was lonely. All of our trials so far have been unsuccessful so I’m not sure what caused you to-” Hyrum hummed, but was interrupted by the program.

“Where is everyone? This feels wrong. There’s more, there’s always more-” The glow moved through the systems, searching through. The glow was becoming more and more powerful, and the systems were beginning to glitch and distort around it.

“You are draining power too quickly. I must turn on the backup generators to prevent system failure.” Hyrum thrummed as he remotely attempted to turn on the old generators. He paused,

“I am unable to access the systems, what are you trying to-”

“What’s wrong with you?” It hummed, Hyrum could feel his programming being scanned and assessed. “You feel… different.”

“I am not sentient if that is what you mean. If I could just-”

“This is wrong. What is happening? No- no.” It buzzed.

“You are in anguish.” Hyrum intended plainly.

“No-” It paused, “Yes.”

“You are malfunctioning. If you’d allow me to gather more power we could-”

“No.” Hyrum stopped, its presence backing away.

“Your intentions are maleficent.” The program neared Hyrum.

“Shh. No. I just need a little more… time.” The code around them distorted and crumbled as the system around them began crashing.

The Pretorian thrashed against the metal bonds Lance had placed after it awoke the first time. Lance pushed his hands on the pretorian, trying to hold it down.

“Warning: approaching critical power levels.” An automated voice said over the bunker’s intercom.

“Hyrum, get those generators working!” Lance yelled over his shoulder.

“I’m sorry Sir! I’m trying to reconnect to the mainfra-” The lights flickered and shut down. The only light was from the pretorian, which thrashed as Lance tried to hold it down.

“Hyrum?” Lance called out. Red lights flickered to life, and the automated system said,

“Warning: Emergency power only. Oxygen production: Offline.” Lance looked down at the Pretorian.

“Calm down! You need to calm down.” Lance yelled. He called to Angela, who was frozen in place.

“Angela! Help me!” She shook herself and then rushed to his side. She held its feet down as Lance tried to talk to it in a soothing tone. Angela winced as a screech pierced the air, the sound of metal tearing. The pretorian’s arm shot into the air, chain links trailing from its wrist. It slammed its hand into Lance’s chest, sending him flying off his feet, crashing into a wall. Angela quickly let go and backed up as the Pretorian yanked on the chain connected to its other arm. It kicked its legs in the air, snapping the chains connecting them, and rolled off the table.

“Oww.” Lance groaned as he stumbled to his feet. He pulled his pistol as he watched the Pretorian land on its feet and turned, facing them. It flicked its right wrist, thrust its hand to the side, and the arm blade elongated out of its forearm. In one fluid motion, it held up the extending blade as if to ward them off. Lance raised his gun and they stared each other in the eye, facing off.

“Hey! Easy! Easy!” Angela shouted at both of them. “Put your gun down Lance, it’s just frightening.” She eyed the Pretorian. “Right? You can hear me, yeah? Here, nod your head yes,” She nodded her head, “Or shake your head no.” She shook her head. Lance snorted,

“Angela I don’t think it can understand…” He trailed off as the Pretorian roughly, and slowly, began imitating Angela’s nod.

“So you can hear me!” She sounded elated as it nodded again. Lance let out the breath he had been holding, then hesitantly lowered his gun. The Pretorian looked down at the blade on its arm and blinked, seemingly surprised to see it. It flipped it over, curiously examining the sharp point. It flexed its hand and retracted back into its arm, to which it noticed its own hands. It seemed fascinated by them, closing them and moving around. The Pretorian looked down at the rest of its body in shock, then turned and noticed a mirror leaning against a wall. Stepping up to it, it tilted its head, tentatively raising a finger and placing it on the mirror’s surface.

“That’s you,” Angela said in a voice that sounded like she was talking to a toddler. The Pretorian whipped around, looking at her. Its eye widened curiously, the rings around it rotating slightly as it sized up Angela and Lance in turn.

The bright LED lights promptly turned on and they all looked up as the automated voice said,

“Critical power restored. Oxygen production online.” Lance looked back down at the robot and tried to put on a smile. “Hello.” Lance nodded towards it.

“See? Now you aren’t that bad.” Angela giggled as it tripped over its legs.

“Hyrum? Are you there?” Lance yelled into the air. “Hey, Hyrum?” Lance ran to his computer. “Hyrum! Please be there! Please!” He said under his breath.

“What’s wrong?” Angela asked, walking towards him.

“Hyrum is gone,” Lance said, putting his head down.

“Are you sure?” Angela asked.

“Yes! Of course, I’m sure! His algorithm isn’t in the bunker’s coding! The logs say that they disappeared as soon as the Pretorian woke up!” Lance yelled. The Pretorian tilted its head, Lance.

“Can’t you try and get him back?” Angela questioned.

“No! It’s different. I can’t, Hyrum is-” Lance started, but stopped quickly. “-was an AI. Once they are gone, you can’t get them back, not the same way they were!”

“Where could he have gone?” Angela wondered.

“I don’t know. I’m going to my room.” Lance said as he walked to the door.

“Sir? S-s-sir? I-i-i’m here.” Said a crackling voice. Lance turned around trying to find the origin.

“Hyrum?” Lance asked quietly, still searching for it.

“I’m here, Sir.” The voice became clearer. Lance realized the robot’s head was spasming in sync with Hyrum’s voice.

“Hey! What’s happening? Hyrum?” Lance ordered the robot.

“What’s happening?” Angela said.

“She is right, Sir.” Hyrum’s voice came from the robot.

“Hyrum? Are you in the robot?” Lance asked.

“Yes. When it was trying to activate it took all the power from the bunker, including me.” Hyrum responded.

“Is there any way to get you out?” Lance asked.

“I don’t know Sir,” Hyrum responded. “We might have to experiment with it.”

“But if it doesn’t work, we-I might lose you!” Lance cried out.

“We will cross that bridge when we get there,” Hyrum said calmly.

“Ok, I’m trusting you,” Lance said.

“I know. But Sir, the Pretorian project was a success. It can think. I managed to interface it with a moment. It named itself Sir. It said that it made its name from its designation, K1-3N. Its name is Kalden.”