The Cardellian Chronicles Book One: Clinging to Reality

Alfia went to the local coffee shop after practice, still in her dance clothes. Benny had gotten there first and he had a steaming mug of hot chocolate set before him with another mug in front of the place that Alfia would be sitting.

She leaned down and smelled the drink in the mug as she sat and smiled, “Bengal Spice?”

Benny nodded, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Excellent,” she set her bag beside her and pulled a sweatshirt out of it.

It was chilly outside for normal humans, or even humans with very little CyberTech in them. But for Alfia, it was freezing. She had more CyberTech in her than actual human cells so when it got cold outside, she had to wear a lot of layers to keep her circuits from freezing. The same went for Benny, though he had substantially less CyberTech in him than she did. They had both lost their parents at around the same time and had been injured in the process. Benny’s parents had been killed in a fire. He almost did, too, but a fireman had found him just in time. He was rushed to the hospital and emergency surgery was performed on him. The CyberTech had been implanted inside of him and at the same time, the surgeons treated the severe burns that covered over 96% of his body before they could set in and leave scars. After seven different surgeries that all lasted several hours over a period of twenty-one weeks- each surgery happening three weeks after the last to watch Benny’s recovery and see if he needed another surgery to fix anything else- the doctors left him to fully recover from the physical and mental trauma. He was left with 13% of his body being changed to Tech. He was only eleven years old when all of this happened to him.

Alfia had lost her parents in a severe car accident that had broken 184 of the 206 bones in her body, along with one lung that had been punctured in three different places, damage to most of her organs, and several deep cuts and bruises that went all the way through her muscle to the broken bones under them. She would have died if first responders hadn’t been able to reach her. She had been flown to the nearest hospital where they had performed a surgery that would hold her together until the proper doctors-who were all at the top of their fields-could arrive. The doctors all got there in less than a week and they all performed the surgeries they needed to to properly fix all of the damage that had been done to her in the same O.R, switching out when they needed a different surgeon to work on the area they had been repairing and sleeping in the on-call room until they were needed again, or getting something to eat to keep their energy up. The doctors also had three anesthesiologists on rotation to keep her asleep until they had finished. They pulled out the small pieces of shattered bone that were too damaged to be fixed and replaced them with titanium ones that were infused with microtech that would allow them to grow as she did. They cleared out the bits of glass, gravel, and other debris in her wounds before sterilizing them and stitching them shut. The doctors also had to repair the severe damage that her brain had endured and fixed the parts that she needed with even more CyberTech. There were certain muscles that had been too damaged for her little body to fix on its own and needed repairing, so they did just that. All in all, Alfia was under and being worked on by seven different surgeons, twelve nurses, and three anesthesiologists for a grand total of 87 hours. The result was 61% of her body being Tech instead of human tissue and genes. She was six.

Alfia and Benny had been treated in the same hospital and placed next to each other while they were in the Intensive Care Unit for the first part of their recovery when they both needed to be under the almost constant observation of a doctor or nurse to make sure they survived the initial phase of the recovery process. Because Benny’s injuries were easily visible, the doctors could more accurately determine how soon he could leave ICU. Alfia had to stay two weeks longer than he did. While they had been beside each other, they had talked and told each other stories of their lives before their individual tragedies happened. At least, Benny talked to Alfia. Alfia didn't talk for a long time after the accident. They relied on each other for support while they marched through their unique forms and expressions of grief. Neither cared about the damage that their physical appearances had endured, but the loss that they had to live with for the rest of their lives. Losing both parents at the same time had been devastating to both children and they often heard the nurses and other hospital staff whispering about how tragic their travesties had been and how grateful they were that the two of them had learned to trust the other with their stories and grief.

When Benny was moved, they both put up a fight. Benny more so than Alfia because he had more use of his body than she did at that point, but she protested as loud as she could until someone sedated her. Both children had nightmares of the things that had happened to them for years after they happened, their psychological wounds cutting deeper and taking much longer to heal than the physical ones. When Benny was released from the hospital, he visited Alfia as often as he could. The two of them had grown close over the months they were both recovering and grew even closer when they had recovered enough to be released. Because Alfia had no other family to take care of her, Benny’s grandparents adopted her and made sure she was taken care of, even taking her to her appointments that the doctors had told her to go to to help her mind heal and letting her dance classmates come over a lot to help her and help her guardians with house work and other things. They didn't seem to mind that she didn't talk much, and they never pushed her to talk more than she wanted to. It eventually started to get better, but after the trauma that she went through, the psychologists had said that she would never fully heal. They also said that she had more trauma than was usual for a child who had only been in a car accident, but since she wouldn’t talk to anyone about what had happened, they would never know why. Benny’s grandparents didn’t mind all that much, they were just glad to be able to help the poor little orphan who always seemed to shadow their grandson, even if they knew she would never trust them.

Benny snapped his fingers in front of Alfia’s face, “Al? You there?”

She jumped, snapping out of her reverie, “What?”

“You zoned out. Where’d you go?” he asked.

“No where,” she said, a little too quickly.

He didn’t push it, and for that she was grateful. Even Nathan seemed to understand not to ask, but that could have been because he could slip into her hard-drive and dig through the files she kept her memories in. She didn’t care. It didn’t matter. She picked up her mug with both hands, holding it loosely with her fingers, and took a drink of her tea. It was now cold.

“What were we talking about?”

Nathan looked over at Benny, indicating that he should be the one to tell her what they had been discussing instead of himself. Benny rolled his eyes, making Alfia smile into her mug. He didn’t like the A.I. and she found it amusing- not that she liked him. He had pestered her non-stop all day.

“We were discussing the reason that Nathaniel has the CyberNet Support after him,” he said.

She nodded, carefully setting her mug down and sitting in her chair as straight as ever, “Okay. What about it?”

“Well there was something about a mass-killing virus,” Nathan said bluntly.

Benny glared at him, but Alfia raised an eyebrow, “That so?”

“Yup!” the green-eyed boy answered cheerfully.

“Well what do we know about this Virus?” she asked.

Nathan grinned, “I just sent you and your not-boyfriend everything I know about the Virus and the Creator.”

Alfia closed her eyes and read the text that ran across the back of her eyelids, not thinking twice about it. Since Nathan was an A.I., he could send anyone with CyberTech anything he wanted, but only if they had the Tech in their brains. Anywhere else and the only way it would be useful would be to distribute information for a technological dead-letter drop or make sure that the information wouldn’t be lost and to go back and collect once he was sure it wouldn’t be taken from him. Otherwise it was useless to send it to someone without the Tech in their brains. Alfia and Benny often sent each other messages through a PrivateLink when they were bored during classes or needed help on classwork when they didn’t understand. She had tried to change the color and font of the words as they ran across her vision, but to her annoyance, it remained digital and blindingly red. When she was done skimming the file Nathan had sent over, she opened her eyes, blinking rapidly to clear the after-image that was imprinted on her retinas. They had been enhanced along with almost everything else in her body when she had had her mass surgery to keep her alive. She had also been able to download a few files that allowed her to do a few more tricks than she had been given and were pretty handy when it came to different tasks. For instance, she could heat up her hand to extreme temperatures and then go to the opposite side of the spectrum if she so desired. The perk of this ability was that her flesh was never damaged. It also allowed her to heat up her tea without anyone knowing what she was doing.

She emptied a packet of sugar into her mug and stirred it with a thin spoon, a small smile playing at her lips as she watched the steam rise from the newly heated liquid before taking a sip, thinking about the information she had just received. There was a lot to take in and think about. She noticed that Benny’s eyes were still closed. He was being more thorough. Normally, she would have been, too, but right now she didn’t have the time. If lives were truly at stake, everything they could do to help people needed to be discussed and decided as soon as possible. Alfia kept drinking her tea, patiently waiting for Benny to be done looking over the files. A little green light blinked in the corner of her left eye, alerting her of a new message from her database. She looked down so that her eyes were mostly covered, but still open, and read it.

Incoming Private Link from A.I. Nathaniel Black. Accept?

She started fussing with her hair, still a little damp from how sweaty she got at practice, deliberating on whether or not to accept the Link. She figured she might as well. After all, she could always close it and then never accept another one if he tried to do it again.

Link accepted...

Loading… 3… 2… 1…

Private Link opening…

Nathaniel: Hi.

Alfia rolled her eyes and looked up at the black-clad boy sitting beside her with her eyebrows raised.

Alfia: Hello.

Nathan’s grin spread wider.

Nathaniel: How are you this fine day?

Alfia took off her hat and shook a hand through her hair, pushing it back and out of her face, before replacing her hat on her head, backwards this time, and working at refraining from making a face at the formal language.

Alfia: Really?

Nathaniel: What?

Alfia: What’s with the Shakespeare?

She heard Nathan chuckle a little as he received the Link and changed one of the settings.

N: Nothing. Just trying to lighten the mood.

A: I wasn’t aware moods could be heavy.

She looked up and saw a half-smile tug at the corner of his mouth as she grabbed her mug again and took another drink.

N: So you DO have a sense of humor. I was wondering. That’s more than Ben over here does.

A: He has one, too, it’s just not as prevalent.

N: Okay, English major.

She didn’t reply. She didn’t see the need to.

N: So Ben seems pretty intense.

A: He can be. He’s just protective.

N: Noticed.

A: We’ve been through alot together.

N: I know.

A: How much do you know?

N: Probably not everything, but I know a lot. Is that why you’re so unhinged?

A: That was a delicate way of putting it.

N: Sorry.

A: But, to answer your question, yes.

N: I read the reports the doctors and shrinks made on you and your condition. According to them, it shouldn’t have been that traumatic.

A: Those files are supposed to be sealed.

N: I’m an A.I., Allie. I can hack almost anything. Besides, they didn’t do a very good job of protecting them.

A: What makes you say that?

N: They had been hacked before.

A: By who?

N: Dunno. I traced the trail they left behind, but hit a dead end.

Alfia frowned and chewed her lip thoughtfully, glancing at Benny to see if he was done reading Nathan’s files.

A: Did they take anything from it?

N: You would know better than I would.

A: Okay. What did you find in my file?

N: Just a bunch of psych evals, comments on your progress and whether or not they should try different things to help you, the names of your legal guardians. The usual.

A: Anything UNusual?

Nathaniel is thinking…

Nathaniel is thinking…

N: No.

A: You’re lying.

N: No, I’m not.

A: Yes you are. Don’t lie to me, Nathaniel.

N: Alfia, I’m not lying to you.

Alfia closed the Link and ignored Nathan’s worried look. Benny blinked his eyes open, finally done going through everything Nathan had on the Virus and the Creator.

“So what do you think, Alfie?” he asked.

She wasn’t entirely sure about the A.I., but something in her gut made her believe that what he had said about the Virus was true and that he had lied about not finding anything unusual in her psych files. It was a familiar, but still confusing, instinct that she had only gotten once before: the day she met one Benjamin Walker, the black-haired trouble-maker that had become her best friend and only family. But that first one had been different somehow.

“I think that we have some work to do,” she said, leaning forward to pick up her tea mug again to take another drink.

“That much is obvious,” Nathan said sarcastically.

She leveled another glare at him, looking at Benny a second later.

The little green light blinked in the corner of her eye again.

Incoming PrivateLink from Benjamin Walker. Accept?

Link accepted.

Benny: Everything okay?

Alfie: Yeah, just that the A.I.’s getting on my nerves a bit.

Benny: Do you want me to take care of it?

Alfie: No. I’m a big girl, now. Remember?

Benny: How could I forget? You remind me every other day that you’re a big girl who can do things all by herself.

Benjamin Walker has closed the PrivateLink. Reconnect?

Alfia stirred her tea a little, “So if this Creator has made the Virus, what’s his next step?”

“How do you know if it’s a man?” Nathan asked.

“It’s statistically more likely. Plus, based on the writeup on the file you just sent, his tactics definitely suggest that a male is behind it, not exactly one with a lot of experience in the CyberNet, but enough to be able to create the Virus and rich enough to have a Coder put it where he wants it, when he wants it. Typical male behavior. Men prefer control without having to do all of the work themselves. Women will just do it personally to avoid the chance that the Coder they hire might leak the information to the Net and not have to worry about tying up that loose end.” Alfia explained.

Nathan looked at Benny dubiously, “And you haven’t taken her out, why, exactly?”

Benny looked at him coldly, “You might be an A.I., but that doesn’t make you untouchable. Keep pushing my buttons, see what happens, Blondie.”

Nathan looked between Alfia and Benny with an amused smirk on his face, “Did- did anyone else notice the pun there?”

Benny gave a frustrated growl as Alfia rolled her eyes.

“Bad timing?”

“You think?” Alfia asked with a harsh sarcasm.

“My bad.”

“Anyways,” She gave him a look, “We need to figure out where, when, and how the Creator is going to use his Virus before someone gets hurt.”

Nathan nods, “So far so obvious.”

“Do you want to be the brain of the group? By all means, Nathaniel, tell us how to do that when you are the one who came to us for help.” Alfia sat back in her chair, tucking her legs under herself.

“No, by all means,” he gestured for her to continue, “I’ll shut up now.”

“Took you long enough to come to that conclusion,” Benny muttered.

Nathan turned to look at him sharply, “Is there a problem, Walker?”

“I don’t know, is there?” Benny sat up and leaned forward in his seat.

“Boys,” Alfia said lowly as a warning.

She wasn’t surprised when they ignored her. She knew Benny would. He always did when he was getting at it with someone like that. Whether or not Nathan would was really a toss-up. She would have actually been surprised if he actually had heeded her warning. She let the two boys argue a little more before sending a shock through both of their systems. They both flinched violently in reaction to the sudden miniature power surge and look at her accusingly.

“Are you done yet?” she asked patiently, a hint of a stern warning underlying the four words of her simple sentence.

They stared at her blankly.

“Do I have your attention or should I do it again?” she said firmly.

They sat down in their respective chairs. Benny had the grace to look a little ashamed of his actions, but Nathan looked somewhat self-satisfied with how things played out. Alfia looked at him coldly until his countenance changed and he shrunk into his chair a little.

“Sorry, Alfie,” Benny muttered.

She nodded in acknowledgement and looked at Nathan expectantly.

He took a few moments, but eventually mumbled an apology.

“Good. I trust that this won’t happen again, considering the circumstances. We have bigger things to worry about than who’s the biggest idiot. Am I understood?” She asked sternly.

Both boys nodded in unison, looking as though they were five year-olds that had just been scolded by their mother.

“I didn’t hear that.”

“Yes,” Benny muttered.

“Understood.”

“Okay, then. Let’s get back to business.” Alfia looked between the two boys. “Any guesses as to where the Creator is going to strike first?”

“Not really. That’s why I need your help.” Nathan adjusted his position in his seat.

“We’ve established this, Nathan.” she said matter of factly, “Benny?”

The taller boy thought for a moment, “He would start with the old. There are several old people who have CyberTech in their system. If they died, everyone would think it was either natural causes or whatever illness they have.”

Alfia nodded, “Good. So we need to find the area with the largest population of the elderly.”

“Shouldn’t we figure out how to stop the Virus first?” Nathan asked.

“We need to see how the Virus works before we can do that.” She told him.

“So you’re suggesting that we let people die before we even try to figure out how to save them?” He asked harshly.

“I’m saying that there are several elderly people who have lived good long lives and most of them are battling both mental and physical diseases. It wouldn’t be too long before they died anyways.” She explained.

“Some of them might have years left of their lives!” Nathan argued.

“But if they have a mental disease that makes their minds go, then it’s not really living!” she exclaimed.

Benny cleared his throat, “We might want to have this conversation somewhere else. We’re starting to draw more attention than usual.”

Alfia glanced around and saw that he was right, “We need to move to a more secure location.”

She stood up and walked out of the shop, not looking back to see if they were following her or not. She didn’t need to. She heard them both get up and their foot steps as they walked after her.

“She doesn’t seem to be very broken up about the amount of people that might die so that we can figure out the virus,” Nathan said, “And the whole ‘secure location’ thing? What’s up with that?”

Benny’s deep, booming voice answered, “Her dad was in the military. She grew up in the base he was stationed in when she was little before they died.”

“Huh,” Nathan didn’t say anything else after that.