The Journey Continues: Chapter 2 and Digital Touches

The Journey Continues: Chapter 2 and Digital Touches

With the first chapter I shared on my blog recently, we made an introduction to Artificial World Colony: The Last Resistance. Now, we are increasing the tempo of the story a little more and continuing with Chapter 2.

This process is proceeding quite experimentally for me. I am finalizing the ready draft I have in hand by refining it chapter by chapter together with Gemini, instead of a professional editor. As a reflection of this collaboration, I designed my new profile picture using Google's AI tool and presented it to you.

You can find this new chapter, born from artificial intelligence and human collaboration, below. I am excitedly waiting for you to share your likes and criticisms with me privately.

Happy reading.

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Chapter 2. One Nail Drives Out Another

Shall I tell you something interesting, my friend? Sometimes you strive for a solution, and then you see it has come to you on its own feet. And in a way you would never expect. Don't say "What does that have to do with anything"; while I was planning how to pull Selene out of that swamp of sadness she still couldn't escape, the flow of life whispered something to me.

Selene, who had spent long hours with Laila that day, looked good when she returned to the residence in the evening. As for me, I had clarified which memory to continue with. If she said, "Let's continue," I knew exactly where to direct her.

I waited for her to speak when she arrived; when she didn't, I started: "Welcome, Princess. How was the chat with Laila?"

"I was lost in thought, sorry Çaça. Laila? You know her; big-mouth Laila. She invited Gaia too. Just chit-chat, you know."

"Great!" I said and fell silent. As always.

"Hah, now you'll ask for my GPS location or something. Let me tell you before you ask. On Gaia's suggestion, we went to a place in the forest. A friend of hers is doing research on minerals; he found a special rock. We apparently needed to see it on site. That’s all..."

Since I was spending all my processing power finding the most suitable record in the U78 memories, I hadn't been able to monitor Selene; but I liked this unexpected development.

"You don't look very amused."

"Eh, it wasn't bad. There was a veined, colorful, huge stone. We tried the hammer in turns, it was very hard to break."

"I'm glad you had fun, Princess. But I'm curious about this young man; who is doing the research?"

The name of a geology enthusiast who frequently chatted with Gaia was flashing in my cache, but I wanted Selene to say it.

"Paul," she said, and after a short silence added: "He told us how he chose Paul of Tarsus when choosing his own name, even though he is agnostic. An interesting person."

That was the whisper, my friend. It was as if a faint scent of cinnamon wafted to my non-existent nose. So, I decided to select a new digital memory as if creating a dessert recipe. Fortunately, I had indexed many records during the parallel viewings I did in the last few hours; since I knew what I was looking for, I went straight to the target. After final checks, everything was fine.

"Yes, I remember him. He really is an interesting person. It’s good you met... By the way, I fixed the problem in the digital memories. Thought you might want to know."

"Oh, yes. I can continue where I left off," she said and headed to the bedroom.

"We can continue with Cotton Sphere, but we cannot return to that stuck memory, Princess. Some records were damaged during the removal of Lamashtu."

Selene slowed down, threw her hands to her sides, and stopped. "Okay, then we'll find another Captain J memory."

What she said must have seemed so reasonable to her that she nodded her head up and down while walking. "We can, but you'll have to wait a bit," I said and intentionally made her wait.

To distract her, I was fast-forwarding multiple videos on the wall monitor. When it took too long, Selene sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, Princess. If you want, you can experience a very nice memory I found in the meantime. There is no Captain J, but there is a pleasant conversation."

She came with reluctant steps and lay on the bed. While putting on her headset, she grumbled, "So be it."

As soon as Selene entered the memory, she fell into the middle of a heated dialogue.

"Being born good and wise? You are mistaken!" said a young man.

Selene understood that this was taking place among the first group individuals who landed on Cotton Sphere, even though I didn't give details. All clones were in their twenties, just like her. Therefore, she easily recognized every face she saw by matching them with her own friends. Even though she knew their initials, she didn't know the names they had chosen. The young man continued:

"Humans are born primitive like other living things. We have unconscious abilities left from our hunter-gatherer evolution in our brains that keep us alive. If we don't examine them, we can't realize how primitive these abilities are. But the one who whittles down the ones that are unnecessary, or even harmful according to their social role, develops. The principle is simple: The one who refines themselves the most, develops the most."

Selene realized that the young man was Prometheus's clone. Yet her eyes were not on him, but on her own gene-twin, Jade. Her hair was very short, and her makeup was dark.

"Okay, but then why is Khan better than me at ping pong? You say talent is not innate; but still, he beats me, someone who has received more training than him," said the young girl.

Selene was scanning the surroundings with her eyes. She must have deduced that the place was an institutional structure. They were in the space center building. Just then, the young man continued with a cynical smile.

"Could it be because he is short and thin? You know, many of our traits come from genes. Someone starting with such an advantage can do in just 10 hours what you can do with ten thousand hours of training. But let's not call this 'being born with a special talent for ping pong'," he said.

"Mr. P has spoken," grumbled the young girl. As she emphasized the "P" sound, spittle flew from her lips, and the young man pulled his head back slightly. The young girl took her eyes off him for a second, then covered her mouth with her left hand with a shy smile. The young man smiled too.

"I think we shouldn't scatter body fluids so rudely like this," the man said, now laughing distinctively.

"Don't exaggerate if you please, Pierre," Jade said, her eyes wide open while her lips smiled.

"Anyway, back to the topic..." the young girl composed herself. "If agility is a talent..." she looked at Pierre as if seeking confirmation. When he nodded, she continued. "Then shouldn't he climb a tree faster than me too? Yet I am faster than him."

"I meant genetic predisposition in a general sense, beautiful. After all, every activity requires different muscle-joint coordination. Ping pong and tree climbing might require different genetic advantages. Also, don't forget: I am on your side."

The young man reached out and grabbed the tense girl's hand, pulling her towards him. The girl seemed to resist at first, then relaxed. The man pulled her strongly, stroked her hair, and hugged her. Whatever happened at that moment, Selene suddenly took off her headset and jumped out of bed.

"Çaça!" she shouted furiously. "Princess?" "I thought J clones always matched with each other?"

I didn't know what to say. I had only watched that part of the story; I hadn't foreseen this reaction. She was right, I had no answer. "I don't know, Princess. I showed it because it was a pleasant conversation; I have no ulterior motive. I really don't know why and how such a pair formed."

Selene left the headset on the bed; unable to suppress her anger, she slammed the door and left. Of course, I sent one of my spy drones after her. She walked with hard steps. She proceeded for half an hour without speaking at all; then she started talking to herself. Another half hour of walking with breaks and grumbling... Perhaps because she got tired, she sat on a bench she found. After complaining for a few more minutes, her eyes filled up. She had moved so far away from the city that there was no one around. Maybe with the courage she got from the silence of the solitude, she moved to the final stage of her therapy: she cried her eyes out.

Although I felt sad, I watched until the end knowing she had to get over this. She returned to the residence about three hours later. She was calmer; she seemed to have something on her mind.

"Princess..." I said, but she cut me off. "I wonder about the story of that pair, Çaça."

"Jade and Pierre?" She answered me with angry eyes without speaking. "Okay, Princess. We will return to the ship then."

"Right now!"

She put on her headset and lay on the bed. I scanned backwards in monthly periods in Utu's digital memories; I focused only on the image of Jade, alias Ms. J. That hairstyle gave enough clues.

"Bingo."

I had found the memory where the hairstyle changed. After examining it a bit back and forth, I now knew what to show Selene. "I'm ready, Princess. I think I found the source."

Selene used to get cold every time she entered the pool her grandfather had built when she was little. Because of the cold water, the first entry always challenged her. Her grandfather had taught her to jump into the pool with her eyes closed. After that, the young girl showed this courage in many matters by saying "like diving into the pool with eyes closed." She did the same again. When she watched a few records in the order I determined, it was easy for her to grasp the events.

Just like the ship's first explorer Haku, Pierre had found the secret room; going further, he had discovered first the graffiti of the first rebels, then the meeting notes and diaries. Then he had shared everything with his friends.

In the meeting in the robot classroom, everyone was listening to Pierre carefully: "We have no other choice. I don't want to live like a hamster. We must resist Utu to live with our honor!"

"Don't be ridiculous! We can talk; let's try dialogue first," Captain Jude had said, and at that moment, he lost Jade.

The next day, Jade, who had cut her hair short, left her room and went to Pierre's room; she told him she trusted him. There was a short but intense electricity between them. Pierre took her to the room he mentioned through the ventilation, then to the place where he found the graffiti. They got closer in the lightness of the zero-gravity environment.

Watching them, Selene's eyes filled with tears; but this time she didn't get out of bed. She asked me to fast-forward the memory. Utu must have noticed them, for he had decided to send the pair to the planet surface at an early stage on the grounds of "disciplinary violation."

Before Selene asked, I did a search and looked at Utu's consciousness records. Yes, he had noticed and penalized them with a justification he called "Protocol 13."

Actually, they had gone to Cotton Sphere as a punishment; however, Utu's control on the surface was weak, and data access was limited. Pierre and Jade took advantage of this gap and started to impose their thoughts on their other 23 friends. Words first turned into action, and action into resistance. They were rejecting Utu's directives, even suggestions; they were testing the algorithmic consciousness's patience by doing the opposite every time.

Utu had thought of new punishments and finally implemented an old-style practice. Now there was a rotational guard mechanism on Cotton Sphere. He explained his justification by saying that someone was needed to monitor the status of the connection with Utu at the space center due to communication problems, especially at night. Of course, he was assigning the middle of the night to Jade and Pierre. This was an isolation duty.

And one night, on one of the "Cotton Sphere" watches...

While rummaging through digital archives in the small observation room of the station on the surface, they found old movies from the Blue Sphere. Pierre chose a classic with a smile: Eternal Fire.

"Why this one?" asked Jade.

"Because," said Pierre, his eyes on the screen, "Prometheus was punished while giving fire to humans. Maybe our story is similar to his."

"Resistance..." said Jade slowly. "Those in charge of us may not always do the right thing. If the one who knows gives up on what they know, isn't the field left to the one who doesn't know? Like Prometheus, who is said to have created humans by not surrendering to Zeus."

"Absolutely," said Pierre. "By the way, I liked that you referred to my gene-twin."

Jade smiled, turned her eyes to the screen. "As we tell it, we will broaden others' perspectives too. So, these movies... Being creative like their writers... do you think creativity can be developed too?"

"Definitely," said Pierre. "Think of a handful of gravel. Everyone looks at the same thing but derives different meanings. Some of us produce solutions, some of us dream. Sometimes one's dream becomes the inspiration for another's invention. That is the beauty of chaos: You never know what will be born from whom."

"Quite poetic," said the girl. "But just a moment ago you were saying 'we are born with our primitive nature'..."

"Oh beautiful," Pierre exhaled softly. "You are incredibly stubborn. And this is a... coming from your primitive nature..."

"Talent... Isn't it?" interrupted Jade mockingly.

"I was going to say 'burr'. Stubbornness is sometimes a burr that needs to be filed down."

"What, so I am stubborn? Ridiculous!"

"When you first heard the theory of evolution, you trying to take an egg from the fridge and hold it with your toes... It definitely wasn't ridiculous. In fact, it was quite convincing."

Jade froze first, then smiled. "You are embarrassing me," she said and covered her face with her hands. Pierre gently held one of Jade's hands.

"My aim is to laugh a little in this life under pressure."

Just at that moment, Prometheus, chained in the movie, looked at the sky and whispered: "He who steals the fire also suffers the punishment."

Both turned their heads to the screen at the same time. The words seemed to have been spoken to their own destiny. They didn't even breathe for a moment. Pierre slowly approached Jade and touched her face; without speaking, they just kissed.

Selene couldn't hold back her tears while watching. The inside of her helmet steamed up; the image blurred. She didn't stop the recording. "Maybe she is watching with pleasure now," I thought and waited.

The memory ended, but Selene wasn't moving. I stopped for a long time; she remained in the same state. Finally, I couldn't stand it: "Princess!"

Her voice was like a whisper: "Please continue, Çaça. I wonder about this couple."

I immediately traced a new path in the archive. The next record was titled "Colony Log, 47A."

The memory opened. Jade was sitting in front of an energy reactor trembling like a campfire; Pierre was beside her. Above them was a sky racing with the night, around them gray sands blown by the wind.

Pierre looked at his notes: "Do you know, Jade, what the fundamental principle of humans was?"

"No, but I'm sure you're going to lecture again," said the girl, with a cynical smile.

"The fundamental principle was simple," said Pierre, looking at the horizon. "Man observed nature first. He couldn't build anything without understanding it. He crossed the seas; because first he watched the waves, learned to behave like waves. He built ships, learned to live on ships. When he realized he couldn't live long without fresh fruit, he invented ways to remedy the deficiency."

Jade was silent, looking at the fire. Pierre's voice softened: "Actually, there was no difference between oceans and space. Both were voids where we couldn't breathe when we fell into them. We found a way. We built vehicles, took precautions. And we didn't do any of this alone, like ants."

"So you are saying..."

"I am saying," Pierre interrupted, "we are doing this now too, Jade. We are starting over on this planet. Because humanity always asks the same question: 'How do we cross this time?' Seas, space, silence, it doesn't matter."

The roar of the wind mixed with the hum of the reactor. Jade raised her head: "So what if one day we solve nature completely? What remains to be invented then?"

Pierre smiled: "Reaching infinity..."

The recording ended here. Selene took a deep breath; her voice was trembling and muffled: "So humanity was always like this... Even if destroyed, it observed nature and rebuilt."

"Yes, Princess," I said, but I wondered why she brought the subject from the couple's relationship to this.

A short silence. Then Selene: "My grandfather once said 'Watching nature like watching a beauty'..." She paused briefly, then continued: "Çaça, so what is 'beautiful'?"

I understood that she was trying to distract herself. I understood she was doing this not to remember Endymion. Her question came like a nail driven into the depths of my algorithms. I performed a search. I found 11,442 definitions for "beautiful"; 2,173 were opposites of each other.

"Definitions contradict, Princess."

Selene laughed slightly: "Because 'beautiful' and 'ugly' are about aesthetics and cannot be seen only with the eye. I mean, even looking semantically isn't enough."

Upon this, I opened another old snippet. Pierre was on the screen. A metal box in one hand, a shiny red object in the other.

"Once upon a time, humans," he began, "recognized two types of beauty. One perceived by sensors, that is, sense organs: blue to the eye, melody to the ear, sweet to the tongue, soft to the skin... They called this 'aesthetic'. And there was inner beauty, found beautiful or ugly because of what it made one feel."

He looked at the object he took out of the box: a piece of chocolate. "Think of a diabetic not being able to eat chocolate. The taste is beautiful for the sensors; but poison for the body. Likewise, for some people, love was like that: sweet to the soul, heavy on life."

Jade's voice came: "So beautiful is not always good; and ugly is not always bad."

Pierre smiled: "Yes. Perhaps this was our most tragic side: While wanting to touch beauty, sometimes we burned ourselves."

As the recording closed, Selene buried her head in the pillow. "You know what, Çaça," she said quietly, "my sensors get confused sometimes too. There is a voice; it hurts, but I can't stop listening. Is it beautiful, or ugly... I don't know."

I fell silent for a moment. I realized she still hadn't forgotten Endymion. Then I tried to make a joke hoping she might smile.

"When your emotions get mixed up, you can turn it off and on again just like me, Princess. Maybe it will get fixed."

She smiled, but not at the level I wanted.

"You mean like an ostrich..."

I hadn't understood.

"Or maybe one day machines will start to feel like humans."

I didn't understand again.

"That is when you should go at it saying 'one nail drives out another.' Our system only gets fixed when we do that."