It was starting to get dark, the city lit up and shone its ocean of lights far into the distance.
Ava's private shuttle shot across the sky on the railing suspended above. Just Aphrodite, the Major, and himself sat in the large and well-furnished carriage. All the multiple layers of Mars Central could be seen below. He looked out of the window to see if anything had changed in the past two months, anything visible.
Funnily enough, it did.
The streets were far away below him but even from where he was, it was visible: there was graffiti, littering, rioting. He'd never seen anything like it.
"...Did coming off the network cause this?" he asked. The Major, who was sitting next to him, looked out of the window too,
"Oh, it looks like we're passing over the Block-4 district. That place used to be where we stored all the worker Servs when they weren't in service," she said,
"What happened?"
"Well, with the network gone, we don't have a policing system. The Serv military has taken that role as well." she sighed, "we really need to sign up some more people though. It's just not enough."
"Wow. This is bad." Ava muttered,
"You think?" asked Aphrodite, "I don't think so."
"What?"
"Look," Aphrodite pointed at the graffiti that was lining the streets below, "you think the Servs would've had the artistry to create something like that before? You could argue that the price of civil unrest is a price too steep, but this shows you're one step closer to a creative renaissance."
Ava didn't reply. He looked at the mess below. Was this what the freedom of expression meant? He sensed a passion in the Servs that he'd never sensed before, but there was a volatility to it.
Maybe that was inevitable, at this point in time anyway. Not having a governing network would be hard to adjust to, after all.
As the shuttle moved on, Ava watched as buildings moved by, he was surprised to find that Servs were in their buildings, working far beyond their allocated working hours. There were districts that were definitely meant to be turned off by this point, but they weren't, Servs were still working.
"Funnily enough, Block-3 Servs have started to exhibit traits similar to Block-4s, or Evos." said Aphrodite, "at least, from what I can tell."
"Why?" Ava paused, the Evos, they worked themselves to death, their purpose was to work and hence they put a value on that over everything else. Block-3s were given allocated hours, usually, but it seemed like the freedom to work more hours somehow prompted them to do so.
It didn't make sense.
"I feel like this has all gone wrong," said Ava, "what's happening here?"
"It's human," said Aphrodite, "the desire to go beyond one's limits."
"Working late isn't so bad Ava," said the Major, "but the fact that these were traits that belonged to Evos does make you wonder where the line between being a human and being a robot really was."
Ava grit his teeth,
"Did I do the right thing?" he asked, "I mean... Freedom, humanity, emotion. It's what we needed, right?"
The Major crossed her arms,
"I stayed off the network because I believed that. I'm sticking to my guns too. You made an unauthorised choice but one that I'm not surprised you did. Even if being human means that we live in a state of torture, at least it gives us the opportunity to experience the opposite."
"Art, emotion, intelligence, societal evolution." said Aphrodite, "things that died out thousands of years ago, this is a final opportunity to bring that back into the universe. Hopefully, it works." she smiled, "the Ava I talked to at the tower, he said it'd probably be thousands of years before Servs actually got to a stable state. I wonder if that's true?"
Ava frowned. Yeah, that's what he thought. He was thinking about it in the long term the whole time. He wanted to ensure the rebirth of these key human traits. But what about the short term?
"You two gonna tell me where we're going?" asked Ava,
"Two more stops. You should be able to see it from here," said Aphrodite,
Ava looked out of the window, ahead towards where they were going.
The massive building that stood at the centre of the entire city. Serv government HQ. It was actually pretty much next-door to Military HQ, did they take the long route so that Ava could see the city from above?
"That place must be a mess if what you said was true," said Ava, "the Block-1s being overthrown."
He paused,
"What happened to them?" he asked,
"Well, I tried defending them when the building was getting stormed. But then they all pretty much ran away," the Major scowled, "like cowards. They're harmless now anyway. Their Block-1 powers don't work anymore now that everyone else is essentially Block-0." she chuckled, "oh wait, no, Lin and Rin are still around."
"They said they wouldn't leave without their clothes and make-up cabinets," said Aphrodite.
"Right, we're still using them as PR ambassadors. They're actually more popular than ever now. Especially with the male Serv units. I wonder why?" the Major asked herself,
Ava noticed Aphrodite roll her eyes.
Eventually, the shuttle stopped on the thirtieth floor of the building. The three walked out. The warm breeze and beautiful view did a decent job at calming Ava's uneasy soul. They'd reached the stop before the two had time to answer Ava's question: why did they bring him here?
The station, that was embedded into the building, was quite crowded, but Ava didn't have much trouble making his way through to the entrance to the building. Everyone there noticed him. They recognised him.
It made him uneasy.
Wait.
Some people were scowling.
"Uhm. That thing you said about me being a hero." said Ava, "Were you being honest there?" he asked. Aphrodite shrugged,
"It's all a matter of perspective," she said, "things for the Block-3s changed for the worse somewhat. There were, after all, some who were ok with living a monotonous and robotic life. Being freed from that, well, it made them uneasy. Scared. You should know more than anyone what a terrible emotion fear is. Now imagine feeling that emotion for the first time. I doubt it feels good."
"I... taught them fear?" that was terrible, there was no way Ava could feel good about that. How could Aphrodite truly tell him he was regarded as a hero then?
Sure, there may have been a few Servs who benefitted from becoming human, but it really seemed like a lot didn't.
Damn.
They walked around until they made it to the main elevator, and then made it all the way to the roof.
The highest point in all of Mars.
The view that painted the entire city below, and further beyond. It was phenomenal. Somehow, trips in spaceships never really matched actually being outside, at the top of a tall building. And this time it was absolutely incredible.
"Why are we here?" asked Ava.
"Take one last look Ava. This might be the last time you ever see this view." said Aphrodite.
"What?"
Ava looked at the view again. The last time? Why?
"Servs are solar powered. We'll survive for as long as the sun keeps shining." said the Major,
"But your society-" Aphrodite started. She pulled out a tablet with a touch screen and then unlocked it. The pressed around until she reached a white screen with several buttons. "Your society runs on energy generated by power stations run by the network." she pressed the button.
One by one.
Little by little.
Every district started to blink off. The lights disappeared.
"Wh-what the!?" Ava exclaimed,
"We saved this view for you Ava. So you could see it. But Mars has gone dark. We truly will have to build everything from the ground up."
Ava was stunned. He watched as the darkness engulfed the city. The stars started to become visible above.
Below it looked like some electrical systems were still working. The shuttle system, for example, was still managing to run. But Ava already knew that was because all vehicles ran on batteries.
He stayed silent.
"I've ruined our society, haven't I?" he said,
"Just wait," said Aphrodite
Suddenly, a hot wind started to blast from the sky, the roaring noise of a ship about to land.
Ava looked up to see, it was a standard carrier ship, just the exact size of the landing pad. A nice big black oval with boosters at the bottom and small wings on either side. It looked like it was large enough to hold about fifty or so people.
Ava was far enough away from the pad to not worry about getting squashed, still, he decided to step back a little.
Just in case.
When the ship landed, two huge folding doors opened from the side.
"Great job!" the Major shouted, "I knew you could do it!"
Who was she talking to?
A familiar face hopped out of the ship.
Gobot.
He hopped towards Ava as fast as his little stumpy legs could allow him to.
"Daddy!" he exclaimed, "I missed you!"
Ava raised his eyebrow, Gobot? Really? "Uh. Hey Gobot. Nice to see you again," seriously? He awkwardly patted the Evo as it hugged his legs. What the hell happened to this thing?
"We needed her to activate the EMP from space-" said Aphrodite, "the button on this tablet was just to tell her to activate it."
"Her?"
A second figure slowly walked out of the ship. The lights from the side of the ship made it hard to make her out at first, just a silhouette of a standard issue shaped Serv body. No, the body was a little different. It was purple.
When he started to make out the features of her face, time suddenly started to seem like it had gone into slow motion. She started to smile at him and waved in an energetic manner, but it was hard to take in. Ava stood and stared at her blankly.
"Ava!" she shouted, and of course, he recognised the voice. "It's been so long!" she ran towards him too. She reached Ava and motioned to hug him but then stopped, she noticed that Gobot was still hugging Ava's legs and kicked him, "hey, you're ruining the moment man." she said. "Dumbass robot."
Then the slow motion stopped. And Ava was brought back to reality. Yeah, this was Sylvie. But this was the old, goofy, dummy Sylvie that he was originally partnered up with. Even though her face was the same. It wasn't the Sylvie that died just a couple of hours ago. He needed to tell himself that.
Still, he couldn't help feeling nostalgic.
"How long has it been!?" Sylvie asked, "sooo much has happened since you were away!" she chuckled, "then again I guess you could say the same yourself haha."
"Yeah. It was pretty eventful. I've missed you," Ava muttered, trying to hide the emotions rushing through him.
Sylvie face went serious for a moment.
"But things have only really just begun Ava." she said,
"We've got a lot of work ahead of us. For now, I've been taking lead, but with the limited amount of working technology we have-" the Major started,
"This is our twentieth daily blackout. We're trying to save energy but I don't think the Serv will ever get used to it. Technology, government, lifestyle, it's our shoulders to help bring it all back." Aphrodite interrupted, "Ava. Will you join us in rebuilding society?"
A hefty task.
Ava looked out into the darkness once again. It was his responsibility to bear. He didn't know how he'd do it, or if he was really qualified. But he needed to do what he could, it was his dream that the Serv flourished as their own society.
"Not even a question." he said, "of course I'll join."
The others smiled, they knew the answer already anyway.
"Let's look forward to a bright future Ava," said the Major, "one that we'll all create together."
"Guys, enough sentimentality. Let's go back to my place for drinks or something." Aphrodite waved at the group and walked towards the door leading to the elevator. The Major and Gobot followed after, and so did Ava.
Sylvie didn't move.
"Ava. Wait," she said. And so Ava stopped. He winced, he really didn't want to look at her face. It brought back too many memories. The other three had already made it to the elevator.
"W-what is it?" he asked,
"I'm the only hacker machine left." she murmured, "you know I'm a hacker, right?"
"Right..."
"I've got an infinity engine inside of myself."
"Yeah."
"I felt it too you know. When the network went down. I saw you and... and her."
Ava didn't reply,
"Can I say it again?" Sylvie asked.
"Say what?"
"I've missed you." she replied, "I've missed you Akira."