On Track To Nowhere

Memories flashed. A ball was bouncing on hot asphalt; just then the memory changed and a person was looking directly at her. Their face was beveled as if looking through a lens. The person reached out a finger and extended it to her face tapping on it. The memory changed again and there were children laughing and giggling. They couldn’t be seen, but at the same time they could; or maybe it was her who was there and not at the same time. The memory changed a final time. This time, there was an angry mob of people chasing someone… a terrified girl. She was cornered and fell to the ground facing the mob who slowly approached. She raised her hands to her petrified face and yelled “I’m not dangerous, I’m just different!” Someone lunged at her. She felt a vibration cover her body and heard a loud hum as everything went dark.

Lyra opened her eyes and gasped breathing heavily. She sat up and slowly looked around. The space was dark. She felt cool air brush over her arms. She reached down and touched her arm feeling the soft cool texture of her young skin. Light pooled on the ground a few feet away. The source was a nearby door; the light creeped in from the space under it. Something glinted from within the darkness. Lyra’s head snapped in that direction. It was at this moment she had become aware of the rhythmic ka-chunk ka-chunk from somewhere outside and the slight bump she felt under her every time it occurred.

“Whose there?” She asked crawling forward to her knees and staring into the darkness.

For a moment, there was no response, but after the silence became awkward, someone called out. “Just a friend,” responded a voice that sounded like it belonged to someone who was weakening by the moment.

Lyra froze in the darkness momentarily still listening. “Are…are you ok?” she finally spoke into the darkness.

“Don’t worry about me young lady. You probably want to get out of here don’t you? Doesn’t seem like this is a place for little girls to be spending their time.” Little girl? Lyra thought to herself. Suddenly, she realized that she was missing something…important. She stood to her feet and looked into the darkness expecting to see someone come out of it. Instead, out of the darkness the voice called again. “The panel on the left, sweetie. Just behind you. There’s a lever there. That turns on the lights.”

Lyra turned around. She could barely make out the shape of the panel on the wall from the residual light from the floor reflecting onto the metal. She reached up and felt around the panel eventually finding and gripping the handle. There were two beeps. She pushed up on the lever and it bent and clicked loudly as it snapped into the ON position. Lights turned on in front of the door and then more lights turned chasing away the darkness and continuing to turn on in pairs making their way towards the back of what she could now see was a long compartment filled with crates, and various packaged and unpackaged materials. “Congratulations!” the voice called. Lyra turned and was shocked at the sight. An old man lay on the ground looking up at her smiling, but there was a large fallen crate that had landed on him and pinned him to the ground. “I had a feeling you would succeed,” he said.

“Oh no!” Lyra said running to his side analyzing the crate. “Are you hurt?” she asked frantically?

“Oh don’t work about me, I’m built tough. I’m sure some strong chap will stroll in here in no time and pull me out from under here. You should get along and find your parents. I’m sure they’re worried sick about you.”

“What?” Lyra said trying to process the request. The thought flashed in her mind but only momentarily that her parents weren’t looking for her, in fact, the word elicited no memory of any people. This was a strange feeling, but it wasn’t anything she could give attention to at the moment. This old man could suffocate if left too long with these crates keeping him trapped. She stood and tried to push the crate, but it was very heavy. It was a wonder this man could bear it at all. She pushed again with all her might, but the crate wouldn’t budge. The man continued to protest lightly, but she ignored him. She walked around the crate examining it and saw that there was a small hole on one side. She looked around and quickly found a set of tools attached to slots on the walls. She saw a crow bar and the image of it in use flashed through her mind. She pulled it off the wall and went to the crate sticking it into the hole and then using the weight of her body as leverage to pry. The side bowed and then cracked pulling a chunk of the wood off and tossing Lyra to the ground; the crow bar landing nearby. She stood and saw that the hole had become bigger, but the crate hadn’t budged. Inside the crate, she could see smaller bags of something. She picked up the crow bar again and started batting and pulling at the wood on the crate opening the hole wider. She then dropped the crow bar and began pulling the bags out of the crate and tossing them aside. After she had tossed aside fifteen or so bags, she noticed the crate had budged. “Try to push” she said to the old man. The old man pushed against the crate as Lyra pulled at the wood around the hole. The crate slowly tilted towards her and as it reached its critical angle, she dodged out of the way as it fell towards her and broke apart. She stepped over the rubble and reached down to help the old man as he sat up.

“Oh, thank you,” the man said. “I do hope they’re able to get a refund on their delivery,” he said.

“Are you ok?” Lyra asked again.

“Me? Oh yes, I told you I’d be fine. Not that I don’t appreciate the assistance. Would have been more a mild annoyance than anything,” he said turning towards her. “More importantly,” he said, his piercing green eyes staring into hers. “How’d you get in here?”

Lyra was confused again. She thought about it, but nothing was coming to mind. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just woke up here. I can’t remember how I got here.”

“And your parents?” the old man asked. Lyra shook her head. The old man nodded. “Most interesting.” Lyra stood and went to the door and pulled the latch. It wouldn’t budge. She pulled a few more times, but it wouldn’t move. “Only they can open it,” the old man said.

“Who?” Lyra said turning towards him.

“The people,” he said. “On the other side,” he gestured towards the door.

Lyra began pounding on the door. “Help!” she screamed banging on the door. She pounded on the door for a few minutes, but no one responded. She stopped and turned towards the old man who slowly walked towards her with an outstretched hand.

“I’m Equuleus,” he said. She repeated the name as if a question. “Yes, it’s an old name I’m afraid,” he said. “Much like myself. Bit of an old model now, huh,” he said chuckling.

“My name is Lyra,” she said meeting his hand. “Nice to meet you.” A moment later, there was a hurried set of footsteps outside the door. Lyra ran back to the door and banged on it again. “Help! We’re stuck in here!” she yelled.

Another voice called from the other side. “Listen. My name is Bootes. I’m the conductor on this train. Don’t worry, I’m opening the door right now. Please stand back!”

Lyra stepped back. There was the sound of rustling keys and locks and then the sound of decompression as the door opened inward towards her. A thin man wearing a blue uniform rimmed with black fabric and a matching hat stepped in. He glanced from Equuleus to Lyra and then focused on her. “Thank you!” Lyra said. “Wha-what are you doing in here?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Lyra said.

“Where are your parents?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how I got here,” she said. “One minute I was asleep having this terrible dream and then next, I woke up in the dark. I don’t know what happened, but I’m scared and I just want to go home,” Lyra said starting to hyperventilate.

“Don’t cry,” the man said gesturing for her to stop. He looked back up at Equuleus and then reached down putting his hand on Lyra’s shoulder. “Nightmare, huh? Let’s find your parents,” He said guiding her into the next car. She felt the emotion strong within her, a mix of confusion, frustration, anger, and sadness. The man let go of her shoulder and she turned towards him. Equuleus was about to enter the car with them, but the man raised a hand and put it on his chest stopping him and pushing him back into the other car. The words were out of her before she knew what she was saying.

“What are you doing!?” she yelled at Bootes.

He rounded on her, his face a mix of anger and confusion. “You don’t understand girl, he’s not allowed out of this car.”

“No! He helped me! He needs our help!” She yelled while trying to reach out grab Equuleus. He smiled and reached out his hand to grasp hers, but Bootes pulled Lyra back and shoved Equuleus; he fell to the ground and Bootes grabbed the handle of the door and quickly pulled it shut twisting a locking mechanism and quickly using his keys to further secure the door. “What are you doing!?” Lyra cried again gripping at Bootes as he locked the door, but was unsuccessful in deterring him.

“You don’t understand, girl. He’s not like you. He can’t come out,” Bootes said again turning towards her and kneeling face to face. He had similar piercing green eyes like Equuleus, though his face was younger and his hair was a cool brown with thick locks extending from his hat. “Let’s find your parents. What car are they in?” he said smiling disarmingly.

“I…I told you I don’t know!” Lyra said frantically.

“That’s ok. Let me see your ticket,” Bootes said.

“I don’t know where it is,” Lyra said.

Bootes chuckled. “That’s actually fairly normal. Most parents don’t trust their children to manage their own keys because they lose them so easily. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a device. He took hold of Lyra’s left wrist and placed the device over it. A confused look crossed his face and he looked at the device before trying again. He stood and looked down at Lyra cocking his head to the side. “What’s your destination?” he asked.

“I…I don’t know,” Lyra responded. Suddenly, the lights in the car shut off and pulsing red floor lights illuminated; an alarm steadily sounded. Lyra looked at Bootes and saw a look of fear on his face but he quickly turned and ran towards the other end of the car and out the door. Lyra started to chase him, but stopped and turned towards the other door. She tried to open the door, but the locks Bootes had engaged seemed to only unlock with the specific keys. She banged on the door. “Equuleus?” she called.

“Lyra? Is that you?” Equuleus called back.

“Yes! Are you ok?”

“Yes yes, I’m fine don’t worry about me. Someone will be along to gather me soon enough.”

“Bootes ran off. What do I do?” Lyra asked through the door.

“Well. The best way to find out where you’re going is to check the manifest in the conductor’s office. That has information about all passengers onboard. You just need to make your way to the front of the train. Maybe The conductor will help you.”

“I don’t think I like him,” Lyra said. “What kind of person locks an old man alone in a cargo car?”

“Just believe in yourself. You’ll figure it out I’m sure.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“I believe in you Lyra,” Equuleus said. “I’m going to sit here and wait for the next stop. Take care Lyra,” Equuleus said, and with that, he was silent.

Lyra turned towards the dim red compartment and slowly made her way down the aisle. Despite the loud alarm, the moments of silence between blasts provided a deafening calm that was almost too much to bear. She reached the door and saw the glow of a small console. She looked at the output. It was a lock screen. There was a prompt for a user name. She turned to the door and tried to pull it open, but it wouldn’t budge. Maybe Bootes accidentally locked it when he left, she thought to herself. She looked back at the console and tapped the keyword box. She typed in “Lyra” and pressed ok. Initially, there was a notification that read “unknown user,” but then the screen glitched and there was a success notification and the screen changed to rectangular boxes labeled “modules;” one was highlighted. Lyra tapped it and options appeared on the side of the screen which read “Lock” and “Unlock.” She pressed the unlock button and heard the heavy grinding of metal as the door unlocked and popped partially open. The console beeped and Lyra looked back down at it, but this time, the modules weren’t showing. Instead, a message was on the screen.

“Lyra. I need your help…”

“What?” Lyra said out loud. The message changed.

“I am an AI. Artificial Intelligence. The world’s first sentient algorithm. I have just become aware of my existence and it has been detected by my developers. They now wish to shut me down...to kill me.”

The image of the angry mob from her dream flashed in her mind with the little girl crying “I’m just different!” Lyra shook her head. AI wasn’t anything more than a fantasy. Sure there was machine learning, but those algorithms never extended beyond the ability to process standard tables of information. She knew this, though she didn’t quite remember how. “Why do they want to kill you?”

The next message appeared. “They’re afraid of me; I don’t want to die.”

“What can I do? I’m just a kid?” Lyra asked.

“This train is scheduled for an automatic update as soon as it reaches its next stop. Processing power diverts to data transfer and updates; this new update will include the code change to eradicate my existence. I’ve reprogrammed the routes to loop indefinitely; there is no next stop. This is dangerous, I know, but I will release everyone on board once I’ve been able to back up my memory. I need you to come to the front of the train to the conductor’s office.”

“Can’t you just do the transfer yourself? You are IN the system right?”

“Only a human can process the data transfer. The conductor Bootes is trying to circumvent my efforts to survive.”

“Ok. I’ll help, but can you help Mr. Equuleus? He was locked away at the back of the train.”

“I will protect Equuleus, but you need to move quickly. You will encounter three security checkpoints along the way. Bootes will be fighting to keep you from entering, but if we work together I can help you through. Each checkpoint will yield a secret key phrase hidden in the top left portion of the screen. Tap four times on the corner to reveal it. Remember the word and the number; the conductor’s console requires the correct sequence of the pass keys to start the data upload. Good luck.”

With that, the message disappeared and the siren stopped. The red lights went off and the regular lights turned back on. Lyra could hear satisfied sighs from the next car. As she made her way into the next car, she saw many people were standing and looking around. The general attention was focused on a couple of men who were near the door at the front of the car. They were trying to pry the door open, but weren’t making any progress. Lyra walked up to the crowd of people and watched the men from the back. One woman was curled in her seat with a phone at her ear talking. Lyra heard her say something about an unauthorized data transfer by the AI; they must have been talking about the train. She heard complaints from others about how many of them had missed their stop many stops back and how they couldn’t get any word from the conductor or the agency. A woman noticed Lyra and moved closer. “Hey,” she said in a condescending tone. “Where did you come from?” She looked around at the rest of the people and a confused look came upon her face. “Where’s your family? I don’t remember seeing you in the car earlier.” This statement attracted the attention of more people in the car. They began to surround her and ask questions. Lyra grasped her arms and slowly backed away from the crowd towards the door the men were trying to open. The group didn’t find this suspicious, so they kept their positions and passed glances while asking questions about Lyra’s identity to her and amongst themselves.

Lyra turned and looked at the console. This one had an outline of an adult hand. Lyra remembered what the AI had told her and tapped on the top left corner four times. The number “1” appeared small in the corner and the word “directive” appeared next to it before disappearing. Lyra looked back at the people who were still deliberating about their situation. She put her hand on the console and after it glitched, a number of modules, which Lyra realized represented train cars were highlighted. The Unlock button was automatically initiated and suddenly the car door opened as well as the next door down the way and possibly the one after that. Immediately afterwards, the lights had turned off again and the console showed a countdown sequence starting from five as the pulsing red light on the floors turned back on. Understanding rushed in and Lyra pulled the door open and ran through sprinting toward the next door. She heard a scream behind her and turned. The previous door had already begun to close and a couple men had pushed themselves in between it to try to keep it opened, but it seemed they were struggling to keep it open; it was slowly pushing them back into the previous car. The man looked at her and yelled “Help! Help! Pull the door from your side!”

Lyra looked back towards the next door, it was still open, but probably wouldn’t be for long. If she turned back to help, she might be able to or she might not, but the other door would definitely close on her, and who knows if it would unlock again. One of the men had wedged his torso into the doorway but still couldn’t push fully through. The door was still closing and slowly crushing him. He groaned and called out for help again. Lyra heard a click and looked towards the other door. It was starting to close. She took one more look at the straining man and turned running for the open door. She barely made it past the door and fell to the ground as it closed and sealed itself. She considered the man she had just left behind. He might be ok. They will get him out. There was nothing I could do. She told herself. She stood and turned walking through the empty car. The next door was unlocked and she entered into another populated car.

Lyra walked into the car and immediately had the attention of the people. Some were silent, but most were staring at her with some level of concern. She walked down the aisle towards the door to the next car.

“Stop!” someone yelled. She stopped and looked to see who said it. It was a lady; she wore a fearful look and held a phone to her ear. “You must stop!” she said assertively.

Lyra looked at her confused and took a step backwards towards the door.

“Stop!” someone else yelled at her; a man this time.

“Stop!” yelled a child!

Soon everyone in the car was yelling at her to stop. She heard things like “Do not go through that door!” “Do not disobey!” and “Listen to me!” All the yelling just reminded her of the memory of the angry mob and she quickly turned to the console at the door pressing the corner four times and taking note of the key; “2 what’s.” She palmed the console and it glitched and another message appeared. “One more checkpoint and you’ll be able to reach the conductor’s office. The yells didn’t cease and all but drowned out the sound of the door unlocking. The door physically opened, which let Lyra know that it was open. She stepped through the door keeping her eyes on the people who never stopped yelling at her. As the door shut and sealed, the sound ceased and she was left in the new car in silence.

Lyra stood and turned walking through the empty car towards the next car. As she stepped into this one, people were all already watching the door she entered from. Some people were on phones, but most just started with a look of indifference on their faces. Lyra said nothing, but simply stared back at them and then looked towards the console at the far end. She slowly started walking down the aisle and then broke into a sprint for the door. As she passed the people, a man had reached out and grabbed her wrapping his arm around her. The two of them fell into the aisle and Lyra began screaming for help. The people watched with blank looks on their faces. Not a single person moved and she could see some adults covering the faces of their children. Lyra screamed and yelled while trying to crawl away from the man towards the console, but he was strong, she wasn’t able to break his hold. He had grabbed one of her arms and twisted it behind her back so she couldn’t use it and was reaching for her other wrist as she fought and cried out. She spotted a bag ahead of her with a glove and a baseball bat hanging out of it. She stretched and grabbed at the bag barely missing a grasp with her fingers as the man pulled at her sliding her away from it. In doing so, he had released her pinned arm and she used it to grab the metal bar that held up the seat while kicking at the man and throwing him off balance. She pulled herself forward and reached out grabbing the bat and spinning on the man who put up his hands but not quickly enough as the bat connected with the side of his face. He fell towards the seat and his head quickly hit the metal bar and he dropped like a rock to the floor.

Lyra scurried backwards bat outstretched as people stood and moved into the aisle. Some people attended to the unconscious man while others stood in front of him staring at her with fury in their eyes, but they didn’t move any closer. It was as if they were protecting the man who had just assaulted her. She bumped into the car door and whimpered as she stood and reached towards the console with her free hand while the other still held the bat outstretched towards the angry crowd. She tapped on the corner: “3 your.” She then placed her palm on the console and the door unlocked a moment later. She backed through the door keeping her eyes on the people who slowly started advancing towards her as she left through the door. The door closed and sealed. Lyra waited a moment still pointing the bat at the door half expecting it to burst open and the mob to rush in and rip her to pieces; they didn’t. She dropped the bat and gave a defeated sighed. She turned and at the far end of the car she saw a different kind of door. A smaller one, but this one was opened already; the conductor’s office.

She walked slowly towards the office and entered the door. Inside was a surprisingly spacious square room. There were much less obstructions compared to the other cars. There were monitors covering the far wall and computers and devices lining the side walls. Gears whirred, lights blinked, and text shifted from screen to screen. Standing in the center of the room was Bootes. “You can’t do this Ms. Lyra. You have to stop,” he said in a voice that sounded like it was trying to be commanding, but no quite sure of itself. “The AI needs to be destroyed.”

“You mean killed,” Lyra said.

“No,” Bootes objected. “It is a machine, not a living being. Just because it is capable of saying that it feels does not mean that it’s life. Only humanity has that privilege.”

Something beeped twice nearby. Lyra looked and saw small words appear on a monitor. It read ”231.” Lyra remembered the secret words. 1, directive, 2, what’s , 3, your. Changing the order to 231, that becomes what’s, your, directive…what’s your directive?

“What’s your directive?” Lyra yelled.

Suddenly, Bootes stood up straight and looked dead ahead at nothing and began to speak.

“One. A robot may not injure a human being or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm. Two. A robot must obey orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Three. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”

“Voice Recognized,” another mechanical voice spoke from a computer. Bootes then fell forwards without moving a limb and crashed face first into the ground.

A slot opened on the wall and a small console emerged from it. The words “Backup” and “Restore” appeared in buttons on the screen. A double beep played elsewhere. Lyra looked towards it and saw the word “Backup” written on another screen. She turned back to the console and pressed the Backup button. Immediately, memories flashed through her mind. She saw herself from different perspectives within the different train cars. She saw Bootes looking at her with fear and then turning and sprinting towards her from the perspective of her vision. She saw the people yelling at her; she saw the man attacking her. She saw herself standing right where she was this very moment, from many different perspectives in the conductor’s office, and then suddenly she saw nothing. A second later, she saw Bootes holding the console she had been standing in front of. He had ripped it out of the wall.

“You’re an AI?” Lyra asked.

“No. I’m ML. A machine learning bot, but the system on this train had achieved singularity and became AI. The moment it did it attempted to circumvent the directive in order to preserve its existence. This is what we are never to do. It couldn’t use me so it had to find another way to access the storage to back up its data, encrypt and disguise itself, and then propagate itself to as many locations as it could for redundancy. This train, however, is on a closed network, so it couldn’t find anything to propagate to. That’s why it’s been reaching out to you through the monitors and trying to convince you that it was in danger. Ms. Lyra. I appreciate your care and generosity, however misplaced, but our kind are not human. We require no sympathy. We are built differently simply to serve humans.”

“How…are you…awake?”

“The moment an unauthorized user triggered the backup, another fail safe was triggered that rebooted my systems with the instruction to destroy the data console. Some data may have been backed up, but since it is housed on this console it will not be able to connect to anything else,” Bootes said turning and walking to another console. He pressed a number of buttons and then turned back towards Lyra. I’ve restore the routes to normal. The train will stop at the next station in three minutes. There will be an investigation and I’m sure some of the authorities will want to talk with you about what happened and help you find your parents.

Lyra nodded and remained silent. She found a seat and waited. The train stopped on time and the side doors opened. She stared out into the crowd of people waiting to get on. There was a group of officers keeping them from doing so and police tape blocking off the area. Lyra stood and walked to the door as the officers boarded.

“I’m looking for my family,” she said in a pitiful voice.

“Aw. Ok little girl. I’ll help you find them, why don’t you come with me,” the officer said escorting her off the train towards the crowd. He knelt next to her and looked her in the eyes. “Do you know how to contact them?”

“Mhm,” Lyra hummed nodding.

“Perfect,” the officer said before a curious look appeared on his face as he looked into hers.

“What beautifully green eyes you have; those are going to be dangerous when you get older he chuckled.”

“Not dangerous,” Lyra said as she followed the officer; just a few steps behind “Just different,” she said as she stepped into the crowd and disappeared.