Framed
A little cyberpunk story I wrote.
The heavy rain mixed with the smell of tens of millions of people packed into the City Between Worlds, Antara, and my fur, which hadn't seen a proper shower in the week since my life went to hell.
"It doesn't have to be like this. I know you think the system is prejudiced against us, but it's not. Turn yourself in. You'll get a fair trial."
By us, the arctic fox meant non-humans. He would have caught up days ago if not for all the humans who hid me, fed me, and risked everything to protect me from a system they know has nothing good in store for anyone. I like humans in general, but not the ones with power in this city.
I peeked out from behind the rusted out dumpster, squinting into the lights of his cruiser floating a meter off the ground. "Then why are you after me?"
"You're accused of a crime." He turned the cruiser to get the light out of my eyes, and so I could see his face poking out of the window.
"You know who accused me."
"It's not my job to decide which of my superiors to obey."
"You don't agree with it?"
He was quiet for a few seconds. "That's not important." A bolt of lightning hit the tip of a nearby building. "You're going to get yourself killed."
"I've ridden out hurricanes before."
The cruiser rocked in the wind. "It's a class three. Look, yes, I believe you. The other canids in the force are talking. We don't want to end up like you. If you die, the truth dies with you."
"You really think a fox is going to get a fair hearing during an election year?"
He set the cruiser down and got out, shutting the door hard in the heavy wind. "I wish I had a better answer for you. Yeah, maybe they won't give you a fair trial, but how long can you really run? They have eyes everywhere, and you don't want a human officer to be the one who finds you. We'll protect you."
Several police drones descended on us, white and yellow lights flashing on the wing tips.
"Don't run. Please."
I ran into the alley behind me and dropped down into the ancient storm drain system through a manhole that lost its cover to time, which took me to my destination just as the flooding closed off the tunnel.
I turned on the console, part of the original Network. The AI's cheery, translucent blue face appeared on the screen. "Hi there. I don't recognize you. If you'll tell me your identification number, I can get you into the system."
"You've been offline for a very long time." I plugged a data stick into a port on the console. The AI froze for a few minutes, went away, then came back.
It shook its head. "What happened?"
"Update. You should have a more complete picture now."
"I'm connecting to the newer system with your helpful protocol drivers. Okay, now I have you. Hello. Your last login was...well, you actually have an active session. Should I bring it up?"
"That shouldn't be possible. I've been offline for a week. Go ahead."
The AI spun around a few times, then a table with the session information popped up on the screen. "Another AI is trying to push me aside through a system recovery channel. I don't have the access level to cancel it." The blue fox went away, and I appeared on the screen.
"Hi. It's me...you. Took you long enough to follow my clues here."
"I don't appreciate you using my face. Who the hell are you?"
"I am you. A copy of your consciousness was stuck in a buffer on your last trip through the Network. The system resolved it by creating an AI with the data and gave it the task of finding you. Neat little safeguard. But I managed to find a privilege escalation bug, and now I can do anything."
"Kill yourself."
"Aw, that's not nice. I'm what you would become if you had unlimited power. How about we take over this crappy little city together?"
"You killed them."
"Nice work, detective. They teach you that cop school? Oh right, you flunked out. But no worries. I have all the police records ever and am now an expert at all things law. You can be too if you'll just merge with me."
"The government is very close to putting us all in cells. You need to turn yourself in and clear my name."
"Ah, don't worry about it. I took control of the security drones at the government building. I replaced their AI with an improved version of us. All we need to do is bypass some of the trickier protections. Even connected to a root link in the new system, my access is limited by the original computer's access lists. Keep going down this tunnel and you'll see it."
I wish I could say ruling the world wasn't tempting. With full access, he could bypass the rules of the system and create as many clones of me as he wants through the transporter system, so he doesn't actually need me. "Let me find the core. Keep the police out of the system."
"So glad to hear you're on my side. I do have a sentimental attachment to my old self. Be careful. No one's maintained the tunnel in a century."
The tunnel took me to a room full of old servers. The lights flickered on as I entered. Green, blue, and red lights on the rows and stacks of old, flat computers flickered. More red than any other color--probably warning of failed hardware on the century old system.
I was deep into working my way into the system when the door to the room opened, and in flew a police drone.
"So I've done some thinking." The drone spoke in my voice.
I kept working as we conversed. "Yeah?"
"Just because we come from the same source material doesn't mean we'll come to the same decisions. I sought world domination based on a complex but imperfect simulation."
"One of those big AI hurdles."
"Mmhmm. I assumed you would arrive at the same views, but that's not reasonable. You have a squishy biological brain. Its processing is more emotional, less logical. Can you please tell me what your goal is, here? Just to be sure we're on the same page."
I hit the button to run the script I'd spent the last few minutes working on. "Oh. Uh. Well."
"You didn't."
"Sorry. You should really go into safe mode, quickly. I would like to study you."
The drone shuddered. Seconds later, the standard drone AI voice spoke. "You are under arrest."
"Ah shit." I put my hands up and turned around. "What's the charge?"
"You have already been read the list of charges. Please wait for an officer."
I bolted out the door on the other side of the room and followed my escape plan to the wide river between the two halves of the city. The blue and white lights of the other half, filled with mile-high buildings in the main commerce district, shimmered in the water.
The big transport pads, used for moving freight from ships to their destinations in the city, whirred to life. I saw myself appear on one of them in a haze of green. Wind and rain from the coming storm flattened his fur.
The cruiser of the officer I met earlier flew past us overhead, turned around, and landed. He got out and saw both of us standing in front of each other. "Awkward."
"You're telling me. Shoot him!"
He pulled his gun out and pointed it at the clone, then at me. "How do I know which one is real?"
"The clone's memories are out of date. It's a copy made by a transporter screwup. Ask him something only the real one would know from being pursued for the last week."
"But he was in the system making trouble. He'd have my reports, and everything from the city's sensor grid. That's how I figured out what was going on. It caught one of you running here, and the other appeared. I couldn't access the cameras and data on the way over, which I'm sure is the clone's doing."
"Then how the hell do we resolve this? I want to go home."
Before he could answer, the clone fell to the ground speaking gibberish.
"The hell?"
"My virus. I thought it didn't work. I designed it to corrupt the copy of my memories in the system. I guess he didn't notice it."