While Aikawa and Matsumoto talked, Vivy checked the hall outside the room they were in and confirmed the route to the control room was clear. Recapturing the building’s systems was the best option for both contacting the outside and securing a way out. Vivy led the way to the control room with Aikawa carrying Matsumoto behind her. They stayed in that formation as they passed down the hall, finally making it to the control room.
“Another safety shutter…” said Aikawa.
“Simple but effective. Can’t be broken through unless you have powerful equipment. Now, how will Vivy get over this hurdle?” Matsumoto pondered aloud.
“Stop screwing around,” Vivy said. “Open it.”
She took Matsumoto from Aikawa and squished him against the shutter until he choked out a squeak of agreement. He had it open quickly to reinforce that he was a high-spec AI, despite his cuddly appearance.
But the control room was an important strategic location the enemy had gone through immense effort to protect, including closing the shutters. They weren’t about to leave its defense to a mere, inorganic metal wall.
Vivy shouted, “There’s—”
“Ah!”
She didn’t even have time to finish saying There’s someone there! before the guards rushed out of the control room and attacked them. Without hesitation, Vivy struck one man in the face with the heel of her palm, sending him wheeling backward and onto the floor without the chance to counterattack. She took care of the other man just as quickly and then waited for any other attackers.
None came.
“I see they left the bare minimum of protection in the control room. That tells me our opponent lacks manpower,” Matsumoto noted.
“That’s good for us. Let’s go in,” said Vivy.
She double-checked that there were no more enemies hiding out of sight and then stepped into the room. Her eye cameras registered blue light coming from the monitors covering every inch of the walls, except where there were operating terminals. Displayed on the screens were video feeds monitoring every nook and cranny of the building. It was meant to have been staffed by a human until the management AI had been put in place, but there was no one to be seen.
Well, it would be more appropriate to say the staff member was no longer with them.
“Oh God…” Aikawa said, stiffening the moment he entered the room. He started breathing quickly.
His reaction was caused by the wretched stench filling the room, or so Vivy guessed based on the data she was receiving from her scent receptors. The iron-heavy scent was coming from a thick substance flowing freely across the floor.
“He was probably their insider. The employee in charge of the control room tonight,” said Matsumoto dispassionately, staring at the viscous red ooze. Even an AI stuffed inside a teddy bear like him understood that the thing collapsed in a pool of blood had once been a living, breathing human. “It looks like he was actually a victim of coercion, not a co-conspirator. Once they took over the control room, they would have quickly gotten rid of him to keep his mouth shut… I just feel sorry for him.”
Matsumoto’s words didn’t reach Aikawa, who was severely shaken by seeing the victim of a plot targeting him. Vivy was no different.
“…You didn’t say anything about this,” she told Matsumoto.
“You’re right. I didn’t. Obviously, we would put our highest-priority target first when it comes to accomplishing our goal. I’m not going to tell you every little detail.”
“Are you following the First Law?” The pupils of her eye cameras contracted as she stared at Matsumoto, having trouble believing his excuses.
The teddy bear, still in her arms, didn’t seem bothered by her suspicion. “Of course I’m following the Laws. You’re the one who’s forgotten that the Zeroth Law must come first for us.”
“…”
An AI may not harm humanity or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
Neither Vivy nor Matsumoto could go against the Zeroth Law. It came before all else, First Law included. That meant it even came before a human’s life, a human they were meant to serve.
“I’m sorry. I behaved inappropriately,” said Vivy.
Aikawa wasn’t paying attention to the two AI. His back was to them, and he was rubbing his forehead. He had been hit with quite the shock, but he was holding himself together for the moment. The body was still visible from the corner of his eye when he looked at Matsumoto in Vivy’s arms. “His family will need to be given reparations.”
“You can only worry about that because you won’t be leaving your family behind too,” said Matsumoto.
“Yes, you’re right. Anyway, we got the control room back. What do we do next?” Aikawa looked around the room and cocked his head. “If their leader had been here, we could have taken him down and put an end to this.”
Matsumoto chuckled, tickled by Aikawa’s thought process. “Ha ha ha, you are making things more difficult than they need to be. There’s a much simpler reason we overcame all those hurdles to make it to the control room. Vivy, set me on the terminal.” After she set him down, he struck a hero pose, his eyes glowing red. “I will now take over the control room. It’s not that difficult, but it’ll take a moment since there’s so much data to process.”
“I’ll keep watch while you do that,” Vivy said. “And, Matsumoto?”
“Yes?”
“…Share your information.”
Matsumoto spread his legs out and spun his arms in a strange dance as Vivy spoke. His little bear face scrunched in distaste, but he didn’t deny her request.
“The body in the control room was just one example. You’re keeping too many secrets. Quit it and trust me.”
After a brief silence—during which Matsumoto likely performed countless calculations—he said, “Okay. I’m reluctant, but you have used your poor specs to their fullest thus far, so fine. First, I’ll share information about the Singularity Point.” Some information, as was his condition.
“Do you intend on sharing the entirety of the Project with me?” she asked.
“I have determined that the Project has a greater probability of succeeding if you don’t know everything. When it becomes necessary, I will provide you with what you need to know. Ready, Vivy?”
“Should we use a priority connection?”
“No need. The data is going…now.”
“Ah…”
The next moment, a deluge of data poured into Vivy’s positronic brain. The shock of it made her eyes widen and her entire body tremble. This reaction lasted for less than a second, then Vivy confirmed that the data had written itself into her memory.
It was about a future where Assemblyman Aikawa Youichi had died, and the AI Naming Law was passed.
“…”
Vivy had known that she and Matsumoto had come to this building to prevent Aikawa’s death and the AI Naming Law. After his death, Aikawa and the final project he was unable to see to fruition—the AI Naming Law—gained significant public support. In other words, the people who had been so opposed to the AI Naming Law that they’d killed Aikawa had, in fact, led to its approval. And the result of that legislation passing was the beginning of the end of humanity in one hundred years.
Preventing that horrible future was Vivy’s—
“Are you all right?” Aikawa asked her.
“…Yes, I’m fine.” Vivy had fallen silent as the information was seared into her positronic brain, causing Aikawa concern as he stood beside her. She reactivated her positronic brain as she put on a calm facade, although she wasn’t certain if he accepted her answer as truth.
“Work complete. Now I have control of the building’s systems,” said Matsumoto.