Fifth floor, right door. She could hear growling even from outside. Thinking that she is about to kill a bunch of family members she was undecided but then gathered her heart. They are now no more people from before. They were now just some monsters that are trying to harm him.
As soon the door opened two grownups and two children almost jumped out but were met with multiple light balls that turned them in specs of dust. As she entered the apartment the light form outside showed her the messy room and breakfast table filled with food. Three smaller rooms like in her apartment and one of them had pictures of Nick and little girl.
Nick? Nick was actually Nicola. Not Nicolas. She loved wearing boy clothes, but occasionally as it seems her parents would make her wear girly stuff. Maria smiled. The pictures showed her with her parents her sister and small brother. As it seems Nick is the oldest.
No wonder she was so huffy. Girls in that age were most defiant. But she listened well today. Never mind boy, a girl or something between. Nick needs to stay with her.
Definitely...
She closed the door and knocked at the other. ''Zero, can you open this door as well?''
A click could be heard on the electric door and she slowly walked in while calling.
''Anyone here?'' There was no sound at all. It seems like no one lived inside for a while as a bit of dust gathered on appliances and counters. She just went out and went back home.
Nick was sleeping deeply and Maria just picked up the laptop, brought it back and left the bracelet connected to it while she took a shower. After she was back she could see the laptop turned off and remembered that it was not connected to the electricity and probably battery run out.
''Ugh. Sorry.'' A voice could be heard when she put the bracelet back on her hand.
''Why?''
''I think I fried your technology as I tried to gather information. My speed is faster at it is and I guess...''
''Or energy was over.''
''Energy?''
''Yes. Our technologies are connected to a certain energy source and if they work too long the shutoff.''
''Energy?!''
''What kind of program are you if you didn't realize that our technology needs an outside source of power?''
''Why should I even try finding that? There was no reason for me to check such a thing.''
''Sigh. Don't worry about the laptop. If it's dead, then I will try to get another one.''
''Ugh, I need to tell you another thing I forgot.'' the voice seems to be smaller like he wanted to hide behind something. what is it now?
''Speak. It's not like I can slap yours but. Or punish you in any way.''
"Right. Uh. I forgot to tell you that my nano cells are now connected to you. So whenever you take me off, both of us lose what you call energy.''
Maria stopped in motion and stared angrily at the thing on her hand.
''What.. did ... you... just... say?!''
''I am connected to you and now part of you. Soon I will become completely your shield. But until then I am your biggest weakness actually. So do not take me off even if you shower. Or you will lose the ability to protect yourself and that child in case of emergency.''
''And you call yourself smart? How could you forget that?''
''I just remembered why you said energy.''
"Fine. Anything else you might have forgotten before?"
"If I forgot, how should I know now? I'll tell you when I remember again."
Is this program here to make her angry or is it just plain dumb? Isn't it a bit useless?
"Didn't you say I have a way to grow my own food? How about storing that food? Will it go bad in that space?"
"No. Even if you put hot or cold food it will come out just that way. The space is airless and timeless. For now, you can't enter it tho."
"It's fine. What happened with growing your powers?''
" I grow when you grow. This is the first time I'm directly attached to a being. I fear..."
Maria started getting a headache from this thing. What now? She slowly inhaled and asked.
"What is it?"
"Well, the way I see it, it seems my nano cells connected to your body. The moment you die... I will as well cease to exist."
Now she felt bad. Something that had endless lifetime will exist only a few more decades.
"Human lifetime is around one century. Some live much less but not many live much longer. Isn't your time too short? What happened to your doing back to space? Is there no way for you to detach from me?"
"Are you worried about me?"
"Yes."
"But I am not human. Why?"
"I told you us humans are complicated beings. From one side we are quite destructive, very, very destructive. But in the other hand, there are many humans that cherish all kind of life forms. Some life forms never saw daylight, living in deep depths of our oceans or in ice, some even near hot lava."
"But I am different."
"Or you can say we are different. We are just not the same species. So what if you are based in nano cells. You think on your own. Do you know how our programs act?"
"I could see. They have no own intelligence. Even tho your people are trying making some. Is the fear of unknown stopping them."
"Not the unknown. The known is the problem."
''The known?"
"What if... the question. What if artificial intelligence realizes that own makers have so many flaws and try to eradicate us from our existence. What if it becomes a mass murder weapon that goes from world to world and destructs other life firms as they might not be perfect in their eyes. We fear 'what if' the most."
"You fear to create a monster?"
"Yes. We fear to be killed indeed. But bigger fear is to create something that could destruct other life forms as well. In our history, many inventors created amazing things that ended up being quite destructive. So the higher our technologies became, the more we feared the unknown threat. Look the zombies..."
"I already told you. Its next stage of human evolution. Now about planting. Let's start the program." He changed the theme so she would stop being worried. This human is special indeed. It was not the wrong choice. Not at all.
Next thing that opened in front of her eyes was practically a game... or similar.