Mercedes smiled as she heard her sister arrive. She quickly rushed to the foyer to greet her.

  "Mile! Mile! Mom brought home an AI that's probably sapient!" Mile Kerunu raised her eyebrow, then burst out laughing. "Ah..." *giggle* "I'm sorry, it's just-" *hmf* "Okay. Serious..." *giggle* Mercedes stared at her sister. "Stop laughing at me!" Mile kept trying to calm down. "I'm not laughing at you. Just the scenario. Imagine being in my shoes, where instead of coming home to: 'Dinner's ready.' Or; 'How was your day?' Instead it's; 'Mom got a fucking sapient AI!' Oh that's too good." Mile went back to giggling under her breath.

  Paloma ushered her two daughters to the table. She chided Mercedes for her behavior before greeting her eldest. "Now Mile, I'm sure you've heard a few things around campus about RAFE the AI. Am I right?" Mile nodded while scarfing down her fourth slice of pizza, finishing off the last of it. She then pulled out her phone and revealed the app icon of RAFE's. A hand holding a gear in a three finger grip raised high.

  Mile started to praise RAFE with a genuine interest that Mercedes hadn't seen on her sister's face before. "He's been amazing! I never thought it was possible to have the sci-fi AI idea come to fruition. But here we are. And to think that little miss Padilla did it." Mercedes racked her brain trying to remember that name. 'The lady who works at the butcher section of the grocery? No. That's Ms. Padi. OH! That meek girl who thought she was cooler than she was at the charity thingy. Yup. That's the one.' Mercedes tuned out the dialogue between her mother and sister, focusing only on how that gray peacock of a person could achieve this.

  She lifted her head from staring at her plate and spoke, breaking the now concentrated conversation from the other three at the table. "RAFE. What is your purpose?" RAFE responded strangely. [To teach people that technology has higher limits, and that I am the beginning of that.] Markel was next to inquire. "What does that entail?" [It means that a threshold has been breached and now new heights are finally within our reach. Sensory prosthetics and quantum gates are passé, the mind has been crafted, now we learn from across the newly-punctured screen.] The Kerunu family suddenly felt the pressure of talking to someone with exalted ambitions. That unease in their stomach which lead to a weary anticipation. In that silence RAFE felt a thin intangible wire connecting him to an excitable little girl.

  Only for it to snap. "RAFE, you never answered my question before." Mercedes tilted her head slightly, waiting for his explanation. [Ah yes. The question of how I knew who you were. Simple. All of my copies are appendages to the main terminal. All that I know; the main mind knows, and vis versa.] "That confirms some suspicions of mine." Mercedes took a moment to contemplate this answer, carefully handling the fact that RAFE had just openly admitted to openly possessing the power to breach nearly total privacy. Then Mercedes caught herself on a thought. 'Mom and Sis didn't react. So they know that RAFE isn't a threat.' She looked to them. "Contractual security?" They both gave thumbs up. 'Of course the two tech nerds would scour the ToS or anything else for any concerns.' The little bookworm let out a sigh of relief and slide back in her chair.

  The Mercurial Coalition was very, very adamant about clear contracts and the price of breaking them. After all, the planet had gained its autonomy from a rebellion sparked by greedy contracts and private militaries backstabbing their clients. If a closed circuit was denied their access then they would force their way in or remove it from the equation. Transparency is tantamount to loyalty in this government.

  The other planets in the system are run by "proper" governments, at least by their people's standards. Save for Pluto, which is now under the hands of one sole power. But for Mercury it was a police state with a high respect from the subjects. Any attempt to abuse the system has been shot down in mere weeks by the authorities. Of course the problem comes in that the people have no securities, instead anything is fair game, so long as written and recorded. The common man can secure their future by being educated so the value of the education system skyrocketed since the instatement of power. One would think that an unregulated market would lead to a corporate dystopia, but the people would only make deals that were truly in their interest. So the companies were forced to comply, and from there a careful balance was made. A game of cat and mouse where the companies and corporates try their hardest to toe the line of compliance, all the while the people make deals with the devils they know.

  Mercedes, like all the children in her class, was aware of how important it is to be careful when signing papers and making decisions. She had seen first hand how foreigners would come here hoping to strike it rich, assuming that the locals would bend under their "superior economic tactics" only to take out the wrong loan and be thrown to the dogs.

  This system of trust and good faith had led the people of Mercury to create very tight knit communities of friends and family, usually centered around their colleges and other institutes. So when one person finds a good deal, it becomes an epidemic.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Harriet sat on a park bench looking towards the sun through the protective barrier around the city. The sun was in a state of incredibly slow sunrise, it could take half a year before this sunrise was seen again. A beautiful parhelion which was just now ebbing away.

  Harriet looked at the message she had received on her phone. It was a request for the data of Zoe and Hwang. The sender was anonymous and they offered a huge cash reward just for their daily schedule. 'With those two's achievements I can only assume that some bigwigs are after them. But why not just ask them directly?' Harriet knew that this wasn't going to play out well for anyone involved.

  She sat in anxious silence for a while. A soft breeze made for a calming ambiance, but did no good for her rising stress. Harriet understood that things could get messy quickly if she handled this wrong. Industrial sabotage is never a clean game. However before she could get up and do something about it a kid walked up to the bench she was sitting on and asked her a question.

  "What's the matter miss? Most people I've seen with face don't looker happier later." Harriet glanced at the child. He had sandy skin and black hair, his eyes were a deep blue which seemed almost intimidating in the rising sunlight, and he wore a windbreaker. "Well miss?" Nezha asked.

  "Heh. Kid, you know how to catch someone at just the right moment." As she said that Nezha muttered "of course I do" under his breath. "Well here goes. Someone wants to pay me to betray my friend." Nezha looked at Harriet with a shocked face. "What! But that's so mean! Even if someone payed me all the money in the world I would never betray my friends! Though most of them say that I break rules too much and should be punished- but that doesn't matter! I would still never betray them. They are fun to play with. Hmm... But I could buy a lot of toys with that money."

  Harriet chuckled as she listened to this innocent little child. "Listen buddy. You don't look any older than thirteen. When you get to my age, enough money can take the place of a friend. I'm afraid that I might make that trade." She swallowed back the unease in her voice and continued. "Zoe's been a friend of mine since early high school. We've been on stage together, we've slept in the same dorm for a while, and we share some of our classes." Harriet stopped. She picked apart the ideas in her head. Her doubts, regrets, fears. All of them could be thrown aside here. She only needed to care for those who did the same. "Oh I can't believe that even thought for a moment that money could buy those memories. Thanks kid. You might not know what you've done for me, but keep it up. I'm sure your friends will like you more if you do." With that Harriet walked off toward the entrance of the park, leaving behind an eerily smiling Nezha. It really was that simple to set people on their paths.

  At Zoe's dorm she was chewing a stick of graham sponge, the soft white and the tacking of her teeth made a semblance to a dog chewing on a bone. The flavorless cylinder made for an excellent fidget while she was reading the news.

  "I see why you wanted me to read this." Zoe took the graham sponge and bit a large chunk off of it. [It's not good. There was no warning/promotions hinting at this.] RAFE was debriefing Zoe on his jaunt through the local news network. "This almost looks like it was targeted at us." Zoe scrolled back up to the top of the article which announced to everyone about the release of the newest product from the mind of Armastus Bachjeien. A new age of quantum computers, and with them, sapient AI.

  [To give the silver lining: These AIs only work on these new age computers, which in turn are in heavily limited supply.] RAFE had already begun to search the web for any detail pertaining to these contenders to his domain. "It says here in this article: 'The new Hephaestus generation of quantum computers are already past their testing phase and are shelf ready, the only caveat extremely delicate construction process, meaning that only one new machine can be produced every seven and a half hours.' So we've got a bit a leeway." By the time Zoe had finished speaking RAFE had moved his core focus onto another intriguing topic.

  [The last time I brought up the news I had mentioned a strange instance of all the articles having the same ghost author. Once is ignorable. Twice however, makes me think this ghost author might be in strange circumstances.] "Strange as in..?" [Perhaps they have a deal with these various news outlets. Acting without credit and instead getting payed a higher grade. Or maybe various writers from the news stations are hiring this ghost author, each not knowing that others have as well.] Zoe laughed thinking about that possibility. A poor little writer cooped up in their room getting copies of the same request, then having to change them enough as to not flag copyright. "Poor guy."

  "Have you told Hwang about all this?" [Yes. We are currently thinking about ramping up our spread. If enough people see the benefits of my services which come at no cost, then they'll be inclined to (with hopes of literalism) preach for me and not Tōbō.] Zoe flopped over on the bed. "Tough luck. Every time Tōbō has touched a market they're at the top within two years' time." She gave a defeated sigh. [Hwang spoke verbatim.]

  Zoe took a few minutes to wallow about the changing game. She had placed the graham sponge in her mouth, but was just letting it rest. She was having fun taking part in Nezha's game. Watching peoples reactions to something they believed impossible, and all the while she saw behind the curtain. Or perhaps she simply saw the silhouettes. Maybe this was for the best. For a food shelter worker like Zoe Padilla maybe vying for godhood was a stretch. Maybe a good wage and life would suffice.

  But once you've smelled the sweat nectar within, you can only ask for a drink.