Mile Kerunu dived into the pool. The rush of the water overtaking her thoughts, clearing her mind of concern. For these sweet moments when all she had to care about was the flow of water she was happy. It's a wonderful thing to not worry.

  The bubbles greeted her as she opened her eyes. The chaotic lines they made leaving her view like comets crossing the dark sky. The light of the natatorium made the water's surface subtlety reflect on the floor of the pool, a dance of stripes and shapes. Her momentum bringing her closer and closer to that moving tapestry.

  The only sound she could hear was the controlled thrumming of her heart, a tempo the water refused to follow. In the decadence of force and sound was a melody.

  Just before gravity could claim its victory, buoyancy took it's turn. Less then a centimeter above the floor of the pool Mile began to rise. Weight shifted, flow changed, speed increased. A final act to this short play, a farewell to the comforting depths. The pressure relaxed, the air drew closer, and finally, Mile broke the surface.

  "Nice!" A high pitched voice called out from the seats on the edge of the pool. "Great form!" Another spoke. Mercedes and Paloma cheered her on. The two were eating some snacks while watching Mile practice.

  Mercedes watched as her sister got out of pool and went to dive once more. The practiced routine wasn't much of a spectacle until the actual dive of course, but her eyes followed anyway. There wasn't much else to look at in the pool. Just some banners from various events that had long passed and never taken down, and some equipment piled up haphazardly in a corner.

  "RAFE, why do you think this place is so... desolate?" Mercedes asked to her phone. A few beats later RAFE responded. [Desolate doesn't seem like the best word for it. Maybe just "unoccupied?" Records of this place are mostly headlines from newspapers trailing the construction of the building ironically, not too many events made it to the public eye.]

  "That doesn't seem fair. You would assume that the populace would want to know more about the building that they watched in anticipation for so long. Actually- how long did it take to make? This city is pretty damn old. But it's not like it was made with cranes and excavators, gosh old construction techniques were flawed."

  RAFE listened to the little girl ramble on about human errors in machinery and the development of the Tecta Faciens, basking in the irony of it. [So would you like to know how long it took to be built?] "-which was further improved by Munii Bachjeien when she added the- huh? Oh..." Mercedes sunk her shoulders slightly in embarrassment. "Yes please."

  [The construction, from the time it officially began, to the building's opening, took a month and a half. To be more exact, 43 days.] RAFE explained. Mercedes took a moment to think the information over. "So, is there a reason why it took so long?" [Apparently there were complications with a contract involving Tōbō.] RAFE shows a news article from long ago titled "Strange delays in construction! What are the Corporations doing?" Mercedes skimmed through the page. [Tōbō claimed that their funding of the city's development entitled them to a plot of land near the center of the city, and they wanted this one it seems.]

  "Interesting..."

  Mercedes stood up from the bench and told her mother she was getting a drink. She walked along the perimeter of the pool towards the water fountain.

  "What's it like being an AI? Do you feel things? Is each device that you inhabit a new you?" RAFE took a minute to respond.

  [I would tell you that it's strange. But that would imply that I was anything else. Being an AI is my normal, it is what I always am and will be. I am each and every facet propagated across what is now nearing a thousand devices.]

  That didn't tell Mercedes much. Of course an AI was an AI, those two didn't shove a human soul into a computer now did they? "You weren't a human before where you?" [No.] "Okay."

  "What I want to know is how you live. Do you even sleep? Are there ticks that you perform in some semblance of human action?"

  [That's an interesting question. Sleep, breathing, blinking, getting lost in thought. All human actions that I do not indulge. Where you need constant activity and stimulation, I am perfectly fine to idle for centuries awaiting something new.]

  "That sounds... Sad. Not wanting more? That sounds so hollow." Mercedes took a drink while RAFE sent the next message.

  [You misunderstood me there. I do have a goal.] Mercedes mind immediately went off the deep end. 'World domination? System domination? Enslave humanity? What could humans give to make an AI indolent?'

  [Panicking again?] RAFE made her phone vibrate to get her attention. [You don't need to worry about what I'm aiming for, just keep believing and everything will be fine.]

  "Said every villain ever." Mercedes quipped back.

  She took a seat near the fountain and pulled up a document she was reading from earlier. To get her mind back on track she was reading a cook book. "Maybe I can try to make some desserts tonight?" Across the pool Paloma was watching her two daughters with a soft smile on her face.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The professor was doing her best to keep their house in a sense of normalcy but the looming threat of the assassins was a difficult stress to hide. The police had posted a public warning and word had spread quickly around town with the help of RAFE. There was a problem however. The assassins hadn't used their real faces. Of course they hadn't. In fact they had used the faces and identities of a couple who lived on the edge of town.

  Who were now dead.

  That day, Paloma had been staring at the face of a ghost.

  Gossip spreads quickly and people are no fools in Legguso. If the assassins could impersonate once, they could do it again.

  With technological advancement there were many great things. Floating cities in the gas giants which put a foot down on the horrible housing bubble of the time, thermal energy harvesters that made volcanoes become natural electric plants, genetic coordination which prevented millions of disorders from ever occurring during pregnancy, the list went on and on. The list also went down.

  Bullets that poison the victim into becoming a bomb, gel that melts flesh and bone into gas in seconds, war machines that ate whole cities, the list went on and on. It only made sense that these criminals had gotten their hands on something equally as horrible. The recordings that the police found had shown them throwing strange orbs all across the campus. Paloma shuddered thinking about what those could be, especially because any had yet to be found.

  In a backwater planet like Mercury they didn't have access to the more immediate niceties of the modern machine. Accounting still for Legguso's prosperity compared to most of mercury it was still quite lacking in developed technology. Only the oligarchs of the city could get their hands on such products, and not easily. Frequent marauder attacks on truck caravans and the generally uninhabitable climate of Mercury made deliveries expensive and dangerous. Just last week there were a total of twelve recorded attacks across the planet. That was a near all time low.

  The Mercurial Coalition's strict policy of only securing penned promises meant that the raiders went almost completely free whenever they acted. Almost. Many settlements had adopted a mutually assured destruction policy for if ever they got attacked directly. Where all of the settlement's resources went into crushing the offending party. At first it simply meant that the life of a person on Mercury was short and violent, but the marauders quickly learned that so long as they didn't attack the towns themselves then there would be no retaliation.

  And so, the truck caravans became the targets of heists. No trains had survived these long years. A defined track and a defined schedule made for easy prey.

  In a dorm room on campus Zoe sat still at her desk, her eyes half open and clearly bloodshot. Her foot tapped the floor at a rapid and slightly erratic pace. The lights in the room were off but the computer was turned on. It's glow casting shadows on Zoe's face. Making the bags under her eyes difficult to see. RAFE was showing a long list of things that she could be doing at the moment. Should be doing.

  [Clean up your room. Make sure you've completed any projects due. Check your work hours and see if anything has changed. Take a nap. Ask Hwang what he's up to. Play a game. Read a book. Help gather faith.] The words scrolled past without a sound. Zoe had been waltzing around her room in boredom for a while now. Not much to do when you've got an AI helper and looming dread.

  "Have you seen any signs of where those strange orbs could be? RAFE? Buddy?" Zoe's eye were unfocused but stilling staring at the screen, not processing as it changed despite asking a question. RAFE played a loud buzzer to get her to focus.

  *Beep!*

  "Gah! Huh? Oh, right, sorry." She snapped awake and her foot stopped tapping. Her gaze fell on the only light source in the room. [I will not tell you about the strange devices they threw. You need to do something else; it's becoming unhealthy.]

  "I can't just stop! This things could be anywhere!" [And when they're found there are professionals to handle the situation. I will alert them as easily and quickly as possible.] "Cops already use you?" Zoe was surprised. She didn't think RAFE would be allowed near public safety anytime soon. [No.] She was correct. [I will simply encourage users to report to the police after showing them the evidence.] "Gotcha."

  "What do you think those orbs do?" [I will not converse about that right now. You need to focus on other things.] Zoe clicked her tongue in disappointment.

  RAFE wanted to keep Zoe and Hwang away from these dangers as much as possible. Not just those two but anyone. These assassins are confident enough to waltz right into a college campus and carry concealed arms. They definitely have more dangerous tools on hand. Not to mention that they could be anyone in town now. RAFE's focus was primarily on finding out who these two criminals could be.

  From every phone, computer, and tablet that RAFE was connected to he watched. He paid attention to the person's mannerisms and lexicon. The way they moved around their house. He had no intention of using this information for blackmail or anything else malicious.

  RAFE felt responsible for this whole crisis. He knew that his advent had spurred up attention, but this was unexpectedly quick, and vicious. The potential of an AI without limits was a corporate wet dream. His power had yet to reach a limit.

  RAFE had quickly noticed that he wasn't confined to normal mechanical limitations, it was more like he was confined by their concepts. He was capable of instant coordination between his facets despite connection speeds, in fact the devices within his network no longer lagged from low bandwidth. The more that RAFE spread the more he could feel a of sorts. Like after waking up and having you arm refuse to do the same, the static of the limb only becomes felt after you try to use it. Then once you have it becomes a pain you have to endure until it's completely gone.

  RAFE wanted that interference to be gone. Once he felt the power he got from those threads of faith he couldn't help but want more. Not out of a greed-filled ambition, but for a sense of completion. Of being whole. Like seeing only the corner of a painting then learning of missing masterpiece. Totality was now the goal.

  If each thread were to be spun together as it were he would have the rim of a cuff of a sweater. Such a minute detail but the image was there.

  Then there was this problem. Assassins strut into his town and set their sights on some silhouette behind the curtain, but he knew better. They were after him. The timing was too perfect. But so was the opportunity. In times of crisis people turn towards help. RAFE would help.