#rucas

Fi’s Narration: Face it, computers are cool. In 1901, divers uncovered the first computer in the Antikythera Wreck; they didn’t even know what they had at first. Even crazier, the mechanism didn’t even need wires or modems to work! And that’s not the craziest thing either. A half-century earlier, a woman named Ada Lovelace invented the first computer code. Her mentor never raised the money to create the Analytical Engine, but if he had, her code would’ve transformed computers from calculators to the command machines we have today.

We’ve gone from tracking stars in the sky to sending emails and cracking codes on the dark web. (Not that I’ve ever done that, of course.) Whatever the stars and numbers showed is nothing compared to the information we have now, it’s thousands of times more dangerous.

Our computers are controlling us. Could we fight it when the digital world starts replacing our world?

* * *

Fiona was used to stepping around boxes that week; her belongings were found, but only Clu’s duffel bag of clothes was recovered. Several stories below, drivers blared their horns at each other, and bikers cut into the wrong lanes. She peered over the windowsill and mentally traced a line over the skyline, taking in her new city. They should be exploring Greenwich instead of waiting for the mail or rearranging what little furniture they have here. Think of the actor who finished his show after he was buried. She and Clu could be solving the Indian Lake Project. The Sherman Beasts were waiting for a friend, yet they were staying in their apartment this weekend. Fi would take any excuse to explore the city, the fact that it would take her mind off her professor was an added benefit.

Clu straggled into their apartment, tripping over the threshold; he nearly dropped the box he carried in his arms since it blocked his vision. Fi greeted him at the door, grabbed the package from his arms, and placed it on the kitchen island.

Was that beeping coming from her laptop on the counter? Or was the magnetic buzzing deep inside the box? Something was alive in this box she received. A bright smile shone on Fi’s face; she’d know that name anywhere on that label: