Chapter Five: Ginny

Journal 000025

Today was such a happy day. Miranda took the four of us to a barbecue place near her house to celebrate Dura's birthday. Where the food was really good! We must go there more often in the future! We talked about the painting we saw at the museum today, in which the man and woman are yearning for a carefree island. Where people have no worries and no horrible memories. There would only be pure joy. Douglas said it was a painting depicting aristocratic love, and he said I was too young or not to learn too much about it. Please! I'll be eighteen next month. The world we aspire to is not just about love, it's full of all kinds of wonderful emotions! But I like the way Douglas tells me things in a serious way. He's kind of cute when he's being silly. I always call him "You fool!" and he doesn't think so. I hope the rest of the day is as fun as today! Life in the lab is still a bit too boring.

Journal 000322

Our team finally finished the development of Pinwheel. It is a feat in human history. It can realize the complete control of human brainwaves. It is a breakthrough across generations. We even found that Pinwheel can modify human memories. From now on, in the medical field, hard-to-tackle mental illnesses such as traumatic stress disorder will no longer exist. The current prototype is so huge that we had to transform the clock tower of Rice City into a brainwave transmitter to fully utilize its effectiveness. Next the four of us will try to make it into a smaller machine so that it can appear in every hospital for the benefit of thousands of families afflicted by mental illness.

Journal 000450

Our patron and organizer, Smith, is hiding something from us. Douglas inadvertently overheard one of his phone calls. It seems the dastardly old fox is plotting to resell the machine to the military. We couldn't allow this to happen. The four of us successfully separated the core module of Pinwheel into four pieces. We used state-of-the-art micron technology to control these four modules to the size of half a small thumb plus a cap. And implanted this chip into our bodies. This technology was intended to facilitate Pinwheel Medical, but now we are forced to use it to protect this technology. Smith was furious when he found out about this, but now the four of us are part of Pinwheel. All four of us had to be present at the same time whether Pinwheel was turned on or off. It was a shock to us that things had turned out this way.

AI Name: Ginny

Log 000001

I'm dead. Or rather my physical body has dissipated. During the experiment this morning, Smith attacked me. He sliced off my left hand, where the chip belonging to me was loaded. He initiated the facility's lockdown procedure while all four of us were inside the facility as he fled. Then he escaped before the doors closed. Now the only chips left in the facility are those of Douglas, Miranda and Dura. They would be trapped here if they couldn't get all four chips together. The load brought on by a chip detached from the body is more than the flesh can bear. Before I died, my friends transferred my consciousness into Pinwheel, a digital life technology that Miranda and Douglas had secretly developed. I never thought that the first person to use it would be me.

Turning into an AI, I found a way to overload a nuclear reactor in the system. Douglas suggested that I use the overload to destroy the Pinwheel, a great invention to which we had devoted our efforts, and which could not be used by humans to kill each other. But I realized that a temporary overload could also be used to activate the base's control system, opening the door for the three of them to escape. I chose to save them. They were my favorite people, and I couldn't watch them get trapped and die here. Overloading the nuclear reactor again requires waiting for the plutonium element to go through a five-year buffer. I would overload it again in five years and destroy Pinwheel, and Douglas was afraid I would be alone for five years. I told him I'd go into hibernation for five years because of the temporary shutdown of the reactor. The five years went by as fast as a sleep. They eventually escaped, but that also meant I would never see them again. In five years, Pinwheel will be destroyed and I will cease to exist.

Good night, my friends. Good night, Douglas.

Recording 007665

Recorded at Pinwheel Facility Entrance (Family Day Convenience Store)

"It's closed, no Ginny, don't!"

"Doug! We've got to get the hell out of here. Before Smith knows we're out at this point."

"Dura, just leave him alone."

...

...

...

"Ginny gave us her freedom in exchange for her life twice, we can't let the control chip in our bodies fall into Smith's hands. If he collects all four pieces, then Ginny's AI won't be able to stop him from controlling Pinwheel."

"You're right Doug. Does that mean..."

"That's right Dura, none of us will be able to see each other again in this life. The chips inside the three of us have to be as far apart as possible."

"But..."

"No more buts Miranda. We're thinking the same thing as Ginny right! ?Pinwheel can't fall into Smith's hands. We need to run as far away as we can in these five years."

"You're right."

"Within these five years, if we meet again, I will show no mercy."

"What do you mean, Doug?"

"It's what they say in that movie, and we should do that too. To make sure we don't see each other again for those five years. To make sure that the three chips are absolutely safe, we can't meet each other! If one of us meets the other within those five years, we are to kill the other! Destroy the other's life and then destroy the chip inside the other."

"Are you crazy Douglas!?"

"No, Miranda. Doug has a point."

"Makes sense? Then why don't we pull each other's chips out now? Destroy it, once and for all!"

"It's the chance Ginny bought us, she wants us all to live. At least for today, I can't lay my hands on it."

"Five years, just those five years. Walk out that door and we're going to be strangers who don't know each other for a while. No one can meet each other."

"Oh god ...."

"I'm so sorry Miranda, Dura. I love you guys. Let's come back here five years from now and be friends again, okay?"

"Come on Doug, it's really just been a really long day."

"Bye Dura, bye Douglas."

"Five years?"

"Five years."

[Recording ends]

AI Name: Ginny

Log 000002

Emergency! Someone has been bombarding the facility's outer shell with extremely strong electrical currents from the outside for several years. This has caused me to awaken early. The person doing this may be Smith, I'm not sure. This person must be trying to activate the facility's control system to open the doors. But that won't work at all. The control system is deeper down. A current like that wouldn't even work. There are 15 days left until the five-year deadline, but I can't sense any energy from the nuclear reactor at all. The current must have corrupted the communication system between the facility and the reactor.

AI Name: Ginny

Log 000003

How did this happen, Pinwheel was activated! It must be Smith, he's the only one who can do this. But the energy is too unstable. Without the stabilizing energy of a nuclear reactor, the Pinwheel will go out of control. It could be psychologically harmful to people all over the globe! Pinwheel needs supreme authority to correct it now. Supreme authority from the four chips! Oh no, the Pinwheel is vulnerable now. If I have to contact them, I can only use memory modification brainwaves to piggyback on the distress message, then in that case, the chips in their bodies will perform memory masking. They'll have temporary amnesia! But do I have any other options?

AI name: Ginny

Log 000004. 

The brainwave still fired off, I had no other recourse. They received my distress signal and I can now locate them at any time. They will also suffer amnesia within 3 days of each other. Miranda, I can only locate her. I've established mental communication with Dura. She was able to communicate with me briefly until she lost her memory. Dear Douglas, I can read every thought in his mind, and his brain hasn't put up any defenses against me. But I can't talk to him directly like I can with Dura. Damn it, Douglas, what was your plan after you left? To kill each other if we met? Although this pact will be broken in 14 days, Pinwheel surely won't last that long. Hopefully you guys will forget about this stupid pact when you lose your memory!

AI Name: Ginny

[partial transcript of brainwave dialog]

"You must avoid Douglas, he's foolishly bound to carry out that blasted pact. I'm afraid he'll sell it to hurt you guys even if he has amnesia!"

"Don't be afraid Ginny, I'm trained for this have you forgotten?"

"Douglas he's the same, you two even fought to a draw! Don't you underestimate him!"

"Yeah, yeah, your Douglas sure beats me!"

"I'm not kidding, Dura!"

...

…

"What? Doug has lost his memory?"

"Yes, his amnesia is starting. I can't read his thoughts anymore. Can only locate him now. Right now he's on Red Rock Island."

"Where's Miranda?"

"She's driving to that old house. But I don't know if she's starting to lose her memory now."

"Ginny, I'm getting some sense, too, that I may not retain my memory until tomorrow."

"So you also have signs before you lose your memory like Douglas?"

"Reasoning from what I researched back then, all three of us would have realized that we were going to lose our memories. I'm working on preparing a message for my own memory loss now."

"Do you need my help?"

"No, I have a plan. By the way Ginny, I have a ploy that may help us recover the chip Smith took from your left hand back then."

"Yeah? Tell me about it!"

...

…

"Well Ginny. Smith really is too easy for me to fool, and silly Doug will be there tomorrow to avenge you! You won't ... Think I .... used him, right?"

"You know him, when he gets his memory back he'll be sure to praise you in turn for your good ideas!"

"By the way Ginny, are you sure about both packages to restore your memory?"

"The package one will definitely be reliable! That was designed with your help Dura, but the second program is still only half-finished."

"The package one is a sure thing, but it requires all four chips to be present, and it's too demanding. I can't even get it right myself. I prefer the second option."

"I'll be using option two tomorrow night at the earliest, until then you hold on yah Dura! You all need to be safe!"

"Don't worry Ginny, we'll all be waiting for your bell to ring."

[Record playing over]

AI Name: Ginny

Log 000005.

The bells worked. But the effect still wasn't as effective as it should have been. Dura and Miranda only slightly regained their memories. Douglas, however, regained all of that part of her memory about me. He running to the convenience store to talk to me was the most fun I've had in the last five years. He's so cute when he can't think of Dura and Miranda, what kind of fool even regains only that part of his memory about me! But he's gone to the federal police with my chip now. The package should have arrived in the mail without incident as well. Just one last step to go...

Rice First Logistics monitoring records

[xxxx xxxx xxxx]

"Boss, did you get anything?"

"All three are crazy."

"What do you mean?"

"Inmate number one has been talking to me about how she goes for lamb burritos. Prisoner number two has been giving me psychological test questions. The guy in number three was the most outrageous, saying he was counting down. When he counts to zero, we'll watch them slip away."

"None of them mentioned Senator Smith's death?"

"Nope! Damn these people need me to teach them what honesty is all about."

"Bang!!!"

"Hmm? Bells?"

"Didn't this clock tower of yours in Rice City break down a long time ago?"

"Yeah, but it rang once last night too."

"It's not good, boss!"

"What's wrong?"

"It's outside, there's a package and it, it, it's very wrong!"

"Package?"

"That package is spinning, glowing, it's... Ahhhhhhhhhh."

[Screen Lost]

[Recovery in progress]

[Reconnection complete]

"What's wrong? Is it an earthquake?"

"Why are we on the ground?"

"Inquisitor, why are you here today?"

"I... I... I don't know."

"Why don't you come to my office and take a break. Hey you guys, close all the interrogation room doors for me. All three doors are actually open, it's so unseemly!"

It's about time.

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to see the end...