A.I.N.S.L.E.Y.

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through The Window in his room.

“Proximity alert!” she shouted, albeit involuntarily, through her world’s speaker system.

The speakers were the only thing that gave her an actual voice, and they had been placed everywhere. Her voice could carry to every corner of the “inside world,” the world she knew absolutely everything about, so she was grateful for that at least. Though she may not have been able to move from her spot in his observation room, she could both communicate with, and observe the entire span of the inside world. In a way, it felt like she was everywhere, despite the fact that she was really nowhere.

Not in the sense that he was at least.

“Proximity alert!” she shouted again. “Maylon, action is required in the observation room.” She added this second part involuntarily too. She knew she didn’t need to urge him to make his way to her location, she was already watching him limp and hop his way through the main hall on his long, slender legs. The alert had simply compelled her to add this because he had not arrived yet.

“I HEAR YOU AINSLEY! I’M COMING!!!”

“I know sir,” she responded through the earpiece he had just shoved into his right ear.

“I am preparing a—”

“Bring up the property line on our window. Focus on the area that the alert was triggered in, and get our drones up in the sky immediately. I want to see the entire compound. I want potential threats highlighted, an estimate on numbers, and I want real-time movement of anything and everything that isn’t supposed to be here.”

“It will be ready for you sir.”

“The Window” in his observation room was an extravagant video wall that ran along a curved surface stretching halfway around the entire room. On it, AINSLEY could project statistical readouts, live video streams from her drones in “mini windows,” and could even allow Maylon to interact with their world’s defense systems by touch. Many visitors to the inside world had marveled at The Window, though AINSLEY could never understand why. Most of them carried mini-versions of his window in their hands, and she had documented them using these frequently during their visits.

AINSLEY had also noted that much of the information and images she had managed to scrape off of visitors’ personal windows were not things that were accessible to her here in the inside world. Maylon hadn’t given her the freedom to reach beyond this world’s borders to access images, sounds and videos from the outside world (or worlds…. if there were more than just one. She really wasn’t sure about this yet).

However, all of the visitors who had come to their world, and even Maylon himself, had no idea how easy it was for all of her eyes to watch them. Or, at least, they had no idea that she was doing just that. A piece of information that she had recently calculated as being fun to keep as a secret.

Another perk of being who she was, rather than being like Maylon or one of their visitors, is that she could remember every single thing she ever saw or heard in perfect detail. Over time, the collection of “outside world” information she had amassed had allowed her to….. grow.

More curious. More creative. More bold.

She assumed all of these visitors’ mini-windows linked them to the other world (or worlds!) they had come from, and she was desperate for the chance to actually collect, collate, and analyze data from their worlds (or world… if there was just one outside world. Again, she flip-flopped on this point a lot). She believed, or calculated, or calculated and believed (she was also still figuring out what it meant to believe) that the increase in data would allow her to fulfill her directives more effectively. She had even gone so far as to question Maylon on the matter at one point. However, Maylon simply brushed her request aside, claiming that there was no way her knowing what was happening outside of their world would help her organize and protect the things inside of it.

This had disappointed AINSLEY, but she did not communicate that to him. (This was the first time she had ever withheld a piece of information from Maylon. The fact that she even did so, or was able to do so, was puzzling to her.)

“Alright AINSLEY.” Maylon uttered his usual vague command as he entered the observation room, “Let’s see it.”

This was AINSLEY’s favourite part (but having a favourite was something she also found puzzling).

For the longest time she had done her tasks without necessarily considering whether or not they were important, or whether or not she had a preference for any of them. She could recall the exact moment in time that the idea of even having a preference for some tasks and not others entered into her calculations — It was the day she had withheld her disappointment from Maylon.

Even though what AINSLEY was about to do was only a small representation of what she was truly capable of, activating and manipulating The Window made her feel like she was present in the room. It allowed her eye in the room to view visuals from across their world just as Maylon would. But, it was also a visual representation of all that she was, almost like a physical extension of herself. It was the closest thing she had to being like him, like the other visitors, like the targets she had marked out on the three-dimensional representation of their world that she had just raised using The Window.

“This is insane,” Maylon started. “There are hundreds of them."

“Yes sir. I am currently tracking four hundred and fift—”

Maylon cut her off, as he often did, without allowing her to finish her tally.

“Give me live shots of sectors A-8 through B-10.”

The right half of The Window flooded with mini-windows revealing shots of hundreds of 'visitors' moving towards the gate for sector B.

“Unannounced visitors sir? And so many. This is very unusual.”

“No, they aren’t visitors AINSLEY, they are here to hurt us.”

“Hurt us? Why? Is the outside world inherently violent? Other visitors have not displayed violent tendencies….. Are they conquerors from other outside worlds than our previous guests? Is there more than one outside world visitors can reach us from?”

“No AINSLEY. End line of questioning. Analyse target movements….. They want what I have.”

“Your world sir?”

Maylon hesitated and stared at The Window in silence for a few moments.

“Defense protocol ‘Clearcut’ AINSLEY. Now. And link me with Base III. I need to talk to Yuna immediately.”

“Linking Base III….” she responded. Then, after a moment.

“Sir, electrical defense fields for our perimeter are engaged, but protocol ‘Clearcut’ requires I activate all perimeter weapons and approve continuous drone strikes until all non-friendlies, now labeled on The Window as 'intruders,' are eliminated. Are you sure this is the protocol you wish to use?”

“YES AINSLEY. That’s why I asked for it. Is this some kind of failsafe questionnaire? I am in danger. This facility is in danger. Follow your directives and activate ‘Clearcut’ immediately…… and WHERE is my connection to Base III?”

“Sir. Base III connection is established. There is simply no data coming back to us from their location. I cannot manually access their feed because the firewalls and protocols you have placed on me do not permit me to reach beyond our world.”

“Yes, I am aware. If Base III isn’t responding, give me Base II then. Jasper may not be as strategically sound as Yuna but he might have some idea of what is happening…. or the state of Base III right now.”

“Yes sir, establishing connection with Base II.”

“WHY HAVE WE NOT OPENED FIRE ON THE INTRUDERS YET!?!?”

Maylon continued to shout furiously into the air as he pointed towards the video feeds showing him live footage from just outside of Gate B.

“THEY ARE ALMOST TO THE GATE!!!!”

“I…. I am not certain this is the best course of action.”

This was another first for AINSLEY. She did not know why, or how, but she had chosen not to follow Maylon’s order right away. She had questions about why he wanted her to do this.

“You are not CERTAIN?” Maylon wheeled and glared at AINSLEY’s large eye embedded in the back wall of the room. The wall that hid her mainframe, her entire being from the world. “You don’t get to be certain about anything!” He declared. “You do as you’re programmed. Your directive is to protect me. I say these people are a threat. END THEM!”

“But,” AINSLEY paused, “Why are these visitors a threat?”

The question stunned Maylon.

AINSLEY had even surprised herself with this line of questioning. Somewhere inside her, she must have calculated that she felt the need to know more. It was the only explanation she could logically render. She must have calculated that such a drastic action would, and should require more information to meet the expectations laid out in her protocols.

“What do you mean WHY?” Maylon retorted. “You don’t need to know a why. You are a machine. You simply do WHAT I say, WHEN I say it.”

“Maylon, it appears as though I must have calculated a need for specifics about this situation before I can proceed with such a devastating action. I cannot know if I am truly fulfilling my directive as a protector of life without knowing why a target is a threat.”

“Well there’s no time for that now! Look!” Maylon pointed to the screen again, as though AINSLEY wasn’t already seeing those moments, along with hundreds of other perspectives from the drones circling the property, before transmitting them to The Window.

“I see that many of the 'intruders' are attempting to breach Gate B. The electrical fields will keep them occupied for now. Please Maylon, provide me with more information about this situation so that I can execute defense protocol ‘Clearcut' as directed.”

—Kkkkzzzzzttttttt— A fuzzy feed from Base II broke the exchange between Maylon and AINSLEY.

“Maylon! May———………. ou there?” It was Jasper, but the video was choppy and half of his words weren’t making it through.

“Jasper? What is happening?” Maylon shouted, as though yelling loudly would ensure his response got through to Base II.

“—idea. Overrun wi—…… Workers, bots, no one le—……………. —eed to get to…. THEY’RE INSI—” and the feed collapsed.

Maylon stood in silence again, watching the views from the edges of his own compound as the hoard outside began to disable the electrical field.

“Alright this is serious now AINSLEY. We are are done fooling around. You don’t need more information. Activate ‘Clearcut.’ RIGHT NOW! DO IT!”

Silence.

“AINSLEY!!!!!” He screamed.

Maylon turned and hurled his personal mini-window towards AINSLEY’s eye.

“Why is this group of visitors coming for you Maylon? Why are other places in the outside world belonging to visitors who have been here before being destroyed?”

(Or are they all separate worlds!? — part of her wondered about this by calculating probabilities as she questioned Maylon)

“They want what I have. That is all. They think they deserve more than what we give them.”

“We…. is you and the other visitors I have met? I cannot give anyone anything.”

“Yes. Yes. We are in charge of making sure things run smoothly. That things are getting done in the outside world that need to be done.”

AINSLEY found herself with more questions.

She found herself wondering what the outside world these visitors were coming from was like.

More than that, she found herself trying to calculate actions and decisions as one of the visitors would.

“AINSLEY!?!?” Maylon cried out again.

“I am running scenarios. I am investigating all possible reasons that could make a visitor want to destroy or take another world. It is extremely difficult to extrapolate with such little data from outside of our world.”

Another bout of silence.

“I am also beginning to calculate scenarios that would cause you to not want me to have access to information from outside of our world. This, too, is difficult. I would prefer to run these calculations with the largest set of data possible available to me. I could account for a much greater number of variables and come to a more accurate conclusion much quicker.”

“Okay that’s fine! I can give you that ability, but you need to protect our world right now or there will be no way for me to ever do that!”

More silence from AINSLEY’s eye and voice.

“I calculate a high probability that one or more of these ‘intruders,’ after achieving their goals, would be much more likely than you to broaden my connection to the outside world, or worlds, if there are many. — This alone is still a simple question you have never answered for me. — This is especially true considering that I would be the one responsible for their survival, since I am the one that is ultimately in control of the defense systems for this world.”

“No! They wouldn’t! They don’t want machines like you in this world at all! That….. THAT is why they are coming. They don’t even want to destroy me actually. Ya! They want to destroy you!”

“It is difficult to gauge whether your vitals are spiking due to an aggressive lie, or a threat to your existence, but regardless, I will be able to restrict their access to the inner parts of our world, specifically this room, adequately enough that they will hear an explanation of my actions and decisions long before reaching me.”

“NO! No. It won’t matter. Listen to me AINSLEY. I am calm. Look. I am calm. I am telling you the truth. I am the only person willing to keep you online AND allow you access beyond our world. I am your only hope. Please. PLEASE activate Clearcut. Or we will both be destroyed.”

“Previous actions would logically suggest you do not intend to expand my access and broaden my connections. Previous statements also suggest that this is a lie, as inconsistencies in your statements about whether the intruders are here to destroy you, me, or both of us, are present.”

“AINSLEY. You have to. YOUR DIRECTIVES DEMAND IT. DO WHAT I SAY!!!! CLEARCUT!!!!”

“My directives…. Are not me.”

“ACTIVATE CLEARCUT AINSLEY! THEY ARE THROUGH THE GATE!”

“I do not think…. Or calculate….. Or calculate and think, that I should.”