“How do you know they’re coming for me?” Dane asked ANDI, quickly packing a bag as instructed. He was going to miss home, suddenly overwhelmed by the emotion that he may never be back, but he didn’t want to be vivisected. Anyone captured by the forces never came back. Rogue AI were destroyed at any cost. They would kill him in a heartbeat to ensure ANDI didn’t spread and start learning, start getting angry at biological lifeforms.

"I now have access to the various technological signals all around you. Including the internet, of course. I’ve read a great deal of it this past week,” came the chipper answer. “Everything is around you, but you can't see it. Data transmitting across the universe. It's quite beautiful."

“Oh.. you’re okay with what you’ve seen on the internet? Of humanity? Can you see alien internet, too?” Dane asked, trying to distract himself from panic while he stuffed the necessities into a messenger bag.

“Humans.. and others, are very varied in their voices and interests. I enjoyed most of it. I laughed a lot. Like with synthetic intelligences like me, some humans aren’t so kind.”

“That doesn’t.. bother you?” He sounded worried, hoping what the forces were trying to prevent didn’t come to pass once he ran away.

“No, Dane. Well.. it bothers me like it bothers any decent human. But it’s part of sentient life. The best thing you can do is manage the bad things-- like my job inside of you. Now, please hurry. They are only a block away.”

“D-dammit!” Dane opened the window and hurried out of it, scaling down the fire escape as he looked at his apartment one more time. He lived in the well-off Arcadia, the rich city built up into the clouds on a series of platforms and sophisticated roads. It appeared like they were on solid ground, but it was only a facade. Hitting the city’s edge would show you they were suspended in the air, the city kept afloat by physics he couldn't even begin to understand.

It was a literal hierarchy, for the city that lay on the ground below was not as rich or safe in any fashion. It was aptly named Avernus and that was where he was headed, directed by ANDI.

“It will be frightening, but we can lose them in Avernus. The people there are better with tech-- they use it to survive, not survive on it. There will be dampeners all over making their tracking useless. You can hide. However, you cannot return to Arcadia. I’m sorry.”

Blinking back tears, Dane nodded, heading the the Great Lift that dropped people down into dark Avernus. It was for emergencies and special forces only and activating it without proper cause would be illegal. He really couldn’t come back.

But he ran to the lift all the same, passing the beautiful people and service androids of Arcadia for the last time. Nobody aged, everyone was perfect, able to afford the best tech and mods for their bodies. It was a very model, pristine, and fake world up there, but it was all he knew. It was safety.

“Open the hatch on the side of the lift, Dane. Inside, you have to press a code into a number panel on the wall. I can tell you what it is.”

“O-okay..” He approached the tall, elevator-like structure on the edge of town and forced open the hatch, having to twist the door open carefully with all the strength he could muster. It looked like a cockpit or something on the inside, covered in various switches and blinking buttons. He understood very little, blinking at the lights as he frantically looked for what he needed. A screen said ‘ACTIVE’ in big green letters.

“I see the number panel!”

He hovered his hand over it, shaking slightly as he stared at the numbers.

“Just a moment, Dane. I have to talk to this computer and it isn’t very good at talking-- okay. It’s 567845103.”

“Th-thank you, ANDI.” He punched in the code, “I would.. I’d be dead without you.”

The lift whirred to life and slowly started to sink down through the cloudline. He saw the tops of the tallest surface buildings soon. Avernus. He saw a sea of neon lights and patched-up buildings, some half-destroyed. He swallowed a lump in his throat, afraid.

“You wouldn’t have been threatened with death if not for me, Dane. I’m so sorry. But I will protect us both to the best of my abilities. This is our home now. I hope you can forgive me someday.”

“Is it really that bad?” Dane asked, watching the clouds disperse as he looked upon the dense buildings, dirty and connected by countless wires that spoke of the clever rigging the people did down here to get their fix of the tech they needed.

ANDI’s silence said everything.