001

    I don’t remember falling asleep. I must have slipped into unconsciousness since the next thing I hear is the screeching, metallic blare of the alarm system. The sound is harsh and my body jolts as I’m roughly awoken from sleep. I sit up a bit too quickly and my vision swirls as the blood rushes from my head. I have to clutch my forehead with both hands to keep from passing out. A groan passes my lips as I kick my feet over the edge of the bed, the warmth of the blankets leaking from my tired body. My toes graze the carpet and I prop my arms against the mattress in order to push myself into a standing position.

    “ERRI, deactivate morning alarm” I call out to the empty room as I shuffle to the dresser.

    “Voice request invalid” the cool voice of ERRI resonates back.  I resist the urge to smile in case ERRI has her sweep cameras up and running.  

The Artificial Intelligence that my parents had encoded into my room, ERRI, loved to tease me. Her official program name was Electronic Repair and Research Intelligence, but I called her ERRI for short. The fact that my parents had designed and programmed her themselves meant no room for mistakes, let alone bugs. Yet, I had a certain fondness for ERRI, despite the fact that she could be so annoying at times.

    “Very funny. Let’s try this again, I’m awake. Turn the ing alarm off,” There was a pause before the lights flicker on and the shades are drawn back.

    “Vocal frequency recognized, request granted. Good morning, Mari,”

    “Good morning, ERRI,”

The hiss of the airlock depressurizing brings my attention to the door of my room. My father strolls in, a mug of coffee in his hand, already dressed in his work uniform; a dark blue jumpsuit with the AIRCE insignia stitched over the left along with his laced brown work boots.

    “I see you’ve gotten ERRI to start cooperating,” he says and takes a sip from his coffee.

    “That’s not even the cool part. Hey, ERRI, what did the time traveler do when he realized he was still hungry?”

    “He went back four seconds, ma’am,”

I look back to my dad for any type of reaction, even wiggling my eyebrows for effect. He just laughs and takes another drink from his cup.

    “We’re still working on the title of supreme grandmaster, but ma’am will have to do for now.”

    My father glances at my unmade bed. My astrology charts, notes, and blinking tablets are strewn all over the sheets.

    “Another late night studying, huh?” he turns to me, his eyes clouded with worry, “you should be getting more sleep, you need it,”

    “You’re the one who needs sleep more than I do. And you need to shave,” I say and gesture to the faint grey stubble lining his jaw. He laughs and rubs a hand over his chin before he pretends to recoil in shock.

    “Oh my god, you’re right. Your mother won’t kiss me like this,” I roll my eyes.

    “I need to get ready to go to the Academy,”

    “Right. Don’t want to be late for your exams.” He turns on his heel to leave before he stops and produces two black computer chips from his pocket.  

    “Newest software update, make sure to give these to Ravi and Leo. I’ll send out the codes for the other Augments later today.” I nod and he drops the software into my open palm and I go to place them on my dresser.

    My parents both work under a government research branch known as AIRCE, or Artificial Intelligence Restoration and Carbon Enhancement. Their jobs, my father especially, is to write, design, and code software for the Augments.

More agile, more intelligent, and stronger than the average human, Augments are individuals who have volunteeringly undergone procedures to have mechanical, technological, and cosmetic enhancements. Augments are honed to the ideal human physique in order to counter the soaring crime rate in Seoul.

Murder, , robbery, greed. The city is plagued with corruption. Organizations devoted to this and more sprung up almost instantaneously as the idea of notoriety, wealth and power seduced many into crime, pumping more filth into the veins of Seoul like some sort of diseased, unhinged animal. People went missing only to be discovered slaughtered in alleyways, where they would later be stuffed into body bags and unknown faces would shed tears over them, only to be forgotten.

Although it is very rare, there is some risk involved in Augmenting. The fear of possible personality changes, memory loss, short circuiting and other glitches are the reason why relatively few people volunteer. Sacrificing their own bodies for the sake of our protection is why I look up to Augments, since I’m too afraid to get Augmented myself.

Augments live in Skypeak, the same tower as we do, along with all other government personnel, so I usually hand delivered a few of the software updates whenever a new program is written. Ravi and Leo are without question since they used to be my classmates, but dropped their education to focus on training.

    “Have a good day at the Academy, Mari,” my father says and kisses my forehead before he leaves and the door hisses again. My feet pad across the carpet as I move to the far side of my room, where the whole wall is in fact a huge, glass window.

    Brooding clouds roll low over Seoul’s prodigious skyline. Since our floor in Skypeak is so high up already, I can barely see the streets below and the miniature people driving their tiny cars on the morning commute.  

    “What time is it, ERRI?”

    “Is it party time, ma’am?” she dims the lights and a dark, pumping bass fills the room.

    “You know what I mean,” I sigh as the bass dies away. I start to rub my temples as the throbbing pain of a migraine starts to prod at the back of my eyes.

    “My apologies, ma’am. The current time is 0730 hours.” The Academy started in thirty minutes, which meant I still had to get ready and give Ravi and Leo their software.

I hurriedly grab my school uniform and head to the bathroom to shower. I strip off my clothes and turn the glass dial as hot water pours out from the ceiling above me, pushing a button and mint green goo dispenses onto the palm of my hand. After massaging the shampoo and conditioner into my hair, I code the appropriate settings and I’m enveloped with a gentle mist of light perfume.

I wipe off the fogged up mirror with a towel as I change into a knee-length, coarse, grey dress and button a black vest over the top of it. Cinching a silver belt around my waist, I slip on my shoes and smooth out the wrinkles in my vest.

The Academy school uniform is incredibly dull in appearance, which I absolutely hate. My best friend, Rebecca, and I once tried to change things up by tying bows in our hair, and we even went so far as to stitch up our dresses a few inches to expose more of our legs, but we were immediately sent home. The two of us just settled with painting our nails a subtle color and wearing small, plain earrings that we could easily hide with our hair.

I glance up into the mirror and straighten out my uniform. The other government personnel always said I looked more like my father since we both had the same tousled dark hair and square jaw. Like what no daughter wants to hear, I insisted I had taken after my mother, which I thought was more so. As I grew older, I started to resemble her more and more. My mother and I both shared the same set of small, pale lips and bright brown eyes. My features had gradually softened, and my face had rounded out. Nowadays, there were times when my mother’s co-workers would mistakenly call her name, confused when her doppelganger didn’t respond, only to realize later it was in fact her daughter.

I exit the bathroom and pocket the two computer chips sitting on my dresser. Seeing that I have more than enough time, I decide to make my bed and throw the charts and papers into my school bag. The lights click off as I exit my room.

“Later, ERRI,”

“Goodbye, Mari,”