Farnath: The Frozen Heart Read online

  “So, it is personal it seems!” said King George. “I wonder how Arabat knew that and how did you find the resources to build such machines now? How many kings are involved in this, Ivorin?”

  “Even if I tell you, nothing will change the result. Your fate has been predestined! Surrender now and you may find a good position in the new world of the machines, you and your lovely daughter.”

  “You will have to pass over my dead body before you and your machines take the fate of humanity in your cold hands! I counter offer your request—I’m asking for your surrender and the deactivation of your robots. King George, son of King Hubert has spoken!”

  “I think we should reconsider his offer, my King,” Roy said, approaching the king sneakily from behind, whispering doubts like a snake spits poison.

  “Listen to your advisor, King. His mind is clearer than yours and it he seems he is a man that follows the way of the logic.”

  The screen went off and they couldn’t turn it on again. Andria couldn’t connect even to the internet to communicate with other leaders for help and the king realised that his systems have been hacked.

  “It’s impossible to hack them, right? Even if it was Jake?” she said worried.

  “The only way is if someone from inside plants a virus on our servers here in the palace,” he said and felt the gooseflesh of cold betrayal on his skin.

  “The enemy is stronger George, we should join him. Ivorin offered you favourable terms and maybe a good position in the new world,” Roy said, realising that it was needless to hide anymore.

  “What madness is that, did you lose your mind? How do you expect me to cooperate with those who invaded my city and killed so many good people in the name of the evolution?” the king replied outraged.

  “Roy, how did you know that they tried to kidnap me? I didn’t tell anyone?” Andria added and both father and daughter turned to the advisor, who seemed to be trapped in the corner.

  “As we speak, robot-soldiers are advancing towards the palace. All the electronic systems are blocked by Jake’s virus that I planted and most of your guards are gone already or have changed sides with me. It’s your last chance, George. Join the winners, please, and don’t put yourself or your daughter’s life into unnecessary danger.”

  King George then drew his sword that was hanged from his belt and pointed it at Roy.

  “How do you dare lecture me about my daughter’s life, you double-headed snake? Where are your values and your oath of loyalty to the king? Where is your dignity, traitor?” With that, he attacked him.

  He tried to stab him, but Roy was prepared for this moment, drew his pistol and fired at him several times. Andria screamed and cried over her father as he fell and lay wounded on the ground. Erica entered panicked, having heard the gunshots and saw Andria cradling her father’s head and Roy still holding the murder weapon in total shock. He looked back at Erica, unsure and almost embarrassed that she had seen him like this.

  One hour away from there, in his dark grey cell, Farnath was still unaware of what was happening outside, but he felt a sudden worry in his heart. He shouted several times for his guards, but nobody responded. He then realised that something was wrong and it seemed the prison had been evacuated and they abandoned him there.

  “I worry about Andria. Something is happening. I must go to her!” he said to himself.

  With that thought, his head burst into flames and he started to burn the door with fire from his hands. The door could resist 3,000C°, but Farnath was able to reach the 5,000C° with high concentration. The metal melted like butter and he ran out into the empty corridors melting any door and gates on his way, while a few other forgotten prisoners were screaming to be released.

  Back to the palace, the king lay in agony in his daughter’s arms. He opened his eyes and looked at her proudly.

  “Don’t cry for me my princess, I’m still here!”

  “Hold on dad, we are going to heal you, it’s not lethal!” she said crying.

  “You look like your mum! She is right there, baby, she is looking at us!” he said as he was staring behind Andria’s body.

  “No dad, please don’t leave me, don’t go! Dad!” She was holding him tightly hoping that if she held him tight enough he wouldn’t leave her.

  Erica came from behind and hugged her as King George exhaled his last breath, staring at the ceiling, with an ironically peaceful face, compared to his violent death. Even Roy felt sorry for him and his daughter—he didn’t want an end like this. This man wasn’t really hated, but he happened to be an obstacle to Roy’s ambitions. At the same time the robots storm the palace, found them, surrounded them and the robot-officer ordered Andria’s immediate arrest.

  “Wait, let her grieve for her father first! Give her some time, for God’s sake!” Roy demanded upset.

  But the emotionless machines couldn’t understand the idea of grief and just dragged her violently away from her father while Erica tried to stop them and even shouted at Roy for help, but he stood frozen realising the price of his power. The robots pushed her away, she fell on the floor and they warned her that if she tried to resist they would consider it as act of aggression against the System of Order and they would arrest her. She stayed on the ground crying and begging them to let Andria go free.

  The city had been captured by the robots and all the important buildings, nearby factories, tunnels and strategic points were under their control. They found more nuclear reactors at the royal warehouses and transferred them to Ivorin’s base to activate the rest of the huge war-machines. Ivorin set a defensive perimeter around it to prevent any counterattacks from the remaining of the Royal army that had dispersed to others cities, camps and strategic points of the kingdom. Jake, as the first general of the new order, was responsible for the movements of the robotic army, which he controlled from the dark control room in Ivorin’s base. In one of the hi-tech cells into this base, Andria was kept alone, devastated by her father’s death, while Erica stayed at the palace with Roy, the new prime minister of the Seventh Provision, as it was renamed. She requested several times for him to let her visit Andria, but they wouldn’t allow her to, so she just adapted to the role of the First Lady.

  Farnath managed to escape prison to find himself in a city ruled by robots. The law enforcements were patrolling the city and they were forcing everyone to give samples of their saliva, fingerprints, and they also scanned their eyes to create an individual file for everyone. The project “Crystal B” was in its first phase. The next step would be to install chip implants inside the whole population and scanners on every street, door, gate, where a person would pass, total modification of every house to a more automatic and digital, so that people’s health, social life, nutrition and decisions would be controlled by the computers and the new state. Ivorin wanted to achieve perfection by removing the word “mistake” from people’s vocabulary. His next plan would be to seize the Sixth Kingdom, that of King Martin. That wouldn’t be that difficult as he had already been holding his son and heir, Arthas, in his prison and Ivorin’s army would become larger now, thanks to the new factories that he seized in the Seventh Province.

  Part 8:

  Flight to the Freedom

  I n the dark alleyways of Ardonia, in the poor neighbourhoods where homeless and beggars existed away from the robotic patrols, unseen and forgotten, a figure passed quickly, wearing a black cloak and hood. His red face didn’t impress the few that noticed him, but the small fires that followed his steps did. Puddles from gutters dried after him and gazettes fallen from the rubbish bins caught fire. He snuck around the city, following the uncharted narrow streets, avoiding the robots that luckily didn’t have navigation systems updated with every single path behind the old shacks and grey buildings. He easily deceived them and found his way to the palace.

  Jake was working hard to reprogram the robot-soldiers that had left whole areas unpatrolled because of the changes in the streets and the public works, but the task was too much fo
r one person so Ivorin authorized him to recruit new programmers to assist him. The new teams that Jake had to create would have different tasks, such as putting cameras in places that were missing them, update the robots with maps, improve their artificial intelligence and path-finding, their fighting options and tactics and be more flexible in their decisions when changes were happening. The whole robotic-based system of command had so many gaps and Ivorin wanted to fix them immediately so that humans wouldn’t be needed anymore. He also envisioned creating a hyper-bio-intelligence computer that could think and develop like a human brain, to replace the programmers later. This task was real challenge for him, but he was already working on it.

  Erica asked Roy, her new husband, once more to let her visit Andria, but once more she received a negative answer, so she sat alone in her luxurious apartment, with the lights turned off and cried. She was too scared to leave the man who murdered the king and also so insecure about living on the streets again. After the sudden improvement of her welfare, morality and comfort were fighting inside her, trying to find an answer in her philosophical and practical questions. “What is fair in this whole situation? How important is to be fair? Why was her heart revolting against her mind and which side should she choose—a poor life of dignity or an easy life of injustice? What should she do and what could she do?” Hot air came from the open window, a shadow crept in her room and approached the scared woman silently. She didn’t even dare to scream, but, before she even realised that this shadow was actually the most dangerous man she could ever meet, he opened his palm near her face and flames lit in both of them.

  “Farnath, what are you doing here? How did you get here?” she said, a little relieved that the danger was at least a known one.

  “Where is Andria?”

  Erica told him about Ivorin, the revolution and his hideout, where Andria was kept, and even though she didn’t know where it was, she knew a way to get there.

  “They recruit new hackers and programmers to join their ranks for the upcoming war against the sixth realm of King Martin and to upgrade the robotic systems. They are transferring them with underground trains to Ivorin’s headquarter to train and evaluate them. You could join them to find her, but you will have to avoid Jake who will recognise you.”

  Later Farnath found himself in the middle of a group of geeks and programmers, wearing trousers, shirt, tie and glasses, but still in his red skin. He got their unwanted attention anyway. A short, red haired boy with pimples on his face and glasses like binoculars stopped eating his chips when Farnath looked at him.

  “Dude, that tattoo is awesome! What you supposed to be, a demon?” he asked him, spitting some chips from his mouth.

  Farnath ignored him, but looked at his chips and the boy noticed that.

  “Do you want some?” He offered him some and Farnath took them reluctantly and, after he examined them, he ate them satisfied.

  Then he opened his hand to ask for more, but the boy refused to give him and Farnath became angry, his head burst into flames and fire came out of his eyes. The nerds around him were excited by this and start talking about some video games and, while the boy didn’t realise that Farnath was about to burn him, he happily offered him his pack of chips. Farnath accepted them, worried that nobody got scared of him.

  Two lines of robots arrived, surrounded the group and led them to trains. The windows were covered so Farnath couldn’t see the speed of the train to calculate the distance or the turns to figure out how to get back. When they arrived they removed the covers from the windows before the train stopped and everybody could admire the grandiose space where the base was built. Robots were marching perfectly in squares on multiple levels of floors, vehicles were flying around, prototypes failed and exploded or did some extreme manoeuvres and other robots were climbing on walls, fixing machines and guarding doors and gates. In the square just outside the train station there were already two other groups of eager programmers being assessed by some trainers in white robes. Farnath’s group went outside the train and, in three lines, followed a blonde woman in white robe, accompanied by a small robot-worker. They walked up a hill and arrived at a building with a sign “Training Block”. Inside, there were several chambers full of personal computers for the groups of the newcomers and the woman in the white robes asked everyone to sit at a desk and turn on their computer to start the exams of the basic programming. Farnath was trying to avoid wasting his time there and looked around for an exit, but there were guards at every door and he didn’t want to expose himself before he found Andria. Without any other option left, he sat with the rest to take the exams. The supervisor asked from the newcomers to program a tiny robot on their desks, using their computer, to find the best way through small corridors to reach a box similar to a house, open its door and hold a pencil that was inside. Everyone turned on their computers, but Farnath didn’t notice how they did it as he was checking the environment for cameras and fire systems and he couldn’t find the “SWITCH ON” button. He searched everywhere while the short boy with the pimples stared at him and when he looked back, the boy said,

  “Dude? Just touch the screen.”

  “I know, I was just looking for any hidden buttons,” he said, embarrassed.

  “Whatever.”

  The short boy started to program his tiny robot, which started moving slowly. Everyone made some progress, but Farnath had no idea what to do, as he stared at his keyboard and its symbols. He pressed some random buttons, but his tiny robot was dead. The supervisors were walking around to check if anyone was cheating or to assist with their tasks. One of them, the blond woman in the white robe, noticed Farnath’s unsuccessful attempts and came behind him to watch him. He saw her disappointed face and, in a moment of desperation, smiled awkwardly and guiltily.

  “Use the programming language please,” she said and she pointed at a small notebook under his desk on a shelf. Farnath paid more attention to her pink nails pointing than the book itself, but he grabbed it, still smiling at her and moved away slowly, noting Farnath’s lack of skills. The wizard opened it and started reading carefully to understand the logic of the language. Smoke came from his head as he was trying to concentrate and some who noticed it thought it was some kind of special effect. The rest of the recruits had made progress with their robots, making them walk, falling, turning or trying to open the door of the small house, but Farnath was just reading in deep concentration. One genius programmer with a beard, long hair, wearing black T-shirt with a heavy metal band on it, managed to get his robot up to the last point and he was struggling to give the commands to grab the pencil. The short boy noticed Farnath and tried to shake him.

  “Dude, you’d better start typing, you are running out of time!”

  A few seconds later Farnath started typing at great speed, sparks coming out of his hands. He filled several pages on his screen with symbols, but the robot was still standing motionless, while the short boy was sneaking peeks to see what would happen. In the meantime some examiners were watching the heavy metal programmer who was having some difficulties making his robot catch the pencil accurately and some others, including the blonde with the pink nails, were watching the wizard who was typing like crazy. Finally, after one more minute Farnath pressed “ENTER”.

  His robot started moving smoothly, almost like a human, and with an extremely accurate path-finding, manoeuvring and turning, it ran towards the box, opened the door and grabbed the pencil like a spear, but it didn’t stop just there. It made some fighting moves, twisting it around its head and body while jumping like a ninja and finally it set the pencil on fire, like a big torch, just for Farnath’s signature. Everybody watched the show astonished applauded the skilful wizard at the end and he short boy with the pimples came closer and said,

  “Dude …!”

  Farnath was pleased by their reaction and proud of his skills and intelligence. “I’m a wizard after all,” he thought and almost forgot the real reason he was there as the blonde examiner wi
th the pink nail started flirting with him.

  The selection panel gathered to declare the names of the successful competitors that would move to the next phase, but they didn’t say Farnath’s name and the short boy looked at him comfortingly.

  “Sorry, dude.”

  Farnath couldn’t accept his failure and he was very upset that they didn’t choose him, but then the leader of the examiners, the blonde, made a statement.

  “Among us we have a brilliant mind who doesn’t need to pass to the next phase, ‘The Combat Programming’, as he showed us that he is far more advanced and talented than this.” She winked at Farnath. “This excellent programmer will be given the title of the Best Programmer and the fastest among all the groups of recruits. Unfortunately we don’t know his name, so, sir, could you share it with us?” Everyone looked at Farnath, waiting for his answer.

  “My name is… Dude,” he said unsure, while the blonde was looking at him lustfully.

  Then they gestured to him to come closer and accept the medals, while everyone applauded. Nonetheless, instead of giving him the medals, the blond supervisor made a new announcement.

  “We have the honour of having our Master among us to decorate this exceptional student.”

  Farnath was afraid that it might be Jake who would recognised him so he got ready to fight back, burn everything around him if necessary. He heard robots salute and people clapped as the Master passed between them, but still he couldn’t see him properly because of the crowd, until he came in front of him. It was a bald man with bi-tech glasses wearing white robe. Definitely not Jake! Everybody was shouting