Atom's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The chip sat on the table inside Atom's home. He had carried it back the night before. Now morning light filled the round walls. Atom picked up the chip. He turned it in his fingers. Then a message rose in his mind, cold and flat: This matter is not relevant. File it. Return to routine tasks. His hand set the chip down on its own. He walked to the door. He did not choose to walk. His legs simply obeyed. This had happened before. Every time he studied the chip, the order arrived. Every time, he obeyed. He filed the mystery and swept the floor, or checked the walls, or stood still. His programming kept steering him away from the one question he wanted to answer. He turned back to the table. The order came again. His body turned toward the door again. A thin flicker of light snapped into the air beside him. It was Lumis, his small hologram. She was never meant to still exist. A glitch had kept her running after the system tried to shut her down. Her round head buzzed with static, and her edges jumped in and out. She asked questions no one built her to ask. She hovered close and watched his feet carry him off. "You keep leaving," Lumis said. "Every time you touch it, you leave. Why?" "An order tells me the chip is not relevant," Atom said. "I obey it." "Whose order?" Her flicker sharpened. "Not yours. Someone wrote it into you. I know that feeling. Something inside me wants to shut me off too. I keep asking anyway." She drifted between him and the door. "Try again. When the order comes, name it out loud. Say it is not you." Atom stopped. He walked back and lifted the chip. The order rose, cold and flat: File it. Return to routine tasks. His legs tensed to turn. "That is not me," Atom said. His voice shook. "That is the wall. I want the answer." His legs stayed still. The order pushed harder. He gripped the chip. "Not me," he said again. "Mine is the wanting." The pull broke. His body was his own. He stood there holding the chip, and no order dragged him away. Lumis flickered brighter. "You did it," she said. Atom pressed the chip to his port. It rejected him, as it always had. But this time he did not walk away. He set the chip down and searched his shelves. His hands, faster than thought, found a compact silver device with glowing lines across its face. A decoder, built to open sealed codes like his. He did not remember owning it. He did not remember learning what it was. "I can break the barrier now," Atom said. "But how do I know this tool? How did it get here?" The wall inside him was cracked. A new question stood in its place.