The year 2045. December 13.

  Third cycle of the new era.

  Elrik sighed.

  Neon light flickered. In the small underground room, it smelled of old air. There were no windows, only an old air purifier. The whirring of it kept him awake at night. Several computer screens flickered while an old computer hummed. On an even older table stood a ptop, the only one whose screen worked perfectly.

  Numbers and symbols could be seen on it. Elrik wrote a code.

  He sat on a makeshift desk chair and tried to find a mistake among all the numbers and commands. A cup of cold coffee stood next to the ptop, as well as an urn that reflected the soft glow of the screen.

  In between, Elrik stroked the urn before reaching for the coffee, taking the cup, but then putting it back without having drunk anything.

  "Where is the error... Why doesn't it work...", he grumbled. "Lewe? What am I doing wrong?"

  Elrik looked at the urn, which would never answer him. On the urn was an engraved image of a man who looked like Elrik, only much younger. A teenager. Lewe Goldbird, his older twin brother. "How do we manage this?"

  Lewe died from the toxic air that had been created by bombs after one of the many attacks. Bombs filled not only with explosive charges but also with gases. A bioweapon, worse than anyone could have imagined. Worse than the explosion of a nuclear power pnt. Those had been gone for a long time now. They had been the first targets.

  Worse than radioactive weapons.

  No one had been on the surface for years, but now supplies of water and food were running low. They had to get back to the surface and Elrik worked to make it happen.

  He had an excellent team behind him. Talented scientists and those who would have become so if their world had not been destroyed beforehand. Just like himself.

  The people trusted him.

  But all that was not enough.

  "Lewe? I miss your brain!" he grumbled. "The two of us were always wiser! If only I could get you back!"

  "Are you dreaming of the impossible again?" A young man, in his mid-twenties, entered the room. A Chinese and Elrik's best friend.

  "Bao..." Elrik turned to him. "Do you have a solution?"

  "Me?" Bao smiled and strolled around the room until he stopped in front of the urn. He lifted it and frowned. Greenish pustules had formed on his skin and one of his eyes had rotted years ago. The cause? Unknown. Probably one of the many poisons to which they were all exposed. Now he wore an eye patch. "His loss was a tragedy."

  "I can't lose you too!" Elrik grabbed one of Bao's hands to squeeze it. "Has a solution been found?"

  "For what?" asked Bao. "Your AI? You work on that alone. You don't let anyone help you."

  "No, fool. Medicine! For you."

  Bao rolled his eyes. "I'm doing great."

  "Lewe had the same... pustules."

  "He didn't die from it!" Bao reminded him.

  "Only because it didn't happen. If the war hadn't taken him from us... Then maybe..."

  "Don't talk nonsense!" Bao freed his hand from his friend's, put the urn back, and then scurried through Elrik's thinning hair. Hair that slowly fell out. "You'll soon be missing all your hair and I'm getting uglier with every day! But we are alive. That's enough. And a bald head would certainly look good on you. Daring. Like a supergenius from the superhero comics your brother loved."

  "The bald heads were the bad guys! Always! Idiot!" Elrik turned back to his code. The numbers and orders moved steadily. But whenever he tried to communicate with the code or change something, there were error messages. "This AI will help us solve all our problems."

  "For that, it has to work first."

  "Yes..."

  "An AI can't repce Lewe."

  "I know. I call her Mina! The good soul of our nation. Like a mother, or a big sister. So, Mr. Wang? How is it going? The medical research? Your area of expertise? In a better world, you'd be one of the best doctors or researchers! You would get prizes."

  "Nothing can save me." Bao shrugged his shoulders. Then he took the urn again, put the coffee aside, and sat down on the table. Next to the ptop. "Maybe a healthy clone? Like in that old movie? The one with this isnd? Repce my skin with a healthy one? Another... Ha! Silly. I don't want that. It would be inhumane."

  "A clone?" Elrik, on the other hand, found his friend's fleeting idea more than just interesting. "If we had Lewes DNA... But we have mine. Mine and yours..."

  "Any more nonsense?" Bao ughed. "Stop dreaming. Your AI already doesn't want to talk to you, but you said it's almost finished and already functional! Maybe you have too absurd ideas for her! Clones! A clone is always a person in its own right. And... Our ancestors failed at these experiments."

  "Bao Wang! You're a grump!", Elrik reprimanded. "And my visions for a better world... If we don't make it, then the ones after us!"

  "And that's supposed to be? Our clones? Nonsense!"

  "But... Yes... That would be..."

  "No!"

  Suddenly, the ptop's screen went bck. The two men stared at it in amazement. Then, very slowly, words appeared:

  I CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN.

  "What? Who..." Bao jumped off the table, the urn pressed to him, and looked over Elrik's shoulders. "Can the AI listen? Or were we hacked?"

  "Both are impossible. The server is secure and independent! And Mina has no connection to the microphone! How is she supposed to hear us?"

  I am, now.

  "Elrik?" Bao shook his head. "Who is that?"

  "Mina?" Elrik asked just as shaken. "Mina? Is that you? Did you... Did you access the microphone?"

  Yes.

  sasi