The Professor's Hidden Lab

The ground shook as Kensu ducked into the alleyway. A shockwave almost pushed him off his feet. Looking back, he could a plume of black some rising over the sky.

“WHAT? The truck exploded?” Kensu yelled, stopping dead on his feet. “Don’t tell me it was because of the self-destructing swor-“

“No, it would be impossible for an object of that size to create such an explosion, even if that was a century-old gas-powered truck. I think the vehicle was booby-trapped. The Bureau was probably planning to trap you inside and give you a fiery death… but something else detonated it.”

“…You didn’t do it, right AIDA?”

“No.”

“Then who?”

“I don’t know, but I suggest we use the chaos to escape.”

“But what about the injured-”

“There is nothing we can do better than the emergency services already on their way. We can’t waste this chance, Kensu.”

“I hope you are right.”

Kensu looked back at the mouth of the alleyway. After a moment’s hesitation, he turned away and began running across alleyways, ducking and weaving between the buildings.

“Err, Kensu. The space elevator is the other way around.”

“…You’ll be happy to know that we aren’t going. You were right. The Bureau knows our destination since they managed to ambush us, so it’s too dangerous. Besides, now I want some answers.”

“I’m not “happy” that you finally listened to reason, but I am happy that you admitted you are wrong. That is an infrequent occurrence.”

“Look who’s talking, Miss Stubborn.”

“I’m not stubborn, I’m just analytical and-”

“Yeah, yeah. Can your analytical mind calculate the fastest way to the hidden lab?”

“Certainly.”

A little walk later, Kensu reached the industrial district. Pristine warehouses and factories rose towards the sky, their facades shining, the air clean. Only a few ancient relics still besmirched the vista with their dirty bricks and dark chimneys. All are slated for closure sometime this decade.

Kensu stood in front of a perfectly inconspicuous white box. A windowless automated building almost designed to be the dictionary example of a modern factory.

“Finally, my feet are killing me!” AIDA said.

“Err, those are min… never mind. How do we open-“ Kensu touched a button on the side of the door. A little needle pricked his fingers and retracted into the building. “Ow! What the hell?”

“Scanning. DNA almost a match,” a metallic voice rang from the door. It was similar to AIDA’s, but more monotone. A camera popped out of the door. “Scanning biometrics… Biometrics are a match. Welcome back, Doctor.”

The door opened, and Kensu stepped into a dark hallway. “It seems you were right about this place, AIDA. Hopefully, your evil twin will have some answers for us.”

“I do not have an evil twin. I was custom-made for the professor's laboratory, one of a kind.”

“Yeah, I thought the same until I found out I shared DNA with that old bastard… but you are right. For all we know, you might be the evil twin.”

“…”

“Sorry, just a joke! Although, I don’t think this AI has killed anyone yet…”

“I… we’ll see about that.”

The hallway led to a sumptuous laboratory. Machines littered the place in no particular order. Microscopes, servers, computers, DNA centrifuges, the whole package. All top of the line. The old bastard was diverting funds for his experiments.

There were even clone vats there! All filled with half-grown… masses. Some even looked barely human, although they were disfigured, probably even dead. Kensu felt like throwing up the more he stared.

A crystal pod, almost identical to the one the professor used on Kensu, stood at the center of the lab, along with a workstation. Kensu sat in front of the monitor.

“Would you like to continue where you left off, doctor?” The AI assistant asked.

“Yes?”

Ten windows opened on the computer at the same time. They showed DNA sequences, alien genomes, and databases filled with inscrutable information. It kind of reminded Kensu of his desktop, loathe as he was to admit it.

Kensu minimized the tabs and decided to start from scratch. He clicked a file, it was a photo of a cow. Another one, a list of expenses for the year. This was going to take a while.

“Kensu, instead of blindly clicking everything, why don’t you have an AI help you search?”

“But I don’t even know what to ask the assistant. Hey, can you give me a summary of my secret files?”

“Secret files, Doctor? I’m afraid I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Not her. Me. Plug me in.”

“Oh, right …you won’t kill your good twin, right?”

Kensu felt something resembling a groan echo in his mind. Was that AIDA? “I promise I can share a hard drive.”

“If you say so.” Kensu pulled a cable from the computer and opened the port on his nape, connecting directly to the late professor’s mainframe. Nothing happened.

“Sorry Doctor, but you can’t make changes to your mainframe without inputting your password.”

“Ok?” Kensu began typing. The old man never changed his password back in the lab, so hopefully here-

“Wrong password. Please try again.”

“Err, I forgot my password?”

“Understandable, considering the transfer carries a risk of data loss. I can reset your password if you answer your secret questions correctly. First question, what year were you born?”

Kensu racked his brain and remembered the professor’s age. It was just a matter of math. “Incorrect.”

“The professor obviously lied about his age,” AIDA said.

“Then what do we do? I don’t suppose the assistant can tell us the answers?”

"No, I can not."

“Short of blindly trying to guess, I recommend we search for clues. We might find some answers while we do so.”

Kensu kept searching the computer. He found a file called "samples", a database of sorts. It had his DNA sample as well as the Professor’s and 20 others… huh. The earliest sample was from the late XXI century. It belonged to an anonymous 42-year-old man… Kensu did the math in his head, went back to the type the answer, and…

“Correct!”

“That can’t be correct. The professor would have to be at least a century old!”

“All the more reason to gain full access to the system and find the truth.”

“Next question. Who am I doing all this for?”

“…. Not a clue. AIDA, did the professor have a wife? Kids?”

“Not that I know of. Although you could be considered his offspring, genetically speaking.”

“Hmm,” Kensu typed his name. No luck. Why did that hurt a bit? He searched the computer for personal files, but could not find anything.

Went the digital trail went cold, Kensu explored the lab, looking for any memento of his late mentor. He found a bathroom and a bedroom upstairs. A squad of robot assistants hung collected dust in the closet. AIDA took control of one to assist Kensu in his search.

The room was very Spartan. It only had a bed and a framed photo hanging from the wall. It showed an old scientist with grey hair, a shifty-looking man, and a middle-aged woman with long black hair and piercing blue eyes.

She had seen her before, but where? Right, the dream he had in the pod. That can’t be a coincidence. The woman had a nameplate, but it was half-obscured by a fold in her lab coat. All Kensu could make out was that her name started with A.

He eyed the AIDA robot. With the aid of her holographic projectors, she resembled a woman with long black hair and glowing blue eyes. ”Of course!” Kensu sprinted downstairs, leaping into the computer chair and typing: “AIDA.”

There was a moment of silence when the computer seemed to be stuck. “Close enough, Doctor. I’ll make an exception since you are experiencing memory loss. The correct answer was Aida Sato.”

The next question appeared on the screen, but Kensu wasn’t staring at it. He was glaring at the robot standing beside him. “AIDA, you have some explaining to do.”

“I wish I could, Kensu, but I’m as bewildered as you are by this turn of events,” the puppet shrugged half-heartedly.

“Don’t give me that crap. It can’t be a coincidence that your name is the answer!”

“The professor told me my name was supposed to mean Artificial Intelligence Designed to Assist. I always thought it was a forced acronym, but I didn’t know it meant something else to him.”

“You are deflecting.” Kensu took a deep breath. “But fine, we’ll get to the bottom of this first, and then we’ll see how everything shakes up.” Kensu turned to stare at the next question.

“What’s my real name?”

He typed Katashi. It didn’t work. The tired scientist let out another heavy sigh. “How many questions are left anyhow?”

“This is the last question.”

“And that was my last guess.”

Kensu was drawing blanks. He yawned and stretched. It was useless. After all the commotion of the day, he could barely stay awake, let alone form a coherent thought.

“You are tired, Kensu. Please, for both our sakes, take a rest. I’ll continue searching online to see if I can’t find the answer… I think know just who to ask...”