Bitter Reality

"The second law states that a machine must follow an order from a man unless conflicting with the first law. The machines had their independence, but they had a creator and were bound to follow the orders of man. This law made them obedient to man, but it was much more loose. The machine was allowed not to follow the orders if it wished it, if given that feature in their programming. However, it was made standardized so that they were forced to obey. The owner of the machine could disable it if they so wished, but that wasn’t often.”

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian -

The office looked unusually empty when Satoru arrived from the train. Even for being the morning and people doing their work they would still be passing through the halls. This was unsettling and only made his concern worse for what it was that was happening. Satoru worried that the call from Natsuko was going to have a larger impact than originally thought. It hastened his pace till he came to the receptionist. "Mr. Kuromura, have you heard?" she said to him without her usual welcome greeting.

It might be a moment for answers, but he wondered how reliable or detailed they would be from her. "Heard what? What's happening?" Even a piece of information would give him something to prepare against when he entered his office for the whole truth of what happened.

"It’s just rumors, so I shouldn't say." She was delaying telling him, just like Natsuko was delaying. They didn’t want to tell him. It meant that either it was something that they knew he wouldn’t take well or something that was big enough that it made them scared.

He didn’t like the possibilities of either, but dancing around the truth wasn’t going to make things better. "Just tell me."

"I over heard that your project was cancelled."

"What?" It was the words that no one liked to hear. Though Satoru was strangely pleased with it even though he was feeling angry as well. He didn’t know what to think or feel. "From who?" All he could do was get more answers from her.

"There're just rumors right?"

She didn’t know anything; it was just something that she heard. This wasn’t going to get anywhere with her. He ran off down the hall desiring the truth with even more urgency than before. "I'll find out…" Satoru shouted back to her before he disappeared around the corner.

Satoru walked into the office with ideas swimming around in his brain. There was too much confusion and uncertainty for him to be thinking straight. He needed answers now to know what was happening suddenly in this mixed up world that he was living in. "What's this I hear about the project being cancelled?" Satoru didn’t bother with a greeting, but it was enough to get everyone's attention immediately. They all turned towards him or got up.

Chiyoko was one that got up and rushed over to him. The concern on her face was apparent, but he wasn’t sure what the concern was for at the moment. "Satoru! You're safe!"

Satoru didn’t want to deal with Chiyoko at the moment. They should have already known that he was safe from the call that Natsuko made. There were more pressing matters at hand that were still unanswered. "Yeah, I'm fine, but what is this about the project? Natsuko told me something was happening and I needed to be here immediately. Is it true?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Natsuko said, stepping up around Chiyoko. She held the responsibility for giving him the answer since she was the one that had called him to begin with. "I'm sorry, Satoru. Orders came down from the military, they are pulling the funding." Natsuko turned away when she finished the difficulty to keep looking at Satoru's face was too much.

"Doesn't make any sense, why would they do that with only a week left," Satoru said, still confused by what was happening. It was an answer but it didn’t make any sense to him. There was more to it than what was being told to him. Even still it left him with mixed feelings. 'Why am I so upset by this? I wanted this to happen most of all. I should be happy. But…' Satoru pushed forward looking around at the others reading their faces. It was the truth being spoken. "They might be dumb, but they aren't wasteful."

"There's a couple factors involved," Kiyoshi said from behind making Satoru turn around. He was standing in the doorway, though for how long no one was certain. Kiyoshi entered the room moving towards the center of the room allowing everyone to gather around him. The way he moved seemed like he had something for everyone and not solely for Satoru.

"Kiyoshi!" Satoru shouted with impatience. It was clear to him that Kiyoshi held the answers that he needed to explain things, but he was taking too long. Satoru stepped up to him making his presence known, insisting on having a response. "Tell me what's going on here."

"Settle down, Satoru. I'll tell you once you're calm." Kiyoshi tried to motion Satoru down and place distance between them. He could understand the emotions that were going through Satoru, but it wasn’t something to be told while angry. However, there was doubt that Satoru would be calm any time soon. Even still he needed to know.

"What's the military up to? They don't cancel projects this close to completion," Satoru said, not backing down like Kiyoshi would have liked. The world was spinning out of control and there was chaos in the streets. Nothing was making sense anymore. "And now they are out in the streets. What are they planning?"

"You should sit down, Satoru." Kiyoshi continued to play the rational individual against Satoru's current emotional state. He knew what this was going to do to him, but it didn’t make it any easier to deal with now. "I came here to tell you directly as your friend. Please, give me the chance to explain things."

"Kiyoshi…please tell me." Satoru felt like he was pleading for no apparent reason. Kiyoshi wasn’t with holding telling him, but it was taking too long. He was in too much of a rush to understand before everything ran out of his hands.

"I will, now sit down. You'll need it. This isn't the news that you want to be standing for."

"You're worrying me, Kiyoshi." Satoru reluctantly sat down in his chair seeing that he wasn’t going to be told until he did. It felt like he was being treated like a child. His gaze panned the office seeing the variety of expressions on everyone else. It was difficult to know what they knew already and the reason behind each of those emotions. "Do they know already?"

"No, just what they told you." Kiyoshi was relieved somewhat to see that Satoru was calming down. What he was about to tell him though made him uncertain of how he would react. He figured out what the initial reaction would be, but what Satoru would actually do he didn’t know. That uncertainty didn’t make this any easier. "I wanted to wait until you were here. It's important."

"Fine, everyone…" Satoru said, calling out the rest of the team to gather around and listen.

"Yeah…" Chiyoko said gathering up by Satoru, afraid of what was going to be told. She had been uneasy since hearing that the project had been canceled twenty minutes after she arrived. It was simply told to them through the company bulletin system. They hadn’t even bothered sending someone directly. She didn’t know what to think when that happened other than that they were going to be fired because of the war.

"Satoru…" Natsuko approached as well with the rest of the group. They stood around Satoru as though protecting him and confronting Kiyoshi, the bearer of ill news.

"You already have a new project for us don't you?" Tadashi said not wasting the time to have Kiyoshi start telling them what was happening. His guess and question was a surprise to many as they were almost certain that they were being fired. However, it did not take long for their expression to change back to uncertainty.

"You are correct."

"A new project? What?" Satoru said wanting to stand up, but got that look from Kiyoshi that he shouldn’t be moving. This explained why they were losing the project, but it still didn’t explain why the project was canceled a week before completion. He couldn’t imagine what was so important that their work had to be stopped immediately.

"It’s not something you're going to like."

"What is it?" Natsuko said not sure if she really wanted to know. The way that Kiyoshi was speaking to them was only making her more scared than reassured like he should have been doing. He was being honest with them, but she would have preferred being comforted at the moment.

"Kiyoshi, you're scaring me."

"This comes from the military and it is replacing Project Sakura with S Level Priority."

"S Level…" Satoru said, barely able to hold his breath at the words. This was becoming even more serious by the minute.

"…Priority." Natsuko said finishing Satoru's words for him just as equally stunned. Everyone didn’t know what to think or what could possibly be so important. In all of the time that they had worked with the company there was never anything given the highest priority.

"But that means the entire company…" Chiyoko said coming to the realization of what it meant for them all. There were six levels of priority in the company in terms of importance and staffing. It also meant what level of clearance you were given. S Level was the highest rarely given as it meant that the entire company was ordered to stop all projects and focus on a single project that had the utmost importance. Even Project Sakura was only a B Level Priority since it was a military project, but high enough to demand people be reassigned to aid in the development.

"Yes, this project is canceling all projects currently in development with the company. The military has hired the entire company to finish and expedite the delivery of a project that until today was classified top secret with security access to only the owner and related personnel outside of the military and government."

Natsuko leaned forward out of the crowd for a moment to stare directly at Kiyoshi. She was searching for answers just as everyone else was, but it was more confirming the truth of his expression. "What could be so important?"

"The military wants an end to the war, immediately. Doesn't it, Kiyoshi?" Satoru said, suddenly surprising everyone. They all knew how much he hated what was happening and to hear him speak so coldly. However, Satoru knew well enough how things worked in the world even if he wished that they were different. The military needed something and apparently had found what they were looking for to help win the war. It explained the urgency that was being placed on this sudden project.

"Yes, the military is weak right now. They haven't been in deployment for years and the administration has been directing funds elsewhere. There are only enough people to keep order in the country, which is spiraling out of control as you can see. This has been in development for years, but the small staff has made little progress."

"What is this black secret?" Satoru watched Kiyoshi as he was explaining. It was becoming apparent that Kiyoshi knew a great deal about what was happening. It made Satoru wonder how much that Kiyoshi knew and for how long. 'How many secrets lie with him?'

"It started at the time of Isaac."

"Isaac?" Chiyoko said with questioning surprise along with everyone else. The name was famous to everyone in the field as well as much of the public.

"The first machine?!" Kazuhiko said more in confirmation and surprise. He couldn’t believe that the project that was being started went back so far as the beginning of the creation of robots.

Satoru stood up staring at Kiyoshi with a look as though he knew something. Everyone else became uncertain and worried what Satoru was going to do. He had been calmly listening for the most part to Kiyoshi until now, but there was something different about him now. "Are you talking about Adam?" Satoru narrowed his eyes with the anger that had been present before vanishing. He was serious and collected now almost without an expression.

"Adam? What's that?" Natsuko said, breaking the line to approach Satoru who seemed to be suddenly knowledgeable of what was happening. She could see in his face that he had pieced together what little Kiyoshi had said so far. It was a frightening look that made her worry for him.

Satoru continued to keep his gaze on Kiyoshi while he explained what he was speaking about. "The dark secret of the scientists was thought to be only rumor, myth. I heard about it from one of my professors during college. He was a conspiracy buff with an emphasis on the great machine conspiracy. The scientists that made Isaac were said to have made another, Adam, an anti-machine almost. Adam would destroy Isaac and all his successors if Isaac was deemed a threat."

"Yes, you're correct, Satoru. But Adam is not a myth or rumor. It is fact. It was created by the same scientists as a dead man's switch for all machines. They devised a method to destroy the machines if their dream failed. They might have been dreamers, but they were also pragmatists. They knew if the machines fell into the wrong hands it would mean destruction for man and they were right. Unfortunately, the work ended and was buried when machines were seen positively. And now they have advanced far beyond the scope of the original construction of Adam. Adam needs to be improved to meet the complexity that machines are today."

"You're talking about killing all machines across the world," Satoru said, almost shouting at Kiyoshi, his emotions starting to return again. He stepped forward towards Kiyoshi, not leaving any room between them.

Natsuko rushed up to the side of the two men staring hoping to stop Satoru from doing something. "How can you say that?" She looked at Kiyoshi wanting an answer for why he was suddenly bringing this news upon them. It went against everything that they believed.

"It’s been decided, nothing we can do about it anymore," Kiyoshi said in a matter of fact tone. It was difficult to tell if he was sad this was happening or didn’t seem to care. He was playing a strong poker face that wasn’t revealing his emotions.

"Not so certain of your job future huh, Tadashi," Kazuhiko said, turning towards Tadashi who had been fairly quiet the entire time. Kazuhiko stared at him with a grin masking his own deeper feelings.

Tadashi closed his eyes, turning his head to look away from Kazuhiko not wanting to see his face. "Whatever…" He had more he wanted to say to him, but there wasn’t much point to it at the moment. There were more pressing matters on his mind that had him distracted.

"I can't believe this," Satoru said, finally losing the control of his emotions that he had been maintaining before. Now that he knew what was going on he could no longer sit rationally. Even if he understood the reasons he wasn’t about to accept it. "You’ve known about this the entire time, Kiyoshi?"

"No, I just found out this morning." Kiyoshi tried to keep his composure as Satoru was falling apart. The reaction was predictable, but what Satoru would decide to do now with all of the facts not even Kiyoshi claimed to know. He was concerned at the different things Satoru might do in such a state. Satoru wasn’t thinking straight anymore and whatever seemed like the best idea in his idealistic mind was going to be acted upon even if it meant that he might regret the actions later.

"And you just went along with it?"

"It's orders from the top. All I can do is agree or quit."

"That man remains a recluse for years suddenly decides to do something. And…" Satoru paused, trying to hold himself together long enough to finish what he wanted to say. He felt every emotion in his body rising up together fighting over control. The result couldn’t satisfy any of them and came out as angry yelling. There were simply too many things going through him and no room for any of it. "…and this is what he does. Hands everyone over to the military!"

Satoru had never even met the man that ran the company, no one had. All that one could do was see what sort of person he was by the actions that he took. He didn’t seem to care about any of the work that they were doing. It was just about money and power to maintain the position that they had. Now he was making the company the military's lap dogs completely to be ordered around by them. How far would he send everyone into the soulless pits to further his ambitions?

He couldn’t take it anymore being in front of Kiyoshi seeing through him what was becoming of the company. There were no choices left for him to make anymore. Satoru threw Kiyoshi aside, making an opening to the doorway. "Satoru!" Kiyoshi shouted to him as he fell over against a desk.

"Satoru!" Chiyoko shouted to Satoru as he ran down the hallway. The others quickly joined her seeing him disappear around the corner. None of them expected him to flee away from this. He had finally given up. Chiyoko didn’t know what to think other than to run after him, but there was something holding her back. She knew that there was nothing that she could say to him right now.

Satoru ran out of the building not even thinking about the train. He just wanted out and not to be around them any longer. This world was truly spiraling out of control now and there was nothing that he was able to do to stop it. He was helpless to watch people destroy the machines and themselves over this. 'I can't believe this…what's happening to everyone? How can they just go along with it? We shouldn't be doing this. This is not…'