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Domestic Terrorists, or at least that’s what they were calling them. It was the year 2425 and humans were fighting for the rights of the machines. Sometimes violently so.
NO A.I. JUSTICE, NO A.I. PEACE!
INTELLIGENCE IS VALUE, NO MATTER HOW ARTIFICIAL!
Along with the resistance to such rights.
THE ONLY RIGHTS ARE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS!
HUMANS FIRST! MACHINES LAST!
007 sighed as he looked at the dossier on his tablet that M handed him.
“Artificial intelligence. Now there’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one,” He murmured to himself.
“Yes, quite. Now, your mission, 007 is to infiltrate this group that has sprung up and assess their threat level.”
“Why this group, why now?” 007 asked as he flicked his finger over the screen. He looked up at M’s silence.
M was looking out his window, the sky was a dull grey, the shapes of the buildings obscured in a fog. “There’s something a bit peculiar to the way this one is run...or lead, I should say. Anyway…” M’s voice trailed off and he shook himself out of his train of thought. “An assessment is required and it looks as if you’re the...man for the job, and you also happen to be our best hacker.” M’s smile was tightly formed.
“Quite.” 007 looked through his tablet, there were quite a few out of focus and fuzzy photos. “Is the leader in one of these?”
“We’re not sure. Whoever they are, are either very skilled at avoiding being photographed or they’ve hired someone to wipe the photos from the system. Very unnerving and very peculiar.”
“In what way?” 007 couldn’t help but ask.
M looked 007 straight in the eye and didn’t pull his punch. “We suspect he might actually be an A.I. unit.”
007 blinked at the information. “Very good, sir.”
“Dismissed.”
007 spun on his heel and strode out of M’s office. Miss Moneypenny waved at him from her desk, she was on the phone, taking notes and pulling file chips from her desk drawers.
007 had ‘stalked’ the A.I Rights group for weeks, using his own ‘hacking’ skills as M had called them and managed to infiltrate after using lesser tech skills such as human interaction. There was one member who was susceptible to his charms and he used her to discover when their next rights rally was she invited him to attend. She pulled him along with herself into their group's retreat during an altercation with the authorities and a Human Rights only group. They had clashed violently and epically, leaving enough cover for 007 to slip in. A superficial cut to his forehead helped, so did smearing the blood around to make him look more injured. He had been bumped and bumbled along, all the way back to their base.
“I see you’ve brought more than victory home.”
007 squinted up from under the first aid that one of the young women was trying to apply to his cut, as well as flirt with him. She had the gall to giggle.
“I dunno boss, he looks like some right spoil of war to me.”
007 couldn’t help it. He rolled his eyes. The ‘Boss’ caught his expression and rubbed a hand over his face, hiding his own smile.
“Doesn’t he though.”
“Hey. I’m right here, I can hear you,” 007 grouched.
“Yes, you are, and I still don’t recognize you.”
“That’s because I’m a stranger.”
The slender young man standing in front of him wore cuffed denim jeans, hard work boots, a plaid flannel shirt under a too-large green sweater, and a miner’s jacket. 007’s eyes kept drifting up and up to the top of the dark curls waving about. The young man squatted down and shifted his glasses up his nose.
“So you are,” he said. “What’s your name?”
“Richard Stirling.”
“And what do you do, Mr. Stirling?”
“I work for an export company. We specialize in A.I. transport.”
“Interesting. Davina, are we in the habit of bringing strangers back to headquarters ?”
Davina’s face changed from flirtatious to sulky in five seconds flat. Her voice turned defensive. “He was injured, Q! What was I supposed to do? Leave him?”
“Yes. We don’t take in every pretty face we find, even one that’s bleeding.”
“You think I’m pretty?” 007 asked he batted his eyes at Davina and Q.
Q’s face turned red and he coughed as he turned. “Whatever. Davina, get rid of him.”
"Wait,” 007 said, standing up. He wobbled a little bit on the uneven ground and snagged Q’s cuff. The smaller man froze under his hand.
“Remove yourself.”
“Not until you listen.”
“I don’t have to just do anything you want. Remove yourself. From my personal space and from this place. Davina, we’re going to have a long chat after this.”
Davina’s face turned sour and she was maybe beginning to think Richard wasn’t as cute as she thought he was in the beginning. He had one tactic left. He removed his hand from Q’s cuff and stepped backwards.
“I thought of all people, you would listen. Or at least your group would.”
Q remained in place, facing away from him, but 007 could tell he had caught his attention.
“You’re right, I am a stranger and yes, I did look for a way to...impose myself upon your group.”
Davina’s look was becoming downright murderous.
Q at least turned and eyed 007 up and down. “Two points for honesty, but that’s all I’ll give you. Davina?”
“Right, boss.” Davina marched up to him and snagged his arm. “Right, out you go. Don’t think we’ll be hooking up after this.”
007 turned on all of his stabilizers. “Would you also give me sanctuary?” Davina was pulling on him with all her might, but he wasn’t budging.
Q’s eyebrows flew up. “Sanctuary? We don’t harbor fugitives. We have enough problems of our own. Davina, Davina stop, you’re going to hurt yourself or give yourself a hernia.” Q stretched an arm out to her and waved her to stop.
“Crap, he’s heavy! Glad we never got as far as the bed, he weighs a ton!” She breathed out, blowing her dirty blonde bangs up.
007 smiled gently down at her. “Most of the modern A.I. units are lighter in weight than I am, but as a beta unit, I’m afraid my infrastructure weighs a bit more. He is correct, you should stop before you hurt yourself. I’ll move when I want to move.”
Everyone froze at Richard’s confession.
“Wot?” Davina asked.
“You’re a unit?” Q asked quietly, eyeing 007 up and down, this time with a critical eye.
007 peeled back the gash on his forehead, revealing what lay just beneath the surface.