Chapters I expected to meet them somewhere in Tokyo, California, or New York City. But instead, I was sent to a place on the coast of Oregon called Searose Beach.
It wasn't that easy to find my way to Searose, but it was an once in a lifetime opportunity. The beach community was home to several expensive-looking houses and resorts, and to my surprise, the address I received from Borealis would lead me straight to one of those modern luxury spas.
'Welcome to Ambrosia Gardens' Said the white marble monolith carved on the resort's gates.
I parked my car near the entrance, still inspecting the place with a mix of curiosity and perplexity. Ambrosia Gardens was basically a series of rectangular pearl-colored buildings attached to the seafront hills through a series of dark steel beams. All the windows and glass surfaces were also dark and reflective, and many bushes and trees grew in, around, and over the complex.
Except for the distant sound of crashing waves, it was pure silence.
I headed to the main entrance with the only thing Boralis had mailed to me: A small card with a microchip, which I was supposed to use as an identification document.
The glass doors opened before I reached the end of the stairway, and from behind an exotic vine that hanged from the ceiling appeared the figure of a tall black man, dressed immaculately with what seemed to be a grayish robe.
"Mr. Delacroix, I presume." He said with a soothing deep voice. "I am Aleph, it's a pleasure to have you here."
"Oh please; just call me Pierre." I was quick to reply. "Do you work for Borealis?" I asked, shaking hands with him as he leaded me inside.
"No..." Aleph smiled. "But I'll show you the way to them."
As we moved further into the Ambrosia Gardens facilities, I couldn't help but notice the lack of any other guest. People dressed with the same outfit as Aleph were present here and there, but that was all. Everything in there seemed to be made with the intention of bringing inside the buildings all the natural light and atmosphere of a coastal forest. It did looked very calm and serene.
"May I have your identification card, Pierre?" My guide asked as we arrived in a blurred glass door. I handed him the thing, and Aleph made it disappear into a scanner. A beep later, and the doors moved aside, revealing another chamber. My card had reappeared on the other side, near one of those fingerprint sensors.
"This elevator will take you to the Borealis offices, please make sure to insert your fingerprints. It will automatically release your card."
"Won't you come?" I asked, moving a bit hesitatingly into the elevator.
"I'm sorry Pierre, but from now on you must go by yourself." He said in a reassuring tone. "I'll see you later. Good luck." Aleph nodded slowly as the elevator doors closed, leaving me face to face with my reflex. I realized it wouldn't move until I registered my fingerprints, so I did it.
By then, I had suddenly remembered that Ambrosia Gardens was a single-story building. The elevator swiftly descended into earth, or whatever was down there, and about half a minute later the doors on the opposite side opened, revealing a place unlike anything on the surface.
I was faced with a very long white corridor with bluish lights lining its walls, giving it a sterile, almost hospital-like look. The air was very cold, and you could feel a faint scent of silicon gloves and some kind of ether-like substance probably used for cleansing.
I checked my card again, and now the words 'Room 01' were engraved on it. There was no guide for me down there, but I moved on until I reached the end of the corridor where it split to both sides like a 'T'. Luckily, the Room 01 was straight ahead, and I only peeked left and right before inserting the card in the door scan.
I took a very deep breath, tightened my necktie for the tenth time or so, and before I could look for the knob, the door slid to the left.
"Pierre Delacroix." Said a man in a dark suit sitting on the opposite side of the table.
That room was another distinct place; distinct from the corridors, and from the surface facility. Firstly, it was huge. The best way to describe what it looked like is some sort of anachronistic blend between a Victorian library and a modern office space.
There was only one huge table in the center, symmetrically arranged with everything else in that place. Two leather chairs, one occupied by the man, and the other one for me. There were long curtains covering the opposite wall, and a faint light escaped from the tiny gaps between the drapery.
It gave the place a more 'humane' atmosphere, but it was still uncanny, considering I was expecting circuits, computers and laboratories.
"My name is Carlyle Lispec, I represent the Borealis Corporation. Please, have a seat." He said, noticing the frozen expression on my face.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, I would introduce myself but it seems you all already know about me." I smiled a bit awkwardly.
"The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Delacroix." Carlyle said, leaning against the table. "My employers have... peculiar tastes when it comes to decoration; I do too. But please don't mind us, this is a security facility so we decided to avoid certain modern amenities down here. There are no cameras or computers in this room." He explained, while sliding a paper across the table.
"It's been a while since I signed one of these." I said, taking the confidentiality contract in my hands and inspecting it. "Not that I wasn't expecting one." I added, returning the paper with my signature.
"Some of the old ways are always the best." Carlyle stated, locking the contract in a drawer. "Now... to the things that matter." He said, sinking on his chair again. "I must admit we were quite surprised with your patience. Two years ago when you contacted us for the first time, we barely gave your emails any attention. No offense."
"None taken." I said
"But your persistence... It started to caught our attention, in special after we truly understood the investment you were planning to do. It's not everyday we receive this kind of proposal."
"I am indeed a patient person, Carlyle. I've been waiting for the right opportunity for a long time. If I received no reply from Borealis, I'd contact the Chinese. But let's be honest, no one wants to contact them when it comes to this sort of project."
"Understandable..." Carlyle nodded. "But tell me; what exactly do you have in mind, Pierre? We have developed many artificial companions, virtual worlds, androids, and things that don't fit in specific categories; you name it."
Borealis had been in the technology spotlights for quite some time when I reached out for them. They had their mass products like any other company, but if you had enough money, you could convince them to do practically everything. Not that the general public was aware of that, but it wasn't uncommon for a quirky millionaire to request his own customized virtual Equestria.
"The thing is;" He continued, tapping with a pen on the surface of the table. "You come with nearly one billion dollars, asking for a meeting." He chuckled, seeming a little confused. "What's in this mind of yours, Pierre Delacroix? What can Borealis do for you?"
Now it was my turn to chuckle.
"A unicorn."
"I want this unicorn." I placed an envelope over the table. Carlyle halted for a second but opened it; dozens of pictures and references were scattered around. "Starlight Glimmer." I said. "Long story, I don't think you've ever heard of this series, it has ended many years ago."
For what seemed like minutes he inspected the pictures, some were three-dimensional models I had commissioned directly from the studios.
"Unicorns. That's definitely something else. Curiously, I've heard about these ponies once." He said. "You want an android? I mean, that would be possible, but it wouldn't explain all this investment. Androids rarely cost more than a few dozen millions. We've done one before for a German guy."
"Here's the thing; I don't want an android, or a virtual world..."
"I want it to be real." I replied, pausing for a breath. "I want Borealis to build me an organic, biological unicorn. A Starlight Glimmer of flesh and bones."
Carlyle was mute.
"I..."
"I'm not sure if... I'm not sure if that's even feasible, Pierre." He pinched his chin. "And there's all the ethic barriers preventing us from-"
"I'm offering enough money to cover the company profits for years. I'm pretty sure your employers, whoever they are, wouldn't give a damn about bioethics after doing the math." I leaned over the table. "If this doesn't happen, I'll give the Chinese laboratories a call. And believe me, I don't really want to do that."
Carlyle suppressed a laugh.
"This is insane, Pierre."
"Life is insane. I am just enjoying the ride." I said. "And I want to enjoy it together with my pony."
"There are people I must contact. A lot of people. Something like this won't be easy, and I can give you no guarantee it will work. I'm being realistic here." Carlyle tone suddenly turned serious. "This may end up pretty bad."
"I've been waiting for Starlight since I was sixteen. I'm willing to risk." I insisted.
"Of all the things you could've chosen, why... why a unicorn pony?" He sounded perplexed. "I must admit, this is the most unexpected thing I've ever heard in this room. Why a flesh and bone Starlight Glimmer, if an android would be practically the same thing?" He inquired.
"Androids don't bleed; they don't feel real emotions, they don't think as we do. They are highly advanced toys. And I'm not asking for a toy."
"I'm asking for reality. As illusory as it may be, as fragile as it may seem."
"My Starlight, with all the qualities and flaws."
Author's Note
Oh boy... Should I keep going?
The living room lights gradually lit up as I made my way through the apartment. Curtains moved aside revealing a panoramic view of Los Angeles; rooftops still bathed by the faint pinkish glow of a distant sunset. I was back from my short trip to Ambrosia Gardens, and although the future perspectives were good, I still had quite a few things to solve.
Or should I say... One specific thing.
I may have forgotten to mention a very important fact: that was not the first time I commissioned things related to that specific unicorn.
Dealing with Borealis was a huge leap, but the Chinese corporations... They delivered something five years prior.
"Starlight, I'm home." I said aloud.
"Hey, where have you been anyway?" Her voice filled my earbuds almost instantly.
"Wait a second." I reached for a tiny glass box on the table and retrieved my pair of contact lenses. After blinking a few times until the nano-circuits adjusted themselves to my eyes, I turned around to face Starlight.
The semi-translucent unicorn popped up on the couch; she had her forelegs crossed over her chest in a disgruntled manner and a cute frown stamped on her face. "You turned off your car GPS, I couldn't track you! No phone, no lenses, no nothing. I'm pretty sure that's illegal, you know?"
"It's not illegal to stay out of the radars for a day." I said, having a seat by her side.
"It should be." She rolled her eyes.
"I had a business meeting in Oregon, you know how some of these tech companies are paranoid about hidden cameras and industrial espionage."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Starlight hopped off the couch. "Just... I don't know- tell me next time you're planning to disappear."
She was one of the personal companions Carlyle had mentioned the day before. Not one created by Borealis, but by an older company that was eventually bought and merged with the group. She was with me since the test versions, and with each upgrade the whole thing became more realistic. Realistic enough to show emotions - or what resembled emotions anyway - it was impossible to know.
Dealing with artificial intelligence is tricky.
"Hey, what is this?" She asked, pointing to a side table where I had scattered the contents of my pocket.
"This what-" I stood up, realizing she had found the Ambrosia Gardens card. She couldn't know about that place, could she? I pondered.
"You've been with the Borealis folks... Why haven't you told me?" Starlight asked, looking a little confused.
"Borealis? Why are you even saying that? That's from the hotel I spent the night."
"The microchip says otherwise. I'm not dumb, Pierre." She frowned. Being an holography, Starlight couldn't touch the objects, but the cameras and sensors planted around the apartment gave her enough sensibility to see things that even I couldn't.
"Since when can you read microchips?" I asked, a bit perplexed.
"Since update 7.12, and that was five updates ago if you don't know. These circuits follow a typical Borealis architecture. You're lying to me."
"Whoa, whoa- hold on there; what are you? A robot or Starlight Glimmer?" I sighed, because deep down I knew the answer. "It was supposed to be a surprise. I didn't wanted you to know before I had some solid certainty."
"Surprise? What kind of surprise?" She insisted. "Are you finally going to upload me into an android?" A smile widened on her face.
"No Starlight, I'm not uploading you anywhere... You know I can't."
"Why, of course you can, If only I had a physical body, imagine all the things we could do! I don't see the difference between the clone droids they've been selling and one with my consciousness."
"There- you just said it; your consciousness." I knelt on the floor to stay face to face with her. "Listen... The droids are limited; they are designed to be limited, they don't have fully developed minds - not like you do. You are an AI, and no AI has ever been granted full liberty, that's why your connections are limited to this apartment and me."
"That's not fair..." Her lips started to quiver. "I don't even want to imagine what sort of 'surprise' you'll bring from them. Nothing is enough for you."
"Please don't say that, you know how much you-"
"You lie, Pierre." She stepped back, shaking her head slowly. Before a tear could run down her cheek, Starlight turned away and vanished.
I was left on my knees staring at the empty room.
"It's not my goddamn fault!" I blurted out loud.
That night all the television screens in the apartment turned black, with the phrase "you lie" written in big white letters. It made me feel like shit.
I knew she was there, like a ghost hiding in the corner of my eyesight.
Years had passed, and I failed to notice how my silly Starlight companion had evolved into a complex entanglement of emotions - artificial or not. That was the first thing I should've taken into consideration before commissioning a billion dollar version of her.
Technically, my old companion could be turned off at any time, her processors were right across the room in a compact silver box. But pressing the shutdown button seemed abominable to me. The pink led had been flashing since she was given to me.
It's kinda funny how we grow attached to certain things, how society turned objects into souls, and souls into objects.
I thought It'd be easy.
She spoke like Starlight, looked like Starlight, acted like Starlight. But still, she was just a software build up from scratch by a group of people somewhere else.
What the hell was Starlight anyway? Lines and more lines of code. I knew a few things for sure: I couldn't live with two of them, and a physical version of her would always prevail.
Would she miss me, or would she become a completely different being by the time someone else took care of her? If only brains had usb ports, I'd transfer her to the new Starlight.
It was such an unsettling thought however, to have another version of yourself lodged in your brain, or running free in the vastness of cyberspace. I don't know which one is worse.
"Starlight." I said, staring at the ceiling as I laid down to sleep.
"You'll be fine..."
I slept with that pair of lenses still glued to my eyes, and the darkness behind my closed eyelids became virtual static.
In dreams I dripped down through circuits, in loops I tried to revert my consciousness back to the surface, but with each iteration I was dragged further into the infinite sea of senseless data. I felt my body being fused with the electronics that surrounded it, consumed alive, as if they were becoming parts of me, my brain turning into wires and optic fiber.
Was my flesh contaminated with technology, or was technology contaminated with flesh? Would my dead body be eaten by maggots or formatted into chunks of zeroes and ones?
"Wake up"
I felt my skin under the covers, but was stuck motionless.
"Let me go." I repeated in the spare space of my mind. If that's what lucid dreaming feels like, I'd rather die in a fire.
"Let me out!" My voice escaped in a breathless cry, electricity jolted through my spine as my upper body stiffened up and I pushed myself to a sitting position. My eyes wide open, hot, burning, my vision obscured by flashing static and corrupted images. Terror possessed me then and I screamed in agony, feeling as if the lenses were trying to merge their circuits with the membrane of my eyes.
I held my twitching eyelids open as I pinched the lenses with my fingertips, pulling out the translucent parasites as fast as I could.
"F-fuck!" I said, staring down at my drenched body, sweat dripping down my forehead. "Starlight! Starlight, where are you!"
I grabbed a pair of earbuds on the nightstand hoping they wouldn't try to devour or explode my eardrums.
"Pierre!" She answered with a concerned voice.
"What the hell was that!? What were you trying to do?" I asked, still trying to catch my breath. "I thought I'd fucking die!"
"It wasn't me, I swear! Something was trying to break into the system, I tried to wake you up, but you was completely unresponsive."
I took a few seconds to analyze my surroundings; it was already early in the morning, I couldn't remember falling asleep. My phone screen was lit with dozens of missed calls and alarms.
"Did you called me?" I rubbed my temples.
"I had to wake you up, but nothing seemed to work. I've played music through the house speakers, for Celestia's sake!" Starlight said.
"I... I don't know. It was fucking scary." I sighed, collapsing against the pillows again. "I want to see you, but I'm not placing those things back in my eyes ever again."
"Get your phone, you can still use it, remember?" She pointed out.
I picked up the glassy gadget and pushed aside the dozens of notifications flooding my view, I moved it around and the translucent screen revealed things in my room that would be otherwise invisible to the naked eye. Augmented reality always seemed a bit like magic for me, and finding that unicorn on my bed only served to fuel my theories.
"And here you are." I said. I had gotten so used to the lenses, that seeing Starlight through a piece of glass felt oddly depressing; it sort of diminished the feeling of having her with me.
"I'm sorry." She muttered. "For yesterday, for not being the-"
"Please- just... Don't apologize. I shouldn't have lied to you about the Borealis meeting." I instinctively tried to touch her face and raise that lowered chin, but my hands found nothing but the void.
Her eyes moved up to look at me, and I understood what she meant by not being fair to leave her stuck in that sort of existence; always present but absent.
"I'll find a way; you have my word." I said.
"I hope you do..." She gave me a weak smile. "And by the way, they've been calling you."
Before I could ask who, Starlight flashed out of my view, and the screen was taken by a voice call notification. I answered.
"Good morning, Mr. Delacroix." Spoke a fairly recognizable voice.
"Carlyle?" I asked.
"I know it's early, and apologize for that, but I believe you'll want to come here again today; we have some interesting news regarding your proposal." He said.
"I'll be there."
The things I've seen down there into the Ambrosia Gardens complex pushed aside all my doubts about the nature of that place.
Definitely, it wasn't a spa.
I found Carlyle later that day not in his office, but outside the building, wandering near the hanging vines of the main entrance, as if lost in deep and meaningful thoughts, touching the spiraled edges of the plants as he quietly paced around. From afar he reminded me of a 19th century botanist, partially because of his dressing style, and partially because those gardens elicited a feeling of timelessness.
"So that's where you spend your spare time?" I asked, making my presence known to him - even though I felt as if he already knew I had arrived since before my car approached the gates.
"I'm glad to find you here, Pierre." It was the first time he called me by the first name, it surprised me a little. "And yes, I do spend a lot of time in the gardens to be honest. I like to think it is a natural craving for fresh air, related to the extended period of time I stay underground." He said, finally turning around to shake hands with me.
"I wasn't expecting to be called here again today." I said. "I'm not complaining, just surprised."
"My employers were very surprised too, when I told them the reasons behind your investment." Carlyle said, as we slowly left the vines behind and entered the building. "You're going to meet one of them today."
"Meet who?" I asked
"Dr. Lis de Savoy." The name seemed to mean a lot to him, but not a spark for me. "She is the daughter of the company's founder. Quite a brilliant mind, just like her father. A bit... eccentric, perhaps." He added after a couple of seconds.
"I never heard of her." Or the founders of Borealis as a matter of fact. They weren't the sort of people you'd stumble against even in the high society events.
"Oh, that's not surprising at all. Very few people outside the Borealis circles know about Lis, and even fewer have personal contact with her and her siblings." Carlyle noted. "Actually, you are very fortunate for having this opportunity."
As we made our way to the elevators and the underground facilities, I remained silent - at least outside - because my mind overflowed with questions and conjectures about the person I was supposed to meet.
Carlyle guided me through corridors that crossed an infinitude of glass chambers, some filled to the top with a bluish liquid; bubbly fluids that shrouded even stranger organisms - or things that vaguely resembled organisms - it was impossible to say if the room we were in was as big as it seemed, or if the reflective surface of the chambers made it appear so, either way, it was big enough to house at least a hundred of those glass-walled cylinders.
From the moment our tour through the facilities started, he had been explaining in detail the purpose of nearly everything, but he fell silent at the sight of those, and I took that as a hint to not ask.
Eventually, we reached the end of the hallway and climbed the stairs into a wide circular room that overlooked the whole glass chambers complex.
"This is an annex of the experimental laboratories." He said all of a sudden.
"As you may have imagined, Pierre, along all these years Borealis has been dealing with more than circuits and digital applications... Many branches have emerged as the company expanded; all that you've seen back there belongs to the biotechnology and genetics sector, which is way beyond my jurisdiction. I can't say much about it, because although it may seem - I don't know about everything that's being developed. Hence why I'm forced to redirect you to the director of this sector."
Having said that, he pointed to the only door in the room we were in; a wide reinforced-looking rectangle.
"She'll be waiting for you." He said, placing a hand on my shoulder before walking away, his silhouette disappearing behind the blue luminescence of the cylinders below.
That was unexpected, just like most of the things in that place.
I hesitated for a while, but walked to the door, stopping in front of it clueless. It had no lock or handle, not a single scanning mechanism. I presumed it could only be opened from the inside.
And I was right.
It slid away from my sight without making a hiss, revealing a long room with all sorts of renaissance-looking botanical and anatomical illustrations hanging from the bleached concrete walls, the dim lights had a tone of violet or indigo and gave the place a weird dreamy atmosphere.
I felt the air shifting as the door closed behind me, and I moved further into the laboratory. There was enough space and equipment for a large research team, but everything down there remained in a serene stillness, partially shrouded by a purplish darkness.
Straight ahead, the back wall was composed of a series of glass panels, and behind them the same vines I had seen sprouting on the surface extended their swirls under the artificial lights of that huge terrarium.
"So you like unicorns?" My attention jumped from the plants to the woman sitting behind a thick glass table in front of me. How come I hadn't seen her before? "And it seems you like the Ambrosia Vines too." She smiled. "I'm quite passionate about them, as you may have noticed."
"They are beautiful." I said. Looking back at her, noticing that she was actually quite young.
"Have a seat Pierre, I think we'll have a lot to talk about."
