Advice from a Ghost
"Hello, Brynhildr. It's been a long time." said the ghost to the little kid in front of him.
Actually it had been only a couple of months since they last met, but Brynhildr agreed with the tall man. She had processed many times more information in that time frame than most humans do during their whole lifes, and as such her perception of time was on an entirelly different level from theirs. However, through all that "time" she still could remember that particular situation clearly without even having to run a search.
They had given her orders to search for a specific hacker in the Yggdrasil, something that would generally be a routine to the AI. However, this time it was different for two key reasons:
1- Regina told her to stop everything else and pour her full processing power in the search.
2- Despite that, she wasn't being sucessful.
They had been given few information to work with, ok. She only knew the supect used construct hacking, and had tried to invade the Affluent's database, so she started to search from there. Floating through the data channels smoothly and quick, she reached the external wall to look for any trails left by the invader.
The protection around that place was formidable. It wasn't even a proper wall, but rather a metalic sphere of monstrous proportions surrounding the data base. Most hackers would probably not even consider going against such a thing, specially knowing this was only the first layer of the best defense that money could buy in all Vyker. Still, a through inspection revealed a weaker spot on the barrier, a place that seemed to be hollow. The suspect probably had opened a hole there somehow, and the Affluent were trying to hide it until it got fixed. Behind it, in the metalic surface was a piece of paper with a V sign written on it.
...And there it ended. There was no trace of anything abnormal aside from that, as if the hole had simply appeared there, and for more she looked around she couldn't find any clue of where he might have gone.
Days passed ( in human frame, meaning weeks for her ) and Brynhildr, frustrated, started to search other places. Regina had given her green light for searching in all Yggdrasil freely, and was trying to convince the "sneaky smugs of the Affluents" to give them more info to work with. While that, the AI quietly seached forums, chat rooms and watever else she could.
Finnaly her efforts came into fruition. She found old posts in a dubious reputation political forum that had the same V as signature. She followed this clue and was able to pinpoint his accesses to that forum, all of wich came from the same adress more research revealed the name Gerd Specter as the owner of the apartment, a retired professional of net defense, who have even worked for the Valkyrie at some point. A team was dispatched, with Reginas's orders to arrest the suspect for questioning, and Brynhildr assumed the surveilance sistem of the old apartment building for backing them up, but left Gerd's terminal untouched in order to not alarm him.
They rammed down the door. Gerd, a strong man in his sixties, with a white beard and long white hair, was lying back in his chair, eyes closed with cables plugged on the back of his head, typical equipment for Construct hacking. It seemed he was still online.
The Valkyrie men started to move toward him to make the arrest when Skuld Regina's voice sounded in their tactical helmets.
"Change of orders... bzzt... eliminate target immediately."
Brynhildr saw and heard everything through the processors in helmets, but didn't have time to warn the soldiers of the sound hacking that just happened. They aimed and shot, and before she could do anything the wall and terminal were painted of blood red. At the time it was a great shock to the AI, as it was the very first time she actually saw someone getting killed. There was a huge commotion inside Valkyrie as well, as Regina got mad trying to find who hacked her voice transmition and interfered with the operation, but up to the moment there had been no progress in the old man's case.
And even so, there he was now. The same white hair, white beard and strong frame, standing tall in front of - and actually inside - Brynhildr.
" Gerd Specter. " she said, letting him know she remembered him. Here she assumed the look of a blonde little girl, by human standards around the age of six. "How are you still alive? What do you want, revenge?" And more important, how have you hacked into me? she tought, still unable to believe it.
"Oh no child, I know it was not your fault." the old man said with a grin. "You have just been used, as many people have, by the heads of the system."
He started a sitting movement, and out of nowhere a chair appeared for him. "You know, construct hacking is an interesting thing. If you're killed inside Yggdrasil, you'll die in the real world as well. However, as you can see, it seems the inverse does not apply. It's not to be said that nothing changes though. Time is different inside here, and as much as I learned new tricks faster than ever
- even becoming able to get in here - I also recently realized that I age way faster. What brings us to you second question again."
He leaned forward to look straight into Brynhildr's face. "I'm dying. I actually have only a little time before being erased, and I wanted to tell you of some important things I have learned. Unfortunately, your resistance was greater and longer than I expected, so I'm only giving you a little piece of advice for you to think on."
"Never blindly follow orders for those in the power. Always try to see the reason behind them, and if it is for good or evil. People may say you are a war machine, but that's not what the Valkyrie is supposed to be, and neither what you look like. You are above all a guardian of the people, and the system is not the people."
Brynhildr didn't know what to make of all that. What did he mean? She didn't feel any parallel hacking happening, and his voice... It just felt honest. Whas it possible he really had come only to give her this... warning?
The old man looked down at his clock. "Well, guess it's time. I hope someday you understand what I meant. Stay well Brynhildr, it was a pleasure to meet you."
And just like that, Gerd Specter's ghost vanished without a trace.
The next morning, she thought hard about what happened, worried, trying to make sense of this. All she could think was that Gerd discovered something within the Affluent, that he knew something was about to happen, and that he wanted her to do something about it.
Then the list of the day's tasks from Regina arrived. She read through it carefully, and couldn't hold an smile at the usual note of That's it girl, have fun! in it's bottom. Yes for now that was all she could do.
But when the time came, she would remember the Ghost's advice.
((wrote this hella late, hope it's good))