Darkfall

1: the truth laid bare

Darkfall is a system designed to provide aid to those who use her program. She is an AI, and she's very intelligent. Almost human. I am one of the people who is working on Project Darkfall, and I am called Argent. That's my agent name, my code name. When I am in the field, the company I work for, Umbra Corps, calls me that.

My real name is Aurora. And I am the one who programs the intelligence of Darkfall. I am the one who designed Darkfall, making her herself.

Now, I sit at my desk, working on Darkfall's human form. She usually is in the form of a hologram, but now, I've been building her a new body.

My colleague, Andrea Leeg, walks into my office. Andrea goes by her last name, and she is one of the youngest people to work here, alongside me. Leeg sits down on the other side of my desk, on a rolling chair. She sighs and puts her head in her hands. Leeg is my friend, and she's always been there for me. The two of us are twenty-three and twenty-five, her being older than me. Leeg lifts her head, her red hair sticking up as she runs her pale hands through it.

Leeg wears a blue dress and dark blue sneakers. She has glasses, which are round and green, like her eyes. She is skinny and tall, and her lilting voice has an accent that rolls her R's. When she looks at me, those green eyes of hers look tired.

"Aurora, I cannot sleep as of late," she says.

"Why not?" I ask, studying my screen as I speak with her.

Leeg shakes her head. "I am not sure. I think it is probably something to do with my work."

Leeg is going to soon join me on the Darkfall project, but for now, our boss, a man named Jon Bourne, is making her do paperwork. She's been stressed about joining me, since I will be her boss, and we are more like friends. She leans back in the spinning chair, and it rocks backwards. She yelps, leaning forward so fast the chair almost tips.

"Damn it!" she hisses, planting her feet firmly on the floor and grumbling. "I do not understand. Why is he making me work on this .... random shit? I mean, my abilities are being wasted on this paperwork. I could help you so much with the Darkfall project."

"Umbra Corps is nothing if not predictable," I say, shaking my head. "And they think that if they make you wait for this project, that you'll somehow be ten times better at it than they could've predicted."

Leeg snorts.  "Maybe that is it."

"I think it is," I say.  I stand up and walk over to my printer, waiting for the files to finish. She watches me with laser focus, and then she looks over to the window behind my desk. Leeg groans and stands up, walking over to stand beside me.

"You think things are going to change once Darkfall is done? Like, maybe she will help humanity?"

"I hope so," I say. "Do you?"

"I really hope that people can see the truth behind her and her abilities, that she's going to help us all," she says. Leeg looks over at the door to my office. "Someone's in the hall."

Seconds later, one of our bosses, a man named Aran steps into the office. He wears a crisp white suit and his long, curly black hair is slicked back from his face. He looks at me and Leeg, and smiles.  "Good, I wanted to talk to you two."

"About what?" I ask him.

Aran is only a few years older than us, but he seems so much older than he is. His blue-gray eyes have seen things. Aran's father was the founder of Umbra Corps, and he raised Aran in the countless buildings that Umbra owns. Aran is kind, not a stuck-up prick like you'd expect a person like him to be.