The Thinker

Chapter Two

"For a private function, there is a vast amount of people here." Zane observed as the gang made their way through the main room where the presentation was going to be held.

"Anyone who is anyone is here." Jay said in a matter of fact tone. "This is the gathering of the century!"

"A gathering of geeks." Cole hissed to Kai.

"I heard that!" Jay said, whipping his head around to look at the two.

"Nya!" a voice said from close by. Nya turned to see Cyrus Borg himself.

"Mr. Borg!" she greeting happily, giving her employer a hug. It was a rather odd feat to see due to Cyrus being in a wheelchair.

"Nya, we've discussed this." Cyrus told her. "Please, call me Cyrus."

"Not with this many people around and your reputation on the line!" Nya told him solemnly. Cyrus looked at her and then laughed.

"I don't pay you enough for your kind compliments." Cyrus joked. "Regardless, I would like to have you on stage with me for the presentation."

"What for?" Nya asked.

"You're my assistant, aren't you?" Cyrus said as if it were obvious. "You deserve as much recognition as I do up there."

Nya blushed a rather deep shade of red.

"I'll meet you guys again after the presentation." she said, turning toward her friends.

A few minutes after Nya had left with Cyrus, Jay was becoming anxious.

"When's this going to start again?" he asked.

No one around them seemed to be really invested of what was going on. It was like a boring dinner party where all everyone did was talk about themselves and how rich they were. Suddenly, the lights began to surge. Zane looked up.

"Something is very wrong here." he said absentmindedly as a light from the stage popped. The audience around them gasped in surprise. But as quickly as the surge started, it ended. Everyone stood around, half expecting the light to surge again.

"Hello?" someone started to announce from the stage. "We are ready to begin if I may have your attention."

Everyone in the audience directed their attention to the stage where Cyrus and Nya stood. Cyrus had a miniature microphone clipped onto his shirt for the presentation.

"Welcome to the next advancement for Borg Industries!" Cyrus announced happily. The crowd gave a well supported round of applause.

"I am very proud of this achievement ladies and gentlemen," Cyrus told the crowd. "It is with great honor that I give you my latest project; TH1-NK-3R!"

Nya took this as her cue to unveil a rather large console as the crowd started to applaud again.

"Do not be fooled by the mainframe folks," Cyrus continued, "It only helps function the real surprise."

Again, taking this as her cue to act, Nya walked to the console's keyboard and typed something in. Slowly on the stage next to Cyrus, something started to materialize from the ground up. A lady in the audience let out a surprised scream when the figure became apparent to everyone. Cyrus had created a hologram program that looked perfectly like a female human teenager.

Zane stared mesmerized at the hologram girl.

It couldn't be...

"My name is Minerva." the hologram girl announced to the crowd.

"Who named you my dear?" Cyrus asked, smiling because he already knew the answer.

"I named myself." the hologram claimed. "I chose it from over millions of other names to be my own."

"As you can tell," Cyrus addressed the crowd, "She is not just another hologram. She can think and reason just as well as we can, with a few modifications of course."

Cyrus then turned his attention back to the hologram.

"My dear, if you could, please turn on some music so the party can continue." Cyrus then suggested (not demanding, but actually requesting as if the hologram could oppose him).

"Can I choose anything?" the hologram asked curiously.

"Of course my dear." Cyrus agreed, beaming brighter than he had before. For awhile, the hologram seemed to go into an expression of deep thought. Then she smiled and made a hand motion that mimicked the act of selecting a song from a long playlist in the air. Music started to play over the stereos -an act that nearly scared several audience members. She seemed to like it though. She even sang along.

"When we were young with time to waste, everything was clear and good. Thought we could live for a thousand years, but yesterday is done and tomorrow's yet to come...

"Forever... now that you're gone. Gone forever, but the day goes on. Forever... Oh forever... "

"As you can tell," Cyrus continued, although the hologram was still singing, "TH1-NK-3R is completely independent. Earlier when I asked her to play a song, she went in a more heavy metal outlook."

"But can she interact with us?" someone from the audience shouted toward the stage.

"I'm sorry," Cyrus started to say, "But at this stage of development..."

Suddenly, the music stopped abruptly and the hologram stopped singing to look at Cyrus.

"Can't I interact with just one of them?" she asked, her voice pleading as her face looked equally forlorn. Cyrus looked at her with a great deal of surprise and confusion.

It certainly wasn't part of what they had practiced...

"You may choose one human to talk to my dear." Cyrus slowly agreed.

"I choose him." the hologram instantly said, pointing directly at Zane. To emphasize her decision, a spot light fell on Zane.

She smiled at him, nearly beckoning for him to come to her. But Zane could sense something was wrong beneath the expertly coded smile. With an entire ballroom filled with many rich and elite, this was no time to speculate.

Zane made his way to the stage with the dignity of someone that was given an outstanding honor.

"What do you wish to tell me?" Zane asked the hologram, doing his best to address her in the same manner he would have addressed Nya. The hologram girl's face became serious quickly.

"Kill me."