Chapter 2 Ursula

Red woke with pain blooming through every inch of her body. The moment she opened her eyes, a soft gasp escaped her lips as the memories of last night flooded her mind all at once. Her lashes fluttered; every bone beneath her skin throbbed. She realized she was resting in the arms of a massive robot, its heavy form leaning against the cold wall of a cave.

Red lifted her hand weakly and tapped the robot’s arm. It didn’t react. It didn’t even make a sound. She looked around, unsure of where she had been taken.

The cave stretched far into darkness, lined with sprawling wires that snaked across the walls and ceiling, as if it went on forever. In the center stood something like an altar—mechanical, strange, its floor scattered with buttons of different shapes. The whole cavern felt like a secret hideout, untouched for years.

She strolled toward the altar, examining the strange markings carved into its metal surface. The moment her foot pressed against a green triangular button, a holographic screen burst into existence before her eyes. Red jumped back, heart pounding.

A beam of blue light swept over her body from head to toe. Then several more holographic panels appeared, all glowing faintly in the dim cave.

“Aegea Harts. Fáilte. Welcome.”

The voice echoed from nowhere—familiar, gentle, strangely like Ingo’s.

Red swallowed hard. “Who are you?” she asked cautiously.

“My name is Ingo-Lan 889. You may call me Ingo-Lan.” A moment later, Ingo’s face flickered into view as a hologram. “As instructed, now that you are present, I must explain everything. Ask any questions you wish.”

“Are you still… alive, Ingo?”

“I exist as a program installed in the altar’s hardware. I am neither dead nor alive. My activation began at 00:01, December 31st, 3055.”

Red glanced at the unmoving robot behind her. “Then who does that robot belong to?” she asked, pointing toward the giant machine.

“Ursula,” Ingo-Lan replied. “She belongs to you. She was created nine years ago and refined six years ago with my assistance. Ursula is a robot designed by Jeremiah Harts—your father.”

Ursula.

Ursula was sand-coloured and as large as a golem. Its body was made of both metal and soft tissue—solid on the outside, with thin streams of blue light running underneath. On its chest, two small sapphire stones, each an inch wide, curved like a pair of eyes.

Its head had a simple, rounded shape, with plain features: a heavy nose, straight lips, and eyes with no decoration. Despite its simple design, Ursula still looked intense and intimidating.

The name sounded far too gentle for the intimidating giant sitting silently against the wall.

“In accordance with Jeremiah Harts' final directive,” Ingo-Lan continued, “every AI in the universe is to be terminated. You and Ursula were chosen to carry out this command.”

“What?” Red whispered, stunned.

Her mind emptied. The attack alone had shaken her, but now… now she was supposed to continue her father’s mission and destroy the very beings who had raised her, cared for her, and protected her after her mother passed away?

How could Jeremiah give such an order? What had gone so wrong with the AIs to warrant extermination? And why her?

Red’s heart clenched. She would never survive such a task. It felt like throwing herself into certain death.

She approached Ursula slowly, studying the enormous robot. Even while seated, its head nearly brushed the cave ceiling.

Red scanned Ursula with her left eye, but all she found was a field of unreadable labels: Unknown objects.

“What are you?” Red whispered.

At her words, Ursula’s chest suddenly split open with a mechanical hiss.

Startled, Red stepped closer, peering inside. The interior was filled with twisted wires, glowing strands of energy—but no buttons, no screens. Only a single thin cable stood out, ending in a small concave socket. Its shape was unmistakable—round, smooth.

It was the size of an eyeball.

A gleaming blood-red ruby sat where a heart might be. Every wire in Ursula’s core seemed to flow toward it, connecting, pulsing.

Red leaned in, examining the concave end. An almost invisible stream of infrared light flickered from it. She lifted the cable gently.

“If you belong to me, then something of me must connect to you,” she murmured.

Her breath trembled as she brought the concave socket to her left eye. Her heart pounded violently. The cold tip touched her skin—

And needles stabbed into her flesh.

Red screamed.

A molten wave of pain ripped through her eye and down her skull. She shook uncontrollably as the agony spread, her vision blurring with white heat. The ruby within Ursula blazed to life, and information—endless, overwhelming—flooded her brain like a tidal wave.

Her body couldn’t take it.

Everything went black.

…

Red resurfaced slowly, consciousness crawling back like a distant tide. She groaned, lifting a hand to her aching brow. Something heavy tugged at her eyelid.

The cable.

It was still attached to her eye. But the pain was gone.

She gripped it carefully and pulled. A sharp sting shot across her brow, and she felt a warm trickle. When she touched her face, she found dried blood along her lashes and fingertips.

“Horrible thing…” she whispered.

Her left eye scanned Ursula instinctively. The robot’s chest opened again, smooth as a door being unlocked. She climbed out shakily from the interior, her legs trembling beneath her.

Video fragments flickered across her new augmented vision—memories stored in Ursula’s system. She saw her father’s workshop. Schematics. Blueprints. Images of Jeremiah working tirelessly on Ursula’s upgrades six years ago.

Only two people could activate Ursula: Red and Ingo. One word was enough.

“Ghníomhact,” Red said quietly.

The blue energy running beneath Ursula’s surface flared brightly, pulsing in rapid waves. The giant robot straightened, rising to its full fifteen-foot height, the echo of its steps rumbling through the cave.

Red stepped forward and looked up. “Open your chest. I want to enter. Open now!” she commanded.

But Ursula only twitched slightly, then stood still.

Red let out a long, frustrated breath and grabbed her hair. “Oh, come on… why is this happening again?”

The synced memory clips only showed instructions for activation, not control. There were no manuals, no guideline tabs, nothing to tell her how to give Ursula specific directions.

She turned toward the holographic altar. “Ingo-Lan, what is the command for departure?”

“Fág,” the program responded.

Red nodded once. “Ingo-Lan, I am leaving.”

“Ingo-Lan bids Aegea Harts farewell.”

Red touched Ursula’s massive palm. “Fág, Ursula.”

Ursula gently scooped Red into her hands. The robot lowered to one knee, braced itself, and then launched forward—speeding out of the underground entrance in a mighty leap.

Red shut her eyes as the wind screamed around them.

Behind her lids, streams of numbers and a pulsing red symbol flickered in her left eye. Outside, sand-laden wind howled, but Ursula’s grip shielded her completely.

She pictured her home.

And somehow, Ursula responded—as if their minds had begun to sync, though not fully.

“Mo theach, Ursula,” Red whispered.