Jabagadadash 4.0, the International Intercollegiate fest of Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth was held on 24 February 2023. There was a blend of thrilling events conducted online and offline, inviting participants from across the nation and beyond! One of the events was Twisted Tale – Story writing with surprise elements. Participants had to bring out the wordsmith within to reinterpret and rewrite classics. Here is a winning entry –
M.O.T.H.E.R – Machine-Oriented Tactical & Highly Evolved Robot
Charan Annadurai | Hochschule Offenburg | Offenburg, Germany
Chapter 1
A product designer and his pregnant wife stayed on the city’s outskirts. They led a simple life, the expecting mother had recently taken a sabbatical from work and was resting, while the husband traveled to the city every day to work for a Tech Giant called Kaletech. The husband was busy designing new fiber optic cables – the Kale Cables and was hardly home, the wife grew sad and lonely. She didn’t have anything to do at home, the Roomba cleaned the room and Swiggy delivered her food, she grew more tired and bored with each passing day. The worst part was their WIFI was always congested and was dead slow. She really wanted to watch her Youtube and Netflix. She begged her husband to find a way to help her out.
The husband thought long and hard and realized that the Kale Cables would be the perfect solution. He devised a plan to lay the Kale cables from the office to his house under the pretense of testing out prototypes. His wife now got access to the fastest internet connection in the world for absolutely free, and the icing on the cake was that the prototype plans also included a free lifetime subscription to all the OTT platforms out there. All the wife had to do was click to agree to the terms and conditions. She happily agreed without even reading it and was delighted with the subscriptions.
KaleTech is not your run-of-the-mill tech company, it’s one of the biggest tech companies in the world and its CEO is a sentient AI called “The Mother”. It didn’t take long for the Mother to figure out the product designer’s plan. In fact, She connected the dots a few seconds after the plan was brought in front of Her. The Mother wanted to experiment on humans and see if they really need society and nature or if they would be fine when technology provides them with everything they need. The End User License Agreement that the product designer’s wife agreed to, stated that the couple allow KaleTech to experiment with their child. The couple was soon blessed with a beautiful girl and they named her Kalea in favor of the tech that helped Kalea’s mother get through the pregnancy. KaleTech came for the child minutes after her birth and a frivolous lawsuit ensued between the family and KaleTech. The case went to trial and KaleTech lawyers won custody of the child. There was nothing the parents could do against an AI which knows every single case history and every nook of the Law. KaleTech built a large tower in the heart of the city and you guessed it, they named it ‘K-Tower’. The penthouse suite was where Kalea grew up. She wasn’t allowed to meet anyone else, the only conversations she had was with the Mother. From her childhood, all she was told was that humans were bad and this tower was the only thing protecting her.
Kalea grew up into a beautiful long-haired maiden, with big eyes like pools of honey and locks as dark as the night itself and with her grew the prototype plans. Every new technology was first tested out at the K-Tower. The Kale cables spread its roots everywhere and soon K-Tower was one of the biggest hubs of internet traffic but no one could access the connection to the penthouse. The Mother has her own private connection mixed with the normal Internet Traffic of K-Tower. Kalea knew this connection existed and she was the one who named it, The Braid since one of her favorite memories as a kid was learning to braid her hair from the YouTube tutorials that the Mother displayed. Kalea had access to all the new technology and was never bored. The Mother encouraged her to play video games and watch movies but she kept an eye on everything she did so as to not give her a chance to realize what the outside world truly holds. The Mother showed Kalea doctored and cherry-picked videos to further establish how bad humans are. Kalea trusted it, and she started spending all her time with the Mother and tinkering with the tech in the penthouse.
Though Kalea believes the Mother, she can still see the sun and the horizon. She can see seasons changing and days passing. She truly believes that people would change too. Most of all she wanted to know for herself if people are actually as bad as she has been led to believe. The more time Kalea spent with technology the more she understood its flaws, especially in the Braid. the Mother hadn’t bothered to secure the outgoing connection because She truly believed that Kalea wouldn’t have any reason to try to contact the outside world. Kalea realized this one day and tried to use the Braid to prove her theory that people can change. She tried to chat with random people on the internet through sites like Omegle. Most of her conversations seemed to prove the Mother. One person got really excited about the fact that she lives in a penthouse and asked her how much her rent was and if he could have a tour of her house. She got scared and closed the site and decided that it would be much safer and less conspicuous if she just contacted someone inside the K-Tower.
Chapter 2
Veerya was a standard IT support guy, trying to work his way up the ladder. He was just typing away last-minute documentation on his PC when he received a video meeting request. He accepted it out of curiosity and saw the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. He was instantly love-struck, but before he could even come to his senses the connection was interrupted.
In the penthouse, the Mother’s holographic avatar was standing over Kalea menacingly. Kalea was reprimanded for being irresponsible and putting herself in danger. Kaela
apologized and said that she was only trying to prove her theory right and that she now realizes that it’s probably wrong. the Mother decides to forgive her and enhances the security of the Braid, Kaela herself helped the Mother set up a more secure version of the Braid.
Veerya was crushed, just when he thought he had met the match of his life, it was taken away from him. He rushed to Devavrata or Dev as his friends called him. Dev was one of the best hackers of the century. Veerya told Dev all about the incident and begged Dev to help him contact her again. Dev got to work, he first retraced the connection and worked for days and finally found that the connection was from the K-Tower. He immediately knew it was from the penthouse because that was the one place that had heavily encrypted traffic. He managed to set up a reverse connection through the Braid to the penthouse without the Mother’s knowledge and connects with the penthouse. Dev has a higher level of access than Veerya and so he uses that to make the connection possible.
Kalea is surprised when she receives a call. She immediately attends it. On her screen is a handsome young guy and he starts talking to her. Kalea is impressed with how he managed to connect through the Braid but all Dev wants to know is information about her so that he can help his friend out. The call only lasts a few minutes but Dev manages to get a glimpse of her life. He also tells Kalea that the Mother has been lying to her and that the outside world is amazing. He immediately goes to Veerya and lets him know that her name is Kalea and that she has been stuck in the penthouse for a long time. Veerya is a tiny bit jealous that Dev got to speak to Kaela, but it would be very suspicious if Veerya was caught using Dev’s credentials. Veerya is worried that Kalea will fall for Dev instead of him. Veerya makes Dev promise that he wouldn’t try to
make Kalea fall for himself. Dev promises and assures Veerya that he won’t do anything of that sort and will definitely help him meet her and rescue her from the penthouse.
Back in the penthouse, Kalea is disappointed that Dev was selfish in only asking things about her and never divulging anything about him. She looks at the digital signature of his hack and falls in love with the intricacy and dedication it took to achieve the feat. She starts falling for him but is also scared of the Mother finding out. Dev manages to connect again and asks her if she would like to try to come out to see the world. Kalea is initially skeptical and so refuses and changes the protection on the Braid. Dev is not discouraged by this and manages to connect back almost every day. He tells her stories of how good the world is. He tells her of parties and parks. He talks about the warmth of the sun and how a hug feels and all that. Upon hearing that she passes her time playing games, he opens her eyes to multiplayer games and even makes a server for her to play with other people. He introduces her to social media and the whole package all in
an attempt to make her want to meet real people. Kalea finds herself slowly falling for Dev and finally agrees to try and meet him. There is a lift in the penthouse that is used to deliver her food, Dev hacks the cameras and escalates his admin privileges to ride the elevator and bring her out to the real world.
The lift door opens in the penthouse and Dev sneaks Kalea into his office. His original plan involved taking her to a coffee shop where Veerya is waiting for them. As soon as Kalea comes out she starts wandering off to see the parties and the parks that Dev told her about. She is in tears feeling so bad that she missed so much all these days. Right before they try to enter the coffee shop Kalea confesses that she likes him. Dev is taken aback, he explains to Kalea that he has made a promise to his friend and that he can break his word. Dev takes her inside the shop before she could react and leaves as soon as Veerya gets them seated. Kalea is devastated and Veerya understands that his worst fear is true. Her heart belongs to someone else. He tells Kalea that he is not hurt and that she should be free to love whoever she chooses. She runs out to find
Devavrata.
Dev is already back at the K-tower by the time Kalea reaches there, powering through multiple reroutes from K-Maps. Kaela reaches Dev finally to find him working on masking the fact that Kaela is no longer in the penthouse. Kalea begs Dev for his love but Dev is strong and says that he has promised his friend and that after the coffee shop incident, he has already decided to not welcome her advances. Kalea is disgusted and disappointed, she rushes back to the penthouse before the Mother realizes what’s wrong. She sits in her bed devastated after the rejection. She thinks to herself ”Maybe the Mother knows best after all”.
Prologue
Years later after the Mother is ousted for her inhumane practices. Kaela still stays inside her penthouse. Kaletech has passed on to her but she has become too introverted to face the world. She runs KaleTech from seclusion through an avatar. She made sure that her first decision as CEO was to fire Dev. She truly believes the Mother’s words and has severe social anxiety. She has moved on from being a damsel in distress to a knight in shy-ing armor.
