(ORIGINAL) Farima - The Project Maximus Story Part 2

Previously on Farima: Part 1 - Project Maximus

PART 2 - PROJECT FARIMA

Khalil Buhari stood with one hand against a window panel overlooking Manden City, the capitol of New Manden. He could see the Ebony Coliseum glowing caramel brown on the city horizon; it stood out in a sea of solar skyscrapers due to its unorthodox horseshoe shape. Khalil took pride in knowing he knew the designer of the building personally and that he named the Coliseum after his daughter Ebony. Both he and his wife were high-contributing members of the Endonis Collective. 

"My building is bigger though." Khalil grinned as the Endonis Convention played out in three dimensions inside his office complex that sat at the pinnacle of the Ark of Endonis - the main headquarters of Endonis Technologies. The office was lined with bullet and weather-resistant glass panels on all four sides - even the ceiling was made from glass. Khalil had the best view in the city since the Ark was the tallest building in all of Manden City at three thousand feet in height. He could view the entire capitol and every major building from anywhere in his office which occupied its very own floor on the uppermost level of the building. Khalil knew that what he called an office, most regular folk would deem a high-class, luxury, five-room suite that would likely cost millions. 

Khalil wore his augmentation contact lenses at all times - it brought live events into the literal world around him. If a man weren't the wiser, he'd think he were sitting in the audience at the Endonis convention as it happened. To the public, he was a reclusive founding father of New Manden itself. Rich in wealth and wisdom, respected the world over. However those closest to him knew a man who schemed and plotted - in constant fear of war. As a revolutionary robotics engineer, his research reshaped the very nature of war - his life defined by it. His fiery thoughts were consumed by war and fantasies of war. 

"Thank you everyone for voting." Justice Samuels stood downstage near the audience. Khalil looked back briefly at the living image and saw that Natia was no longer on stage. "The votes are in and Project Maximus will continue to receive funding from the over thirty million members of Endonis Technologies - famously known as the 'Endonis Collective.'" 

The oval door to his office sang with its usual vibrational hum before it softly glided open. Khalil noticed the pleasant silhouette of Acacia Reed walking with the familiar stride of a gracious panther among the virtual images. She was chief confidant to Khalil and his primary agent of intelligence. Her very real curvy, statuesque frame phased through the virtual A.R. images as she stopped in front of Khalil. Her skin was light brown and her hair short, black and curly. 

"Khalil, the head of security says the tests have confirmed our fears. The man who attempted to hack our internal servers last night is no man at all - it appears to be an infiltrator android. Class Three." Acacia stopped to read her bosses expression - as best she could from  behind. She unbuttoned her beige blazer and wrapped around a chair in front of Khalil's desk, with only her white tie-neck top underneath. 

 "Class Three eh?" Khalil turned to face Acacia. "That makes the third infiltration attempt in the past year. Where is the Android Operations department on developing a quicker way to detect these new model infiltrators?"

"They told me they're working as quickly as they can."

"Not quickly enough." Khalil lifted his arm to chest level and the image of a semi-transparent heads-up display materialized in front of him. The augmented projection manifested from a six inch armband made of cotton lined with graphene nano-flakes. On top of the armband sat a small, flat rectangular box that served a number of functions. At the center of that box was a tiny projector - the blue color from the steady augmented projection cast a glow onto his dark brown skin. He tapped a button with his fingertip and the A.R. broadcast of the Endonis Convention disappeared revealing the full detail of his office in all its opulent glory. "Did you catch Natia at the convention?"

"No I didn't actually, this security breach has everyone busy this afternoon."

"Justice Samuels mentioned that my popularity has dropped. I guess it's a good thing I decided against running for President huh." He let out a weak chuckle before shaking his head and placing his hands in his pockets. "I swear I'm not appreciated...has any valuable information been pulled from that android?"

"No, these new deep cover androids are pretty resistant apparently." Acacia stepped around the corner of the desk. "Khalil, we have to figure out the source of these - incursions."

"Yes I know. Natia should be on her way over here and will be here any minute. I need something - I need a way to use this to my advantage. Project Maximus may be getting continued funding from the Collective, but the project itself is not headed in the direction it should be headed in."

Acacia put her finger up to her ear and Khalil could tell she was getting a message.

"Khalil the Director's Council is ready to initiate the emergency gathering."

"Great. Sync them into the office's private A.R. system." Khalil pressed a button on his Orunmila - the name of the armband technology he wore on his arm. It was one of the first items for purchase developed by Endonis Technologies. All of the window panels lining the entire floor darkened - blocking any prying eyes.   

Khalil waved for Acacia to follow him to his broadcast room at the opposite end of the floor. Passing by a giant sectional sofa that could seat twelve comfortably; the two of them made  their way through the main hallway lined with accent lights that dimmed and changed colors based on Khalil's mood. They made a left turn at the end of the hallway and came to a door with a palm scanner on the wall to the left. Khalil placed his hand inside the device and the door hummed softly and rose open.   

 My eyes and my ears. Khalil thought as he entered the broadcast room knowing he had access to every camera in the Ark of Endonis and all of the surrounding buildings and facilities that comprised the Endonis Collective Business Complex - a group of some twelve skyscrapers in total that surrounded the Ark of Endonis.   

He looked over to Acacia and nodded. "I'm ready."

Acacia Reed pulled up her own orunmila and began tapping the HUD projecting from her arm. All of a sudden, the image of twelve people appeared sequentially in live augmented form around the room.    

"Good day everyone - I want to apologize first for calling this emergency meeting on such short notice. As Chairman of the Director's Council, I think it's pertinent that all of you have the most up-to-date information you need."

"How bad was the breach Khalil?" Director Michael Olina spoke first. The most senior member of the Council outside of Khalil and longtime rival. He had a long gray and black beard and a bald head, much like Khalil. 

 "Not as bad as you might have heard Director Olina. Trust me, we have our best android engineers working on how to break the machine's synthetic mind - its 'syn-mind' - now. No sensitive data was obtained. We have counter-intelligence operatives working on tracking down the source of these attempts at espionage as we speak." Khalil stood tall and defiant in front of the Council, even for a man who only stood five feet and eight inches in height.

"Khalil, this is the third attempt at stealing highly-classified material this year. That on the third attempt someone sent a Class Three Deep Cover Infiltrator android this deep into the Ark of Endonis, the very heart of our Collective, means our enemies are getting either more bold or more desperate - likely both." Director Ashanti Adams spoke openly, her imaged standing closest to Khalil. The youngest on the Council, she wore the traditional braided hair popular among Mendanite women.

"Yes I know Director Adams." Khalil responded with a rushed haste to his voice. "There is no one more frustrated by recent events than I." He began to pace back and forth in short spans as he could feel his stomach begin to harden. In his mind, Khalil knew he didn't want to be there, but had to be. He folded his arms and stopped pacing. "This is an insult. Every few months, these D.C.I. androids are getting better and better and we all know what it's about." 

 "What might that be Khalil?" Director Desta Aloomis, veteran of the Second Civil War and Khalil's closest friend asked.

"Our enemies are after the classified Homo Maximus files. It's the most obvious goal, I don't think it's a surprise that this attempt was made last night. The night before the beginning of the Endonis Convention where Project Maximus would be the topic of discussion all day." Khalil turned to see Acacia's eyes following the motions and movements of all of the Council members. Reading their reactions to his statements.

"Have these enemies yet been identified?" Director Olina asked.

"I'm just going to be transparent and ask what everyone's thinking," Director Aloomis paused, "is there intelligence to suggest the Knights of the White Rose are behind this?"

"It's crossed my mind," Khalil sighed and put his hands on his hips, "but as of right now until our engineers find a way to crack that android down in interrogation we won't know for sure."

"I'm sure they'd outsource a job of this importance anyway." Director Adams shook her head in disbelief. "No way they'd risk getting caught red-handed trying to hack the Ark of Endonis servers. That would be an open violation of the detente treaty between New Manden and the Free American States. No way it's  the K.W.R., not directly. We need to look deeper."

"No...what we need is the green light of Project Farima." Khalil spoke forcibly and with blunt intent.

There was a low, agitated murmur from the twelve Directors. Khalil looked back at Acacia - she shook her head implying that he shouldn't push the issue further.

"Really Khalil, you're bringing this up at a moment like this?" Director Olina voice was raised to a high pitch. His eyes wide and alarmed.

"What better time than now Directors? Project Maximus will continue to be funded, but you all know my reservations with a project of such importance that does nothing to provide our people with an ounce of defense." Khalil began pointing his finger directly at different members. "Director Olina - you are Director over the Eten region where we have some six and a half million members alone. Director Adams - you lead our youngest region by far and you are very popular among the youth of New Manden...do they not deserve the proper protection?"

"Of course they do Khalil, but a secret project - this Project Farima that you keep going on about is not the answer." Director Adams said. "I have expressed my many concerns for this project that you have kept hidden from even the Council. Which you have the right to do as Chairman, but I am not obligated to support your attempt to weaponize Dr. Greenheart's life  work. Whatever this Project Farima is - it will not supplant Project Maximus and the building of Homo Maximus - the next step in Human-directed evolution." 

 "I agree with her." Director Olina spoke up. "There's nothing I've seen you present to us Khalil that would warrant the startup of a shadow project not funded with the direct knowledge or say so of the Collective."  

Fools! They'll have all of New Manden overran with their complacency. Khalil thought. He forced a false smile to hide his true anger. "Listen Council men and women, New Manden is still a young country - a vulnerable country. Let's not forget that we are not a nuclear power on the world stage and while the President works to build our military...the truth is, if the K.W.R. or any other group backed by a superpower launched an invasion this second, there would be little we could do to stop them. I don't know if everyone in here has noticed, but we're all still black. We're black democratic-socialist revolutionaries and descendants of them who fought for our freedom against tyrannical oppression and forced our enemy into a peace treaty - a detente - that led to the founding of our own nation. If you all don't think we have guns aimed at us, then you're being foolish." Khalil audibly exhaled, the veins beginning to pop from his neck. He clenched his fist in anger.

Acacia noticed Khalil's dress shirt began to change from a dark blue, to a dark red. The sensors from the ingrained electronics in his clothes changed their color based on the mood he was in. The accent lights in the broadcast room also began to dim to an almost golden tone, casting much of the room in shadow.

"If we don't act now, we will regret it later." Khalil spoke in a brooding tone, with an intimidating amount of base in his voice. He gazed into the eyes of each member of the Council...holding it until they became uncomfortable and looked away. "The Farima project must be kept secret because of the nature of the endeavor. You don't tell your enemy you're building a weapon to defeat them and post the schematics across the internet!"

"Khalil - drop it." Director Aloomis couldn't take it anymore. "We've been friends since the war. We've fought alongside each other so trust me, I know how you feel. However I cannot go along with this either. I cannot do that to Natia and you shouldn't want to supplant the direction of her project since - you know - you raised her and all after what happened to her parents." 

 I knew he'd use that against me. Pulling at my heart strings eh Desta. Khalil raised his chin in defiance. "I call for a vote then, we'll see where you all stand. I have the right as Chairman to force a vote on this." Again low murmurs and exhales were heard from the group. While everyone pulled up their respective orunmila's to cast their vote, Acacia strode over slowly to Khalil and pulled him  away from the crowd. She spoke into his ear in a low, hushed voice and said, "You shouldn't have pressed it. I could've told you that you didn't have the votes." 

 "It's a test Acacia. I have yet to use my power as Chairman to force a vote and see exactly how much support I have and don't have. Up to this point it's only been backroom talks and hushed meetings to feel people out. This is a slightly more official step."

"But to what end?"

"I have an idea Acacia. Something that they won't be able to say no to." Khalil looked up into Acacia's eyes and gave a devilish grin.

The results finally came in as a buzz on Khalil's orunmila. He tapped the HUD and witnessed the final tally. "Seven oppose and five support. Meaning even with my vote as Chairman, there won't be the required majority to green light Project Farima." Khalil stood quietly for a moment.

"Will there be anything else Chairman?" Director Olina said with a snarky grin.

"No that is all." Khalil rapidly punched a series of buttons on his HUD and the augmented images of the Directors vanished suddenly. "The idiots know nothing!"    

Khalil paced back and forth around the room before stopping underneath one of the numerous accent lights hovering off a wall. The light from the top cast much of Khalil face in shadow from a distance. The contacts in his eyes were now of a dark crimson complexion as his mind burned with rage. He finally noticed Acacia on the opposite side of the room - standing stoically ready to take his order.

"I want you to blow it up." Khalil said with a twisted smile.

"The D.C.I. android?"

"Yes. Blow it to the heavens above."

Acacia slowly walked over to Khalil's position. The twisted logic behind his plan finally coming to her awareness. "We're going to need a scapegoat. Who do we blame it on? The Knights of the White Rose?"

"No." Khalil said assertively. "Until we have proof from our counter-intelligence operatives that it is they who are behind these incursions then we wait to move on them. My primary goal is taking full control of Project Maximus and integrating the Farima project into it. That's why you have to make sure the explosion you use is a really big one."

"But what is Project Farima anyway?" Acacia asked. "Once you plant that explosive, you will know soon enough." 

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Links to Pictures

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/466122630171056048/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/416864509251445623/

https://laurahollingsworth.deviantart.com/art/Commission-50-523673873

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QDlQ4