The Snow Forest

A beautiful winter night, the snow slowly piling up in the branches of the trees, the sky as clear as it can be, a very gentle wind can be felt, a perfect day to sit down in the middle of the forest and watch the stars. Unfortunately, that is only a dream now.

Should you look up, the only sight in the sky would be darkness, empty, void of anything remarkable. Once upon a time, a beautiful sky of stars would amaze anyone. Now no one even cares to look up anymore.

What is the darkness one would ask, as many kids do in school once they see the old pictures of the sky. The easy answer is an enormous planet-wide shield, capable of shielding against almost any attack from the outside. But sadly, everything has a cost. If you want to shield against laser type weapons, you need to block light. The shield was created and installed as a safety measure because of the rising tensions from the earth's colonies on Mars and other solar bodies.

Of course, the side effects were almost immediate: lower planet temperature, increased health problems, dying vegetation, and planet life. The scientists who created the technology anticipated these issues, so they designed the shield polarization to be switchable. Unfortunately, the tensions between Earth and its colonies are so high that the shield must be polarized almost constantly.

In this world of darkness, a metallic black train with red details can be seen speeding up on a set of rails, its front blowing snow to the sides and cleaning the rails. A fine layer of ice can be seen on the exterior armored plates and windows. In one of the wagons, you can see a restaurant area, beautifully decorated in a Victorian style with red curtains and glass tables, marble details in the walls in the form of vegetation, and a glass chandelier can be seen floating in the middle of the wagon ceiling.

Two gentlemen in lab coats are seated at one table. One is an old man with grey hair and blue eyes, with a clean shaved face. His lab coat is adorned with golden details. He has a modern black suit with white details and some social shoes. In his front is a young male with blond hair and green eyes. The same lab coat but is adorned with red details. Some black coffee is seen steaming on the table with some sweets at the side in a glass mini-tower. The grey-haired man grabs his coffee and takes a sip before saying, "So how is the preparation going for today's test? I am getting some unsatisfactory reports coming from the level five AI division, and we need that AI functional for today's tests and I can't postpone it anymore. You know how much pressure I am getting from the old people up top." He ends the sentence and a frown can be seen on his face.

The young man looks outside for a bit before saying, "Sure, I can kick them into high gear, but you know how those scientists are about that abomination of technology, it's almost like a child for them, they love to take their time developing it, and I must say I don't blame their methodology, it's not a very intelligent course of action to rush the development of something as powerful as that AI matrix core."

"According to what I've heard, personality cores and multiple kill switches should make it easy for your team to turn it off; after all, if you really need to, you can just cut the power to it, right?" The old man smiled and turned his head back. "Miles!" a tanned young man in his twenties moved up from another table hiding in a corner of the wagon. "Please relay my orders. The facility must start the arrangements necessary for the test. Send a priority message to the head of research so we can put the AI online when we get there."

"Understood, Sir! The weather is a bit clearer now. Should we increase the speed?" Looking outside, the old man said, "Sure, turn the shield up and increase the speed."

"Sir, I think we should be more cautious. It's not just a machine, it's an artificial intelligence with-" said the young blond man as the old man cut him off. "I don't care about the technical aspects Alexander, you as the head of security should know that the factions on earth are bearing down on us too much. My hands are tied. I need a solution and I don't care how. Just make it work. This is an order!".

Controlling his face and anger, Alexander said "Understood Sir!" He got up from his chair and left the wagon.

A hexagon blue shield appeared outside the window at the same time as the train started to accelerate at an enormous speed, the old man let out a sigh, and as the slow piano sound in the background became more subtle the old man said "Not the best course of action but is the only one we have.. don't you also think that" a small hologram floated on top of the table "Mars needs to be dealt with as fast as possible from the reports, the construction of the laser armament is on its last steps, the shield is too weak without an anti-matter reactor, and our resources will not last long enough, though sometimes I think if I am not opening a Pandora box of some sort!".