Chapter 1 — Grimmland

The Beast is malfunctioning. Assistance needed.

Again.

My sensors registered my surroundings through the pop-up screen that was installed in my visuals. Men, women, and children wandered through the streets of Grimmland, the state-of-the-art amusement park that opened four years ago. Machines ran everything—artificial intelligence (AI), to be exact. There were no humans working on the park floor, at least not that I was aware of.

I was one of the AI.

Closing out of the window, I proceeded toward the Beauty and the Beast Castle. There, patrons could interact with the Beast during a meal. It was expensive—one of the bonus packages for those rich enough. Otherwise, people could venture around the castle, dance in the ballroom, and perhaps run into the Beast in a passage. Currently, however, the Beast was rampaging in the dining hall.

I passed by a family who had their e-pass that they could scan on any ride, or any extra experience they might have purchased, out with the map projection on. I noted their confused expressions on their faces, a critical addition that was installed in my programming to make sure I could predict every person’s needs without their need to ask for help. Although I was about to report to the castle, I stopped. No patron could go ignored. That was also in my programming.

“Hello, my name is Chio. Would you like some assistance?”

The man appeared hesitant, but the woman nodded. “Yes, we are looking for the Frog King’s pond?”

I touched the projection they had out, and the pond highlighted, along with their current location. “You are currently here and if you follow this indicated path, it will take you where you need to go.”

The family bowed. “Thank you very much.”

“Not a problem.”

I bowed back a little lower to the patrons. It was a 50 percent chance they would thank me, as many didn’t see me as an actual person, not that I was. It all depended on what country the patron was from, I had noticed.

Turning, I hurried off toward the Beast’s castle, passing by electronic projection signs that labeled each attraction, other AI that were in character, and humans that were enjoying the sights. I was not normally one of the characters, but a maintenance AI. There were a handful of us scattered in each region of the park, which itself made up 18 miles of the 60 square mile island. The island included hotels, a sea airport, beach space, and the amusement park itself. I had not ventured outside the park but was given the map of the entire island in case a patron needed assistance. 

I entered the castle through the back entrance, which was impassible unless one was an AI, and pulled up the video footage of the dining hall. People were either scared of the beast and cowering against the wall or had their cell phones out and taking photos and recording. I had to save this situation quickly or else it would go on my record. I did not want to be reprogrammed. 

Tapping the sleeve of my purple, blue, and pink uniform, which was composed of nanotextiles just like the rest of my body, the cloth-appearing substance rearranged into a new pattern. The entire textile glowed a faint white for a moment as it did as I asked, then settled into a long, medieval princess dress. It was light blue with cream trim and appeared like something from the 1700s. My hair also transformed and was now long and in perfect curls. Now I appeared just like Beauty, whom was already having a problem and was in the maintenance area for me to fix today. 

I headed toward the dining area, passing by patrons who were curious as to what all the noise was. Luckily they didn’t have passes to go inside the dining hall. I gave them all a curtsey as I acted like this was all a show. They took photos of me as I walked past. Luckily there were only a few, otherwise I feared they would hold me back and I wouldn’t get to the Beast in time.

I could hear crash upon crash, which meant the Beast was really agitated this time around. Last time it had only been a couple of bowls, but now it sounded as if he were throwing every breakable thing he could find. As I entered, the patron’s attention turned to me. They all clapped and took photos of me.

Good. They thought this was part of the show.

“My Beast! What are you doing?” I called out as I hurried to him, ducking as a plate came straight at my head. Luckily, there was no one behind me. “Why are you in this state of madness?”

He shook his massive half lion, half boar appearing head. “Leave me alone! I do not belong here! This isn’t me!”

The Beast was a magical prince in disguise, or at least that was how he was programmed. Even though he had this dilemma of being a prince that was cursed as a beast, he shouldn’t be acting like this. Something was going on with his system still, and I would have to figure out what before it was too late.

I was able to get closer to him, even after he threw whatever he could my way, and placed my hand on his cheek. 

“No, you are a kind Beast that I had the pleasure of getting to know. I am sorry I left to see my family—I won’t ever leave you again. I love you.”

These were the words I had to use to override his system when he was malfunctioning. According to my database, it was what Beauty said to him that caused him to turn back into a prince. Normally I would have sent the Beauty AI in here to deal with this, but there were some errors found this morning that I needed to fix still.

As I said the words, a bright light came from the Beast and his body slowly turned into that of a handsome French aristocrat. He wore a blue knee-length coat, black knee breeches, and a white shirt with frills, just like any 1700s royalty. His curly blond hair fell to his shoulders and his crystal blue eyes stared at me.

The Beast peered down at his hands. “I’m… me! I am human again!”

The crowd cheered as a crew came out to take away any broken plates and bowls. It appeared, according to my face recognition software, that the ending satisfied everyone and they believed it all to be part of the experience. I took the Beast’s hand and guided him out of the dining hall before he could do any more damage. As I ushered him down the hallways toward the maintenance room, I heard him begin to talk.

“No, something still isn’t right. I’m not me. This isn’t me.”

I ignored his questioning and pulled him into the room before he said anything a patron could overhear. Five other AI from the castle all sat dormant and waiting for me. Now that I was back over here, I could work on them.

Before the Beast could start freaking out some more, I pressed his off button at the base of his back. His head and limbs sagged a little, and I gently set him down.

Clicking a few touch-screen buttons on my arm, my dress transformed into my uniform and my hair and makeup went back to my normal, simple look that wouldn’t make me stand out. I placed my hand on the Beast’s head and looked for the bug in his system.

It took a few minutes for me to download all the coding in his system to compare it to what his coding should be. As my system went through all the letters, numbers, and symbols, I noticed a hiccup in one section titled “override”. I inspected the code.

My database should have understood what this code was for, but it did not. I fixed it and as soon as it registered the code was correct, I wasn’t able to access it any longer. That wasn’t normal. I automatically sent out a report to the command center about it.

I disconnected from the Beast and turned him back on. As quickly as I finished, he transformed back into the Beast, his princely form now gone, and stood up.

“Hello, Chio, what a wonderful day we are having.” He bowed like a gentleman. This was the Beast I knew.

I curtseyed. “Yes, we are, my good sir. You better head back. There are patrons expecting you.”

“Ah, yes. We must never leave guests waiting.”

Turning to the door, he headed back to his work. I glanced over to the other five AI that were waiting for me to fix. I wondered if I would find the same thing in their codes.