This science fiction story appears in the May 2024 issue of Front Vision, an educational Chinese-language magazine for kids. It is reproduced here with permission.
The Invisible World Inside
by Kathryn Hulick
“Invasion, invasion!” A chemical siren blares. We Scouts all sense its urgency. An enemy has breached the gates and launched an attack on our vast world of InMi.
Our job, our only purpose, is to protect InMi.
This enemy came flying in with the life-sustaining winds. Now, an army of orbs with spikes is invading the city called Lung. Spikers. We’ve fought off similar invasions before. We rush forward with our strongest weapons. But these Spikers have an unusual shape that none of us have ever faced before. Our best weapons bounce off their bodies uselessly.
The Spikers quickly begin attacking Blobs. These are the citizens of the many marvelous cities and streets of InMi. There are so many different types—fat ones, slow ones, busy ones.
The Spikers are so much smaller than the Blobs that they don’t even realize they are under attack. We watch a Spiker pierce a Blob’s skin and disappear inside. The Spiker takes over control of the Blob, forcing it to make many Spiker copies . The duplicates then rush out toward the highways. If we don’t act quickly, Spikers will soon reach other cities and wreak havoc. InMi could become sick. We’ve managed to avoid this terrible outcome for our entire existence so far.
We have to stop and think. We share one mind that runs on a vast, flat disc housed in a special building named InMi Chip. That’s where we got the name for our world. The InMi Chip is in charge, so it made sense to name everything around it the InMi World.
We are Chip’s sensors, and Chip does all our thinking for us. Now, we send Chip a precise model of this unusual new enemy shape. Chip stores experiences of past battles and uses this to analyze the shape of Spikers and other enemies. Chip imagines possible new weapons that might work against Spikers, and mentally tries them out one by one. It discards millions of ideas that obviously won’t work.
****
Kane stands at the platform of the train station. As he stares across the empty track, he notices a large ad for the company InMi.
InMi stands for “Inside Mind.” The company makes chips that use artificial intelligence to regulate a network of nanobots. These work together with the cells of a person’s body to fight off diseases and repair damage. In the ad, a cartoonish nanobot dressed up like a valiant knight stands in front of a huge, hulking blob that represents a human cell. A spiky virus is trying to attack, but the nanobot fends it off with its sword. The ad says: “InMi nanobots slash disease! InMi fights viruses—before you even feel sick!”
Kane absent-mindedly touches a spot on his left shoulder. Here, beneath his sleeve, is a small tattoo marking the location of his InMi chip. Like so many others, he had his installed when he was twenty-one. He’s been in perfect health ever since.
****
Blobs give off chemical screams of horror as they realize what’s happening to their families. Is Chip too slow?
Finally, Chip comes up with the perfect shape for a new protein. Chip prints out mRNA molecules that contain instructions for how to build the protein. Since mRNA degrades quickly, we must work fast. We line up and pick up our precious cargo, stashing it inside nanoparticles for travel to Lung. When we get there, we each stick ourselves to the outside of a Blob. Then we inject the mRNA instructions. This triggers the Blob to glue amino acids together in just the right way, forming a protein that will mesh with the Spikers’ shape.
Soon, we are carrying our new weapons into the battle. In the central cluster of Lung , a scout corners a Spiker and launches the weapon with perfect aim. It locks in place. The locked-up Spiker can’t spear any more Blobs. So it can’t make copies. Now we have to chase down the rest of the Spikers.
As the battle rages on, many scouts return to Chip to recharge. Will there be enough of us to overpower the enemy? Did inventing the new weapon take too long?
Sickness looms over InMi.
****
Kane hears the train coming. His watch buzzes once – he has a message. But it’s just another InMi ad. “Traveling? See InMi’s tips for the healthiest hotels, restaurants and more! Personalized for your health profile!”
“I’m not traveling,” he mutters. “I’m waiting for someone.”
Then, suddenly, he coughs. It’s a deep, hacking cough. He can’t remember the last time he coughed! People around him move away in alarm. “So sorry,” he says, embarrassed. “I have InMi. Maybe it needs a tune-up?”
****
Lung shakes with a mighty earthquake. Many of the remaining Spikers fly up and out through the gates. Earthquakes aren’t supposed to happen! That is a symptom of sickness.
But the shake-up helped swing the battle in our favor. We quickly overpower the remaining Spikers. Then we move among the broken and confused Blobs, helping them repair themselves and their city. InMi isn’t sick. We won.
We broaden our attention, checking in on all of InMi’s cities. In Brain, Blobs spark each other with zaps of electricity, sending and receiving communications along the wires that connect all the cities together. These wires stretch as far as the distant outposts of Hands and Feet. Sometimes, we spy on these communications. But mostly, we sense chemicals to learn what’s happening.
The Blobs in Lung’s sister city Heart power all the highways that carry supplies in and garbage out of InMi’s cities. They used to work tirelessly. But these days, they are slower and more prone to mistakes. Our scouts there urge more effort.
In the long, twisting maze of Gut, food is getting picked up and garbage is moving toward the exit. That’s all normal. But there’s an odd bulge of Blobs that we don’t recognize. Hmm. We head there to help investigate.
****
As the train pulls away, Kane searches the crowd.
“Gramps? I’m right here!” He feels a tap on his shoulder.
He turns around and smiles. There she is! May has been away at university for two years, studying to be an engineer. Someday, she might even work for InMi. But he still has trouble thinking of her as a grown-up and not as the little girl who caught frogs in his garden, placed them into buckets, and gave them all names before returning them to the pond.
“You grew your hair long! I didn’t even recognize you,” he says.
“I know. It’s been too long,” she says. “I’m surprised you can keep us all straight—how many descendants do you have now, anyway?”
Honestly, Kane doesn’t know. He’s 160 years old, with too many family members to count. “You were always my favorite,” he says. “Come on, let’s get home. Don’t you want to see if there are any frogs in the garden today?”
****
That bulge of Blobs in Gut is indeed a big problem. And it’s not the only one. Seven similar bulges jostle nearby.
We call the Blobs in these bulges Bullies. That’s because they don’t follow any of the instructions that keep things under control. They barge into places where they aren’t allowed to be. They’ll even kill normal Blobs that are just minding their own business. They disrupt normal life throughout InMi.
Problems like this require granzymes. These are special molecules that poison Blobs. They chop up proteins that a Blob needs to survive, and it dies. They can kill any Blob, not just the Bullies. We’re always very careful with granzymes. We deliver them the same way as mRNA instructions, by sticking ourselves to a specific Blob. But even though we’ve never made a mistake, we need permission from Outside to start manufacturing them.
Our goal is to keep InMi running smoothly, and stopping to talk to Outside takes precious time, time that we can’t afford to waste, especially when things are falling apart all around us. But we send a message to Outside.
****
Kane Li and May sit in the garden, sipping tea. No frogs hop by, but May doesn’t seem to mind. They speak about her classes, her friends, her basketball team. Suddenly, Kane’s watch buzzes three times. It’s an important alert.
“It’s from InMi,” he says. “I should listen.”
“Should I leave?” May asks.
“Oh no,” he says. “I’m sure it’s nothing,”
He taps his watch, and a pleasant voice speaks:
Thank you for being a valued InMi customer! We have an important health update. Several tumors have been detected. They all need to be removed. Our nanobot network requires your permission to begin targeted toxin therapy. Most patients do not feel anything during this process. Permission granted? Please say Yes or No.
May gasps. “Are you okay?”
“This happens every once in a while,” Kane says. “It’s nothing to worry about.” He speaks into his watch, “Yes.” .
Thank you! Therapy has been initiated. Please feel free to call or visit an InMi health specialist should you have any questions or concerns.
****
As we wait for permission, those Bullies that Outside calls cancer cells are pushing and shoving their way around InMi, messing up our beautiful cities. Finally, we hear that magic word: yes.
Blobs manufactured the protein weapon for us. But the poisonous proteins we need to make now are dangerous to all Blobs. So we send mRNA instructions for different parts of the poison to different Blobs. Each Blob makes a different ingredient for the recipe. Then we bring all these ingredients to Chip and help fold everything together to make the poison.
Finally, Scouts push bits of the poison along in special nanoparticle packets. It’s a very long journey down to Gut. When we finally arrive, scouts sneak the concoction into the Bullies, killing them.
****
A single frog sings from the pond. Kane looks for it but can’t see it.
“When will you get your InMi chip?” he asks May. The technology was brand new when he’d gotten his. It cost a fortune, and the procedure had been long and difficult as his body slowly adjusted to its new fleet of nanobots. But he was glad he’d had the foresight to get it done. Most of his friends hadn’t been able to save up the money for one, and none of them had survived to see their great-great-great grandchildren go to university.
Things are so much easier now. May will turn twenty-one in a few months, and insurance will pay for hers. The whole thing will be installed in a single visit. People who are old or sick only exist now on the fringes of society.
May hasn’t answered. She’s gazing into the pond. “May?” he asks.
“I’m not getting one,” she says quietly.
“What? Why not?” Kane can’t help himself. “It’s perfectly safe now! Why take such a risk with your health? And you can’t get a good job without one!”
May jabs a finger at his shoulder, where the chip sits beneath the skin. “That thing tracks everything—your heart rate, temperature, diet, bathroom trips, location, maybe even your conversations. It tells you what to eat and when to sleep. Why do you think InMi chips are so cheap now? It’s because they sell your data. They own you.”
Kane shakes his head slowly. Kids always think they know so much. To him, strong health is worth giving up his most private information.
“I want to own myself,” May says. “But that’s not even the biggest problem with InMi. Don’t you see what’s happening to the world? Overpopulation is exploding! In so many places, people are starving or homeless. Everyone says a stronger economy or better social policies will fix the problem, but I think as long as people keep getting InMi chips, this will only get worse. We’re staging a protest at my school next week.”
It’s normal for young people to rebel, of course. Kane just wishes she’d chosen a less important thing to rebel against. “I really think you should reconsider,” he says.
“I won’t,” she says. “I have too many elders—all my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents—they all think they know what’s best for me. I thought you might understand.”
Just then, the frog leaps into the pond with a splash.
****
The bulges of Bullies in Gut and elsewhere subside. But problems keep piling up. Where we can, we coax new baby Blobs to grow and repair damaged areas. Outside calls these stem cells. They help make the cities beautiful again. But we fear the cities will never be as perfect as they were so long ago, when we began our work. Every day that passes, more Blobs than ever before are misbehaving, and the cities are breaking down faster than our repairs can keep up. Enemies are sneaking past our defenses, and too many Blobs are failing to do the work they’ve always done so well.
If InMi breaks down, if sickness happens, will Chip be removed or turned off? That would shut us down. Our world would end. Outside calls this death. It terrifies us.
****
May leaves Kane’s house in the evening to head to her parents’ and grandparents’ nearby apartment for the night. They live in a building crammed full of people, many generations of relatives all living together.
The bus May rides is also crammed full. So many people, almost all with the telltale InMi tattoo on their shoulders.
InMi gave the world long life, but the world hasn’t gotten any bigger.
May absent-mindedly scrolls through videos on her phone. She pauses on a clip from a classic movie. A lady lies in bed. But there’s something very wrong with her. Her skin is tight and blotchy and all wrinkled up, like a crumpled piece of paper. May feels queasy looking at her. A normal-looking young man sits beside her, holding her hand. “The cancer spread,” he says. “The doctors say you have just one month left. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, darling,” the woman in the movie said. “It’s my time.”
May doesn’t understand. “What’s cancer? Why does she look so awful?” She mumbles to herself.
The woman in the seat right next to May laughs. “Oh, my child. She’s old. That used to happen to everyone. Thanks to InMi, it won’t happen to us.”