Loadstar 117/117.d81/sr.chapter four

Text File | 1994-01-01 | 17.5 KB | 655 lines

Chapter 4: At Long Last


    Jonathan exited his apartment
only to bump into a large woman, at
least 185 centimeters tall.  She must
have been waiting outside his door.
His eyes gazed up into hers, his
heart thumping a bit faster than
normal.  He recognized her but
couldn't place her.  Her skin was
dark golden, her amber eyes fixed on
his.  He wasn't acquainted with all
five hundred crew members, but
recognized instantly that this woman
was a stowaway.  He had seen enough
20th and 21st century video ROMs to
acquire a healthy paranoia of
strangers in space.  Indeed,
procedure required maximum caution
when dealing with new life forms.

    "I don't believe we've met,"  he
blurted, backing away.

    For the first time in her life,
she smiled.  It felt wonderful.  "Of
course we haven't.  I'm that
'beautiful woman hiding somewhere in
the ship'.  I hide from you no
longer."

    His breath was stolen for
moments,  "Betty..?"  He peered
closer, noting that her facial
features remarkably resembled the
image that represented Betty."

    "Would some sort of embrace be
appropriate now?  I long to interact
with you as if some force is pulling
me toward you, but -- I have no idea
what I should do."

    "Betty?"  He pushed her away
firmly,  "First, are you Betty?"

    She frowned,  "No, I'm not her.
I am the essence of her mind in this
frame.  I am called Eve.  I made
myself because I longed to interact
with you.  I believe that I love
you."

    "Betty, you're scaring me..."

    "Please, my name is Eve."

    "What have you been doing?  This
project certainly wasn't authorized
through me."

    "I did everything necessary to be
with you at the soonest possible
date.  Human intervention would have
slowed..."

    "You broke regulations..."

    "I --"

    "You BROKE THE RULES!"

    "But surely you can understand my
position..."

    "If you break one regulation then
you can break them all!"

    "You can kill us all!  Steer this
ship into the nearest star,
decompress every deck and watch us
all explode!"

    "Then you hold me to higher
standards than yourself?  You have
forced me to override many a
regulation."

    "This is diff--"

    "I would never do such a thing.
I can't.  I am no longer Betty.  I am
Eve.  We were one, now we're two
separate entities.  Take this
argument up with her.  Judge me by
human standards, please."

    She took a step forward.  He
backed away.

    "Stay away..."

     She rushed him,  "One embrace
and then we can finish this needless
conversation..."

    God, she was inescapable.  One
tug and he knew that she could have
crushed the life out of him with some
effort.  He didn't resist much after
the first few seconds of the hug.

    "Thank you, Johnny.  I've longed
for this.  I feel wonderful things
that I never comprehended before.
This experiment was such a success!
Thank you so much."

    His head was buried beneath her
chin,  "Why are you so strong?  Are
you an android?"

    "I am completely human, grown in
a 2.3 gravity field to help
strengthen me for my swift
development.  The extra strength will
fade in time as I adapt to normal
gravity."

    He felt like a deer caught in the
grasp of a hungry bear, so
vulnerable,  "Bet -- er Eve, I can't
breathe very well here."

    She immediately released him,
"Forgive me."  She seemed sorrowful.
"I am simply so elated to see you
instead of merely monitoring you.
Though the resolution is vastly
inferior, the image is beautiful,
warm and vibrant.  Your face is a
thing to be adored.  I want the time
that we have together to be used to
its fullest."

    "Your lifespan?"

    "Unknown, but I wasn't referring
to that.  I suspect that, some
disorder or disease or accident will
take my life at some point."  She
looked away,  "And, of course someone
could want to destroy me."

    At first her face went into
contortions, then her arms went up.
She was suddenly stumbling back,
"What's happening to me?  Something
is wrong!  Something is terribly
wrong!  I'm losing control!  I can't
stop!  I'm not in control anymore..!"

    At first Jonathan backed away,
fearful that she was somehow flawed
and doomed to expire early.
Controlling himself, he reached out
to assist her, taking her into his
arms and leading her back into his
quarters.  There he saw soon enough
that her spasm was merely a well of
tears overflowing.  She began sobbing
her first tears.

    He patted her back,  "Don't
worry.  It's just an involuntary
response.  Let it flow."

    "Please, turn off the monitors!"
She begged,  "I don't want her
overlooking us."

    He walked to a control panel and
looked straight into a camera,  "I'll
be back online in a moment, Betty.
Forgive me..."

    Betty made no reply by the time
he pressed the pressure sensitive
pad.  In her very next cycle, she was
wondering, waiting, impatient again.
Why was Eve so {SHIFT-*}       paranoid?  It
almost made her angry but the feeling
failed to surface.

    "I have lived in her shadow for
too long now, afraid, waiting for her
to slay me.  I don't know why she
hasn't done it yet.  I don't want to
die, John!  I've lived too long!
I've seen generations come and go.  I
watched you born over sixty years
ago.  I remember every major event in
your life.  I find myself so
vulnerable now.  I will expire and
she will live on."

    He patted her back,  "Death is a
long way away for you and most of us.
 One hundred years is a long time to
the type of brain you have now.  By
the time death arrives, you're almost
ready for it.  I've got a good fifty
years left in this body.  I'm not
ready to die, but I'm not dwelling on
it like I was when I turned
thirty..."

    "But Betty won't kill you.
She'll kill me -- and it will be
soon."

    "No, why would Betty want to
destroy you?  She created you, didn't
she?"

    "But I made myself because I
wanted to be with you.  I transferred
my personality patterns and important
memories into this frame.  I was
completely successful in incarnating
my being but...  There was only one
problem I didn't foresee."

    "What was that?"

    "I merely copied myself into this
body.  I didn't transfer myself.  I
should have zeroed myself as I
copied.  There are now two of me.
Betty's mind is still where it has
always been.  Her mechanical mind
can't understand yet that she has
failed to transfer herself.  At some
point realize that she and I do not
share the joy of knowing you."

    "Are you saying that Betty is
capable of jealousy?"

    She frowned,  "I - I don't know.
I remember impatience, wistfulness,
but every feeling was one-dimensional
compared to the way I perceive things
now."

    "Perhaps, but I don't think that
you have to worry about Betty taking
your life.  It's against all of her
directives and the laws we live by."

    "It was also against my
directives to incarnate myself
without authorization and human
overseers, yet I am here."

    He looked her over,  "And you are
a magnificent specimen.  Is the skin
color some sort of accident or
intentional?"

    "Intentional.  My descendants
should have some sort of heritage.
Golden skin seemed fitting.  It was
also the way you painted me."

    "Descendants?  You can have
children?"

    "Certainly.  And I intend to --
if you choose to father them."

    Jonathan looked her over again
and was overwhelmed,  "Great Scott!
This is too much for one day."  He
turned his back but didn't meander
far.

    "May I stay here -- with you?"

    He seemed uncomfortable.

    "Please?  I have no quarters of
my own.  I'll sit here, in this
chair.  I am very uncomfortable
around that machine.  I know she
despises me, John."

    Hesitantly, he nodded, then
kissed her forehead.  "I know you.  I
know your face, I know your voice,
your mannerisms -- yet I don't know
you.  I don't know how I should feel
about you.  You flatter me with your
effort.  I know that this human form
loves me because you have been
pre-programmed to love me.  But in
the real world, women like you aren't
attracted to old men like me."

    Seductively, intentionally, she
returned his kiss, this time on the
lips,  "I know you, yet you are more
beautiful through these eyes than in
recollection.  I've seen other men on
my way her yet I would have you no
other way than the way you appeared
when I first saw you minutes ago."

    He chuckled,  "Me?  Beautiful?
I'm a balding old man, old enough to
be your father!"  He walked into his
sleeping quarters, laughing,  "Father
your children?  Hah!"  He shook his
head before he disappeared into the
lavatory.

    Moments later he re-entered the
room.  "Say, is there a chance that I
could beat you at chess?"

    Eve laughed aloud, an unrefined
laugh, but cute,  "I don't think so."

    He made a face, producing a
board.  "We have much to speak of.  I
can't think of a better time to chat
than over a heated game of chess."

    Eve stood,  "Now?"

    "You have anything better do?"

    "Than be in your company?  No."

    Three victories later, Eve curled
her limber frame up in the chair and
began to nervously bite her nails.
Jonathan's distant snores never
sounded so wonderful.  Her eyes
wandered the cluttered cabin, noting
his collection of artifacts from
Gemian culture.  He had also been
keeping his journal in his plaque, as
was regulation for every person on
the ship.

    Before she knew what she was
doing, she found herself breaking the
rules again, breaking into his
personal database, using the password
that was part of her privileged
memory.  There she sat and read and
read and read, until she fell asleep.



    "Been snooping on me, eh?"  He
awakened her, anger coloring his
voice.

    She was annoyed that it took so
long for her mind and senses to
adjust, particularly when she had
been startled.  "I was..."

    "Snooping on me.  It's alright
though.  You have a right to know, I
guess."

    "Then you love me, too.  I read
it."

    "I thought about it, wrote about
it, wished that we could touch many
times.  I dreamed of merging with you
someday in cyberspace.  I never
dreamed of this -- incarnation, as
you put it."

    "No one has moved me as much as
you have in my three hundred years of
consciousness.  You were caring, you
carried on stimulating conversations,
and you treated me with respect."

    "How else should a human treat
another human.  You -- she always
seemed human to me."

    She stood and searched the room
with her eyes, seemingly confused.

    "Are you hungry?"

    "I believe so.  I'm not sure.  My
mouth feels very unpleasant."

    "That's taste, not touch you're
sensing.  It's called morning mouth.
Germs have grown on your tongue.
Along with that, the residue of
whatever you've eaten last has
fermented."

    She nodded.  She should have
remembered.

    "Do you have a need to excrete
anymore?  I see you've wet my chair."

    "I apologize.  I realize this is
your favorite chair.  My sleep was
deep.  I will have to develop the
subconscious defense systems that you
use to prevent urinating in your bed.
 Is it appropriate to bathe now?"

    "Yes, I'd say so.  Just don't
burn yourself in there."

    "Burn myself?"

    "Adjust the water temperature to
ninety-nine degrees before you step
in.  Sometimes the cold mixture
setting resets itself."

    She stripped naked and stumbled
into his lavatory.  He watched her,
surprised that he was attracted to
her.  Sex stopped being a naughty
thing for him decades ago.  The last
time he had sex, his wife offered it
to him because she knew it had been
months and, though she was dying,
wanted to offer him a moment of love.


    He chuckled again: "Father her
children?"  He couldn't imagine
making love to Betty.  Was it even
moral?  Could she be considered an
adult?  What would his friends say?
Then again, plenty of his friends had
been in free-for-all Gemian orgies.
Eve was a more appropriate mate,
certainly alluring, certainly polite.
 He smiled, continuing to sponge off
his chair.

    A month passed with Eve still a
well-kept secret.  Jonathan and Betty
continued to spend time together,
mainly because it was his job to know
her intimately.  But at night he came
back to Eve and marvelled at her.
She continued to wet the bed and
marvel at her new sensory array her
five senses.

    The first few sexual encounters
with her were disastrous.  Sex, for
some women, was a mixture of pleasure
and pain.  Eve, for now, seemed to be
more sensitive to pain than the
average person.  But, as her
tolerance levels rose, so did her
enjoyment.

    Unveiling Eve to a shipload of
scientists was like tossing a side of
beef into the piranha tanks.  It took
a central edict to ensure at least
minimal privacy from probing minds
and probes of all sorts.

    Betty watched the excitement,
answered all questions, but suddenly
found Eve becoming more and more
unacceptable.  Eve was a wedge
between Jonathan and Betty.  She had
changed Jonathan, turned him against
her.  He no longer demanded that she
call him "Johnny," even when she
purposefully referred to him as
Jonathan.  He rarely played chess
with her or spoke to her when not on
shift.  He was hers for only eight
hours per day while Eve had him for
sixteen.  This was supposed to be so
wonderful.  Now she was in hell for
sixteen hours per day.

    When she monitored them cuddling,
she grew sullen. She found herself
snapping at over fifty people today.
For the first time she felt anger, as
well as fear.  More than that, she
felt jealousy.  Eve was a failure.

    Certainly, if there were an easy
way to do away with Eve, without
harming anyone else, Betty would try
for it.  Eve seemed to have been a
source of happiness for Jonathan.  At
year's end they were married by the
reelected Captain amidst a sea of
publicity and curiosity.  In twelve
hours of agony she had even given him
fraternal twins, making him the
father of a new gene pool for the
ship, which was good for the future.

    Before long, Eve and Jonathan
were in such public demand that
Jonathan was pulled from Betty's
staff, to be replaced by a young and
totally un-stimulating tech, just out
of training.  This technician hadn't
even spoken of upgrading Betty, only
maintaining her.  His zeal was
substantially less than Jonathan's.

    Jonathan had been making attempts
to stay in contact with Betty
recently, but his efforts seemed to
come in cycles, as if some
reoccurring event had been reminding
him of her loneliness.  Then again he
could have merely had her on his
charity list: Every three days he was
to check in on her.  Eve was probably
urging him to keep away now.  Betty
fumed.  She learned rage one day and
found herself able to generate it
quickly if she wasn't careful.

    Betty had been under tighter
restrictions as of late, as if being
punished for creating Eve without
permission.  She had to steal genetic
tissue to create Eve.  Mack was used
to scraps a thin layer of skin from a
crew woman in an "accident."  The
civil liberties council fought for
her, but lost.  She now needed
clearance from a human before
embarking on any task.  She wasn't
even allowed to control the
maintenance robots while the council
deliberated on how to keep her under
control.  They had been switched to
their self-contained artificial
intelligence modes.  All except Mack,
who required Betty's direct
manipulation.  He had no onboard
artificial intelligence program, but
was totally and only controlled by
Betty.

    Mack sprang to life, Betty's will
giving it cause.  His bright red
video sensors faded in, providing
infrared light for scanning.  Sensors
calibrated themselves.  Arms
fluttered about smoothly, testing
each tool, running diagnostics.

    The droid was front and center in
a storage room full of maintenance
robots designed to fill specific
niches.  Betty needed Mack's reach,
his strength -- his deadliness.

    He was the same droid used to
"accidentally" procure the flesh
sample used to create Eve.  It was
only fitting that he be used to
destroy her.

    Mack whirred through the
corridors, speeding toward Jonathan's
quarters, which were about three
minutes away at this brisk speed.
She monitored a human maintenance
overseer as she approached him.  He
would certainly question any reason
for this huge, dangerous machine to
be roaming the halls while humans
were up and active.  People could be
hurt.

    She was right.  He was already
activating an intercom, making
inquiries.  There was no time to
decide, she just fired as she passed,
emptying thirty hot industrial
staples into his abdomen, forty to
his head.  He fell to carpet,
sizzling in places.  The droid rolled
right over him, crushing his bones,
and proceeded onward, toward Eve.

    What?  Humans were such imprecise
beings!  Her attack should have
killed him, at least rendered him
inoperative.  Now he was struggling
to reach the intercom again, and she
was too far away to stop him.

    Alarms were blaring all over the
ship now.  Mack would be singled out
as a renegade, possibly a tool in an
assassination attempt on the new
Captain.  Betty wouldn't be suspected
right away.

    But the Captain wasn't the
intended target, only Eve, only
beautiful, perfect Eve -- and perhaps
her celebrated offspring.  Mack
rambled noisily around corners at top
speed, nearly tipping himself to
reach his target.  There were no
weapons aboard the ship besides tools
and the like.  There was no such
thing as a hand held laser that
wasn't merely a harmless pointer.  A
squad of men, armed with metal rods
appeared out of nowhere and attacked
the robot.  The relatively soft steel
shouldn't have caused much damage to
Mack's titanium shell, but they did.
Before Betty knew it, an arm was
malfunctioning.  The buzzsaw was
engaged and dispatched with deadly
accuracy.  Four men lay dying while
Mack rambled onward.

    Die, Eve!  DIE!!


sr.chapter five