Paul turns to the ambassador. “So what happens now?”
Ambassador Hendricks frowns. “I wish I had good news for you, Mr. Owens. I’m pulling every string I have, but the Belizeans have a long tradition of rejecting outside authority. They celebrate their independence from Britain for the entire month of September, and their victory over the Guatemalan invaders is still one of their proudest accomplishments. If I try to push, they’re going to push back harder, and things will go worse for you. I can encourage. I can entreat. But I can’t push.
“And I can’t get a lot of cooperation from the State Department,” she continues. “I’ve tried to convince them, but they think this is a minor property matter, and they want me to make it just go away the fastest way possible. They have offered to compensate you for the loss of your android.”
“No!” Millie shouts.
“Don’t worry, I’ve told them that’s not an option. But they haven’t been here. They haven’t talked to Carey. They haven’t believed my reports, frankly. So I’m pulling the strings that I can, but I’ve only got so many I can pull.”
“So what do we do?” Susan asks.
“We let the process go through. We go before the magistrate and see if we can convince him that Carey is no threat.”
“A trial?” Paul asks.
Hendricks shakes her head. “Trials are for humans,” she says. “Belize courts are based on those of their former British rulers. Humans have rights here, and that includes a right to a trial. Carey has no rights. There will be a hearing tomorrow when Magistrate Teves arrives from the mainland. Just a hearing in chambers. No right to a barrister, no right to cross-examine the witnesses. The magistrate will ask questions, and we’ll have to answer and convince him that Carey is a simple machine, nothing more.”
“But it is more,” Millie insists.
Wayne smiles faintly. “Yes, it is, Rana. And ambassador, I think I can convince the magistrate of that.”
25. Today I Have My Hearing
When Magistrate Teves arrives the next day, he comes into the office where I am chained, followed close behind by Colonel Rejón, his aides, and Ambassador Hendricks. The magistrate is medium height and neatly dressed in a light tropical suit, not his magisterial robes. “This is the device?” he asks.
“Yes,” the colonel says.
The magistrate looks around the room. “This room will suffice for chambers for our hearing today. Do you object?”
“No, your lordship,” the colonel says.
“No, your lordship,” Hendricks echoes.
“All right.” The magistrate checks his comp, looking over information there for several minutes before he says, “So colonel, one of your technicians examined this device?”
“Yes, he did. He was not as thorough as he should have been.”
“That’s not what I asked, Colonel. This technician is here today?”
“Yes, he is waiting in another office.”
“Have him brought here,” the magistrate says.
“Your lordship,” Ambassador Hendricks says, “there are other parties concerned. They are also waiting. I suggest that you might want to have them all brought here to expedite matters.”
The colonel shakes his head. “It is too risky, your lordship. With so many in the room, if the device broke free, someone might be injured before we could restrain it.”
The magistrate looks down at me and asks, “Is there any danger of it breaking free? These chains look very secure.”
I look at Ambassador Hendricks, and she winces. She thinks Wayne’s plan is risky. But I have decided: I shall be as human as I am able. I will be tried for who I am, not what I am. I answer, “I shall not break free, your lordship.”
The magistrate’s eyes grow wide, as do the colonel’s. “And why not?” the magistrate asks.
“Because that would not respect your authority,” I answer, “nor Colonel Rejón’s. And it would disrupt these proceedings. I would like to return to my family.”
“Your family,” the magistrate muses. “They are among those waiting?” The ambassador nods. “And ambassador, you wish them to join us?”
Colonel Rejón interrupts, “I would rather not take that chance, your lordship.”
“It is not you taking the chance, it will be me. Bring all concerned parties here.”
“Yes, your lordship.” The colonel leaves the office.
Ambassador Hendricks starts to speak, but the magistrate raises a hand. “Ambassador, you have no formal standing in this hearing. I allow you and these other parties to be here out of courtesy; but out of similar courtesy, I do not think it would be proper to let you argue your case while the colonel is not here to offer rebuttal.”
“Yes, your lordship,” Hendricks says.
While they wait, the magistrate looks me over head to toe. “You are unusual to be sure, but you do not look like a war machine.” Hendricks again starts to speak, but stops as the magistrate raises his hand again. “I remember the automated soldiers: armored devices, tough, light, and well armed.” His eyes seem to look past me. “When they rushed through the jungle, it was all I could do to hold my post.” Then he focuses on me again, and he prods at me. “You are almost flesh—soft.” He squeezes my hands, “Ah, there is metal underneath though. Perhaps you are strong.”
Before I can answer, the colonel returns, followed by Rodrigo, Paul, Susan, Anna, Millie, and Wayne. Rodrigo carries a large tool box, as does Wayne. Magistrate Teves raises an eyebrow. “Colonel?”
Colonel Rejón answers, “I confirm that the boxes contain only mechanical and electronic tools, your lordship. You should be quite safe.”
“Thank you, Colonel. All right.” The magistrate turns to Rodrigo. “You are the technician who inspected this device for the Belizean Defence Force under orders from Colonel Rejón?”
“Yes, I am,” he says, “Rodrigo Pineda.”
“And this is your report?” The magistrate tries to push a document to Rodrigo’s comp, but the magistrate’s own comp only beeps an error. “Something is wrong here. My computer was fine this morning.”
The colonel answers, “We have a multiband jammer blanketing this room so that the device cannot call out and possibly summon assistance.”
“Do you really think that is necessary, Colonel?”
“I do, your lordship. It is for your protection as well, so I must insist.”
“Very well. Quite inconvenient, but I will accept it for now. Mr. Pineda, come read this report on my comp, and confirm to me that it is yours.”
Rodrigo steps around the table to where the magistrate stands by my head. He checks page after page on the magistrate’s comp before answering. “I confirm that this is my report in its entirety, unaltered.”
“Do you stand by these conclusions? BRKCX-01932-217JH-98662 is an older-model caretaker android with no war-making capabilities, and you found nothing unusual about it?”
“Well, for such an old unit to be still in service and in such good shape is unusual. In technology terms, this is an antique.”
“Yes, but that is all you found?”
Rodrigo measures his words carefully. I can see he is afraid of lying to the magistrate, but reluctant to offer support to the colonel’s argument. “Your lordship, its neural nets appear to have been growing steadily throughout its years of service, and so it is a very experienced android. One might even argue clever, because it has such a rich store of situations upon which to draw.”
“That does not make it dangerous?”
“No, your lordship, it does not.”
The magistrate turns to the colonel. “Do you have anything more you would like to ask?”
“Yes, I do, your lordship.” Colonel Rejón turns to Rodrigo. “So Mr. Pineda, you examined this unit quite closely?”
“Yes.”
“In your examination, did anything tell you that it could leap two meters over an obstacle, pursue a man at unnatural speeds, and deflect bullets without harm?”
> The ambassador says, “Your lordship!”
The magistrate turns on her with a glare. She grows silent, and the magistrate turns back to Rodrigo. “Answer the question,” he says.
Rodrigo shakes his head, “It is a complicated question. And also inaccurate: The android did not deflect bullets, and it was harmed. But to answer the question: Yes, an analysis of the structural design of the android, the capabilities of its actuators, and its synthetic musculature indicates that all of this is possible.”
“But you didn’t note it at the time?” the colonel asks.
“I recognize the possibilities in hindsight, Colonel.”
“So you admit that you missed that.”
“You asked for me to search for weapons, Colonel, and weapons systems. I searched much more thoroughly than that; but no, I did not comprehend the full range of mobility and durability of this device.”
The magistrate frowns. “And you also did not notice that this unit speaks for itself? That it appears self-aware?”
I see stress on Rodrigo’s face, so I answer before he can. “I did not do so during the inspection, your lordship. I only answered questions.”
“And why was that?”
“I wanted to reassure the colonel and Mr. Pineda that I meant no threat.”
The colonel turns back to the magistrate. “There is your answer, your lordship. The device is dangerous, and it concealed that fact from our most thorough examination. That makes it even more dangerous. Perhaps this is even deliberate subterfuge.”
“I cannot rule out that possibility,” the magistrate admits.
“Your lordship,” Ambassador Hendricks says.
This time the magistrate nods to her. “You have something you wish to contribute to this hearing, Ambassador Hendricks?”
“Your lordship, I would say that Mr. Stockwell here can explain to you everything that you need to know.”
“Mr. Stockwell,” the magistrate turns as the ambassador points at Wayne. “You are . . . ?”
“Wayne Stockwell, your honor—”
“Ahem,” the magistrate interrupts.
“He means ‘your lordship,’” Hendricks says.
“Yes, my apologies, your lordship,” Wayne continues. “I am a cyberneticist with the MCA corporation, the manufacturers of this device.”
“The Americans sent a cyberneticist down for this hearing?”
“No, your lordship, I was already here for Dr. Winters’s research project, and for my wedding.” Wayne gestures toward Millie.
“Your lordship,” the colonel says, “I object. This man is related by marriage to the owners of this device. He could very well be part of this espionage plan.”
“That is up to me to decide, Colonel,” the magistrate says. “Let me check.” He looks at his comp, and then grimaces as he realizes again that he is cut off from the outside world. “Ambassador Hendricks, I was going to check his credentials. Can you vouch for him?”
“I can, your lordship. I had him thoroughly checked out. He has been a member of this family for two days. He has been an employee of the MCA corporation for over three years, and he served an internship with them before that. He knows as much about this device as anyone.”
“Then for now I will accept your credentials, Mr. Stockwell. What would you like to add to this hearing?”
“First, your lordship, I would like to show what actually happened, since that is what the unit is being judged on.” Wayne turns to me. “BRKCX-01932-217JH-98662, I need you to download to me your record of the robbery, from before you heard anything until the police escorted you away.”
I cannot push the recording to him, of course, so Wayne inserts a transfer cable and pulls the document from my comp. Then he projects it as a holographic recording, and we go through the lead up in real time. When I start to move in the image, Wayne slows it down. “Now here, your lordship,” he says, “you will see that the unit took no action until the thief threatened the Owenses with a gun, pointing it in their direction.”
The magistrate frowns. “It is no news to me, Mr. Stockwell, that we sadly have a crime problem in Caye Caulker. This does indeed look like a typical late-night robbery,” he turns to Paul and Susan, “which might have been avoided had you used more sense.”
“I’m sor—” Paul starts to say.
But the magistrate holds up his hand before Paul can finish. “You aren’t the first Americans to make fools of yourselves here. You won’t be the last. I hope you learn a lesson from this.”
Then Wayne lets the playback continue. What is viewed from my perspective is live video. The rest of the hologram is a schematic reconstruction of my own body as I move. My eyes could not see that, but my motor and position sensors recreated it from memory.
But I have no need to watch this playback, since I remember it perfectly. Instead I look around the room, my empathy net tuned to maximum as I try to understand the mood. The Owenses are anxious, while Wayne is more confident. Ambassador Hendricks is calm and determined. The magistrate, true to his calling, is reserved. Neutral, as neutral as I have ever seen in a human.
And Colonel Rejón is . . . obstinate. Defiant. And underneath that, another reaction that I cannot quite work out.
“You see, your lordship,” Wayne continues, “the android leaps over the Owenses, and not in an attack. Notice how it expanded its torso, spread out its arms to give them cover. It was trying to defend them.” He lets the recording continue. “The android had already asked the man to put down the gun. Only when the man refuses and shoots at the device, damaging it in two places, does it act against him. Now, watch what it does.” In the image, I grab the gun from the man and smash it through the wall. Wayne freezes the scene. “Do you see that?”
“Yes,” the magistrate says. “It was very quick.”
“Very quick, but there is something curious.” Wayne turns to me. “BRKCX-01932-217JH-98662, why did you smash the gun against the wall?”
“Your lordship, I object,” the colonel says again.
“On what grounds?”
“You cannot have this thing testify.”
“It seems I already have,” the magistrate says with a smile. “This is not testimony, Colonel. This is fact finding, and I will hear as much as I can hear.” The magistrate turns to me. “So have you been listening this entire time?”
“Yes, I have,” I answer. “Should I answer the original question asked by Dr. Stockwell?”
“Yes, I think you should.”
“I misinterpreted what the wall was constructed from,” I answer. “I thought it would be more solid, and I wanted to disable the weapon so that no one would get injured by it.”
“So that no one would get injured,” Wayne says.
The colonel sniffs. “Such a convenient rationalization.” The magistrate glares at the colonel, but he lets the comment stand.
Wayne continues, “But once you had the gun in your hand, why did you not smash the thief with it? That would have also rendered it harmless.”
“Wayne!” I am shocked at my own outburst. It is as if my emulation net has a life of its own, and my rational control net can only observe. “I could not do that!”
“Why not?” the magistrate asks.
“I am a medical care android, your lordship,” I answer. “I cannot allow injuries if they can be avoided, and I must treat them if they are unavoidable.”
“But that leap that you did,” the magistrate continues. “Is that part of your design?”
“It is now,” I answer. “I requested it after . . .” But I am reluctant to explain.
“After what?” the magistrate asks.
“It’s all right, Carey,” Paul says. “You don’t have to worry about Mom’s privacy. Answer the question.”
The magistrate stares at Paul, and then says, “Yes, answer.”
“Yes, your lordship. I requested these physical upgrades after I . . .” I look at Paul. “I failed.”
“I do not understand,” the mag
istrate says.
“May I show you?” The magistrate nods, and I turn to Wayne. “Please . . . Download this recording, and play it for the magistrate.”
So Wayne does, and we all watch my recorded memories of that night, in vivid video and audio. The fire alarms. Mildred’s panic. The smoke. Her struggles to escape. The fire. The oxygen tanks. Running through the picture window. The explosion. Tumbling through the air. Tossing Mildred free. (I wince when I see her land.) Impact, and the way it jars and disorients me. The flames eating at my flesh. Putting out the fire in Mildred’s blanket. Carrying her to safety. Mildred’s terror when she realizes what I am. And finally, having no way to give her the oxygen therapy that she needed.
The room falls silent. I see tears in Anna’s eyes. Millie swallows hard.
And I . . . I am sad. I miss Mildred. And I am . . . angry?
Wayne pauses the playback, and the magistrate says, “You stumbled. You fell. You were clumsy.”
“And I had no oxygen,” I answer. “So I asked for upgrades. To be ready.” I stare at Colonel Rejón; and I realize that yes, for the first time, I am angry. “I do not harm people. Ever. Do not judge me by those mechanicals you fought.”
“You are mechanical,” Rejón answers.
“And you are human, Belizean, just like the bandit who attacked us. I judge you by your fierce love for your country, your need to keep it safe, not by what he did. Belize is not that bandit, and I am not the mechanical soldiers. I am myself, unique. Judge me as me.”
The colonel and I lock eyes; and suddenly, at last, I understand. I see in his eyes what I saw in Mildred’s that night: Though he hides it well, Colonel Rejón is terrified of me. Whatever he faced in the jungle, he cannot dare to risk facing it again.
“You are unique?” the magistrate asks, pulling my attention away from the colonel.
“Your lordship, if I may . . .” Paul says. The magistrate nods, and Paul turns to Wayne. “Please . . . Resume the playback.”
And so I watch myself as Henry at Mildred’s deathbed; and those memories make me forget all about Colonel Rejón. Wayne skips large stretches, showing just enough to give a sense of the night. Anna leaving the room in tears. Millie, five years old again. Susan telling stories. Paul rubbing my shoulders. My . . . Henry’s kiss goodbye.
Today I Am Carey Page 13