‘I do not understand your Irish jokes,’ said Kai.
It was late afternoon, CHT. Geoff was sitting at his desk in the lab. He was writing up his day’s work in his technical journal.
‘Monday 12 September 2140: I’ve now tested all the software relating to Maura’s brain, plus essential additions. The self-learning subroutines are well proven and I’ve copied them across. The energy extraction procedure works well on a small scale, and there should be no difficulty with more powerful sources. But I have yet to build TK ability into the program. It’s going to need it at molecular level. I’ve tried to map areas of my own brain while doing TK exercises but, so far, I haven’t found the parts that activate. I can now rule out the frontal lobe, the parietal, and all other areas of higher brain function. The next step will be to try the more primitive structures, the first parts to develop as we evolved as homo sapiens.’
Maura entered. ‘Hiya, what’s new?’ she said, twisting round a lop-sided chair to level it on the sloping floor.
‘Ah, you’re just in time. If I put on the mag-res headset and practice moving this pen around without touching it, see if you can pick up any discharges in my cerebellum.’
‘Oh right, I think there is something. Like tiny tracer bullets shooting down your axons.’
‘Great,’ said Geoff. ‘I knew it had to be somewhere.’
‘But I thought that part was a sort of ancient brain for low life forms. I mean, a lot of reptiles have developed cerebellums,’ said Maura.
‘Interesting, isn’t it? Perhaps the early humans and their cousins had TK skills, but lost them later on. Can you start up the megging recorder? I want to correlate the flashes with specific movements.’ And what Maura doesn’t know is soon I’ll have the rest of my brain mapped as well.
Next morning, Kai called Geoff to ask him to help prepare a tribute to Maura. They met in the TUCC library. It was a room with a few cabinets containing a limited number of hard-copy atlases, charts, 3-D pictorial records and original paper documents. But its main use was to display data from the library servers as quantum dot images on wall screens.
Kai had been collecting information from the uni-net. ‘I see Maura got a first at the Marine Science National University of Ireland,’ said Kai, ‘and was commended for her PhD thesis at MIT. The papers she has written have been published in all the best academic e-journals.’
‘She’s a bright girl, alright,’ said Geoff. ‘She plays the Irish harp, sings beautifully, and she was on a national viz-box programme about traditional dancing.’
‘So there is a lot we can say about her at the party. Tell, me how did you meet her?’
‘Ha, that was typical of her. She’d set off all the sirens and strobes in the Unidome. She was so excited about being able to fly, with the gravity being so low. She’d gone right up to the top and landed in a prohibited area. The goons in Securopa spotted her and they pressed the main alarm button. They were such prats. She was obviously harmless, just a young girl.’ Geoff’s voice was breaking up.
‘Did they fine her?’
Geoff cleared his throat noisily. ‘No, she just got a lecture. I got the same because I’d landed next to her to talk her down. She was more worried about the black mark on my record than on her own.’
Kai smiled broadly. ‘She was wonderful to me, after Leona killed Shetani. I was about to jump into the Ross Sea after what had happened. But Maura wanted me to be your leader again, and you all forgave me. Her kindness gave me hope.’
‘She has empathy, alright. She’s amazingly intuitive. Maura and Leona together were incredible. When I wanted to dock at a big Oztralian port, they both told me we had to walk across the desert to Uluru. And that’s what we did. Walk, mind you, even though we’d set off in a truck. Sorry, Kai. I know it hurts you to talk about Leona.’
‘No, it is okay. And you are correct. They both had a telepathic gift that was very strong. In Maura’s case, it has given her a natural affinity with Thiosh. She understands them and, I think, loves them. That is why she has been so determined to save them.’
‘She’s got quite a temper on her too, you know. I remember when I got drunk on Wally’s whiskey when we were in Oztralia. She gave me a hard time, but it was mainly because we’d been drinking without her.’
Geoff began to laugh, but then had a flashback to another time when Maura was angry. He was lying on the deck of the whale-bot, his nose broken. Best not to mention that.
‘It is clear she loves life,’ said Kai, ‘and that must make this “jump” as she calls it, exceptionally hard for her, and also for you, Geoff. But she is utterly determined.’
‘Yup. I wonder what she’ll do when I jump before her.’
‘Sorry, Geoff. I do not understand.’
‘Please don’t tell her but, all the neuroimaging and megging I’ve done on her brain to reproduce it artificially, I’ve also done on mine. I can Virtuonise myself. Maura mustn’t do it, not now she’s got Clodagh. It would be too great a sacrifice for her, and a disaster for our child. Maura doesn’t know, but I’m going to jump instead of her.’
‘You would do this in Maura’s place?’
‘Yes, after the party, I’ll run the start-up programme, and drink the Pentobarbital myself. I need you, Kai, to calm her down when she finds out what’s happened. Also, I’d be grateful if you’d run the command file on the network to make me a Virtuon. It’s called Zaijian.’
Kai smiled grimly. ‘You love her deeply, I know. But she is determined to save the Thiosh single-handed.’
‘Yes, but originally she wanted to settle down and have a family. She was very open with me the first time we went down in the bathyscaphe to look at the Europan seabed. She needs to bring up Clodagh herself. In time, she may meet someone else instead of me.’
‘You do not have to kill your own natural body,’ said Kai. ‘You are not telepathic. You could lead a separate life.’
‘If Maura is prepared to live only as AI, then I must do the same as her. My jump needs to be in place of hers.’
‘I admire the fact you are prepared to end your natural life for the sake of Maura. I do not think I should try to influence either of you, but I do not relish the prospect of having to tell her what you have done.’
‘She’ll get over it,’ said Geoff. ‘You’ve seen her with Clodagh. She’s totally infatuated with our daughter. Remember, she took her decision to jump before Clodagh was born. I’m sure she was too hasty. I reckon she regrets volunteering to jump. She probably feels she can’t back down.’
‘I will talk to her. Like I said before, I am willing to become a Virtuon if it makes up for the harm I have done in the past.’
‘I know that’s how you feel, but there’s no time. I’m sorry, but it would take too long to replicate you. My artificial brain is almost ready to fire up.’
Computer Error
It was the early hours of the morning. The baby’s plaintive crying had woken Geoff. He’d tried to get up quietly, but soon Maura was wide awake too.
‘I knew you’d make a great dad, to be sure,’ she said. ‘You’re forever leaping out of bed to see to Clodagh.’
‘It’s okay, really. She really likes the milk from the omniprinter.’
‘I’m sorry I’m not feeding her the natural way. I would have preferred it, but I didn’t want her to get used to something I couldn’t finish.’
‘Yeah, I guessed that was it.’
‘I thought you’d be a lot more antsy than this,’ said Maura. ‘But you seem to be rather distant. What’s the matter?’
‘Well, perhaps it’s because our relationship is fucked. OPDEO wants to take over the Solar System by fucking up the Earth. And if ever we thought we’d be a normal couple one day, there’s fuck all chance now. We could’ve let Kai Virtuonise.’
Maura took a deep breath. ‘Did you think of volunteering for the jump?’ she asked. ‘I don’t remember you offering yourself.’
Geoff looked away. ‘Maybe that was because I
haven’t mastered being human yet.’
Kai had finished decorating the lounge for the party. Geoff’s stomach knotted when he saw the bunting, the streamers, and the balloons. He forced himself to smile as Chen came in carrying a cake.
‘Wow!’ said Geoff, simulating surprise. ‘Black Forest cherry cake. Maura’s favourite.’
‘Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte,’ said Chen. ‘German is more easy than English.’
‘The room looks great. Thanks for all your work. I don’t know how you found all these photos of Maura.’
‘It okay now uni-net is back. Many pictures from school time.’
‘On a farm, riding horses, mucking out pigs. She seemed to be enjoying that,’ said Geoff.
‘And she play sport in team with helmets and shovels,’ said Chen.
‘Oh, I think that’s camogie. Like hurling.’
Seeing Chen’s blank expression, Geoff tried to explain how the game was played. ‘You have to knock the ball between the posts, either above or below the crossbar. Below is better. It’s very fierce and violent.’
Chen smiled and nodded. ‘Back home, we play Beikou tarkbei with wood sticks. It is ancient game. Ball is knob from apricot root. Sometimes we play at night-time. We put cloth on ball and make it catch fire.’
Geoff forced himself to concentrate. ‘Really? What are the rules?’
‘No rules,’ said Chen.
Geoff decided to leave that subject. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘it’s time now. Can you fetch Kai, and I’ll go and get the Virtuon-girl.’
Geoff walked down the corridor but, feeling dizzy, he stopped to lean against the wall. This is a celebration of Maura’s life. It’s supposed to be happy. I’ve got to keep up appearances. But how the hell can I? I must be positive about Maura’s decision but, to become a Virtuon, she needs to end her natural life. How will she react when she finds I’ve beaten her to it? I can’t think any more. It’s time to go and fetch her. She’ll have put on her party dress – and the shamrock leaves I made for her with the omniprinter. She’ll wear them in her hair. Oh God, the green will match her eyes!
He entered the bedroom. Clodagh was crying in her cot. Why hasn’t Maura seen to her? Is she so deeply asleep, she hasn’t heard the baby? Oh, please God, No, no, no! He lifted Maura’s wrist to feel her pulse, but her skin was already cold. He picked up the flask from the bedside table and lifted it to his nose. Pentobarbital!
He sagged to the ground, sobbing. No, this wasn’t supposed to happen. He saw the note propped up on the dressing table. It said ‘Geoff’ on the envelope, handwritten. He held the letter for a while, his hand shaking. He didn’t want to rip it open. It was her last gift to him. He knew he would keep it for the rest of his life. He hunted through drawers, pulling them out and emptying the contents on the floor, rummaging until he found what he was looking for – a steel nail file. He opened the envelope carefully and pulled out the letter.
Hiya, Geoff. Surprise, surprise – I’ve left early! I’m really sorry to miss the party. You must have gone to so much trouble to make it really special for me. And I bet you were going to say lots of nice things. It could have got quite maudlin, of course. It’s been hard to get people to laugh at my jokes, lately.
Clodagh began to wail and Geoff picked her up to rock her in his arms. He continued reading.
But, you know how you called me intuitive? You often wondered why things were obvious to me and not to yourself. I could never do telepathy with you, but I didn’t have to. I guessed you were not going to let me jump. I had a look on the network at all your mind-uploading files. Some have a prefix ‘M’ and some start with ‘G’. I wasn’t surprised to see there were just as many G files as Ms. And they were just as big. I know you neuro-imaged your cerebellum to capture your telekinetic ability, but I could see you hadn’t stopped there. You had a complete replica of everything in your skull.
Clodagh had fallen asleep but Geoff continued to rock her, afraid she’d wake up if he stopped.
I found a launch file called ‘Zaijian’. It’s a Khitan word, isn’t it? I asked Chen what it meant, and he told me it’s the word for ‘Goodbye’. I’m not great at reading computer code, but I could see you were set up to launch your files, not mine. My guess was you were going to hit your jump button in the middle of the night, and drink the Pentobarbital as a nightcap. You might of course, have tried to keep your organic brain living in parallel, but that’s a good recipe for a nervous breakdown. This way, you don’t have to take the risk.
Clodagh was making sniffling sounds. Probably dreaming, thought Geoff. He laid her in her crib and turned back to the letter.
I must admit, after I had our baby, I very nearly changed my mind about becoming a Virtuon. She’s a wonderful child, and she doesn’t deserve to have the weirdest mum in the universe. I nearly let you carry out your plan. After all, you would have loved to have had all that computing power at your fingertips neurons. But in the end, I realised my first decision was the right one.
Give little Clodagh a kiss for me, please. You may have to do a lot of that in the future. At last I’ve found a man who’s a perfect dad.
Take care, it’s time to say Zaijian.
All my love, Maura.
Geoff made his way back to the party room, but couldn’t speak. He beckoned to the others. They all shuffled into the bedroom. Kai and Chen knelt beside the bed and chanted Khitan prayers. Then they wrapped Maura in a saffron cloth and lifted her onto a stretcher.
‘Zakristan will look after her body until her funeral,’ said Kai. ‘I will arrange for her to be cremated. She wanted her ashes to be scattered over the sea. It is contrary to her Catholic tradition, but she was insistent.’
Geoff turned abruptly and left the room. Sitting at his work desk, he accessed the master server from his com-pad. At least I can recreate her artificially, he thought. Opening the Zaijian code, he made the global edits to execute Maura’s files instead of his own. He clicked on Run, and . . . nothing happened.
Geoff scavenged his brain, trying to find ways to start the virtual mirror of Maura’s intellect. But, after two hours, he had to admit he’d run out of ideas. He fought to control his trembling body. It’s no good, she’s dead. Her body’s dead and her mind’s dead. I’ve failed her and I can’t even beg forgiveness.
Spy Wars
Geoff couldn’t account for the last two hours. He wondered if he’d been sleepwalking. But now he was in the lab, looking at words on the screen of his com-pad – words from an alien creature, expressing her sympathy:
Atherlonne:
I’m sorry that you suffer so much pain.
The message had been sent twenty minutes ago. He typed his reply:
Geoff:
Thank you. I appreciate your sympathy. But Maura’s mind must live on, in a different form. Can you look at my coding, please? There’s a huge amount of data, and I’ve made a mistake, somewhere.
Atherlonne:
I will, of course, assist if I am able.
Geoff returned to the party room where Chen was taking down the decorations. He asked him to look after Clodagh, and then went back to his desk to wait for Atherlonne’s reply. He knew he ought to get some sleep, but he was too worried.
Perhaps I’ve been too ambitious, thinking I can upload a human brain. There is no way of telling how Shetani did it, but there’s a huge amount of computer expertise in the monasteries. The monks in the Middle Ages researched the natural world, astronomy, languages, and even martial arts in some cultures. Their libraries were repositories of knowledge, recorded conscientiously and artistically. Nowadays, the Khitan monasteries are cutting-edge software houses. I should have asked them for help. Why did I think I could do it all myself?
Geoff looked at his time read-out and realised it was sunrise over the surface of the sea three miles above him. A new message appeared on his screen.
Atherlonne:
You have the scans until this week but then there is a memory gap which should be filled.
> Geoff:
I never intended to let her jump. I was going to do it instead. She will have lost a few days’ memory, as if she’d been unconscious. But she should be able to carry on thinking from the present time.
Atherlonne:
Her program needs another data file, maybe a special memory of some kind. I checked her com-pad and her com-phone but I fear there was not anything that helped. Nobody knows her better than yourself. What is it that she needs to be complete?
Geoff went back to the bedroom. Damn it, I could never telepathise with her. She knew I was planning to jump, and she kept that knowledge secret. What other secrets did she have?
The contents of the drawers were still strewn over the floor. There must be a clue somewhere. Where do I look? He went through the pockets of her thermal suits, flipped through her hard-copy photo albums, and opened a small box of personal items. A gold crucifix, a cameo brooch, the natural pearl necklace he’d given her, emerald earrings the colour of her eyes, her old-fashioned fountain pen.
How strange! Maura must have used it to write me her letter in traditional handwriting.
He was about to close the box when lightning flashed in his brain. The inside of the box was too shallow. He emptied the contents, carefully this time, levered up the padded base and took out a slim notebook.
Poems! Why didn’t I know Maura wrote poetry? Geoff asked himself. He took the notebook back to his desk, and typed Maura’s last entry:
Daughter
Sleep, sleep my little one, my child.
Iniquity assuaging, tranquillity unchanging,
Breathe deep and slow all the while.
Simplicity pervading, silently persuading,
The Hesperian Dilemma Page 22