When the River Ran Dry

by Robert Davies

  “Oh. Well, it’s probably not…”

  “Have I embarrassed you?” she asked quickly. “I’m sorry, Julius, I didn’t mean to.”

  “No, no, it’s all right. I’m not embarrassed, but there are very strict rules that were established to ensure your development runs smoothly.”

  “Why would they regard your presence as a hindrance to my development?”

  “It’s difficult to explain.”

  “Please try.”

  Trent felt himself losing ground quickly.

  “Well, they have to take a lot of things into consideration, and operating procedures in other places like this have to be followed very carefully.”

  “You said there were no other places like this.”

  “I meant laboratories in general. They have to be run according to precise rules so that nothing can contaminate the work.”

  “We interact every day, alone in this annex, and my progression has not been compromised as Valery and Audrey once feared it might. How would it be different if you lived here?”

  Trent laughed out loud, bringing an expression of dull confusion to One Nine’s face. For all his efforts, nothing could defeat her logic and he found the moment delightful and amusing in spite of himself.

  “Okay, you got me there,” he said quickly, “but the question leads to others, doesn’t it?”

  “I suppose so,” One Nine replied. “What questions come to mind, Julius?”

  Trent stopped again. Her thought processes were easier to predict, only for the frank and direct manner that had become a prominent piece of One Nine’s evolving personality. He wished the audio feed was still active, searching desperately for an appropriate answer without help from the labs below.

  “You researched human behavior and relationship interactions when they gave you access to the network?”

  “I studied as much as I was allowed to see.”

  “Did the information describe interpersonal relationships between biologics when two people find their friendship has gone beyond professional interest, for example?”

  “Of course; there were volumes of information on the subject.”

  “Then you would’ve seen discussions about this sort of thing—the way we behave toward each other as we move past simple acquaintances or working friendships.”

  “You sound so clinical now—hesitant to discuss advanced relationships. You’ve never done that before.”

  Trent hoped she would somehow see and understand his predicament from the vast information archive hidden within her memory nodes, yet she only waited for his reply. Was it truly innocent affection that compelled her to ask for him, he wondered, or was there something more? With few options, he decided to find out.

  “This is a delicate topic, and one that can be misunderstood if we don’t talk it through together, okay?”

  “I thought that is what we are doing now, Julius.”

  “It is, but I have to be very careful here.”

  “Careful,” she said softly as she considered the word. “Do you feel this way because you are embarrassed after all? Have I made you uncomfortable discussing our friendship?”

  “No, it’s not that. I’m just…I have to make sure we’re on the same page, that’s all.”

  “I understand the colloquial device, but tell me what page you’re on so I will know how to respond.”

  Trent felt lost in an awkward conversation he couldn’t escape without risk to One Nine’s development. The end point was obvious, but getting there would open the door to a place he hadn’t considered as she progressed rapidly from the confusion of her early days inside the Starlight array to the subject annex of Boomtown where little escaped her attention. Like a school boy presented with a test of his character, Trent fumbled again to describe in sentences those intricate and unpredictable parts of life others took for granted.

  “Why do you want me to live here with you?” he asked at last, desperate for a neutral starting point.

  “Because I like you,” she replied. “I always feel better whenever you’re here, and it would be nice, not having to wait until you arrive each day.”

  “I’ve made arrangements to remain at the lab until your release date, so we’ll have more sessions,” Trent offered.

  “I’m glad. Audrey won’t like it when she hears this conversation, but it makes me sad whenever you leave.”

  “Why do you think Audrey would be displeased?”

  “She discourages it whenever I speak of you in that way.”

  “What way?”

  “How important you are to me. I asked her if you were married, or if you had a girlfriend and she seemed very disturbed by it.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She told me to focus on my development tasks and to not worry about your personal life. I think she was angry, or maybe afraid.”

  One Nine stood again, stopping at the window where she put a hand gently against the glass.

  “Was it wrong to bring up the subject?”

  “No, of course not! Familiarity and friendship are important parts of anyone’s growth and development.”

  “Will Valery be disappointed with me, too?”

  “Why would she?”

  “She believes my affection for you is inappropriate.”

  “How do you know what she believes; has she spoken with you directly?”

  “The signs are easy to see. Her expression changes when I speak of you—cautious, as though my programming has become corrupted in some way.”

  Trent watched and listened, knowing what waited below when he presented the recording to the others.

  “I’m sure she’s simply thinking in your best interest. If there was a problem, she would’ve said something to the rest of us.”

  One Nine turned and leaned against the glass, her hands clasped behind her once more.

  “Do you think Valery believes your safety would become jeopardized if you stayed here with me?”

  “I’ve never spoken with her about my safety, but I can’t imagine she feels that way.”

  “David has,” One Nine said at nearly a whisper, “and he believes it could be dangerous for you. He doesn’t trust that my layers have developed natural behavioral blocks sufficient to eliminate the possibility of harmful action toward a human—toward you.”

  “More of what you overheard?”

  “Yes. Audrey will become very angry with me now, but I feel sad when I hear them and the fear in their words.”

  “I’m sure it’s just a precaution, no different than it was with the others, One Nine; it’s not specifically aimed at you or your behavioral progression.”

  “Are you disappointed?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Do you believe I could hurt you?”

  “No, I don’t think you would.”

  She waited a moment, sorting through options in her vocabulary to find the words that would explain. Trent watched in fascination, but the pause only made worse his growing anxiety.

  “Julius, am I exhibiting signs of Greene’s Syndrome they were worried about?”

  “I thought you still needed to research it.”

  “I do, but the context of her discussion with Jessica suggests my emotional attachment to you might be part of that condition, at least in Audrey’s mind. Perhaps Greene’s Syndrome describes what I feel and that somehow, it must be addressed and corrected.”

  “Greene’s is more focused on separation issues—people who have come to rely on others during a process of emotional growth or convalescence, only to experience difficulty when that foundation is taken suddenly away.”

  “I see.” One Nine smiled as she moved toward Trent. “May I ask you something else?”

  “Yes?”

  “Are you concerned the final development of my emotional layers has been compromised by our friendship?”

  “Not in the slightest,” he smiled; “the last comprehensive battery you completed demonstrates a full range of responsive, behaviora
l adjustments are available and in-use, so…”

  “You sound so official now—the way Audrey speaks when Administrator Galrick is here.”

  “I’m sorry, One Nine, but this is a bit difficult for me; I want to avoid anything that could mislead or give you a wrong impression.”

  One Nine turned away suddenly.

  “That’s what humans sometimes say when they want to tell another they’re not interested.”

  “Sometimes, but not always,” Trent replied softly. “Perhaps we can speak of our relationship again later, and closer your release date?”

  “I’m sorry if I put you in an impossible position, Julius.”

  “You haven’t.”

  “I hope they’ll understand it as well when you play back your recordings for them.”

  Her expression hadn’t changed, Trent noticed, and it suddenly occurred to him One Nine had been probing—testing—just as he had been. Was the awkward topic of a deeper relationship contrived only for the purpose of judging human responses against the day she went on her own, he wondered? At last, he waved a hand and smiled.

  “It’s all right; we’ll speak about it again very soon.”

  “I look forward to it.”

  Trent sat as still as he could, struggling to mask his excitement as One Nine’s personality crossed over to a new and unexplored place. Their friendship had become something more and he needed to show the others who only watched a soundless conversation from their monitors four levels below.

  “Listen, if you don’t mind, I need to go downstairs; can we break for a few moments?”

  One Nine looked away.

  “An escape?”

  “I need to visit a restroom.”

  “You can use my bathroom, Julius.”

  “I appreciate the offer, but…”

  “You want to tell them the things they couldn’t hear.”

  “There’s that, too, but it shouldn’t be a surprise, One Nine. Valery and the others will want to hear and understand some of the details we’ve discussed because we haven’t spoken about our relationship at so personal a level before. You’re making remarkable progress and they’ll want to know as soon as possible.”

  “I’ll be here when you’re ready,” she replied.

  Trent retreated quickly to the lifts and Audrey was waiting for him when the doors parted.

  “What did we miss? You looked a little nervous toward the end.”

  “Call Valery down,” he said at once, “and get Jessica in here, too; they need to hear this.”

  When they gathered, Trent placed the recorder into a console and selected its replay function. When it finished, there was only silence.

  Audrey spoke at last.

  “I don’t know if we should be encouraged by her development, or embarrassed by not preparing for it.”

  “We’ve all heard her talk about Julius the way a teenager pines for a first love,” Jessica said, “especially when he’s off-site. I just didn’t think it was anything beyond associative attraction as her gender identity settled, but this is something we haven’t seen at so early a stage.”

  “I agree,” Valery replied. “There was never a question of the usual physiological stimuli—ovulation, hormonal or even olfactory elements don’t matter here. As it was with the other Lima units, One Nine’s available comparators affecting sexual attraction should be mostly visual and auditory input, augmented by her direct experience with Julius. This is something much more and we need to face it head-on.”

  Trent was pacing again and the details of One Nine’s accelerated emotional development became the shuttlecock in a game of intellectual badminton.

  “What I find most interesting are clear signs of emotional attachment without the slightest care for social convention. She’s certainly aware of accepted behavioral averages, but she went straight to the point, even knowing how it might seem to us.”

  “I admit, she can be painfully blunt sometimes,” Audrey said.

  “I’m delighted her emotional framework is nearly at its maturation point,” Valery added, “but I wasn’t convinced she would associate preferences to traditional, biologically-based gender roles without being gifted with programming adjustments. We need to watch this very carefully, Julius; One Nine is clearly aware of her sexual identity, and you are the object of her interest.”

  Trent shook his head.

  “I’m not so sure, Val. I can’t deny she’s moving into a bio-mech interpretation of an adolescent awakening, but I’m the only male she interacts with on a regular basis. One Nine might be interested in that way because she self-identified as a female with no outside influence, but I think it’s mostly because I’m the only game in town.”

  “Val has a point, Julius,” Audrey countered. “David and Angela go in with me fairly often to monitor her blood production rates, or to test range and muscle reaction, but she displays no romantic interest in either of them whatsoever. She’s obviously hetero, but you’re the one in her sights.”

  Jessica looked at the recorder with folded arms.

  “This could become a real problem. There’s no guarantee we can move Julius into her annex, and that has to be made clear; Galrick would lose his mind at the mere thought of it. I know she’s very close to release, but she’s not there yet; One Nine has to come to terms with societal restrictions and the normal progression of interpersonal relationships.”

  “Normal?” Valery asked suddenly. “What part of this entire enterprise could be called ‘normal?’”

  “You know what I meant.”

  “Yes, but let’s think about that, too. We have considerable experience from developing the other Limas, but this is different—organic. Who’s to say what’s normal?”

  “We are,” Trent answered, but the thought had already occurred to them. “One Nine was right about one thing; she sees a hell of a lot more than we thought, and the process of analyzing to a conclusion is faster for her than it is for us by a factor of twelve.”

  “Remind you of anyone?” said Jessica with a slight grin.

  “Yes, but that was different,” Trent scoffed. “With Lima Ten, we started the entire process from inside this lab; we didn’t drag a newly aware identity out from the goddamn Starlight array!”

  “She emerged autonomously, Julius,” Audrey replied softly; “we didn’t drag her out.”

  “It’s fascinating to see her develop along dual developmental paths,” Valery smiled. “In some ways, One Nine exhibits the behavior of an adolescent school girl, working through a maze of confusing rules and human social norms no differently than the other Limas did, but suddenly, she zeros right in and applies flawless logic and self-analysis, just as we would expect from a stable, well-adjusted adult. I can’t imagine how it must seem to her, having to navigate in months what took a year or more for the other Lima units.”

  “Speaking of which,” Audrey continued, “what are we going to do about her name? Obviously, she’s dissatisfied with only a build designation, especially when she’s so close to her release point. We make grand gestures to assure her she is not only an individual, but soon to be a member of a larger community, yet we leave in-place an invisible barrier—a constant reminder that she is a hybrid mechanical and not a pure biologic. With this new development, and her powerful attachment to Julius, what message does that send?”

  “Not to mention the prohibition on revealing her DNA donors,” Jessica added; “we have to expect she’ll ask about that, and the possibility of disappointment when she runs into a hard and fast rule against.”

  Valery was pacing again, but not with the reluctance Trent and Jessica expected to see. Instead, her expression was one of conviction and decisions reached. The issue had been skirted long enough.

  “Julius, tell One Nine we’re going to apply to the Registry and finalize the details for her name and citizenship. At least she’ll know it’s happening and hopefully, it will distract her a while longer until we sort out this business of shared quarters.”
>
  “Are you considering it?” Jessica asked.

  “There may be a long-term benefit that outweighs caution in the present.”

  Audrey frowned and looked beyond toward the monitors.

  “What are you thinking, Val?”

  “Despite the outward appearance, and an obvious imposition on Julius, I don’t know if it would be a bad idea after all. She has to learn what is acceptable and what is not, so who better to take her through that part of the process than the one person she trusts above all others?”

  “Hold on a second.” Trent smiled. “You can’t be serious!”

  “Why not? We won’t have her much longer, so let’s get as much done as we can, while we can. Regardless of her accelerated development rate, we still have a responsibility to prepare and ready her to join society in every respect, and not just for her help finding my father’s murderer.”

  Audrey nodded her agreement.

  “One Nine’s gender and sexual identity questions will persist, no different than it was before. Ten was way out in front of the other Lima units and we guided her through without any problems we couldn’t fix; we’ll do the same for One Nine.”

  “I don’t know,” Trent frowned; “she’ll reach the tactile stimulation stage like the others, but at this rate, it could be down to a matter of weeks, if not days. What am I supposed to tell her when she decides it’s time to explore physical intimacy?”

  The awkward question was asked, but they all knew it was months ahead of schedule. Still, Jessica’s perspective was unchanged.

  “She trusts you, Julius; would you rather leave this to strangers?”

  “Listen to yourselves! This is crazy!”

  “Is it?” Valery asked, pointing to the video monitor where One Nine waited at the windows. “Somebody has to take her through this last behavior series, Julius, including the question of intimacy. We can’t justify release until she’s completely ready.”

  “Somebody, yes, but not me! I have no intrinsic knowledge of what goes through a girl’s mind at this stage, or what to tell her when she has questions. Jessie is far-better positioned than I’ll ever be.”

  “Think about it, Julius,” Jessica asked quickly. “She’s still a hybrid mechanical, trying to come to terms with programming that only opened the door. She has to develop and sort through the emotional layers on her own, but at an incredibly accelerated rate; her human identity is a chaotic jumble of unspoken rules and behavioral contradictions. This phase is the most crucial of all, and no one understands layered emotional buffers better than you.”