Selected Assistant

by Robin Roseau

  “Oh.”

  “We might be able to do a monorail, though,” Jasmine said.

  “You would want tunnels.”

  “I don’t want to tear up the forest,” Violet replied.

  “No,” I said. “I get that now. I thought you could dig tunnels with super-secret space alien magic tech. But you can’t, but don’t do a monorail. Do elevated tunnels.”

  “How do you elevate a tunnel, and why would you do that?”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh. Well, not tunnels. Tubes.”

  “And?”

  “And evacuate the air. Use either mag-lev or air cushion suspension. It’s nearly entirely frictionless, and by evacuating the air, there’s no wind resistance. Look, just do a human web search for Hyperloop.”

  She cocked her head. I waited, and then I could tell she was reading. “Oh,” Violet said. “Human engineering.”

  “Hey!” I complained.

  “That’s actually a compliment,” Jasmine said.

  “We can do this entirely with human technology,” Violet said. “Our power generation, but otherwise entirely human.”

  “The human Hyperloops use steel tunnels,” I said. “I bet you can do something transparent just as well.”

  “We can,” Violet said. “Possibly without breaking any rules.”

  “A town for 5,000 people would be sprawling. But ten or twenty villages of a few hundred each wouldn’t be, and you could connect them. The only bad part is that the more villages you have, the longer it takes to travel, as you have all those mid-point stops.”

  “Solvable,” Jasmine said. “And we can build them as we need them. What do you think, Violet?”

  “I think I like small villages a lot more than one town,” Violet said. “But I didn’t want to monitor that much air traffic.”

  “We can put some inland,” Jasmine said.

  “I don’t want single-species villages,” Violet added.

  “We’re not the only ones who would make those decisions.”

  Violet smiled. “We might be if it’s here.”

  “I’m confused.”

  “The space station is segmented by species,” Jasmine explained. “It gives each species a region that resembles their old homes as much as possible.”

  “Oh. I’d like to see that someday.”

  “Talk to your future spouse,” she said with a grin. “I’m not paying for a ticket.”

  “You owe me for letting me nearly destroy my brain.”

  “You’re right, but I don’t owe you that much.” But her tentacles tightened, and I brushed one with my fingers. “Do you have more ideas?”

  “Not today.”

  “Violet, start talking to all the usual suspects. See when we can get together.”

  “Yvette and Amaryllis will be the hardest to schedule.”

  “Find out if Yvette is filming and then ask her when she can come.”

  “I’ll ping Audra for that.”

  “For the record,” I said. “I am going to be really quite unhappy if you’re bring Yvette D’altrea here, and I don’t get to meet her.”

  Jasmine snuffled. “Worry not, Mating Candidate.”

  “Oh, she’s a mating candidate now?” Violet asked.

  “Special status,” Jasmine added.

  “Yeah. I get real clothes and have a fabulous room at Beginnings.”

  It was Violet’s turn to snuffle. “Right. Has someone declared, and I don’t know it?”

  “No, but we’ll turn her into our pet human if no one wants her.”

  “Sure. That works. We can always use a pet human.”

  “Hey!” I complained.

  Catseye

  Dr. Depths did his tests. What were they? I have no idea. He put me into the chair, and I had very, very pleasant daydreams. What were they? I have no idea. I just know it was deeply relaxing.

  Then the chair opened up and spit me out. Jasmine helped me to dress, and then she didn’t baby me as we joined the doctor in the outer room. Amanda, Violet, and Muriel was there in her old avatar. I looked about then decided not to make a fuss.

  “You’re good as new,” said Dr. Depths. “You may return to your full duties and normal lifestyle. At least for a while, you’ll be healthier than you’ve ever been.”

  “At least until the next flu virus mutates?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.”

  “Now, I am about to browbeat you.”

  “Oh, my.”

  “You will not use that avatar without supervision again, and you will also register with this facility when you are using it. No more late-night excursions.”

  “She shouldn’t use it at all,” Muriel said.

  “We can fix it,” I said. “We’ll be careful, Doctor.”

  “Very good.”

  With that, we filed out, Muriel arguing with Jasmine. Finally, I turned to her and poked her in her robotic chest. “You listen to me. I’m fine. You and I both know I’m not walking away from this. You and I both know that you wouldn’t walk away if the situation was reversed, don’t we?”

  “My turn,” she said. “Your life isn’t worth it. Your life isn’t worth it if it were to save mine, and it’s not remotely that dire, is it?”

  “It’s a significant quality of life improvement,” I replied.

  “Muriel,” Jasmine said. “Tashia will not be using your avatar until at least Thursday. We’ll have this conversation then.”

  “You promise me, Jasmine,” Muriel said. “Promise me. It’s not worth risking anyone.”

  “I promise she won’t use your avatar until Thursday at the soonest, but I want them to spend a few more days trying things. Bay is going to reenable the features that are turned off, and then we’ll see.”

  “All right,” Muriel said. She turned back to me. “I’m sorry you were hurt.”

  “I’m fine now, and I got pampered by a whole lot of aliens. That wasn’t so bad at all.”

  “Hmm,” she said, but she turned around and quickly walked away, the rest of us watching her. I waited until she was out of sight before saying, “You are a sneak, Jasmine Brighteyes.”

  * * * *

  “Before we do this,” Felicia said to Jasmine, “Taisha and I want to talk to you and Bay about something. Neither of you should say anything until we get this out.”

  “Of course.”

  “Am I invited to stay?” Amanda asked.

  “Yes, but please don’t spill the beans to Finley.”

  We all pulled up seats. Felicia and I took turns reviewing our conversation. The rest sat quietly, and then Felicia said, “I’m about to ask Bay a question. I don’t know if he can answer.” Jasmine nodded. We both turned to the Loris. “You understand what we mean, right? You’ve seen how Jasmine carries Muriel.”

  “Of course.”

  “Not thinking about us, but thinking about you, is that something you could build?”

  “Are you asking him for technology?” Jasmine asked.

  “I'm only asking if he could do it, not how he’d do it.”

  “Bay, what do you think?”

  He studied Jasmine. “No bones,” he said. “If you want it just like Catseye tentacles, that is hard. It becomes a problem of biology. I am not a biologist. I have sensors and other parts you don’t have, but we’re working off similar engineering for the skeleton. You may have found a few surprises, but I bet nothing you couldn’t do in those regards.”

  “We’re not asking for us,” Felicia asked.

  “I am only explaining. I could not grow Catseye tentacles. The question is could I build something that is similar. It wouldn’t be the same. There would be a hard physical structure underneath. But you’re asking if I could build something like it, for the purpose of picking Muriel up.”

  “Or helping her in other ways that Catseye are better than humans,” I said.

  “I think you’r
e making it harder than it needs to be. Yes, I could do that. It isn’t difficult engineering. It’s difficult construction. It would be like… really long hands. Lots of short joints. For the purpose, I would probably design it differently. Eight limbs, like a Catseye, or six with a tracked design, perhaps. I don’t know which would be better. But I might put six human-like limbs on instead of four tentacles. I think I would want to experiment what is best.”

  “Could you build it the way we’ve talked?” Felicia asked.

  “Yes. It would take time, and I’d make mistakes.”

  “Ten years?” I asked.

  “No, no. But more than a few weeks, especially because I can’t work full time. If I were going to solve the problem you’re solving, I would want to talk to people who can help me understand better. It isn’t like I can pick up Muriel. Jasmine holds her quite carefully. Making appendages that can move in all the directions of a Catseye tentacle is hard. That’s very complicated musculature.”

  He paused, still looking at Jasmine. “It’s an interesting problem.”

  “It’s not one you’re going to work on,” Jasmine said. “Muriel has me.”

  “Amanda, what do you think?” Felicia asked.

  “I don’t know what the modern state of the art is in nursing homes,” she replied. “But I remember my grandmother. She had severe osteoporosis. There wasn’t anywhere it was safe to grab her. I’m fairly sure the nursing home staff would have loved a couple of tentacles to help out. It was a long time ago, though. I don’t know if anything has improved.”

  “No more roofing robots?” Jasmine asked, looking at me.

  “We’ve solved the robotic engineering for that,” I said. “The rest is AI. I can’t do the bio that represents Muriel’s brain interface, but this seems like an interesting problem to solve.”

  “Were we done, then?”

  “For today,” I said. “I want to mull this, but it’s not our top priority.”

  “All right,” Jasmine said. “Let’s go do this.” She stood and walked to the bed I’d been using, then began undressing. Amanda stepped beside her and took the clothing. I stepped past her and woke the bed up.

  She climbed in and lay down. “The old one first. Which one are you using, if Muriel is using it?”

  “Bay has others. They have similar capabilities. We have the one she used first, before building the current one.”

  “All right.”

  I closed up the bed, and then I saw she was driving it from inside. I moved back to the tables and plopped down in front of the screens, watching.

  The machines had to calibrate for her. That took time. But then a robot wheeled over. “If Muriel sees me,” came Jasmine’s voice from the robot, “She’s going to know something is up.”

  “She’s helping with an event,” Bay reported. “I have a tracker on her avatar and more trackers on which other systems she can touch.”

  “Let’s go somewhere,” she said. “We can take a jumper somewhere. Taisha, you’re in charge of this part. Tell me what you want me to do.”

  “Interact with things. Imagine doing your job. Imagine…”

  “Imagine caring for myself,” she said. “Muriel uses her avatar to see to some of her needs.”

  “Let’s go to Beginnings,” I suggested. “One of us can play patient for you.”

  “Sure.”

  * * * *

  We spent a couple of hours at it before returning to The Center. The robot turned towards me. “You think ten or fifteen minutes is enough to make your point?”

  “Yes, probably, but we should go somewhere with real sensations.”

  “We can go for a walk outside.”

  “That will do.”

  The avatar powered down. Two minutes later, the new one powered up. “Ohhh,” Jasmine said. She stepped over to me, lifted her hand, and caressed my cheek. Then she turned to the Loris. “Bay, may I touch you?”

  “Yes, Jasmine.” He stepped to her and held still as Jasmine stroked his cheek, then his arm.

  “Thank you, Bay. Can you put this back if I don’t drive it?”

  “Yes,” he said. “It has an automatic Go Home.”

  It powered down, which annoyed me, and I was ready to complain to Jasmine. I thought she had come to a summary judgement. The bed was opening by the time I reached it. Before I could speak, she said, “Taisha and Felicia, you’re fixing it. Please.” Then she was snuffling. “Someone hold me.”

  I pulled her into my arms. Then Amanda was there, Felicia and Bay right behind her. We all found somewhere to touch. “Bay, you are a complete genius. You know that, right?”

  “It’s nice to hear sometimes, Jasmine,” said the little Loris.

  “Thursday,” she said. “We’ll meet Thursday. Bay, leave everything turned on. Let them test.”

  “Why Thursday?”

  “Because there’s a dance on Wednesday evening.”

  “Oh.”

  Kitsune

  Aventurine was so beautiful. I stared at her, then shook myself. “What are we doing?”

  “How daring do you feel?”

  “How daring do you want me to feel?”

  “Would you like dinner and conversation, or perhaps you would let me hunt you.”

  I laughed. “Seriously?”

  “Kitsune are slow, stealth stalkers,” she said. She paused. “I would not respond well if you said you wanted to hunt me. Is this a poor idea? Jasmine told me I should ask you.”

  “All right,” I said. “Yes, but I have concerns.”

  “What concerns?”

  “One: I am dressed for a somewhat less active evening.”

  “A situation I am prepared to remedy.”

  “It’s full night. I don’t know what your night vision is like, but mine is terrible.”

  “Your visor can compensate. It won’t be full daylight, but you will see amply well.”

  “Can we talk while you’re chasing me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Could you take me for a little to eat first, then we can do whatever you want.”

  “Perfect.” She stepped to my side and took my arm, leading me to the dining room at the resort.

  We ordered a shared, light meal, talking easily and touching often. Then she led me from the restaurant to a waiting jumper. Inside, she had clothing for me. While she closed up the jumper, I changed clothing. I took my seat, and a few seconds later, we were in the air.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To the smallest of the forest arenas. The jumper will land me then fly on automatics to drop you off. It’s not a big area.”

  “Will you use special technology to find me?”

  “No, only my natural abilities. I may, however, use some technology to catch you.”

  I laughed. “And I should avoid you? It seems to me if you’re a slow stalk predator that avoiding you shouldn’t be that difficult.”

  “Violet will talk to you once we land. She’ll implement additional rules that slow you down, but I don’t know what they are.”

  “All right.”

  * * * *

  I watched the jumper take off. It disappeared into the night, and then I heard Violet’s voice. “Good evening, Taisha.”

  “Good evening.”

  “You have a path to take. Periodically, there are tasks for you to perform. As this is supposed to be fun for you, we aren’t implementing any of our nasty tricks.”

  “Thank you for that.”

  “The forest is trapped, however. The traps off the trails can be quite nasty. This is something at which Bay excels, so if you want to meet some of his creations, blunder around.”

  “I take it I won’t enjoy it if I do?”

  “Screaming is common,” she replied.

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes. The traps on or nearest the trails are designed to slow you down, although you also won’t necessarily like them. They’re avoidable if you’re cautious. I’ll show you the first one so you know what to avoi
d.”

  “Easy enough.”

  “There are ten tasks total. You win if you complete them before she catches you.”

  “We both know I want her to catch me, Violet.”

  “You’re supposed to work to make this difficult for her. Wait until you hear what she wants when she wins.”

  “The joy of catching me, of course!”

  “Patching Aventurine into the conversation.” There was a pause. “Kitsune, meet Human.”

  “Hello, Human,” said Aventurine.

  “Our little prey says she can’t wait for you to catch her,” Violet said.

  “When I catch you, Prey,” Aventurine responded, “You will spend until morning obeying me.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “That is all you say?”

  “Sounds like fun?”

  “Jasmine warned me about you,” Aventurine said after a moment.

  “Me? That I’m sweet, agreeable, and looking forward to spending more time with you? That doesn’t sound like it requires warning.”

  “She said sometimes humans require incentive to do their best.”

  “I’ll be as difficult to catch as I know how,” I said. “I’m in the forest, in the dark, and can barely see.”

  “Ah, but that latter part I can fix,” Violet said. Then, over the next several seconds, the visor brightened. The shadows were still deep shadows, but I could see well enough. “Your visor shows you where you must go first.”

  “I can start moving?”

  “Yes.”

  There was a map overlay, and I began following it. But it was distracting, so I used the controls to reduce the size and move it to the lower right side of my view. It would be confusing to see it overlaying everything. It took only a few seconds to find the trail. I began moving down it.

  “Now, let us address incentive,” Violet said.

  “I don’t need incentive.”

  “You aren’t the first human in these forests, Taisha,” she replied. “And unless they have been provided significant incentive, they tend to play halfheartedly. Oh, the more athletic people may be highly competitive.”

  “I’m plenty competitive, or are you making a comment about my physique.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with your physique,” she said. “Now, help us bribe you.”