by J. S. Morin
Eve stiffened and had to swallow past a lump before speaking. She didn’t like the way Nora109 pronounced the name Gemini, as if holding it pinched between fingers at arm’s length. “What happens to Gemini, then?”
Nora109 must have caught Eve glancing up at the camera emplacements. “It’s all right, Eve dear. The cameras and microphones are off for the duration of my visit. You can tell me anything in strictest confidence. I’m going to do everything in my power to help you out of this mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”
The mess… Eve had gotten herself into?
Eve pushed Nora109 away. “This isn’t Gemini’s fault. She thought she was saving me from James187. And the two robots in the tunnels were hunting us down.”
“Only to bring you home safe,” Nora109 replied incredulously.
“And how could we know that?” Eve snapped. “I’m not a zoo exhibit. ‘Safe’ isn’t walled up in a ship. ‘Safe’ isn’t having people take votes on whether you live or die. Tell me this: am I safe now? Or am I going to get voted on tomorrow?”
As Eve advanced, Nora109 backed toward the door. “Eve, you need to calm down. Anything that makes you look unstable or irrational will hurt your chances with the committee.”
Eve stopped as if struck. “Irrational? How am I being…”
She realized that her voice was raised, her fists clenched, and that she had backed a robot capable of breaking every bone in her body against the wall like a frightened kitten.
“Maybe I am,” Eve admitted, trampling the carpeted floor as she raged across her cell. “But what was I supposed to do? Let myself get used as a puppet while Plato sits alone in some cage, waiting to see if he’ll live or die?”
“It’s a lot like this room,” Nora109 commented quietly.
Eve’s eyes flashed lasers at Nora109. “So that’s it, is it? I’m lumped in with the robot-killers now? Plato saved half the people you cared for at the Sanctuary for Scientific Sins. Or was it really just a scrapyard, after all? Were the ones who called it that just being honest? You got a bunch of thinking, reasoning humans with ideas of their own, and none of you were ready for that. We reacted to being experimented on, controlled, and finding out that our brothers and sisters were being murdered. Who was going to do something about it? You weren’t! You just held meetings and came up with bylaws.”
By now Eve was panting for breath.
“Feel good to have that out of your system?” Nora109 asked.
Eve cocked her head. Had the robot not been listening? How could that possibly have gotten out of her system? That was her system. That was the self-preservative instinct evolved into her species since before human precursors had walked upright.
If Nora109 couldn’t understand that, Eve wasn’t going to convince her.
With a long breath, Eve gave a nod and even managed a weak smile. “Yeah.”
Nora109 departed, and Eve bottled up her rage for the time being. Evelyn11 had hated emotional outbursts. Eve knew how to rein them in.
How much later, Eve couldn’t tell, but eventually a robot who didn’t identify himself brought Eve a pair of slacks that matched her suit and took away the skirt. Not long after, another robot dropped off a kit in a hinged plastic box. Upon opening it, Eve discovered lumps of modeling clay and a limited selection of plastic tools for shaping it.
This is what they think of me, Eve kept to herself. I’m a child who needs a child’s diversions.
Tomorrow they’ll find out differently.
Chapter Sixty-Two
On the floor below the Human Committee’s meeting room was a much larger chamber of similar design. The table was ten meters across and black as the new moon. Portions of the surface doubled as video displays and served as place markers, showing who was seated where around the circumference.
Eve shuffled in, tiptoeing in the stilted shoes Nora109 had provided. Her erstwhile chaperone now served as advocate. Angry as Eve had been, for now, Nora109 was all she had. Playing nice meant trying out the traditional shoes of her ancestors.
She strongly suspected that her ancestors were a little crazy.
Eve had begun her journey into the sanctum of the Human Committee dreading this room, but as she sank into her padded seat, her feet felt nothing but relief.
All around the table, robots began taking their seats. Most of them, Eve recognized from the committee of which she herself was still officially a member. Nora109 had confirmed that much, at least. Others, Eve strained her ears to listen for someone to say their designation.
“Hey, lay off,” a familiar voice grumbled from back at the lift entrance to the chamber.
Eve sprang up and knelt in her seat, facing the door. “Plato!” she cried out.
The burly human wore a robot-style formal black suit with a black tie set off by a pearl white collared shirt. Even through the tailored fabric, the muscles of his shoulders and biceps bulged. His mop of hair had been trimmed and tamed into a movie-star style, swept aside and parted smartly. He hardly looked like the same man who’d charged into Evelyn11’s lab to rescue Eve.
But then, Plato smiled.
He looked right at Eve and sent a tingle all through her from toes to ears.
“Eve!” he called back to her. “I’m so glad you’re—”
Plato’s advocate interposed himself before Plato could continue. Eve was grateful to see that it was Toby22 who had taken the job of representing robotkind’s least popular human.
A tug at Eve’s sleeve was firm enough to pull her down and force her to squirm back into her proper seated position.
“What did we discuss?” Nora109 asked in a whisper, putting her servo-actuated mouth beside Eve’s ear. There wasn’t even a hint of breath to make her words seem real.
“Lots,” Eve mumbled in reply.
She knew what Nora109 meant, despite the evasion. Decorum. Contrition. Cooperation. Those were the bywords of the day. And if ever Eve could help it, disavow all connections to both Plato and Gemini.
Nora109 didn’t press the issue. Eve’s silence was all the reply she needed.
When Gemini was brought in, Eve shot a quick smile to her friend before resuming her stoic pose. She hadn’t caught the designation of Gemini’s advocate, but Nora109 had mentioned that it was a volunteer.
Eve shuddered at the idea of her fate being in the hands of someone doing pity work.
One chair at the far side faced away from the table. Even before it turned, Eve knew by process of elimination who had to be in it.
“Let us come to order,” Jennifer81 intoned formally as soon as she faced forward.
Gemini slid into her seat, wearing a similar outfit to Eve’s, though it wrapped around her tall, broad frame much differently. Also, Gemini had relented to wearing a skirt.
Jennifer81 leaned back in her seat to a creak of artificial leather. “We are here today to discuss the fates of three humans who have demonstrated a lethal threat to robotkind. We have before us, Plato, whose list of crimes can be downloaded from the Earthwide under Humans > Criminals > Plato > Rap_sheet.”
There was a buzz around the room as robots muttered to one another and bowed their heads. Eve imagined that they were all downloading the file Jennifer81 had mentioned.
With a glance up at Nora109, Eve’s advocate tapped a few times at the table surface in front of them. A listing of robots that Plato had confessed to murdering popped up. Eve spitefully wished they called it “scrapping,” instead of co-opting the organic term. The list was impressive, but it omitted the mitigating listing of the humans he’d rescued in the process.
Jennifer81 continued after a pause for everyone to browse the crimes. “Plato will be represented in this hearing by Toby22. Thank you for making the trek all the way from Britannia for these proceedings.”
“Couldn’t let my friend Plato here face this tribunal alone,” Toby22 replied. “I personally don’t think that any robot who hasn’t wronged human has got anything at all to worry about from my client.”
/> Jennifer81 twitched a smile that didn’t even make it as far as the middle of her mouth. If robots controlled their facial servo motors, why couldn’t they at least feign sincere emotions?
“Our next subject calls herself Gemini. The limited medical testing she has consented to confirms that she is a genetic twin to Plato with a controlled gene expression to render her, for all intents and purposes, female. However, the base genetic code remains identical. Due to the accelerated aging technology used in the creation of Plato, we cannot be certain of her exact age. For this proceeding, we will treat her as her apparent physical age of approximately eighteen years.”
Gemini leaped to her feet. Eve caught a wince on her friend’s face; they must not have completely healed the fracture in her leg. “I object. I insist on being treated as a juvenile in these proceedings.”
Jennifer81 directed her question to Gemini’s advocate. “Marvin76, do you have any basis for establishing your client as a minor under prevailing pre-invasion statutes?”
Marvin76 was an unassuming robot in a sparkling new chassis. His suit was the gray of a cloud that wasn’t dark enough to storm. “Not at this time. However, I would ask that the committee take the matter of leniency under advisement in any event. Sanctions can always be strengthened, but mercy is often irreplaceable.”
Eve raised her eyebrows. That was an eloquent point. Maybe Gemini wasn’t about to get drawn and quartered in this hearing.
“Lastly we have our own Eve Fourteen, junior member of the Human Committee. She and Gemini are jointly charged in the deaths of James187, Marvin108, and John117. Eve and Gemini are also suspected in the destruction of seventy-three automated workers at the Kanto factory. Nora109, do you have any preliminary statements on behalf of your client to answer these accusations?”
Nora109 rose. When she put a hand on Eve’s shoulder, Eve couldn’t be sure whether it was a show of support or to keep her from standing as well.
“My client perpetrated a youthful act of rebellion and self-identification. All acts subsequent to her involvement with the human Gemini were under duress. Eve Fourteen did not participate in the regrettable loss of three robotic lives and indeed was unable to prevent them, despite her best efforts. The murder weapon in all three killings was of custom design. The defendant Plato invented it. Gemini constructed it with reverse-engineered schematics that have been on file in the Earthwide since shortly after Plato’s capture. I would like to file an addendum to refer the Technological Analysis Committee to the Security Oversight Committee for failing to restrict the use of this information from the public.”
“Duly noted,” Jennifer81 stated flatly.
“That is all,” Nora109 said before resuming her seat.
Eve could feel the heat of Gemini’s accusing glare aimed her way. It’s not my fault, she wanted to jump up and scream. I’m just biding my time. Don’t hate me.
Of course, when two people are fleeing the same bear, the one doing the tripping has plenty of time to make excuses to the one flat on her face.
“Our first testimony,” Jennifer81 announced. “Will be from James63.”
One of the robots standing in the periphery of the room stepped forward and took a position at Jennifer81’s left hand.
After a brief swearing-in, James63 began his testimony. Eve tried to concentrate, but her mind was adrift. As a tale of hunting trips and a century-long friendship poured through Eve’s ears, plans for an escape bubbled in the fore of her brain.
Eve wasn’t restrained. The proceedings were being recorded, likely even broadcast live. If she could steal the spotlight and give instructions in a short window, maybe Phoebe and Olivia could pull some sort of raid together.
She was being silly. The idea of her little sisters charging in and saving the day told Eve she’d been watching too many PG-rated adventure movies. That realization snapped her back to the testimony, plugging the leaky hole in her ears.
“…he’d done retrieval work for Evelyn11 now and then. Finding out she’d been working on humans and not just primates… it corroded his inputs. Took long periods off ‘working’ in the deep woods. We knew he was hurting, embarrassed, probably sizzled at the world. Well, when we heard—”
The door at the back of the room thundered open. With her back to the entrance, Eve could at first only judge the newcomer by the wide-eyed looks of shock from every corner of the council chamber.
She had to do it.
Twisting in her seat, Eve looked back.
There, in a tuxedo and bowler hat, carrying a cane that may or may not have been a weapon, was Charlie7.
“Am I late?”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Charlie7 sauntered into the hearing room, soaking in the looks of astonishment and outrage. Let them get caught in logical loops trying to solve the mystery of the robot they were looking at.
Admittedly, Charlie7 didn’t look like his old self. That Version 64.6 he used to wear had become iconic. Once Charlie7 decided to use a chassis, anyone who didn’t already own one looked like an imitator if they matched his. The Version 70.2 would take people some getting used to.
“This is a closed proceeding,” Jennifer81 announced in a scalding tone.
Charlie7 looked left, then right, meeting eyes and giving nods of acknowledgment before replying. “Yeah, security system mentioned that. I figured it had to be some sort of mistake. I mean, just look at all these people here. How could I not make the guest list?”
Eddie51 stood from his chair—Jennifer81’s little attack lapdog. “Whoever you are, you’re going to be hearing from the Upload Committee and the Privacy Committee about this. That’s a chassis set aside for Charlie13, and you’re faking Charlie7’s voice.”
“Huh? Oh… ‘13 left this just lying around, so I crawled in and powered up. As for Charlie7’s voice… that’s whatever I say it is. After all, I’m Charlie7.”
The room erupted in scattered conversations. Charlie7 filtered the voices out one by one until he could hear Jennifer81 barking for order.
“Quiet!” Jennifer81 shouted. She leveled a finger Charlie7’s way. “Someone remove this impostor. I will not have this hearing devolve into a circus.”
No one made a move to stop Charlie7. In actuality, it probably had something to do with the fact that Charlie13’s custom modifications to the Version 70.2 chassis meant it would be perfectly capable of crushing another robot’s crystal matrix in the palm of its hand. But some part of Charlie7 liked to imagine that they didn’t want to pay back the favor they’d owe for siding against him.
“You’re still sore about that pear, aren’t you?” Charlie7 asked, holding up a placating palm. “Look, I’ll plant you a whole tree if that makes up for it.”
Jennifer81 scowled. “That doesn’t prove anything.”
“I told you about Eve14 before anyone but Toby22 here had even seen her,” Charlie7 continued. “Of course, if you want more proof, I can oblige. Mary22… I traded a favor with you back in 2766 to get you the use of four automatons without telling anyone what they were for. I believe it was some sort of human-sensation simulator you were trying to build. And… do I see Arthur19 there in the back? Arthur, I remember the day you woke up after mixing. First thing you asked was if you were dead and I was God; and I told you ‘yes.’”
Arthur19 crossed his arms. “I still don’t think it was funny.”
“Anyone else still doubting?” Charlie7 challenged the room.
Breaking any remaining decorum that might have survived Charlie7’s entrance, Eve scrambled out of her seat. Kicking off her high heels, she ran in stocking feet and leaped to crush Charlie7 in a hug.
“I knew you’d make it,” she whispered, hanging from around his neck.
Charlie7 hugged her back. “Sorry I’m late. They really did up the security around here. I had to crack it from scratch or I’d have looked like an idiot on the news feeds, getting dragged away before setting foot in here.”
As soon as he set Eve down, she spun to
address the committee. “I’d like to request a new advocate: Charlie7.”
Chapter Sixty-Four
Eve snuck back into her seat as if fifty robots weren’t all staring at her. All the while, she avoided so much as a glance to her right, where Nora109 sat. After all Nora109 had done for her, and was still trying to do, Eve had cast her aside publicly.
A creak from Nora109’s chair suggested the displaced advocate was getting up from her seat, ceding it to Charlie7.
“That’s quite all right,” Charlie7’s spoke softly. “You can stay right there.”
Jennifer81 was not so subtle in her booming assessment of the situation. “The Human Committee does not recognize the authority of Charlie7 or anyone claiming to be Charlie7 to speak in this hearing.”
“Oh, stuff a sock in it, Jennifer,” Charlie7 snapped. The tall robot in his matte black chassis paced behind Eve’s seat. “I’d like to ask the help of every robot in this room. I need you all to start being ashamed of yourselves. Because, quite frankly, I’m getting overwhelmed trying to be ashamed of you all at once. The combined age of the robots I see in this room is 37,655. The three defendants in this little trial—and let’s all admit that’s what these proceeding amount to—have a combined biological age of under fifty.”
“The ages of Eve Fourteen, Plato, and Gemini are irrelevant to the charges against them,” Jennifer81 countered in a vain attempt to derail Charlie7. Eve knew he was locked on course. The other robots seemed so much less than him. Charlie13 had a similar, almost divine, presence, but even he didn’t hold a preternatural sway the way Charlie7 did.
“Irrelevant? You’re prosecuting abused children. The charges against them stem from them protecting the terms of their own survival and that of the rest of their kind.”
“Eve Fourteen was perfectly safe,” Jennifer81 argued. The chairwoman’s eyes glinted left and right as if seeking support. But even Eddie51 had fallen silent.