“So,” Lily continued, “you don’t have to baby-sit me all the time! You’re the one way back when who said you wanted to play tourist. If the, ahem, other, doctors are correct, I should be out of here in three more days.”
One thing Ai couldn’t cover was the presentation, with Lily present in a wheelchair, of the hospital’s recognition of ‘Doctor Ai’ as an honorary medical staff member. From that came the details of how Ai had been directly involved in the surgery.
If Lily was thinking that the world was where she left it the night she was assaulted, Ai knew that she had to get her ready for what was coming. For that, she needed allies.
“Knock, knock.” Said the man’s voice from the door. Lily looked up and, Ai was pleased to see, did heroic work in not scowling.
“Cousin Kyle. You’d just been mentioned; speak of the Devil....”
“Nice to see you, too.” He hung his hat on the back of the door and looked at Ai. “How’s she doin’, Doc?”
Lily laughed and got in first. “Hah! I’d expect someone in Intel to have gotten ahold of that little secret!”
He looked surprised. “It’s not a ‘little—’”
“Matter for Lily to be worrying about right now when she’s trying to get better!” Lily did see the smile and head-tilt, but not Ai’s glare into Stephens’ eyes.
“I...see.” He ghosted a wink to Ai from the side opposite Lily.
“So, to reiterate: how is she?”
Ai gave a concise rundown of her condition, culminating in her release three days hence. “But she’ll still need rest. Lots. Of. Rest!”
He nodded. A look towards Lily, he stepped to the window to look outside.
“Say it.” Lily said.
“What?” He asked without turning.
“Please. ‘I told you so!’ It must be burning on your tongue!”
“You really think I wanted you hurt?” He asked sternly. “Who was it that reminded me we’re family?”
That blighted Lily, and Ai sat on the bed and took her hand.
“This has been quite a tumult, for all of us. For all of our families. Let us, whatever we are, try to learn to love a bit more?” Ai said simply. Lily blinked and squeezed her hand, recognizing her paraphrase of the Fourth Law.
“Sorry, Kyle. Thanks for coming to see me. I hope I didn’t get you reprimanded or fired through my stupidity?”
“Not yet! Although there are quite a few people in Austin—”
“A-HEM!” Ai loudly cleared her throat. Ai, Lily thought, you and your family still haven’t learned subtlety, have you?
“Ai?”
“Yes, Lily?” Ai replied perkily.
“Besides being my guard dog, have you been censoring my mail, so to speak, as well?” She asked.
Ai kept the grin on her face, but her eyes had become hunted. “Y...eeesssss?”
“And, of course, you’d only my best interests at heart, right?” Lily smiled back at her. “Must you be so unfailingly nice to me?”
“Yes! Definitely!” Grinning so hard her eyes were scrunched shut, Ai replied.
“God,” said Stephens, breaking in, “I’m going to get diabetes from all this girly sweetness!”
“I could kiss her, too?” Laughed Lily. “Would that help? Of course, if they didn’t quite get your skin right…” Lily raised a hand to run her fingers across Ai’s lips, “…I bet these are not like your real ones in your home.”
Ai had to bat her hand away. “That tickles!”
Stephens turned at that. “Her home? At Somi in Japan?”
I’d better let Ai field this one, thought Lily.
“Not at all, Mr. Stephens,” Ai replied. “While it is true that this body,” she waved from her head thence downward, “Is the product and property of the Somi Corporation, I am not. Nor is Japan my home.”
He’s cautious now, Lily thought. Maybe that was a factor that kept him alive when he worked with dad.
“Allow me to see if I understand you, Miss,” he said slowly. “You, or, your conscious, just inhabit that android body? You’re implying that your consciousness can also be elsewhere. And this elsewhere is what you call your home?”
Ai lightly clapped her hands. “Top marks, Mr. Stephens!”
“Finally all that science fiction I read as a boy pays off…” He muttered. Then, more clearly, “And from what she just said, Lily was… wherever your consciousness was?”
“Mmm!”
He moved to the chair that Ai had been sitting in. He more dropped than sat.
“After all this time, we achieved artificial intelligence… and apparently,” he acquired a lopsided grin, “it’s very fond of my cousin!”
“Don’t call Ai an ‘it’!” Shouted Lily.
Ai regarded him for a moment. “You’ve a tablet in your car. Why don’t you go get that and have a chat with my brother, Thaad, okay?”
“Your… brother? Ma’am, may I ask how many of you…” He looked at Lily, who was smoldering, “…people, are out there?”
“We were eight,” she said easily, “now we are seven. However, that may soon change.”
“What!” Cried Lily. “You’re going to have another brother or sister?! That’s wonderful, Ai!”
“Excuse me, please.” He rose and left.
Once he was gone, Lily beckoned to Ai. “Come here, come here! Sit by me! A baby brother or sister! Eeee! I’m so happy for you! Is this… no! Is he or she being made by your father?”
Ai regarded her with a smile. “I’m happy you’re happy, even if I don’t fully grasp your enthusiasm! And, to answer your question, no. Thaad told me about an hypothesis of his, and he wanted to try it out.”
Whoa! “You… you mean that Thaad’s going be a father?! That makes you an aunt! Errr… but who’s the mother, Ai? Urk!”
This last was a sudden twinge from her stomach.
“That’s it!” Ai announced, standing. “You’ve done too much today; I’ll stay with you, but you take a nap, right now!”
Lily so badly wanted to talk more, but she knew that Ai was right. “Okay, I’ll try to rest. On one condition.”
“Which is what?”
Lily flipped the blanket back from her right side; her IV’s led into her left arm. “You, here, please!”
To Lily’s incomprehension, Ai said to herself, “Finally got the subroutine under control.” Then, “Of course, but you sleep!”
Kyle Stephens sat in his sedan, his tablet now resting on the dashboard. Polite enough young man, he thought. And, right after his talk with Thaad, an image of Ai appeared, informing him that they were napping and would see him tomorrow. The image of her was like a computer graphic from ten or fifteen years ago. If these really were AI’s – and he’d caught Hell from Thaad about using that term – you’d think that they’d render their images a little better.
“’Machine civilization,’” he said aloud to himself. Existing everywhere and nowhere. The part about the Laws surprised him; whoever had programmed them knew Asimov. That fourth law was something new; he’d not read anything like that as a boy.
Seven of them, he thought. He took a few moments to rummage through the files next to him. Ah… what Ai had said in the hospital when at first they tried to keep her from Lily. They can control power grids. What else? He shivered a little. What couldn’t they control?
His phone vibrated again and he ignored it, again. Undoubtedly one of the President’s flaks wanting to know when the cute robot will be in Austin for the presser. He groaned. “That cute robot is more dangerous than the nukes we salvaged from Fort Hood!” And they want her standing right next to the President of the Republic of Texas for a press conference! How in the world was he going to explain this?
Through Ai, Lily knew that he was still in town. Why he didn’t come back to bother them was a mystery. The important thing was that it was time to go home! She and Ai waited at the ER’s covered entrance for only a few minutes before Jake Fitzhugh drove up.
“Mornin’
, barely, ladies! Y’all ready?” Lily eased into the passenger seat in the cab, but Ai insisted on riding in the truck bed.
“A close to this story,” she’d told Lily. Lily hoped that she didn’t get her white sundress, which was a gift from the hospital, dirty.
Jake hummed to himself and seemed to be pleased at some private joke. So long as it got her out of that place and home, Lily didn’t much care. And to think that she had to come back to work there next week! Arrgh! It was about at that moment that she noticed the first group by the side of the road. Maybe that’s why Jake was driving so slowly? Then, the signs:
“Get Better, Lily!”
“We Love You!”
“We (heart) Lily & Ai!”
“Jake?”
“Miss Barrett?” He was failing at trying not to laugh.
“Who put them up to this?” Many were waving. She guessed it’d be polite to wave back.
“Miss Barrett, you’re not from here, so’d you not know just how decent most folks about here are.” Jake said, driving even slower through town. “An outsider moves here, working to be a nurse, and takes care of our orphans from the Breakup?” He shook his head. “You’uns just don’t see how much we all have appreciated that!”
He stopped at one of the functioning lights.
“Everybody knew whose daughter you were before you’d unpacked a bag.” He said, keeping his eyes on the road. “But when everyone saw how those kids at St. Ed’s turned around… well, who can choose their parents?” He drove on.
“This here… incident… made quite a few realize how… shabby they’d been towards you’uns.”
Lily kept waving with her left hand; she used her right to wipe her eyes. A glance back showed her dear friend smiling and waving. She’s their real hero.
“And now,” he finished, “they’ve a chance to fix all that.” He finally looked at her. “Rest assured, Miss Barrett, we’ll not let any strangers near you nor the kids, ever again!”
The people on the road thinned as they approached the orphanage, but there was a bunch at the open gate. When they stopped Ai deftly hopped down and helped Lily out of the cab. Many were calling and waving. She saw Carol on the steps to the Office – with her tea – smiling as well.
Oh. And him, too.
“Miss Barrett! Can we get a statement, please?” Wayne called from just off their property. She sensed the hand of Mrs. Lanning in that.
“Can you help me over there?” She asked Ai. Ai held her left arm with hers and put her right about her. Amazingly strong, Lily thought, as she walked to the open gate.
“I don’t want to keep everyone from their families and work, but thanks so much for coming to see me back home.” She took a breath and went on. “As was pointed out to me recently, I wasn’t born here, nor raised here. I don’t even talk like you…y’all do. But this town is my home, this country is my home. I can’t change that any more than I can change my last name.”
“Thanks to everyone for seeing me home like this, and, more importantly, thank you for welcoming my beloved friend, Ai.” There were a few cheers. At least we know who the popular one is!
“I’ve been away for too long, now, and need to take care of these kids, so again, thank you very much for everything!” She thought of Carol. “And remember, St. Edward’s Home for Children always accepts donations of food and clothing!”
Her head drooped; she was tired.
“Ai?” She whispered.
“Lily?”
“Bed. Help.”
But something was in their way.
“Y’all shall not pass.” Carol Lanning said simply. Lily was starting to sweat from fatigue and Ai again toyed with the idea of creating her own ‘Combat Mode.’
Carol touched Ai’s shoulder. “I know she has to rest, and I’ll help you, but for just a few minutes, all the children are in the chapel.”
Ai considered this. “On one condition.”
“Name it.”
“I pray, too.”
“My dearest Ai, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Carol had originally planned for the children to each welcome back Lily in turn, but could already see that she was overdue for a rest. Even so, a quick word with God was worth a little suffering, in her mind.
“Children! Miss Barrett has come back to you!” She announced as they entered.
Everyone clapped and cheered. Erik made a theatrical sigh, but went no further when Karl looked at him and traced a line across his neck with his index finger.
“But, she has to rest! Let us pray the Our Father for her…’Our Father, who art…”
Ai was almost carrying Lily at this point. She did not join them, as she did not see how Shiotsuki-sama could do anything to help her friend. In the brief silence when they all finished, she spoke clearly.
“Dear Lily’s god, this is Ai, again. Once more, acting on the assumption that Lily is correct, I would like to…” Her voice caught.
In microseconds she’d run diagnostics. Nothing. What was that?
“…like to thank you for Lily. I love her so much. Goodbye.” Without a glance to Lanning nor the children, she picked up the now dosing young woman and carried her back to her room.
There, aware of her friend’s modesty, she stripped her as best she could, then eased her into her bed. She paused.
She’d sleep better alone. But she’ll panic if she awakes and I’m not there.
Ai sat on the bedside, stroking Lily’s hair. Dearest friend, please look beyond this construct! So long as we want, I will always be with you.
Making up her mind, she doffed her clothes, put on the camisole she’d been given and slowly climbed into bed next to Lily.
Chapter 15
A preliminary stress test. That’s how Ai saw it.
Lily awoke on her own just after seven. Although fully aware, Ai feigned sleep in order to get an objective assessment of her friend’s condition. It was only her own superior control that overrode the android body’s ‘skin ripple’ command, after Lily leaned over and kissed her forehead while mumbling “g’morn’n.”
Lily had come out of the shower wrapped in a towel, rummaging for something to wear. Good a time as any. “Good morning, friend Lily!”
Lily knew Ai needed sleep like she needed publicity. “You, too, Ai!” But if Ai wanted to play, she’d play along.
“How are you?”
“Great for someone shot a week ago!” She stopped, frowned. “No, that’s a disservice to you and everyone else. I ache from my chest to my crotch, I get too tired too easily, and I’m worried sick about losing you!”
That made what came next both easier and harder.
“Lily. I have to return this android body very soon.”
She just nodded. Lily took a pair of jeans from the lower drawer and violently kicked it back in. “I know.”
“Dorina’s much better at bringing you to our home… and you and I can visit each other there.” Why was she having trouble marshalling enthusiasm in her voice?
Another drawer. A purple blouse. Kicked shut. “I know.”
Ai felt very small. Am I younger?
“Your cousin, Mr. Stephens, is under tremendous pressure to bring me to a city called Austin, for… politics.”
For once, even facing away from her, Lily was getting dressed in front of Ai. It’s a form of violence, Ai thought.
“That’s fine. You’re everyone’s superhero. You and your family are the future.” Lily leaned forwards onto her dresser. “We’re the killers; it’s inside all of us… bright and shining to the eye, but inside rotting corpses that just want more death—”
That did not sound like Lily. Something odd was going on. Ai quickly stood and moved towards her friend.
Lily felt Ai embrace her from behind, and
a seagull cried as it sped across the shore, out over the sea. It’s been years since I was last at Galveston or Padre Island! So warm! The humidity must be off the scale as she couldn’t even pinpoint where t
he sun was, but no matter!
Not knowing how long she’d be there, she’d sensibly worn a wrap over her bikini shorts, and her travel purse was over her shoulder… Oh! Her phone chimed! She didn’t recall telling anyone about her little trip… she rooted around in the bag, pulled out her phone, hit ‘answer.’
“Lily!”
That girl’s voice. I know that. Wait. Do I?
“Lily! It’s Ai!”
Ai!
“Ai! You should be here! I’ve come to Padre Island…. Wait. When did I drive down here?”
“Lily! You’re in our home! Thaad’s daughter is unstable! I’ll be there as soon as I can! DON’T TOUCH ANYONE!”
Lily wondered why she was looking at her hand. There was nothing in it. Ah! The sea breeze! I want to swim; it’s been so long since I swam!
“Hey. Big Sister.”
She turned to see a little girl. Even after living for two years in Japan, Lily’s ‘moe-cuteness’ filter was overwhelmed: from her elementary school swimsuit, she saw at a glance the girl was in second grade. Small and thin, but with wonderful light purple hair in twin-tails, just past her shoulders, crested by a dual-ahoge atop her head… all proclaiming quite likely the cutest little thing that Lily had ever seen.
“Hello, there, little sister! How are you!” Lily knew she should have asked if she could help her find her family, but she was just too cute to lose right now!
“Hey, Big Sister. Why does everyone like you? You’re a slow meat-sack.”
Lily heard her illusions shatter like glass. What in the world did this… cute!... little girl mean?
“I’m sorry, little sister, if you tell me your name, maybe I can help you!”
“Henge.”
Lily heard ‘hen-geh’, so is she Japanese? On Padre Island?
“Hey, hey, big sister. Pick me up!” Henge opened her arms to her.
Lily began to reach down, but recalled the scars across her chest. “I’m sorry, Henge-tan, but I was sick recently, and cannot pick you up!”
The Fourth Law Page 15