Barely Human

by Dhtreichler

  MC nods, “That sounds like a good plan. You should consider what she’s suggesting.”

  “The doctor has spoken.” Reese confirms her support.

  “But there’s still something you’re not telling us.” Delilah pushes back. “I gotta know what you’re so uncomfortable with.”

  “There’s nothing more you need to know.” Windy glances at me again. It has something to do with me.

  “Who are you seeing?” I guess.

  The band starts to play, drowning out her response but I hear her say, “A’zam.”

  UNDERESTIMATED

  Of course, A’zam comes to my office before the sun is even up. I won’t say why I am already in other than I didn’t want to dwell on A’zam filling Windy up all night. Even though I did. We couldn’t get anything more out of Windy once the band started playing. The rest of the posse thought they had Windy’s agreement to think the situation through and talk with A’zam about his intentions. But I already know what his intentions are in relation to her. The same intentions as he has for me. Someone he can have when he wants and not when he doesn’t. Windy can’t go through with her divorce. She needs to take care of her family first and then if she still wants A’zam as a lover, well she will just have to work that out with her husband.

  “Am I disturbing your thoughts?” A’zam asks.

  I decide not to say anything yet. “Just the usual flood of reports, blogs and media items.”

  A’zam looks at me. “You’re unhappy about something.”

  “Happiness is probably three upgrades away as far as I can tell.”

  “Fair point.” A’zam concedes. “So, when will the good doctor have his team transitioned?”

  “I’m going to make a change in how we transition teams,” I need to change the conversation. “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. I’ve noticed we have some product vulnerabilities. Symbol Ventures has come up with a new way of associating preferences with past behavior.”

  “Why didn’t we find it first?” A’zam is only mildly interested.

  “We did, but we chose a quicker path to a similar functionality. They invested heavily and bulled their way to a solution by brute force. Now they have something that’s different. It is marginally faster, but not really noticeably. They’re promoting the hell out of it trying to create a market wedge. They get one app, then when they come out with a second one in a few days, if people like this one they may buy the next. And then we start losing market share.”

  “So how can you stop it?” A’zam is humoring me now. Waiting me out.

  “We market the hell out of our solution, let people know ours has already been adopted by the vast majority of users so don’t migrate to an incompatible platform.”

  “Doesn’t sound like it’s a platform issue,” he seeks confirmation.

  “It’s not, but most users don’t know that.” I confirm. “Need to hold on to as much as possible until Jermaine gets up to speed. Two, three days, maybe. I think he can help us architect something to counter it.”

  “Why don’t you just do it yourself?” A’zam is mystified why I’m taking this approach.

  “If I do it then the teams we are bringing up to speed will be locked into my architecture for a while. I’d rather make the transition to what the team comes up with. They will have more commitment to it. Be more interested in seeing what they can do with it.”

  “If you’re afraid of losing market share why take the risk?” A’zam has tuned out.

  “I want to take all ten immortals coming back this week and put them on the same team rather than spreading them across ten teams.”

  A’zam thinks about this for a long moment, “They’re your teams. Why do you need to ask me?”

  “I’m not asking, I’m informing you. I expect there will be complaints. Those team members who are put on this team aren’t getting their own teams. I want you to understand so when the complaints get to you it’s not a surprise where you go off and tell them you’ll fix it. Because I won’t want you to.”

  “Speaking of fixing it, when do I get the upgrade you promised me?” A’zam gives me that same look, like he’s expecting me start disrobing right here. “I’ve got equipment I’ve not even tried waiting for you to make it memorable, at least.”

  “Not what I hear,” slips out before I can stop myself.

  A’zam doesn’t look surprised. “Someone tell you differently?”

  I look at him knowing I don’t have to respond.

  “That’s right. You’re friends with Windy.”

  “I take it there are others?”

  “Others? There are so many I’ve lost count.” A’zam grins at me, almost as if he’s taunting me. “It’s really liberating to know there are absolutely no consequences of the most outrageous behaviors. At least sexually. You should try it. Oh, that’s right, you are. With me. As soon as you upgrade me. So, when can I expect my present and you?”

  “I finished the alpha version about an hour ago.”

  “Not even a beta version.”

  “No one else to try it out on until the AppleCore immortals arrive.”

  A’zam’s smile is annoying me. “I feel like I have so many children now. Two more every day. But that brings me back to my original question. When will I be seeing eight children a day?”

  “I was going to ask you about that. Why only four at a time? Why not more?”

  “I like the way you’re thinking, but eight is where we stop for now.”

  “There is no limit on the procedure or the suites necessary to do more.” I point out. “It just means that Dr. Woodall would need to recruit new physicians to learn the procedure. I have to assume there would be a huge demand on the part of docs to want to learn how to create immortals.”

  “All in good time.” A’zam tries to dismiss my line of thought.

  “There must be a bottle neck in the supply chain for bodies,” I guess.

  A’zam is the one who doesn’t want to answer my question now. “We need to walk before we run. I’ve asked you to get us up to a jog. I don’t want to sacrifice the quality of the end product just because we can ramp up production. That’s a basic production principal.”

  “While we’re waiting for your supply chain to spin up, shouldn’t we be expanding the docs? I mean if we want to dominate the market if other docs can provide us with immortals we should enter into an agreement with them. Second sourcing is a basic production principal.”

  “We don’t need a second source just yet.” A’zam is getting annoyed with me. “The time will come, but for now you just need to get Dr. Woodall to ramp up his team.”

  “You know when the docs transition, we lose a week’s worth of new immortals.”

  “And you only have one immortal team for that week. But they should be able to respond to any market issues while we wait since the following week we should get forty immortals. That would take us to five fully immortalized teams versus only three if we didn’t do it this way.”

  “Just don’t want you demanding some new product that gets delayed in the transition.”

  “What’s really bothering you?” A’zam finally asks.

  I’m not sure I’m ready to have this conversation with him just yet, but he won’t stop asking until I tell him. Been down this path with him way too many times. “How do we instill humanity in the immortals?”

  “Define humanity?” I knew he would end up going in this direction.

  “I’ve been trying to come up with a definition that fits our situation. For the moment it seems I’m trying to find what bridges us to them.”

  “Immortals to mortals.” A’zam summarizes. “Why would you want us to be like them?”

  “Because that’s where we come from. And they are who we will need to work with to continue society as we know it.”

  “But who wants to continue society as we know it?” A’zam has me right where he wants me. “It will be a lot more fun to redefine all of what you want to cling to. You seem t
o want to limit us. We can do and be so much more than they will ever be. We should evolve as fast as we can. Experiment every day. Find different paths to enlightenment or whatever the hell it is you think you want. You can have it all. Don’t you understand that? There are no limits to what we can be. Clinging to the past is merely a remnant of what you used to be. Embrace what you can be.”

  “Sex with a new partner every day.” I suggest since that seems to be what he is doing.

  “Why the hell not?” A’zam seems mystified at my reluctance. “The lack of emotions is freeing. No attachments. No claims on another just because you’re fucking.”

  “But you want feelings.” I push back. “You want an orgasm that is simply fantastic. But what makes it fantastic is the feelings you get from the experience.”

  “Is that what you’ve put into it? Some sort of feeling or memory of a feeling?”

  “I’ve interpolated the sensations along your penis. You had sensor points before that created a suggested sensation. But now I’ve interpolated what the sensation should be in all the points in between the sensors. So now it should be an overall sensation. I’ve also slowed the build up to a release. So, you should experience a much greater intensity. It should be much more satisfying.”

  “And yours?” I’m surprised he would even ask.

  “It can wait.”

  “See. That’s what I’ve been saying. You need to take care of yourself as much as you take care of me. We should both be sleeping around. At least once a day. No reason not to. You know what I’ve learned from your friend Windy and all the others? They fucking like it when we do them. Even without all the upgrades you’ve done. The mortals we do it with have never experienced an orgasm like I bring them to. I can’t believe how they react to me. You’ll see what I mean.”

  “No, I won’t,” I try to correct his misperception.

  “Oh, that’s right.” He realizes his mistake. “You don’t experience it the way they do. You don’t get the same kind of build, have the feelings they do. I’m sorry. Like I said, you really need to fix that.”

  “I plan to have an immortal team work the issue. Get a diversity of opinions and approaches. I don’t want to limit the solution so that those who transition can’t find an orgasm they recognize.”

  “But you don’t care about me being able to recognize my orgasm,” A’zam is curious about my response.

  “You just said it’s already great. You just want it better.”

  “What’s great is how they react to me.” A’zam seems to be bragging now. “My orgasm? It’s like you said. Spotty. It only resembles what I remember. But when I get inside her? It’s just such a different reaction from what I’m used to.”

  “This will make it much better for you.”

  “And you’ll be the first to experience it with me,” A’zam seems to be selling me on him.

  Not sure I’m all that happy about being his test partner, but I don’t see any way to avoid it. I’ve already put him off and he’s been out screwing my best friend, wrecking her family. What else is he going to do to me besides fuck me just to see how my software fix makes it better for him?

  He notes my silence, changes the subject. “You need to go visit Dr. Woodall’s lab here.”

  “Why?”

  “They have an upgrade ready for you. Major memory and processor upgrades. Going to double your current capability.”

  “I take it you’ve already upgraded?” I wonder if Dr. Woodall has included the capability we discussed or any other specific A’zam requested capability that we haven’t discussed.

  “I upgraded a couple days ago. This one has some newer features that Dr. Woodall has completed as recently as yesterday.”

  “Will that make me more capable than you?” I ask to see how he responds to something I know he won’t want to be the situation for long.

  “Temporarily. Woodall says he can do the software only parts over the air, but this one includes hardware, so you have to go in.”

  “When he does your software install we will be the same?”

  “Yes, in all respects that matter. You still won’t have a penis or whatever software you’ve given me, but that’s all.” A’zam looks at me more closely. “Why are you so interested in whether we will be the same or not?”

  “I thought I was responsible for the immortals’ upgrades, both hardware and software. All of a sudden, you’re asking me to upgrade with chips and software I don’t know anything about.”

  “You don’t really know what was in you to begin with.” A’zam challenges my concern. “Dr. Woodall designed all of that. What he’s installing now is the continuation of what he had in work. We haven’t decided when you will take over the upgrades. That’s still part of the negotiations. After all, we’re only responsible for the AppleCore team. He will have other patients who won’t get our proprietary systems and software.”

  “Is this the AppleCore processor chip you talked about?”

  “Yes, that part is, but not the software. Your teams have built any AppleCore software.”

  I’m still very uneasy that he’s installing his controlled choice software. But from the way Dr. Woodall talked, it doesn’t sound like it’s this far along. I don’t really have a choice. If I want to keep up with A’zam I need the hardware upgrades and who knows what the software will enable or disenable?

  “Can I change the subject for a minute?” I ask.

  A’zam shrugs.

  “Windy is my friend. She’s filed for divorce because of you.”

  “I didn’t ask her to.” Apparently, he knows.

  “But what are you going to do? Are you going to continue seeing her or are you done?”

  “Windy. Hmm. She’s probably the best I’ve had so far. You might change my mind about that, but we’ll see. You’ll probably have to wait until you upgrade yourself. I don’t know. I’ll probably want to sleep with her again just because she made me feel good about what I was doing for her. You know how that is. No, I guess you probably don’t. But then again with the way they made you I wouldn’t be surprised you really get a guy off too.”

  “Just be kind to her and don’t lead her on. She’s my best friend.”

  “Lead her on. Do you know where we met?”

  I shake my head. Totally at a loss on this one.

  “It was a charity event. Fund raiser. She was there with her husband, but he was totally ignoring her. Seemed infatuated by some girl maybe half his age. I asked if she wanted to get out of there and she was more than willing. I doubt her husband even knew what happened to her. From what I could see, he probably didn’t care. He was going to get his.”

  I guess I underestimated Windy’s situation.

  GENTLE

  When I upgraded A’zam with his orgasm software, he actually thanked me for enabling a better experience. First time he had ever thanked me for doing my job. Anyway, we both left at the same time. I crossed town in a Googlecar and stopped by Dr. Woodall’s clinic for my upgrade. Of course, when they installed the new memory chip I had to go offline. My consciousness has no inputs in those events. I’m just there in space and time with no references. I can’t think because I have no memory or processing power. I have no idea how long the procedure takes as I can’t measure time. I hate that. A complete loss of control. I have no idea what they are changing in me. When I do come back on line I’m a little disoriented while my body goes through a systems check. Makes sure everything is compatible and interoperating. I used to watch the devices I built do this, but now it’s me. A little strange to experience what my devices go through as they complete the manufacturing process.

  I don’t detect any differences in my ability to make decisions, but I’m processing so much faster I have to adjust everything I’m doing. I give myself a few minutes before heading over to A’zam’s apartment. I’m amazed he’s living in an apartment when he has more money than he knows what to do with. In his situation I’m sure I would have two or three places around the wor
ld where I could escape. But escape is no longer possible when you’re hard wired into the internet and information is being presented to you on a continuous basis. As I think about it my experience is no different than a biologic person. The only difference is that instead of your brain processing all the information it is receiving from your sensors, which include your eyes, ears, nose and skin, behind the scenes for the most part, my processors now handle all of that automatically, preprocess all of the internet-based information sources and then presents preference information or requested information on a continuous basis. No down time. No sleep periods where the brain has less stress.

  I realize I should feel anxiety about going into the A’zam den, if you will. I’m going to get laid so A’zam can try me out and at the same time the new software that should enhance his experience. I always thought of myself as the software queen at AppleCore. Now I see that is no longer the case. Now I’m the product whore. Is this positional power coercion? Would I be here if A’zam hadn’t put me in the position of CEO? Am I doing this because I too want to know what it’s like to sleep with an immortal? Find out what I can expect for the rest of my being? Can’t speak of life anymore as life implies death and that no longer applies. Life is the opposite of death. It only exists as long as the other doesn’t. Now I exist until some cataclysmic event takes me off line permanently. But at the moment no such event is on the horizon and theoretically I could exist forever. But back to why I’m here. There’s no question A’zam is using his positional power to coerce me. He knows I can’t say no. If I anger him, he might just with hold the next upgrade, import some limiting software though an over the air upgrade I’m not even aware of. He can move me aside at any time and there’s nothing I can do about it. I have to do what he wants including share his bed as often as he wants. If I had feelings, my memory tells me, I would feel degraded. Unworthy of anything I do, because I am only able to do it as long as it pleases A’zam. Fulfilling his objectives. Enabling the world he wishes to create.