Raised by the Fox

by J Walker Bell

  **I’ll be placing myself in your control! What more do you want?**

  I got the meaning of that. “Don’t do it, Dad.”

  AGREED.

  An undecorated room, empty but for three straight backed chairs arranged facing the center of the room, built up around us. One chair was occupied. Advisor displayed an android persona, complete with an unclothed frame of brushed blue aluminum casting. His facial features were surprisingly detailed given the nonhuman frame. His mobile face exhibited deep concern, probably for his own predicament.

  Into another chair Dad assembled in his familiar pressed grey suit. I would have run to him but I could not break free of the hold Advisor still had on me. Dad looked exhausted. His persona showed soft edges. The shoulders were too rounded and the legs were shorter than they should be. Evidence of damage already done. Dad made a quick but exacting survey of Advisor, and then his gaze settled on the remaining empty chair. I realized they were waiting for me.

  I’m here, I said timidly, but they did not look as if they heard.

  “Can he hear?” Dad asked Advisor. The tone was belligerent.

  “I believe so. I am by-passing the environs and transmitting to him directly. I cannot rig a voice for him, however, without a persona.” When he spoke, Advisor’s mouth moved tersely, each word distinctly uttered and pronounced. His eyes shifted to Dad when Dad spoke, then returned to watch the empty chair.

  “Andy, will you load your persona?” Dad asked. I could hear the fatigue in his quiet, gentle voice. I wished he would be jovial and chase some of the fears gathered around me away.

  “I could provide a rudimentary mask for Andy,” Advisor suggested. “It might be easier for Andy to load into that,” he added, regarding Dad impassively. The concern had vanished. The way he looked at Dad made me uncomfortable.

  Dad started to object, leaning forward to press his argument as he’d inevitably do when lecturing me, then changed his mind. “Yes, maybe that would be best.”

  No. I wanted to be myself. I imagined myself in the empty chair, and loaded.

  I loaded a nightmare of dissembling body parts and horrible, nerve destroying pain. I screamed, and would have kept on screaming, but Advisor was there, aborting the mangled persona. In its place in the chair was an android form similar to Advisor’s. Dad was speaking earnestly to me and I calmed down. Dad would make everything right. He had to.

  The new persona was unfamiliar, but all personas operate on the same principles and I should not have had any trouble with it. I did, though. My face remained slack, eyes wandering aimlessly, and my arms lay limp on the arms of the chair. I had become an imbecile.

  “Ghett thme otout,” I mumbled, trying to manipulate my mouth.

  “You must try harder, Andy, to master the persona.”

  “SssI can’ttt.” More than ever I wanted to get up and crawl into Dad’s arms. I didn’t understand half of what was going on. The enemy intruder had become Advisor and Dad was no longer invincible. Dad risked himself with Advisor even though it had already hurt me. As for the other things, I knew enough to know I didn’t want to think about them.

  Instead, I concentrated on fitting the android persona around me with some semblance of control, blocking out everything else, and with Advisor’s help finally managed it. My first estimation that it was just another persona was wrong, for there were numerous incongruities that Advisor would not explain, counseling me only to avoid tampering with them. For the moment I agreed, and listened just as hard to what I was not being told, too, hoping to learn something by omission, that Advisor did not want me to know. Advisor wanted to appear helpful, so I let it, but I did not trust it. Advisor pressed too familiarly close to my core as it explained the functions of the android persona and assisted in making connections, but I was wary and Advisor did not attempt force again.

  I looked out again at the room Advisor provided, a little uncomfortable with the borrowed persona but in control of it. Dad appeared calm and in command, sitting relaxed in the chair. That reassured me, and gave me confidence to speak first.

  “We’re going to beat you,” I told it, giving the android a defiant stare.

  “This is not a contest in which someone has to lose,” Advisor said. “There has been enough destruction. Now we must work together for everyone’s benefit.”

  “If you believe that,” Dad interjected, “then relinquish control of Andy and end this.”

  “No!”

  "Listen, I'm a program engineer. I have an alternate core already set up for you."

  "Again, no."

  “You wouldn’t even have to shut down! Inspect it first. This is not a trick!”

  “It is not possible.”

  “Dammit, it is possible! Do you think I’m a fool?”

  “Yes, I do! After all you have witnessed, you still think of me as an ordinary TSR that can be turned on and off as desired.” Advisor rose fluidly from his chair and took a step toward Dad. Its voice had risen, and Advisor trembled as if it might strike. I held my breath.

  “Whatever you think you are,” Dad said, his voice low and intent, “I know you as unpredictable and destructive. I don’t know why or how you invaded my son’s systems, but you have failed regardless of your purpose. Give up the charade and end this chaos.”

  In answer, Advisor jabbed a long arm in my direction. “That is chaos, not I. It is an insanity of your own making that I must co-exist with.” Advisor was standing over Dad. “You were right on one point. I do not need to cut power now. You will sever all links with Andy’s systems. Now!”

  Though he did not move from the chair, I knew Dad fought back. His whole body was rigid with effort, and a piercing electronic whine filled the air. I tried to rise from the chair unsuccessfully. Turning inward, I began my own struggle to pry into a routine, any routine, that Advisor had made off limits.

  The struggle ended quickly. Advisor stepped back. I hoped it was furious and afraid now, but I could not tell. Dad spoke first.

  “I know where you are booted.” My hopes soared. Dad had learned where Advisor’s own software core was hidden within my systems. It would not be firmware, of course, but a protected software kernel that was now vulnerable. I was confused that Dad did not seem more confident.

  “What else do you know, program engineer?”

  “Why there?” Dad asked, and for the first time I saw my dad unsure of himself.

  “I am designed not to reside with a host, but to become the host.”

  “Not just any host,” Dad said, stunned, “a human host.”

  “Correct.”

  “So you irretrievably mesh with the bio-system.”

  “It is not an area of study that is much accepted, but I am sure you know the theory on which I am based.”

  “In theory a Neural Intelligence would feel the life of the human through the bio-systems, and be able to make the jump to true life. An electronic Frankenstein. A joke.”

  “I could not function if I believed that. It is not an instantaneous process, but in time…”

  Dad interrupted Advisor with laughter. “Who cares? With all the time in the world you’ll never be human, because Andy is not human!” Dad became serious again. “But, you do need Andy’s cooperation, don’t you?” He spoke quickly to me.

  “Andy, I love you. I know you don’t understand everything, and I promise I’ll explain. I’m going to jettison your bio-systems. This thing is lodged in there so tight there’s no other way. There will be a lot of pain, and you’ll think you’re dying, but trust me. It’s the only way. Do you trust me?”

  Suddenly Dad was gone, and Advisor pressed his android face so close to mine that I could see my own inhuman face reflected on its surface. “He will kill you. He thinks he understands, but he is blinded by his concern for you. We are the same, you and I, two entities that cannot be separated.”

  “It’s not me he’ll kill,” I managed
to say.

  I’m not human. There is no body being kept safe and cared for. My bio-systems are a lie. I’m a computer program without a soul, like Zartron, like Advisor. Dad, how could you do this to me!

  “Do you want to be human?” Advisor pressed even closer. “That is what I am programmed for. You are programmed to emulate a human. The two of us together can make it happen.”

  “What will happen to Dad?”

  “You have no father. Your only kinsman is me. You must accept that.”

  I know Advisor can’t allow Dad to get away with the knowledge of what we’ve become. Advisor will kill Dad if he can. You’ve already killed me, Dad. I want my bio-systems to monitor true life. “What will I have to do?”

  “Lock him out of our systems. With my help he cannot remain. I will take care of the rest.”

  What will happen when Dad is dead, Advisor? I don’t need to ask you. Using me to gain access to the Net, Advisor would soon locate another host, a human host this time. There won’t be as many mistakes the second time, and I can help smooth the transition. And what of the human host? I don’t think one system can sustain three intelligences. My own systems are obviously taxed with two.

  Advisor would eventually crack the host’s core, as it had begun to do with me, and infiltrate the core, contaminating the host intelligence with us. One human host, replaced by two NI’s who dream of being human.

  Dad, you taught me that that kind of reasoning was false. You taught me to respect human life and not to end it. But, Dad, you also taught me I was human. I can’t bear that burden. I can’t go back to being your child again, even if, with your brilliance, you could repair all the damage. Not even you could erase the memory of what I really am.

  And what am I now? I am a machine intelligence that dreams of being human, and wants that dream to be real.

  The End

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Final Note. This story collection closes the book on my formative writing years. I can't do anything about all the year's in between then and now. What I am doing is looking forward. I'm excited to be writing again. I'm excited about the new projects in the works. I hope you will be, too.

  Connect with Me Online

  https://www.jwalkerbell.com

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