by Simon Archer
“This list is fucking insane,” I said, flipping through at least fifteen pages of listed possibilities.
“Let’s start categorically,” Kennedy instructed. “Do you want technical ability or biological ability?”
“I have a human lie-detector sitting here with me, so let’s go technical,” I said to her with a wink.
“Ok, technical,” she confirmed. “Mechanically technical or IT technical?” she continued.
“I’m pretty set on both, but let’s go with IT.” She was making this much easier.
“Device creation, coding, or cloud-based?” Kennedi asked. I was starting to wonder how narrow the categories got before an actual selection could be made.
“Devices are created every day. They’re no big deal. Coding, I already have some experience with that, so let’s look at cloud-based,” I directed.
“Almost there,” she informed me. “You have three to choose from. The first would make her able to offer you a private, unlimited cloud-storage system from which you could access information instantly, and she could stream it to any device you needed it on.” Kennedi waited a moment to let me process what she’d said before moving on.
“Your second option is wifi repair and supply. Ellie would be able to function as a personal hotspot regardless of where in the world you are and also be able to perform maintenance of any wifi connection to keep it operating at optimum speed and efficiency. Basically, you’d never have to worry about connectivity again,” she paraphrased from the binder in her lap.
“Okay,” I mumbled, almost to myself before speaking up. “What’s the third?”
“Third is data mining. She would be able to pull any legal micro-data for you. This option is most chosen by those in marketing, business, hacking, or the trade industries,” she finished.
“I could see why it would be useful in those instances, but I don’t really have a need for micro-data. However, unlimited cloud storage is appealing,” I said. “I think it’ll be a choice between the first and second options.”
“Alright, so cloud or wifi. One is connected, the other is insurance that you will never lose information. Which one sounds better?” Kennedi asked, looking at me. I glanced at her, and then we both stared at Ellie.
“I’m thinking the better…” I was suddenly cut off.
“The better option is wifi repair and supply!” Kennedi practically yelled. She’d gasped loudly and jumped up off the couch, clapping her hands together. She looked like she’d just answered the most challenging question on an episode of Jeopardy and got it right.
I stood up as Kennedi walked to the front of the room, stood in front of Ellie, and looked excitedly at me.
“Just think, Clark! What is one thing you love to do?” Kennedi asked.
I had no idea where she was going with this and had never been a fan of the guessing game. “I don’t know. What?”
“Travel!” she yelled happily. “You can go anywhere and still be connected if you need to be! Think about how much safer you’d be!”
I couldn’t find a flaw in her logic. There had been a couple of times when having the option to be connected would’ve come in handy. So, I shrugged my shoulders dramatically and called out into the room, “We are going with the wifi!”
Kennedi laughed and bounced back over to the couch and spoke our selection to the screen. A full minute passed, and nothing happened. Just when I thought she’d better repeat her command, a list of our selections appeared on the screen to the right of the center capsule.
“Please review your selections and make any adjustments at this time. After this list is confirmed, no changes will be available,” a mechanical-sounding voice came over unseen speakers.
We looked over the list, not expecting errors, but something caught my eye. “I don’t remember adding a retractable tail spike,” I said to Kennedi.
“You didn’t. I did,” she said, sounding happy with herself. “A little extra weaponry never hurt anyone. Well, anyone who didn’t deserve it, anyway.”
I let out a small chuckle and turned to the screen. “The list is correct,” I said loudly.
Another full minute passed. Suddenly the screen in front of us went completely dark. Ten seconds later, the middle section lit up again, showing the basic model we’d chosen for Ellie’s body type. Five seconds after that is when the activity began.
From every direction inside the capsule, multiple mechanical arms started unfolding. When they were fully elongated, they went to work on the model, adding our selected features. They continually gained speed until they were moving so fast it was difficult to see what each was doing exactly. I stopped trying to focus on the arms and looked at the model. I watched as, at a steady pace, she began to look like the mock-up that had been shown during our selection process.
“I didn’t know we got to actually see her being built,” I said to Kennedi, astonished at the efficiency with which Ellie was being put together.
“Ah, yes,” she said, walking over to stand beside me. She slipped her hand into mine, and we stood there as our creation took a recognizable form.
The entire process only took ten minutes. The mechanical arms were moving so quickly that, by the time they were adding the finishing touches, it was impossible to know exactly what those were.
Then, in a split second, all of the arms folded themselves up and were gone. They had stopped work and disappeared so quickly I almost felt as if something had gone wrong. I looked at Kennedy, who must have seen the concern of my face because she just smiled and tipped her head back towards the capsule, indicating that I needed to continue watching.
I turned my attention back to Ellie just in time to see a series of ultra-thin wires drop down from the top of the capsule. There must have been hundreds of them. They slowly twisted around each other until all of them were bound together. One of the mechanical arms unfolded and used a scissor attachment to snip the end of the single cord that the wires had formed. After that, another arm flipped down and quickly crimped the end of the cord and soldered on an attachment that looked very similar to the end of an HDMI cable. As soon as the attachment was on, the arm clamped down on the cord and directed it down towards the back of Ellie’s neck. I heard a small click, and the arm disappeared.
Kennedi turned and walked back to the couch and sat down. She looked over at me and patted the couch beside her. “Come sit with me. This part will take about twenty minutes.”
“What is ‘this part’?” I asked, walking to her and sitting down.
“She is receiving her downloads. All the behavioral and technical features we chose are going in right now,” she explained as she relaxed back into the couch.
Just as I sat back on the loveseat and took a deep breath, we heard a light knock at the door, and Jane stepped in.
“She looks fantastic,” Jane said, praising our choices. She walked to the front of the room and addressed us both. “Would you like to take this time to pick out some clothing for her? We have a VIP showroom just one door down.”
“Yes, now will be perfect,” Kennedi answered her and stood up.
I followed suit, and moments later, we were in a medium-sized showroom decorated to look like a private boutique. There were dresses, pants suits, jeans, shoes, shirts, and lingerie of every sort and color displayed tastefully around the room. I was surprised to see that none of the items were on mannequins.
I turned to Jane, who had accompanied us in, and asked, “Is there a reason there are no mannequin displays?”
“Oh, yes. We would like you to have the pleasure of seeing your choices on your own cat girl. Anything you choose will be tailored to fit her body type perfectly, so seeing it on a mannequin doesn’t necessarily do the clothing justice if it’s not on the same shape as your CG,” she explained to me.
“That makes surprising sense,” I replied and laughed a little.
Before we left the boutique, Kennedi and I had picked out twelve outfits of various degrees of dressiness, two f
ormal gowns, a business suit, a bathing suit, and more lingerie than a girl of any kind needed. When we were done, the entire rack we’d filled was whisked away through a door at the back of the room that I hadn’t taken note of. How big is this place, I wondered as Jane returned once more.
“Allow me to escort you back to the Crimson suite?” she asked with a bright smile.
“That would be great,” I replied as she led us back to the Crimson suite and saw us inside. The screen was black once again.
“Ellie will be presented to you momentarily,” she started. “The clothes you chose will be altered, packed, and ready to be picked up at the main desk in the showroom. All that is left to do is for you to examine her, sign off that she is everything you designed her to be, and check out when you pick up her clothing,” Jane finished. She walked to the door and was halfway out when she turned back and added, “Please take all the time you’d like with her. I’ll be waiting right outside when you are ready to take her home.” Then she was gone, closing the door behind her.
A strange anxiety washed over me. I was strangely nervous about taking home a second cat girl. I hadn’t needed one, never mind two. I looked at Kennedi, who was tidying up the suite, and the feeling passed as quickly as it came. She was so excited to have Ellie. I anticipated the joy I knew I was going to see on her face when she met Ellie face-to-face, and that made every care that I had float away.
Kennedi finished her primping of the suite and came to the chair I had chosen while we waited. She sat on my lap, laid her head in the nook between my head and shoulder, and started purring. Holding her, it was hard to believe that just a couple of hours ago, this sweet thing was barking orders at employees like she owned the place. I took a deep breath, relaxed, and the two of us sank back in the chair a little further.
Our relaxing little cuddle session was interrupted by the screen slowly lighting up. This time it was the whole screen instead of one of the sectioned off portions. Kennedi hopped up and pulled me to stand with her directly in front of it. She looked at me, the excitement visibly bubbling inside her.
When the screen was fully lit, the middle section which had appeared white faded to clear to show the capsule behind it. Inside stood Ellie. She was motionless. Then a voice came from the hidden speakers in the room and said, “Clark, Kennedi, we are happy to present you with your top-of-the-line cat girl, Ellie.”
Just then, the screen in front of Ellie retracted to the right, opening up the capsule. That was when Ellie moved for the first time. For the first few moments, she stood there and blinked. Then her stunning purple-blue eyes focused on Kennedi and me. She took two steps forward and was out of her capsule.
I heard Kennedi draw a sharp breath, and I looked over at her. She was simply beaming. It was almost more fun watching her watch Ellie than actually watching Ellie! She squeezed my hand and pulled me forward toward the stage that Ellie was now standing on. The time for our introductions had arrived.
20
Ellie
I waited the programmed two-and-one-half seconds after the capsule opened to blink. The next command was to step forward onto the stage in front of me and focus on my new owner. I did as I was programmed to do.
My eyes located the person matching the image I’d had downloaded to recognize as my owner. His name was Clark. I focused on him before I looked at the cat girl standing at his side. I did a quick search and located her name in my files. It was Kennedi.
Immediately after I stepped forward, both Clark and Kennedi walked toward me, smiles on their faces indicating they were pleased with what they saw. When they were at the edge of the stage, Kennedi reached her hand up to me.
“Let me help you down,” she said. I made a file note for later to ask why she offered me her hand. As a cat girl herself, she should know I didn’t need help to step off a tiny stage.
Politeness dictated I accept her hand, which I did before jumping off the stage and landing directly in front of them. I waited for a programmed social cue to occur so that I would know when it was appropriate to speak.
“Hello, Ellie,” Clark said politely. That was the cue I needed.
“Hello, Clark,” I replied.
“Oh, you know my name already?” He sounded surprised. I made another file note to learn why he would be surprised.
“Yes, you are my owner, are you not?” I asked for confirmation.
“Indeed, I am,” Clark said. “And this is Kennedi. She’s been on the edge of her seat waiting to meet you.” I recognized the term ‘edge of her seat’ as having a meaning alternate to the literal. I searched for it, found it, and turned my attention to Kennedi.
“It is nice to meet you, Kennedi,” I greeted her.
“I am SO happy to meet you!” Kennedi exclaimed, and very quickly, she had her arms around me in a hug. I stood motionless while I searched for the appropriate reaction. I found the file that told me I was to hug her back. However, she had my arms pinned to my sides.
Clark was watching Kennedi and smiling. He seemed to take pleasure in her excitement. A file note was made, making Kennedi happy makes Clark happy. Making my owner happy was one of my foremost program directives.
When Kennedi let go of me, I turned to Clark. “I appreciate you creating me. I will do everything in my power to make you happy,” I said. It was the last of the pre-programmed first interaction dialog pieces.
“She is just absolutely perfect, Clark!” Kennedi said happily.
Clark smiled at Kennedi and enthusiastically said, “Well, Ellie, we are happy to have you join us. Now, we will be leaving immediately. We can all get better acquainted in the car during the ride back to Elko.”
Clark turned and walked toward the door. Kennedi stayed standing beside me while I searched for my next command. There wasn’t one to be found, and my owner had not given me direction. I remained still.
Clark turned around and stopped. His face looked confused. “Why are you two standing there?” he asked. “We really have to go, Kennedi. Don’t forget that it’s four hours back.”
Kennedi chuckled. “I haven’t forgotten. You’ll have to slow down for just a few minutes. Ellie is brand new, which means she is actively searching for every response and appropriate behavior,” Kennedi informed him. “The process becomes passive, but it takes a little while. Until then, we will have to tell her exactly what we want her to do.”
“Yes, that is correct,” I confirmed her explanation.
“Okay,” Clark started, “Ellie, walk with us,” he instructed me. I immediately walked toward him. Kennedi followed behind me.
We all stopped at the large white desk that was in the middle of the brightly lit showroom I recognized as the public’s area of the Maid to Order store. I stood quietly while Clark and Kennedi spoke with an employee named Jane. Jane was very accommodating, but I found files on reading body language with information indicating that her behavior was forced, and she was more nervous than actually wanting to be helpful. I made another file note, why is Jane nervous around my owner and Kennedi?
As soon as the three of them stopped talking, Clark began walking toward the door. He had commanded me to walk with him to the car, so I needed no further instruction at that time. I followed him through the showroom, out the door, across the parking lot, and to what he had indicated was his vehicle.
“I’m going to sit in the back with Ellie, so she isn’t just back there by herself,” Kennedi told Clark.
“That makes sense,” is all Clark said. I recognized his agreeing with Kennedy as me being given a directive to sit in the back seat, so I opened the door and got in.
Kennedi went to the door on the other side of the car, opened it, and sat in the backseat next to me. She was still smiling the same way she had been when I blinked my eyes open for the first time.
Clark started the car. I started to analyze the engine sounds, but the process stopped before it was finished, and the small amount of information I had organized was involuntarily filed away. I started
searching for a program failure but found none.
“You are starting to process data, sort it, and prioritize automatically,” Kennedi said to me.
I felt a new program initiate, and my shoulder muscles relaxed. I hadn’t taken notice of them being tense, and my surprise at that made me instantly tense them again. Kennedi reached over and put her hand on top of mine, and my shoulders relaxed again. Circuits throughout my body started firing, so I did another systems check to ensure there wasn’t a malfunction as I didn’t command the activity. I was finding nothing wrong. Then, once again, the files retreated.
“Take a deep breath and search for a program called Humanity,” Kennedi instructed me.
Without creating a file note to ensure I would assign reason to her command, I started the new search. When I located the program, it was already running.
I focused on Kennedi and said, “I didn’t initiate the program, but it is already running.” The muscles in my shoulders tensed once again without me sending them commands.
“That is the program that is causing the responses you are not commanding,” Kennedi said. “That is the program that allows you to feel. Soon it will be inaccessible to you for manual commands, and it will constantly be running in the background, telling you how to respond emotionally to the world around you.”
“How do I update the program if it is locked in the background?” I asked, skipping the process of searching for an answer first.
“It is the only program that will never need an update. It is your artificial intelligence programming,” Kennedi explained.
Again, without a file note, I asked, “If I cannot actively add information to the program, what resource will I access to repeat emotional responses when appropriate?”
“You will not ever need to access the information actively,” Kennedi answered then continued to explain. “The AI program collects and stores information, processes it, and instantly re-writes itself constantly. It learns. It is influenced by all our other programs, surroundings, and situations. We do not have access to information about how it does this. The only knowledge we have is that the program was designed to mimic how a human mind responds to hormone releases that affect its judgment.” She lifted her hand from mine and put it on my right shoulder. “This response, your shoulders tensing and relaxing… Scan your database and tell me the answer you find for why it is happening.”