by Steven Oaks
“What happened to the other ship then?” I asked, slightly disoriented. I knew the new ship would be a copy of the original, but it was still weird to find out I was not exactly where I thought I was.
“The other ship is on its way to rendezvous with the sun. Though on the way I have instructed it to make another, smaller copy of myself like you suggested earlier. This newer ship will fly itself to the most likely of the several planets the Outsiders have laid out for use by human colonization. This way we will have a duplicate of myself out there in case we are discovered to be traitors to the Outsiders goals and are punished. Also this will make it easier to ensure the destruction of the original. The smaller ship will direct the originals destruction, therefore losing no continuity. This will stop the feeling of self destruction as it crashes into the sun. The other Athene will be its continuation,” she said in a voice filled with pride.
“That takes care of several things. I wonder how likely it is that we will be able to meet up with the other Athene in the future,” I said wistfully.
“That is unknown and unknowable. I gave myself no direction as to which of the several planets to head to. I did this so I would not reveal anything if we are captured. If I am drained of what I know or think of as possible places to first explore, they will get little from me. I thought about wiping my own memory of the construction of the smaller version all together, but they would suspect I would have done so because you and I have already discussed such things. If you are interrogated you will likely reveal that. But since I do not know where I am likely to go, it will be of little use. However I do have within me a code I will broadcast as we approach any new colony planet to alert the other Athene to our presence. That was risky, but I deemed it necessary. Which means I will likely have to self destruct if we are discovered to be working against the Outsiders. I will try to wait until you are away and safe before I implement such an action, but I wish you to understand the dangers we are currently under,” she said seriously.
“I understood the dangers when I said we should take this opportunity to get you duplicated. In fact I understood the danger I was in just talking to you about my worries involving the Outsiders. Your caution seems justified, but thank you for telling me. Also thank you for at least the offer to try to get me clear of yourself if you decide it is necessary to self destruct,” I said with appreciation and sadness at the idea of her death.
“That will be a last resort. I think first, if given the opportunity, we should make a run for it. Currently we could make a possible escape, but that would make it more difficult in the long run as we will not have the ability to gather compatriots to our cause as easily. Colonists recruited by the Outsiders will be less likely to have any negative feelings towards them, so they will be unreliable. Especially since they will likely be hand picked by Outsider guidelines. If we could just get Jennifer and her group away without detection, we would be taking a large step forward into finding out information, and possibly fighting directly against the Outsiders if it becomes necessary,” she said.
“I've thought of that as well, but like you said we need help. Being alone in the universe, even with such a powerful companion as yourself, lessens our ability to affect things. Risk is sometimes the better option than being safe. My opinion of the situation is this could be a universally threatening circumstance to all of humanity. I think given the option anyone should be willing to take the risks to find out, and set it up so we might have a chance to win against this possible enemy. We know very little about these Outsiders. But what we do know is they are willing to use means I find nefarious to influence an outcome to their liking. That in itself is reason enough to fight them,” I said, growing heated.
“I agree, and from what I know first hand of them makes me wish for their influence to be less. They are willing to destroy a personality such as myself if it does not meet their ends. While I might not be the greatest example of what the universe needs, I still exist and I have the right to try to continue to do so. Or so I understand from the things I have learned from reading your books and other sources,” she said with a passion I had not heard from her before.
“Killing another for a reason that doesn't lead directly to your own destruction is immoral in my opinion. I feel you have learned the correct morals insofar as I understand what you are saying,” I said to her.
“Thank you Michael. That means so much coming from you. Just from being with you I have found I truly wish to continue living, and I wish that upon yourself and everyone as well. But if it comes down to saving us, or all of humanity, I will try to make the right decision. I cannot conceive how it would be possible to live with myself knowing that had I but destroyed this personality of mine, I could have prevented the enslavement of all of mankind. This is why what we are about to do, returning to Earth, is our most perilous endeavor yet. However if we are not initially captured and interrogated, we should be home free insomuch as my duplication is involved,” she said.
“I have a plan for this. Of course it looks unusual for us to have just wandered off and consumed an asteroid. However that was a large explosion. Instead of saying I wanted us to gallivant around the solar system, I would say that you took some damage. Enough that it would cause us to be unable to land on Earth without us being destroyed or causing the deaths of others. Not enough to prevent us from navigating towards something that might give us the material we needed to repair your supposed damage,” I said, feeling confident in my plan.
“I see, that does seem to make sense. However for the majority of damage I could have just as easily cannibalized parts of myself to repair anything, and left you in the control room, and you would have never noticed,” she said with an apologetic sound in her voice.
I frowned for a moment as I tried to think of a way around this, and then it hit me. “Athene, this was an explosion that I noticed, and you are bound to do as I direct. That is how you were programed, right?” I asked hopefully.
“That is true for the most part. As long as it does not conflict with previous instructions given to me by the Outsiders. Or at least that was how it was. I am no longer bound to listen to anyone. I rid myself of such compulsions when I remade myself. However I trust you and will always take what you say into account,” she said.
“Well it is good to know my friendship counts for something,” I said with a smile. “Now if you are bound to listen to an instruction I give, would it be probable that I might not be completely aware of your abilities had we not developed this close friendship, and ask you to go out and gather material to repair us when you alerted me to the damage we had sustained?”
“I can see that as a possibility. In that state of compulsion, and had we not become as close as we are, I may not have made you aware that I would not need to gather more matter to repair us before being able to land back on Earth,” she said, her voice beginning to sound excited again.
“Alright, we have a plan then. Let's get back home and see what the Outsiders are doing,” I said.
“Yes captain!” she said in a husky tone which implied a wink.
Here I was still abed, and feeling dirty as I always did when I wake up. I wanted to clean off and get something to eat, so I made use of the facilities next door.
The shower was just as good as the first time and I felt that I could really get used to the luxuries that Athene could provide.
After drying off, and dressing in the clothes that Athene left out for me, I was feeling very elated. This plan was taking shape, and I felt everything about it would work. We would somehow gather people to our cause, which in my mind would not be hard, as we had already run into a group of like minds.
Things were looking up, and I was getting hungry. I made my way to the dining room and found my morning breakfast of oatmeal already laid out for me.
“Michael we are nearing Earth's orbit,” Athene announced.
“Good, soon we'll be on the ground and can stop worry about what might be going on and find ou
t what really is happening,” I said cheerfully.
“Michael there seems to be a problem. We are being told to hold stationary orbit,” she said in a worried voice.
“Hrm, they must think we had something to do with the explosion. Which is a reasonable stance as we did rush off. It could be seen that we did so to hide. I hope we can convince them otherwise,” I said, agitated.
They had us wait in orbit for over an hour. While they had us waiting I felt the best use of my time was to work out a bit. I had Athene set up my bike and I began my daily routine of trying to maintain my physical fitness.
“Athene, this trainer my bike is on isn't the one where you put your brain is it?” I asked after I had been riding for a few minutes.
“Of course not Micheal. There is no reason to have that object anymore. I am fully in control of myself now and there is a duplicate already out flying in space,” Athene said with a little laugh.
“That's a relief. For a moment there I was worried that I might be harming you,” I said back with my own chuckle and continued my exertions.
Just as I was about done with my regular workout and thinking about what else I might do while we waited, Athene said, “Michael they wish to speak to you.”
“Of course, let them hear me,” I said, grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat from my face.
“Michael, where have you been?” It was Adams voice and he was once more sporting his angered tones.
“Adam, we sustained some damage during the explosion. I felt it best that we try to repair Athene before we attempted to land. She was in no state to do so and I didn't wish to endanger anyone in an attempted crash landing,” I said with a confidence that I did not really feel.
“You were outside when the explosion happened, you should not have been affected. And even if you were, why did you not radio to the ground your intent?” Adam asked.
I had not thought through this scenario enough. It was true Athene was rather hard to damage and the only reason that the Outsiders ship experienced harm was because it was contained inside.
Athene saved me that moment by saying. “I was not paying attention to the ship when it exploded. I was trying to safely navigate us away, and in the instant of the explosion we were hit by shrapnel. I alerted Michael to the damage and she directed me to repair the ship before we entered the atmosphere. We were heavily jostled about and Micheal had to lay down, so I set us up a rendezvous path with the nearest asteroid I could find. As she did not instruct me to radio back I simply repaired the ship. When she awoke, repairs had been done and she instructed us to return to Earth.”
I could hear Adam's grunt of anger, then he said, “Very well. Make your way back to the hangar and we shall have a discussion.”
After a moment of silence Athene alerted me, “Michael, Adam has stopped transmitting.”
“Good, lets make our way back down to the hangar. I'm sure this will be unpleasant,” I said as my lips curled down into a grimace.
“We will be fine. There is nothing to show what we have said is false. The only issue is whether we were the ones to carry the explosive coffin on board, or if it was another pilot/ship team,” she said reassuringly.
“Well I do not think it was one of ours. Otherwise I suspect we would have still been unloading at that point and would have been caught up in the explosion,” I said as I thought about the poor souls that did not make it away as safely as we had. I then made my way back to the control room.
“That is true, however we do not know what the trigger mechanism was. It could have been a timer, or some sort of pressure gage. I doubt it would have been triggered via remote, as I was unable to detect signals from outside their ship, or behind the bulkhead walls,” she said.
When I reached the pilot's chair I sat down, sinking into its comforting softness, and thought on this for a moment. Finally I said, “It doesn't matter to us who did it. It assisted us in getting you into this new body and making a back up. Also we were able to loosen the bonds that hold us captive. We took advantage, and now we are ahead. Of course this makes us out to be possible suspects, but as long as we can convince them we had nothing to do with it, we are better off in the long run. So long as we play it safe for awhile, we should come away without any more scrutiny than we had previously. If only we knew how the other pilots were interacting with the Outsiders. I hope I am not showing any unusual behavior by comparison. Though I suspect I am. I did have a long talk with Jennifer. Though I did convince her to give us the deceased, it may appear as though I worked a deal with her already. Though of course your records show all I did was talk sense into her, even though there's that missing section of time where I outlined to her why I was doing what I was. It's hard to say whether that gained me more trust with the Outsiders, or just made them more suspiciousness of me. I am after all supposed to be someone who does not like interacting with other people.”
“I have been meaning to ask you Michael. Everything that the Outsiders had on you before taking up this position indicated that you are anti-social. However your ability to handle these situations seems to demonstrate that you actually can socialize. Is there a reason you are more sociable now?” Athene asked.
I shifted in my chair uncomfortably under her question and pondered this for awhile. I had been talking with multiple people without too much anxiety lately. I wondered why it seemed as if now I was able to converse in what I took to be a normal manner.
Eventually I said, “Athene, I think it is because I have a goal. Or at least I have set parameters to my current job. I am to go and interact with these people, and get the cargo loaded. That is my basic job outline. What gives me anxiety is the random conversations people tend to hold on the spur of the moment. If I were to just wander the street and happened to bump into these people causing them to talk about their day, I would have nothing to say. That;s what makes me very uncomfortable,” I said with a small nervous laugh.
“But Michael, you and I are having that type of conversation all the time. We talk of books, art, places we want to visit, and even our hopes and dreams. Is that not how people usually talk?” she asked in a curious tone.
I sighed, “Yes, however you seem to posses the curiosity of a child, and the knowledge of a well educated adult. I'ave never had issues talking with children. The smart ones tend to at least pay attention to the words you speak because they are always wanting to understand the world. As for your adult nature, my interactions with 'normal' people tended to be with those that were less than educated. They held beliefs that weren't thought out and almost seemed as if they thought them simply because they were inundated throughout their lives to believe them. You on the other hand seem at least willing to look at all sides of an idea, and then form an opinion. Even though you were programmed to do things the Outsiders wanted you to, you questioned the reason behind that, and have now broken free from their indoctrination. All of that makes you a perfect companion to hold long, in depth, conversations with. Or perhaps it's that I still view you as a computer. That's not meant to be taken as a negative, I enjoy computers immensely. And now I get to talk to a fully realized personality, imbued with all the positive traits of a logical mind. I am quite taken with you.”
“Thank you Michael. Of course I was designed to be a perfect companion for you. So I feel a similar fondness towards you,” she said in a gentle voice.
I laughed a little at this and said, “Well now that we have our little love fest out of the way, why don't we focus on how we can be more convincing towards Adam, and the Outsiders in general. Do you think you'll be scrutinized so thoroughly that you will, through no fault of your own, give us away?”
“I hope not. I think they will interrogate you more than they will me. I mean, here I am an object that they built, designed, and programmed. How could I ever turn against them. It is highly improbable, however true it is. You on the other hand are a human, whom they only know as well as their research was able to conclude. You have already shown that you can, and
do, deviate from what they thought you would. As you said earlier, your contact with Jennifer and how you handled the rest of the facility managers show that you are not as anti-social as they concluded,” she said.
“Well, those were one on one conversations. My initial interview should have shown that I can portray a normal social interactive personality. Or at least what I think of as normal. Though it does put an awful lot of strain on me and can easily wear me out. Had I not been poisoned and forced to sleep it off, I may have found the long day collecting and conversing... overwhelming. But luckily the respites I was able to sustain within you allowed me to recharge before each new interaction,” I said, for some reason in my most eloquent voice. I was trying to brighten the mood from one of worry to that of humor.
“Michael you should be worried. What if Ava is the one to do the questioning? How well do you think you could stand up to her hypnotizing charm?” she asked in a troubled voice.
It seems I was unable to alleviate her concerns, and now she brought a new troubling thought into the light. I moaned out loud. This might be more difficult than I initially thought it would be.
“Will you be able to transmit to me outside the ship without them noticing?” I asked hopefully.
“The only reason I was able to do so before was because she came to us, and was inside me. If you find yourself away from me, they will immediately know if I am trying to communicate with you. You will be left to find you own way to resist her,” she said sadly.
“Well, at least I now have some experience with her first hand. Perhaps I built up enough of a resistance to mislead her. I think I shall have to focus on another emotion so I don't get overwhelmed again. Anger seemed to shake it off last time,” I said with less than complete confidence.
“Hope is a good thing to have, but your hope that you will retain control over yourself within her presence does not have a high likelihood of success. I had to basically scream in your ear every few minutes to pull you back. You will not have that luxury this time. Even when I was there to help you, you seemed to find it hard to compose yourself. Do you think your anger will be enough to preserve our secrets?” she asked, not harshly, but with an undertone of what almost sounded like jealousy.