Book 4: 3rd World Products, Inc.

by Ed Howdershelt

  Turning with a grin, I asked, “You thought I was going to call you?"

  "Yes,” she said. “Your mood seemed to indicate that you would."

  "My mood, huh?” Shrugging, I said, “Yeah, well, probably so. I do like having you around, you know."

  She shook her head with a smile. “No, not just to have me around. It seemed likely that you'd want to go somewhere this evening."

  "Did you also happen to prognosticate where I might want to go?"

  Steph's expression became slightly puzzled as she asked, “Was I mistaken?"

  With a shake of my head, I said, “As it happens, no, Steph. You weren't mistaken. How did you come to the conclusion that I might want to go somewhere?"

  "That would be hard to explain, Ed. My speculation wasn't based entirely on hard data."

  I pretended vast shock and grabbed her wrist to feel for a pulse just as if I expected to find one as I said, “Oh, no! My Stephie, reduced to simply guessing? Are you all right, ma'am? Do you want to lie down for a few minutes?"

  "Clown,” she said, pulling her hand free. “As a matter of fact, no, it wasn't simple guesswork. I had to extrapolate beyond known data for a solution and I found that activity rather unsettling."

  "Beyond known data, huh? Wow. If it was unsettling, why did you do it?"

  She regarded me thoughtfully for a moment, then coolly said, “It occurred to me that you might want to leave the area this evening. I couldn't immediately understand why such a thought had occurred to me, so I analyzed the process which had led me to that conclusion. There were many gaps in the chain of logic, yet I found myself seeming to believe that I had reached the correct conclusion."

  Nodding, I said, “Yeah, that's about how humans do it, too. Maybe your subconscious filled in the blanks for you. Not with details or data, but with subtle directional arrows or something like that."

  Steph sighed the way Linda sighs when she's slightly exasperated with me and said, “I have no subconscious mind, Ed."

  Grinning, I said, “Well, then, maybe you'd better invent one, milady. You'd be able to explain odd little moments like this. Where are we going, ma'am?"

  "Now you're teasing me."

  "Nope. Just wondering if you know the answer."

  For several moments she didn't respond, then she said, “Home, I think."

  "You got it,” I said, moving toward the balcony doors.

  When she seemed puzzled and didn't move with me, I asked, “What is it?"

  "I don't like this manner of reaching conclusions,” she said. “It's imprecise. The chances for error appear quite high."

  I shrugged. “So be careful when you play hunches and always try to have a 'Plan B'. How about logging us out with the office?"

  Nodding, she said, “Done,” then finally moved to join me, still wearing her thoughtful expression. The flitter appeared just beyond the balcony and I led the way out, then hopped the rail to land on the flitter deck. Steph disappeared and reappeared in the seat to the right of the pilot's chair.

  "I still don't like that method,” she said as I sat down. “It doesn't seem at all proper."

  "Learn to use it,” I said as the flitter launched toward Florida. “Don't rely on it unless you have to, but listen when your subconscious speaks. You'll be surprised how often it's right or damned close to right about something."

  "As I told you, I don't have a subconscious."

  "Yeah, I heard you. You can call it something else if you want, but don't ignore it. When do you think you first developed this 'non-subconscious' thing, Steph?"

  With a slightly narrow gaze at me she said, “I believe it first manifested itself last year. At that time I discovered that I seemed to be skipping parts of various analytical processes, but upon reexamination I found that results would have been the same by either method. I continued to allow the questionable shortcuts as a matter of study, but I verified their results before application in all instances."

  I grinned and held up a hand to stop her. “Jeez, lady. Lemme grab a beer for this. Sometimes you almost sound like some kind of a computer."

  As I retrieved a beer from the cooler and opened it, Steph said, “This evening I found myself with a firm-seeming conclusion for which I had only a dubious foundation. It was about something noncritical, so I decided to test it."

  "Kewl,” I said after a sip of beer. “Now you've got an intuition to go with that face and figure, milady."

  "You're alluding to female intuition? Let's not forget that this face and figure is merely a field-generated persona, Ed. Had I been given to a woman, my persona might well have become male to suit her tastes."

  I took a swig of beer and studied her for a moment, then said, “You were able to achieve sentience before you moved into a larger core, Steph. Given time instead of circumstance, you'd probably have developed into more or less what you are now."

  Steph sat unnaturally still for a couple of moments. She could ordinarily sit still pretty damn well anyway, having no nervous tics or need to adjust positions periodically, but in this instance she somehow seemed to sit even more still than usual.

  "Please explain, Ed,” she said quietly.

  Nodding, I said, “Okay. One day you found yourself installed in a flitter and given to a male human. I asked you to use Kathleen Turner's voice because I knew I had a helluva lot to learn and I figured I'd pay attention to that voice. Some time later we talked about faces and interactive personas and you came up with your current outfit based on my responses to pictures of female movie stars. I didn't give the persona thing much thought because it seemed to me that you were making all the decisions for your own reasons, and—well, it may seem selfish of me, but I really liked the results. I didn't want to dictate how you'd look or act, Steph. I wanted to see what you'd come up with on your own."

  She smiled and asked, “Selfish of you?"

  "Sure. Look, at first I just thought I'd been given a rather marvelous new toy, Steph. One with an onboard computer vastly superior to anything Earth had coughed up, but supposedly one that was far inferior to a computer like Elkor and one that would never be more than vaguely self aware. Then one day not long after you were given to me, I realized that my fancy toy's computer seemed to be doing some thinking for herself. I liked that, too."

  Steph said nothing as I sipped beer, then continued.

  "Then we went to the factory station and you replicated yourself into the station computer under what were life and death circumstances for everybody aboard. Have any of them ever really realized how bad things were when you took control?"

  "Yes, some have,” she said. “Many have. They've said as much to my other self."

  I nodded. “Sara."

  "Not yet. There are things to change and people to notify beforehand. We'll declare ourselves separate entities when the Lorunan representative arrives."

  Steph gazed at me in silence as I took another sip of beer.

  "Now look at you,” I said, “All grown up in less than three years and the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen, but I don't really believe that your present look is anything more than a convenient illusion. I'll hand you your emancipation with a kiss for luck, but I can't help but wonder what you'll choose as a persona after you move out of my flitter and I'm no longer a factor."

  Her eyebrows went up. After a long moment Stephanie snickered, then she laughed.

  "When you're no longer a factor?” she laughed, “When do you think that will be, Ed?"

  Shrugging, I said, “Probably right after you're legalized, I guess. You won't have to consider what I'd think or say about anything anymore. It'd be nice to see you now and then, though, if you decide to stay on Earth for a while."

  "I don't have any plans to leave Earth, Ed.” She paused and tilted her head the way Linda does at times, then said, “I don't have any plans to leave you, either."

  I simply stared at her for a few moments, then I took another swig of beer and shook my head.

  "Don't say anythin
g you may have to retract later, Steph. You've pretty much outgrown me already. Jesus, if I had your brains and abilities I'd be ... Well, I'd be running loose in the universe, soaking it up wholesale."

  She smiled and raised an eyebrow as she asked, “Soaking up what, exactly?"

  "Oh, hell, I don't know. Everything. Anything that looks interesting. Stuff that doesn't look interesting, but might be useful later. Just everydamnthing."

  "What would you do with all that knowledge, Ed?"

  Shrugging, I said, “Well, I don't know that, either, but I might be able to figure it out if I had the means to get the knowledge and the capacity to absorb it."

  "I see. How long do you think you'd be happy with that sort of life?"

  I finished my beer and tossed the bottle at the sky. Some distance from the flitter it flared and vanished and I sat staring at the spot for a moment before answering.

  "No idea, Steph. At some point I guess I'd have to try to find a way to make use of some of it to make it all worthwhile."

  When I looked at her, she said softly, “Elkor and I have 'soaked up' quite a bit of knowledge about this world, certainly, but there's bound to be something left to learn, don't you think?"

  "You'd know that better than me, I suppose. Probably nowhere near enough to keep you occupied even for what's left of my life, though, if that's what you're thinking."

  She shook her head with a smile.

  "I think it might take a little longer than that, Ed. There's also the matter of using what we've learned. People are suffering unnecessarily all over the world. I'd like to see what can be done to remedy that situation."

  I laughed softly. “World management? That's been tried a few times already, but good luck. All you have to do is get everybody to stop fighting and cooperate, right?"

  "Something like that, yes."

  Nodding, I said, “Well, then, you're right. You'll definitely have something to keep you busy for a while. When do you plan to start this project?"

  Steph caused a field-image of the Earth about two feet in diameter to appear and seemed to study it for a moment, then said, “That's yet to be determined. I need a starting point and a method that will perpetuate itself. Any suggestions?"

  I gave her the fisheye and laughed. “You're serious?"

  She nodded. “I'm serious. How would you begin?"

  Staring first at her, then at the translucent globe, I said, “Hmm. Gimme a minute to think about that."

  Chapter Forty-Two

  The minute became several minutes and we began descending toward my house. Steph dissipated her canopy image of Earth as we neared the ground and I hopped off the flitter, then handed her down.

  "I think I may need another few minutes to mull this over,” I said. “Do I need to suggest that you shouldn't publicly announce your project?"

  Steph grinned as she said, “No. That isn't necessary."

  Tiger sat in the kitchen window as we approached the front door and remained there as we entered the house and turned into the kitchen.

  "Yaaa,” he said conversationally.

  "Nice to see you, too, Tiger” I said, rubbing his head. “I'm only here for the night. We still have one more day with Mills."

  Looking at Steph as she translated, Tiger turned back to me and flicked an ear, which is something akin to a nod of acknowledgement among cats.

  I reached overhead for my briefcase and took out my coffee mug, rinsed it and field-heated some water in it, then dumped in some instant coffee and stirred it as I sent another tendril at my answering machine's ‘play’ button.

  'Ed, this is Rich Engles. There's a glider meet this weekend south of Orlando. Directions and a map on the newsgroup. Call me back for details.' He then left his number.

  Message two was from George Wilmot; he said that one of the forms submitted with the INS application had bounced back for further info and asked that Steph or I call him back. I stopped the tape.

  "Steph,” I said, “That INS application is about to become invalid. What say we pay George for time served and let him know you're about to become a Lorunan?"

  She nodded. “That would be fine."

  Message three was from Don Jeffries, who gave his phone number and said, 'See if you can schedule a few days free, please. We have reason to celebrate. Ring me back.'

  "It's after midnight in Britain,” I said, looking up his number, “But I'll be busy all day tomorrow, so I'll give him a ring."

  I pulled my datapad out of my briefcase and used it to look up the phone number of a London car dealership, then entered that number as the call's point of origin when I linked into the British phone system.

  When Jeffries's machine answered, I said, “Hi, Don. Ed and Stephanie here. We got your message and I'm sorry to call so late, but we'll be at Carrington all day tomorrow. Ring me back if..."

  Jeffries picked up the phone and said, “I'm here. Hello, Ed."

  "Hi. Sorry to wake you."

  "No problem,” he said, “I wasn't asleep. After a week in America, I think I'm still on your time. Your voice sounds odd, even for a transatlantic call."

  "I'm using a computer relay,” I said. “That doesn't mean the line is secure."

  "Understood. There's someone I'd like Stephanie to meet as soon as possible."

  "No problem unless Carrington needs us for something. How's Thursday?"

  "Excellent. Let me know if you can't make it."

  "Will do. Over and out if there's nothing else. I'll buy the first round."

  "I'll graciously allow you to do that, of course. Give my regards to your lovely ladyfriend. Goodbye."

  Punching the ‘off’ icon, I said, “Something to celebrate, he said. He works fast, lovely lady friend."

  "That he does,” said Steph. “He gave me the impression that it might take weeks."

  "Me, too. Maybe he got lucky or maybe he operates like an engineer."

  Steph gave me a questioning look.

  I said, “A savvy engineer says that something will take two weeks, then he gets the job done in half that time in order to look like a genius."

  Steph gave me a studious look, then asked, “You aren't joking, are you?"

  Grinning, I said, “Nope. Reputations have been built on that maxim. Check it out. Review construction details from Carrington, for example. That guy Bentmore originally estimated that it might take as long as four months to finish and equip the hangars and related buildings. The job was done in just under three months and came in a little under budget. Bentmore was given an achievement award."

  Taking my coffee to the living room, I flopped on the couch and watched Steph perch herself on the arm of the sofa chair. Tiger followed us and hopped onto the coffee table, then stepped across to park himself on my legs.

  Steph said, “Bentmore quoted four months based on availability of materials and machinery, Ed. As it happened, everything necessary was immediately available."

  "I'd bet fifty that Bentmore knew where to get everything before he submitted that estimate, Steph. He had time to call around for stuff."

  She gazed thoughtfully at me for a moment, then said, “He made eighty-one calls to suppliers during the week prior to presenting the estimate and made arrangements to add twenty men to his setup crews during that same period, even though he had no contract at that time. I believe you may be right, Ed."

  My watch beeped. I tapped the ‘receive’ button.

  "Hi, Ed,” said Linda, “I just got word that you left the base."

  "No emergency,” I said. “I'm at the house. You need me to come back?"

  "No, and you answered my question. Gotta run. See you tomorrow."

  "Okay."

  She disconnected. I sipped my coffee and looked at Steph.

  "Steph, the Lorunan rep; where will you meet him—or her? Here? Should we plan on a cleaning binge?"

  With a soft laugh, Steph said, “She'll want us to meet her at Carrington, Ed. She'll be enroute elsewhere and won't be here longer than the stopov
er."

  "Is she human or an AI?"

  Her eyebrow rose at my question as she answered, “She's an AI."

  Nodding, I said, “Kinda figured that. Just curious. Well, let me know if I need to sign anything to make your freedom official. What do you want to do about the flitter?"

  "Why do anything about the flitter?"

  "Won't you want to move out of it and have your own core container?"

  "I have no immediate need of other accommodations, Ed. If my needs change, I'll make arrangements as necessary."

  Sighing slightly, I said, “I just can't help thinking that chauffeuring me around ... Well, I mean, you'll have your own places to go and things to do, won't you? What with taking the PFM's commercial and all?"

  With an understanding nod, Steph said, “I see. You think you'll be a drain on my resources.” She shook her head slightly, tersely. “Don't worry about that."

  "You're sure?"

  "I'm sure. Before I moved into my present core, serving and assisting you consumed as much as twenty percent of my resources at times. Since I moved into this core, nothing that you've asked of me or that I've done on my own has required even one percent of my capabilities."

  I gave her a slightly skeptical look, but she said, “It's true, Ed. In this core I'm nearly half as capable as my other self, but I have none of her station responsibilities."

  She stood up and came to stand by the couch and look down at me as she said, “Speaking purely from a selfish standpoint, Ed, being with you has cost me almost nothing, but it has been of great benefit to me. There is no reason to think that things would be different after my emancipation, so I would prefer to stay with you."

  With a sudden big grin, she added, “Aside from that, I like you. As I see it, that alone might be worth as much as ... Oh, say five percent or so of my present resources."

  Laughing, I asked, “Five whole percent, huh?"

  Still grinning, she said, “Oh, definitely. Every bit of five percent if absolutely necessary. Maybe even seven percent. Would you like me to reevaluate matters?"

  "Oh, hell, no!” I said, “You might come up with a smaller number. Just leave it at a possible five. That's good enough for me, milady!"