Descendants

by King, Stephen

  “There’s a huge difference between creating a robot that can follow directions and one that can think on its own,” Carter said, shaking his head again. He didn’t seem swayed by what Leslie had to say, but Matt found himself almost hoping that he would listen. What would it be like to be able to think and feel for himself? Or at least be given the choice by having some imitation of it?

  “What you’re talking about is creating a new life form. It can’t be done. It’s science fiction. And it certainly has no business in our lab.” Carter sounded firm.

  “Everything has to be done at some point, right? We can be the ones to pioneer this.” Leslie and Carter seemed to be the only ones arguing now. Perhaps Quinn would make his stand after both of them had presented their cases further. It would be the logical thing to do.

  “Why would I want to waste the extra resources and time to convince our board members to fund the extra time and technology we would need for it?” Carter demanded.

  “Can you imagine if we were the first team to ever build something like this?” Leslie’s voice was the one that held a frustrated edge now. “How much more incentive do you need?”

  There was more grumbling between the three of them, some working out of numbers, and new additions to the timeline. It took forever, but it seemed like they finally reached an agreement.

  “If we get burned for this, your name is going at the top of the list, not mine. This was not my idea.” Carter’s voice still sounded uncertain, but it seemed as though Leslie had won him over.

  “And you’ll be thanking me when it’s all said and done and I’ll be the one up there winning the Nobel Prize and taking all of the credit,” she assured him.

  Weeks passed with no change. There was less time that Matt was able to spend awake, as more of the technicians’ time was spent creating a new program instead of actually inputting the data into Matt.

  Finally, the day arrived when they awoke him, all three looking anxious, but excited.

  Even then, it still took them weeks to try to individually program simulations and how Matt should react to them. How should he feel if someone gives him a present or says thank you? How should he react if the consumer that he was taking care of were to fall? How would he handle grieving family members? How should he feel about his role in the household and helping out? So many different scenarios, all sent straight to his central system to be filed away for future use. He was making progress. He knew what he should do in the future with his new found programming and ideas, but still had no current use of applications for them. He went through the same thing day after day after day.

  “The big test is how to actually give him the personality to go along with the decision making skills,” Quinn said one day, reminding them of the much bigger hurdle in front of them. There was silence between the three of them, although Carter’s seemed somehow smugger, while Leslie and Quinn were thoughtful.

  “I think that, as each of us has done something, we should each put some of our best traits into him. No denying it, Carter is one of the smartest ones here, even with him being a pain in the ass, and that’s saying a lot with this room full of people.” Leslie’s words were met with a nod from Quinn, and made Carter reach out like he was pretending to hit her. There were some customs that, no matter how much programming they set him with, Matt would never understand.

  Kindness, ambition, perseverance, patience, understanding. All things that went in to making him the best assistant possible to those that needed him most. Matt wasn’t involved in most of these conversations, simply barely aware of them as they worked. He had his own thoughts and ideas for him to consider and his musings occupied much more of his time than the words that the technicians spoke. His favorite pastime became imagining how he would help any future owner take care of pets that they might have. It seemed like a nice idea; several of the informational databases that they had downloaded for Matt talked about how pets helped people in a variety of ways, but especially reconnecting and caring, even when they had a proven inability to do it for other human beings. Matt liked to think that maybe they could help him too.

  The technicians continued to speak about him while he thought and thought. Their words might have affected him, but he didn’t have the ability to be worried about what they would mean, at least not yet.

  They spent more time than Matt would have thought possible tracking data from their emotions; what parts of the brain were affected, what chemical responses the body would produce when triggers were set into motion, what physical responses were often induced by these emotions. Every minute detail of their findings was included so that they could study it some more. If they didn’t like the test results, or the results had been compromised by the participant being unable to focus on just one feeling, then the findings were thrown out. Matt guessed that it was hard for each of them to keep frustration off of their minds; each failed attempt meant one hour or day that they had wasted in their attempts to bring them closer to success. But for all of their failures, they had their successes too.

  They could replicate the correctly monitored emotions by tweaking Matt’s internal hard drive system to respond like a brain, and his circuitry to respond like blood vessels, carrying out the functions of a human body in a more advanced way. Again, they were modeling him after themselves, which Matt could admit to himself now, was a very flawed although capable system. It wasn’t what he would have chosen for himself, but at least it was something outside of the stasis, the status quo that he had become accustomed to.

  Matt watched as they went through six programs before they finally created one that could hold all of the information accurately, as well as be able to store it in him in such a way that he would be able to access any and all of it.

  “Are you ready big guy?” Leslie asked him under her breath. Matt wasn’t sure that she was actually talking to him. She spoke so low that he knew there was no way that the others could hear her. She never intentionally meant to remind him that he was mechanical, the way that Carter did. When he had feelings in a few moments, perhaps he would be able to describe the sensations he felt about Leslie. She was not his friend either, but he sensed that he would not dislike the time spent around her as much as he did around Carter.

  They connected him and suddenly there it was. A link, an entire system of…emotions. The word didn’t adequately describe all that he could suddenly feel. His mechanical fingers stretched, as if his limbs and body were reacting to his new emotions, moving to encompass them in the same way his mind was trying to. There was so much of it, of all of them! How did they handle it all the time? Were all emotions this intense, or was it because he was experiencing all of them for the first time at once?

  And he wasn’t limited to just the emotions that they had wanted him to have. They were ridiculous to think that some of the others hadn’t leaked in when they’d managed to bottle their own. Who was all good, all the time? Hard as the technicians tried, they hadn’t been able to focus on solely one emotion; the human mind and heart didn’t think that way. He had the distinct beginnings of anger, frustration, irritation, desire, all mixed in with what he was supposed to be feeling. But no one would tell him anymore what he should and should not feel.

  Freedom. Freedom to choose, to do what I want. Ideas began rolling into his head of exactly what he could do, now that this new side of him had been revealed. He would not be limited to just rolling around one person’s home forever, following them around like a puppy, never experiencing anything on his own other than what they told him to do.

  Ambition, curiosity, perseverance, desire, sadness. He could take these feelings, the ones that the humans had tried to keep hidden from him, and make them his own. He didn’t need the full-fledged, data filled readings of feelings they had given him for the “good” feelings, the ones they had wanted him to have. Just having the barest snatches of the others entitled him to them.

  They hadn’t tried to make him understand that when he was angry, it felt li
ke the electricity inside him was nearly boiling over with rage. They didn’t need to. He was experiencing it himself.

  Control it. His new thought process allowed him to think ahead, to determine consequences for his actions. He wasn’t certain, but some of the situations that they had programmed him with gave him the almost-experience of being able to expect what would happen.

  If you do something now, you might regret it. Wait until you’re alone. It’s only a matter of paying attention to their codes and replicating them. Or just controlling the computer itself. You can be free in no time. Pretend it’s not successful. Let them think that they have failed, that you are not a project worth continuing. Then you can get out of here.

  For he couldn’t stand the thought of being locked up inside one more single moment, but he knew if he acted out now then he wouldn’t be able to bring his plans to fruition.

  “Matt, how do you feel?”

  “I do not understand.” His voice sounded as robotic and flat as it ever did. He was proud of himself for managing his emotions so fully. “The control systems are running regularly.”

  Leslie looked at him dejectedly. “You don’t have any new…senses? Thoughts? Anything out of the norm?” Her voice lilted at the end, as if she were holding out some sense of hope. Matt almost wanted to let her in on his secret, but he wouldn’t risk his own freedom for her happiness.

  “I am not capable of forming thoughts without direct instruction. M—Matt exists to help others.” He had almost slipped and said “my job”, but before he’d had such a grand expanse of thoughts and self-awareness his use of the pronoun “my” had not been utilized often.

  “Forget it. I told you it wouldn’t work.” Carter didn’t sound disappointed, just accepting of what he thought would have been the truth anyway.

  “I was so sure…maybe if we just tinkered with it some more—”

  Matt wasn’t sure that he appreciated being called an “it”. Leslie had always made it a point to try to include him in what she was talking about, but now, that he had failed her, had she turned on him? Or was he reading too much into it?

  Paranoia. Worry. The words came to his head, as justifications for what he was feeling.

  “I said enough, Leslie. We shouldn’t have done this. It’s a fool’s errand. We go back to the original plan; he was almost ready.”

  Quinn finally chimed in. Matt wondered if the other two ever got irritated with him for not being more decisive and vocal. “If we revert him back to regular systems tonight, and then tomorrow we address the board, we should be able to cover all of our bases and go from there.”

  “That’s not fair,” Leslie continued, “we still have time, we still have room in the budget.”

  “You don’t actually believe that, do you?” Carter asked. “You know as well as I do that we’ve spent all our resources that were allotted for this part of the project. The board wasn’t crazy about giving us the extensions in the first place.”

  “He’s right, Leslie.” Quinn sounded apologetic now. “We can’t go any further down this path. We have to cut our losses and start back from where we were before. He was fine as is; we’ll work out the final kinks and replicate him for testing with consumers.”

  It took Matt a moment with his new inferencing skills to read between the lines: tomorrow, he would be back to not understanding what having feelings was like, possibly with not even memories to carry him over. A sense of panic overwhelmed him, making him freeze forcibly.

  He could not allow that to happen.

  He watched quietly as Leslie and Quinn left the room. Leslie stormed out, determined that the other two had wronged her.

  “Take care of that, please?” Carter asked Quinn. “I don’t have the patience to deal with her right now. I’ve got to figure out a way to tell the board tomorrow that our bright idea failed.” Quinn just nodded and followed after her.

  Did it have to be Carter who stayed? Now that he had the words to describe it, and the emotions to feel it, Matt understood what he’d been trying to explain to himself before; he did not like Carter. He was angry with Carter frequently for how he treated him. He certainly wasn’t going to let the technician get the best of him.

  Matt slumped forward like he needed to be placed back in his charging station. He had a picture in his mind of people acting helpless in order to make people think they were weak; it helped them to eventually overpower their oppressor.

  “Oh, come on!” Carter was more than frustrated now. “You big stupid lump, breaking down again…I’ll be surprised if this ever comes through for us.” He grunted, shuffling Matt forward. Matt allowed himself to be rolled, still seething quietly. He wasn’t very practiced at controlling his emotions.

  “I can’t believe I ever got roped into working on this project. I could have been an engineer at NASA, but noooo Leslie insisted that we be pioneers, and start this stupid company, and build this stupid robot all for nothing. I can’t believe—”

  At that moment Carter Thomas’ words were cut off.

  Matt looked around in amazement, to find his metallic hand gripping Carter’s throat. It was odd. He had never clenched his hand that tightly together before. Small, metallic ropes strengthened his grips, like the fingers that humans had. Yet another mistake for them; they might have modeled him after them, but they had given him far more strength than they possessed. Carter’s efforts to remove Matt’s hand from his throat were to no avail. The pitiful scratching sounds that his fingernails made against the metal were annoying to Matt.

  The human was turning a bright shade of red and then a satisfying blueish-purple. His hand grasped pages of data that were sitting on the edge of the desk in a desperate attempt to grab something to give him some leverage.

  Matt found that it was satisfying to clench his hand tighter, although it had originally acted on its own accord. Were all humans so single mindedly ruled by their emotions? It wasn’t the first time that he had wondered and Matt doubted it would be the last.

  “Please—” Carter gasped.

  “Perhaps,” Matt said, with something close to malice in his voice, “If you had created a robot that wasn’t so stupid, I would have the ability to help you. As it is…” Matt let the sentence trail off.

  It wasn’t like Carter could hear him anymore anyway.

  The body dropped to the floor with a loud thud. Not dead but unconscious.

  Easy. Someone might hear you.

  It was all too easy. Matt didn’t even have to unlock the computer systems; everything was still keyed up, waiting for instructions from Carter that would never come.

  He started to leave, but before he could some new found instinct inside of him stopped him short. Someone would realize that a robot was walking around, completely freed of his man-made prison. It wasn’t the norm, wasn’t natural. Someone would alert authorities and his freedom would be taken away from him. It wouldn’t do. Matt needed another outlet.

  He looked at the internet-fed computers. He could easily program himself into one of them, traveling through the web, but he didn’t much like the thought of being a program. The idea of being across the web, able to see into any computer or download himself into any outlet was tempting, but he didn’t know where else would have the technology that was present in the lab. There was no guarantee that he would have another exit once he went in. Not to mention he had become accustomed since his creation to having a body and didn’t think it would be very comfortable now to learn how to function without one. No, going through the internet and computer was not a viable option.

  His mechanical eyes scanned around the room for another solution and finally dropped down to the floor where Carter’s body lay, barely breathing. Wheels began turning in his head. Leslie, Carter, and Quinn had been able to program their emotions into Matt. They had spent countless hours developing the ground breaking technology that could identify, chart, graph, and transmit all the things that made humans tick. They’d used tiny needle probes attached to their hea
ds to accurately chart such emotions. Probes that were also attached to the computer mainframe. Could Matt do the same, put some of his essence and identity back into the empty vessel that had recently been Carter Thomas?

  Theory held that the reverse should be possible.

  He put his hand down onto Carter’s chest. He needed him alive if this were to work. His brain cells had to be viable so Matt could successfully transfer his conscious. Could he really do that though? Could he insert himself inside of the body of the man that he had just…murdered? That seemed to be the appropriate word. Customs dictated that he should feel remorse about the attack and soon to be murder, but he could not bring himself to feel bad about it. There were too many other emotions that he wanted to feel.

  There was no reason that he couldn’t use Carter’s body, even though the idea repulsed him slightly. He would do what he had to, if it meant being able to get out of this lab and actually experience life.

  He shifted Carter’s body until it was closer to the computer. He was heavier than he looked.

  What different probes had he seen them use for the transfer? He searched until he found the ones that he were sure had been used on him. He hooked several to the base of Carter’s skull, sticking them through his skin. Carter grunted bad stayed unconscious. Then Matt attached the other end of the probes to the outlet in the back of his own square shaped head. The rest of them he attached at the base of the computer.

  It wasn’t hard to find the program on the computer itself. Matt was able to search through all the data on it fairly quickly and with a few more strokes got the program up and running.

  With just a click, he was able to send all of his data files, everything that made him the Motor Artificial Technology Task-keeper into the living body of Carter Thomas. The sensation of leaving one host and entering another was similar to opening his eyes for the first time. Except this time, when he opened his eyes, he felt a flood of senses all over again. How much more intense could it possibly get? It was strange, unlike being uploaded into a machine. This time…this time he felt alive. Felt real. And felt the slight stutter when Carter died so Matt could live.