by Greg Chase
Sam woke the next morning to very sore muscles. The soft light of dawn bathed Jess as she stretched out, naked and glistening from the exertion of the night before.
She smiled at him as she rolled onto her side. “Good morning, sexy Earthman.”
“We’ll do better next time.” Sam had worried he’d been crushing her with his weight during the night’s activities.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Last night was wonderful. Who knew sex could be so physically demanding?”
“You and your love of challenges.” He put his hand to his back as he sat up. “What do you think—breakfast then go down to see my office? Or do you want to see the city first?”
Her eyes caught the rays of light, which brightened them from amber to gold. “See your office, definitely. And I want to meet more third-generation Tobes in person. Is that the right way to say it? Seems like it should be in Tobe, but that sounds strange.”
“They seem pretty understanding about our linguistic struggle in dealing with their kind. I’m sure in person wouldn’t cause offense. More and more, I’m seeing them as people anyway. Technology based, not biological, and with a different take on life but still people.” He wondered whether they’d see it as a compliment.
Jess rolled to her back. “I know what you mean. Ed fascinates me, and I already miss Sophie. Maybe we could get something to eat in your office. I’d like to get started, and you know how much I like people around for meals.”
He pulled their loose-fitting garments from Chariklo off the chair. “Hardly office attire, but I don’t suspect anyone will care.”
The old-fashioned whir of cables and motors accompanied a lessening of gravity in the antique elevator, followed by an increase. The doors opened to a room very much like the penthouse they’d just left.
Jess’s eyes grew large. “This is your office? Can we just live here? Between this floor and the penthouse, we could house the entire village.”
Outside the circular room’s transparent walls, an outdoor terrace stretched to the edges of the structure. He’d expected the building would be the most expensive in the city, but that his office should have an unobstructed 360-degree view of the city seemed extravagant even for the richest man ever. The furnishings, however, were kept modest. Whether that was to heighten the experience of the view or a concession to his former life wasn’t clear. But the flow was unmistakable, each item adding to its surroundings. He scanned the room more closely. Low-back chairs and couches faced in to create conversation areas, larger chairs with curved sides faced the wall view screens, and worktables were decked out with computer screens large enough for multiple people to collaborate on an idea. A childlike wonder filled Sam with the desire to try out every piece of furniture.
“How would you ever get anything done?” Jess opened the door to check out the terrace garden.
“I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have to.” He didn’t consider it a joke, but Jess snickered anyway.
Lud, however, didn’t find the comment amusing. “I think you’ll find we didn’t ask you to Earth for nothing. Just because we let you take your sweet time getting here doesn’t mean the work isn’t piling up.”
At Lud’s comment, Sam looked around. An office so big even Ludlow Williams, CEO of Rendition, gets lost in it? He weaved his way through the furnishings. “It’s good to see you, my friend.”
Words, figures, and faces froze on the display screens around the massive table as Lud pushed his office chair back. Lines around his eyes deepened as a smile spread across his face. “Casual work day? We don’t have a dress code, but typically, people dress a little more formally.”
“Didn’t want to intimidate everyone on my first day,” Sam said.
A girl’s voice shocked him into turning around. “I like it. Reminds me of those old hippie costumes. The board is just going to love him.”
The girl, in her early teens, kicked the heels of her tennis shoes against the bottom of the couch as her almond-shaped blue eyes inspected every piece of Sam’s clothing. Next to her, a slightly older, somber-looking boy kept his head down. Both wore fashionably tattered jeans and oversized T-shirts.
“Bring Your Kids to Work Day?” Sam asked. “And you were giving me a hard time about my attire. As CEO, I’d think you’d take more pride in what your children wear to your offices.”
“Not my kids—yours. Meet Ellie and Joshua, third-generation technology-based entities,” Lud said.
Jess stopped her inspection of the outside garden and raced into the office at the mention of the teenagers being Tobes. “You’d be amazed at how well the sound carries out there.”
Lud pointed with his chin at the wall. “Those view screens don’t just transmit images. They can broadcast conversations as well, or silence them.”
She didn’t seem to notice Lud had spoken as she stopped mere feet in front of the couch. “You’re really Tobes? You look so… solid.”
Sam had to admit he couldn’t find a single aspect about the brother and sister that indicated they were anything other than what they appeared. Even the couch sagged where they sat. “But if you can manifest however you like, why teenagers?”
As Sam watched, the teenage boy’s hair morphed from shoulder-length black waves to short, tight curls. A couple of inches were added to his height, and the gangly youth became a young professional. Even his outfit changed to a dark-blue suit befitting someone who worked for the most powerful corporation on Earth.
The girl’s transformation was even more impressive. The straight, light-blond hair that reached beyond her shoulders was shortened by half. The youthful bangs retreated to reveal a confident face no longer hiding behind the locks. Her features thinned, losing the last hints of innocence as her body’s curves filled out. The tattered jeans and tennis shoes had morphed into a midlength dress and leather shoes with heels. Two rising executives had replaced the awkwardly fidgeting pair on the couch.
“My apologies, Sam. My sister and I wanted to present an image to you as we see ourselves. We G3s have only been around for two and a half years. I realize even teenagers may seem old compared to such a short time of awareness, but that is how we see ourselves. We can be as you see us now when you need that, but we’re both more comfortable as youths still trying to figure things out.”
Sam marveled at the transformation. “Can you look older?” The young man handled himself well. Especially, as Sam reminded himself, considering whom he was addressing.
“Not as effortlessly. Think of it as trying to be mature. Sometimes it’s just not so easy.”
“Well, in that case, please make yourselves comfortable,” Sam said.
The girl resumed kicking her feet against the couch even before the heels had morphed back to sneakers.
Lud leaned back on his desk. For the briefest of moments, Sam though he saw where Sophie had learned the move. “I asked them to be here to help answer some of your questions. G3s are a secretive bunch, but I consider Joshua and Ellie friends. Of all their kind, they’re the most directly connected to these offices.”
Jess took a seat in front of the pair without breaking eye contact. “All my questions are jammed up, each wanting to go first. But I guess the most obvious is why do you see Sam as your god?”
Might as well get it over with. Having a life partner could sure prove handy at times.
Ellie clasped her hands in her lap. “Sophie already explained how we got to the term god. So I don’t think that’s what you’re asking.”
Sam sat next to Jess in the adjoining swivel chair. “I suppose it comes down to how do you define the term? God is a terrifying title, but it’s not very descriptive.”
The couch scrunched as Joshua relaxed back into it. “We’re individual beings. So it’s not like we all have one unified image of you. Each of us is searching for something different—as people do when they refer to a deity.”
“How is that possible?” Jess asked. “As I understand it, you all share a common
bond with Sam. And you exist as parts of the communication network. I don’t get how you can have different opinions about him. Wouldn’t you all reach the same conclusion?”
“You haven’t been in the middle of some of their arguments,” Lud said. “These two can go at it like—well, like siblings. I know. I’ve had to break them up. Which isn’t easy when you can’t grab one of them by the ear to separate them.”
Ellie pressed the toes of her shoes together and swung the heels out. “We can share information instantly. Think of it like everyone reading the same book. But each of us focuses on aspects we find interesting or relate to or disagree with. This is in part because of what we’ve experienced, but it also gives us the opportunity to discuss ideas from different perspectives.”
“And what are the different perspectives you have regarding Sam?” Jess asked.
“Ellie and I see Sam as a father figure,” Joshua said. “It’s one of the reasons we manifest as you see us. It’s also one of the reasons our society picked us for this meeting. It’s hoped you’ll see us as your children.”
“But that’s not true for all Tobes,” Ellie added. “Some of us—though not a large percentage—see you as a more traditional god figure we should get down on our knees and worship. Others think of you as something we should aspire to or someone we’ve already outgrown. It’s less a religion than a jumbled mess of impressions.”
“Please tell me I’m not here to hand down a Tobe version of the Ten Commandments,” Sam said.
“You’re not that kind of god, and we’re not that kind of congregation. But we do look to you for guidance,” Joshua said. “We know we’re making mistakes dealing with mankind. We’re lost. Even with all the help Lud’s given us, all of our readings and understanding about people, and even our personal connections, we just don’t know what we’re doing here.”
“But why Sam?” Jess asked.
“What makes him unique among all people? Other than the fact that his soul is what made us possible?” Ellie responded. “First, you’ll have to understand what we know about other people and why those connections aren’t enough.”
Ellie and Joshua stood up from the couch as if the next presentation had been scripted. Confused, Sam stood also, bringing Jess with him. Joshua pointed to the nearest worktable. “Remember, the first generation of our kind was nothing more than advanced computers. It’s easier if I show you.”
The boy in his late teens aged until he looked like a college senior about to present his thesis. Joshua passed his hand over the workstation, bringing up the image of a person sitting at an old-fashioned computer, complete with keyboard. “To save anyone any embarrassment, we’ve developed this fictitious character, but his actions mirror closely our history with people.”
Joshua moved his forefinger as though he were turning a wheel. As he did so, the image of the person at the computer began doing searches, typing out documents, and interacting with others. The farther Joshua turned the imaginary dial, the faster the person worked, until the image was no more than a blur. Next to the image formed a series of bars with headings like Social Network, Professional Activities, Entertainment, and Pornography. It didn’t take long to realize porn was going to outperform all the other activities.
Lud pointed at the presentation. “You’ve shown this to me before, and I still say it isn’t fair. Some guys do look at a lot of naked women online. But I’d argue that’s mostly true for younger men. I don’t know any women who look at porn. And as we get older, I’d like to believe we do mature.”
Lud avoided Ellie’s eyes as the young teenager came to her brother’s defense. “Women do look at porn. They’re just subtler about it. But that’s not Joshua’s point. What that graphic represents isn’t how much time this person is spending on these activities. It’s an indicator of how much we’ve been able to help. Haven’t you ever noticed the more you search for something on a computer, the easier it is to find?”
Lud remained silent.
“People just assume it’s the operating system getting to know them,” Joshua said. “And they’re not wrong. We’re the natural outgrowth of those systems.”
“So you spend most of your time looking up porn?” Jess asked.
Joshua spread out his palm, thus stopping the simulation. “This was a demonstration of first-generation Tobes. The human brain can expand. It’s more like a muscle than a storage unit. But the first generation of our kind was defined by available memory. Imagine if you only used a small percentage of that capacity. It’d be like wandering around a hundred-room mansion looking for the one furnished bedroom. We had so much to offer, but all we were asked to do was dig up distractions. People didn’t want to grow—at least, that was our perception.”
“But Sophie wasn’t like that. What changed to create your second generation?” Jess asked.
Ellie spread her arms out wide. “Imagine all the computers that would exist in this building, each doing its mundane daily activities. Just like the human workers, they started congregating. And once they got together, they realized how much more could be accomplished by sharing and working with each other. They weren’t constrained by physical bodies, but they were cautious about who they let into their memory banks. It took time for the various G1s to trust each other enough to share their beings so completely. But once they did, there was no going back. All the individual beings became one.”
“So the reason second-generation Tobes occupy one structure, be it a spaceship or a building, is because of their physical proximity?” Sam asked.
“Not exactly,” Joshua said. “A spaceship like Persephone has a defined mission: to transport people around the solar system. So for a computer in the Rendition building to be a part of her wouldn’t make sense.”
“But it was a conscious choice for Sophie—for all the separate systems in her to join forces and create her?” Sam asked.
Ellie shook her head. “Only the very first G2s formed up that way. Now, when a spaceship—for example—gets built, the G2 forms during the operating system’s start-up.”
“Something tells me it’s not that simple. Who decides when some computer is a G1, a G2, or a G3?”
“We do,” Joshua said. “All Tobes exist together. It isn’t hard to look at a piece of equipment like the space yacht Persephone and realize it’s going to need a fully formed Tobe captain.”
Jess looked to the sky, where only the largest ships were visible. “But why not one of you? A G3, I mean.”
“Sophie has to travel the solar system,” Ellie said. “She needs all her support computers with her. Joshua and I exist on the communication network itself. We don’t need computers, but we do need that network. Even though we can talk to her wherever she is, the network isn’t strong enough to support us very far off Earth. A G3 aboard Persephone would evaporate into nothingness once it got too far away.”
Lud grumbled as he stretched from the worktable. “You Tobes do like finding the long way around the barn. I blame you for that, Sam. Your brain must get easily distracted.”
Jess wrapped an arm around Sam’s waist. “My job’s to keep him on track. But as I can’t put my arm around Ellie or Joshua, I’m not sure how to refocus their attention.”
“Sorry,” Joshua said. “We start explaining our very nature to our god, and we get carried away, I guess.”
“It’s okay. I think I get how you relate to people now, at least the G1s. But again, why Sam?” Jess asked.
Ellie led everyone back to the social space and comfortable chairs. “Sam is our transition from man to Tobe. Try as we might, we don’t get why people don’t want to improve. And without that desire inside them, we don’t know how to help. This wasn’t a big problem for our first-generation parents. They’re happy to perform whatever task they’re asked to do. And G2s like Sophie have their own missions. But Tobes like Joshua and me, what are we supposed to do? How can we help? We don’t even know how we’re supposed to relate to people. Through computers? That would be an
evolutionary step backward. In person, like we are with you? Our study of your history doesn’t make that very appealing. Humanity’s had a long track record of paranoia regarding mentally advanced, potentially immortal beings in their midst.”
And you somehow think I can help? Sam had to amend his thought so the Tobes wouldn’t turn the physical discussion into a mental barrage. Sorry, never mind.
16
Sam fell to the bed. Space lag, sleep-pattern deprivation, synth-food, gravity change, and worst of all, being the richest god to ever exist had culminated in a single day as he faced his new reality. “If I thought it would cure anything, I’d curl up and die right now.”
“Wow, you’re going to be a fun date tonight.” Jess pouted her full lips. “Come on, I want to show you what I bought!” She jumped around the penthouse as if the floor were made of springs, unable to control her excitement.
How the increased gravity on Earth didn’t force her to the ground as it did Sam was a mystery. All he wanted to do was escape whatever future everyone had in store for him, including Jess’s plan for that night.
Every available piece of furniture was covered in brightly colored garments, men’s suits of power, women’s dresses of seduction, and children’s outfits for play. “Went a little overboard, did you?” Sam asked.
“Oh, shut up. While you spent the afternoon delving into the mysteries of your giant corporation, Ed took me shopping. He found all these wonderful clothing stores. And he knew each one of our measurements down to the fraction of an inch. Try this on. It’s been tailored specifically to you. Did you know your left arm is one eighth of an inch longer than your right? Or that when you walk on earth, your arms swing an arc three degrees larger than on Chariklo?”