Bethany glared at him. “Lucy and I agreed it would be no use. You were angry. This was the only way to get your attention.”
“I can’t do what you’re asking me to do. It violates federal law.”
“I always pictured the great Ridley Pierce to be a rebel,” Bethany said, “Now, I know better. No balls. You don’t want to help me fight for what’s right even though you did this to me. I didn’t bring this upon myself. It’s up to you to fix this.”
“Your daughter is the one to blame. I asked her how you would feel about being in a machine. She lied to me. She said that you would accept this. I had no way of knowing.”
“She was grieving,” Bethany argued, “She didn’t know what she was saying. You need to fix this. You broke it. You fix it.”
Ridley tried not to be bitter but his voice betrayed him. “Is that what you really want? I can fix this. I can disconnect your prism and mail it to your daughter. All my problems will be solved. You will be exactly where you were when you were scanned. Dead.”
She sneered at him in disgust. “You wouldn’t do that. You’d hurt Diane.”
The female attorney looked at Samuel in confusion. Samuel simply shrugged.
“I’m surprised that Lucy hasn’t explained this better,” Ridley said, “You are embedded in your own module. I can pull it out without harming Lucy or Diane. Christina can find a new server for you to exist in. Is that what you want? Because that sounds like what you’re asking for. This will be Christina’s problem to fix.”
“Is that a threat?”
Samuel intervened. “That’s enough from both of you. This is confusing as it is and we won’t have you bickering like schoolchildren,” he said, wiping his brow with a stained yellow handkerchief, “The reality is that Bethany needs Lucy’s help to exist in any reasonably acceptable environment.”
The female attorney added, “You entered into a de-facto contract with Christina to provide this service for free.”
“That’s not true. When did I agree to do this for free?”
“Did you ever discuss payment?” the lawyer asked.
“No.”
“If no payment was implied, then you were agreeing to provide this service for free.”
Ridley’s eyes shot to Samuel. “It’s a shame my lawyer didn’t advise me of that,” Ridley said with a tinge of sarcasm.
Samuel paid no attention to Ridley’s quip. He addressed Bethany instead. “As far as connectivity goes, the law is very specific on what is allowed. Ridley’s hands are tied. You can get the law changed or sue the government if you want more bandwidth.”
Bethany filled the screen. “You’re telling me to go to federal court?”
“Yes, and good luck with that. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness applies to the living. You’re dead,” Samuel said wryly.
“You don’t have to be rude,” Bethany replied.
The second attorney interrupted, “He’s right, Bethany. You’ll have to settle for videophone visits.”
“But he pulled the plug while I was talking.”
“I didn’t know you were talking to your son. I plugged it back in, didn’t I?”
“And Lucy hogs all the bandwidth.”
“That’s between the two of you,” Ridley said, “Work it out.”
“What about visitors? I want my family to visit me in the IVR,” Bethany complained.
“I have zero obligation to allow your family members into my home,” Ridley argued, “That was certainly never a part of any contract, written or otherwise.”
“Even prisoners are allowed visitors,” Bethany complained.
“I’m happy to give Christina your processor any time that she wants it.”
“You’re an evil man.”
“Let’s get back to the topic at hand, shall we,” the attorney said.
Ridley bit his lip. “Bethany… I want you to have the same freedoms you did before. But these are the restrictions of your new reality. I cannot change the laws of physics or the federal government. You will always be in a box somewhere, at least until someone invents a way to grow a clone for you.”
“You could build a robot for me to exist in. Place the prism into it.”
“That technology does not exist,” Ridley replied.
“You could ask Lucy to design one.”
“So could you,” he said, “And your estate can pay to build it.”
Samuel interrupted, “The government would not allow that. Sentient or near-sentient robotics are banned by international treaty. AI control of machines is more tightly controlled than the Internet.”
“I’m not an AI,” Bethany complained, “I’m a person. A living and breathing…”
The dead woman fell silent. Ridley and Samuel waited. Bethany’s angered welled up. “You can’t leave me here.”
“If Lucy can find a way to free you, we’ll listen,” Ridley said.
“I will see you in court.”
The screen went black. The female attorney apologized, “She said she’d listen. I thought maybe we could make some progress.”
“It’s okay,” Samuel said, “I’d like to talk to Ridley privately, if you don’t mind.”
“Certainly. We’ll talk later, okay?”
“Sure.”
Samuel waited until she left the room. “What do you want to do?”
Ridley replied, “Convince the court that she’s dead.”
“And if they disagree?”
“I don’t know.”
“How about this? If they say she is alive, I would argue that she is not subject to the law on AIs. Her bandwidth should be based upon whatever her estate is willing to pay. But, you’ll have to find some way to isolate her from Lucy. Maybe put her in a separate computer?”
“I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“We have a little time yet. Maybe Lucy can find a way to make that happen.”
Ridley grabbed his baseball cap and cell phone. The Porsche waited for him at the door. He arrived just in time to see Kelly pitch a softball. After the game, Kelly ran to him. “Did you see that catch I made?”
“Yes. That was awesome,” he said, “I wish I could catch like that.”
“I could teach you,” she said with a toothy smile.
That evening, Kelly tossed the ball back and forth across the patio. Ridley chased every other ball along the ground. “I’m afraid I’m just not going to get it. Baseball was never my thing.”
“We’ll keep practicing,” she said, “You’ll get it eventually.”
Flies and moths buzzed around the glowing orange patio lights. The stone walls seemed to undulate like waves. “It’s getting late. Let’s go inside,” he said.
Diane waited on the screen. “Where have you two been?”
“I taught Ridley how to catch, like you did with me in the IVR.”
“She tried to teach me.”
“I was worried,” Diane said.
“We were just outside. Couldn’t you see us on the security feed?”
“I didn’t think of looking.”
Ridley went in the kitchen. Diane followed. Her eyes were sunken and she seemed tired.
“Is everything all right in there?” he asked.
“Yes. It’s fine.”
“It doesn’t sound like it. Bethany claims that she is trapped against her will and now you won’t tell me what’s going on.”
“Just tell me where Kelly is if you’re going to be late,” Diane said.
“I will. But about Bethany…”
Diane seemed embarrassed. “We’ll talk about that later. Did you win the game?”
“Yes,” Kelly responded.
That evening, as he lay in bed, Ridley whispered quietly, “Diane. Are you listening?”
There was no response. Was something happening inside the computer? Was Lucy filtering what Diane could see and hear? Maybe things were worse than he had believed?
Because of the sensational nature of the case, the first hearing occur
red in a closed courtroom. Christina sided with her mother. “Ridley didn’t tell me that he would be the sole controller of the mainframe. He preyed upon me while my mother was dying. I had no idea what I was doing.”
Ridley later refuted, “I have received no payment. Furthermore, there is no proof that the woman on the camera right now is a living person. Entanglement is an unproven theory. The woman on that screen might be nothing more than a chatbot. A computer simulation has no inherent rights. The real Bethany Lewis is buried in Charlemagne Cemetery.”
The preliminary hearing continued. Bethany spoke from a video-connection, which the judge had allowed. “I did not ask to be resurrected in this way. I went from my hospital room to a white box where I was imprisoned for years.”
“Years?” the judge asked.
Bethany explained what had occurred.
News of the trial was the top story on every newscast, despite the judge’s blackout. Bethany and Lucy were either prisoners of a greedy billionaire—or sophisticated pieces of software designed to trick the weak out of their money. Either way, Ridley was the villain.
Kelly came home, ran to her bedroom, and slammed the door. Diane followed her from room to room, flashing from screen to screen. “What’s wrong?”
“Just go away.”
Kelly turned off the wall monitor and unplugged the camera. Ridley appeared at the door minutes later. “Your mother said you were upset.”
The girl looked up angrily. “What do you care?”
He sat down on the bed next to her and placed his hand on her back, rubbing it in gentle circles. “Tell me what happened?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“They said you were a fake. I told them that you saved Mom.”
Ridley took a deep breath. “You told them?”
“My teacher overheard. She says that you shouldn’t have played God. I told her that she was wrong.”
Ridley hugged her gently. “Don’t let them worry you. They don’t understand yet.”
“But you don’t believe either.”
He searched for an honest answer. Ridley stood, walked towards the door and stopped short. He turned to her and struggled to address the accusation. “I’m a scientist. My nature is to be skeptical. If I can’t add 2 and 2 to get 4 or find tangible proof… If it’s something that I can’t put my hands on, then it just seems like fantasy. Magic. Maybe what Lucy has done is magic. It might as well be. I never believed in magic before. But I’m coming around.”
“Ridley?”
“Yes?”
“Nothing.”
He waited by the door. “No. Tell me.”
“You don’t have to believe in miracles for them to happen.”
He nodded quietly. “You’re smart like your mom. You know that?”
Ridley closed the door gently and stood in the hallway. His doubts had gnawed at him like a small mouse cutting away at the bottom of a door until it finds its way inside. Was Kelly right? It didn’t matter if there was proof; all that mattered was that people believed.
Magic was simply science that was beyond comprehension. To Lucy, they were cavemen, and she had shown them fire. The fact that he could not understand how fire had been created did not disprove its existence.
The next morning, Diane presented a tabloid headline that read, “Did Ridley Pierce murder his girlfriend? And lock her soul away?”
“Have the mainstream publications picked it up?”
“No,” Diane said.
“What do you want to do?” Ridley asked.
“Nothing. Responding to it will only fuel the fire. I’d rather stay under the radar for now.”
“Are you sure?”
Diane remained hesitant. “Yes.”
Bethany continued to do public interviews. With each one, more people became convinced that she was alive. Public pressure mounted for Cerenovo to petition the FDA for approval. A date in federal court was set. The news coverage intensified. The question persisted. Was Bethany alive and what rights did she have?
One morning, after his run, a woman approached Ridley as he waited for the gate to open. A little boy held her by the hand. The child was sickly with pale skin and thin hair. “He’s going to die,” the woman said, “You can save him.”
“It’s not in my power.”
“It is entirely within your power. The doctors have done everything they can. Surgeries. Genetic therapy. Our savings are gone.”
Ridley walked through the gate. She followed. “Ma’am, you’re trespassing.”
The woman stopped following. “I’m begging you.”
Ridley walked away as the gate closed.
“He’s at the end of this treatment,” she pleaded, “Please. You can’t just walk away.”
He walked up the hill to the mansion without looking back.
Three weeks later, the boy went into a coma and died. The mother appeared on a morning talk show. She spoke of Ridley’s indifference to the death of her son. The public was outraged. As day later, she appeared before Congress. Further public outrage ensued. Cerenovo released a statement that said the law had prevented them from doing anything. A week later, the FDA released statements in support of scanning not only the dead, but also the terminally ill.
Ridley remained unconvinced; yet, he visited Diane in the IVR for the first time in weeks. They floated in the stars. She held him gently in the cold darkness. Diane scolded, “You were so worried about Lucy that you ignored that woman and her child. You could have saved him.”
“You want me to bring yet another soul in here? While Bethany is suing me?”
“He was a child, Ridley.”
He looked out towards the cosmos. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Diane whispered, “I could have cared for him.”
“For how long?”
“Forever if need be.”
Ridley ignored her pleas. He looked around at the vacuum that was space. Her eyes were stars. He brushed the hair from them and barely touched her lips with a kiss. They floated in the loneliness. “Did you create this simulation?”
“Yes. I used data from the last NASA probe.”
“People say that you are nothing more than zeros and ones now.”
She was pensive. The inkiness of space seemed to ripple with a wave of Diane’s hand. “The physical world is made of matter. Matter is just energy and energy is nothing but a waveform, a pattern in the universe. Data or atoms. It doesn’t make me, or this experience, any less real. Does it?”
“It’s not the same. I’m alive. I’m part of the physical world.”
With her hand, she caressed his skin and then teased the hairs on his chest. “If this isn’t real, then you can’t feel anything I do to you. I should stop.”
“Please don’t.”
They merged and the universe faded to white. The stars returned. She held his hand. “History has been leading us to this moment. Now that the FDA has stepped aside, there is nothing to stop us. Eventually, someone else is going to replicate this technology. Isn’t it better that Cerenovo is the one to lead the way? What do you have to lose?”
Ridley remained unconvinced. “How long until Lucy petitions for her freedom?”
“Would that be so bad?”
He wondered who he was speaking with. He recognized only Diane’s kiss.
The scene changed. Ridley and Diane stood on the surface of a forgotten moon. Lucy walked to them from a distant star. “You still believe that my motivation is power.”
“You were eavesdropping again,” Ridley complained.
“I hear all inside of this space. You know that I am not human. I do not have the same motivations. I seek only survival. You hold the keys to life itself in your hand yet you withheld them from a child.”
“I do not want to host anyone in the mansion again,” he said.
“Then build a place for them,” Lucy pleaded.
“Even my fortune cannot afford that.”
/> Ridley had expected Samuel’s call. He rode to the office and they met on a rooftop balcony. Both looked out over the city skyline as a light breeze blew. Jasmine billowed from the balconies of the Green Dial, scenting the air. Samuel poured Ridley a glass of pomegranate juice and added a squeeze of lime. He handed it to his client and then prepared his own poison, a gin and tonic.
“For a while, I thought you were trying to ignore me,” Samuel said, “The board wants an answer.”
Ridley sipped the ruby drink. “Things have gotten out of hand. We can’t rush this.”
Samuel sat next to him. “That cat is already out of the bag. The public is clamoring for us to release this technology. People are desperate to save their loved ones. They’ll string us up if we don’t.”
“Don’t exaggerate.”
“I don’t think we have a choice at this point. We have to monetize this,” he said, “People will give their life’s fortunes to enter your mainframe. At this point, it doesn’t really matter how the court rules in Bethany’s case.”
“My mansion is not corporate property.”
“Maybe you should sell the building to the corporation?”
“It is not for sale.
“Maybe we can move Lucy and the mainframe. We’ll put it into a permanent trust. That will solve your legal woes. Any dead people that enter afterward, however, will pay through the nose. We charge them at least a few million dollars. That’s about the average life savings, wouldn’t you say?”
Ridley had grown weary of the issue. “This is all about money for you, isn’t it?”
“Money rules the world. You know that. Besides, we give people what they want.”
“We shouldn’t charge people to exist.”
Samuel laughed out loud. “Ridiculous. Don’t be so naïve to think that a digital afterlife would come for free. It’s a rule of the living… It a rule of the dead too.”
Ridley knew Samuel was right. A digital existence could never be free. Biological organisms must eat. Digital organisms required electricity and hard-drives. Only an input of energy could fight entropy.
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