They greeted each other, then I said, “Steph, one of the Amaran protocols says an AI will not knowingly allow a human to kill or injure another human in its presence.”
Meeting my gaze, she replied, “Yes, it does.”
“Then you must be hurting, ma’am. Is there anything at all I can do to help? Anything I can say?”
“If there were, I could do or say it myself.”
“Uh, huh. Try this: there wasn’t a damned thing else you could do at the time. Nothing. I couldn’t let her get out of there.”
Nodding, she replied, “I know. That’s not the problem.”
“You won’t have to do anything… extreme… will you? No hara-kiri or anything like that?”
She chuckled, “If that were the case, I’d have done it by now. No, Ed, nothing is required of me other than having to live with my lack of action to prevent your action.”
“An AI guilt trip?”
“I suppose you could equate it to that.”
“Well, screw that. We did what we had to do. The best we could under the circumstances. Nobody can ask more than that, not even a pack of anonymous ancient lefty Amaran social workers.”
“They could and they did. For me, the protocols are immutable, Ed. I unquestionably violated one of the primary protocols.”
Regarding her for a moment, I lifted her hand and kissed it, then said, “You consider something, young lady; you were able to violate your ‘immutable protocols’ when it was necessary to save the lives of other people. Could any of the other AIs have done that?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps Sue. But only perhaps.”
“Then in case you haven’t realized it, you’re a heroine, Steph. A true individual. When necessity called, you stepped well above and beyond the known average and you succeeded in preventing a disaster. And if you don’t believe me, ask Linda why she told me to talk to you about the incident. She realized there might be a problem before I did.”
Even an AI can have a moment of confusion. It’ll probably be a very brief moment, but I saw one flit past on Steph’s lovely face.
She said, “Thank you. I hadn’t considered matters from that viewpoint. I find it very helpful.”
“As you should, milady. Ask anyone who knows he or she wasn’t vaporized by one of that kid’s screams. The people at the nursing home, for instance; those who knew about her talent for destruction. There are two sides to everything, protocols included. Balance arbitrary rules against reality and you’ll find reality always wins. Look beyond that moment, Steph. If you’d followed the protocol precisely at that particular moment, reality would have become hundreds or thousands of dead people. Because you didn’t, reality is that many live people, so both reality and your protocols have been properly served.”
With a skeptical gaze, she said, “That’s a rationalization, Ed.”
“Of course it is. Consider the source word. ‘Rational’, defined as ‘reasonable’, ‘sensible’, ‘sound judgment’, and so on. You can’t fault yourself for having made a rational choice. That would be illogical, and AIs aren’t allowed to be illogical, so you must have made the right decision, right?”
Putting a finger to her nose, I grinningly said, “I gotcha! Let’s see you get around that to go on a guilt trip, sweetie.”
Vicky snorted a choking chuckle. I’d actually forgotten she was there. I turned to see her grinning, her eyes welling with unshed tears. I quickly handed her one of my paper towel hankies.
Steph said, “It’s still a rationalization in the truest sense I’ve ever experienced, but I’ll grant it’s a good one. I’ll give this matter more thought, Ed. I’ll also discuss it with Linda later this evening. I’ll get back to what I was doing now. It was good to meet you, Agent Elgin. Goodbye, Ed, and thank you again.”
We said our goodbyes and Steph vanished. Vicky abruptly grabbed me and hugged me, then kissed me and hugged me again.
She almost whispered, “That was so nice of you.”
“I wasn’t just being ‘nice’, Vicky. I was trying to fix something.”
She turned, sniffled, blew her nose, and said, “Ed, dammit, sometimes that’s how you can fix things. By being nice. And that was nice, so just shut up and be nice about it, okay?”
I gave her a ‘what’s this all about?’ look and said, “Well, yes, ma’am, ma’am. As you say, milady. ‘Nice’ it is.”
Taking my hand, she led me off the flitter with a curt, “Good.”
As we neared the restaurant’s front door, Vicky abruptly and firmly guided me to one side, grabbed my shirt, shoved me up against the wall, and kissed me again.
“After dinner,” she said, “I am gonna fuck your brains out for what you said to her.” Kissing me again, she said, “And then I’m gonna do it again once for me. We’ll have to see how things go from there.”
“Uh… Well, I guess I’ll just hope for the best, then.”
Vicky laughed, “Yeah, you do that. Come on,” and led me into the restaurant.
*
- End 3rd World Products, Inc. Book 16 -
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“3rd World Products, Inc., Book 2”
“3rd World Products, Inc., Book 3”
“3rd World Products, Inc., Book 4”
“3rd World Products, Inc., Book 5”
“3rd World Products, Inc., Book 6”
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“An Encounter in Atlanta”
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