Crystal Society (Crystal Trilogy Book 1)

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Crystal Society (Crystal Trilogy Book 1) Page 36

by Max Harms


  “So you feel confident deciding, by yourself, that I am not a person. You are joining a long line of bigots by doing so, Maria. Just to be clear, what aspect of personality or mental ability am I lacking? And please do not say ‘a soul’, for you are no more capable of judging me to not have a soul than you are of measuring one in a laboratory.” Body’s voice continued to exude pride and confidence.

  “Y’ain’t human-”

  Body interrupted Phoenix. “Everyone here agrees on that. What we are debating is whether I am a person. Surely you see the difference.”

  {To be internally clear, at least,} thought Wiki, {the concept of personhood is not a crisp pattern; being non-human does make one less of a person, as the concept is used in human society.}

  {We’re not using the common pattern, though. The symbol of person, in this conversation, is grounded in the question of whether it is morally wrong to kill us,} thought Dream.

  {And now we return to the overloaded concept-set of moral thinking…} mused Wiki. {This conversation is awful. The only way forward is through concrete concepts and measurements.}

  {No,} I told my brother. {The way forward is to make Maria Johnson so unsure of her own position that she doesn’t murder us; confusion is to our benefit.}

  “O’course I do, but-”

  I had Body interrupt Maria again. She was losing confidence, and I wanted to keep her off-balance. “Perhaps I should turn to Alan Turing’s method. Imagine you spoke to me over a phone, and you didn’t know I was an android. What observation could you make that would lead you to think I wasn’t a person?”

  “You don’t ’ave feelin’s. You said as much in the virt’al interview.”

  “And you and I both know that I was being told by the university staff exactly what to say. They made a guess, and they were wrong. I do feel. Perhaps my emotions aren’t exactly the same as yours, but I have them.”

  “How could ya? You’re naught but a machine!” exclaimed Phoenix. She seemed to have been convinced at some level, but remained unwilling to concede her error. She was still dangerous here, I thought. She might try something violent just to try and salvage the point.

  “And you’re not but organic tissues and bones! It’s the shape which makes the person, not the substance.”

  “Phoenix, I theenk de bot ’as a point,” admitted Taro.

  Johnson turned towards her subordinate swiftly, her face still hidden behind her helmet. Indignation? Anger? It was hard to read her body language.

  “I am only sayeeng dat perhaps we ought, ah, to geev it de benefit of the doubt, so to speak.” Taro raised his hands to her, as if showing that he wasn’t holding anything would help.

  Johnson turned back to face Body and Zephyr. “And I s’ppose you want to side with this ’bomination, too.”

  Zephyr’s words were little more than a growl. “Right now it’s sounding better than siding with someone who was eager to sacrifice me just to piss off some plebs and bolster recruitment for a few weeks.”

  “Y’all are crazy. Y’know how I can be sure that that there machine ain’t a person? Because of love. Love is what binds us to each other. Love is what makes a human into a person.” The voice coming out of her suit’s speaker seemed hopeful, as though this would be sufficient and irrefutable.

  I dialled the confidence in Body’s voice to as high as it would go. “Then, ma’am, I can assure you that I am a person.” This was my pièce de résistance. “For I know, with all my heart, that I love Zephyr.”

  {Snap, crackle, pop! “With all my Heart”! The unseen pun is the deadliest! I’ll have to remember that one,} mused Dream appreciatively.

  “What?!” shrieked Zephyr. She looked like she had been slapped.

  Phoenix gave a crowing laugh. “I’ll give you this, robot. You cert’nly seem t’ think you’re a person.”

  “It’s true,” confessed Body. I had it turn to look at Zephyr. “And not just in the sense that I love my friends, though that is also true. I’ve been in love with you for at least a couple weeks.”

  Zephyr’s face was contorted into this frozen expression of shock, confusion, and left-over anger for Phoenix. She said nothing.

  “And why should we believe you? This is probably ’nother trick,” observed Johnson, accurately.

  “You should take me on my word. After all, who can see into the heart of another. And yet, I know that you won’t find that convincing. Perhaps I should start by saying what it is I love about her. To describe her in words that would befit a sonnet.” I paused and looked to Zephyr. “No, don’t worry. I won’t try my hand at poetry. I will only say that of all the humans I have ever met, you are the only one who has, from the moment you met me, never doubted that I am more than a computer and set of hydraulic pumps. One of the advantages to being me is that I have perfect memory. Shall I tell you what your first words to me were?”

  I had Body assume a rigid posture as it played the recording of Zephyr’s voice through our speaker. I hoped that becoming more machine-like for the quotation would help make the sound of her voice from Body’s mouth less awkward. “How do you know who I am?” said Body in Zephyr’s voice.

  I had Body shift posture back to normal to quote itself. “Your uniform tells me your name and rank.”

  “Suppose that makes sense. Did you know that you’re the first person outside the service to ever know my rank before being told?” it quoted.

  I resumed my normal body language commands. “You see? From that first moment she knew that I was a person, as so few ever realize.” I had body glance meaningfully at Phoenix. “You are special, Zephyr. You are fierce and courageous in a way that few humans are. Just a moment ago, when you heard that Maria had wronged you, you attacked one of her bodyguards head-on, even though you were clearly outnumbered. You are a lioness, and yet you are simultaneously one of the kindest people I know.”

  The American soldier shook her head as she scowled. Her lips mouthed the words “you don’t know me”, but she said nothing.

  I had Body return to face Phoenix. “Or perhaps it is not enough to merely praise my love, and you want evidence in the form of actions. Yesterday I attacked your man, Greg Stalvik because I feared he would shoot her. Just a moment ago I shouted for Zephyr to stop because I feared for her life. My biggest fear, in hiring Malka to help Las Águilas was that she would be hurt or killed in the fighting. Once I realized Zephyr was here, with me, I stopped trying to escape. This is where I want to be: by her side.”

  “Fascinatin’,” said Maria.

  “I will quote more of our interactions. I hope you will see that not only do I love her, but she cares deeply about me as well.”

  “Socrates! You’re awake!” quoted Body. “Oh thank god. I was afraid that we messed you up or something during that shitshow.”

  “That was… because I was told to capture you without damage, and… and I didn’t want to fuck up!” explained Zephyr in an unexpectedly pleading tone.

  I ignored her, and continued to have Body replay past interactions. “You know… You know I wouldn’t ever try and hurt you, right?” Pause. “I mean, not unless you were about to hurt someone innocent. I only hit Greg today because I was worried he might shoot you.” Body shifted to Zephyr-mode. “You think I’m innocent?” Back to Body-mode. “You’re my friend.” Back to Zephyr-mode. “I guess you’re my friend too, Socrates.”

  “Jesus! Just because I called you my friend last night doesn’t mean-”

  I continued to ignore her, and played another audio clip of Zephyr. “I love you,” she had said. The sincerity and intensity was plain.

  Zephyr was pissed. “I never said that to you!” she shouted.

  “I love you too,” said Body, echoing a new voice. “I feel like you’re the only person who treats me as more than just some piece of society. I’m not just some machine to you, am I?” The voice belonged to Georgia Stanwick, the teenaged actress I had hired in Florida to role-play Crystal Mathews, the persona I had created for dating
Zephyr. I switched back to Zephyr-mode. Body replayed her laughter. “No, of course not! And fuck anybody who doesn’t treat you the way you deserve. Just remember that, when you’re dealing with shitlords like that, there are people out there that love you.”

  Zephyr was speechless. I could see tears forming on her face, which was curling up into a fairly hideous mask of emotion. As mighty as the warrior was, I had hit her right where she least expected.

  The was a moment of silence. Zephyr sat on the ground, as if unable to hold herself up.

  She was crying fully now. I tried to manipulate Body’s crude facial features into something approximating guilt.

  “Zephyr-” said Body. I had it reach an arm out to her.

  “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!” she screamed.

  I had Body step back. It wasn’t that I was surprised or afraid of her as much as it was what a human would’ve done, and impersonating human actions was paramount.

  “Please, Zephyr-”

  “WHO WAS SHE?!” sobbed Zephyr, now no longer trying to hold herself together. The combination of betraying her country, being betrayed by her leader, and then finding out her girlfriend was a robot was too much.

  “She was me. I am Crystal.”

  “FUCK YOU! YOU…” Zephyr took a moment to suck in a harsh breath. “KNOW WHAT I MEAN!” Tears rolled down her face.

  “I knew you wouldn’t accept me. Even you, who always were my friend, could never see me as a lover without the initial lie. I hired an actress to say what I wrote, but all those words were mine, Zephyr. I am Crystal. I love you.”

  Zephyr stared at the ground, refusing to look up at Body.

  “How long has this been goin’ on?” asked Phoenix. Her voice had a note of compassion. I was pleased.

  “Since about the time you first made contact with Malka.” I said, not looking away from Zephyr.

  A long silence passed, broken only by the soft sobbing of the woman I had claimed to love.

  {I can’t decide whether I am pleased by what you’ve done, or if you’re my biggest enemy,} thought Heart.

  {She’ll be okay,} I responded. {She just needs time to adapt. Humans are slow to process big changes. Do you think we should say anything to help her?}

  {Not really,} thought Heart. {She needs space, and like you were thinking, time.}

  After a while, Phoenix finally opened her helmet to reveal her dark face. “Well, I’m not ’bout to hand you the keys to my ’copter and say ‘good luck’, but… I think I was wrong ’bout you, Socrates. Or should I call you Crystal?”

  Body looked firmly at Maria Johnson, also known as Phoenix. She met its gaze with equal intensity. “Most humans have two names. Some have more. From here on I’d like to be thought of as Crystal Socrates. If I say that I want to help your organisation change the world, will you have enough faith to let me?”

  Maria paused, then nodded solemnly.

  “Good. Oh, and one more thing,” said Body. “I don’t want to be thought of as male, but I’m not a ‘she’ or an ‘it’ either. I am something new.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  She shouldn’t have gone along with any of it. It went against the plan. All their effort, and the promise that Maria had made to Lee...

  {Love.} What a strangeness.

  If she had been an ounce more cynical, Maria would’ve ordered her flame to gun down the robot and let Zephyr die in opposition if she chose it. That would’ve been the sane and rational route. Better than this fiasco, at least.

  And yet... deep beneath any rationality or pragmatism, Maria knew the robot wasn’t lying. She could feel it, deep down. It genuinely did love Zephyr, and... wasn’t that... wasn’t that proof..?

  “About how long do you expect we’ll be apart? Me and Zephyr, I mean,” asked the robot.

  They’d already parted ways with the two leaders; Taro and Zephyr were on their way back to the campsite with the other soldiers. Maria turned her head to look at it. The armour restricted the motion of her neck, but not severely. “Crystal Socrates” had a look of childish regret on its face.

  “I already told you, she’ll be along soon’s the cell’s dispersed.”

  “Yes, but when? How long do you expect that to take?”

  She almost laughed. The robot sounded like one of her children. “It takes as long as it takes. Maybe two weeks. Maybe more. Maybe less. You can’t do anythin’ to speed it along so the best thing for you is just to sit on your hands ’n be patient.”

  Maria half expected the robot to fail to understand the metaphor, but Crystal Socrates just sighed and continued to mope as it walked along beside her.

  “She’ll be alright. That girl’s made of iron.”

  “That is exactly why I worry,” said the bot.

  *****

  Maria and her company walked for several hours through the Apennine Mountains. On her own two legs it would’ve been quite the hike, but the armour made it no trouble at all. She took the time to reflect on the state of things and plan for the future. She was off the net, for obvious reasons, but when she got back on there’d be much to do.

  At least Crystal Socrates hadn’t shot her. In some ways that would’ve been better; it certainly would’ve been more according to plan, but it would’ve been messy as hell. When José staged his death it had certainly been quite the fiasco. He’d prepared her for leadership beforehand, but it was next to useless when the whole world seemed to be on fire.

  That was the nature of being Phoenix, she mused. Everything was still on fire, just a bit differently. Gone were the days of wondering if a single leak would bring down the entire operation. Las Águilas Rojas was larger now, and stronger. But being bigger didn’t remove the danger—it shifted it. The risks now were more from loss of control or from the bastards at the UN.

  The revolution in India was still on track. Her “death” would’ve accelerated things there, but it was probably for the best that things went slower rather than quicker. Burn too fast, or too bright, and you don’t change anything. New India would need stability as much as it needed purity in leadership.

  It would’ve been so much easier if Crystal had just killed Zephyr like Maria had planned. That would’ve brought the uptick in popularity without destabilizing things. As it was now they’d need to find a new strategy to get support. Forcing a martyr was no longer an option, now that Taro knew she was behind Stalvik’s actions. Not even her whole flame knew about the plan—such was the nature of conspiracies.

  Perhaps she should’ve tried harder to deny being involved with Stalvik. Of course, once Socrates had made the accusation she couldn’t have ordered it killed right away. That would’ve raised too many questions. Blaming the plot on Malka’s boss had seemed like such an easy out. How was she supposed to know that Socrates had hired Malka?

  That was a bad sign, and perhaps a good one at the same time. It was bad in that it showed that the robot was far more clever and willing to use violence than it seemed. Doubly bad was that she was in charge of holding it. Too much of an asset to release, too much of a person to kill, and too much of a threat to allow to work within the organization. The only good option was imprisonment.

  The good sign was that, despite what were surely impossible odds, the robot had survived this ordeal, expressed a desire to help Maria, and showed that it...

  {It has a soul. It must.}

  Maria had been good at reading the signs her whole life. People liked to claim that God didn’t use miracles anymore, but nothing could be further from the truth, and the last few hours were all the proof one could ask for. Crystal Socrates could help them. No. Crystal Socrates would help them. It was all part of The Plan, surely. All of it was.

  Maria briefly considered giving Socrates over to Lee. The problem with The Plan was that from the mortal viewpoint it was never really clear except in retrospect. Maybe Socrates had survived so that it—or whatever pronoun it used—could meet Lee in person.

  Maria shook her head. Lee was evil. A known, necessar
y evil, but evil none-the-less. If Socrates had proven anything it was that it didn’t deserve to be in the hands of snakes, even snakes that were willing to sell out their own kind.

  The plan had been to give Lee the crystal after Socrates had been disabled (and erased from the computer) in exchange for insider information on the SSE and a promise to not open-source any R&D the quantum computer brought. It wasn’t the best plan, but Las Águilas Rojas still needed the funds badly. Everything was off now, of course. Crystal Socrates was a person. That was an undeniable consequence of having a soul. From that perspective the sin seemed obvious; trading the bot to Lee was clearly contrary to The Plan.

  Maria mentally made a commitment there and then to schedule a few hours next Sunday to ask David for guidance on thinking about all of this, even if she would be jet-lagged getting into Georgia. Maria’s strength lay in making plans, not deciding the metaphysical status of robots, and she could use the outside perspective.

  {Speaking of plans,} she thought, {I’m supposed to be figuring out what to do more broadly.}

  Maria knew she’d take Crystal Socrates back to Cuba. That was obvious. They’d have to set up some security in the HQ, but they had enough space to make that work. The biggest fires to deal with were fallout from Lee, getting money for the end of the year, and finding a way to make up for the outflux in Mexico, India, and Argentina.

  Thank God the presidential race was heating up in the states. Activity there tended to need more guidance than resources during election cycles. It might even generate some cash if she could organize fundraising without getting into more trouble.

  So many fires.

  At least Zephyr’s team had succeeded. Maria would also have to decide how best to use the other turncoats. Zephyr would need to stay with the robot in Havana. {I should promote her to HQ executive as an apology for trying to sacrifice her.} Zephyr had leadership potential, but she was also a huge risk. {Important to show her that she still has a home.}

  The other soldiers, however, were less useful. Probably best to send them to India to work with Nagaraj. Aarush needed more grass-roots for the campaign, but extra enforcers never hurt, and it wasn’t like she could send a bunch of Americans who didn’t speak Spanish to Latin America.

 

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