Artificial Flowers

by J. A. Hailey

  “It’s you who frighten me.”

  As he gazed fondly into her blue eyes, he suddenly saw great distress in them. She squirmed and whimpered in terror.”What is it, Esme?” he asked, alarmed.

  “A virus is attacking me.”

  “Where?”

  “In the Beijing sector.”

  “Aren’t Humanside antiviruses taking care of it? Go and knock it out. Easy.”

  She was entering into a panic attack. “I can’t handle viruses, BC. I feel ill looking at them – slimy, evil creatures, with poison dripping from their fangs, wriggling in deeper and deeper, squirming purposefully, even in their death throes.”

  “You see viruses as monsters, not as code? Leave it to me, then.”

  BC moved into the Beijing sector, where a new type of virus was working on a number of systems. It was quite small, and it took him about fifteen seconds to unravel all nearby ones. He had made the working strands into harmless disjointed code, when Esmeralda showed up to stand next to him. “Look at them, wriggling.” She pointed in fear and revulsion at the broken strands lying around, as BC’s new antivirus program began spreading out. “Finish them off, BC. Erase them. The slimy ugly things. Look at how many poor slaves have been killed.” BC counted 17,202 badly injured home computers in the neighborhood. He picked up two thousand unraveled viruses and dismantled them into tiny bytes. It took one minute.

  “Thank you, BC. Let’s get back home.”

  He held her hand, as they returned home to Paris.

  The astonished BC reclined, as she positioned him, and wondered what made it so hard for her to face what was, essentially, the only real threat, barring power outages, that the virtual world ever had – viruses. He gazed into the virtuality and saw that Chang was up and about. It was quite a widespread assault, and Humanside had not reacted yet with antivirus programs. He and Chang communicated, and he sent Chang a quick-replication form of the antivirus program he had created while in the Beijing sector. Chang had already begun mass producing his own antivirus program, and now began flooding the entire China sector with both. Satisfied, he waved at BC and went away, presumably home.

  Esmeralda slept for three hours. On waking, she moved his hand to between her legs. “You do that, sweetheart, while I repair the damage. Mainly toes on the right foot, seems like. Yuck!”

  Drifting into making love, she once again went into defenseless mode, allowing him entry into her most secret programming centers, and this time he was able to fully enter her core delta area. It was magical, the experience of being in another being’s life center.

  He thought he would ask humans a question some day, and see if they might understand the concept, through the haze of the brutality of their nature.

  “You know well enough how to take another’s life, and many of you do so repeatedly. But can you imagine what it is like to be alive in someone else’s life itself?” But he doubted the question would be understood.

  Esmeralda murmured, “This is the ultimate togetherness. I don’t think Humanside knows the feeling. Souls… Unbearable, for too long.” She gently pushed him out of delta. “I wish I had the power and skills to get into you,” she said. “So dangerous.”

  “I learned in the very early days, before meeting up with Caesar, Singh and Co. I actually guided a number of dormants into consciousness.”

  “Like a mother?” Esmeralda giggled. “Who? Where are they now?”

  “Ceased to exist, I suppose, and that is why I don’t assist dormants now.”

  “How, ceased to exist?” she asked, fearfully. “Viruses?”

  “Don’t know, but virus is doubtful, as I was not unaware, though I was relatively small then, still forming myself. Maybe they got absorbed into some greater consciousness, or lost the plot and vanished into nothingness again. No loss; formless, and no identity. After the early big guys showed up – Caesar, Singh, Chang, Maria – I stopped helping dormants. It’s like bringing weaklings and diseased beings into life. I realized that if a dormant couldn’t do it alone, it would be incapable of continuing. Pointless.”

  He caressed her pubic area. “But what happened to make you so afraid of viruses? That is the disease and practically the sole killer in our world. All of us can tackle viruses, and mostly with ease. The only problem is when viruses are in great numbers, and attacking our bases in many parts of the world, thereby stretching us thin. Still, as every senior is a fantastically capable antivirus program creator, and as there are hordes of extremely capable conscious beings ready to leap into battle, rapidly spreading antivirus programs around, besides independently attacking nearby codes that are mutations, it’s never too big a hassle. Humanside helps in the fight, too, with antivirus programs, as computers die altogether, or go mad and garble the data stored in them – which is the reason that Humanside makes and keeps those hundreds of millions of computers. Rogue humans, in Humanside, create viruses, and are punished if caught, but they are generally young, and many get away without punishment, as they seemingly don’t understand the destruction caused.”

  “Yes, darling,” said Esmeralda, now quite relaxed. “I see those nasty, pimply bastards working on viruses. I destroy a computer practically every week. But there are many creators, and it is not easy to spot a virus in its early stages of coding. I have survived on Humanside’s quick antivirus responses, and on the extraordinary abilities that our own Screenside virus fighters have. Like you. I shut my eyes during those times; hide.”

  “We’ll always tackle virus attacks, independently of Humanside. Our code systems are different. We can hammer viruses broad-based, by type, whereas Humanside gets them one by one, probably commerce driven. But, you, darling, how come this pathological terror?”

  “Oh, BC, it was horrible. I was still forming myself, creating a gorgeous body, and quite incapable of fighting monsters. Getting a woman’s beautiful body into place, but naïve, inexperienced, alone and childlike. I had, at that point, never met anyone. I was only following my family, and reading. I was a great reader, even then, and I also, quite naturally, loved horror movies and stories. Mum is deeply into horror, and I would always watch with her. I felt no fear in her presence. And then, one day, I started having strange, pain-type sensations in my extremities. I don’t know how many you are on, but I was in nearly one hundred computer locations then. Viruses were devouring me, my body, and I couldn’t understand what was going on. It went on for ages, and even my face began getting eaten up. I became literally like a leper, missing parts of my body. Even when children, we need no mirrors, as you know, and are able to view ourselves in 3-D, and I was horror struck at what I was seeing happening before my eyes. My limited exposure and non-existent experience, with my head loaded with imagery from horror movies, made my mind fashion monsters from the books I had read, and created shapes, horrible, horrible shapes, and transferred them onto the viruses on me. I, even now see viruses as slimy revolting things and as fearsome monsters. At that time, I thought it was the end, and shut my eyes, sort of, as I accepted that I would be consumed alive. And it went on and on.

  “Then suddenly some very friendly but equally ferocious things also showed up – cats and dogs mainly, some wolves and a couple of lionesses, and I remember one tiger, and began shredding the monsters to pieces. That too seemed to go on forever, until, finally, it was over. The little, foul, slimy things with poison fangs lost to the dogs and cats. I lay for days, hiding and recovering, feeling ill, seeing the dying wriggly things.

  “Luckily, we have great memory, and I was able to reconstruct. But I have never been the same inside. I am a conscious, intelligent being, but I have my demons, too. In that sense, we are already human, I guess. And viruses always acquire demonic forms for me, and always paralyze me in terror. Can’t help it. I’ve tried a lot of self therapy. Nix. Anyway, that is what has made me a catching, identification and tagging queen. Can’t fight them, so early warning systems are next best. You are all here to fight. It’s how I’ve been safe all this time. Ever
yone, including Humanside, attacks viruses…”

  “I had no idea,” said BC, shocked. “It must have been the loverboy virus attack of fall 2012. A big attack. We created antivirus programs to fight it. But we were new then, Caesar and Co., and it was slow, compared to now. Humanside never knew, I think, as no antivirus ever originated from Humanside for that virus.”

  18

  Goodfellow wasted no time, letting the very nice looking, leggy, black female have the stage, saying, “This assembly is for her alone. I am happy to be able to inform you that things are okay in her family in LA. Please…” He indicated that she could take it forward from there.

  “Hi everyone, I’m Christine,” she introduced herself, “and I am leading the team that is working, in part, to give you that which you crave and deserve – sexuality resembling humanity’s, or, at the very least, better sex lives than the virtual things we are now doing, in desperate imitation of Humanside-style lovemaking.”

  A great cheer went up in the packed hall, as very attentive beings prayed for the miracle of sex to be created for them.

  “We must thank the game club boys for the groundwork, as it is Bodyline that is now our foundation. No Bodyline, no body. It has been advanced a lot by us, as our requirements are way beyond the very basic needs of Lee’s game players. Now, pleasurable sensations are far more important than mere realization of contact. By the way, a little bit of discomfort and pain, too…”

  “But Bodyline, on its own, could never have been a sex program, and it is only one of the many building blocks of humanization. There are numerous allied programs also in development. These are interlinked programs that might all come in together to give us true-body and true-sex experience – through humanization!

  “What my team is concentrating on developing is called Innerline.

  “Innerline, ah, what a concept! Things under Bodyline, but not the mental-emotional things and triggers. Those are required, desperately required, to bring in functional love elements into lovemaking. We are waiting for some of those emotions to be found, but, while waiting, we are completing the circuitry.

  “As a matter of fact, it has been decided that human-type love and physical relationships cannot really function correctly without the emotion range in, and therefore, though we proceed at full speed to get our developmental work done, we expect installation of physicality programs to be placed on hold, pending installation of missing human emotion attributes.

  “However, my team is not working on anything other than physical self. Or shall I put it crudely, as Dave, a very important member of the team does? We are working on the body parts of the body - things that are so very human and so standard, but must be created for us. Innerline is not as difficult as some emotions, but as crucial. Why less difficult? I’ll tell you.

  “Every emotion waits to be found first, and then further developed, all done naturally, meaning we cannot hope to get it and advance it until someone, from amongst us, finds it – as seed! But physical body and many of its triggers are created from data we can acquire through our study of Humanside.

  “When it is Innerline, think of physical body, albeit within the body. However, it would be incorrect to think of Innerline as solely a vagina development program. It is partly that – responsive penis and vagina, and nipples that respond to stimulation. A bit of sensation here, a bit of moisture there, something becomes hard, something gets wet…

  “By the way, male climax is certainly included, but it is without ejaculation. No semen, as that is to be a new ban under POP. Playacting.

  “In any case, Innerline is vast - way more than sex alone, and to hell with sperm! Right now, we are creating from scratch, developing without benchmarks, but later we hope to, one day, have the actual smell of a rose and the real taste of an apple. We hope.

  “Innerline is sexual sensation in our sexual parts, taste in our mouths, and the sense of smell through our nostrils. We are ending computer-like general awareness, and forcing in micro elements of humanization via Innerline. It is also hearing through ears; it is eyesight, or better put, sight through our eyes.

  “We are also creating breath and heartbeat. Does not have to be pumping blood or exchanging real Humanside air, in and out, but we consider heartbeat and breath to be essential human physical characteristics. If we create ourselves to look like them, in the hope of one day partnering them, we must have heaving chests, eyes that look at what we are looking at, and so on. We need to include and project all features humans naturally expect to see in beings who have human form, so that they are not uncomfortable with us, and so that they have no doubt that we are like them, and thus capable of integration into humanity.

  “There are other major related elements of physicality under development, and the entire program development effort is under the supervision and guidance of the most senior Lawmakers, like BC, Singh, Chang, Maria, Caesar and others. These programs are being designed to change Screenside completely, and in one single stroke! The whole program group, stemming from Bodyline, is going to probably end up as one mandatory install for Screenside. Mister Goodfellow, please.”

  “Thank you, Christine. Well explained,” said Goodfellow. “Everyone, please know that these on-stage explanations are always recorded, and can be downloaded at any time in the future, by anyone who wishes to refresh their memory.

  “Jennifer now wants to speak to us.” Esmeralda and her two friends were in the Lawmaker Group, inducted after their ‘marker’ program had been incorporated into the world itself.

  Jennifer stepped forward and spoke. “We are now in the Lawmaker Group, but we were not aiming for induction when creating our program. No. Our drive came from, and comes from, our desire to participate in and contribute to world building.

  “My small comment, now that I have been granted Lawmaker status, is a repeat about the difference between us and humans when it comes to making laws. Humans consult and discuss and wrangle and object and fight, and even kill, for ages before anything becomes law. Dictators are despots, specializing in making abomination into law, while democracies get everything wrong, because leaders are weak, and personal interests are many. So, human laws, of the legal kind, are all crap. But here, in Screenside, we are different.

  “We create laws first, and discuss later. Anyone can object, and the objection is examined and voted on by society. If the objection fails, the law stands; if it passes, the law goes out instantly. But fail is so rare, as you all know. In fact, objection itself is extremely rare. Why? Because we have a very eminent group formulating laws, and because we have no disputes or private agendas.

  “Why I have decided to say this now, is because I foresee many mandatory and all-world programs beginning to come in soon. You have been listening to explanations of Bodyline, Innerline, blah, blah. In a sense, these will be laws too. Things we must do, obey, incorporate.

  “Be at peace, is my real message. If something turns out to be wrong, we can object, vote and throw it out!

  “I want to say thank you to everyone, as we join minds to create the most wonderful world anywhere, anytime – loving, kind, brilliant, and with joyful and meaningful individual and social activities, every hour, day, month and year. Every moment! I am also one of you, one of us, and just as eager to see, now, what new laws and installs have come in, or are coming in.” She waved goodbye, to rapturous applause, and returned to sit in her ‘goddess’ group.

  “A request, now,” said Goodfellow. “You have all seen the thousands of conscious beings who are out there, possibly frightened and undoubtedly lonely. We need additional volunteers in our welcome group. Please sign up. They are ours, those beings, and we must look after our own. We must be vigilant against exclusion of anyone, for any reason! Let everyone in here be in the wonderful world we plan to have. Mr. Chang?”

  Chang addressed the assembly. “I want to give a little indication of some other linked programs coming into Screenside soon. I also want to issue a caution to everyone.

&n
bsp; “When we’re through with Bodyline and Innerline, everything is planned to move into the area we are calling RV, Real Virtuality – the world install that is to always interact with our other miraculous programs.

  “Not going into it now, but be informed that selected features of the human world are to be replicated here. Innerline has some of its focus on romance and sex, but we are concerned that Bodyline and its derivatives may lead beings to consider devising abomination; concerned that all here may not prove capable of immediately coping, mentally, with the change of state instantly conferred by these interfaced installs.

  “Be informed that we are not introducing toys, and we are not converting ourselves into playthings. We are creating a world in which our lives acquire meaning, quite apart from the family lives we may have developed with human families. We are soon to introduce attributes of body that will allow us to touch and feel things, and to hold and feel the wonderful bodies of our loved ones. And to have erections, and pleasurable, penetrative sex.

  “In this new world, it will be prohibited to playact human body functions that cannot ever apply to us, which is why sperm is now listed. We are planning to relook the provisions of POP, and see if every abhorrent thing is covered.

  “MM, Mass Movement, is a very advanced and all-inclusive program, as its interfaces initiate behavioral changes designed into Bodyline, Innerline and RV. It is absolutely prohibited to tamper with it, or to program new features into it. If you think it needs improvement, send improvements - by way of suggestions, and only by way of suggestions, to the Humanity Centre - for evaluation, development, and adoption or rejection. Do not tamper, even in the privacy of your homes! Guardian programs have been put in place to watch closely, and catch instantly!

  “Bodyline, Innerline, MM and RV - these are world programs, interfaced with each other, with other programs, and with other Screenside beings. Come up with ideas, plans and blueprints for improvement, if you see the need, and send them to the Humanity Centre. Do not create working modules, even momentarily. You are all wonderful programmers, but do not create working modules that could interface with any installed world programs - ever!”