Unnatural

by Anthony DiGiovanni

  * * * *

  “Miss Lockhart, if Luna were populated by more people with your honesty, it would be an immensely better community,” said Zolnerowich as she took her seat and invited Sabrina to do likewise.

  An examination of the table between them showed it to be capable of performing all the functions an office could need, at least if the owner had a Libertas. “Forgive the absence of coffee. I limit my liquid consumption to only the water necessary for brain hydration, of course. I have forgotten what it is like to crave foods and beverages.”

  “I assure you it’s good for the soul, even though, incidentally, I don’t drink caffeine. But let’s get to the point. Er, flattering as your statement was, it baffles me.”

  “Your swiftness to jump to the conclusion that I intended to adulate you reveals your narcissism. What I meant was that I could tell you actually believed what you said back there, and if the human race only said things it believed, it would be a greater race.” She betrayed her indifference to mores of tact by devoting her eyes’ attention almost entirely to the screen built into the table before her.

  “Why aren’t you looking me in the eyes, Governess?”

  “Keep in mind that I am one of the few government officials left alive to manage a complex recovery plan. If possible I leave it to those not speaking, yet sitting within my earshot, to do this, but I wanted this meeting to be private. As I was saying, we could benefit from having your integrity, but not your irrationality. Let us start with your accusation that I was trying to marginalize people’s emotions with a – how did you put it? – ‘pathetic little cheer-up speech.’ I assure you I had the purest of intentions, Miss Lockhart.”

  “The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as well as with rhetorical fluff. Stop being so glib and say what needs to be said.”

  “What needs to be said,” she replied, looking up only as much as was necessary to see Sabrina’s face, “is that grief is an emotion we could all do without. It gets in the way of actually doing things, which is why I saw fit to decline the opportunity to implicate myself in the masses’ mourn-fest while affording them the liberty to accept that opportunity themselves. Telling them their figurative tears were a waste of time would only inflame them to the point of further defiance.”

  She looked off to the side, seemingly trying to distract Sabrina from her moment of a loss for words. “To put it in terms you might relate to, that would be like telling the heathen abortion advocates that they were buying tickets to the inferno with the blood of the fetuses they slaughter. True, in your eyes, but counterproductive as verbal firepower.”

  Best to let her have her fun mocking my beliefs, for now. “Your perspective on the grieving process frankly frightens me.”

  “Yes, any truth that threatens the dogma of the primacy of the intuitions does tend to unnerve people, even when they would benefit from putting that dogma to rest. But there lies the catch of honest discussion, no? I am just as disturbed by your belief that my expression of my concern for society, delivered in the way I find most comfortable, is somehow so condescending and insensitive as to warrant your level of criticism.”

  Insensitive? If only Zolnerowich knew. But she could never let that happen, not when they’d all blame the failure of the happy pills on her “incompatibility” with the lunar environment. Worse, they’d try Neurehab. “It still is, uncomfortable as that fact makes you.”

  “Likewise. As I implied not ten minutes ago, Miss Lockhart, I am a busy woman. My duty is not to kiss the boo-boos of our stumbling species, but to get it running posthaste. Especially,” she added, seeming to focus even more on the screen, “with an android on the loose.”

  Sabrina nodded. “If we can jointly say one thing, it’s that this robot is a threat that’s more trouble than it’s worth.”

  “Excellent! We can begin to talk business.”

  “What?”

  She looked up and smirked. “Obviously I did not invite you here just to set the record straight on my speech.”

  “Why did you, then?”

  “It concerns our two little problems on Earth. You will recall that I mentioned a human as well.”

  “Yes, a man I’ve never had the, ahem, privilege of knowing personally. He must be something else, to have survived the, well …”

  “I can understand if you would prefer not to talk about this right now.” She was displaying more personal concern by now, but not so much to prevent a few split-second downward glances that irked Sabrina.

  “No, you’re right. If this is an important matter, I can play the stoic.”

  “I would never ask you to ‘play’ anything that goes against your integrity, Miss Lockhart.” Seeing Sabrina’s weak yet unprecedented smile of approval, the governess continued. “Perhaps I should start with your role as it pertains to the android, which called itself Jane. You can help us all by virtue of your natural body.”

  Trying not to appear too vindicated after having heard so much raving about the wonders of the synthetic Libertas, Sabrina let Zolnerowich elaborate. “Jane possesses a strong electromagnetic weapon that is a hazard not only to other androids, but also to the Libertas skins. Libertas manufacturers designed them to repel most pulses that could wreck computers, but seeing as Jane is a robot of a caliber alien to us, we cannot risk lives on the bet that her designer gave her a weaker form of EM weapon.”

  “Just because I can’t be killed by Jane in that way, it doesn’t mean she isn’t dangerous to me in some other sense.”

  “True, but in the land of the blind, the one-eyed woman is queen. I have also heard that she is insane, but it is not my place to pass judgment on your mental health.”

  “What exactly do you want me to do, Governess? Be a bodyguard for the Unnaturals? Go to Earth before everyone else in a capsule, so I can keep Jane from sabotaging the module landing in case the other robots fail to stop her?”

  “Neither. There will be very few Transhumans for you to defend on this mission, and I have confidence that the police force will be able to handle J–” She had been eying the screen when some image on it muted her.

  “Dare I ask?” She had an inkling that made it almost unnecessary.

  “I see,” Zolnerowich said to herself before looking up. She had that look on her face that screamed, I gravely underestimated something and there will be hell to pay for it. “That sly ‘droid. Jane got away from the law enforcement bots. Uriah, too. I suppose your services will be needed for the latter purpose after all.”

  “Just how do you expect me to deal with this maverick? So what if I’m less likely to die at her hands than you are? I like to think my life is worth something.”

  “Oh, it is, Miss Lockhart, which is why it is fortunate that you not only have a body devoid of electronics, but that you also have a weapon that all of us possess. Emotions. I would not trust Jane any more than a strictly rational android, but it is capable of trusting you, and we can use that to our advantage.”

  “What makes you think Jane will warm up to me?”

  “Several factors. First, Mr. Uriah was able to befriend it. Second, emotional as it is, Jane is not an exceedingly bright android. You could easily lead it to believe you are a second Earth-bound survivor with no motivation to destroy it.”

  “I never said I really do want to destroy it. Jane’s as much my enemy as it is yours, but there’s no need to extinguish something that could be an immense benefit to us. Think of what we could do with a robot that applied all the rationality of other models with Jane’s sensitivity.” She could feel her face brighten, if just a tad. Was it honest-to-goodness enthusiasm? “It’s a prototype friendly AI!”

  Zolnerowich afforded herself the luxury of actually looking at Sabrina. “Miss Lockhart, if you are to succeed at what I want you to do, you need to abandon any faith in the value of beings like Jane. I am comfortable with reaping the benefits of androids that lack true intelligence, rational or of any ot
her sort. It is a nigh-autonomous robot such as Jane that I find too dangerous to be worth allowing to evolve. If I may imitate your earnest manner, destructive as the Dethroning was, I cannot say I do not appreciate its near elimination of the threat of the Singularity.”

  Sabrina gave a disturbed look, to which Zolnerowich replied, “Come now, there must be some person, or perhaps group of people, whose death you secretly celebrate. You are a Christian, correct? Who is it – secularists? Death penalty advocates? Muslims? Abortion doctors? Homosexuals?”

  “That’s enough!” she interrupted. Zolnerowich was taken aback. “Governess, if you think I’m the sort of Christian who would bomb an abortion clinic or harass LGBT people, you have the wrong idea. Have you even met a Christian before?”

  “I have not.”

  So that was it. Charity, Sabrina, charity. “All right, then. Now you know. We’re not all fanatics.”

  “We?”

  “Uriah could be a Christian, for all you know.”

  Zolnerowich began to speak, then caught herself. She looked off to the side some more before talking. “You had best hope so, or there will never again be any ‘two or three gathered in my name.’ Is that how the verse goes?”

  “So you know the red-letter quotes. Doesn’t mean you have any idea what the Gospel is like in action.”

  “I will, if you apply it while ridding the world of that android. There is, incidentally, another matter.” Sabrina had no objection, so the governess continued. “As liberal a Christian as you are –”

  “Not liberal, just sane.”

  She ignored this. “I suspect you would not balk at the chance to solve the mystery of this, shall we call it, portent of the End Times?”

  “I can’t be certain one way or another about the theological significance of what has happened, Governess.”

  “Yes, well, it would behoove us to know what wiped out the majority of humanity, lest we suffer the same fate. You are an intelligent woman, Miss Lockhart, and we need all the ingenuity we can get for this job.”

  “Thank you for the kind words.” Sabrina let the situation sink in, trying to put the darkness out of her mind by thinking like a politician for a moment. “Do you think Uriah did it, Governess?”

  “Not likely. He may be a robot sympathizer, but he is not capable of committing mass murder on that scale. At least, not morally capable.”

  “Is he smart enough, though?”

  “Perhaps.”

  Sabrina rested her chin in her left knuckles, not taking her eyes off Zolnerowich. “Just out of curiosity, is he an Organic or an Unnatural?”

  Zolnerowich looked up. “Organic,” she said slowly. “Why are you so interested in Uriah?”

  “It’s hard not to be interested in the last Earth-bound man alive, Governess.”

  She paused. “Understandable. So you will accept the mission?”

  “May I have a few minutes to think about it?”

  The governess checked the digital clock on the desk. “Will ten be enough?”

  “I think so. And … thanks for not commenting on my, uh, idiosyncrasies.” Sabrina shook Zolnerowich’s hand and departed, leaving her subtly yet noticeably perturbed.