Attack Doll 2: Junior Prime

by Douglas A. Taylor

Chapter 20

 

  It wasn't until after lunch that Wizzit announced that Lily seemed to have recovered and was sitting up. We all gathered in Prime Commander's office right away. Of course, everybody wanted to go take a look at her, even Prime Commander. Shelley insisted, though, that no one except her and me say anything to Lily, not even Commander Windham.

  "Sorry, Dad," she said apologetically, "but the rest of us will be going in there with force shields on. You won't have any blurring or voice alteration like the rest of us. Frankly, I think we're taking a chance bringing you with us, even with the mask on."

  Prime Commander nodded his understanding as he adjusted a plain white mask over his features. Then he fitted in an earplug that would let him monitor our Prime-to-Prime communications. "Hey, Trevor," he asked jovially, "is there any chance we could steal your sister's Junior Prime badge for a couple of days?"

  "Nope, veto," Wizzit jumped in immediately. "Already assigned. Put it out of your head. Would not work anyway because it's set to respond only to Angie's voice."

  "I was kidding, Wizzit," Prime Commander explained patiently as he adjusted the broad-brimmed hat and long, full coat that would complete his disguise. The rest of us glanced at each other. I think we were all thinking the same thing, that Wizzit had really taken a shine to my sister. "Are we ready to go?"

  Wizzit teleported the six of us out to a dim, gloomy-looking, unfurnished room. Looking around, I spotted something that looked like bloodstained footprints on one of the otherwise completely white walls; I guess Shelley hadn't been kidding about Lily bloodying her feet while trying to escape.

  Lily herself was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room, her eyes closed and her hands resting on her knees; she looked as though she might be meditating. I bent down and peered at her, searching for any clue that Li Lin-fa might be present in her mind. Her face was beautiful, utterly calm and serene, and completely devoid of any human expression or intelligence. Nobody home.

  Shelley gestured toward me as everyone else backed away from her. I cleared my throat. "Lily," I said, "self-report." That was something I remembered JB Swift had said to her once, and I figured it would be a good way to start out.

  Lily opened her eyes, smoothly got to her feet facing me, clasped her hands behind her back, and said in a monotone, "I am uninjured. I am not ill. I urgently need to urinate and defecate. I have been awake for eighteen hours, twenty-eight minutes. I last ate seventeen hours, seven minutes ago. I last drank seventeen hours, six minutes ago. Overall status: I must use the toilet immediately. I am hungry and thirsty and slightly tired. I should eat and drink soon to maintain optimum functionality. I should sleep sometime in the next five hours to maintain optimum functionality."

  I looked at Prime Commander. "Is there a bathroom in this place?" I asked.

  He silently pointed to a recessed area in one corner. "I will accompany her," Shelley volunteered. "Lily, follow me."

  "Following . . ."

  Shelley led her over to the alcove while the rest of us turned away. I heard her murmur something to Lily, probably telling her to use the facilities. A few minutes and a flush later, she led her back to the center of the room. "Lily," she said, "what would you like to eat and drink?"

  Lily said nothing; she simply stared straight ahead with that blank expression of hers. Shelley looked at me; I shrugged in return. I had no idea why Lily didn't respond to Shelley's question.

  Except . . . I tried to remember whether I had ever heard JB Swift ask her anything. I didn't think so. Maybe she responded only to commands. "Lily," I said, "tell us what you normally eat and drink."

  "I drink water," she answered immediately. "I eat a vegetable paste that is rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, and complex carbohydrates."

  "Yuck!" Mike commented, turning on Prime-to-Prime communication. "Sounds awful."

  "I agree," Shelley said, "but if that's what she's used to, that's probably what we should feed her. We don't want her getting sick to her stomach. Wizzit?"

  "We have nothing like that available," Wizzit said promptly. "Ask her what else she can eat."

  "Lily," Shelley commanded, "tell us what other kinds of foods you can safely eat."

  "I have no known food allergies," Lily answered in her monotone. "I can safely consume any food edible by other human beings, with the following exceptions: I do not digest milk well, although I can eat cheese. I have a low tolerance for alcohol, caffeine, and spicy foods." She stopped abruptly, evidently having finished her report.

  The silence which followed was broken by the soft beeping of the Commander's cellphone. He pulled the phone from his pocket and headed for the alcove, motioning for us to continue.

  Lily's eyes widened briefly when he pulled out his phone. I know they did because I have since studied the vids Wizzit took of that little encounter. It was a subtle thing, though; I didn't notice it at the time, or if I did, I didn't pay it any attention. I wish to hell now that I had, because if I had, or if anyone had, and had realized the significance of it, then things might have turned out differently and a tragedy might have been averted.

  As it happened, Trina merely offered, Prime-to-Prime, "So, she eats a -- a boring diet, is that correct?"

  "A bland diet, yes," Shelley corrected her. "I imagine a mostly vegetarian diet would be best."

  "And it sounds as though she's lactose intolerant," I added. "A lot of Chinese are. That's nothing unusual."

  "But she just said she can eat cheese," Toby pointed out. "That's dairy."

  I shrugged. "Yeah, but lactose is the stuff in milk that's hard to digest, and cheese has almost no lactose in it. And before you ask, yes, I'm lactose intolerant myself, and so is Pink. We don't drink milk, but we do eat cheese."

  "Interesting," Trina commented. "I had never noticed that about you, Indigo."

  "Sounds to me like the best thing to feed her is the stuff you make for us, Indigo," Shelley said. "Rice and vegetables, with some fish or chicken mixed in."

  I grinned, although no one could see it beneath the blurring of my force shield. "I'd be happy to cook her up a nice big batch of stir-fry if you like," I said. "Should I do it now or after we're done questioning her?"

  Surprisingly, Mike spoke up before Shelley had a chance to say anything. "Indigo's stuff takes too long to prepare, Red. Let me whip up a quick little snack to tide her over," he said. "Wizzit, the kitchen, if you please."

  He vanished in a flash of light. "Prime Commander has also teleported out," Wizzit informed us. "It seems that Francesca's car was involved in a fender-bender in her high school parking lot and he needs to go straighten things out."

  Shelley snorted softly. I couldn't tell whether it was a geez-my-sister-is-such-a-ditz snort or an I'm-very-fond-of-my-ditzy-sister snort. Regardless, she then said, as if she were thinking out loud, "The main thing I want to do is to find out what she's capable of, and what her limitations are."

  Toby chuckled. "I'd think you'd know that by now, Red," he said. "She is your sister, after all." We all turned to stare at him, and he said apologetically, "Sorry, dumb joke. Um . . . I suppose we could ask her -- Lily, I mean -- but it looks like she doesn't answer direct questions."

  "But couldn't we just say something like, 'Lily, answer this question' and then ask?" Trina suggested.

  "It's worth trying," Shelley agreed. She turned to our captive. "Lily, answer this question: What are your capabilities?"

  Lily didn't reply; she simply stared blankly ahead. "So much for that idea," Shelley said. "Indigo, do you have anything you want to try?"

  "Just the obvious," I said. "Lily, tell us what your capabilities are."

  Lily's eyes flicked to me. "The request for information is ambiguous. Please specify which mode you are referring to."

  I blinked. "The, uh, the current mode?" I guessed.

  "Current mode is operat
or mode. In operator mode I can understand and respond to nearly any natural-language command. I can also perform many explanatory functions. These functions begin with the words 'Tell me about . . .' I can also perform several diagnostic functions. These functions are: self-report, self-diagnose, self-prescribe, and self-recommend. I can also perform several maintenance functions. These functions are . . ."

  Lily droned on for several more minutes, telling us more than I really wanted to hear about the various commands we could give her. Some of them we already knew about, like the self-heal command. There were a lot of other ones, though, including things I wouldn't have thought of, like "Lily, brush your teeth" and "Lily, change your clothes", and she listed every single one of them.

  You know, it's kind of funny. I wouldn't have thought that hearing a beautiful girl explain how to get her to take her clothes off would be boring, but frankly, by the time she got around to that, I was yawning and having a hard time staying focused.

  Mike teleported in just as she was winding down. He was carrying a tray, which he set down carefully on the floor at her feet. Trina looked down at what he had brought and laughed softly. "Marmite on toast," she murmured. "I should have guessed."

  "Marmite on toast with cheese," Mike corrected her. "And a big glass of OJ. Protein, carbs, loads of B- and C-vitamins -- the perfect nutritious snack."

  Lily had stopped speaking by now, having finally run out of commands to describe. Shelley told her to sit down and eat, which she did without comment. "Wizzit," Shelley called out, Prime-to-Prime, "you've been listening to all this, right?"

  "And recording it. Fascinating stuff. Just riveting."

  The trouble with Wizzit is that you can't always tell when he's being sarcastic. In this case, I had a hunch he wasn't. Shelley must have felt the same way, because she merely nodded. "Do you have anything further you'd like us to find out from her?"

  Now, if you've been paying close attention to Shelley this whole time, you might be getting the impression about now that she's not all that bright. I mean, she has been essentially letting everyone else do all the thinking without offering up anything herself, right? And it wasn't like any of our suggestions had been especially brilliant or insightful, just obvious stuff to try, stuff that you would expect her to come up with herself.

  But see, that's the way she works -- she and her dad both, actually. If she had been conducting this interview solo, I have no doubt that she would have gotten at least this far this fast, or even faster. Running things this way, though, she had every single one of us thinking hard about the problem and working on it, and maybe one of us really would come up with something that no one else had thought of. Even if we didn't, the next time we capture a prisoner, we'll have five Primes who have actively participated in an interrogation before, not just one.

  Wizzit said, "So far she has told us only about this so-called operator mode. Ask her what other modes she has and have her describe them."

  Shelley nodded. "Yes, that's a good suggestion. So, does anyone have any ideas how we should go about it?"

  "Well, it's bleedin' obvious, isn't it?" Toby said. "It's got to be one of those explanatory functions she was talking about, the ones that start with 'Tell me about'. You know, 'Lily, tell me about modes' or something like that."

  "That sounds right to me," Shelley agreed. "We'll ask her that once she's done eating."

  So we stood around and watched Lily have her dinner. She ate quite daintily, especially for someone who had gone for most of a day without food. Mike had neglected to bring a napkin for her, but that didn't seem to bother Lily. The small amount of brownish Marmite that smeared her cheeks was wiped off with a finger, which was then carefully licked clean. It reminded me a little of watching a cat eat.

  She polished off the four slices of the cheese-Marmite toast that Mike had brought her, all except for one small corner, and then drained the glass of orange juice in a single draft. After that, she settled herself back into the position she had been in when we first arrived, sitting cross-legged with her hands resting on her knees.

  "Lily, stand up," Shelley said.

  Lily smoothly rose to her feet. "Standing . . ."

  "Wizzit," Shelley said, Prime-to-Prime, "I'd like you to give the next command."

  "Roger-dodger!" Then we all heard his voice come out from Shelley's belt buckle. "Lily, tell us about modes."

  Lily gave no sign that she had heard Wizzit. "Now you, Trina," Shelley said after a moment. Listening to her voice, I had no idea whether she was surprised or not by Lily's non-response. "Same command."

  "Lily, tell us about modes," Trina said dubiously.

  "I have four modes," Lily said at once. "They are: operator mode, commander mode, attacker mode, and companion mode. Current mode is operator mode."

  "Lily, tell us about operator mode," Shelley said patiently, once it became clear that no further information was forthcoming.

  "Operator mode is intended to be a mechanism for maintenance and repair of attack doll units. In operator mode, I have no autonomy and will follow nearly any command given me by anyone regardless of authorization status. From operator mode, I can switch to any of the following modes: commander mode, attacker mode, and companion mode. To find out what commands are available in operator mode, say 'Tell me about commands in operator mode.'"

  "It's like listening to a computer manual," Mike exclaimed, shaking his head. "Has she been like this the entire time?"

  "Pretty much, yeah," I said.

  "Then I'm glad I was out playing takeaway chef. This is boring stuff."

  "Yes, well, I think we've got the basic pattern figured out by now," Shelley told us all. "It's important for us to get as much of this information out of her as we can, since I imagine she'll be staying here for a while. Wizzit evidently can't give her the necessary commands, so at least one of us will have to remain here. I don't think all of us need to stay, though. Tell you what -- I'll volunteer to do the questioning; the rest of you can stay or go, whatever you want to do."

  "I'll stay," I said promptly. The others made their excuses, and within two minutes it was just me, Shelley, and Lily in the room.