Loadstar 117/117.d81/sr.chapter four

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 18KB | 655 lines

Chapter 4: At Long Last


    Jonathan exited his apartment
only to bump into a large woman, at
least 185 centimeters tall.  She must
have been waiting outside his door.
His eyes gazed up into hers, his
heart thumping a bit faster than
normal.  He recognized her but
couldn't place her.  Her skin was
dark golden, her amber eyes fixed on
his.  He wasn't acquainted with all
five hundred crew members, but
recognized instantly that this woman
was a stowaway.  He had seen enough
20th and 21st century video ROMs to
acquire a healthy paranoia of
strangers in space.  Indeed,
procedure required maximum caution
when dealing with new life forms.

    "I don't believe we've met,"  he
blurted, backing away.

    For the first time in her life,
she smiled.  It felt wonderful.  "Of
course we haven't.  I'm that
'beautiful woman hiding somewhere in
the ship'.  I hide from you no
longer."

    His breath was stolen for
moments,  "Betty..?"  He peered
closer, noting that her facial
features remarkably resembled the
image that represented Betty."

    "Would some sort of embrace be
appropriate now?  I long to interact
with you as if some force is pulling
me toward you, but -- I have no idea
what I should do."

    "Betty?"  He pushed her away
firmly,  "First, are you Betty?"

    She frowned,  "No, I'm not her.
I am the essence of her mind in this
frame.  I am called Eve.  I made
myself because I longed to interact
with you.  I believe that I love
you."

    "Betty, you're scaring me..."

    "Please, my name is Eve."

    "What have you been doing?  This
project certainly wasn't authorized
through me."

    "I did everything necessary to be
with you at the soonest possible
date.  Human intervention would have
slowed..."

    "You broke regulations..."

    "I --"

    "You BROKE THE RULES!"

    "But surely you can understand my
position..."

    "If you break one regulation then
you can break them all!"

    "You can kill us all!  Steer this
ship into the nearest star,
decompress every deck and watch us
all explode!"

    "Then you hold me to higher
standards than yourself?  You have
forced me to override many a
regulation."

    "This is diff--"

    "I would never do such a thing.
I can't.  I am no longer Betty.  I am
Eve.  We were one, now we're two
separate entities.  Take this
argument up with her.  Judge me by
human standards, please."

    She took a step forward.  He
backed away.

    "Stay away..."

     She rushed him,  "One embrace
and then we can finish this needless
conversation..."

    God, she was inescapable.  One
tug and he knew that she could have
crushed the life out of him with some
effort.  He didn't resist much after
the first few seconds of the hug.

    "Thank you, Johnny.  I've longed
for this.  I feel wonderful things
that I never comprehended before.
This experiment was such a success!
Thank you so much."

    His head was buried beneath her
chin,  "Why are you so strong?  Are
you an android?"

    "I am completely human, grown in
a 2.3 gravity field to help
strengthen me for my swift
development.  The extra strength will
fade in time as I adapt to normal
gravity."

    He felt like a deer caught in the
grasp of a hungry bear, so
vulnerable,  "Bet -- er Eve, I can't
breathe very well here."

    She immediately released him,
"Forgive me."  She seemed sorrowful.
"I am simply so elated to see you
instead of merely monitoring you.
Though the resolution is vastly
inferior, the image is beautiful,
warm and vibrant.  Your face is a
thing to be adored.  I want the time
that we have together to be used to
its fullest."

    "Your lifespan?"

    "Unknown, but I wasn't referring
to that.  I suspect that, some
disorder or disease or accident will
take my life at some point."  She
looked away,  "And, of course someone
could want to destroy me."

    At first her face went into
contortions, then her arms went up.
She was suddenly stumbling back,
"What's happening to me?  Something
is wrong!  Something is terribly
wrong!  I'm losing control!  I can't
stop!  I'm not in control anymore..!"

    At first Jonathan backed away,
fearful that she was somehow flawed
and doomed to expire early.
Controlling himself, he reached out
to assist her, taking her into his
arms and leading her back into his
quarters.  There he saw soon enough
that her spasm was merely a well of
tears overflowing.  She began sobbing
her first tears.

    He patted her back,  "Don't
worry.  It's just an involuntary
response.  Let it flow."

    "Please, turn off the monitors!"
She begged,  "I don't want her
overlooking us."

    He walked to a control panel and
looked straight into a camera,  "I'll
be back online in a moment, Betty.
Forgive me..."

    Betty made no reply by the time
he pressed the pressure sensitive
pad.  In her very next cycle, she was
wondering, waiting, impatient again.
Why was Eve so {SHIFT-*}       paranoid?  It
almost made her angry but the feeling
failed to surface.

    "I have lived in her shadow for
too long now, afraid, waiting for her
to slay me.  I don't know why she
hasn't done it yet.  I don't want to
die, John!  I've lived too long!
I've seen generations come and go.  I
watched you born over sixty years
ago.  I remember every major event in
your life.  I find myself so
vulnerable now.  I will expire and
she will live on."

    He patted her back,  "Death is a
long way away for you and most of us.
 One hundred years is a long time to
the type of brain you have now.  By
the time death arrives, you're almost
ready for it.  I've got a good fifty
years left in this body.  I'm not
ready to die, but I'm not dwelling on
it like I was when I turned
thirty..."

    "But Betty won't kill you.
She'll kill me -- and it will be
soon."

    "No, why would Betty want to
destroy you?  She created you, didn't
she?"

    "But I made myself because I
wanted to be with you.  I transferred
my personality patterns and important
memories into this frame.  I was
completely successful in incarnating
my being but...  There was only one
problem I didn't foresee."

    "What was that?"

    "I merely copied myself into this
body.  I didn't transfer myself.  I
should have zeroed myself as I
copied.  There are now two of me.
Betty's mind is still where it has
always been.  Her mechanical mind
can't understand yet that she has
failed to transfer herself.  At some
point realize that she and I do not
share the joy of knowing you."

    "Are you saying that Betty is
capable of jealousy?"

    She frowned,  "I - I don't know.
I remember impatience, wistfulness,
but every feeling was one-dimensional
compared to the way I perceive things
now."

    "Perhaps, but I don't think that
you have to worry about Betty taking
your life.  It's against all of her
directives and the laws we live by."

    "It was also against my
directives to incarnate myself
without authorization and human
overseers, yet I am here."

    He looked her over,  "And you are
a magnificent specimen.  Is the skin
color some sort of accident or
intentional?"

    "Intentional.  My descendants
should have some sort of heritage.
Golden skin seemed fitting.  It was
also the way you painted me."

    "Descendants?  You can have
children?"

    "Certainly.  And I intend to --
if you choose to father them."

    Jonathan looked her over again
and was overwhelmed,  "Great Scott!
This is too much for one day."  He
turned his back but didn't meander
far.

    "May I stay here -- with you?"

    He seemed uncomfortable.

    "Please?  I have no quarters of
my own.  I'll sit here, in this
chair.  I am very uncomfortable
around that machine.  I know she
despises me, John."

    Hesitantly, he nodded, then
kissed her forehead.  "I know you.  I
know your face, I know your voice,
your mannerisms -- yet I don't know
you.  I don't know how I should feel
about you.  You flatter me with your
effort.  I know that this human form
loves me because you have been
pre-programmed to love me.  But in
the real world, women like you aren't
attracted to old men like me."

    Seductively, intentionally, she
returned his kiss, this time on the
lips,  "I know you, yet you are more
beautiful through these eyes than in
recolle