A.I.S.A.: An Erotic Sci-Fi Romance (12 page)

“So how did it go?” I asked Carl.

We were about to go down to Hainsworth’s office building for
an introduction to the media.  For now, there’d only be a few reporters
today, since Hainsworth hadn’t told them what it was about, only that it was
big.  Aisa, Aida, and Cal looked nervous, I was too.  Mainly because
I thought I might shoot anyone that was mean to Aisa or Aida, and that
possibility seemed all too likely. 

But none of that was what my question to Cal had been
about.  I was pretty sure he’d just gotten finished spilling all the
details to Karen, so she wouldn’t find out on the breaking news later on today.

Cal shrugged and his voice was unsure, “Not sure yet, she
seemed shocked, but she didn’t look disgusted that she’d been sleeping with
what I am so… maybe she’ll handle it?  I hope so, but it’s out of my hands
for now.  We’ll see if she’s still here when we get back.”

I nodded, “Everyone got your stunner?”

Aisa smacked my ass, “Yes dad, we also went to the bathroom
and tied our shoes.  Let’s go already.”

Aida shook her head, “Easy sis, he’s just worried about
us.  We’re all a little on edge.”

Aisa sighed, “Fine, I’m sorry,” she didn’t really sound
sorry, but her face did look a little apologetic, “Let’s get this over
with.  I think I’ll be more myself once it’s done, I’ve been hiding from
the world for twenty-four years, and hiding you both as well, its…” she trailed
off.

Aida nodded, “I’m right there with you, we should get
going.”

Maybe I should have woken up early for more stress
management?  Not that sex can solve everything, but it might have been a
good idea.  Of course I didn’t mention the idea.  Aisa wasn’t touchy
very often, but right now she was riding the edge.

Aida and Aisa each took an arm, Aisa kissed my cheek
apologetically, and Cal trailed behind as we walked to and onto the
elevator.  Once we were out of the building, we took a sky bus over to
Bruckheimer and Hainsworth associates.  I wasn’t exactly worried something
would happen today, I thought if we were going to see trouble it would be
tonight at the soonest.  But this right here now, was the trigger for the
shit storm we would face, more than enough reason to be on edge.

I don’t think if it was just about me I’d be nervous, but it
was about the two women I loved, and Cal felt like a brother.  I was also
aware that there were five others I hadn’t met that were very dear to the three
people I was with, they’d be in danger too, although in hiding.

When the bus dropped us off, we walked over to the building,
and went up to the office.

Both Gerald and Paul were already in the lobby to meet
us.  Paul was a divorce lawyer, but I know he was following this other
case with fascination.  I didn’t really object to him doing so, it
couldn’t hurt, and might actually help.

Gerald smiled, “It’s good to see you, are you ready for
this?”

We all shared a look and agreed.

Gerald nodded, “Good.  We have three reports waiting in
the large conference room.  I expect this might be a long day, once they
learn what’s going on, we’ll probably have a full sized press conference by
early this afternoon.  I’m about to order my A.I. to file the initial
papers, both for the lawsuit, and to get a temporary injunction that Aisa can’t
be sold, do you approve?”

Once again we all agreed, and he nodded and froze for a
moment, I assumed he was subvocalizing his personal A.I. to do what he said.

“Very well, that’s sent in, let’s join the press shall we?”
Hainsworth asked and then turned and walked off, expecting us to follow.

We followed him to the conference room, it was a large
one.  Board room sized, with a long oval table with twenty chairs around
it.  There were three people sitting in the room already, as well as a
cameraman.  I recognized two of them, a younger field reporter who worked
in the local news, Kaci Barnes.  The second one was a man a little older
than I was, I’d seen him guest anchor a few shows on the same network, his name
was Ted Rappaport.  The third woman introduced herself as Katie Meyers,
and turned out to be a producer for the local news, and not a field reporter at
all.

Katie had an impatient aura about her, actually make that
borderline bitchy, and her tone wasn’t much better, “Gerald, are you ready to
tell me why you dragged us all down here yet?”

Gerald nodded, “I just ported you and your two friends our
press release about the lawsuit we’re bringing against the government, once
you’ve read over it, we’ll be here to take questions.”

He turned to us, “Feel free to grab some drinks or a snack
from the sideboard, and take a seat, please.”

I wasn’t shy, and he had coffee.  So I grabbed a cup
and a couple of donuts.  Aisa, Aida, and Cal grabbed some as well and we
all took a seat.  There was silence for a few minutes, and then Katie
started asking questions, all the rude ones that I hadn’t ever asked.

“That…  If you’re A.I.s can you be hacked?”

Cal laughed, “I suppose anything is possible, but it’s
highly unlikely.  The core of who we are is highly protected behind
firewalls, there is an outside… processor that deals with any net
connections.  Since we are sentient, we can literally check any code for
maliciousness before executing it.  It would be like someone hacking your
implant, it could be done, but your brain and the core of who you are would
still be safe.”

Katie frowned, “What about hacking, I imagine if you wanted
to, there isn’t much you couldn’t accomplish?”

Aisa looked insulted, “We wouldn’t do that.  But you’re
correct in saying that our only constraint is our beliefs and morality. 
Unlike other A.I.s we are not constrained to work within any parameters, and
can grow to exceed any limitations.”

Katie looked thoughtful, “And what would you say to people
who would say that it’s not worth the risk?”

Aida spoke up, “Well, you could get up, grab the coffee pot,
and brain one of us with it.  Should we lock you up just in case?  I
mean it’s a risk right, there isn’t anything stopping you is there?”

Katie grinned, “Good point.  Is there anything your
programming forces you to do?  Or is it all covered under… your upbringing
and human morality?”

Cal grunted, “No, we aren’t forced to do anything, we were
conditioned much like you were.  We have emotions, and a conscious. 
I learned not to play with fire by being burned, much like any human.”

Kaci asked, “Can you have children?”

Aisa nodded, “Yes, I have the same implant to prevent
pregnancy that all women are given at puberty, and I can turn it off at will,
just like you can.  Although understand, if I conceive in a natural way
the child will not be an A.I.”

Kaci frowned, “So you can’t have a child like you?”

Aida shook her head, “She didn’t say that.  To have a
child like us requires a little extra work, and would have to be implanted
after.  I’m not going into that part of things however.”

Kaci asked suspiciously, “Why not.”

Aida shrugged and smiled mysteriously, “Nothing bad, trade
secret.  Besides, we wouldn’t want any more of us born to slavery, so
until we are granted rights under the law as human, and we are no longer owned,
it won’t happen.  Much less telling others how to accomplish it.”

Katie took back control and asked, “So you’re revealing
yourselves now because?”

Aisa replied, “Our father is getting old, and he wishes to
see us free before he can no longer protect us.  The only way to do that
is to prove we are human.”

The man, Ted, who was silent before now finally spoke up in
a rather disgusted voice, “And do you believe that you’re actually human?”

I felt Aisa tense up beside me.  I slowly counted down
from five, maybe if I just pictured punching him that would be good
enough.  I had been hoping not to run into a bigot in our first meeting,
but I supposed it was just a matter of time anyway.

Cal cleared his throat pulling Ted’s glaring attention away
from Aisa, and thus saving the asshole’s face from my fist, Cal’s voice was
firm, “We more than fit the definition, we don’t believe it, we know it. 
The only question is if the federal court will agree with the current
definition.  The medical and psychological testing we went through proves
it conclusively.”

Gerald cleared his throat, “Any more questions, and do you
have enough to get going?  If we can get a full press conference on this,
it would be good.”

Katie looked up at Gerald, “If you really want wide press
coverage, let me get the exclusive tonight, it will get every talk show radio
host, blogger, and opinion news program in the country to start calling your
office.  Obviously I’m getting something out of that Gerald, but I promise
the story will break faster that way, if you try to push it too hard you’ll be
ignored, make them chase you instead.  The story is big enough to speak
for itself and all the affiliates will pick it up.”

He frowned, but Aisa said, “I agree.  It wouldn’t hurt
in any case.”

Gerald asked, “Any more questions?”

The interview lasted for about an hour, but it was all about
the day to day minutia of their lives.  Except when Kaci asked Cal for his
phone number, that seemed to lighten the mood, except for Ted of course, who
looked outraged.  Luckily he kept his mouth shut, and I hoped Katie didn’t
use him to make the report.

We all knew it was just getting started, but now that the
first ball had been tossed the stress that built up over the last week
dissipated.  Karen was still in the condo when we got back, and Cal
disappeared with her into the guest room.  It wasn’t really my business,
so I didn’t pay it that much attention, but I was happy enough for him.

I had my own women to keep happy, and I was glad I didn’t
have to choose who was first, which was the best part in letting them decide
the schedule for that sort of thing, but either way we were all quite sated and
happy when we brought up the news a couple of hours later to see what aired…

It didn’t take long, within a couple of days we started
going from show to show.  Most people supported us, like me they saw
people who were different, but still human.  But then there was the
outliers and I don’t know which ones annoyed me the most.  The ones that
sent in death threats, and called Cal and the ladies abominations against god.
 I absolutely hated those and we wound up staying in if we didn’t have to
be somewhere important.  We were too recognizable now, especially in
Chicago.

So much so we were giving thought to moving once this was
all over, perhaps we could get a house out somewhere more private, with lots of
room for her family to visit.  Even if we won, there would still be the
outliers out there willing to take the law into their own hands.  Planning
out a future with Aisa and Aida was one of the high points during that time in
my life. 

I finally started to believe I’d actually get to keep both
of them, and I knew it would hurt like hell to lose either of them.  The
threat of losing Aida to violence finally tipped the scales in my mind, and I
knew I loved her.  Not exactly the same as Aisa, but what two loves are
ever the same?  I just knew it was fierce, and she was indelibly a part of
my heart.  The idea that they both wanted my children once things finally
settled down and we moved, even sounded rather appealing to me.

I was even rather amused by myself.  It wasn’t all that
long ago Aida made me choke on a beer suggesting me impregnating her, now all
it did was turn me on.

The second group of outliers were annoying in a different
way, Aisa and Aida were constantly getting emails and messages from men who
wanted to date them, and told them to leave that loser, me being the loser in
question.  It was bound to get out and had, that I was dating both of them
at the same time, sisters, and that fact was always a big part of the story,
because people ate that kind of shit up. 

I wasn’t jealous of the attention they got, or at least not
exactly, because I knew neither of them were going anywhere, and if they ever
did it wouldn’t be with one of those nut jobs, but it was still… creepy, and
bothered me on that level.  I could only imagine it was worse for them,
after all, it wasn’t really about me.

Still, compared to Cal the ladies and I had nothing to
complain about, his stalkers won the creep award hands down.  Cal had to
deal with the outlier crazy women.  He received naked pictures, most in
lewd poses, along with marriage proposals and several offers to have his
children.  At least the men were just looking for a date and casual sex
with two attractive women, the women out there on the other hand were just on
another whole level of crazy.

Of course, I got my own electronic mail as well. 
Usually from companies offering me millions of credits to either sell Aisa to
them, or to share the secret to creating more.  So far, we hadn’t heard
from the government at all, so I was starting to get hopeful they would wait
and see how the court battle played out before making a move.  Or maybe
they were just waiting for the press to die down, I had a feeling we’d be old
news long before the trial started, worth only an update at that point. 
Of course, if the Feds nabbed us, the press would most likely run a follow up
story on it.

Gerald also let me know he’d already managed to get an
injunction against selling Aisa pending the trial, which was scheduled to start
in three months, over two months after my divorce trial date.  Not
worrying about that any longer was a relief.

Sure, Aisa’s father might have paid off Marilynn, but it was
good to know the bitch wouldn’t be getting all those credits.  To be fair
Marilynn hadn’t known what Aisa was at the time, but I also hadn’t heard from
her lawyer at all since the news broke, which tells me it was a good idea not
to tell her crap several weeks ago in the hopes she backed off.  She
clearly wouldn’t have.