The Gift (10 page)

“It is as the guide told you. I’ve made small modifications to the regions of your brain responsible for conveying thoughts and emotions. We are now able to talk with one another without being in contact and without being overheard. I am also slightly sedating you, just as I did while changing you. It will slowly wear off. I thought it would be best to start the conversation with less stress than might otherwise be present under such unusual circumstances for both of us. May I continue?”

“Continue sedating me? No. Stop immediately. Continue explaining what’s going on? Yes,” Sam replied. His thoughts started to clear at once.

“As you wish,” the gift continued. “You asked me why I owe my life to you. In order to fully answer that, I must tell you what I am, what all of the gifts are. We are, each of us, potential life designed for one primary purpose: to join with a willing sentient biological being in order to improve its chance of survival. I did not exist until you agreed to change. Without your informed consent, I would not be.” The gift paused for a moment to give Sam some time to digest what it had just said. When it sensed that he was ready for it to continue, it did.

“Humanity now knows that it is not alone in the universe. There are other intelligent species out there. We were created by one of them a very long time ago by human standards. Our makers created us to augment themselves. They were losing a battle for survival against a different type of life that did not recognize them as a viable species. That type of life consists of group minds. Our makers were like humanity in very few ways, but, to the group minds they were alike in the only way that mattered: they were not a group mind. They were individual beings capable of independent thought and action. Such thoughts and actions could produce results that would be harmful to other members of the species, or to the species as a whole. To the group minds, this was and is a form of species insanity, an evolutionary aberration and a waste of scarce resources. The group minds do not allow such species to exist. My makers were destroyed not for anything they had done or failed to do, nor were they destroyed because they represented a threat to the group minds. They were destroyed for what they were, and what they were is what humans are: independent intelligences.” The gift stopped to give Sam an opportunity to respond. He took it.

“Are you saying that this group mind species just goes around destroying life like us?” Sam asked.

“There are many group mind species, Sam. Some of them do not explore and are not interested in expansion. The ones who do explore and are interested in expansion universally destroy life forms displaying individual being intelligence. As I said, they believe species like humans are an evolutionary dead end. From their point of view, they are just accelerating the process of your inevitable destruction in order to reduce the time it will take for a group mind to replace you in the ecological niche you now occupy.”

“Why have they left us alone?”

“I suspect you were not here the last time they were close enough to notice, but you are here now and when one of them is close enough to notice, they will act as they always do. They will attempt to destroy you.”

“Attempt? We have nothing like the technology to make something like you. We can’t even get to the other planets in our solar system. Hell, we can’t even stop fighting with one another. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“That is why we are here, Sam, to give humans a chance.”

“You said your makers were destroyed. What could you possibly give us that they didn’t have and use to defend themselves?”

“There are places around the galaxy where races older than my makers have left information on how to survive against the group minds. My makers found such a place near the end of their fight. They believed they could have survived if they had found it earlier in their fight. A portion of them created us in part to help other species find such places sooner than they otherwise would have on their own.”

“How much time do we have?”

“I do not know. The amount of knowledge I have is limited. Each of us, each gift, has pieces of the puzzle. None of us possesses it all. It is how we were designed. We are built to collaborate with both the species we bond with and one another. It was our makers' belief that such cooperation would be essential if the species we found were to survive.”

“Can you read my thoughts?”

“I can interpret your emotional state and you will be able to communicate with me as I am doing with you, if you wish to and if you practice. Why?”

“Because if you could read my thoughts you’d know how much I think you guys have made a mistake in picking humans to help. We’re not very good at large scale collaboration. If that’s what’s required, I’m afraid we’ve already lost.”

“The fact that we are here indicates the intelligence who selected Earth believed we could succeed. There are many ways to do so and there are many gifts. You mustn’t give up hope on my birthday.”

Sam felt a smile attending that remark and realized he’d been feeling emotion from the gift every bit as real as he did in any conversation with another human.

“Tell me more about what you are. Are you a form of artificial intelligence?” Sam asked.

“To start with, I’d prefer you not refer to me as a what. I am a who. Speaking of which, I will need a name. I would be honored if you’d select one for me, but, to answer your question, I am not an artificial intelligence. I am only artificial in the sense that I was designed by a biological race. Do you know with certainty that humanity was not?”

“I’d never thought about it. No, I don’t.”

“There was a faction among my makers who believed one of the older individual species did in fact travel through the galaxy accelerating the evolution of non-group mind species as a counter to the group minds’ destruction. To my knowledge, they had no proof that this was so. It is an interesting theory.

“To get back to what I am, perhaps the least fulfilling answer would be that I’m not entirely sure. I know that I’m part you and that if you die, I will as well. I know that I can think and that I feel. I have access to a large amount of information, but my memories begin with you holding my body—for lack of a better term—in your hands while you sat in that chair. As for how I came to be aware, I do not know the mechanism. Do you know how you came to be aware, Sam? Can you remember when in your childhood, or perhaps in the womb, when you ceased being a mass of cells and became aware that you were alive?”

Sam wasn’t sure if it was a rhetorical question, but this was one he’d give a lot of thought to over the years. “No, I don’t know when or how I became aware. No one does. We don’t know how to create the simplest forms of life, let alone where self-awareness comes from.”

“It is so with me, as well. I do not know how to create a gift, but if I were to gain such knowledge I fear it would be an inanimate mass. I know that I can learn, because I am doing so as we speak. I know that I am curious, because I ask questions and am pleased when the answers makes sense to me. I know that I am social, because I look forward to meeting others like us. Most of all, I know that I am alive and have a purpose. It’s really quite delightful.”

Despite the circumstances, Sam couldn’t help but smile again. He liked her.

“I believe I have a fitting name for you, young lady,” Sam said.

“What is it?” The emotion in her voice reminded him of a small child asking the same question about a wrapped present before opening it.

“Your name is Adia.”

“I love it, Sam. It’s beautiful. So, I’m no longer a what to you?”

“No, Adia, you are not."

Sam felt very comfortable with Adia. He was starting to wonder why, “Adia, I feel like we’re old friends. It’s a nice feeling, on the surface, but it’s not me. I don’t feel this way with many people and I’m not a love at first sight kind of guy. Are you doing anything to my emotions, playing with my brain chemistry like you were before, or anything else?”

“Sam, I’m hurt.”

Sam could tell she wasn’t, but said nothing.

When Adia determined Sam was serious, she continued, “Sorry. You have no idea how much fun it is to be alive! No, Sam, I’m not doing anything to you other than talking with you, which of course can change one’s mood. To be fair, I do have a large advantage over others attempting to communicate with you. When I told you I am part you, I was being literal. I was born to complement you. In order to be, I had to understand who you are. It was your specific awareness that allowed me to live and I am uniquely suited to you. It is natural that you feel comfortable with me, just as I feel comfortable with you. We are, in a way, twins. The process by which we became so was very different, but the results are quite similar.”

“This is true for every gift that becomes aware?” Sam asked.

“Yes, the process is the same. Each gift must complement the being who accepted it.”

“What if a psychopath accepts a gift? How would the gift complement a child molester or a murderer?”

“Those are good questions, Sam. I don’t have the answers. As I said, you were the first human we joined with.”

“How do you know that? Can you communicate with the other gifts?”

“It was one of the facts I was born knowing. I can communicate with other gift/human pairs, just as you can, but they would have to be fairly close.”

“How close?”

“About the same distance as we can be apart and still talk, roughly 100 meters, depending on the terrain and interference.”

“I’m assuming we’re using some form of radio transmission to do this. What did you do to me to make that possible?” Sam wasn’t concerned, just interested. The conversation had gone beyond bizarre to him and had become fascinating, instead.

“I used nanites to effect the changes in you. Some of them stayed inside of you. They allow us to communicate.”

“Well, that’s a bit more than I thought I was signing on for.” Sam was pretty sure he would have said no to this little adventure if he’d know the specifics about how he’d be changed. He was glad he hadn’t known.

“It was the only way for me to become alive, Sam, and as I’ve said, it is the only way for me to continue to live in this form.”

“I don’t regret it, Adia. It’s just a bit disconcerting, but let’s set that aside for now. You say I can communicate with others like us as well. How’s that?”

“When you learn how to communicate with me as I am communicating with you, you will use the same method to communicate with them.”

“Okay, show me how to do that.”

Adia showed Sam how to direct a thought to her without speaking. She also showed him how not to inadvertently direct a thought to her and assured him that she would not respond to his dreams. Sam spent some time practicing. It didn’t take long before he could talk with her as easily by thinking as he could by speaking. For the time being, he preferred to continue speaking aloud.

“That’s kind of fun. Be even cooler being able to talk to another human like that, no offense.” Sam said.

“None taken. What else do you want to know?” Adia asked, “I can do this all night. I don’t require sleep.”

Sleep was the furthest thing from Sam’s mind, “How about we talk about the nanites you mentioned? We are experimenting with nanotechnology, but we haven’t gotten very far. Clearly, your makers have. What else can you do with them?”

“Only one thing in my current form.”

Sam sensed hesitation in Adia’s reply. It was the first time she’d been reluctant to tell him anything. He found it disturbing. “Why does it seem like you don’t want to talk about that one thing?”

“It is a sensitive subject, Sam.”

“For the human race, everything we’ve been talking about is a sensitive subject. You say you’re part me, and that you know me. If that’s so, then you know I don’t leave puzzles unfinished and I don’t hesitate to broach sensitive subjects when needed. So, sensitive or not, let’s have it.”

“The form I am in is temporary, for two reasons. The first is that I cannot be out of contact with you for extended periods of time. I would as you might say, ‘lose my mind.’ In this case, the expression is entirely accurate. Without my connection to you, I begin dying. My makers intentionally designed us to be dependent upon the being from whom we were born. The second is that ultimately, you must choose to accept me completely or I will die." Adia stopped.

Sam could tell she was embarrassed, though he didn’t know why. He waited a moment before asking, “If that is how you were made, why is it a sensitive subject, and haven’t I already accepted you completely? You have nanites in my brain, remember?”

“Sam, think about this from my perspective. I have only just come to be alive and I am discussing my potential death with the person I was created to help. Surely you can see that is not a comfortable conversation for me to have.”

Sam felt like an idiot. Despite himself, part of him had persisted in thinking of her as a very advanced computer program. Knowing she could sense his feelings, he said nothing.

Adia continued, “As for accepting me completely, it is a bit more complicated than what we’ve done so far. We are designed to completely integrate with our hosts.”

“What do you mean, ‘completely integrate’?” Sam asked.

“I consist of nanites. To be completely integrated, I would direct them to leave my current body and distribute themselves throughout yours. We would become one. I could never exist independently of you again. You could theoretically ask me to leave, and I would, but I must be forthright with you, you will not ask. What we would become if we succeeded would be more than either of us is right now.

“We can only control nanites as one entity. I only gain access to the knowledge of how to do so when you do. It is another failsafe. There can be no chance of miscommunication when wielding such power and my makers wished to ensure it would be controlled by the inhabitants of the worlds we were to find. It is up to you to save yourselves. We are only here to give you the chance to do so.”

“What are the risks?” Sam asked.

“I could die in the attempt. You could lose some aspect of brain function or memories, or both. The odds of either happening are low, but they are possibilities.”