The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (10 page)

Reece quickly stopped pretending
to read and looked over towards Jade, in order to prepare himself
for a waterfall of tears. Anytime anyone told Jade they were sorry
for her loss, she would run off crying, but surprisingly this time
she stood there, gave a slight grin and said, “Thanks.”

“
Most certainly. May I ask you more about your
father’s death and what it was like for you? One of the emotional
events I have not experienced is the loss of a loved one. I have
never had the opportunity to talk to someone who had a close one
pass before.”

Reece again looked at Jade, this
time knowing she was going to flip, but to his surprise nothing
happened and then he heard something he thought he would never
hear.

“
Sure, I would love to talk about
it.”

Reece was shocked. He recalled
how he tried numerous times to speak with Jade about her father’s
death, but was always unsuccessful. Now she meets Adam, an android,
and within minutes, she is willing to open up one of the most
personal moments of her life. It soon occurred to him that the
recording devices in his lab were functioning, per Central Circuit
policy.

Reece concluded there was not
going to be any documentation regarding this convergence. Reece
showed no hesitation and remotely accessed Jade’s PIC, while it was
still offline, and without her knowing. He was successful in
programming it to erect a dampening field, so once it was
reactivated it would prevent any recorded documentation within her
vicinity. For good measure, Reece also hacked Adam’s security
droid, and uploaded a virus that temporarily disabled its recording
capabilities. He was also able to re-write the droid’s base code to
make it look like a simple malfunction. Reece now needed to get
both Jade and Adam out of the lab, as he knew not even he could
hack the lab’s internal monitoring systems.

“
Sometimes I amaze even myself,”
said Reece proudly as he stood up without haste and walked back to
Jade and Adam.

“
Well, I hope all is going well, Adam please
take Jade to the cafeteria and get her something to eat. There’s no
reason why you need to hang out in this dingy place. I’ll stay
here, I need to respond to a few messages.”

“
I find it curious how you always insist I go
to the cafeteria right after you introduce me to someone,” replied
Adam.

“
Yes, yes now go, you kids have a good
time.”

Adam looked at Jade and said, “Would you like to
accompany me to our cafeteria so you could sample our fine
cuisine?”

“
Why, I would love to,” laughed Jade for the
first time since her tragic loss.

Adam and Jade left the lab and
headed down the lengthy hallway towards the elevator. During their
travels, Adam had pointed out different sections of the building he
had called home since his creation. As they continued to converse,
Jade asked Adam what his interests were and found out Adam was very
interested in the arts. When Jade asked him what kind of art, Adam
referenced painting and started to describe different styles he had
studied particularly abstract. Jade was most intrigued by this
because she already came to the premature conclusion an android
would be more interested in realism than art which could be open to
so much interpretation. Adam carried on to speak of artists as
Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, and Vincent Van Gogh and how he
prefers soft abstract art over hard abstract art because soft
abstract has no basis when it comes to geometry, again surprising
Jade.

“
Humanoids like yourself are so
complex and intriguing. There is so much emotion and confusion; it
is as if you yourself are a piece of this abstract art. As I study
and experience these emotions for myself I can only really
understand them if I place an image on them, but when I do the
image is not clear. It is filled with subjectivity, with no
reference to the physical realm as you know it. That is why when I
look at these paintings I see the use of visual language and art
that does not depict objects in the natural word. Instead what I
see is the use of color and form in such a non-representational
way, very similar to the emotions we feel. I have concluded that is
why I am so interested in this form of expression,” explained
Adam.

“
I never thought of connecting emotions to
paintings before. I could never really understand the attraction to
art. Don’t get me wrong, I occasionally find a beautiful painting
with landscapes of mountains and streams pleasant to look at.
However, when you start speaking of Picasso I just get lost. I look
at his work and see confusion,” replied Jade.

“
So you experience an emotion,” noted
Adam.

“
Yes, but it doesn’t speak to me;
I don’t understand what I’m looking at.”

“
Sure you do, you just need to look at it
deeper, let me show you.”

Adam walked over to a nearby
holoscreen and asked for Picasso,
Woman with Yellow Hair
.

A display of a female with yellow hair sitting on a
couch with her head on her arms and her eyes closed. The female’s
skin was light purplish and the couch was green with red, black,
and white stripes. The couch stripes were the only straight lines
on this piece. The woman’s arms were where her head had laid,
curved, and their size exaggerated.

“
What does this tell you?” asked
Adam.

“
I don’t know. I see a women sleeping and
everything is out of proportion,” said Jade while trying to figure
where Adam was going with this.

“
You need to take that analytical mind and
turn it off for a moment. Do not worry about scale or what is or is
not proportionate. Look at the painting and see what types of
emotions speak.”

Jade paused for a moment then followed with, “I see
a women sleeping, so, she must be tired; I don’t know, maybe she
had a stressful day; had a fight or something.”

“
Ok, so do you think she is happy or sad?”
asked Adam.

“
Well looking at the large curves
on her arms and head. Maybe she is holding a lot of baggage and
feels sad.”

“
Good, go on,” said Adam with a pleased look
on his face.

“
Maybe she is so tired of being
sad, she fell asleep. And now she is at peace with herself. She now
understands what has happened wasn’t her fault. It was just an
accident, an accident she could have never prevented. An accident
which brought terrible feelings and sadness.”

Jade looked away from the
painting and started to cry, as Adam placed his hand on her
shoulder and said, “Emotions are a very powerful sensation. They
are the energy, which keeps us alive. I feel much honor that you
are able to open up with me as you have. Who knew all you needed
was an Android with artificial feelings, a little bit of Picasso,
and most importantly time.”

As Jade wiped the tears from her face she simply
replied, “Thanks, Adam. There is nothing artificial about your
feelings.”

“
Thank you, Jade. So what do you think about
abstract art?”

“
I can see how there can be so
many different interpretations. It’s as if art like this acts as an
emotional conduit for the person viewing it. I can certainly see
how you would enjoy this so much,” replied Jade.

“
It does have its joys,” smiled Adam as he
touched in a few keys on a nearby holoscreen. “There, in a few days
a copy of this piece will be delivered to your home.”

“
Thanks,” said Jade.

“
Oh, do not thank me, thank Central Circuit
they are the ones who just paid for it,” laughed Adam.

Jade and Adam walked over to the elevator and
selected the basement level where the cafeteria was. As soon as
they exited the elevator everyone wanted to greet Adam, it was as
if he was some famous celebrity. People walked by patted him on the
back, shook his hand, asked how he was doing.

“
You certainly have a lot of friends,” said
Jade.

“
They are more like
acquaintances. You are more of a friend than anyone in this
building.”

Jade grinned as she looked around
and took in the décor. She was amazed, even the cafeterias here
were spectacular. The entire interior wall was a three hundred and
sixty degree holoscreen that showed a variety of messages, ads, and
video clips. In the center of it all was a giant circular buffet
with every type of food one could imagine. Of course, all the
meats, seafood, breads, pastas, fruits, vegetables, and deserts
were either created in front of you or had been freshly placed in
its appropriate serving tray. Jade maneuvered through all the
fantastic foods while she focused on her favorite, the pizza. She
was amazed at the variety of toppings one could place on such a
traditional item and well-loved food. Jade kept it simple and
grabbed two pieces, one with pepperoni and one with cheese. As she
finished up on the buffet, she decided to grab some pineapple and a
piece of sushi for good measure. Adam on the other hand was already
sitting down at a table near a small interior garden field with
lilies, roses, and sunflowers.

“
I figured you would have grabbed more food,”
said Adam.

“
You kidding me? This is, like, the most food
I have eaten in weeks.”

“
That would explain why you are as thin as a
bean pole.”

“
Don’t you know you should never
comment on a woman’s weight, especially when she is right in front
of you,” smirked Jade.

“
Oh my apologies ma’am,” replied
Adam jokingly as he stood up and pulled the chair out so Jade could
sit.

“
Thanks, I didn’t know you were
such a gentleman.”

“
I am filled with surprises.”

Adam and Jade sat there and spoke
for hours, while everyone in the cafeteria discretely focused on
them. People started to ask, “Who is this young girl Adam was
socializing with?” Never before did they see a stranger mingle with
the most state of the art android ever created.

“
So how old are you,” asked Jade.

“
Well I came online three years
ago, so I guess that makes me three years old.”

“
For real? You certainly don’t look it,”
laughed Jade.

“
I know and I certainly do not feel
it.”

“
So what is it like, being an android and the
only one of your kind?”

“
I do not really have anything to compare it
with. From what I learned, the only real difference between you and
someone like me is the amount of material I can learn. Reece has
informed me the amount of information I learn in one day takes the
average humanoid one year.”

“
You must really know a lot,” said
Jade.

“
I do, but the hard part is taking what I have
learned and then deciding what I find relevant.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Well, let us take my love for
art. I find that more intriguing than, let us say, mapping known
star clusters in our universe. Nevertheless my programmers want me
to experience everything first before I decide what I want to
pursue.”

“
I can relate to that. Most
adults have that same desire for their children.”

“
I am sure. However, my concern
is once I am out of beta testing, they are going to force me to do
jobs that I would not normally choose for myself.”

“
Like what?” asked Jade.

“
Perhaps break encryption, devise
new scientific calculations, or figure out how cold fusion works.
You know, boring topics of that nature.”

As soon as Adam finished his
comment, Jade spat out her mouthful of lemonade while
laughing.

“
Are you ok, you need a napkin?” asked
Adam.

“
Yeah, I’m fine. Its just, you’re
nothing like I expected, which is great.”

“
What did you expect?”

“
You know the stereotypical android. No
emotions, interested in math and science, that kind of
thing.”

“
Trust me, I know. I think that is why a lot
of people tend to enjoy my company, I have personality.”

“
That you do Adam, but don’t let it go to your
head,” smirked Jade.

“
Of course, I would never. Do you mind if I
quote from one of my favorite movies, Casablanca, if that is ok
with you?” asked Adam.

“
I thought that was part of Morocco. They made
a movie about Casablanca?”

“
Yes and a great one at that. It was a 1942
romantic drama, which took place in Casablanca,” explained
Adam.

“
Oh ok, sure.”

Adam grinned looked at Jade and stated, “I think
this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

The
Beginning

“Give me numbers for Earth,” called out a voice.

“
There have been 316,392 new
uploads for Earth date 11.16.2039 to Tureis. Only 149 of the
uploads will be analyzed for possible archiving. The rest are
awaiting memory cleansing and re-download. There are 227,832
newborns expected for Earth date 11.17.2039, leaving us with a
surplus of 88,411 field programs.”

“
Understood - complete a probability report on
the 316,243 new uploads who are not getting reviewed and then purge
31% of the ones who show a poor success rate in the next fifty
Earth years.”