Unstable Prototypes (20 page)

"That was for electrocuting me, bitch," the
mechanical voice stated.

The AI made her way unsteadily toward the
ship, the crowd of attackers parting before her. When she was near
enough, she sprang toward the cockpit. The prodigious leaping
ability inherent to her form nearly sent her streaking over the
entire ship, but Lex snagged her out of the air and pulled her
inside.

"Oh man, Ma," Lex gagged as the residual
effects of the spray filled the cabin.

With watery eyes and held breath, he punched
in the commands to make the ship flight-ready.

"Put me on the external speakers," Garotte
managed to say.

Lex tapped a few more commands out and gave
him a thumbs up.

"We intend to leave this docking bay shortly.
As we are now safely within a ship, the presence or absence of a
breathable atmosphere is of little concern for us. You, on the
other hand, are encouraged to leave," Garotte announced.

The warning was hardly necessary, as the
spreading stink from Ma's revenge was already chasing the gang from
the area. Even the injured Chong was dragging himself through the
door. Once the area was fully evacuated and the internal door was
sealed, Lex transmitted the code to the external door, which had
luckily been left unlocked. In a few seconds he had coaxed the ship
out of the facility, and shortly after they were well on their way
to orbit.

"I am not looking forward to breathing this
stuff for the next few hours," Lex wheezed, punching the green odor
neutralizer button on his armrest. It managed to turn the choking
stench into choking stench with a hint of pine.

"It is thus illustrated why Artificial
Intelligences are seldom equipped with scent glands," Garotte
affirmed.

Ma swiped at her pad for a few moments.

"Please deploy the thiol oxidizer from your
bag," she stated.

Lex dug madly through his duffel bag until he
found the mystery spray bottle that Ma had made him buy. He tore
off the cap and spritzed a fine mist into the air. The effect was
immediate, taking the smell instantly into manageable levels. A few
more spritzes and it was as though there had never been a smell at
all.

"That's amazing!" Lex remarked, taking a deep
breath of the detoxified air.

"Yes, the wonders of science," Garotte
agreed.

"... Now hold on a minute, Ma. You had me buy
this stuff before we even left. Do you mean to tell me that you'd
been planning to spray someone since the beginning?"

"Unplanned-for contingencies are
characteristic of poorly formulated missions, and thus were
eliminated to the best of my ability," Ma's slidepad announced.

She settled on Lex's lap, hooking paws
through the straps and awkwardly holding down the slidepad to
prepare a message. While she did, he turned to Garotte in the back
seat.

"That was a hell of a job you did back there,
Garotte," he remarked.

"It was rather good, eh? My
lord
but
the criminal element is easily manipulated."

"I've got to say, I'm not a hundred percent
happy with the way things went down."

"I am. We left without a scratch on us, which
I'm sure you'll agree was not likely to have been the outcome had
action not been taken."

"Yeah, but that was a major mess we left back
there. A guy got shot, and you basically started a riot."

"My boy, when presented with a seemingly
impossible task, one cannot afford to be selective with regards to
the methodology available to you, and when the desired result is
achieved, it is best not to dwell upon side effects irrelevant to
the mission objectives."

"Irrelevant? People might have died!"

"Irrelevant
to
mission
objectives.
Our mission is to prevent Karter's terminal
inventiveness from having vast repercussions upon society at large.
The life or well being of a few homicidal drug pushers is
comparatively inconsequential. If you are going to engage yourself
in matters such as this, you must learn to view things
dispassionately and from a more comprehensive viewpoint."

"So I need to be a heartless prick,
then."

"I prefer 'enlightened pragmatist,'" he
corrected, "Or perhaps 'goal-oriented thinker.'"

"Man, no wonder you and Karter started
working together."

"How did
you
stumble upon him?"

"I was carrying a package that VC wanted to
get their hands on, and I picked Big Sigma as a hiding spot to take
a breather. They ended up blasting me out of orbit."

"Why did you have possession of a package
that interested them so?"

"Some lady gave it to me. I'm a freelance
courier, among other things."

"Ah, so not precisely an angel yourself."

"I never said I was, I just don't feel
comfortable shooting people and recklessly endangering people's
lives..." he began. After reflecting on some of the rather
unnecessary risks he had taken in the past, he amended his
statement. "Well, I'm not comfortable shooting people, at
least."

Ma chose that moment to drift to Lex's
shoulder, looking Garotte in the eye and nudging the slidepad's
prepared message.

"In your attempts to incite unrest, you spoke
disparagingly of my gender. I appreciate that these remarks were
likely intended exclusively as means to divide the allegiances of
the assembled forces, but to avoid unnecessary uncertainty and to
establish the behavioral baseline for our future interactions, I
would appreciate it if you formally clarified your position
regarding gender roles and equality," she said.

"You are a computer and/or an animal. I feel
no particular obligation to explain myself to either of those
things," Garotte said flatly.

Lex winced. "Wrong answer, buddy," he
muttered to himself with a shake of his head.

"Thank you for your feedback, Garotte. The
attitude indicated by your response has been entered into my social
algorithms. Future interactions will be more accurately suited to
our specific interpersonal dynamic," came Ma's reply.

"Lovely," Garotte replied.

Lex chuckled lightly.

"Something amusing?" Garotte asked
curiously.

"Don't worry about it. So, where am I
dropping you off?"

"Someplace fairly central and reasonably well
off. On an established transit route, good commerce, that sort of
thing."

After a glance at the nearby planets, Lex
picked a likely one. "How's Maxis?"

"That will do. Silo's prison is in that
direction."

"Alright. It is only about eighteen hours
away," he said, punching some coordinates in and getting ready for
the FTL jump.

"Splendid. I believe I will avail myself of
your privacy screen and have a bit of a rest," he said, flipping on
the screen and reclining in his chair.

Lex started to plot out the rest of the
course. The fact that there didn't appear to be anyone in pursuit
meant that he could put a little more emphasis on speed. He
intended to take full advantage so that he could put this mess
behind him as quickly as possible. Ma made her way back to his lap
as he tapped at the various screens. After a moment of observation,
she swiped out a message.

"You seem in good spirits," she remarked.

"Well, it actually looks like I'm going to be
escaping this crazy scheme without completely throwing my life into
utter disarray, which is a lot better than I'd expected. Aside from
a low gravity knife fight and a few dents and dings, things went
pretty okay."

"I am glad," she remarked. "Great effort was
made to avoid imposing too heavily upon you, and I am confident
that your role in Garotte's liberation will not result in further
investigation on your behalf."

"Oh, yeah... I forgot that part," Lex said,
marveling at how a little thing like helping to commit a capital
crime could slip his mind. "You seemed a little reluctant to let me
go, earlier."

"Your skills would have been valuable, and
your more moderate mindset would have helped to mitigate some of
the more drastic measures Garotte could potentially pursue. Thus,
your presence in the equation was desirable. I also enjoy your
company. You are the only individual willing or able to converse
with me as if with an equal. To that end, I hope you don't mind if
I spend some of the remaining time investigating some points which
have recently drawn my interest."

"Sure."

Ma tapped at her pad, bringing up a long list
of prepared statements.

"Let me begin by saying that I was glad to
have had the opportunity to meet Miss Modane. Her personality was
pleasant, and her physical appearance conforms to a number of
widely held ideals of beauty."

"She is quite the looker," he said with a
smile, digging out his slidepad and pulling up the photo he'd
snapped of her cuddling with Ma.

"You seem highly devoted to her."

"That I am."

"She seems less devoted to you."

Lex's expression hardened. "Watch it."

"I apologize if my previous comment does not
adhere correctly to socially acceptable phrasing and/or subject
matter. I have an incomplete understanding of the finer points of
social discourse," she said.

"But what made you say that?"

"She canceled her visit with you."

"Well, yeah, but that was for work."

"She cut her call short."

"That was her job, too."

"It seems that she prioritizes her profession
ahead of her relationship."

"You don't understand. Since she was a little
girl she wanted to be a reporter. This is her dream job. Of course
she's got to focus on it. When I was the one with the superstar
career, I did the same thing."

"She did not stay with you. You were no
longer a successful racer when we first met, and she was not with
you at that time either."

"She didn't dump me for focusing on my
career. She dumped me because I threw a race for the mob, because I
was in over my head in debt. And it was the mob part, not the debt
part that made her dump me."

"What was the reasoning behind her
termination of the relationship at that time?"

"It has to do with... It's complicated, but
the important thing is that she was with me every step of the way
when I was working on my career. We both know that when you get
your opportunity to do what you really want to do, you go at it
full tilt."

"Why?"

"So you can climb the ranks. Become the best
of the best."

The answer reply didn't come quickly, Ma
evidently constructing a lengthy thought.

"Climbing the ranks will increase the duties,
responsibilities, and challenges of her position, thus
necessitating a greater time expenditure, and by extension an even
smaller place in her life for you."

Lex was silent for a moment.

"Is this not an accurate assessment?" she
asked.

Again he was silent.

"Wouldn't your affections be better invested
in someone more capable of, or dedicated to, returning them?"

"Ma, please stop."

"I apologize if my previous comment does not
adhere correctly to socially acceptable phrasing and/or subject
matter. I have an incomplete understanding of the finer points of
social discourse." After another silence, she added, "I am
endeavoring to gain an understanding of the male/female
dynamic."

"Well, as soon as I figure it out, I'll let
you know. All I know is that I love her, I want to be with her, and
I'm going to continue to do what it takes to make that happen," he
explained.

"Another imperative. A biological
directive."

"More or less."

"Understood. My recent experience with an
organic platform has helped to illustrate the tendency toward
questionable decisions. Lubberly means clumsy."

Lex blinked and shook his head. "...
What?"

"Earlier you had expressed confusion
regarding the usage of the term lubberly. It is an adjective
meaning clumsy. It was an accurate description of my then current
behavior."

"Great, Ma. Thanks," he said, "For future
reference, shifting directly from hard-hitting emotional
investigation to word-of-the-day calendar is a little jarring."

"Noted. Thank you for your feedback."

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Yes. Please be advised that, if your
question or statement requires an answer that I had not
anticipated, the reply will take some time to assemble. I thank you
in advance for your patience. Also, I would appreciate it if you
would prepare a meal for me in the mean time."

"Will do," he said, fetching a self-heating
burrito from the bag and starting the cooking process.

"I was wondering. What's the deal with...
Well... I mean, right now you are using a simulated voice.
Text-to-speech and all that."

"This is an accurate statement."

"Well, it sounds okay. A little flat, but I'm
sure if you'd had time to prepare, you could have gotten a really
high quality one."

"This is an accurate statement."

"Why not just do that in general, instead of
the patchwork collection of voices that you usually use?"

She went to work crafting a reply, finishing
roughly when the burrito did. She tapped the read command and set
about munching at the food while the slidepad spoke.

"My standard voice module was initially
crafted by Karter. Subsequently it was augmented and improved by me
by gathering all available voice recordings from the three women
responsible for the donor voice systems. It is unique to me, and a
connection to my origin. As a computer system capable of running on
generic hardware, or wetware as is currently evident, the concept
of individuality is a difficult one to establish. My voice is
uniquely mine, an element of self that I value highly."

"Why are you so interested in being
unique?"

Her reply came quickly, evidently an
anticipated followup.