A Ghost of
Love in the Machine
by Joshua
Falken
Thanks to Matrix Refugee and Ista Dreamer for beta-read this chapter :-)
Chapter 2 - Encounter in the Dark
I was in an illuminated place, with several people around me. They were seated at tables and they ate, talked and laughed. Except the man before me and myself. He had brown hair and green eyes, that had a sad and concerned shine that he didn't manage to hide. But those were the only distinguible details of his face. All the rest was a blur, along with all the other people. He held my right hand, that was on the table.
"Jerrica, don't worry... I know that you are disappointed, but..." the voice of that man, which I couldn't identify, became more and more distant.
Something hot and wet ran down my face. My gaze fell over a letter, which I thought for some reason had recently been opened. It was from something called Population Control...
"Dear Mrs. Benton... We regret to inform that your requisition to have a son was denied due to the fact that your genome didn't meet the standards established by the Population Control Regional Council..."
My left hand flew over the table and struck a glass. A scream of a woman echoed through the room. It was my voice. The glass dropped slowly toward the ground and broke in several pieces.
Then, the scene became difused and I opened the eyes in my apartment in the Dark City. My face continued to burn hot with something wet on it. In fifteen minutes I should go to Dr. Beller to inform her about the progress on Project Miragebots.
I stood up and I went to stand under the shower. While the water fell over me, I tried to diagnose my own dysfunction. What were those images that put itself upon my duties in my conscience? With the passing of the months, they have become more and more frequent... more disturbing, and at the same time, more distant.
Could my memories be lost in the database? I didn't know.
I left my shower, drying my body.
I fetched the black clothes that I always wore, I adjusted my hair and my beret. Then I went to the window of my apartment and looked out over my... "kingdom". The City was dark and without anybody, as always, extending for kilometers... Of course none of that was necessary: everything was just a simulation -- I didn't have a body, nor the real need to clean it... but a part of my mind insisted that... that I should go along with custom as if that world wasn't a counterfeit...
Then, I raised my right arm and I snapped my fingers. In that moment, I disappeared from the Dark City and I assumed my functions in the Cybertronics Computer Network.
======
Jeanine Salla went into the coffee room of the corporation's office, to take a very strong cup of coffee. She had spent the entire night working, talking with Kenshin, an A.I. that administered the Museum of the Meiji Age, in New Tokyo -- it seemed that the articlet was having hallucinations in which it was an swordsman from the beginning of the Meiji Age... He had even given a complete physical description of his alter ego: red hair, violet eyes, a scar in form of X on the left side of the face...
"Good morning, Dr. Salla." A woman's voice greeted her.
Jeanine lifted the eyes from her cup and she saw a young woman, about 28 years old, short red hair, penetrating blue eyes and a somewhat arrogant smile. Carefully, Jeanine answered.
"Good morning, Dr. Sutter."
Dr. Elizabeth Jane Sutter just nodded and went to the coffee machine, to make a capuccino. Jeanine observed her: both women were computational psychologists, having being educated in Bangalore World University and they had studied under Dr. Allen Hobby's direction... in different times, of course. For some reason, Jeanine didn't sympathize with Sutter: she was a little too cold and arrogant, in Salla's opinion.
It was not surprising that she was the right arm of Dr. Josianne Beller...
Elizabeth Jane Sutter finished her coffee and she left the room, walking thorugh the corridor until her boss's office. The Mecha-secretary informed her the arrival of the computational psychologist and quickly allowed her entrace. Jane Sutter saw the hologram of a tall pink-haired woman, dressed an elegant business suit, in the middle of the room, who stopped speaking the very moment that Sutter had entered.
"Good morning, Dr. Sutter."
"Good morning, Dr. Beller. I hope I am not interrupting anything."
"Don't worry. Actually, it is related with your work." Cybertronics's CEO turned to the holographic woman. "Go ahead, Jem."
Jem nodded. Behind her a screen lit up. "Automatic Factory #23 finished the prototype 2 - the Miragebot car-robot." Behind Jem, appeared the image of a black Sedan, a perfectly normal car, in a deserted factory warehouse. "Do you wish see it assuming the robotic form, Dra. Beller?"
"Yes, Jem."
The holographic woman closed her eyes while accessing the robot's systems and, one moment later, the black car became a gigantic android robot, with a plasma cannon locked into each arm. The general effect was impressive.
"As you can see, the mechanical part of the Prototype 2 works perfectly, but even so, a compatible brain for the planned use has been finding serious difficulties."
"And the prototype 1?"
"The prototype 1 -- airplane-robot -- it is still in construction. There were problems with positioning the turbojet engines."
"Very well. Return to your functions, Jem."
The holographic woman disappeared.
"What did you think, Sutter?"
"Really very impressive."
Josianne Beller rose of her chair and went to the window of the office. Without turning, she said to her employee.
"As you heard, we already produced a model of military robot which was perfectly functional - except, of course, for the quantum brain. The current architecture will reject any order that violates the First Law. And that is why you should analyze the systems of the David Prototype and discover how to copy its rage so we can use it in our robots." The blond CEO turned and she leaned on the table. "Sutter, it doesn't interest me how you do it. Find out what made that mecha-boy violate First Law any way that you can." The shine of the cold blue eyes became cruel. "Even if you have to cut out it in pieces. Am I clear?"
"Sure, Dr. Beller."
"Nor do I need to say that if you succeed, you will be well rewarded."
"Yes, I understand." And Sutter also understood the other consequence, what would happen in case of failure...
======
One week later, the worried-for-her-neck computational psychologist went to her restricted laboratory, on the twenty-second level of the Manhattan Research Unit. Her team worked with the recovered David prototype. Thousands of wires and cables were connected to the mecha-child's body, linking the immobile robot to the analysis systems of Cybertronics. Nobody seemed to care about the disillusion on the face of small Mecha.
"Any progress?"
"No Dr. Sutter." One of the programmers explained. "We didn't trace the memory banks of the android. The only thing that we detected are memories related to Monica Swinton, its imprinter, and to its neurotic fixation with the myth of the Blue Fairy." The psychologist thought with irony of her teacher's belief that a robot following a myth was a huge achievement for the field of the Artificial Intelligence... the faith in myths was the greatest human weakness!
Well, if David hadn't let them discover how he had come to react with rage that day in Hobby's office, they would make it become enraged again...
"Connect the robot with the Dark City."
"Yes, Dr. Sutter."
======
David opened his eyes and looked around, confused and afraid... Where was the Blue Fairy? And Teddy? What he was doing in the middle of that deserted creepy street? David tried to remember: He was pleading to the Blue Fairy, when bad men had broken the window of the amphibiocopter and they had...
"There he is!" A voice screamed behind him. David turned and was pushed down roughly by a boy. The Mecha-child fell to the ground. Other boys appeared and they began to humiliate him.
David ran through the street, trying to flee of his stalking tormentors. Why did they want to hurt him? Why?
======
All that day, Jane Sutter observed David's despair impassively. "Why he doesn't attack?" she wondered, questioning the intelligence of the android.
She looked at the clock. Time to return home.
"Turn off the reactive units and close down the simulation.". she ordered.
"Do you want us to remove it from the Dark City?"
"No, leave him there... he is not going anywhere." Sutter affirmed, turning her back to the screen.
======
It was raining outside of the snack bar. I observed the phenomenon while I "ate" a chocolate ice cream mechanically, while the boy behind the counter looked at me, while he cleaned a glass. Honestly, I didn't know why I insisted on that part of the simulation. A part of me liked that -- at least, I describe as "liking" the sensation that traveled my conscience.
But I didn't know why.
I shook my head while I got up and paid for the ice cream. The boy took the money and disappeared in a blur. I raised the hood of my raincoat and left the building. The rain intensified. I, as a shadow, cut through the curtain of rain that fell over Dark City. The sound of my footsteps echoed thorugh the solitude of the deserted City. Perhaps I was so accustomed to being alone that I didn't notice the form that came in my direction.
It collided with me with force and both of us fell to the wet ground. I looked with much surprise for the "visitor". It was a small, lanky form. I took some time to understand that it was a child.
What was a child doing in Dark City?
I stretched out my arm in its direction. The child looked at me with terror and it let out a scream. I should admit that the scream surprised me so much -- and I was already very surprised -- that it made me stay there, immobile, while he got up and ran, far away from me.
After a moment, I got up and I ran after him.
======
David ran frightened through the deserted streets. Frightened of those boys that wanted to hurt him. Frightened of that frightening City. Then he collided with the Ghost. Two nights before the party by the pool, Martin had told him about the Ghosts, faceless beings that scared and hurt the Orga. The faceless being, with the body in the form of a flying cape, matched Martin's description.
When the Ghost stretched out its arm -- that looked claw-like -- in his direction, the cybernetic boy screamed with fear and ran. He heard footsteps behind him. David looked behind and he saw the tall and gloomy faceless form running behind him.
"Stop!" The ghost ordered, but the boy was too terrified. He didn't want to get hurt anymore. He wanted to be safe.
Trembling with fear, David entered an alley and hid somewhere. He prayed that the Ghost wouldn't find him...
======
I ran until I had lost him from my view. I stopped in the rain, trying to decide what to do. I had to find him. I wanted to know that he was doing here...
I scanned the entire Dark City - all its structure, all of its internal processes. Then I detected an anomalous point nearby. It had to be the child.
Slowly, I entered the alley and I went into its darkest corner. Among some abandoned boxes, a heap of dirty cloth trembled. With a quick movement of my hand, I pulled up the cloth, revealing the unexpected child. It was a boy with blond hair and beautiful blue eyes, who was shaking, and it was not due to the rain.
"Please, don't hurt me! Please!" He implored, shrinking with fear while my shadow hovered over him.
Something inside of me was very disturbed with that request: why would he think I would hurt him?
"I don't want to do you harm." I affirmed softly.
Distrust joined the fear.
"But the Ghosts always want to hurt people."
"But I am not a ghost." And I removed my hood, revealing my pale face. The boy looked at me, surprised with the revelation. I asked, as kindly as I could:
"What is your name?"
A whole minute passed before he answered.
"D-David."
I smiled, trying calm him down. "Beautiful name, David. My name is Jer... Jem." He still looked me with fear when I extended my hand. "You must be cold. Would you like to go somewhere where you could be dry and warm?"
"Are you going me to hurt me?"
"I will not."
His blue eyes, with a innocent brightness mixed with fear, looked timidly in my own.
"Do you promise?"
Something in that innocent brightness touched me... in a way that didn't get to understand or remember.
"I promise." I said.
He timidly caught my hand and got up from his hiding place. I placed my raincoat over him, as a mantle. I adjusted my hood and we disappeared from that alley.
To be continued...
What do you think?
Please, read and review! :-)
