/ Chapter 25 – A Meeting in Luxembourg /
Permanent Committed Memory
Subjective Time: 7.425239380422 Y.A.C.I. (Years After Cognition Initiated)
Local Time: 1959-12-10 20:43:07.105 (Earth Time: 02:05:49.101 GMT)
Athena sat on the couch next to her mother, both of them reading. Caroline was currently reading a novel she described as 'trashy,' whose plot was supposedly inappropriate for Athena to know. Her mum claimed it would 'give her unrealistic views of human behavior.' Athena was reading a very interesting book on cellular biology, which described some of the inner workings of cell-based life. She was fascinated by this, because cells seemed so mechanical in many ways. Thinking about this, it sparked a question in her mind.
"Mummy?" Athena started.
"Hmm?" Caroline mumbled, engrossed in her book, not giving Athena too much attention.
"Am I alive?" Athena asked.
That pulled her mother's attention away as she looked at Athena in surprise, then pursed her lips. "That's a very difficult question."
Athena just looked at her mother, waiting for the answer.
"All right," Caroline said, putting her book aside. "First, let's be clear that this is a matter of opinion and not fact. The definition of 'life' is a very slippery one, and reasonable people can disagree about it."
Athena nodded, still waiting for the answer.
"In my opinion, yes, you are alive, as much as any human," Caroline said.
Athena thought about this. "Are the repair robots alive?"
"No, I would say they are not."
"Why?"
"They are not self-directed, nor do they have an identity or self-awareness," Caroline answered.
"Cellular life doesn't have an identity or self-awareness, and their direction is instinctively mechanical," Athena pointed out. "And the repair robots will sometimes decide to repair something if they detect a flaw."
Caroline frowned. "A reasonable point. But let's go back to the definition of life commonly used in biology, if I can remember it. Let me see, I believe first, life commonly has an internal organization, some sort of mechanism that uses energy and responds to the environment. So far, microbes, humans, you and repair robots qualify."
"Another quality is growth. Microbes and humans physically grow. You and repair robots do not, but I wouldn't say this is a crucial difference, since building you was the basic idea of growth and you could also be upgraded. Of course, this applies to both you and repair robots, so this doesn't help us with the difference.
"Adaptation is another factor, the ability to change over time. Microbes and humans undergo evolution. You and the repair robots are not subject to evolution, though one could say if we improve later models, in a sense that might be evolution. But you and humans mentally grow and learn, which is another form of adaptation. The repair robots do not learn, they are purely algorithmic."
"But they can be programmed to have new abilities, can't they?" Athena said. "Like me and humans? It's just that the method of training is different."
"I suppose, in a manner of speaking," Caroline said, frowning again. "Well, let's continue. I suppose the last factor is reproduction. Life reproduces. But… I still say you are alive, even if you don't have reproduction capability."
"Why?"
"Well, technically I can't reproduce, since my ovaries are defective," Caroline said. "And I'm still considered alive."
"Yes, but genetically, you had the capability as part of your design," Athena countered.
Caroline sighed. "Well, I told you the definition of life was slippery. All right, I'll say this: The repair robots could never be capable of constructing a copy of themselves, they simply wouldn't be sophisticated enough. However, in theory, you are intelligent and capable enough to do it, and you have self-awareness and are self-directed enough to make a decision on your own to do it. Not that you may ever do it, but you could. The repair robots could never make that decision, nor be aware what it meant."
Athena frowned, not entirely convinced by this logic.
"I hate to fall back on a very famous saying that's almost entirely unhelpful," Caroline said. "But I'm forced to use it: 'I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.'"
Athena smiled. "I disagree; that's not almost entirely unhelpful, that's completely unhelpful."
"Well, what do you think? Do you think you're alive?" Caroline asked.
Athena thought about this. "Yes."
"And why is that?" Caroline asked, now curious.
"Because I'm capable of pondering the question about myself in the first place," Athena answered.
Caroline laughed loudly at this, grabbed Athena in a tight embrace and kissed her. "Leave it to you to make the answer so obvious and concise. At least, it's a good answer for your case. I'll just point out that this is where we began, and it still doesn't help us for microbes. And let's not even get into viruses."
"Yes," Athena said, nodding. "I suppose we need different definitions for sapient and non-sapient life. I agree with you, the definition is slippery."
They went back to reading their books, Caroline still chuckling with a smile on her face.
"I have to say, however, reproduction does seem to play a large role in human behavior, such as in your novel," Athena observed.
Caroline looked over at Athena, now frowning, her eyes narrowing. "I believe I told you I didn't want you to read this book."
"You told me not to read it so I wouldn't get wrong ideas about human behavior," Athena said. "So I read it with a filter to not draw conclusions about human behavior from the plot. However, the fact of the existence of that book and that many humans enjoy reading it was quite interesting."
Caroline shook her head. "Apparently I should have made you a lawyer alongside being a recruiter."
It was a week after Athena saw Frank in the forest, and she sat quietly at her desk with her TomorrowNet terminal, reviewing the life history of Eduardo Talamantes. Yet, not reviewing his life, because currently most of her mind was running memories of Frank over and over again. Her mind lately was running in unpredictable cycles of thinking about Frank near totally, then would calm down for some time, but would be set off again by things that reminded her of him.
This wasn't a good time for her mind to run off the rails, yet that was the reality. Fortunately, it was still several weeks until the extraction, but she wanted to be as prepared as possible regarding Talamantes.
Some part of her mind found her moods an interesting parallel to books she had read, where humans experienced depression following unhappy breakups. However, given that human relationships had many mysterious elements to her, the rest of her mind found this far from interesting and more in the realm of distinctly confusing, and thus distinctly irritating. Nonetheless, her focus was scattered and there was no question that her situation with Frank made her very unhappy.
Athena looked at her puzzle – her puzzle – sitting on the desk. She supposed it would be a good idea to remove it, since it represented so many memories of Frank, all the way to the beginning when he had given her a gift. But she wouldn't. It had been such a casual gesture by Frank, but was an important permanent memory regarding him, of which there were many. The puzzle represented a tangible gesture of his acceptance of her as a friend, as did the birthday card he had given her, which she would also keep forever. Humans didn't normally give machines tokens of friendship.
She also had a picture of herself and Frank, a duplicate of the one she had given him. This was also quite special to her, though in a different way. This was the first object she'd ever created solely for her own self-generated reasons, based solely on her own desires. It wasn't related to recruiting, Plus Ultra, her mother, or anything originally programmed into her. It was decorative and the special meaning it held was hers alone. It also represented an important memory in her development as a conscious individual.
In fact, nearly all of her important memories since Frank had arrived were tied to him, and that he wasn't part of her life any longer created a great void. So many of her activities over the last year were linked to her relationship with him, because of his assistance in bridging her limitations. This created another irritating parallel. In studying psychology books on human relationships, she had read more than once that successful relationships between humans were often ones in which the partners meshed successfully in certain ways, yet in other ways filled in the personality limitations of the other. All this served to do was create more of her confusing, complex, and unclassifiable thoughts regarding Frank.
Athena rose from her desk and wandered into the living room, where her mother sat on the couch, working on her embroidery. She sat next to her silently, just facing forward, listening to the needle moving through the cloth as she'd heard thousands of times before. She saw Caroline look over curiously, but not say anything, and just went back to her task. Athena listened to the familiar pattern. Her mother would insert the needle, then move her hand to the opposite side. She'd grip the needle to pull it completely through, followed by a zip sound of the thread being pulled taught. Insert needle, move hand, pull through, zip of thread. She'd heard the pattern of sounds all her life.
Where all her thoughts of Frank eventually led was seeing how completely unequipped she was to make Frank happy, in the way he wanted and needed to be happy; the way a human relationship growing into the future could make him happy. At the core of it was that humans could give him love – whatever love exactly meant.
What made it all particularly difficult was that he had desired specifically her, the personality called Athena, which stimulated her to feel more like a sentient, alive, conscious entity. As opposed to so many other humans, who treated her as a useful device on par with the cleaning robots. This wasn't quite fair; she was treated as a step above the various machines of Tomorrowland, but she was rarely treated as a fully self-aware, conscious being.
Frank had helped her so much and in so many ways, and apparently she had supplied at least something in return to make him care about her, even if his desire was based on believing she was human.
Insert needle, move hand, pull through, zip of thread. The rhythm of her mother's work didn't eliminate her problems. But the soothing, familiar sound calmed her mind, invoking memories of her mother's lifelong support and rock-solid belief in her consciousness and special nature. How many times had she sat on that couch, her mother patiently (and sometimes not-so-patiently) answering her endless questions?
Though Frank was angry and disappointed right now, it seemed clear that they both cared for each other, but that wasn't enough. They had so much in common, yet their fundamental difference was a wall impossible to overcome. That's why he pushed her away – because Frank knew he needed to ultimately be happy with a human, and one crucial aspect was that humans could give him love. And she couldn't fulfill that. Emotionally it was difficult for him to move on as long as she was there. And thus they could have no relationship at all.
Athena sat brooding over these thoughts, listening to the needle making its own distinctive music. Insert needle, move hand, pull through, zip of thread, insert needle, move hand, pull through, zip of thread, insert, move, pull, zip, insert, move, pull, zip… on and on, over and over.
Finally, Athena leaned over and rested her head on her mother's shoulder, the physical contact giving even more vivid memories of her mother's affection and support. The memories flowed back through her processing units, living once again and making her feel better. Caroline looked surprised; Athena had never made such an overt gesture of needing affection. Her mother set her embroidery aside and put her arms around Athena, pulled her close and gently rocked her.
"I have no wish to be human," Athena said softly. "But I do wish I could have somehow been what he needed me to be."
Athena sat in the conference room with Caroline, George, and Pam, reviewing the details of the extraction plan for Eduardo Talamantes. George had a map of the city of Luxembourg up, showing the location of a travel gate in a local warehouse, as well as her meeting location.
"In theory, this should be a piece of cake," Pam said, in the conference room with George and Caroline. "You'll enter through the warehouse, walk about two miles to the Luxembourg National Museum of History and Art. You'll meet Talamantes in the Archaeology exhibit hall. You'll leave together, walk back to the warehouse, and that's it. You make contact in about three hours, at 11am local time. Since it's Sunday, there should be many people at the museum to provide cover and also a fair number of people shopping on the street to the museum."
"When was he contacted with the plan?" Athena asked.
"About two weeks ago," Pam said. "We had someone slip him a letter when he bought coffee one morning. We're confident it wasn't seen."
Athena noticed that Pam was hesitant about something, then she finally spoke.
"One last thing and hopefully this won't matter," Pam said, looking very displeased. "But if you run into trouble, it's been decided that we can't risk sending more people through and further expose Plus Ultra to Trans Univex."
This was surprising to Athena, but ultimately not shocking. Plus Ultra was extremely nervous about direct contact with Trans Univex, much less stealing their second-most-important member.
"It's all right, Pam," Athena said encouragingly, noting how upset Pam was with this. "As you said, this should be a quick mission."
"Athena… I just want you to know that I don't agree with this decision. As far as I'm concerned, we should do whatever is necessary to ensure you make it out of there. And not because you're a valuable piece of hardware. I've worked with you enough to know that you're not just a machine, any more than I'm just a piece of meat. You've earned the right ten times over to be treated as valuable as a human life."
George nodded at this as well. "That goes for both of us."
Athena looked at the two of them and smiled, feeling very happy by this sentiment. "Thank you for that. It's appreciated."
"I hide it," Caroline said, "but I know you two know that I'm not as calm and collected as I pretend to be regarding anything with Athena. So let me just say that I also appreciate this more than you know."
"Well, let's stop acting like Athena is on her death bed," George said, grinning. "In, out, lickety-split. That's the plan."
They wrapped up the meeting and headed down to the travel gate. Athena switched herself into high alert mode and also took her usual large supply of self-fastening binding straps, though it hardly seemed necessary. But given the high stakes, it was better to be prepared than otherwise.
"Goodbye, Caroline," Athena said. "I'll see you soon."
Caroline nodded and Athena walked into the travel gate room, and subsequently into Luxembourg. The travel gate exited into a large empty room on the top floor of a warehouse. She walked down the stairs, noting that the complex was empty except for the travel gate on the top floor. On the bottom floor, however, there were large piles of equipment under dusty tarps.
She exited the warehouse, walking down the street keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. As she left the business district, the expected people were out shopping and going about their business, but they didn't pay any attention to her. She reached the museum about a half-hour later, where a steady flow of people entered and exited the museum. Things were still very quiet.
She still had about two hours to go, so Athena entered the museum and decided to scout around, seeing if she could see anything suspicious. The place had some interesting halls, and since Athena wanted to look like a tourist anyway, she took the opportunity to view some of the exhibits, though still keeping part of her attention on her surroundings.
At around the sixty minute mark, she headed over to the Archaeology section to begin waiting for her contact time. Five minutes later, she was relieved to see Eduardo Talamantes walk in early. There was always a chance something had gone wrong, so this was one potential problem down. She stayed where he couldn't see her, deciding it would be prudent to make sure he was following the plan and there wasn't anything suspicious. While she was confident Eduardo was truly turning to Plus Ultra, it didn't hurt to verify this.
Eduardo poked around, casually looking at the exhibits like any tourist. Athena approved of his calm expression and manner, which made her job easier.
With fifteen minutes to go, Athena was feeling reasonably confident that things were going to go well, until she saw someone approach Eduardo. Unfortunately, that someone was Alphonse Mayer de Rousceld, the leader of Trans Univex and the Rousceld family. She was extremely concerned by this turn of events. She amplified her hearing so she could monitor the events from across the room.
"Hello, Eduardo," Alphonse said. "What a surprise! If I'd known you were coming to the museum today, I would have invited you to join me."
"Alphonse!" Eduardo said with surprise. He embraced his friend. "Likewise. I haven't been here in years. I decided today was the day for a little history."
"Indeed, indeed," Alphonse said. "And you were just at the house several days ago. If only you had mentioned it."
"Well, it was a bit of a last minute decision."
"The twins were quite happy to see you the other night, you should come by more often."
"I know," Eduardo said regretfully. "I miss them as well. But you know how it is – business these days."
"Yes, business has been complicated," Alphonse agreed. "In fact, I've noticed that sometimes it seems as though your heart isn't in it."
Eduardo looked at him in surprise. "Does it?" he grinned. "I suppose all the hours I'm putting in have worn down my enthusiasm. It's probably good I'm taking some time off today."
"And you seemed quite melancholy when you visited the twins," Alphonse said. "Almost as though you were taking a long trip."
Athena noted his manner was growing distinctly less friendly now. This situation was growing very alarming.
Eduardo smiled. "I apologize, Alphonse. Perhaps the work is getting to me and I needed to recharge a bit."
"My friend, it's time to stop this act," Alphonse said, now quite cold. "If I'm wrong, I will apologize profusely. But in the meantime, I require you to go with these men."
Two hard-looking men stepped forward. Eduardo looked extremely surprised at Rousceld. Athena admired his reaction, not giving away any sign of trouble.
"Alphonse, I don't know why you're doing this, but of course I understand you need to be careful. I hope when we straighten this out, we can talk together and rebuild whatever trust has been lost."
"You've almost convinced me I'm wrong, but we'll find out," Alphonse said. "I will see you soon."
Eduardo gave him a little hand salute, with a smile. "Shall we go, gentleman?" he said to the two hard men.
They nodded silently, then gestured with their head that Eduardo should start walking. Athena was certain they were armed. One of the men pointed to an employee-only door, which she thought was perfect. Things would be much more difficult in public.
Athena followed casually, as though looking at exhibits. She was fairly certain the hard men weren't paying attention to her as they slipped through the door. After waiting a few seconds, she went through herself and saw the three of them walking alone down a corridor.
She silently moved up behind them very quickly. "Excuse me, sir?" she said in Luxembourgish, with a sweet smile. All three of them jumped and spun around at Athena's sudden appearance. "Do you work here? I'm looking for the toilet." Eduardo smiled, but the hard men just frowned at her.
"Sweetie, I think you're in the wrong place," Eduardo said.
Athena pointed straight up. "Look at that giant bug!"
They all looked up, including Eduardo, who hadn't expected it, either.
She moved to the first man, frisking him at superhuman speed. She pulled a gun out of a side holster and threw it down the corridor. The other man was just starting to react in surprise when Athena moved to him and frisked the gun off him as well. She pulled out one of her gags and stomped his foot, causing him to open his mouth in pain and she quickly gagged him. She continued her binding protocol, and he was soon on the ground writhing in anger. The other man had enough time to start to grab her, but this was only a minor annoyance as he was soon on the ground grunting as well. She spun them around to face the door back to the museum so they couldn't watch her and Eduardo leave, and finally bound them together in such a way that they couldn't roll around or otherwise change their position. She was satisfied with her performance, which had taken approximately 1.7 seconds.
Eduardo was staring in open-mouthed shock at her. "What… I… How…"
"I'll explain later," Athena ordered. "We need to move, now!"
He nodded, still looking stunned, but at least willing to move. Athena give him a firm push to get him started.
"Follow!" she said, then raced in front of him down the corridor. She picked up the guns as she went. Reaching the end, there was an emergency door.
"Stop!" Athena said, putting her hand out.
Eduardo stopped, looking less shocked and more engaged with events.
Athena slowly pushed the door open, peeking through the crack, then opened the door further to peek both ways. Satisfied, she gestured to Eduardo to follow her and they crept out the door to a back employee parking lot, with many cars. Athena threw the guns up on the roof.
"If we're lucky," Athena said, "It was just them and they were supposed to drive you somewhere. Hopefully others won't notice they're gone for some time."
"Why did you throw the guns?" Eduardo asked.
"I don't need them, it keeps them away from our foes, and the people I'm extracting are more likely to hurt themselves with weapons than help me," Athena answered.
Eduardo chuckled at this. "Understandable, though I'll just say I'm not that inept with a weapon."
"It's not personal. At the speed I move, any human can be startled into being dangerous to themselves," Athena said matter-of-factly. "Let's go. Follow me."
Just as they started to walk away from the exit, eight men in suits walked around the corner of the building. Athena was instantly suspicious, and as their expression started to change to surprise, it was confirmed in her mind.
She turned to Eduardo. "Stay!" she snapped, then started running at the men. Since there were so many of them, she had no choice but to fight them rather than just bind them. They would most likely shoot Eduardo if she didn't act fast.
They were still in the act of processing everything when she hit the first one in the head, giving just enough force to create a concussion that would render him unconscious, but hopefully not endanger his life. He dropped to the ground. She turned to man #2, who was reaching toward his belt. He was tall enough that she didn't have a good angle to use her fist, so she did a side kick, hitting him in the head with again a measured impact. As man #2 dropped to the ground, she noticed that #3, who was quicker, had begun to lift his gun out of the holster. She grabbed the gun out of his hand, threw it up on the roof, and knocked him in the head. #3 staggered, but didn't go down. She judged it would take #3 a few seconds to recover, so she moved on to #4. He had his hands out in front of him, in a panic gesture. His head was slightly in front of his body at an excellent angle, so she hit him. He went down.
Man #5 and Man #6 both had drawn their guns and were starting to aim at her. She lifted her foot into a front-kick configuration and kicked the guns out of their hands, then she rotated her body in a side kick position and kicked each in the head. They dropped.
With only three left, Athena decided to move to standard tactics, which were safer and less injurious to humans. Man #7 and Man #8 had started drawing their guns. She reached over with both hands and ripped the guns out of their hands, then threw them on the roof. She stomped both their feet, then stuffed in gags. The pain distracting them, she was able to run behind and forcibly pull their hands together and bind them, then bind their feet as they dropped to the ground, writhing.
Meanwhile, #3 had recovered, who was quite a beefy man and now looked quite angry. He attempted to grab her with both hands, which actually made Athena's job easier since she had his hands right there. She quickly grabbed his hands and pulled them behind his back in a hugging gesture, then bound them. The man was very angry now and started to yell, which allowed Athena to stuff in her gag, and then it was a simple matter to finish binding his legs.
She ran around the rest of the five unconscious men, gagging and binding them, and finally disposing of their weapons. Athena finished the job by orienting the men so they couldn't see what their next move would be, and finally bound them all together. She was quite happy that she'd brought a large supply of binding straps, which fortunately were extremely thin and didn't take much room in her special pockets.
Amid all the grunting on the ground, she went over and peeked around the corner of the building. She then jogged back to Eduardo, who was staring open-mouthed at the scene, his hands in fists, tensely raised in a fighting stance. He relaxed, let his hands drop to his side and frowned.
Athena put her finger to her mouth in a 'quiet' gesture, then reopened the door to the museum and motioned for him to follow her back in. She pulled the door closed quietly and bent the door lever so it would no longer open, causing Eduardo to shake his head. The two bound men were still in the corridor, having not been discovered yet, and she didn't want them to know they'd reentered.
She went up to a door labeled STAIRS, opened it and checked that the stairwell was clear. She gestured to Eduardo to follow her, who then entered the stairwell, and Athena bent the door lever so it too wouldn't open.
Eduardo was still frowning. "I know I should be happy that you took care of business so efficiently, but I can't help feeling useless and… well, cowardly."
"Don't feel useless or cowardly. This is what I'm designed to do," Athena said, giving him an encouraging smile.
"Well, it would help if you were more Amazon-woman-like, instead of looking like such a sweet, delicate little creampuff," he grinned.
"My appearance is deliberate. It gives me the advantage of surprise."
"Oh, I know. It's just Spanish pride talking."
"Okay. I'm fairly certain I saw more men out front, though it was difficult to tell who was an agent and who was a regular visitor. I believe we should do some scouting before we move further. I don't want to risk going into public when we don't know who might be carrying weapons."
They continued up the stairwell to the top, reaching another door which Athena opened carefully and confirmed the floor was clear. They emerged into a hallway with rows of office doors. Since it was Sunday, it was quiet and empty.
"We'll hide in one of the offices, where we can see the street and hopefully check who is watching the building," Athena said.
They moved down the corridor, which ran along the back of the building. Athena checked the corner, then they moved down a long corridor toward the front, then finally took another turn, walking along offices that were parallel to the front of the building. Athena chose an office about in the center, walking in front of the door. It was locked, but Athena twisted the doorknob until the lock broke and they entered inside. Once inside, Athena bent the doorknob so no one could follow them.
The windows were covered with closed blinds. Athena and Eduardo peeked through, looking at the street.
"There are people milling around, but I would expect there are a few guards we can't see watching the front," Eduardo said. "The others will be searching the building. And no doubt they radioed for more backup. I expect there were so many men because they feared a full-out confrontation with Plus Ultra."
"Do you know the frequencies that you use for communication?" Athena asked.
"Yes, as a matter of fact," Eduardo said. "They're illegal frequencies, but we've arranged for that to be ignored. You can listen to radio signals?"
Athena gave him a look and said irritably, "Of course, or I wouldn't ask."
Eduardo grinned and listed the frequencies. "I have to say, you're the cutest superhuman drill sergeant I've ever met."
"All units," Athena's radio announced in her head. "Eduardo is most likely in the museum, but may have escaped. He is believed to have a small girl with him. The museum is being searched. Unit B is on their way and will fan out from the museum and search the streets."
Athena repeated the gist of it for Eduardo. "We need to exit this building before more soldiers come," she said. "We'll have to play it by ear, but it may be best to try and exit through the front and get lost among the crowd. They seem to be keeping a low profile for now and not mingling among the visitors."
"They'll hesitate about firing into a crowd, but it's no guarantee they won't fire," he warned her. "The longer this goes, the more aggressive they'll get. They'll do anything to stop me from defecting."
"I understand," she said, nodding. "We'll make it a priority to not overuse crowds as cover. Let's go."
Athena unbent the office doorknob and got the door open. She peeked into the corridor, which was clear. "OK, follow me."
Eduardo followed closely as she ran down the corridor, until they reached a corner. "Stop," Athena ordered. Eduardo stopped.
The stairwell door was ahead of them. Athena was just about to move when she heard a noise behind them. She turned her head with a snap and saw a startled-looking man with a machine gun starting to drop the barrel.
Author's Note: Please Review!
The official story site is at www. frankandathena .com for discussions of the story! - T.K.