Hi again! I'm back with a fresh update! I've got two more of these revised, ready-made chapters to go. I've had this story around for a long time, about as long as Alternative Data. The two are actually connected in several ways. I thought a few times about cannibalizing this story for parts, but bumping into it the other night made me reconsider letting it grow as a story on its own. Now, I'm glad I did. I'm so delighted to know you're enjoying it! Thank you! :)

And now we'll return to Soong and Lore, some five years later...

Part Three

"Father, you have an incoming message!"

The mechanized voice came from a sleek, heavily modified computer terminal Soong kept in the corner of his office, just across from the room's only window. A small, silvery box was wired in from the top of the complex device. To the casual observer, the work station looked pretty much like any other suped-up super-computer in the university's cybernetics department-unless that observer had an eye for abstract art. Then, with that box as its head, it took on an eerily human shape, like a man sitting thoughtfully with its arms resting against its knees.

Soong looked up from grumbling at a stack of student lab reports.

"Who is it, Lore?" he asked.

"It is Uncle Ira," the computer announced. "He is calling from the Daystrom Institute on Galor IV."

"Damn..." Soong sighed, leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his tired eyes. "All right, Lore, put the bastard through."

There was a compliant chirp, and Ira Graves's smarmy, bearded face appeared on the monitor screen. Soong felt a wave of loathing wash through him.

"So, Noon, how's Texas?"

"Hot." Soong scowled at the image of his former mentor. "I think I can actually see the local accent seeping into my speech patterns. How's life at the Daystrom Institute?"

"Same as when you were here," Graves said. "Actually, not quite the same. It's a lot less interesting without you around, mouthing off during seminars and throwing the higher-ups into apoplectic fits with your AI demos. Speaking of…is your Lore device still functional?"

Soong nodded. "And getting more observant by the day. I'm convinced that computer is self-aware, Ira."

"Hmm," Graves grunted non-committedly. "And your positronic brain prototype? Any progress on that?"

Soong's scowl returned with a vengeance.

"This isn't Galor IV, you know," he said defensively. "It's a teaching university, not a straight-up research facility. Most of my time is eaten away by teaching, and the rest by grading student assignments and exams. Add in the heat and the crowds here on Earth and it's hell, Ira. Absolute hell."

"I warned you to keep your mouth shut, Noon," Graves said. "To publicize your work in small, easy-to-swallow chunks. But no, you had to let loose, talking yourself along tangents that couldn't support your weight. Like always."

"You know as well as I do that I did not falsify one iota of my research," Soong said hotly. "I promised nothing I can't put into practice, eventually. Lore really can think, and make requests, and state his preferences. And as for emotions, I've already started work on—"

"Noonian, stop," Graves said. "You want too much too soon, that's always been your problem. Research happens in stages. You can't just jump to the end. You have to slow down and show your work, every link and leap of logic. That's how science works."

"If I thought like that, I'd never get anything done," Soong muttered.

"Oh, so you're getting a lot done at that Earth school, then?" Graves retorted.

"Shut up," Soong snapped. "I wouldn't be stuck in this job if you'd stepped in. It was fully within your power to stop those Daystrom idiots from drumming me out."

"As I recall events," Graves said, "you were the one who walked out on them, in a self-righteous huff no less. Something about greener pastures and greater opportunities? Ah, and wasn't there a line about there being other fish in the sea?"

"I'm not going back, Ira," Soong said.

"I'm not inviting you back, Noonian," Graves told him. "You're a right pain to work with, and at least as egomaniacal a bastard as I am. Which is truly saying something. Frankly, I'm shocked and appalled that university trusts a self-centered rogue like you to teach all those impressionable young minds."

"Indeed? Well, at least I don't come on to every woman on campus like some pathetic, aging Lothario," Soong snarled. "You're a pig, Ira, and you're not half as clever as you think you are."

"Says the celibate misanthrope," Graves snarled back. "You're defective, Soong. You have no human feeling, no hot, molten core. The only passion you know is given over to those prattling machines of yours."

"Then how is it I can love you so much, O brilliant mentor," Soong spat with snarky sarcasm. He leaned closer to the screen, his expression darkening. "I know you, Ira, at least as well as you know me. You're not in this for the work, you're in it because you're afraid. Afraid of aging and fading away. But that's not what our work is for! Look in the mirror, Graves. Mortality is part of the human condition. Your problem is you can't make your swollen ego understand the universe does not rely solely on your imagination to keep running."

Graves's eyes bulged and his face reddened beneath his beard. Soong braced himself for the explosion, but after a moment Graves released his breath and cast a curdled smirk at his former student.

"Don't let that teaching job get you too far behind in your work," Graves said. "The Institute may think you're a flake, but they don't know your theories like I do. If anyone can crack artificial consciousness it'll be either me or you, and I've got backers and better facilities. And a head start. It'll be my legacy, Soong. My name in the textbooks. Not yours."

Soong clenched his fists, but refused to let himself rise to the bait.

"You suck, Ira. I've got my Lore and half a positronic brain. I'd say that puts me ahead."

"We'll see," Graves said, and smiled. "Take care of yourself, Soong. I'd hate to win by default."

"Ass," Soong retorted, and cut communication before Graves could sneak in the last word.

"Um…Professor Soong?"

Soong swallowed back his irritation, rolled his eyes and swiveled his chair to face the incoming student. He frowned.

"I know you, don't I?"

The young woman straightened her shoulders, tucking her long, auburn hair behind her ears.

"O'Donnell," she said in a lilting, Irish accent. "Juliana O'Donnell. I'm applying to the doctoral program here...you scheduled our interview for today…?"

"Yeah, right, sit down," Soong said, clearing a space on the rectangular table he was supposed to use for tutorials. "So, Ms. O'Donnell. What brings you here, to our cybernetics department?"

"Honest answer?"

He smiled.

"Honest answer."

"You," she said. "Your work at the Daystrom Institute. The promises you made – promises about breathing life, even consciousness, into mechanical constructs… I want to be a part of that."

"Why?"

"Human consciousness is one of the greatest, most enduring scientific mysteries," she said earnestly. "I believe we will never come close to understanding our own minds until we can reproduce our sense of conscious awareness in a construct of our own making."

"And that's what you want to do?" he asked, pressing his folded hands to his chin. "Understand the human mind?"

"I want to understand...life…" she said, a little shyly. "The creative spark that allows us to imagine and dream, to appreciate art and enjoy music. I want to have a hand in developing artificial life for its own sake, not for any sort of human-centric purpose. And I came here because…I believe…that is your dream too."

Soong leaned back in his chair and took in a slow, reflective breath through his nose. The young woman maintained her straight posture, regarding him with a steady, searching eye.

"Go home," he said.

"What-?"

"Go home," he repeated, and turned back to his heavily modified computer console. "You'll get your acceptance letter in a few weeks."

"You mean-? You'll take me as your doctoral student?"

"I mean," he glanced at her over his shoulder, "I already have. See you in the fall, Ms. O'Donnell."

To Be Continued...

Thanks for reading! Reviews are always welcome! :)