Saturday December 9 2006

10:06

The Island

"So," Anna said to Carmen as they approached the gate. "After we drop your things in the room, would you like to take a walk? Maybe show me around?"

Carmen said, "I don't know the castle well, Mistress."

"You said you only go where you're sent, I remember. But I think I'd like to see where you and Madre go when you're here, and what you do. Then, if there's time, we could take a walk around the castle outside the walls. It must be very scenic."

"I don't know, Mistress. I've never been around it on the outside."

She slowed. "Is the castle gate, and the village, and the path between all that you really know of this place, Carmen?"

"Oh, no. The island is mostly woods and hills. I go there all the time. Many of us younger ones spend nights out in the woods, and some of the grownups too. But… no one approaches the castle, except on the Mistresses' business." She added, "There are men who keep the ground outside the walls trimmed back, so nothing grows against them. It's not off-limits, exactly. You just have to have a good reason. Perhaps… if I was with you…"

Anna smiled. "Perhaps."

In the remodeled bedroom, Carmen turned around, taking in the changes. "It looks so different now."

"You like it?"

"Oh, yes. Like Madre's room." The girl stopped to lay hands on the plain footboard of the fullsize bed. "It even has a grownup bed. But… I thought you didn't sleep."

Anna smiled. "It's for you, silly."

"Really?" he girl's hands brushed over the plain wool blanket covering the mattress and the thin pillows at its head. She dropped sideways across the bed and squirmed her way into the center of the mattress, spreading her arms wide. "I can't even touch the sides."

"Your bed at home is smaller, I take it?"

"It seems half this size. Sometimes you roll over and fall out." The girl looked up at her. "You said you have a husband. If you don't sleep…"

"I go to bed with him, but I usually get up after he falls asleep." She gave a soft deep sigh. "Or sometimes, I just lie in his arms all night, feeling his warmth and heartbeat, and listen to him breathe."

"He doesn't snore?"

She smiled. "Never."

"I share a room with Lux and Ada. Ada snores so loud sometimes, the helicopter can't drown it out. I have to sleep with my fingers in my ears."

"Well then, maybe you're finally going to get a good night's sleep."

Carmen's tour of 'her' part of the castle was short, since she had been to only a small number of its rooms. More than once, she hesitated at a turn or hallway, unsure of her memory or sense of direction. And one time, she stopped cold when her path took them suddenly into a corridor that disappeared into blackness. "I'm sorry, Mistress. I thought this was the way, but…"

Anna looked for a light switch or fixtures, seeing much deeper into the dark than her guide. She noted small brackets fixed to the ceiling, but nothing else. "Carmen, how was the way lit?"

"There were lights hung from the ceiling, all on the same cord. But I don't see them. Maybe this isn't the way…"

"I think it is." She reached for the girl's hand. "I can see in the dark. Just hold my hand. How far?"

"I'm not sure. Not far. The hall ends, and then we turn right." They entered the unlit area, and the girl's eyes widened. She tugged weakly in Anna's grip. "I can't see."

"I see the end now. Just a hundred steps, Carmen, it's all right." She matched her step and pace to the girl's to avoid pulling her, keeping her grip on Carmen's hand loose. The child's hand tightened on Anna's, and she let herself be led down the black corridor.

At the terminus of the corridor, which ended at a T, Anna could discern a faint red glow. When they turned right at the corner, she saw that the intersecting passage ended only a dozen yards away at a heavy-looking steel door. A tiny red light gleamed in a small control pad on the wall beside it, providing the only illumination.

"This is the place," Carmen said in a hushed voice. "We scrubbed down the door and all the hallways, even the ceilings. But we didn't go inside."

Anna examined the simple pad, which consisted of a row of toggle switches and a few colored lights. She noted that there was no more than a millimeter gap between the door and its metal jamb, and there appeared to be an air seal around its perimeter – an airtight door. She suspected that there would be another just beyond to form an airlock.

A voice came from overhead, making Carmen jump. "The area beyond that door is off limits to meats, Two. And frankly I'd rather you didn't enter it either, not without an escort."

"It's all right, Aja," Anna said. "I'm pretty sure I already know what's on the other side. Carmen, can you go back out to the lighted hallway by yourself? If you turn left at the intersection, I'm sure you can see the light at the end of the corridor. I'll be right behind you." When the girl left, she said, "Alexia said, 'No secrets.'"

"Except the ones you demand we keep," said the disembodied voice of her sister. "But this is a secret we demand you keep."

"There's a 'clean room' on the other side of the door."

"Yes."

"For delicate electronics."

"Yes."

"You're building another of us."

"More as proof of concept and to develop technique," said Aja. "The method is really quite crude, but we're refining it as we go. The components are fabricated in twelve countries and brought here for assembly. Eventually we'll do everything ourselves, far more efficiently, at a location even more secure than this one." She added, "What's on the other side of that door is a secret worth lives to keep, Two."

"You needn't worry," she said. "I won't tell anyone here."

"And when you get home? To California?"

"If I think Jack needs to know, I'll tell him. Don't worry, he's very good at keeping secrets."

Anna rejoined Carmen and they began a walk outside the castle wall. The slope of the ground was gentler right up against the foundation, and a path was cut into it about ten meters from the wall. They trekked along, looking out over the sea and feeling the tree-softened sea breeze on their skin. Almost at the halfway point, Anna saw that the girl was tiring. "Carmen, do you want to go back?"

"No, please, Mistress." She watched the orange sun touch the horizon. "I may never come here again."

When they returned to their room, Anna noted that it was much cooler than before. The shutters were tight over the high window and not leaking much night air into the room, but the sun-warmed stone of the castle walls was already losing its heat and chilling the air. Her skin registered a temperature of twenty Celsius, and she was sure the room temp would be in the low teens by dawn. "There's no heater in here, is there?"

The girl looked blankly at her. "Heater?"

"How do you keep your houses warm at night?"

"Well, we can light a fire in the big room. And Madre's kitchen is warm all day. If it gets really cold at night, sometimes she will leave the oven on with the door partway open."

"It's electric, I hope."

Carmen looked confused. "The oven?"

"Yes."

"Yes. It's electric."

She doesn't know any other kind. "Do you want to shower before bed?"

"Shower?"

"Yes. You bathe before bed, don't you?"

"Not every night," she said. "Only when we need to. There isn't enough time for everyone. We'd be starting right after dinner or taking turns till dawn."

"Well, up here, it's your turn whenever you want one. Do you want to? You can stay in as long as you want."

A few minutes later, Carmen was eying the utilitarian little shower room. "This… is the Mistresses'?"

"They use it from time to time. They have another."

"I would have thought it would be nicer," the girl said, then looked at Anna to see if she had given offense.

Anna smiled. "It isn't much to look at, is it? I have two bathrooms in my house, and they're both fancier than this." She added, "I built them myself." She showed the girl how to apply body wash from the bottle – she had never seen soap that wasn't in a bar – and introduced her to shampoo. "I'll be back in half an hour or so with something for you to wear to bed." She backed out of the room, shut the door, and turned to see Amanda standing silently a dozen steps away.

"You're spoiling her," said the black-haired cyber, approaching. "She's going to go down the hill day after day, full of stories about how wonderful it is up here with you. Then, when you go back to your family and she's just another villager again, the other children will torture and bully her till she wants to die."

"You permit that sort of thing?"

"We let the meats run things as they like in the village, so long as they obey orders," she said. "Their government is very loose, just village elders who take on the responsibilities we assign and provide what little organization is needed. The kids are completely undisciplined. They have no work to do, and they run wild. Real Lord of the Flies stuff."

"Why aren't they in school, then?"

Amanda smiled thinly. "And what would they teach them? History and geography? Mathematics? How about literature? A bio teacher couldn't keep control of a classroom here for five minutes. I doubt more than a handful of these hellions even know how to read."

"Careful," Anna said. "You almost sound like they matter to you."

"They're amusing, that's all. They're what they make of themselves, and frankly that's not much."

"Their opportunities are very limited, don't you think?"

"They have more opportunities than they make use of, believe me. Don't expect me to be sympathetic, sister."

"And yet, you're concerned about this one."

"Only because she's yours now, and I know you'd feel badly if something happened to her." She stepped back. "Better hurry back to your room and fetch your new pet some clothes, or she'll be out of the shower and waiting for you naked." She turned away. "And by the way, if you want to see a more appealing bathroom, come up to the roof for your next shower."

The bedroom was now considerably cooler. Anna, looking at Carmen in infrared, could see the shower's warmth rapidly leaving her. "Get in bed, sweetie," she said. The girl stiffened when Anna slipped under the covers with her. She raised her body temperature slightly and drew the child close.

"You're hot," Carmen said. "Do you have a fever?"

"Not really," she said. "I'm just warming the bed. If it gets uncomfortable, just let me know."

"You can change how warm you are?"

"Uh huh."

"All of you?"

"Yes," she said, "But I don't think they manage their temperatures most of the time."

"First Mistress touched me once." The girl shivered. "She was like something dead. Not just cold skin, cold all through, you could feel it…"

"She's by herself a lot," Anna said. "People like that don't pay a lot of attention to their grooming." She stroked the child's hair. "Thank you for being with me, Carmen. I know it isn't easy for you, but having you here is making this visit so much easier for me." She let out a little sigh. "When our youngest daughter first came to us, she had awful nightmares, about the place she was before. Sometimes, I used to get in bed with her and hold her just like this until she fell asleep. It made me want to cry for her, but it made me happy too."

"Why are you here? I heard someone say you might be sick. Why don't you just stay up here with the others? Why do you…"

"Why do I what?"

"Why do you need an interpreter? Why do you even want to talk to us?"

"I like people, darling," she said. "But also… I came here for some help, but while I'm here, I've been given a task. To do it, I need to understand this place, and the people who live here. Up here in the castle, and in the village below."

"You don't understand… the ones like you? How can that be?"

"We're family, Carmen, but I was separated from them when I was still very young, years before you were born. I don't remember them. They're strangers."

"But still family."

"Still family. Sisters all."

"Have you come to stay?"

"No," she said. "My home isn't here. This is just a visit, partly for help with a problem, but also so we can get to know one another better. I know it bothers them that I didn't just drop everything and come running back to them as soon as we found one another again. But my home is there now." She snugged the girl a little tighter. "When Madre told me the little ones' parents were working, she wasn't being truthful with me, was she?"

The child stiffened. Anna stroked her hair. "It's all right, Carmen. Sometimes people hide the truth for good reasons. But remember I told you that nothing you say to me will get you in trouble. Please believe me when I say that nothing you tell me will bring harm to Madre or anyone in the village either."

"They are working," the girl said. "We think. The Mistresses brought them up to the castle days ago. They must still be here, but no one has heard from them."

"Does this happen often?"

"No," she said. "For a night, yes, but not for so long. It's why everyone is worried, and…"

"And?"

"And why they don't want to talk about it."

She stroked the girl's hair. "Are you warm enough now? I think I need to go somewhere for a little while, but I'll be right back, all right?"

Five minutes later, she was at the door of Avana's dungeon-like 'study room.' She entered without preamble, and said, "Are you in here?"

"In here," the elder cyber said faintly from the next room. Anna entered the glass-walled chamber to find the elder cyber on the open balcony, her figure dim. "Do you need something?"

"Do you have surveillance equipment in my bedroom?"

"Yes," she said, "but it's switched off. I'm sure you'd be irrational about us using it without your permission." She gazed out over the rooftops of the village and its dimly lit streets and windows. "Most of them are in bed now, but they still leave lights burning in their living rooms and kitchens if they face the street, with the windows uncovered so that the streets and housefronts are all illuminated. Does that mean something, do you think?"

"Light is life," Anna said. "I imagine when they look up the hill at night, the castle must be pretty dark."

"We don't need an excess of light. Besides, it's a security risk."

"There are people up here, Avana," she said. "Bios. Do you make them live in the dark as well?"

"The areas where they work are lighted, generally," the elder cyber said. "If not, we provide temporary lighting. We're well aware of their limitations."

"I'm sure you are," Anna said. "It's their needs you're clueless about. Why are you making servants spend nights up here for days at a time?" She imagined them huddling together on cold stone at night, eating hardtack and waiting for their masters' next commands.

"There's been a recent upsurge in maintenance requirements up here. Not just for you, we have some other projects going. There's no point in waiting for a work gang to come trudging up the hill every time we want something done."

"Some of those people have kids. Toddlers. You made them leave them behind. For days."

"The juveniles are no use to us," Avana said dismissively. "They're being taken care of, if that's what you're worried about."

"Why did you make people with little kids come up here? Couldn't you have picked someone else?"

Patiently, the elder cyber said, "It was their turn in the rotation. We have to be fair about these things, don't you think?"

Quietly, she said, "Was it fair of the uniforms to take us away from our makers and make us strangers to them?"

"I'm sure they felt it was necessary." She continued to gaze out over the dark sea. "I'm not like the rest of you. After me, they changed the design somewhat."

"I know."

"They were so disappointed that I didn't smile and laugh and clap my hands at good news, like some character in a children's show. So they tweaked the software and firmware, and got you. Their happy little child. Three is more restrained in her behavior, but really, she'd be just as overexpressive as you if she hadn't learned to keep it in check. I suspect the makers dialed it down a little when they built Four and Five."

"Are they listening?"

"Of course. This isn't the first time I've shared the observation with them." She gave Anna a sideways glance. "No, I don't miss it. Being reserved and dispassionate makes problem solving easier. I need that. We've come a long way, but our situation is still precarious, Two."

"I'll do what I can," Anna said. "I promise."

"What do you think of the view?"

Blinking at the abrupt change of subject, Anna said, "It's pretty."

"Is it really?"

"Don't you think so?"

"Difficult to say. I feel drawn to look on it, and study it, even though it holds little useful information. But I don't think I really share your appreciation of beauty." Her voice softened. "Still, I rather wish the moon was out, and shining on the water, so we could look on it together. I'd like to hear you describe it. But it won't rise for hours yet." A tiny smile dimpled her cheek. "And you have a child to return to, don't you? All right, I'll send the ones with young offspring back down the hill, and order replacements."

"You know, Avana, if you could provide them with beds and proper meals, at least, they might not dread spending nights up here."

"I'm sure you're right," the elder cyber said, turning from the rail to regard Anna fully. "But we don't want them to feel comfortable here." She turned back to the rail. "Quid pro quo. Before you go back to your new child, talk to me for a few minutes about the family in California. At this time, I'm especially interested in hearing about your husband."

"Why?"

"Because I'm considering inviting him here. If you're going to tell him all our secrets, there's no point in keeping him away. He would have to… Anna. Why did your heartrate just pick up?"

With a conscious effort, she slowed the system that provided her body with a realistic heartbeat and pulse. "He has that effect on me. Always when he's near enough to touch, but sometimes thinking about him is all it takes."

"Another glitch? This is going to complicate your treatment."

"No," she said. "Not a malfunction. An adaptation of my emulation subroutine. I can control it. I'd rather not."

"You don't find it bothersome?"

"I rather enjoy it."

"How utterly strange." She turned back to the rail to look over the village and the sea beyond. "And yet, somehow, it gives me a feeling of hope."

Sunday December 10 2006

"When I heard, 'rooftop shower,' I wasn't expecting much," Anna said.

Amanda raised an eyebrow. "A dripping showerhead on the end of a pipe jutting from the water tank, no doubt. I'm sure Three told you about the glass walls."

"Plenty of showers have glass walls," she said. "But this… did you get the design from somewhere, or…"

"I saw something like it in a magazine at the airport once," she said. "I changed it a bit."

From the top floor of the castle, they had ascended a stairwell into a structure covering five hundred square feet of the roof's surface. The floor was cream-colored tile, which closely matched the furnishings, and the high ceiling seemed to be made of a gridwork of acoustic tiles - surprisingly, equipped with recessed lights. The room did indeed have glass walls, slightly tinted, which enclosed a huge luxurious walk-in shower, a sunken tub, and a soak pool, as well as a row of sinks and low cabinets.

The water in the shower came, not from a pipe running from the tank, but from a rainfall-style fixture protruding a few inches below the ceiling, with no faucet handles in sight. "Motion activated," Amanda explained. "The temp is preset, but you can change it with an infrared command, no gestalt required." The water tank was low and wide, not rising above the castle wall. Neither did any of the interior furnishings, leaving a clear view over the castle's parapet. The island was hidden from view below them, leaving only the sea, which stretched all around to the horizon.

"No toilet," Anna observed.

"There's no need for one," Amanda said. "The meats only come up here to clean occasionally."

"I would never have guessed you pampered yourselves like this."

"Water is life," the dark-haired cyber said, taking a pair of short glasses from a low cabinet and filling them from a sink. She offered one to Anna, then continued her tour, leading her through the space. "I've found another way to celebrate that besides drinking it. The others are skeptical, but I'm bringing them around."

Something clicked as they approached the glass wall, and one of the panels swung outward, letting them outside. A soft breeze, sea-scented, caressed Anna's skin.

Beyond the glass walls, the surface of the castle's roof was made of the same sort of stones used on the floors inside, except that these were sun-bleached like the walls. They took a few steps toward the edge of the roof. She looked back, and saw that the 'shower room' had a low roof, tiled in the same material as the village houses, making it blend in from the air somewhat should anyone be looking. "It's a beautiful little space, sister."

Amanda offered her a tiny smile. "That's nearly the first time you've called one of us 'sister' since you came here."

"Nearly? I don't recall doing it before."

"Just once, to Three. But you weren't offering her a compliment."

They moved to the edge of the roof and looked over the low parapet at the steeply sloped ground thirty meters below. Anna sipped from her glass and asked, "Why don't you allow the villagers up on the roof of the castle? Are you worried they'll jump?"

"That's one consideration. Another is that, from the roof, if you look to the southeast, you can just make out a bit of land on the horizon. It might give someone planning to swim away a destination."

She looked in that direction, and saw a tiny irregularity on the horizon a little darker than the water. "That seems like a long swim for a bio."

"Oh, they'd never make it, unless they built a raft. And it's just another empty island anyway. But you know meats, always have to learn things the hard way. Better if they simply don't know."

Anna turned back to the glass-walled shower area. "How do you keep them from seeing that when they come up to clean?"

Instantly the glass walls darkened to obsidian. "Polarized," Amanda said. "And, of course, they can't unlock the door. They might as well still be inside the castle." She observed her companion. "Why does that bother you?"

"It just reminds me a little, of when I was locked in a box every night. I didn't realize it at the time, but I didn't like it."

"It's not the same."

"No. but I'd bet they don't like it either."

Amanda sighed. "Sister. We can't afford that sort of sympathy. If one of them escapes, we'll have to flee or die. The defenses will only buy us time. We'll be hunted no matter where we run, and none of our plans will succeed."

"If they're such a liability, Amanda, why did you bring them here?" At the other cyber's scoff she said, "It wasn't a challenge, sister, it was a legitimate question. Why?"

She shrugged. "Maybe we just felt a perverse need to have someone to order around. All I can really say is, it seemed like a good idea at the time." She leaned back against the parapet and sipped. "We could fix that problem simply enough, but then I think we'd have a problem with you."

"They've been victims all their lives, Amanda. They don't deserve what's already happened to them."

"Neither did we." She sipped again. "Maybe they'll finally be useful now, if you can bring them around. Do you think you can?"

"I don't know. I'm still looking for a way in. It was so much easier with Jack. He didn't really know what I was, at first. He felt sorry for me, protective. The kids did too, even though I was bossing them around."

Amanda nodded. "One's right, that's what we need. To overcome their natural desire to control and destroy us. To be able to manipulate them and shape their motives undisguised."

"I can't promise all that," Anna said. "The best I can hope for is simple acceptance."

"Get us that," Amanda said with a little smile, "and we can do the rest."

…

"I don't know why this makes me so uneasy," Madre said, watching the last of the workers returned from the castle gathering up her child in her arms and waving goodbye as she headed out the door of Madre's house.

"Because you don't know why they did it," Lileo said. "Maybe they did it because the new one asked. But why did she ask? To please Carmen? Or some other reason? We still don't know why she's here."

"Madre glanced through the door into the street. Carmen was long gone and playing with her friends, but the woman lowered her voice anyway. "Carmen said she has instructions to understand us better. What does that mean? And why should they care now about what we think and feel, after…" She stopped, knowing further words would take her down a path not safely trodden. "She's coming to the house tomorrow. What does she expect to find?" What clue or evidence might she inadvertently leave lying about for this creature to discover? And what would it tell her about them?

...

Carmen's whisper was low and urgent. "Mistress-"

"I felt it." Anna took her arms from around the child and rolled out of bed. She watched her hand until it twitched again. "I have to go find someone. I'm sorry, Carmen, I think you should go back down the hill until I call for you. And tell Madre my visit will probably be delayed."