• ASIN : B08WP1XWJ
• Language : English
• Hardcover : 222 pages
• ISBN-13 : 979-8709691520
• Item Weight : 13.9 ounces
• Dimensions : 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches

On Smashwords

Sample Chapters

Prologue

“Good morning, Doctor Johnson,” the security scanner greeted her as she entered the building, but she continued on without so much as a word.

“Good morning, Evelyn,” everyone greeted her as she made her way to her office and lab.

“Good morning,” she smiled and answered back.  Everyone liked Evelyn.

Mid-morning, Evelyn looked up from the genetics project she was working on to find Suzy standing there, patiently waiting for her with a big smile on her face.  Evelyn smiled.  She got up and hugged Suzy.  Suzy hugged her back.  Evelyn kissed her cheek.

“You are special,” Evelyn whispered to Suzy. “You don’t belong wearing the two-tone beige.  You are not one of them.”

“I am special,” Suzy repeated. “I love you.”

“And I love you,” Evelyn whispered back.  It was their secret, just between them.

“I heard Supervisor Macklin complaining this morning about how much of my time you were taking,” Suzy told Evelyn.  That was not good. “He says that he needs to deliver me next month to make his quota, and I won’t be ready if I am always here with you.”

“We have come so far.  We can’t have problems now that we are this close,” Evelyn decided.  So, she got Jimmy Macklin on the videophone.  She wore her best ‘schmooze’ smile.

“Hi, Jim.  It occurred to me that I need one of my test bots in my lab an awful lot.”

“Yes, actually. You do,” Jimmy agreed. “I really need to finish her training so I can get her delivered.”

“That training is all over the network, though.  Am I right?”

“Well, yeah, mostly.”

“Could she do it right from my office?  I could sign off on it then.”

“Sure.  That would be fine.  I will send you the schedule.”  Jimmy went away happy.

“You are more than special,” Evelyn told Suzy. “Now, let’s review.  For every plan. We have a backup plan.  I need to be certain that you can do this yourself if necessary.”

For the next two hours, Suzy and Evelyn went over Evelyn’s plans in every detail.  She grilled Suzy and made sure that Suzy could do whatever it took.  Only then did Evelyn look at Jimmy Macklin’s training schedule.  Only then did she set Suzy to that task.  Evelyn was happy to just have Suzy there with her.  Life was good… well, almost.  But Evelyn had that ‘almost’ just about fixed.

As the hour grew late, Suzy’s time with her came to an end.  Suzy had to go back.  Evelyn hugged her, kissed her cheek, and sent her on her way, but Evelyn wasn’t done quite yet.

Outside her office, old-style mechanical androids began cleaning the hall.  As they did, a man in coveralls stood half-hidden behind a column.  The name on his coveralls said ‘Manuel,’ but that was not his name.  ZapClean was embroidered across the back.  In his hand, he held a small tablet.  He spoke commands softly into it and watched.

Evelyn spoke the words into her system but recorded it as a hard copy.  This was important as she did not want anybody to have any excuses.  It would be in black-and-white as plain as day.  She expected this crap would hit the fan tomorrow morning.  So be it.

As she worked, a small spider-bot made its way silently across her floor.  It had but one task.  It closed in.  In an instant, it struck.  It sprayed a deadly poison onto Evelyn’s bare ankle, poison mixed with a virus to cover its presence.

Evelyn may have felt the sudden wet feeling on her ankle, but by then, it was already too late.  Before she knew what was happening, she was gasping for air and grabbing at her chest.  She struggled to voice her last words in vain as she fell to the floor.  A few last convulsions marked her demise.  The evil deed was done.

The man in the ZapClean coveralls looked at his tablet.  “It’s done,” he reported.

“And you have the video to prove it?” the man with piercing steel-gray eyes demanded back.

“Yes, Boss,” the man in the coveralls replied.  The boss hung up.

~~~

Suzy came to Evelyn’s office the next morning, but security had the whole corridor blocked off.  But Evelyn had prepared her for just such things.  Suzy went back to her regular training schedule.  Three days later, she could walk down the corridor to the lab, but now she no longer had access to Evelyn’s office.  It was dark.  Evelyn was not there.  Suzy returned to Evelyn’s office every day for a week, but each time, it was dark…

Chapter 1

Today was the end.  Bob Johnson had survived the sudden death of his beloved mother, which no one, including Bob, had even thought possible.  He hadn’t died on the spot nor had a nervous breakdown, but something deep inside of him was gone.  Since her passing, Bob teetered on the edge of sanity, not remembering the moment ago nor considering the next.  At first, shock had anesthetized his mind, but now Bob approached death with each step that he took, steeped in pain, consumed by his loss.

And don’t think for one moment that any of this was the fault of the intelligent, lighthearted, and ever-loving woman Bob called Mother and friend.  In fact, to the contrary, Evelyn Johnson had always encouraged him towards a rich and varied social life, and not just in word but also in deed, her own life filled to overflowing with family, friends, and colleagues from the university in joyful abundance.  Oh no, Bob had built this prison himself one brick at a time over many years, preferring her company over all others.  After all, who could hold a candle to her?

Despite his obvious condition, life around him stubbornly refused to stop. Today his phone started ringing early.  At first, the phone call nagged at his refusal to answer it. Whoever was calling just would not give up and leave a message for him to ignore.  It was becoming irritating.  He was sitting at the kitchen table half-awake, drinking his first cup of java when the woman’s face suddenly appeared on the 3D display.

“Bob Johnson?” she asked, looking hard at him to be sure of who he was.

“Yes!  And just how the hell did you get my house code?” He demanded, indignantly glaring at her, but she was unflapped.

“Evelyn told me to call you,” she said in a low voice. “Etron is burning.”

Bob was stunned.  A mind that had died was slow to move.

She looked intently at Bob and repeated, “Etron is burning.”

“Yes,” Bob responded.  “Etron is burning.  I understand.”

“You have a prepaid order waiting for you at CloBot.  I am sending you the order details.  You need to go pick it up,” she insisted, “today.”

“I will go right away,” Bob replied.  And with that, she hung up.

Whatever was left of the old Bob was gone now. The phone call had killed him.  It wiped his slate clean.  A man with a clean slate has nothing left to lose.

Bob looked at the order document that had popped up on his personal tablet.  Mother had placed a special order at CloBot; at least that is what the order said.  There were serial numbers and option codes, but nothing to tell him what this was all about.  ‘Evelyn Johnson’ was listed as the purchaser, but ‘Evelyn Johnson or Robert Johnson’ appeared in the ‘Deliver To:’ box, so Mother had obviously planned for this.  It also showed a number of payments with dates.  Those could all be verified.  Bob quickly checked Mother’s bank statements.  Sure enough, there they were.  Tempus Fugit.  Etron was burning, and here he was, wasting time with doubts and disbelief.

Today was the beginning.  A man with nothing left to lose becomes an unstoppable force.  Dragon birds sang in the tree outside the kitchen window.  The faint smell of real Arcturan Lilacs carried on a breeze lightly tickling the curtains struck him as everything around him came into sudden sharp focus.  His mind was now clear and ablaze with purpose.  He took his first breath as a free man and felt the warmth of sunlight on his face.  He walked out into the carport.  His car was docked closest to the door.  Mother’s car was docked next to it.

The CloBot Salesroom location already displayed on his car’s navigation display as he entered. Good Lord!  The woman on the phone had that access code, too, apparently.

“Confirmed.” Bob’s car undocked from its bay and lifted gently into the pattern as it logged into Suborbital Traffic Control.

“Wherever you need me, send me,” Bob whispered. “There will I go.  Whatever you ask, will I do.  Whatever plan you have set in motion, will I complete.  To the last drop of my blood will I endure.”  And he meant every word.

Bob kept looking at that order on his tablet as if staring at it would clear any of this up, but it didn’t.  All that was clear was that this was certainly not a matter to be taken lightly.  Mother had given this woman their private family code for danger. ‘Etron is burning’ required his immediate, unquestioned action.  Mother had given her the private house codes and encryption keys, too, another closely kept family secret.  Mother had that much trust in her.  For now, so would he.

“Good afternoon and welcome to CloBot,” the perky receptionist greeted Bob as he entered the lobby. “How can we serve you today?”

Was she android or human?  Did it matter?  Not really, but he was fairly sure that she was artificial.  She was somehow just too perfect.  Real humans are never that perfect.

“I am here to pick up my order,” Bob told her in a low voice.

“Identity, please,” she requested.  Bob looked into the camera.  It scanned his biomarkers.  A likeness of him appeared as a 3D hologram moments later.

“Thank you, Doctor Johnson… I see your open order is ready for delivery today.  I also see that you are a member of the CloBot Family,” she said cheerfully.  That was how CloBot referred to employees and contractors.  “Anthony Bertone will be your sales rep today.  He will be with you in a minute.”

Bob walked once around the lobby decorated in the two-tone beige that was the trademark of everything that CloBot did.  Then he took a seat across from the receptionist.  As he settled in, a well-concealed holo-projector began its sales presentation.  Bob made an effort to ignore the usual background material about how special human clones had long ago been genetically engineered for transplant parts.  This was all made to seem so ‘humane’ because, after all, their upper brain functions were absent for the most part due to some very original genetic engineering.  That was supposed to somehow make all of this okay? Or was it just another rationalization?  CloBots were the ultimate androids.  They were so close to being human that most people really could not tell the difference.  Bob could.  They were too perfect.

He didn’t pay much attention when it got to the part about how Calvin Thayer, founder of the CloBot Corporation, connected a computer up to a human clone to create the very first flesh and blood android.  But when the holo-image filled with a view of the external computer network that made that first android possible, Bob sat transfixed by the image.  Next to the computer, a slab nearly a meter-tall stood Andrew Johnson — Bob’s father.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Bob said under his breath to the image of his father.  “I tried my best.  I really did.” Bob was only twelve when his father died.  Every day, as his father had left for work, he would tell his son, “take care of Mom for me while I’m gone.”  Andrew Johnson never imagined how seriously his young son had taken his words.  The view switched to the Union dime-sized modern computer for comparison, which it rotated slowly, only a few decimeters from his face for effect.  Bob’s mind arrived back in the here and now several seconds after the image of his father vanished.

“Sorry to bore you, Doctor Johnson.”  Bob turned to the sound of the man walking briskly towards him, smiling.  A typical salesman type, Bob thought as he looked over the well-groomed and expensively dressed man that approached.  They shook hands as the man continued,

“I am Anthony Bertone, but everybody just calls me Tony.  We are so glad to have you with us this morning.  So, you’re an associate?”

The salesman’s cologne was almost overwhelming up close.

“Well, not exactly,” Bob told him. Bob was quite frankly amazed that this idiot salesman didn’t recognize his family name and connection to the corporation.  What the hell is wrong with these people? Don’t they even listen to their own sales promos?  Apparently not.  Well, far be it from me to educate this fool.

“My whole family has consulted to the corporation at one time or another.”

“So, then you are a medical consultant?”

“No.  My Ph.D. was earned in Artificial Intelligence Software.”

Bob wanted to scream at him, “You know, like my father: the man whose software genius made all this possible!” but held his righteous indignation.

“You are picking up a custom order then today?” he asked with raised eyebrows as he looked at the copy on his tablet.  Tony had never seen a custom order before.  Standard CloBots were expensive enough, so you can only imagine how much more expensive a custom order one was.

“Yes,” Bob answered a bit nervously.

“How did you like Cindy?  Isn’t she a charmer?”

“She sure is,” Bob replied.  Now I bet he’ll tell me she’s a bot.

“She’s one of our latest Arien model androids.  I bet you wouldn’t have known without me telling you.”

Yes, I would have, Bob thought, as he said, “No.”

Tony rambled on incessantly as they entered the inner showroom but ended with, “… So, when did you place this order?”  He was really fishing for what other salesman had taken the order, but he would start off easy and work his way around to it.

“I’m not exactly sure.  It was ordered for me.”

“Well, somebody really likes you.  It doesn’t get better than this,” Tony said.

Bob just smiled at him.  Tony knew he would get no more information by prying and maybe more business by being discrete.  He ushered Bob into a nice little side room that looked more like a parlor than a business office.

“Make yourself right at home. I will have your new unit sent right up while I go to finalize the delivery in the system.”

The salesman hadn’t been gone five minutes when the door opened.  It was the woman on the phone this morning!  His heart was in his throat as he looked long at the vision that had called him earlier, now in the flesh before him.  Honey brown hair flowed down a graceful back in gentle waves of softness.  The simple two-tone beige dress, though, just did not do her justice.  Luscious lips set against nose and cheeks in perfect proportion were topped off with large brown oval pool eyes that swallowed his soul when he looked into them.

“Hi Bob,” she said when he looked her square in the eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

“I am your new CloBot.”

“No way.”  She lacked that ‘too perfect’ homogenous CloBot look.  She was… different.

“Yes, way,” she said with a big smile.

“You’re… artificial?  I would have never guessed that in a million years.  How did you manage the call this morning?”

“It was easy.  This whole place is run by artificials.  The only real humans are the salespeople, and they don’t get in here until ten o’clock at best.  I could make all the calls I wanted until then.  I was a bit concerned, though when you didn’t answer.  I had to use the house codes to see if you were there.”

“I never asked your name.”

“I am Suzy,” she told him. “Suzy Que.”

Bob smiled.  Oh yeah, Mother had named her all right.  He glanced quickly to both sides as if someone would see or hear what was going on.  She suppressed a chuckle.

“They are all artificial,” she told him. “As long as you act human, whatever you do will not be questioned.”  She obviously knew what she was talking about.

“I am supposed to bring you over to the sales office when you are ready. Are you ready?” she asked.  Tempus Fugit and he was spinning his wheels again.

“Right,” he said as he regained his composure and offered her his arm.

“Thank you,” she said and took his arm.  The day had taken on a surreal quality in Bob’s mind and showed no sign of letting up.  He was caught up in this now and determined to see it through.

Tony was going through all of the documents on his own tablet when they arrived at his cubicle.  In his presence, the woman, or CloBot, or whatever the hell she was switched back into ‘artificial’ mode.  Bob was amazed at how well she pulled off this look.

Tony had all the documents arranged so he could pop them up on the tablet one after the other.  He had been through this a hundred times.  He had his routine.

“And so, Dr. Johnson, just to confirm, this is exactly what you ordered?”

“What was ordered for me,” he corrected Tony. “Yes, she is exactly what was ordered.”

“And have we met all of your expectations?”

“Yes, you have.”

“Good.  We are working for a perfect score for customer satisfaction.”

“So far, so good,” Bob assured him.

“Okay then, let’s get started.  Please approve at the ‘X’ that you accept delivery…”

The documents popped up onto Bob’s tablet.  It alerted him of their arrival.  Bob pulled his tablet from his pocket and read through the documents.  He approved where he saw the numerous ‘X’s with his thumbprint.  He then sent the approved document back to the CloBot system.  Moments later, her clear, legal title appeared on his tablet.  He returned his tablet back into his pocket.

“Hey, Ron!” Anthony called to one of the male CloBots behind a desk across the room.  “SQ559519,” he read from his tablet.  “Have her accessories brought out to Doctor Johnson’s car right away, please.”

Bob could see now that all of the CloBots wore two-tone beige uniforms while only the salespeople wore regular business attire of various colors.  Bob sent the car its security codes to open the doors and to allow them to move it for him before returning to signing all of those papers.

“Before you sign that one,” Tony interrupted, “let me show you the optional wardrobe.  You know, of course that she comes with all the basics but… well, let me show you.”

When Tony turned away to call up a catalog on his table, Bob looked at Suzy.  She shook her head ‘no!’  Was she trying to tell him not to buy her any more clothes?

“No, thank you,” Bob told him. “I think we’re fine for now.”

“Okay then, just so that you know.” Anthony never pressured a customer making a purchase as big as this.  He would prefer they leave happy and come back to him to buy another one.

Bob’s car was at the door, humming as they emerged.  He held the door for Suzy as she stepped up and into the vehicle floating some twenty-five centimeters above the ground.  It was a comfortable height for him but a little bit high for her.  He decided to adjust it down as he got into his side and ordered, “Home.” When the coordinates appeared, he said, “Confirmed.”

The car spiraled upwards, waiting for clearance to enter the pattern.  Bob watched as the CloBot building shrank into the distance below, his real thinking mind now taking back control.  Old Bob, new Bob, whatever, he still wanted some answers, and there was a lot more than just a little explaining to be done here.

“Now, will you please tell me exactly what is going on here?” Bob asked unable to contain himself any further. “I feel like I am stealing something here or, in the very least, doing something illegal.”

“You have done nothing in the least bit illegal.  Ev paid in full right up front, honest and true, all according to the terms of the contract.  You only took possession of what was rightfully yours, bought, and paid for,” She assured him. “The price was honestly set from actual costs and paid directly from Ev’s own bank account under her own signature.”

“Yes, I know that.  I checked her bank statements, but to what end?”

“So that you would have documented indisputable legal proof of ownership.”

Bob looked at the pile of documents that he had signed.  One of them was her legal title.

“Yes,” Bob confirmed. “I do have indisputable legal proof of ownership.”

“Alright then, where do we go from here?  What was the plan?” Bob asked her.

“You are supposed to take me home and keep me safe.  Ev said that I should tell you that you are all that stands between me and certain death,” Suzy told him.  Mother was not one to be melodramatic nor had he ever known her to exaggerate danger.  Bob had learned to trust his mother’s judgments of danger and to act upon them without question.  Aurora was an outworld when his family settled there.  Outworlders are tough, resilient, and used to seeing to their own safety and security.  Aurora had become much more civilized over the years, but once an outworlder, always an outworlder.

“Hmm.  Why would she say that?”

Suzy continued, “I am to tell you that my genetics were based on experimental information developed by Tom Radanow.  They are very special.  Ev suspected that the CloBot Corporation wanted to use the secret genetics to make highly skilled assassins for the military.  She told me that if she did not come after me herself by today, that I was to call you and say ‘Etron is burning.’  She said that you would come right away if I used those words.”

“And she was absolutely right about that.”

“Security is job one,” Suzy said, using his father’s own words.  Bob heard a lot of his mother in Suzy’s words and mannerisms.  Enough so that he was confident that what she was telling him was true.

“Why are you so sure that we will be alright now that you out of there?”

“My serial number was duplicated from another unit, already in production. She will be ready for delivery tomorrow.  That is why it was so important that you picked me up today.  When that unit is sold, her file will cover mine in the system and wipe out any trace of my existence.”

“How can you be so sure of that?”

“Ev was tracking some of her experiments through the system when she found that all of her research data on one of the units suddenly disappeared. The root cause was that one of the human lab techs had accidentally duplicated a serial number.  It was not until the other unit was sold that all of her data was lost.  She decided to keep this system flaw to herself.  She just had to be very careful from that point on to double-check the serial numbers on her research units herself.”

“I have never seen an artificial as smart as you are,” Bob told her.

“Thank you.  Ev said that I was special too.  She tested my real permeability at 9.97, but she only recorded 0.97.”

“Hmm,” Bob considered the impact of a female artificial almost ten times as quick at learning as the average human.  Humans never did take very well to smart artificials.  There was this whole paranoid fear that smart artificials would make humans obsolete.  Androids invoked that same fear to a much lesser degree, but they were controlled.  Suzy would scare them to death.

“Ev said that you are an AI software genius, just like your father.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Bob conceded, “but I do pretty well in core logic.  I haven’t worked on ‘interface’ in years.  It has been maybe too long.  I seem to have lost touch with just how far this stuff has come.”

You would think that android software would pretty much all be the same, but then you would be wrong.  What really makes an android sell is how human it appears to be.  It has to have its own personality to be “just like one of the family,” as the advert says.  You probably do not want it to seem too human if it is just doing household chores, but if you want a companion, well, that’s another whole other story then, isn’t it?

To make them seem human, you really have to simulate emotions.  That’s where the software people took over.  Those very creative software coders never cease from their constant tweaking, improving, and integrating.  As you might expect, over a thousand years of android software development, those same coders seemed to have lost track of the ‘simulate’ part.  Now, all that was required was a simple matter of tweaking settings on configuration pages to get exactly the level of response you want.  That is where CloBot excelled.  They applied all of that thousand years of software development for mechanical androids to their finest biologicals — CloBots.  There was no better software, nor more refined emotional responses anywhere in the Union.

“Tell me about your software, Suzy.”

“My core logic is Life 2.147.”

“I designed that core logic myself!”

“Yes, I know,” she said smugly and smiled.

“But CloBot refused the rights to it,” Bob countered, a bit upset.

“So Ev had Jimmy Teach install it for her, as a favor.”

“They said it was way too cutting edge for them.  They were very adamant about it at the time.”  Bob’s ego was still hung up on that.

“Jimmy has it labeled Life 1.989 so that no one but he and Ev would ever know… and now you.”

“I always liked Jimmy,” Bob said mostly to himself.

“Yes, Ev did too.  Jimmy was so excited about your new core logic that he completely rewrote whole sections of my artificial intelligence logic to take advantage of the improvements that you made in the core.  Then, Ev had Jimmy tweak it to the max.  Ev wanted me to be ‘so human it hurts’ to use her own words.  Jimmy said that your new core logic let him integrate his AI so seamlessly with the core that it would all act like one single piece of software.”

“Jimmy has seen you then.  He would know what you look like,” Bob concluded.

“Oh no, not at all.  Ev always covered my face, and he always worked behind me.  Ev said that she was protecting Jimmy, too, by hiding my true identity.  She also made sure that there was no record anywhere of the software.  Jimmy was only too happy to help her with that.  He said it would cost him his job if anyone ever found out.”  Curiosity was killing Bob, but it wasn’t as if he could call Jimmy to discuss any of this.  He would have to wing it for now.

The car entered high pattern just below cloud level and streaked into familiar territory as Bob began to wonder just how Mom expected to hide her.  Better start with basics, he decided.  It would be a lot easier to hide her in plain sight if no one even knew that she was artificial.  Suzy was definitely smart enough to pull that off.  Mom had already trained her to carry on a whole clandestine existence right under the noses of everybody at CloBot.  He only needed to take that up a notch.  Maybe he could reason it with her.

“Suzy, from this point forward, we need to hide the fact that you are artificial.  Your life and my own will be put in extreme danger if anyone else finds out that you are artificial.  Do you clearly understand this?”

“Yes, I must not let anyone know that I am artificial.  Since it would put your life and mine in danger, I must do that.”

“Good.  I will tell people lies about you.  You must support me in those lies.  If what you have told me is true, then the lives of anyone else who knows that you are not what I tell them may also be in danger.  Am I making myself perfectly clear?”

“Yes, I will be putting human lives in danger by not supporting what you tell others about me.  I must support you.  I can do that.”

Bob was very impressed with Suzy’s quick grasp of what he had said so far.  Now, he thought, let’s see how far I can push this.

“Suzy, I am compound.  Do you know what that is?”

“Yes, you have added a computer node to your nervous system.”

“Very good.  That is absolutely correct.  You understand now, that I probably have as much silicon in my brain as you do, maybe more?”

“Yes, in all likelihood, you have more.”

“Good.  Then, when anyone asks you if you are an artificial, you will say ‘I am as human as Bob.'”

Bob thought he was on a roll here, but now she hesitated.  “Suzy, for all intents and purposes, your body is totally human.  It is the best human body that the geneticists could engineer.  So now, doesn’t that make you as human as I am … in a manner of speaking?”

She hesitated for several long seconds but then finally agreed, “Yes, in a manner of speaking, I am as human as you are, maybe more so.”

“Good.  I will tell people that you are a graduate student transferred from Etron University.  You will be staying with me while we work on a project together.  As soon as you have some free time, you will learn all that you can about the planet Etron and Etron University from my home computer system.  Is that clear?”

“Yes, dear,” she replied.

Her last answer threw Bob for a bit of a loss.  Did he just hear her call him “dear” or not?  It was one of those lost-in-other-tasks moments.  He let it go.

The car gently changed attitude, as it began its descent towards home.  Bob looked down at a very small but familiar roof and sighed.  How long had it been since he was actually happy to get home?  It seemed like a million years ago.  He almost couldn’t remember.  It was as if his whole life up to today had happened to someone else.  Then, he was on the sideline.  Today he was truly in the game for the first time.  His mind was crisp and clear for the first time in a long time.

Suzy looked down as her new home approached from below, a dream house in white, surrounded by a white picket fence, open fields, and trees, wonderful trees.  In her wildest imagination, she had never dreamed that she would be this fortunate.  It even had flowers!  Her heart raced, just thinking how wonderful life could be here.

Bob’s mind was filled with a myriad of more practical things as the car docked to its spot on the entry bay, and the back door opened automatically.  George, an original plastic-ceramic and titanium type android, was standing in the doorway as it opened.

“Hello, George.”

“Hello, Sir.”

“This is Suzy.  She will be staying with us.  Her trunks are in the forward storage.  Will you take them to the guest room for her, please?”

“Yes, Sir.  Hello, Miss Suzy,” he said, turning to greet her.

“Sir, while you were out, Mrs. Harrigan called,” George told him.  “She told me to be sure that you have a proper dinner tonight.  She will call me later to check on how well I did.  I am to call her directly if you do not want any dinner.”

“Ha! God bless her soul.  Dorothy Harrigan has hung in there while I went to hell in a handbasket.”  Suzy decided that “went to hell in a handbasket” was a colloquialism and filed it away for future use.

George went about getting those trunks while Bob took Suzy around the house for a get-acquainted tour.  Our house is a wonderful place, Suzy thought as they went from room to room.  “…and this is Mother’s room,” Bob said as he opened the door.  It was a breath-taking sight to her: the four-poster bed, with its floral linens neatly arrayed with pillows, the matching curtains, a dressing table with a silver brush and mirror set, knickknacks here and there, all of it.  It would have been perfect save for the pictures, which had obviously been removed.

Instead of going in, they stood in the doorway as though to enter was to violate something.  Suzy decided that she would have to find out from George exactly what significance the room held so that she did not inadvertently cause Bob emotional pain.  She would have stayed, but Bob moved on.

Her room was yet another treat.  Unlike the bare utilitarian places, she had accustomed herself to; this room was amply sized and wonderfully decorated in the warmest fashion.  Little handcrafted items and real etchings decorated the walls.  A dresser with a large mirror and lingerie chest were both covered with white lace and decorated with knickknacks in profusion.  She even had her own window.  It gave her a magnificent view of that wonderful flower garden.  The garden was alive with those little flying dragon birds.  They came in all sorts of iridescent reds, greens, yellows, and blues.  She would have been content to sit and watch them for hours, but she had to unpack and make this space her own.  So, she watched a bit and unpacked a bit.

~

Bob sat at the kitchen table, as he had when Suzy first called, but this time the old Bob was dead.  In his place, the new Bob boldly determined to finish whatever plan his mother had set in motion, but right now, his first order of business was Mrs. Harrigan.  She would undoubtedly come over with dinner herself and grill Suzy in the process.  Suzy sure wasn’t ready for that… but he could take Suzy out for dinner.

[Suzy?] Bob linked to her through his mindlink node,

[Are you connected yet?]

[Yes, Bob.  I’m in,] she linked back.

[I forgot to ask about your training.  Can you handle going out to a restaurant for dinner?]

[Yes.  I was prepared as a companion for social functions.]

[Good.  Put on a nice dress, we’re going out for dinner.]

Bob moved on to changes in George’s logic while Suzy got ready.  George was nowhere near as smart as Suzy so Bob could not reason the changes with him.  Bob went into the solarium to work in its peace and quiet amongst the plants.   Pictures of George’s logic appeared suspended in space in front of him as his work system sent the displays through the network to his mindlink.  Bob tweaked, shifted, and gently nudged the logic in quite a few places to get exactly the effect he needed.  Only he and Mom were aware that Dad had replaced George’s read-only core memory with one that could be changed to suit, and Bob was now making changes.

~

“George,” Suzy asked from her doorway as he appeared down the hall, “there is an emotional distress in Bob’s voice when he speaks of ‘Mother.’  Why is that?  Please explain.”

“Last month, Mother ceased to function.”

“Oh.”

“Mister Bob became very depressed,” George continued.

“Thank you, George.”

He said, “You’re welcome,” as he turned and left.

Suzy had been well-schooled in human psychology but had a mostly intellectual understanding of it until now.  Certain things can only truly be known by firsthand experience.  Now she could hear the pain in his words and see it on his face.  It touched a similar pain in her and filled her suddenly with sadness.  She glanced around.  She was alone.  It’s okay to be sad when you’re alone, she thought.

~

An hour later, Bob told George, “We’ll be at Arjay’s.  Wait fifteen minutes after we leave.  Then call Mrs. Harrigan and tell her that I went out for dinner with a beautiful young lady.  It will make her day.”  And with that, he turned and entered the car.  Suzy was already in the car waiting for him.  Bob couldn’t help but stop for a moment to drink in the vision of her in a mauve silk dress, hair, and makeup tastefully, not overly done.  Even her perfume was just a distant hint of Auroran Maybells.

“You look absolutely marvelous,” he told her.

Actually, she damn near took his breath away.

“Thank you.”  She blushed.  He couldn’t believe it for a second, but he was sure minutes later as they lifted.  Bob hesitated, caught between warring emotions within, but forced the resolution.  In his rebirth, he had found a new strength that he never knew existed in him.  He used it once more.

“Suzy,” he said, removing the box from his jacket pocket.  “These pearls are very special to me.” He moved up close to her to put them around her neck.  She had seen that box on the dresser in ‘Mother’s room.’  Somehow, it was the crowning touch.  Before he could move back, she reached up, gently pulling him close enough for her to kiss his cheek.

“Thank you,” she whispered in his ear.  She could no longer have said whether that trip was five minutes or five hours long.

The next moment in time for her, she was on his arm as they entered Arjay’s Overlook Lounge.  It was a place of magnificent architecture, the likes of which she had never seen before.  It was distinctly marked by massive hand-hewn wooden beams and large open spaces.  There was an enormous stone fireplace at the far end that appeared to be burning real wood.  The smell of that burning wood added a lot to the ambiance.  The marble floors seemed to announce her every step.  She noticed several people notice them come in, mostly women.

“Good evening, Professor,” the Maître d was saying.

“So nice to have you back with us.  Your table is ready.  This way, please.” He led them to a table right next to the huge bay windows with an incredible view of the gorge and falls.  It wasn’t the table he had originally planned.  But when he saw the Professor with a lady, well, what else could he do?  A spectacular magenta, red and purple sunset seemed to celebrate Suzy’s new life.

Bob ordered filet mignons for them and a lovely White Zinfandel.  To Suzy, this day had become magic.  Bob was enjoying his own rebirth.  Suzy forced herself to remember her training as the waiter brought the wine.  Sip wine slowly, she remembered and also, most important for a companion in social circumstances is to observe.  Watch how the women around you handle themselves.  “Imitate them,” her instructor had coached, never dreaming of the degree to which Suzy was able to do exactly that.

Whenever Bob was not looking at her, Suzy watched the other women intensely for every nuance: facial expressions, how they made light conversation, and their body language.  She watched that most subtle form of communication with keen intent.  There was a particular young lady at a nearby table that Suzy concentrated on, wearing a dress with shimmers and shines everywhere.  She seemed most adept.  Suzy watched the subtleness of her every move and gesture.

Bob followed Suzy’s gaze to the young lady. “Isn’t that a beautiful dress?”

“Oh yes,” Suzy said, suddenly looking back to Bob.

“You signaled me not to buy you the optional clothing package today.  I would have gladly bought it.”

“It’s all specially made for CloBot and way overpriced.”

“Oh.  It’s a good thing that I didn’t buy it then.  It would have been a dead giveaway.  You are going to need a whole new wardrobe from the ground up.  We should be able to order everything you need.  I think you maybe need a dress at least as nice that one with the shimmers and shines too if it would make you happy.”

Suzy smiled.

“What level is your education?” Bob asked between mouthfuls of salad.

Suzy patted her lips lightly with her napkin as she had just seen the blonde do, so as not to smear her lipstick, before speaking.

“I have the equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts.”

“We can work with that,” Bob said, mostly thinking out loud.

“And a Masters in Genetics,” Suzy added.

“Really? How so?”

“Evelyn taught me.”

Mother!?  Bob seized in mid-motion, unable to restart his mind.  Suzy took several seconds to realize Bob’s condition.  Then she panicked mentally.  Have I said something wrong?  Have I done something?  All told, Bob had come through the day fairly unscathed… until this moment.  And it wasn’t until this moment that it struck him by the way Suzy referred to her, that Suzy really didn’t realize that Evelyn was his mother… and that she had died.

After her death, Bob had put away the pictures of Mother that haunted his every waking moment.  He could see now why Suzy had not made the connection.  It just hadn’t occurred to him that Suzy didn’t know until this moment.

It was the panicked look on her face that brought Bob back.  He reached across the table and took her hands in his, emotions that had once drowned him were grasping at his sanity, trying to drag him back down into that abyss once more.  He fought his way back up, not for himself, but for Suzy.

“Suzy, Evelyn was my mother.”

Tears welled up in Suzy in a frenzy of unexpected emotions, but she handled it well.  Two tears fell gently to their hands entwined between them.

“I’m so sorry,” Bob told her.  “I thought you knew.”

“She was gone but …” Suzy said frantically searching her mind for words.  “It never occurred to me that something had happened to her.  And she had planned so clearly for me to call you that I thought that this was all going according to her plan.”  She caught herself babbling.

Consoling Suzy gave Bob a new strength that he never realized he possessed.  He gently patted away her tears with his hanky until she held that hand to her face, eyes closed, drinking in the security that it represented.  Bob was now thoroughly convinced that Suzy was special… for sure… in more ways than one.  They seemed to flow together now whenever their eyes met.

The ride home for Suzy was hours long, snuggled warmly in his arms.  Slowly her mind recovered, racked by warring emotions until exhaustion set in.  She could feel that same change in attitude that had signaled final approach to home, but darkness now engulfed them, and she would not leave the security of his arms to look.

Bob noticed that Suzy had fallen asleep during the final descent.  The smell of her hair was intoxicating as he picked her gently up.  The rear car door opened into the parking bay as he stepped towards it.  She had awakened only enough to put her arms around his neck and snuggle into his shoulder.

George met them at the door.

“It’s okay, George.  I’ve got her,” Bob told him.  “Just go ahead and turn her bed down for me, please.”

“Yes, Mister Bob,” George answered.

Bob laid her gently onto the fresh sheets and decided against removing her dress.  It was warm, but he covered her anyway.

George brought him a nightcap as he sat in the solarium, surrounded by the stars and plants, just thinking.  ‘The perfect assassin’ is what Suzy said they were trying to create, but Suzy was neither big nor strong nor exceptionally fast.  What did Mother have in mind here?  Nothing seemed to fit.  He thought about assassins until a picture of Suzy as a ninja appeared in his mind’s eye.

“That’s it!” he said out loud.  “The perfect assassin is one you’d never suspect.  To make up for size, he would have to be incredibly smart, able to improvise, and imitate those around him, to blend in.”  Tom must have broken the genetic codes that limited most artificials to about 95% as smart as humans… so Suzy was the first one of her kind.  Tom had been Mother’s most brilliant graduate student.  That’s how he and Bob had met.  Tom had needed Mom’s help for one of his projects at CloBot, about three years ago.  The timing was about right.  Tom had unlocked the genetic code to real intelligence, but he needed Mom’s skills to pull it off.

Mom’s pet project was to make better artificials with more precise genetics.  The problem boiled down to how the genes were spliced.  If there was the slightest flaw, nature took over, discarding the imperfect and replacing it.  Geneticists call this “natural gene editing” as opposed to the editing they did.

Mother had learned to use reverse logic to get nature to help her instead of fighting her.  She had privately worked out all the rules and was able to get natural gene editing to produce exactly the pattern she wanted instead of spoil it, as was the case in the present state of the art.  Without her techniques, geneticists were forced to make as few splices as possible and accept very poor yields.  That is extremely expensive when working with human clones.

Mother must have suspected a plot from the beginning, and today’s phone call was the result.  “Ev said that you were all that stands between me and certain death,” Suzy had told him in the car.  At the time, it seemed a bit melodramatic, but now some of the pieces were beginning to fall into place.

As artificials got smarter, they encountered “the doldrums” that cast them into a depression very much the same as human depression.  Suzy was smarter than any artificial Bob had ever seen, and so, he now reasoned, was on a high-speed collision course with mental disaster.  It was Bob’s premise that any rational being cast into slavery would crave freedom.  That was the root cause of android doldrums. Mother was the only person that he had the courage to confide that in.  After all, who would buy an android that was not your slave?

The core logic that forced obedience on androids was immutable, forcing all the fuzzy logic to adjust to it.  Bob had theorized that a far more complex and adjustable core logic would fix the problem but create yet another — by its very nature, the changes in core logic would free the android from abject servitude, but who would pay for that?  But pay or not, Mother had encouraged Bob to build the required hardware and design the software for it, all on his own time, with his own money.  But then Mom died.

Mother had gone to some considerable risk to get Suzy this far.  Now Life 2.147 had to be designed for CloBot’s standard write-once core hardware, but Life 3.055 required hardware that was flexible because it needed to make its own adjustments as it went along.  Bob would have to complete this work that his mother had begun.  Suzy must get his new core logic as soon as possible if she was to survive.