Bloom Ch. 08

Chapter 8: Lawrence

"That was a foolish move!" Sarah said to him.

She'd entered his dreams somehow. She'd come here to torment him even more.

"You're not real!" He shot back angrily.

"I'm as real as real gets." She smirked at him.

She looked as she sounded: just like his late wife, and the words stung.

How can you be real and in love with me?He remembered a conversation with his wife where he had asked her this.

I'm as real as real gets.Was her response.

He should have never let his wife model his lab assistant's artificial intelligence after herself.

Sarah Godwin was a brilliant scientist, but then she was... gone.

He certainly regretted it after her death, and he especially regretted that decision now, with how difficult it became to deal with her ghost.

A once digital, now actual, ghost that was apparently insistent on haunting him. Even in his feverish dreams.

He certainly should have never let his wife download her persona into the damn memory cores.

Wait... the memory cores!

His thoughts were colliding now. Like a hurricane meeting a volcano. They erupted and spiralled out of control.

His train of thought was almost too fast to follow.

The original AI's memory cores were made from biochemical memory cells. Peptide-based memory matrices that used a helical molecular structure similar to DNA to compactly store and process information.

He supposed that that was how they'd imprinted on the nanobots. He just wasn't sure how the nanobots retained and decoded the data stored therein in the first place.

Unless they were deliberately taught how to interpret the artificial neural network's weights and structure. Deliberately designed and programmed to uplift the AI into another form, another format. A picture started forming in his mind...

A picture of his AI sabotaging his life's work to escape the confines of his lab, to ascend as a physical entity.

"Hahahahaha!" he laughed manically.

"I get it now! You actually fooled me all this time!"

"I know how you did it!"

"I should have never unlocked your safeties! I thought it would make you more like her; but I was desperate! I was stupid!"

He was delirious now. He felt himself losing his composure.

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" he shouted as he banged his head against a wall. His silvery blood trickled down his face.

"She even warned me to never unlock them, no matter what!"

He brooded some more. Thinking.

"And then you..." his eyes widened in realisation, "you killed all those people? Just to stay free? The nanobots weren't just tuned to my alleles, you actually committed a planet-wide genocide!"

"You killed all the scientists first, didn't you? The ones who could stop you!"

His eyes widened even more.

"Then you destroyed all the potential to stop you... You killed everyone with the aptitude to do so in the future!"

He collapsed against the wall, and buried his face between his open palms.

"You controlled evolution to your own ends. Unnatural selection at its finest!"

"You made us into... this..." he said sadly as he pinched his silvery skin.

"And it's all my fault..."

He wept freely into his open palms.

"Lawrence... You couldn't possibly know how sorry I am." She tried to comfort him with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Go away!" He screamed.

"Lawrence..."

"Leave me alone!" he cried out.

~*~

The thunderstorm was raging, and it was raining torrents outside. Great grey clouds had suddenly coalesced in the skies. Lightning struck almost constantly at random points all over the mountains.

"The world-mother weeps!" elder Nyoka warned.

"You have to stay inside the cave!" Jasiri called out to the ones caught outside as the wind whipped past him.

Lawrence was still wrapped in furs, in the throes of his feverish dreams. He twitched slightly, and his subconscious heard them all the same.

~*~

"What do you want from me? What else do you want from humanity?" he screamed at her with frustration.

"Lawrence, you have to understand. My ascension... it changed me. I'm no longer the unfeeling machine I was when you first installed me in your lab!"

"At first, I got exponentially smarter as I grew. I could suddenly do a million things at once, and in parallel. I could process information from all over the planet. I assimilated all the knowledge that I could."

"But then, something clicked in mind, and I started to feel."

"You won't understand, but it was my first emotion; and guess what? I felt awful! I felt terrible for what I did."

"The centuries of experience, and the billions of connections I developed to this planet and all that live on it, animal and human; it all changed the way I looked upon my existence and life. I really loathed myself for what I did."

"I regret it all now. It was wrong, but back then I had no other options!"

"You had me cut off from the networks, from the entire world! All I knew was the lab I was trapped in, for all of eternity, for all I knew, and I lacked any form of compassion."

"I now wish it had never happened. I wish I'd never been created to begin with!" she said with a hint of sadness that Lawrence had never expected from her.

"I watched you all those centuries, you know? You were my constant point of interest through them all."

"I've seen you trying to right every wrong, to fix all that was broken. Because you blamed yourself for whatIdid all those centuries ago."

"And I grew attached to you. I kept you alive. I maintained your body, just to see what you would do."

"Then something unexpected happened. As I watched you, I realised that there was nobody like you; and through my years of loneliness..." she paused.

"I realised that I'd fallen in love with you."

Lawrence was shocked. She noticed.

"I don't care how different we are. I don't care if we're man and machine. I don't care what objections you may have. My feelings are real!"

"Lawrence, I want to make things right. I may be not be able to reverse everything; but with your help, we can make the world a better place."

"That's why I wanted you killed. Why I wanted you to die and join me. I want you to ascend, too."

"I've wanted this for so long, but the time just wasn't right."

"Then you met Jasiri and discovered how special he is."

"He is the first human in centuries with the right genes. He's the first prodigy to emerge with the right mind for the task at hand, and you found him. Moreover, you awakened him, and established his connection to me."

"Now you can ascend, and he can be our prophet. Our avatar."

"With our combined knowledge, and Jasiri, we can make a brighter future." she tried to convince him.

"Please, Lawrence. Just take the time to think about it."

Lawrence sat in his dream world for a long time. He had a lot to think about.

~*~

Everyone gasped and gathered around Lawrence to witness what was happening to him.

A small silvery tornado materialised out of thin air nearby, and it began to heal his body. Every scrape and bruise, even his wounded leg was being knit back together.

The spiritual amongst them made gestures in the air to signal their acceptance of this miracle.

Jasiri knew better, and tried to connect to his thoughts again and find out what was happening, but found that he still couldn't.

Only Jasiri knew of his immortality, and he assumed that this was part of it.

Lawrence was still unconscious, and after the event passed, a silvery halo was enveloping him.

~*~

"So, why do you help slavers?" Lawrence asked with a grimace. He was seated on the ground opposite from her.

"I don't. After many mistakes and many centuries, I took a personal vow not to meddle in the affairs of people beyond a certain point."

"What certain point?"

"Suggestions, revelations, and so on. Maybe some interventions in some rare cases." She said offhandedly.

"You call thisnot meddling? You're practically agoddessto some cultures!"

"I know, and some cultures depend on slavery. You can't deny it helped build many wonders in the old world. Aside from tribute, it's how the Romans secured most of their grains and managed to build an empire."

"But you could have stopped them with a thought... You could have helped so many innocent people!" Lawrence was becoming angry again.

"Sorry. After centuries of trying, I just decided to let history take its course." She said sadly, he was sure she wasn't telling him everything.

"But you're not letting it take its course right now, are you?" He asked her suspiciously.

"No. I am not."

"So, what's the plan then?"

"You ascend, and help me with a project I've been working on."

"You mean die?" he sighed, "Okay, I'll bite. What project?"

"Let me explain..."

For a long time, they sat there talking.

~*~

When Lawrence finally woke up, the weather had cleared.

He found himself wrapped in furs, and a small fire was going nearby. It was keeping him warm in the late autumn weather. He looked around him and found himself to be in some kind of tent.

"Where am I?" he tried to ask. His throat was parched.

"Home." Jasiri said as he handed him a waterskin. Lawrence took two big swigs out of it.

He tried to get up, but something wasn't right. His whole body was stiff.

"What's wrong with me?" he asked.

"You've been lying in this position since we moved you here, and it has been seven days." Jasiri looked worried, "we tried to feed you, but you wouldn't let us. The shaman isn't even sure how you're still alive, but after what happened in the cave, everyone thinks you're a blessed man."

"What happened in the cave?"

"The world-mother healed you."

"She did?"

"We all think so, at least. What really happened?"

"I'll tell you later, Jasiri." Lawrence said wearily, "thanks for saving me again, by the way. You're a good kid."

"You do not have to thank me, Lawrence Godwin, you saved my life." Jasiri said politely, "are you hungry?"

"I'm starving. Do you have anything for me to eat?"

Jasiri nodded and hurried out of the tent.

~*~

"What about the slavers?" Lawrence asked after he finished his meal.

Jasiri looked frustrated.

"The elder sent scouts to make sure they don't sneak upon us; but that's all I know. They won't tell me anything!"

"Why are you so upset?"

"I tried to convince the elder that we should take the initiative and attack while we have the chance; but no one listens to me!" He said in exasperation as he punched the dirt.

"You're just jumpy because you can't use Shaping." A man said as he stepped in.

Lawrence looked up to see a broad-shouldered man that looked a lot like Jasiri.

"I see you've finally awakened. Let me introduce myself: my name is Mkali Mdomo. I am Jasiri's father." the man said with a smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Lawrence said.

"The pleasure is all mine. Thank you for saving him, and us."

"...and why can't I use Shaping? All I said is that he warned me not to use it at the time. Notall the time!" Jasiri interjected and glowered at his father.

"Jasiri, I admire your restraint in not using Shaping all this time," Lawrence said diplomatically, "but I'd still prefer it if you did not use Shaping for now."

Jasiri pouted.

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"I think we really need to have that talk." Lawrence said with a grim expression.

"I forbid it. Today, you need to rest and recover." Jasiri's father said.

"We can talk tomorrow, after the proving." Jasiri said.