Lamia Ch. 05

I woke early, finding that I had slept in my rig, as had Patricia. Like most wearable tech, comfort and durability had driven development as much as computing capability, so it was so easy to forget that you were wearing them. You'd see news reports every now and then where cyber-neurologists warned about children altering their brain development by wearing the things constantly for months on end. I regarded that as the usual media sensationalism.

I dressed for the gym and swapped my HUD contacts for a fresh pair. Downstairs, I found Christine prepping a breakfast of pancakes and bacon. The hangover of my melancholy mood from the previous night vanished when she turned and looked at me with a brilliant smile. She closed the distance on me and stood on tiptoe to give me a deep and sensual kiss that sent tingles through me.

"If you can wait two more minutes, you can eat before you go. Unless you would rather get it when you come back?"

The savory, buttery smells made my decision for me. "Oh, I'll eat now," I said, pouring myself a cup of coffee from the full and steaming carafe.

I turned back around to see Christine swaying her hips from side to side as she cooked. The motion made her ass move in a most alluring way. "I see you're still dancing," I said.

She spoke with her back still to me, never pausing in her groove. "Oh, yes. I've been learning so much. I had no idea that there were so many different types of dance, and so many variations. I think swing is still my favorite though. Maybe 'cause we made a lot of good memories last night. Besides, you seem to enjoy staring at my butt."

Now how had she known that with her back turned? "Guilty," I said, getting a knowing smirk thrown over her shoulder.

"Here we go," she said, plating my food expertly. She had a stack of three small pancakes with a pat of butter on top and two slices of bacon. "Maple syrup?"

"Sure," I answered, and accepted the plate after she finished pouring.

"Not eating in the dining room?" she asked, when I started to dig in right in front of her.

"I like the view much better here."

She grinned and put a little extra shake in her rear as she started the next round of food. After a few minutes, she messaged me.Patricia is on her way down. She surprised me when, in the same instant, she started singing along to whatever music was playing in her head. "...'cause you're the one, the only one, that's made for me."

"Oh my God, it sings now?" Trish said from the doorway in a tone of disapproval that was spoiled by her amused grin.

"Apparently," I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"I smelled pancakes. Just tell me I'm not hallucinating."

"No, and you are just in time," Christine said, flipping the last pancake from the pan onto the stack.

"Quite real," I said, waving my fork over my plate. "And they're better than I ever managed to cook."

Trish rolled her eyes. "Yeah. You always burned the shit out of them."

"Yours were somehow both burned and raw in the middle," I countered.

We exchanged a smile. There was a reason our kitchen had gone mostly unused for the last two years. We both went into the dining room to sit and eat like proper adults. Once I finished, I excused myself to the gym. While I was out, I got a message I had been waiting for.

Aidan:Hello, Stephen. I'll be landing in Houston by 9:30. Come pick me up if you'd like.

I sent back my reply and cut my workout a bit short. On my way home, I messaged Christine.Get ready to go out. We're meeting a friend at the airport, and we don't have time to waste.

Okay, I'll be ready when you get here.

When I arrived, she had changed into one of the business casual skirt and blouse outfits I had ordered for her the previous week. Patricia was in her office, and I called to her that I was going to pick up a friend and would be back in a few hours.

"So who are we meeting?" Christine asked, as soon as we were underway.

"Aidan Clarke. He's my oldest and best friend. Don't tell him that you are an android. I want to get his unbiased impression of you."

She cocked her head, giving me a look that said, "I know you're up to something." Out loud, she said. "Well, I already do that, but I'll be sure not to give it away."

After a few moments, she said. "Is this the same Aidan Clarke who runs Clarke Tech?"

"One and the same," I answered. "But if you're looking him up, don't believe all the chatter you see."

"Hmm. Clarke Tech's von Neumann probes will consume the entire solar system within a few centuries. Clarke Tech in league with aliens, building a secret base on the dark side of the moon." She snickered. "He sounds like a dangerous person."

I smiled wryly. "Yeah, looks like you found them. His company is actually based around space mining. They sent their first probe out to intercept a near-Earth asteroid a few years ago."

"Right, I see that."

"And soon, he's going to start to splash smaller rocks just off the coastline and retrieve them for raw materials here on Earth."

She sighed. "And It looks like the usual dorks are against it."

"Inside and outside of government," I agreed. "People hear that you're going to bring down asteroids and they immediately imagine cities being leveled."

The talk turned to more mundane subjects. Christine had booked my return to Cameron's Saturday afternoon to test our system. I took the opportunity to access it and saw that it had amassed a pretty substantial database of dance steps in just one night.

We pulled up to the airport terminal just before 9:30. Aidan was already waiting just inside, flanked by two men in casual wear. He wore a tailored suit from a certain famous street in central London, and it probably cost about half what I paid for Christine. He was dashingly handsome, square-chinned with thick brown hair nearly to his shoulders. And of course he had that fucking accent.

"Stephen!" he said, hurrying forward to meet me. "You're right on time. It's great to see you." He enfolded me in a rib-crushing hug and then clapped me on the shoulder. "How the bloody hell are you?"

That was when his gaze slipped past me. "And who is...oh, why, hello." That last was uttered in a rising tone of interest. Shouldering me aside, he put out his hand and Christine went to shake it, but he surprised both of us by bringing her hand to his lips.

"Aren't you still married?" I asked reprovingly, as Christine tittered and pulled back her hand.

"My wife and I have an agreement," he said. "I presume that this is the 'she' you were referring to on our call? What you did not tell me was that she shines as brightly and beautifully as the stars." He turned to admire Christine. "My name is Aidan Clarke--"

"Of Clarke Tech, I know," she said. "My name is Christine. I work for Stephen."

"It is my utmost pleasure to meet such a heavenly creature. My good friend here thinks that you and I would make the perfect match."

"I said no such thing," I protested. "Come on, let's get you to my car." I remembered the two men standing there, who had remained silent during our conversation. "Are these guys with you?"

"Alas, I am afraid so. I had to hire security after an incident a few months back. One of the nutters from APEE attacked me with his sign." He pronounced it "apey".

"I've never heard of them," I said.

"I'm not surprised. It stands for Alliance for the Preservation of Extraterrestrial Ecologies. They think that human beings should stay on Earth and not pollute space with our destructive ways. Loonies, really. Fortunately there aren't many of them, but they show up to a lot of my public appearances out east."

"So they are--" Christine began.

"Space environmentalists." Aidan said with a scowl. "Every time I think that humanity could not produce anything more idiotic, some enterprising individual shows the way. Speaking of which, why don't we get to that car of yours?"

Another vehicle, a white Aston Martin SUV, pulled up right behind mine. Aidan's security detail seemed to expect that he would be riding with them. Both had donned identical pairs of sunglasses the moment they stepped outside, probably with high-res cameras and visual tracking and pattern recognition AI to aid in detecting potential assailants.

"I'll be fine," Aidan assured the mustached one, who had opened the back passenger side door of the SUV and motioned adamantly for him to get in. "We're heading out to Starport One. Just follow behind us. And watch for RPG fire." The man made a growling noise and shut the door.

Aidan opened the rear passenger door on my car and offered his hand as he bowed toward Christine. "M'lady," he said.

I rolled my eyes and went around to my own door. Christine took his hand and got into the proffered seat. Aidan carefully shut her door, then ran around to the other side to take the seat next to her.

"You know she's not interested," I said, as the car swung out and merged into traffic.

"Nonsense," he said. "No American girl can resist my charms."

"He is pretty sexy," Christine said, winking at me in the rearview mirror.

If I stayed around these two much longer, I might need to look up the potential negative health effects of excessive eye-rolling.

It's just flirting. Christine sent me. Lighten up. I'll keep him under control.

You're having fun. I accused her via text.

That's what I do.

"You said you are employed by Stephen?" Aidan asked. "How has that been working out?"

"Oh, it's been great!" Christine told him about the learning system we had built the previous day.

"Fascinating work," he said. I noticed that his hand had crept further up Christine's leg. "We've employed many such learning systems in the development of our probes."

Christine smiled. "Speaking of probes, Mr. Clarke, I have a question for you."

"Ask me anything, darling."

"Does exploring the solar system really include discovering what's under my skirt?"

His hand had indeed gone up past her hemline and was now slowly caressing her thigh. "Oh, my lovely damsel, but give me the chance, and I will take you to places you've never dreamed could exist."

"Oh for God's sake," I sputtered. "She's an android."

Aidan gave me an irritated look, then smiled at Christine. "Love, what is he on about?" He reached up with his free hand to push back a lock of her hair, brushing her cheek as he did so.

"No, he's correct," she said with a sigh. "I'm not human."

"Oh, come now. You're putting me on."

"Just show him," I said.

Christine twisted in her seat and pulled her hair back to expose her neck. "Touch there," she said, pointing.

Aidan did so and his eyes went wide. "That is awesome! But how do I know this isn't just an implant of some kind?"

Christine quirked an eyebrow at me, then began to unbutton her blouse.

"Oh, this should be interesting," Aidan said, sparing me only a glance, and then he only had eyes for Christine.

She finished with her buttons and leaned forward to remove the garment, baring her back, though she still had on a white, lacy bra. She turned toward her window, and by Aidan's reaction, she must have exposed her cooling ports.

"Bloody hell! Those are heat sinks," Aidan said, peering at them in fascination. "And I can see an internal structure. Metallic, I think. May I touch them?"

Christine chuckled. "So now you ask first. Yes, just don't put any pressure on the sinks themselves. The cooling fins have fluid capillaries and are somewhat delicate."

"I'll be gentle," he promised. Christine flinched a bit when he ran his fingers along the edge of one flap. "Ticklish?" he asked.

She spoke through gritted teeth. "Yeah. But I'm fine."

"This is amazing. It's indistinguishable from real skin."

"It is real skin," she said. "Are you satisfied?"

"Yes, I believe you. But how are you able to support living tissue?"

Christine closed the ports and redressed. She answered his questions at length, and I learned a few new things. She had a heart, lungs, a stomach, intestines, liver, and kidneys, all of them reduced in size and complexity due to the lack of an organic brain and musculature to support, though her blood also served as liquid coolant for some of her robotic elements. Her skeleton was made of a titanium alloy. She had human musculature, but servo actuators could augment her strength. She had a pair of mechanical pumps as a backup if her organic heart ever failed.

"And she must have some very sophisticated algorithms for simulating consciousness."

"It's not simulated," I said.

Aidan looked at me and shook his head. "Impossible. Not with our current understanding of cognition anyway. You remember that big kerfuffle at Google's AI division some years back."

"Which one?" I said with a shrug.

"Exactly."

"It is not simulated," I repeated. "Christine is a conscious, sapient being."

"How do you know?"

I smiled, remembering my conversation with Christine on this point once before. "How do you know that I'm conscious?"

Aidan sighed. "Right, right, good old Turing. I guess we'll come back to that. So my next big question is, why is she here and not in a multi-billion dollar robotics lab?"

"I bought her as a housekeeping android."

He stared at me. "Oh, piss right off."

"I'm completely serious. I paid a lot for her, but far less than you'd expect. You could go buy one yourself if you wanted to. There's a shop downtown. They have a catalog and everything."

Aidan sighed. "This is a lot to take in. I could maybe accept that we could build something like this in another ten or fifteen years, but right now?"

"Well, someone found a way to skip ahead," I said.

"It seems that way."

Aidan seemed to notice then that his hand was back on Christine's thigh. "Sorry," he said sheepishly, pulling it away.

She smiled. "Don't worry about it."

He returned her smile before turning back to me. "You realize that there is nothing about this which makes any sense. This would be the first known sapient artificial intelligence. An actual strong AI. To waste that on such a mundane application--no offense..."

"None taken," Christine assured him.

"But you see what I mean. Hell, you don't need consciousness to do housework. There are so many more potential applications for a true artificial intelligence."

"Well, there's more," I said, wracking my brain for how to explain how I had developed feelings for Christine. I looked at her, which she must have interpreted as me passing the baton.

"We've had sex," she said bluntly.

"Um..." I faltered. That hadn't been quite what I had in mind.

He nodded slowly, his mouth dropping open. "Uh...huh. And she has all the, uh--."

Christine cheerfully provided the missing info. "Yes, I have a vagina."

"Right. And when you did it, was it....."

"Oh! It's amazing every time," Christine gushed. "The first time I orgasmed was incredible, and it's only gotten better since. I have to be careful because every time I think of that big, gorgeous cock, my mucous membranes start to overproduce all this lubrication and I...what?" She finally noticed that both of us were staring at her.

"Too much information," I enunciated.

"Far too much," Aidan agreed. He rested his chin on one fist, regarding her innocently. "Do keep going."

She gave me a sheepish look. "Oh, sorry, it seemed like we weren't holding anything back anymore."

"There's a limit," I said.

Aidan turned to me and almost perfectly mimicked my accent. "Aren'tyou still married?"

I sighed. "It's complicated."

"With women, it always is. So you're telling me that we have what should be a multi-billion dollar AI that you purchased for next to nothing who cleans your house and polishes your knob. That about right?"

I glanced at Christine, but she just shrugged. "That's the way it is," I said.

Aidan shook his head. "This simply does not add up."

I moved my fingers out of sight of Christine, composing a message to Aidan.Now that you've seen her, we need to talk, just the two of us. There's more.

It has been an interesting ride so far.

We spent the rest of the trip recounting the events of the last week-and-a-half since I had purchased Christine. I hoped that the conversation helped to overcome any remaining doubts Aidan might have that she was a sapient being, and not simply a clever simulation of one.

Starport One was Clarke Tech's launch facility an hour outside Houston. A pair of bored-looking security guards stood at the gate when we approached. I gave the one outside the window my pass, which he inspected carefully despite Aidan's cheerful "Good morning, Alberto". After a few seconds, the guard returned the pass with a nod and a "Good morning, sir" for Aidan.

"We have strict protocols," Aidan explained for Christine's benefit. "You've got the loonies, but a lot of people just want to get a closer look at a rocket. It would be nice if they would just take one of the guided tours. They're free."

"You started charging for them last year," I reminded him.

"And well we should," he said, not missing a beat. "We have to pay for the tour guides and added security after all."

I could see the site's newly-constructed vertical launch pad towering in the distance, currently standing empty. We pulled up to the administrative offices and I turned around to address Christine. "I want to have a quick word with Aidan. Won't be long."

She nodded, though I saw her brow crinkle with confusion. I hadn't been able to come up with a good reason to give Christine for us to talk in private. Not that I liked keeping secrets from her, but I couldn't risk that whoever had messed with her brain was still keeping close tabs on her.

Aidan's office was a large but functional space on the second floor looking out over a vast hangar space. Below, an inverted cone sat on a metal platform. Hanging above it and supported at each corner by metal posts was a machine making slow circles. The cone was nearly the height of the technicians at the machine's controls, its growth just barely perceptible as it was printed.

I told Aidan about the events of that night when Christine had been patched. "She said one word, 'Lamia', and then she just shut down."

He looked at me askance. "That's a Greek myth. How is it relevant?"

"I don't know yet, but look at this." I took the letter from my pocket and handed it to him.

"Clever, mailing a letter," he said. "And you've decided to meet with this mystery person?"

"I want answers," I said. "And I think that the risk is minimal."

"Well, I want to go with you. I'll have one of my security teams accompany us, in case you're wrong about the risk. Most likely the bloke never shows, but we can't be too careful."

"I would appreciate you being there. And when you have the chance, I'd like you to examine Christine, analyze whatever data you can get from her. I need to know more about whatever they did to her."

He studied me for a long moment. "You're in love with her aren't you?" He took my silence as an affirmative. "Not that I can blame you. She's beautiful, charming, and intelligent. Funny, though not to excess. I'm halfway in love with her myself."

"That night when they patched her, she told me she loved me, and I came to realize that I feel the same. Since then, it seems that she is incapable of that feeling, though she is still crazy for sex. Maybe for some men that would be enough."

Aidan appeared to be about to say something in reply, but just then a man burst into the office. "Mr. Clarke, sir!" He took in the scene with a few glances. "Sorry to interrupt, but we were hoping you could get a look at the data coming from drone number 7."

Aidan nodded and waved him out. He stood, taking a moment to smooth out his shirt and run a hand through his hair. "Duty calls, I'm afraid. I'll talk to some of my people, see if we can set something up."