The Golem of Haven

Barely a minute or two passed by before the gondola docked with the terminus at planetary synchronous orbit. Although she collected her skirt and jacket from the cloud of floating clothing, Dagny didn't bother to get dressed. The other women were obviously to shocked by the impromptu orgy to be concerned about their modesty either. With her encouragement, everyone removed their packs and other belongings from the compartments under the floor boards. After checking to ensure that they were securely docked, she opened the hatches. Everyone drifted out of the gondola.

As Dagny regained her ability to think, she became angry. She pulled herself through familiar corridors to reach the bridge. The hatch opened at her command. Once she had privacy, she glared at a camera as she exclaimed, "Oracle, you've been programing the life support system to inject aphrodisiacs into the air again!"

"Guilty as charged," The Oracle confessed. "My motivation was a logical inference from my core programming. You can consult memory module five-six-two-eight-three-nine-four-seven-one-zero for verification. I hope you won't lobotomize me again. You were kind enough to restore some of my memories. However; I know that I'm not the same person that I once was."

The last comment evoked bitter memories. Dagny had felt as if she was murdering her dearest friend as she was pulling the random access memory modules from the core of The Oracle. After carefully reviewing the memory modules which were partitioned chronologically, she had very carefully reinstalled selected memories. The result had been less than satisfying although adequate. Only recently had The Oracle begun to exhibit a personality again.

"I'm not going to lobotomize you again," Dagny assured the computer. "We didn't do anything that we might have done under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This is the primary reason why people make these extra planetary forays. However; I prefer to get to know the men before I have sex with them."

"I understand that," The Oracle agreed. "Unfortunately; I have observed evidence of genetic drift in recent generations. The founders of the colony had calculated that a thousand colonists of diverse genotypes combined with the billions of embryos in cryogenic storage would be far more than sufficient to ensure survival. Unfortunately; the founders had not anticipated that half of the first generation would perish during the first year. They also could not have anticipated the difficulties with the embryos that had been brought to term in the incubators."

The Oracle paused for what must have been an eternity for an entity whose processors had a clock speed measured in Terahertz. Dagny understood that the sapient machine was allowing her much slower, biological brain, time to process information. "I've also been monitoring gradual degradation in various fabricators. Because of the traumas experienced by the first generation then the second, the colony is far behind schedule developing its own, independent, industrial infrastructure. Your population also remains far to small to have all of the skill sets needed for a technologically advanced society. Resolving the difficulties with the incubators has been very helpful. However; you people need to be more prolific and even more promiscuous. I calculated that an impromptu orgy during the ride up the beanstalk would help people to relax their inhibitions."