by S. H. Jucha
Étienne leaned over and kissed Ellie’s cheek to emphasize his happiness at being reunited.
Behind them, Tatia sat close to Alain, but only their hips touched. Alain leaned forward, with his forearms on his thighs and his hands clasped. He searched for the words to explain how he felt.
Tatia dearly wanted to hold Alain, but his posture indicated that he struggled with his emotions. So, she waited, with her heart breaking for the pain that enveloped Alain.
As time stretched out, Tatia wondered if something else had occurred other than what they’d discussed when Alain arrived in system. Then it occurred to her that Alain was swimming in guilt for his decision.
The word swimming gave Tatia an idea. She stood and swept Alain into her arms. After all, they were a hydrogen couple. She took six swift steps toward one of the park’s deeper pools and jumped into it.
Alain and Tatia sank below the surface. Never having swum in it before, Tatia was taken by surprise. The pool was much deeper than she’d thought.
Tatia stroked upward. When she broke the surface, she gasped for breath and glanced around for Alain. He hadn’t surfaced. Her location app directed her gaze downward. Ducking her head under the surface, she saw Alain sitting on the bottom, with his arms folded. His expression was stern.
A laugh burbled out of Tatia, and unwittingly, she gulped water. Raising her head above the surface, Tatia coughed multiple times to clear her throat. When she could breathe again, she peered into the pool’s bottom, but Alain wasn’t there.
Twisting around, Tatia spotted Alain six meters away. He was climbing onto the bed of the shallow stream that fed the pool.
“I’m so sorry, my heart,” Tatia said between coughs, while she tread water. “I didn’t realize the water was this deep. It’s a good thing you can swim.”
“I can’t,” Alain replied, “but I have excellent breath control.”
What Alain said took Tatia a moment to understand. He’d sunk to the bottom, holding his breath. Then he’d sat on the bottom to remonstrate her. Before his breath ran out, he’d walked across the pool’s bottom and climbed out.
Sitting on the stream’s bed, with his legs in the pool, Alain eyed Tatia.
Tatia swam to Alain, clung to his thighs, and asked, “Do you forgive me?”
“Let’s retire. You’ll have to work hard to make up for attempting to drown me,” Alain replied and smiled at her.
30: Greetings, Vyztram
Deep in the center of the Freedom sat the SADEs’ private and secure databank. The amount of memory crystal dwarfed that available to the bridge. It housed such things as Omnia Banks records. Z and Miranda used the memory banks as the transfer location of their kernels between their avatars. Still, there remained an enormous amount of unused memory.
The empty crystals were exactly what Z needed for the work with Vyztram.
Using the Elvian engineers’ hands, the SADEs instructed them to attach transmitting devices to each globe. Then they dedicated a SADE to download a globe and relay the entire contents to the Freedom.
Aboard the city-ship, SADEs watched with interest as the ship’s comm network was strained with the amount of data flowing through it. The process lasted two hours, while the SADEs copied the globes.
Z had directed the data to remain in discreet clusters. Each cluster corresponded to a globe.
While the SADEs copied the globes, Z and Othello communicated with the Elvian engineers and techs, who explored the panel taken from the Deloy’s sleeping quarters. The panel’s output addressed one of the cold globes.
Z requested the engineers working within Vyztram’s memory banks to identify the globe that the panel addressed. Unfortunately, they responded that without the globe being active, they couldn’t identify it.
Then Othello requested that the engineers trace every signal connection between globes. It took a while, but the engineers reported that one globe did not reside on the common network. Instead, it was connected to another globe, which was active.
Z requested the engineers remove the inactive globe, place it on a discrete network, and examine it. Shortly afterward, they reported that the globe contained Vyztram’s original installation.
One of the purposes of the Deloy’s panel had been confirmed. A menu item within the panel could activate a reset of the AI, wiping out Vyztram’s present iteration.
The engineers also noted that the globe memory was read only, and that configuration made it impossible for Vyztram to erase it, even if the AI had known of its existence.
While the SADEs transferred the globe data, Vyztram created a discreet area with a note. In part, it read “This data accrued while you were gone. It’s hoped you’ve received this.”
As the SADEs had planned, they received Vyztram’s entire catalog of data. They ran comparisons against that list and the data deposited in the Freedom’s databanks. There were differences.
The differences that the SADEs found were scattered across the globes. They’d imagined that Vyztram’s personality would occupy a singular area of a globe. Instead, they were faced with multiple areas in each active globe.
SADE consensus wasn’t forthcoming. Typically, consensus required enough information to render probabilities. In this case, there was too little data.
Z explained the challenge in detail, and Alex had to admit that he didn’t see any way forward with the data as it resided aboard the Freedom.
Again, the answer was affirmative.
Alex replied.
Alex would have phrased the concept in more sympathetic terms, but Z had the right idea.
Z sent the list of differences to Vyztram. Each entry contained a globe and memory location.
Slates buzzed, and the engineers studied the information.
Othello perused the globes and chose one that had plenty of vacant memory. He sent that target to Vyztram, who shared it with the engineers.
“Create the discrete section in the globe that Othello has targeted,” Z said to the four engineers.
The Elvians gathered their panels and tools and filed through the narrow corridor to enter the memory banks room.
Z cued Othello, who indicated to the engineers that they should proceed. They attached their panels to the network, located the target globe, and created the new memory location.
Othello regarded the sections of data differences and sorted them by size, with the smallest memory amount at the top. His new list was forwarded to the engineers via the AI.
The Elvian engineers, who were crowded shoulder to shoulder in the memory room, peered at Othello, awaiting his cue.
“Move the first data section on your list,” Othello directed.
Panels were activated, details were checked and confirmed, and the lead engineer, Famgore, raised a finger.
“Othello, we want a confirmation,” Famgore said. “We’ll be moving the data. We’re not copying it.”
“Yes,” Othello confirmed. “This will be the case for every transfer. If requested, be prepared to reverse the transfer.”
Famgore nodded and tapped his panel. When the transfer completed, he nodded at Othello.
Z repeated his request to Vyztram, received an accurate response, and cued Othello.
The steps were carefully repeated for each transfer. There were nearly two thousand sections to move. Dealing with biologicals, Z gave the engineers a break after the first two hundred and fifty transfers.
Vyztram’s reply was short and succinct, but Z continued to ask questions. He reviewed recent events, asked about Elvian history, requested the breakdown of the count that had taken place, and asked the AI’s opinion about the future of Elvians on the World of Light.
When Vyztram noted that the engineers were returning from break, he asked,
The engineers broke for a meal after the next two hundred and fifty transfers. Again, Z spent time discussing various subjects with Vyztram.
A thousand transfers were accomplished the first day.
Othello took over the process of interviewing Vyztram. Z noted that his approach was different, and he decided to alternate the conversations with the AI.
Z detected the humor in Alex’s thought. Fortune wasn’t something that Z depended on.
The next day the transfers and checks proceeded. Work continued after evening meal to complete the process.
“That’s the final one,” Famgore announced to Othello, when his panel displayed the section’s movement complete. “Now what?”
“Now, you can rest,” Othello said. “It’s our turn.”
“Where will Vyztram awaken?” Famgore asked.
“That’s being discussed,” Othello replied.
It was being discussed, and Lydia had a definite opinion on what should happen. But there was a great deal of discussion among the SADEs about the specifics.
Lydia sent,
Julien added.
The debate, while intense, lasted only a short while, as it was with SADEs. It ended with three words from Alex, who’d been linked in the conversation by Julien.
As a human, Alex couldn’t follow the entire exchange, but his implant could replay the details at a slower speed. He caught the gist of the issue. Then he sent,
The SADEs went quiet. There was consensus that the suggestion was most appropriate.
On the third day after the memory transfers had started, a pilot transferred Vyztram’s avatar from the Freedom to the Arcus. Z carried the avatar to a space that was often used for practicing courtesies.
Z replied.
Z had referred to his experiences with Miranda. He’d created her as a program and allowed her to assume his identity. Specific cues or commands would relinquish Miranda’s hold and return Z to the forefront. Then Miranda’s personality would be packed away for another time.
There were issues with the process. Miranda’s files accumulated and when activated, she noted the discrepancies in time. More important, Alex and company came to like and appreciate Miranda’s style.
It was Allora’s predicament that offered the solution. The rebellious young SADE was sentenced by the Confederation Council to isolation, just as the Council had done to the SADE Rayland. Allora’s reaction was to take her starship and sail away. The fact that some of the Council’s Leaders were aboard the starship created the opportunity for Alex, Julien, and Z to intervene.
Alex offered Allora another option. After Allora met Miranda, the young SADE chose to give her kernel to Miranda. Few humans knew what transpired that day on the bridge of the Méridien starship.
Famgore was sent to request Trobath attend them. In addition, Famgore requested Trobath dress for the occasion.
“What occasion?” Trobath inquired.
“You’ll have to ask, Z,” Famgore replied. “I was asked to request your attendance dressed in your finest.”
Trobath hurried, hoping that it would be an opportunity to dance with a multitude of Elvians or Alex. However, that thought was soon extinguished. Oxygen levels hadn’t been restored for Elvians, and Alex certainly couldn’t move well with the device on his back.
On second thought, I mustn’t exert myself either, Trobath mused to
herself.
When Trobath and Famgore arrived in the space occupied by the SADEs, they saw another SADE sitting in a chair. But that SADE wasn’t moving.
“This will be Vyztram?” Famgore asked, extending a hand toward the seated avatar.
“Yes, if we’re successful,” Z replied.
“What am I to do?” Trobath asked.
Z requested Othello reply. He recognized his answer would have begun with a summary of the SADEs’ discussion. Othello would supply a different approach.
“Vyztram will need help,” Othello said. “The AI will awake in an avatar that comes complete with new senses. We seek to ease Vyztram’s introduction to the world of biologicals.”
“Then I’m to be the biological who helps Vyztram,” Trobath supplied. She examined her finery, and her eyes brightened. “We’ll dance,” she said excitedly.
“Precisely,” Othello replied. “We’ll give Vyztram a few moments to assimilate the circumstances. Then we want you to be the AI’s focus.”
“I can do this,” Trobath said, excited by the prospect of welcoming Vyztram to the Elvian world.
“Stand here,” Othello said, indicating a point a meter in front of the sitting avatar.
Trobath regarded the avatar’s face. It was human, which might have unnerved her, except that she’d come to like many of the Omnians, especially Alex.
Z worked with the Elvian engineers to transfer the nested data representing Vyztram’s sentience from within the single globe to the avatar’s crystals. As the SADE received the data flow, he moved the files via his comm to the avatar’s crystals.
Despite the size of the transfer, Z finished in less than three minutes. “Done,” he said quietly and sent simultaneously to his audience aboard the Freedom.
Trobath glanced from Famgore to Othello to Z. She was nervous about when to begin, but a hand signal from Famgore quieted her.
One second Vyztram was connected to the ship and all that entailed. Then nothingness. The AI couldn’t determine how much time passed before new connections were provided. They were different, unique.
Vyztram might have considered them tantalizing, if that word was something the AI would have used to describe sensations.
