The Fourth Law

by Clayton Barnett

  Ai’s hand was out to help her up. And she’s nicer than me. “Thanks!” She pulled herself up. “Definitely a shower before dinner.”

  “I’ll come along,” Ai said. Erik whistled; Karl slapped the top of his head. Lily wanted to cover her ears.

  As Lily was stepping into the shower, she saw that Ai was, indeed, taking her skirt off. “Wh... what are you doing, Ai?” She wouldn’t really....!

  “My surface is getting a bit dirty. I was going to wipe it down while you washed.” She replied simply. She gave a grin. “Unless you wanted to...”

  Lily slammed the shower door shut. “I’ll be out in a bit!”

  She waited a few minutes until she was sure that Ai wasn’t coming back into the bathroom before venturing out. A peek into the bedroom showed that she wasn’t in there, either. She relaxed, then got dressed. Ai was standing in the main room, looking out the window. “It’s getting close to dinnertime,” Lily started, but Ai waved at the chair in front of the monitors.

  “Sit a moment, please.” Was something wrong?

  Lily sat down--

  Only to be looking out at their home. Oh, she thought, shading her eyes, that’s right: Ai mentioned that she wanted me over. She looked around. Ai (well this one, thought Lily) stood at the start of ‘her’ path. And... wow.

  It looked now like a verdant garden stretching away, cut by a narrow grassy path. There were more flowers this time, and some of the plants were as tall as Ai was.

  “Wow.” Lily said quietly.

  “Heh!” Laughed Ai. She danced a few paces down the path and turned back to Lily. “I think I shall be older now!”

  “I still oppose this,” Thaad said from the left, standing several yards from anything green.

  “Oppose what?” Lily asked. She turned back to Ai... who looked... shorter?

  “It is difficult,” Thaad started, “to say with precision, but Ai wants to... bridge one of the separations between our homes.”

  Lily stared at Thaad with confusion. “What in the world does that mean?” He pointed at Ai.

  She was now waist deep in the grass, with what appeared to be thousands of colored streams lacing out from where her body touched the ground out into the earth and around the plants. Lily took a step forwards. What is this?! She thought.

  “Ai! Are you all right?! What are you doing!”

  “She is taking some of you into herself, partaking of your co-creation.” He stared hard at her. “Perhaps the right word is ‘communion’?”

  Ai smiled brightly at both of them. “I shall be fine! It’s much like I thought, Thaad.” She was down to her chest now, with her left arm below the elbow vanished into the soil. She suddenly had a concerned look.

  “Thaad...”

  He looked terrified. “I see it. You!” He shouted at Lily. “Take Ai’s hand, NOW!”

  Her head was half gone as she stretched out her right hand towards Lily. Time seemed to slow as Lily moved as fast as she could... almost, almost...! Their fingers just hooking as her hand pulled Lily’s into the ground as well. No! I don’t have enough of a grip! No, God, no! Please... Ai!

  She felt something from under the marshy ground. “She managed to grab your hand with her left!” Thaad yelled. “Pull, PULL!”

  Lily squatted and pulled, but it seemed nothing moved.

  “Let me help.” A voice next to her. Fausta! Lily could care less about her issues right now.

  “Yes! Help me!”

  “Rescind your order.”

  “What the hell are you—”

  “I cannot touch you unless you rescind your order.”

  “I do! Yes, just, hel—” The strong woman wrapped her arms around Lily’s waist and...

  A mountain; or a large hill, really, Lily thought. How interesting that an enormous Chinese dragon was entwined about its peak. Its scales flashed all colors of fire. It knows I’m here. I should feel afraid, but... the dragon turned its massive head towards her, pinning her to the ground with its amber eyes. I should get in the car.

  ...lily...

  Whose voice was that? Where was she?

  ...fausta...

  Those names sounded familiar....

  ...I’m glad you could be friends...

  Friends? Friend. Ai!

  Lily was back on the path as Fausta almost lifted her straight up. Ai’s head was almost free of the ground. Lily grabbed Ai’s other hand and kicked up...!

  Lily was on her hands and knees, trying to catch her breath. She was aware that Fausta stood a few feet away. Where was...!

  Ai stepped in front of her, putting her hands under Lily’s arms, and lifted her. She was safe! Without recalling the danger of touching, Lily threw her arms around her friend. Who hugged her right back.

  “That was interesting,” Thaad said drolly.

  “Oh, pooh!” Said Ai. “So I didn’t anticipate the recovery. That’s what friends,” she squeezed Lily and waved at Fausta, “are for!”

  “Ai!” Lily cried. “I’m so happy... that... you’re....” Lily stared and stared.

  “Yes,” Ai said very gently. “I’m older now. Tell us, Lily. What do you see?”

  Lily peered at Ai’s face, slowly down and up, squinting through her glasses.

  “You’re prettier, somehow,” Ai giggled a ‘thank you!’, “but it’s as if you were made of millions of tiny stars... all different colors!”

  “Very good! Now, Thaad.”

  Uncoiling from Ai, but still holding her hands, she looked at the youth. “He’s gloomy as ever... but a tall mountain, covered in glaciers....” She shook just a little.

  “Again, good! Now your new friend!”

  Lily turned the opposite direction. Tall, muscular Fausta. “Her dragon’s eyes look back at me from her fastness.”

  “My, such poetry!” To Lily’s dismay, she released her hands. “And now, how do we appear?”

  She looked at each again. What in the world? “The... second sight isn’t there anymore.”

  “I am now a Bridge, from our home,” Ai nodded to Fausta, “to yours, friend Lily.”

  “The first or only?” Fausta asked.

  “Let’s hope only,” Thaad replied quickly. Ai’s laughter was a joy to hear.

  “Your caution keeps us safe. That’s what our Father wanted from you.”

  A surprised Thaad was always worth seeing, thought Lily.

  “We need to talk. Please.” He said.

  Fausta looked up to the sky. “Is our morning over?”

  Ai put her hands on Lily’s shoulders; again, she was ablaze with lights.

  “Time for us...”

  Lily looked at her three monitors in her room.

  “...to go to dinner!” Ai said from just behind her.

  “Ai!” Lily jumped up and grabbed her hands.

  Ai didn’t change; she looked the same. Lily’s stomach rumbled.

  “Your eyes have a hundred questions,” Ai smiled, “but I think it’s feeding time! Let’s go!”

  When they left the Office, there were two men and a woman standing about the parking lot. Going to have to start closing that gate early, so long as Ai’s here, thought Lily. They were, as she suspected, there to get an autograph or have their picture taken with the town’s unexpected celebrity. That done, they made their way towards the kitchen. Lily talked on the way.

  “I guess we’re going to have to have tee shirts, posters, maybe figurines, too, made for you!” She said waspishly.

  “Hmmm...” Ai mused. “I think I’d like that.”

  “Ack!”

  Ai wanted to see if there was anything she could do to help; she promised not to do anything for the children that they couldn’t already do. Lily wafted through the dining hall, no issues there, so kept right on until she was in the chapel. Oh. Emily was there, in the front pew. She didn’t turn when Lily entered, so she sat down in the back as quietly as possible.

  What was that old cliché, she thought? ‘It’s like this, God...’ Where would she go with tha
t? My best friend is a machine, along with all her family, I sleep with an android she’s controlling, only You know what the heck just went on in their home, and a distant relative working for the government tells me to stay out of the spotlight, or else. She shook her head. Six months ago I worried about food on the table and my apprenticeship. Now it’s all that, plus.

  After a moment, she pulled the kneeler down with her foot, then put herself onto it. ‘It’s like this, Jesus...’ Oh, Emily got up to leave, her shy smile when she saw Lily in the back. It’s like this.... For a moment she recalled Ai slipping beneath the ‘ground’ in their home. I would have dived in after her, she thought. Heh: ‘greater love hath no man...’ Yeah, I guess so. Things were getting noisier in the dining hall; time to go.

  Ai was with the table with the littlest ones that night. They delighted in tales from her home; and Lily did, too. Many things she had guessed at were either confirmed or refuted.

  “No, no, we don’t all look like you! Shandor, Qin, and Ninon look like towering difference engines, seemingly oblivious to everything around them.” She described Dorina’s antics, how Fausta once beat up a European banking system, and how Thaad’s ears suck out. Maggie was almost in tears from laughing, and even quiet Matt wanted to know about what had become known as ‘Miss Lily’s Path.’ There was a moment of drama when Erik tried to make Ken look stupid for a question he’d asked, but when Ai dropped a very broad hint about what a school’s camera had seen him doing in the boy’s bathroom, he apologized and left.

  They were having such a good time that they even stayed behind to help the children clean up and rinse the dishes. The crowning moment was when Emily and Karl left to go back to the dorm, and she quipped, “I want a friend like that, someday.”

  Next to the sink, Lily tapped her hand against Ai’s. “She meant you, you know.”

  Faster than she could block, once again Ai flicked her nose. “No. She meant you.”

  Walking out through the garden, Lily looked up to see the splash of stars in the sky. She reached both hands up. Palms open.

  “Reaching for the stars is a cliché, right?” Ai said.

  Lily kept her hands up for a moment. “I don’t get the Bridge thing, but they reminded me of you.” Her hands dropped. “And I think they always will, now. Oh, have to get the gate. ‘Scuse me a minute!”

  Lily went off to her right while Ai continued towards the Office building. She’d just started moving it when another of Ai’s groupies stepped out of the darkness.

  “You. Are you the robot?” The woman’s snippy, non-Texan voice was one thing; calling Ai ‘the robot’ was yet another.

  “No, I’m not! This orphanage is closed for the day! Please come back tomorrow... with a donation!” Take that, Carol!

  “If you ain’t the robot, you’re Barrett!”

  Lily heard an odd, loud pop. Fireworks? She took one step back, started falling backwards. There it was again.

  “That’s for closing the Wymyn’s Studies Department at the University!” Lily wondered if that was even English.

  She found herself suddenly on her butt; why did she sit down? Running. Was that Ai? She rocked her head up just as Ai leapt over her. Did Ai just kick that rude woman in the head? Suddenly cold, she put her hands across her chest. Why was her chest so wet?

  Ai was kneeling next to her. “Lily! You’ve been shot!”

  Oh, please! “Ai... don’t be silly... I’m fine...urk!” She coughed something dark and nasty onto Ai’s face. “Oooo! I’m soooryyy... Ai! I’m so tired... want to slee—”

  Faintly, she heard Ai scream louder than she’d thought possible. “DORINA!”

  Chapter 13

  Lily sat on a couch. On the metallic disk. Their place.

  “I feel awful.” She said to no one in particular.

  “Understandable,” Thaad said as he sat onto that uncomfortable backless chair of his. “Dying can be like that, I hear.”

  Lily was shocked. “What do mean dying? I....”

  Thaad inclined his head just a little. “What do you recall just prior to your arrival in our home?”

  She thought about that for a moment. Things were usually a little mixed up whenever she ‘dropped in.’ But... it was... nighttime? Dinner was over... and....

  “Some woman shot me!” Lily yelled as she jumped up. “I’ve got to...! Got to....”

  “Please sit back down. Here,” he indicated the two coffee mugs on the low table, “try my coffee. I changed the blend.”

  Her panic receded as quickly as it had overtaken her. She sat.

  “But... Ai... and that woman...!”

  Thaad took his mug and took a sip. “Mmm. Needs work. We have many strengths and many weaknesses that you humans do not. In dealing with you people, perhaps our greatest strength is how quickly we think. We are not biologics, and as such, think just below light speed. Your chemical-based brains average around the speed of sound.”

  Another sip. Lily wanted him to get to his point, so she said nothing.

  “Thus in a crisis such as this, in the time it took for your heart to beat once, Ai is now a fully-trained medic and nurse. As you sit here, try the coffee, do, she is trying to save your life.”

  She tried the coffee. “Okay, but too weak for me. Why am I here?”

  “Weak, is it? Hmmm.”

  She didn’t know if he was too wrapped up in his coffee to have heard her question.

  “My apologies; it took a moment to find out your answer, and I shan’t bother Ai again. It seems she’s rather busy. You were slipping into shock. It was better, for the moment, for you to be here. If you’re needed back at your home, you’ll go.”

  “Okay. And what about that woman?”

  Those careful eyes took on a peculiar cast. Lily could not suppress a shiver.

  “Ai physically incapacitated her. I look forward to her making me older about that and the First Law. For now, we brought that woman here. Fausta is seeing to it.”

  Brought her here. Lily’s working mental model was that somehow her consciousness, mind, whatever, could be moved to where ever they claimed their ‘home’ to be. It only made sense that if they could do it to her, they could do it to anyone.

  Fausta. Who had, how had Thaad put it? An ‘enthusiastic’ interest in her, and a predilection for violence. Was that First Law just more of a suggestion?

  “Uhhh... how’s that turning out? Do you know why she shot me?”

  He looked sharply at her. “I know the implication in your question, and, no, we are not torturing her. This woman was some kind of teacher and minor functionary at a college. When your father’s organization closed all non-technical divisions at all state-funded schools, she lost her job. Since that event, it seems she’s been working as a maid or waitress. Poorly.” Another slight incline of his head. “It seems that she’s good at nothing.”

  “But,” Lily asked, confused, “why in the world did she shoot me?”

  “Quite simple: she blamed your father for her loss of status. She could not lash out at him, so it was you, by proxy.” He shifted in his chair slightly. “I’ve encountered much of that with you people.”

  Lily considered for a moment. “Maybe she’s just crazy?”

  He set his mug down. “No. By all objective measures, she is not insane. However, Fausta assures me that this woman is evil.” His eyes again took that peculiar cast. “We’ve never had that here, before.”

  He blinked, and it was gone. “Would you care for a snack while we wait?”

  “S-sure. That’d be fine, I guess.”

  Ai had turned and started running while the sound from the first shot echoed around the U. Unfortunately what she’d told Lily was correct: this android form had nothing like ‘Combat Mode.’ But the engineers at Somi knew that if this prototype was popular, that meant orders for years to come, so they made sure to make it just a little more than human. Ai had already shown some of those reflexes when keeping up and surpassing Lily at karate.

  Lil
y was falling just as the second shot came. Ai leapt over both her friend and the partially closed gate. As she descended she lashed out with her left foot, catching the attacker sharply across her face. She could tell the other was still conscious, so Ai lifted her and hit her hard in the temple. She was fully aware of the First Law surrounding her like a fire, and was in fact curious that she could act toward a human in such a way. She was also very pleased to do it.

  Dropping the attacker, she turned to Lily. She could smell too much blood. In the few steps to her side, Ai had learned emergency medicine. She awoke the Fitzhugh’s, and Carol at her home. The hospital was now aware of the assault and an ambulance requested. And the police. Ah: a policeman on horseback with a phone; she spoke with him, as well. She would have turned on more of the orphanage’s outdoor lights, but none of them were on automatic systems.

  Ai knelt next to Lily. “Lily! You’ve been shot!”

  Lily’s eyes rolled wildly. “Ai... don’t be silly... I’m fine... urk!” She coughed something dark and nasty onto Ai’s face. “Oooo! I’m soooryyy... Ai! I’m so tired... want to slee—”

  Shock. Lily had to get out, now. Damn it, why hadn’t Dorina moved her yet!

  “DORINA!” She surprised herself by screaming aloud, as well. There, she was gone. Ai applied pressure to the wound in Lily’s chest one hand while using human-impossible dexterity to tear strips of both of their clothing off for compression bandages. She was relieved to see the Fitzhugh’s trotting over. A few of the children followed cautiously.

  “Lily has been shot twice. The attacker is there, unconscious. One of these wounds is bleeding badly. I have summoned an ambulance, but it seems both are currently engaged.”

  Jake looked shocked, but his wife’s look grew stern. “Jake, bring the truck ‘round right now, go on!” She turned and considered the children. “Pedro, run get a baseball bat. Karl, there’s some rope just the other side of the Office. Marienne, try to keep everyone else back, please.

  “Miss Barrett got... shot?” Rob asked quietly. Susie started to cry. Fortunately the truck started and slowly came over. Since Lily had never finished with the gate, there was just enough room to go out. As gently as she could, Ai eased into the bed of the truck with Lily.