431 YEAS OF DEATH: The origin

by Divya Singh

  KEAH giggled saying: “Miss! Do you still think that he will talk to you about something he can hide behind his programming? He will not tell even if he knew. Although he is a machine, I still think he gets more rude and straight forward when he talks a lie.”

  I said: “I know that KEAH! I know how he gets when he has to conceal truth.”

  I know what I wanted to do with ZA-vi, but did not think about it because he could look into my thoughts.”

  Von: “Ok Madam! We must hurry up for the tests.”

  I said: “What would you need doctor? And what are the tests I have to undergo?”

  Von: “You have to undergo, Genetic Testing for any anomaly (group of BRCA, 1 and 2), Tests for transplant rejection like, biopsy, immune system testing, Blood therapeutic testing, respiratory & digestive system testing etc. and other routine testing as blood pressure, heart rate, urine etc. For which will extract your blood and tissues from local places. So when are you ready?”

  I said: “Right now!”

  Von: “So let us go! “

  We then went up to the floor ‘-6’. Doctor Von took some blood samples and then with help of KEAH anaesthetizing me, cut out tiny pieces of skin and flesh from various organs like lungs, lever etc.

  Then they took my blood pressure, sugar level, urine test, pulse, weight, BMI etc . They also made me cycle & run on a machine which would count my stamina heart rate, respiration and perspiration etc.

  Von stayed there and KEAH & ZA-vi accompanied me to my room at ‘-13’. Von must have authorized our return back by retinal scan.

  In 2 hours, I got my results. Except in routine check up, I was given a green signal. I was really happy and contented to be able to be free of this room’s captivity. Now I would have my own authorization Passkey to investigate the ship & the world.

  For that I needed to visit The Navigator, which would require me authorization from Von or Shelly. So I had to wait for one of them then-

  Von stepped in the room he said: “Congratulation Madam! You are finally eligible to go out and be free from the confines of this room. Are you ready?”

  I said excited: “Yes of course! Since forever!”

  “I am authorizing you to the use of elevator and emergencies. You will then have to visit The Navigator. ZA-vi will take you there. Rest you know.” said Von.

  VON declared: “I am sending your reports and credentials to the Navigator. When you reach there he will observe your credentials thoroughly while ZA-vi will convey him all the information he will need. Then you will be granted your authorization very soon without a problem.” He said.

  “Ok!” I said.

  Von: “I am uplinking my retinal scan, authorizing your travel to The Navigator .You can go to him now. ZA-vi will take you there. All the best Madam!” He said smiling.

  I smiled back: “Thank you.” Then ZA-vi & I got up and stepped out after seeing Von taking his eye near the screen in front of him. We took our way all the way to the elevator & reached the room with big screen & glass panes to view outside.

  Chapter 12: The Navigator

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  This time the glass gates of the elevators and also the Navigation Chambers opened, apparently because of Von’s authorization. There were many movable machines of which I had no knowledge of; they seemed to be tending to the other machines which appear to be computers.

  Suddenly a room opened and an enormous machine with a medium size screen and 4 robotic arms wheeled towards me.

  He said: “Hello D.S. welcome to Perpetua! I am The Navigator, a super computer. I have had many different functions before I was assigned the function of Navigation of the ship, to which no expert was available. I will need your credentials to approve your authorization.”

  I thought: ‘What! So the Navigator is a walking computer?’

  The Navigator: “So tell me what is your full name, job, background, police record, SSN, passport ID etc. Tell me the era you come from. The States, were you cloned or developed from embryo, your biological parents if you were born …..” & he continued.

  I said: “I know none of these; I just woke up from a Cryo sleep and was reanimated. Sadly I do not remember anything about my origin or past life so…..”

  I saw ZA-vi taking over from me: “I will explain everything and furnish you all the minutest details of the case D.S. and her previous life. But not in front of her, in private, please take me somewhere where all the information about her secure and unheard.”

  The Navigator: “Let’s go to my room, the information you will share will be secure there.”

  They stomped back to his room. They talked and I felt all left out, deprived of my own self. The right to my personal information is only mine. The privacy thereof rests with me and it is me who this sensitive information is being conceded from, This is crime, in the world at least, which I come from even if I don’t have any memory thereof.

  Soon enough they both came back.

  The Navigator said: “Madam, with all the information from your android and uplinks of records and results relating to medical observation from Dr. Von, I feel confident to pass you to eligibility of authorization so what pass key should you want to have?”

  I said: “I don’t know about myself, so I have no idea or preference for any such favorite Pass Key. You give me anything that authorizes my access to all the areas of the ship.”

  The Navigator: “Ok thanks for entrusting me with the privilege. I think considering your history and rebirth, I will prefer DS Reborn 01 as your Passkey. What do you say?”

  I smiled and nodded in acceptance. In fact I also liked the new passkey. I saw The Navigator up close now. He was some 8-9 feet tall, he had robotic feet, while some dual 2 tier wheels, rolled up at his back. When he walked he stamped pretty hard as if he must have weighed a few tons. His head was a suspended screen, above which he had bulb eyes for a more human outlook & below which his mouth was made of blocks of plastics, he rearranged them to exhibit different types of expressions like smile & shocks. He was a plain looking robot with various boxes which can be opened and closed like drawers, if need be. It looked like he could be transferred into another structure. He had 4 robotic arms and 4 more clipped at sides. The arms could also be plugged in different other sockets. While I was scanning his body so closely that the Navigator had noticed and said-

  The Navigator: “Yes I have many retractable parts which are also rearrangeable. I am 27th generation super computer and can cover a large area for work. So I can be programmed for any or all of the purposes together. I am an AI machine and can attach as many peripheries or detach them at my own will or requirement. I can restart or switch myself off. I can even format and programme myself. I evolve and can arrange myself as per the needs, requirements and comfort. As of now I am assigned to one major function of navigation and security of this ship. When doctors and researchers require they can also employ me for research or complicated medical purposes.”

  I said: “Ok I am sure you are one of the most efficient and capable machine I will see in this world. So tell me what about the ship we are in.”

  The Navigator: “The ship is called Perpetua, it was designed by Magnifique Incorporation of French Origin. It set course from Los Angeles on 23 Dec 2281 for a higher land with stable seismic activity. But we kept getting negative news from everywhere. The perception we had about people from different lands went wrong. Countries did not have their entities intact, economies had collapsed and societies broke up into small radical groups. Till then it was still acceptable, but then there came an outrageous movement called technology and resource ‘Disruption’ and these radical groups became too harshly powerful entities. These were the last pieces of messages which we considered authentic information coming from the landmasses.”

  The Navigator continued: “We decided to stay on the sea rather than confirm or discard the authenticity of further information. We later pre
ferred to stay offline, so that we don’t risk ourselves into being pursued and destroyed. Since then we have remained afloat on the ocean and have been self sufficient. Time and again we periodically contact the other ships we know of, being on the oceans at our proximity.”

  I ridiculed: “Ha ha ha! So you are trying to say that this ship is not going anywhere but staying right here afloat individually on the sea, for 180 years?”I asked. I really had no reason to believe that the Navigator was saying anything even remotely relatable to reality. Instead I thought that he was being funny with me.

  The Navigator: “Yes!”

  I was still not buying what he said: “Yes? What, really? It is not believable, though I confess that nothing is really believable in this present day world, but then how did you survive and float a ship this big on water for 180 years? I sternly asked.

  The Navigator: “I said about being self sufficient. We have food and water and fuel.”

  I ridiculed again: “Really, and how do you get these all?” I quipped.

  “We produce these.”The Navigator.

  I still laughed it off: “Really?”

  I began feeling that it was not frivolous anymore.

  “How does it happen?” I asked again.

  The Navigator: “We have solar energy, tidal energy etc. We grow crops and fruit bearing trees, we breed whatever fish & sea food we can, we desalinate sea water efficiently.”

  I said: “Oh! I had forgotten that I was living in future! I would wish to see how it all is done on this ship.”

  The Navigator: “The ship is as much yours as is anyone else’s you have the authorization to go see everything you wish

  I concluded: “Ok thank you for it!”

  I faked a smile at the Navigator and said, “I must go now, I will go and check those things and meet you here again. Thanks once again.” I waved at the Navigator and walked out of the hall with ZA-vi

  Chapter 13: The heinous act

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  When I and ZA-vi reached our room No.13, I was pissed off real bad. I was thinking that this robot, my so called personal android entrusted with upkeep of my records and functioning is playing games with me. He knew everything about me but would not let me know about myself and further, more to my dismay, he would keep secrets from me about my own private information. He would share it with anyone else but not me.

  It was only me who held the sole proprietorship on my information. This was intolerable to me. I thought at any cost I needed to extract information from this machine. I had right to know about myself. Now I had my own authorization and identity on this ship, so I could roam anywhere on it now. I let him go ahead while I had stayed back. I wanted to let him go beyond a distance where he would not be able to access my thoughts from me, if it was true because I thought that there must be a distance beyond which ZA-vi couldn’t access my thoughts. I thought that must have been the reason that he had to remain at my room.

  At night when clock struck 2:00 am he came into the room. I set an alarm at 1:45 am. I was not asleep, but awake, waiting for him to unknowingly afford me an opportunity to pounce upon him and break his neck. Well that would not help me with what I sought but certainly I was very very angry. At least I wanted to get rid of this shameless machine, which only helped me once before being fixed for that bug and turned more hostile later with fake respect.

  My temper was uncontrollable; perhaps some kind of evil had struck my already tormented mind. Today I was humiliated before the Navigator and ZA-vi did that to me. Once he had told me a lie that I was very important and that I mattered a lot to him.

  It is just that I have had all the respect and importance that I could ever take and it’s time to end this once and for all.

  As ZA-vi entered, he gazed at me and must have thought that I was sleeping. My eyes were slightly opened so as to be able to see that where he went. He went to the computer at my back and started working on it. This was my chance as his back faced me. I got up without making a slightest sound and started moving with small strides and silent steps. On the left side there was a big table and it was multipurpose apparatus with a large sized top which had been earlier used to test me for many simpler things. I had seen KEAH keeping little sharp knives and scalpels in the second drawer from second row. I opened it very slowly and took out the biggest knife and a scalpel too. It felt good to hold these things in my hands and I felt a sense of power. This knife seemed very light weight, but it was very sharp too, because I had seen KEAH once cutting a plastic pipe with it, so it was a good choice of weapon to wield it.

  I reached near ZA-vi. Evil had fully bloomed on me and hatred reigned over my head right then. I kept the scalpel back and went ahead just with knife. I decided to attack at the back of his neck with knife and break his head with the use of force.

  Then with a sudden force of my hands I put my knife over his throat and applied a slicing action with all my might across his throat. And it did work! His neck was cut open at the front.

  Then applying a jerking power with my arms I broke his neck by bending backwards. The head fell back but hung on wires that attached it to the body. Then ZA-vi fell from his seat on the ground at his left. There was a loud whacking sound. But with the loud bang that I heard, almost woke me up from this dream. Then I abruptly felt a change of soul! I realized the blunder that I had committed. The knife fell off my hand; I had no strength to hold it anymore. It was totally an impulsive act. I was angry and I wanted to hurt ZA-vi to make him realize my agony that he had caused. I hated him for not having told me my own truth, the one which I had a monopolistic right over. But I did not wish to be this, a Murderer! It just was not me. Another feeling which my mind was capable of had just evolved and engulfed my entity. I now began regretting my this act of violence. I killed ZA-vi, a robot which sat by my side for 430 years! My only accomplice. I am ashamed! I need redemption.

  I looked at ZA-vi, whose body lay facing away from me portraying, the fact that he came to work on my case, he was on duty. He was at my service all the time. How was I entitled to act on spree when I was not aware of facts and their reasons? I looked at his face which was almost facing me. I thought this was the first face I saw when I was reanimated to this life. I was beginning to curse my cruelty depicted by my heinous act of killing the only person, ‘who knew who I was and how I got to here. I have terminated the only source and witness of information I have had to know about myself. I am a soulless lost horrible corpse brought to life. Do I have enough reason to hate myself now?

  Exactly when I was cursing myself, I heard a beep sound; I looked around to look at the unfamiliar machines in my room which seemed quite distasteful then I again looked at ZA-vi’s face only to find his blinking eyes. I gasped and the benefit of him being a machine seemed very obvious to me now. The fact that he would not die was very reassuring. It was like my crime and conviction were getting blotted out. He was trying to open his eyes. I wanted him to and I wanted to let him know that I was really sorry for having done this to him.

  Then he stably opened his eyes and said, “Hello Case!”

  I really liked to hear that voice, and with a sigh of regret –

  I said: “I am sorry ZA-vi! I am sorry for what I did to you. I am asking you for forgiveness. Can you do that?”

  ZA-vi: “Forgiveness?” He still seemed unmoved by anything that had happened in this room earlier. ”I do not understand. Crime and regret is meant only for humans; I am just a machine. I do not live or die. I get assembled or dissembled. It is humans who make machines and destroy them. Our functioning is totally dependent on human programmers, though machines with AI have some own intelligence, but I cannot work without human involvement. I did not die and what you did was a bit different but equivalent to shutting me off. It could have been termed as ‘heinous’ if you would have done it on human. So do you want me to shut down and cease working on you?”

  I Protested:
“No! It happened just in a spur of moment, I did not want to lose you. I wish you had read my mind and stopped me. I am burning inside out, in guilt. I should not have let you go far off from me so that I could sit back and think about this violent act all alone, if I had not allowed you to go far off so that you could have intercepted my thoughts then you might have stopped me or argued with me against it.”

  ZA-vi: “I do not understand what you meant by that. I can hear your thoughts from anywhere on the ship. I know all what you had planned in advance. I had heard your thoughts.”

  I was taken aback! “….and you still did not stop me from commission this crime?”

  ZA-vi: “No, why would I? I am not designed to guide you on moral or ethical grounds nor was I designed to fight to defend my own destruction.”

  I said: “Now I feel more insecure about feeling guilty, ZA-vi!”

  “I don’t know how I could hate you so much as to have attempted to kill you. I am sorry.” I cried it out.

  ZA-vi: “Sorry madam! I am not capable of understanding human emotions nor am I concerned with it. Now please tell me do you want to have me dismantled?”

  I said: “No, not at all, I know now that it was a momentary action. I don’t want to dismantle you. I will never want that, now I realize this. I promise, I will never hurt you ever again.”

  ZA-vi: “Ok now I understand that you do not want me to dismantle myself. I needed to know your wish because I have to tell something to the ‘Fetchers’, the robots of the engineering department, Manny & Sammy are about 25 feet from the entrance of the room, because they have sensed my off line status on the SAN.”

  I said: “ What do you ……………….”

  And the fetchers Sammy & Manny entered into the room stomping the ground. Sammy looked towards his right where I was standing. I looked back at him, inside somewhere, I was somewhat nervous. But then the next second he looked at ZA-vi, who lay dead, whom I had attempted to kill a bit before.