by D. A. Hill
“It’s true,” she began confidently. “Everything Caroline says is true. This is all just a computer program Cyrus Jones wrote.” She swept her arm around the room, indicating the assembled crowd. “And we are are all just figments of his imagination!”
“There!” Caroline Smith said triumphantly, not recognizing from the giggles in the crowd what Regina was doing, where this was heading.
Regina picked up a chocolate eclair from her plate and stuffed the entire thing in her mouth. “This is not real,” she mumbled through a mouth full of food, rolling her eyes and rubbing her stomach in universal signs of gastronomic delight.
“It’s not,” Caroline Smith shouted desperately over the rolls of laughter, now understanding Regina’s strategy.
Regina leaned down and planted a highly exaggerated kiss on Cyrus’s lips. “And that? Well that was just the delusional fantasy of a geek who can’t even get a date.” The room erupted again in raucous laughter. Cyrus did not laugh. He just stared at her wide-eyed, open-mouthed and speechless, which only caused further waves of laughter to wash over the room. Whatever chance Caroline Smith had of convincing the passengers they were EMs disappeared in a cloud of ridicule.
—o—
“You handled that brilliantly Major,” Cyrus said to Regina as they headed to the playroom where Manny had taken the children.
“Thank you,” she replied. “I remembered something Colin said a while back about making the environment convincing enough to allow people to believe what they wanted to believe. People don’t want to believe they are living in a simulation.”
“I must say you’ve come a long way for someone who was adamant they did not want to be an EM.”
“Dad was right. This life is real. It’s worth fighting for.”
“Well it was a great performance. Worthy of Broadway.”
“It was wasn’t it,” she said pleased with herself. “I’m so sorry about the geek who can’t get a date wisecrack. You do know I didn’t mean it, right?”
“Well it’s probably true,” he replied trying to make it sound like a joke.
“And I’m very sorry about the kiss,” she added trying not to blush. “I couldn’t think what else to do. I knew it needed to be dramatic.” Sorry was the last thing she felt but she could not tell him that. She was just glad he had gone along, and not just because it completely cut the legs out from under Caroline Smith. It did not occur to her that with the virtual environment’s block on physical coercion the only way she could have kissed him was if he had let her.
“Nothing to apologize for,” Cyrus replied, blushing. Apologize? He wished she would do it again! “I guessed what you were doing,” he added, trying to play it cool.
—o—
“You evil manipulative bitch,” Caroline Smith said bitterly as she stepped out of the shadows to confront them. She must have waited here for Cyrus and Regina to leave the dining room. “You know it’s all true.”
“And Major Lopez didn’t deny any of it,” Cyrus said defending her.
“She didn’t have to. Mockery was far more effective,” Caroline Smith replied seething with anger.
Cyrus ignored Caroline’s anger. Better to reason with her, force her to confront the choice she needed to make. “Let me ask you something Caroline. Now that you know you’re a simulation, that this is all just a simulation, what do you want to do about it?”
“What do you mean?” she asked confused. She hadn’t thought past feeling violated and being angry.
“Do you want out? You don’t have to stay here you know.”
“And where exactly would I go?” she asked sarcastically. “Are you going to push me out an airlock?”
“There is no airlock, remember,” Cyrus replied. “This station is just a simulation inside a computer. But I can delete your program. It would be instantaneous and completely painless; you would simply cease to exist. Or at least this virtual version of you. The physical version of Caroline Smith may still be alive somewhere. For now at least.”
“Oh so you want to be rid of me?”
“I don’t want to do anything to you Caroline,” he replied calmly. It took some effort in the face of her completely emotional and irrational state. “I don’t really know you. But you’re obviously quite intelligent to be the first one to have figured this out. How did you do that by the way?”
“Lots of little things,” she answered. “But most of all the physics of the launch just didn’t add up.”
“How do you know that?” Cyrus asked.
“I have a doctorate in physics from Stanford,” she answered proudly.
“You didn’t tell me that in your screening interview,” Regina said, offended. Now it was her turn to feel deceived. “You told me you were a school teacher.”
“I was for the last ten years. I got burned out and I wanted to go home to Wyoming, live a simpler life. You asked me where I worked and I told you. You didn’t ask about anything prior to that.”
Regina knew she had done the best she could with the screening, given the limited time and restrictions on her movements imposed by the deteriorating security situation during the last few weeks before they launched. But she was not one to make excuses. She felt responsible. She had not successfully carried out her mission and that was all that mattered. She would make a point of apologizing to the others later.
“However it happened, I like intelligent people,” Cyrus said. “We need intelligent people. With qualifications like yours Caroline, you could be a very valuable member of the crew. You’re the one who seems to have a problem with being here.”
“I didn’t say that,” Caroline Smith replied.
That was the conclusion Cyrus was trying to lead her to. It was one thing to know your consciousness was nothing more than a program inside a computer, and a completely different matter to decide you wanted your own consciousness turned off, wiped forever. You could understand intellectually that you would never know the difference once you were gone, but that argument did not work on physical humans, so why should it be any different for an EM? “The offer still stands. Anytime you want out just let me know,” Cyrus said in a gentle tone. “In the meantime, I recommend you let this rest. All you will do is alienate yourself from everyone here if you don’t. Space is a lonely place to be alone. You don’t want that do you?”
Caroline Smith did not reply. This had all been too much for her to process. She turned and walked away, the fight completely gone from her.
—o—
“We’ll need to watch her closely,” Regina said.
“Do you think you should apologize to her?” Cyrus asked.
“No,” Regina replied with certainty. “I regret having to humiliate her, but I don’t regret stopping her from ruining everything we’re working for. It was necessary.”
“Can you at least tell her that?” he suggested.
“I don’t imagine it would hurt,” Regina replied. “There’s too few people here to be making enemies already if I can avoid it. I think we should also follow up on your suggestion of leveraging her skills. Give her a stake in the future of the Ark.”
“Makes sense. But I don’t think this is the last we’ll hear of this issue, even if we bring Caroline Smith around,” Cyrus added.
“What makes you say that?”
“Because she was right, there are too many inconsistencies. And they’ll build up over time. Especially the obvious things like the block on physical violence.”
“Pfft. That little detail,” Regina said with a laugh.
“Yes that little detail. Hopefully by the time anyone realizes that Caroline was telling the truth they’ll be sufficiently invested in this life that it won’t matter. It didn’t take Emmanuel all that long.”
“Did you mean that about turning her program off?” Regina asked, a serious tone returning to her voice. She could not help thinking that not so long ago she wanted to wipe her father’s program.
“Absolutely,” he replied. “Isn’t
it the least we can do after bringing people here under false pretenses? The program already exists—I insisted on adding a suicide option when we decided to hide the true nature of Newton’s Ark—it’s just a matter of telling someone how to initiate it. I hope it never gets used, but it’s not our place to play God and force people to live a life they don’t want.”
chapter 13
May 2046
Two months after the launch, life on the Ark had settled into a steady routine. There had been no more rumblings about being EMs. They knew the issue would resurface eventually but it was dead for now. Caroline Smith had recanted—she cited stress for her outburst—and had embraced the offer to join the crew. Caroline and Colin were working closely together—both being physicists by training—and she had forgiven him for lying about the food synthesizers. She had even mostly forgiven Regina Lopez for humiliating her. Regina had not apologized—she believed her actions were justified in the circumstances—but she did tell Caroline that she took no pleasure in hurting her. That seemed to be enough.
Finally they could sit back and savor the fact that the plan had been carried off successfully, rejoice in the knowledge that they were alive and well and remember those they left behind. It had been a very pleasant celebratory dinner—they all appreciated eating properly again, even if it was just virtual food, actually virtual synthetic food, filling their virtual stomachs—but Emmanuel Smith could not help but notice that Regina had been strangely subdued. She put on a brave face and was polite enough to everybody, but deep down Emmanuel could see that her heart simply was not in the celebration.
Emmanuel knew why. He had known for quite some time. At that moment he finally decided it had gone on long enough. His daughter deserved to be happy, to feel joy in her life again, even if she did not know how to find it. It was time to say something, even if he did incur her wrath. “I’ll watch Elizabeth,” he said. “Go.”
“Go where?” she asked, puzzled.
“For God’s sake Gina, go tell him how you feel.”
“What are you talking about Dad?” she asked indignantly, hoping to deflect her father’s interference.
“Cyrus. Tell him how you feel. Look, the only time you’re ever really happy is when you’re with him. What are you waiting for?”
No point in denying the truth. Her father knew her too well. That did not mean she had to do what he suggested. “I can’t, that’s all there is to it,” she insisted. “So please drop it Dad.”
Her reaction did not surprise Emmanuel. When his daughter reacted like this he usually backed off. She was not one to be badgered into changing her mind, so pushing the point just made things worse. He had learned the hard way that persisting once Gina had made up her mind was about as smart as poking a bear with a stick. But not this time. There was too much at stake. “You mean you won’t,” he said challenging her.
“I mean I can’t,” she replied angrily. “He doesn’t feel the same way.”
“How do you know that?” Emmanuel replied, just sharply enough to let her know that anger was not going to work on him this time.
Regina knew Emmanuel and Cyrus had grown close. “Did he say something to you Dad? Oh God, did you say something to him?!” She knew her father only wanted the best for her, but if he had told Cyrus how she felt she would never forgive him. Or get over the humiliation.
“No. Well at least I don’t think so. Not this version of me anyway. But I’m not blind. I’ve watched you two when you’re together. I never thought I’d say this Gina, but you are being a coward. What’s the worst thing that can happen?—he says no. Can you be any unhappier with that than you are now?”
Regina had no response to counter her father’s argument, so she ignored it. “Dad, I threatened to have him arrested for treason the very first time we met! Our relationship has pretty much gone downhill ever since. What reason have I ever given him to care for me?”
“What about saving him and his sister? In a fight between the United States Government and them, you picked them. Cyrus understands what you risked for him and Jenny. He told me he tried to thank you for that, but you wouldn’t let him.”
“I didn’t want him in my debt.”
“Exactly. You didn’t do it because you wanted him to owe you.”
“That’s right,” she replied hoping that would be the end of the matter.
Emmanuel wasn’t giving up. Not this time. Not when he was so close to making his daughter admit her true feelings. “You did it because you care for him.”
“It’s more complicated than that, but yes,” Regina conceded. No point in saying otherwise. Her father knew her too well. And she was getting tired of fighting her feelings.
“Gina, your mother once said to me when I asked her how I was going to take care of you, if you give love freely enough and for long enough you’ll find that love comes back to you.”
—o—
Cyrus had just put Eric to bed when there was a knock on his door. He wondered what Emmanuel wanted at this time of night. Did that man never sleep? He was at least fifteen years older than Cyrus but he had the energy of a teenager. He enjoyed Emmanuel’s company but he was wearing him out. Cyrus decided he should have a word to Emmanuel about respecting his private time now that he had parental responsibilities. Either that or tweak his programming.
It was not a serious thought, modifying Emmanuel’s program. Cyrus knew he needed to be very careful about any intervention in the configuration of the virtual environment; he had absolute power in the virtual world and as they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Cyrus knew he had to be very, very careful, or he might be tempted to remake this world and the people in it according to his own desires. That was a slippery slope he did not want to start down.
“Major Lopez...” What was she doing here at this time of night?
“Cyrus can we talk?”
“Right now? Eric is asleep, but...”
“I’m sorry, this is obviously a bad time,” she said apologetically as she turned to go. She did not know why she came. It was stupid to think he would be interested in what she wanted to offer him.
“Major wait,” he said stepping into the corridor and closing the door behind him. Eric was asleep. He would be fine on his own for a short time. Cyrus could see that she was very preoccupied about something and he knew that if Regina Lopez was worrying about something, that something was worth worrying about. “How about we take a walk?”
“That would be wonderful,” she replied with a smile. “Walking helps me think.” She had never been for a walk with Cyrus. Regina liked the idea even if it was only around the Ark.
—o—
After a short walk through nondescript passages they entered a door much like any other door in the Ark. “Computer, Appalachian Trail, Blood Mountain,” Cyrus said. Suddenly appearing before them was the trail looking exactly as this section of the real trail in Georgia would look; the hills and dirt and rocks and plants and the sounds of birds and trees rustling in the wind and everything else that makes a forest a forest.
Regina gasped and looked questioningly at Cyrus, her face an expression of awe.
“I heard you talking once about hiking the trail and how this was your favorite section,” he said answering her unspoken question.
She was surprised that he would remember such a thing. Maybe her father was right. Or maybe he just remembered everything. “How does it work?”
“The same way everything else in the Ark works. It’s just a series of signals that the program responsible for creating the illusion of the Ark sends to the program responsible for creating your consciousness; those signals tell your senses this is the Appalachian Trail. I just added some extra code to allow this part of the Ark’s appearance to be reconfigured on request. It can be any place on Earth you want. The computer contains a complete, detailed model of the Earth’s surface.”
“It’s beautiful, and at least as far as I remember, one hundred percent accurate,” she replied in awe of wha
t he had created.
“Thank you. But if anyone asks, if works just like the holodeck in Star Trek.”
“Of course,” she replied. She understood that the passengers, those who thought that they were in a real space station inhabiting real bodies, could not be allowed to discover otherwise.
“Guess these aren’t too practical,” she said as she placed one hand on his shoulder to balance herself while she slipped off her heels.
“Computer, Major Lopez needs suitable shoes for hiking.”
Regina giggled like a school girl as walking shoes appeared on her feet. “Cyrus you shouldn’t have,” she smiled flirtatiously.
Cyrus ignored her flirting. The only reasonable explanation for such behavior was that she was trying to manipulate him. He loved his sister Jenny, but that was what she had done, manipulated him. That ended tragically in her death. He vowed he would never again allow himself to be manipulated by someone he loved. Better to stay detached, he told himself. “So what’s troubling you Major?”
“Well first of all Cyrus, I stopped calling you Mr. Jones quite some time ago. I really wish you’d stop calling me Major. It seems a bit superfluous now,” she said as she ran her hands over her hips, indicating the very elegant, very un-military red dress she was wearing.
Cyrus wondered if it was just a co-incidence or if she had picked his favorite color just to torture him. He decided it was deliberate—somehow this woman always knew which of his buttons to push. Which confirmed that she wanted something from him. He had no idea what that could be. Whatever her agenda, he found himself at that moment wishing he had included an off switch for the very normal male sexual responses he had so cleverly included in the EM programming.
“It probably should be Ms. Lopez if anything that formal is required. But my friends call me Regina, and my family call me Gina.”
“To be honest, I’ve never been sure exactly what our relationship is, so Major seemed safest,” he replied. Most of the time he thought they were at least friends, sometimes she behaved like she cared about him, like when she protected him from the FBI, but then she would go back to behaving like they were just colleagues, or worse. Like now when he felt like her plaything. All he knew for sure was that their relationship was not what he wanted it to be, but whatever it was he was tired of the uncertainty and ambiguity. “So what should I call you?”
