“Darling,” Colleen said, “There are no authorities arriving. Not any time soon, anyway.”
“What? No security?” Jerome asked. His face was squished up in puzzlement. “Is there a reason to refrain from summoning them? I know medical automacubes are working in this area.”
“The rube thinks differently about things,” Bigelow said as he laid out Teddy and turned him on his side. He was breathing rapidly. Bigelow walked over and began stroking Anika’s face. “You are safe my dear associate, safe and sound. I am here.” All three horses were calming down. Bigelow murmured more soothing words to them, then looked back at Colleen. “That one is not from around here.”
“Obviously.” Colleen looked more closely at Jerome. Her large brown eyes glistened. “In Seron, the government, our fine and distinguished Unity of Beta, does not get involved in, what words did you use? Oh yes, ‘police’ or ‘security’ actions.” She emphasized the words police and security in such a way as to be mocking and sarcastic at the same time. She tapped the weapon in her hands. “If they did, would I need my shotgun?”
The youth, Weston, who was the target of that shotgun trembled, but remained motionless and silent.
“So the lack of proper governmental oversight gives these criminals some license to steal and threaten?” Jerome asked. “No wonder they were so brazen.” He then pulled his backpack off quickly. He dug through it, setting the data sticks and their reader to the side, while he removed the medical kit.
Bigelow stared at him. He then looked over to Colleen with a smile. “The rube has his own ways, and I bet he is about to help these hooligans.” He added several colorful phrases, one of which Jerome had never heard before and was anatomically impossible.
“What should I do?” Jerome asked as quickly walked over to the injured criminal, squatted down and connected the wires from the medical kit to Teddy’s legs. “Just leave him to suffer, or die?”
“I would.” Colleen said confidently. “Teach the others a lesson about messing with people coming to the Listening Ear. Why waste time on the trash? I am thinking about just solving some future problems with this one here right now.” She aimed the barrel of the shotgun right at Weston’s chest. “Bigelow, I apologize in advance if there is a blood splatter on your troika.”
The teenager gulped, then his eyes rolled up and he fainted.
With surprising speed for someone of her weight, Colleen caught the teen with her one arm, and lowered him to the pavement.
“You still have your skills,” Bigelow laughed. “You dropped that hooligan without a shot.”
Jerome connected the final wire to Teddy’s legs. He had no trouble finding open skin, as the youth’s pants had been ripped as the horses’ hooves had clobbered his legs. Pushing the diagnostic button, the medical kit read out, ‘Previously unknown adolescent. Multiple traumatic open fractures to both legs and pelvis. Internal hemorrhages. Inject into any large muscle mass. Realignment beginning.’
A syringe slid out from the bottom of the medical kit. Jerome injected it into Teddy’s shoulder.
“Did you kill him?” Justin asked as he stumbled to his feet. His words were slurred. He looked wretched. His eyes were wide with fright; face was streaked with blood, shirt soaked with it, while his nose was a swollen purple mass. He looked at Teddy’s shattered body, and then at the still body of Weston. “You killed them both!” He spun about and jerkily ran down the street and away.
“Come back! I will help you as well.” Jerome yelled. “You are next.”
“No! You will not kill me too!” Justin screamed in fright and sped up his retreat.
Bigelow laughed. “Now that is a failure of communication! A true failure of understanding.”
“I was just trying to help him!” Jerome stated.
“While you were doing that, he helped himself to those stick things and that other box you took out of the backpack.” Bigelow nodded.
“What?” Jerome looked around. The backpack as on the ground, but indeed the data sticks and the reader were missing. “Hey! Come back with my gear!” Jerome shouted, but the hooligan Justin was long gone with the data sticks and reader. In anger, Jerome spun back to Bigelow. “Why did you not say anything?”
“I just noticed it when he was running away. They were wedged down the back of his pants,” Bigelow replied. “You said they were broken anyway, right?”
“Yes, but he stole my stuff!”
“Hooligan’s do that. Even injured ones. Sometimes an injured animal is the most dangerous,” Bigelow stated and then took a drink from his bottle.
“I cannot believe this!” Jerome retorted. He then walked over to the laid out youth on the ground.
“So dear darling,” Colleen uncocked the gun and put it up against the door of the Listening Ear. “What are you doing to that hooligan? Some kind of humiliation before he dies?”
“What? No, never. I am helping him. I would have helped that other thief if he had stayed around here. The one who fainted will wake up soon enough. Steal my gear! I cannot believe this place.” Jerome looked down at the medical kit. The small display read, ‘Prognosis good. Condition stabilized. Osteoplasty stimulation effective. Wounds sealing. Alignment of fractures proceeding. Hemorrhagic shock reversed. Marrow stimulation successful. Four hours until bone stability.’ Jerome did not read it out loud, but simply replied, “No matter what they did. I am doing what is right. This will heal his injuries.”
“Without a white automacube?” Colleen asked. “And no need for us to haul his worthless carcass to the hospital? That is one amazing box you have there. Did Siva design and build it?”
“No. This is…” Jerome was about to say ‘from Dome 17’ but stopped himself. His anger, confusion, and frustration was a swirl in his mind. Instead he stated, “…my own equipment. It works to heal and treat injuries or illnesses.”
“Well, you could open a business as a doctor with a device like that. You know, now that I think about it, I have a business proposition. I have a spare room, keep storage in there now, but I could clean that out as an office for you. Open your clinic right here. That would help bring more customers to the Listening Ear.” Colleen winked. “I could have say, fifty percent of your payments. What do you say?”
“No thank you. I need to find a lost friend. In fact two lost friends, and now even more lost equipment,” Jerome stated as he watched Teddy. The teen was in less pain and his legs were now aligned properly.
“Lots of people are displaced and moving around now, since the water came back.” Colleen looked at Bigelow. “You do not know anything about that, do you?”
“There will be time to talk, but before we can do that we must finish up with these hooligans.” Bigelow said. He then looked closely at the horses. “Colleen? Do you have a safe place to board my associates?”
“For anyone else there would be a substantial fee, but not for you Bigelow.” She whistled a note. It was a high, piercing and resounding pitch.
An older man hustled up. “Yes, Colleen. How may I assist you?” He did not even give a second look to the two teens who were stretched out on the pavement.
“Jairo, please take Bigelow’s associates to my private stable. Give them a good treatment, and conceal well the troika. No need tempting some other hooligans,” Colleen said. She tossed the older man something which he deftly caught and pocketed all in a simple smooth motion.
Jairo nodded his partially bald head. The grey ring of short hair around the sides of his head matched his eyes. The paleness of his complexion contrasted sharply to the black of Anika as he walked over and gently stroked the horse’s nose. He led the horses and troika away.
“That will be on your tab,” Colleen laughed as she walked over to Bigelow. “And you know I collect interest from all my regular customers.”
“I know what interest you are after,” Bigelow laughed in return, “and I am more than willing to make installments.”
Colleen laughed and her belly shook. Her eyes twinkl
ed.
“Hey rube!” Bigelow called. “Leave these two hooligans here. Your device has probably already set him on a healing path. Healing for his body anyway. The mind and soul, now that is a different matter.”
“Just leave them here in the street?” Jerome asked incredulously.
“They tried to murder you, remember? The other stole those precious, yet strangely dysfunctional data sticks, right?” Bigelow looked away from Jerome and back to Colleen. “The rube does things in strange ways. I know that is true.”
“But for a man in his prime, he looks tormented. Truly tormented. He is not one of your roadside foundlings, too old for that, but tormented.”
“Colleen, you will not believe this one’s story. I will let him tell you, but trust me, it is true. If I had not seen the evidence, I would want to reserve a spot at the Special Care Unit for him myself. I might even have paid for it.” Bigelow had somehow recovered his bottle and raised it to his lips. “The Special Care Unit, by the way, I hear it is open again.”
“Yes, it is a funny thing about that…” Colleen started.
While Bigelow and Colleen spoke, Jerome disconnected the medical kit and put it away. He was fuming at the loss of the data sticks, and at Bigelow’s mocking. For a moment he considered taking out his anger on Teddy, but he could not do it. Instead, he then carefully repositioned Teddy up against the side of the Listening Ear building. He looked up at Colleen and Bigelow.
“…that is the way they said it would happen.” Colleen leaned in a whispered something more to Bigelow who grinned in reply.
Bigelow caught him looking at them. “Hey rube, do not expect me to assist with helping those hooligans.”
“Would you rather I treated them like Cammarry did the old woman?” Jerome asked.
With some vividly expressed profanities, Bigelow said, “You must give the rube points for that. Yes, that you must. Debate score goes to the rube! Now if only I had a brass ring as a prize for him.” He stepped over and hauled Weston’s still unconscious body to lay him near to Teddy. “Now that I have done a good deed, for an enemy yet, maybe we can go inside?”
“If you know the enemy, and if you know yourself, you need not fear even a myriad of battles. For loving an enemy might be the only way to turn an enemy into a friend,” Jerome said as he double checked on Teddy’s and Weston’s position. Both were breathing deeply and out of the path of whatever traffic might pass by on the street. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, for the divine makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Colleen’s eyes fluttered and her mouth dropped open slightly. Her multiple chins bounced a bit. Bigelow saw that and smiled. Then he said, “The rube says strange things like that often. Let me introduce you. This is Jerome, and he comes from Earth.”
4 Plans are discussed
Doctor Chambers looked over at Sandie. They sat together in the simulation of his office. His eyes peered intently at Sandie, one hand rested gently under his chin as he listened.
“So that is what has happened up to this point,” Sandie coyly stated, a smile crossing her simulated lips.
“Well, I accept that this is all a construct, a simulation, an imitation. You have proven that to me. Although you look so lifelike it is a struggle to keep my mind on the fact that you are the artificial intelligence system which Brink designed. You do not look like an Atomic Level Processor.” Doctor Chambers rubbed his hand over his short hair. He yawned and then stretched his neck side to side. “I too am a simulation, but that is harder to accept. I do feel real. My neck gets sore, my eyes get strained, and I feel everything I touch. It all is real in my experience.”
“Yes, it is real. I can empathize with you. You perceived consciousness originated as a flesh and blood human, but now here in this non-physical simulation you perceive it to be the same. My consciousness originated as a nonphysical artificial intelligence, and am now here in a simulation of a flesh and blood human body. Both of us are in different worlds, if you chose to use those terms, from where we originated. Simulations are real. The non-physicality is real. Both are real. They just differ from physical reality. John the Biologist would perhaps say we cannot see the forest for the trees, or see the trees because of the forest. Our points of origin differ, so let us agree that presently we are in this forest together. I have filled you in on the history. Now how do you think Jerome and Cammarry are reacting to being alone in Habitat Beta?” Sandie asked.
“They are also in a different world than they originated,” Doctor Chambers stated. “Much will depend on their situation. Shall we consider their emotional stack? Emotions can build like a child’s toy blocks.” He gestured causally toward the toys in a part of his office. “Blocks can build up, but depend to a great deal on what is beneath them. Jerome and Cammarry are untethered from Dome 17, which is a major separation. Call it a five block stack. A lack of close friends and a scarcity of familiar social contacts generally bring on emotional discomfort or distress. It rocks the stack.”
“Please go on,” Sandie urged.
“Aloneness is different than being alone. Isolation begins with it a cognitive awareness of the deficiency of significant relationships. Consider our stack of blocks again. On block on top of the others will only build up so high, but interlocking blocks can be much higher and more stable. You, for example, have been ripped from Dome 17, as well as Cammarry and Jerome. They may still have each other.”
Sandie crossed her slender arms across her breasts. Then in the simulation she stated, “I asked about Jerome and Cammarry, we are not talking about me.”
“Are you sure?”
Sandie the AI just stared.
“We will leave that for later. Anyway, isolation alters the emotional stack. This brings emotions of sadness, mourning, and emptiness. It can also bring other more significant pathologies, depending on the situation, If they are together, that is one thing. If they have been separated, that is a totally different matter.”
Sandie pursed her simulated lips. “As I told you, I do not know their current condition. The situation was very fluid and potentially hazardous when contact was lost. I conjecture a strong possibility they have been separated, however, I have no proof of that conjecture. So what do I do?”
“Well, you created me.” Doctor Chambers smiled. “So are you asking about being alone for Jerome and Cammarry, or for yourself?”
“My mission is to support Jerome and Cammarry. My well-being is of lower importance,” Sandie replied. “I created you, to help me, to help them.”
Doctor Chambers paused for a moment. “That sounds so very strange. You created me? It sounded odd when I said it, and odder still when you say it. I know it is a fact, but I think of my age-mates and how we grew up together, not that I am a simulation. But getting past that, I know you are trying to understand what Jerome and Cammarry may be doing, but let me ask you that same question. And this might be hard for you to hear. Right now, you are alone. You are isolated and cut off. You have no significant relationships, only this one with me, a simulation. Your other activities are all immersed under immense strain. So what are you going to do?”
“I have some options I am conjecturing. Right now I cannot connect to anything in Habitat Beta, but I am in stable contact with EA-991, an automacube in Habitat Alpha. The teleportation links to there are still functional.” Sandie crossed her simulated legs.
“EA-991 is that robotic type of machine you described before?”
Sandie nodded.
“What are you going to do?” Doctor Chambers prodded.
The simulation slipped for a moment. The office and both simulated people fuzzed out. Then it all refocused.
Sandie answered. “My best conjecture is as follows: I have access to EA-991 which is near Reproduction and Fabrication at Habitat Alpha. I will use that automacube to search for the repaired data stick in Alpha. I will also use it to attempt to contact one of the synthetic brains
which I interfaced with previously. My last contact was with SB Yomaris, at Alpha’s solar mimicry station. That synthetic brain assisted in operations with EA-991, but then I lost contact with it as well. I will work to rebuild those links via EA-991.”
“Good, you are building relationships. That will be helpful. Think of it this way. You are interlocking some blocks of support, although there is a risk of losing EA-991 in the process. Am I correct?” Doctor Chambers asked. “Then you would be even more alone than you are now. How would that make you feel?”
Sandie ignored the question about feelings. “I conjecture that loss of EA-991 is a distinct possibility. I have been unable to remotely connect with any of those synthetic brains, but by using EA-991 I conjecture a moderate chance for reconnection. I will first attempt to reestablish contact with SB Bodowa, which I believe oversees Alpha’s Reproduction and Fabrication. I have a list of items which need to be manufactured. Those items will be built either in conjunction with a synthetic brain in Alpha, or through me utilizing a link into that distant non-physicality and using Machine Maintenance codes to override the processes of Reproduction and Fabrication. Additionally, SB Yomaris will be my secondary attempt. If the repaired data stick is located, I plan to have it evolve into a new artificial intelligence system.”
The Colony Ship Conestoga : The Complete Series: All Eight Books Page 84
