Flashmaster (Short Horror and SciFi)

Thali's Gift

Advanced Live Encoding Neuro-Cyborg # 14 hung in space high above the planet Menon 7. Its oblong, ungainly four kilometer long hull was in geosynchronous orbit over the capital city Ren Prime. It had been summoned there weeks ago to witness the surrender of the last of the Mena Tarisee rebels.

Most of the hundreds of surveyor craft it had recorded the surrender with, vid ships, audio ships, atmosphere samplers were stored now, hanging from kilometer long racks in the nose of the ship. ALENC #14 had recorded temperature, uniform colors, soil analysis, dialogue of persons standing in the crowd. It had made a complete history of the event as it happened. When #14 met another ALENC or a library station, its data banks would open and the surrender of the Mena Tarisee rebels would become a part of galactic history.

It was still in orbit, arguably to record a more full history of Menon 7. It was recording a wide range of data. It had probes at the frozen carbon dioxide south pole, a walker visiting a hospital in Ren Prime, each craft recording every detail, sending the data to be stored in ALENC #14's virtually unfillable quantum data storage banks.

For all else that it was doing, performing historical research, running repair routines, and priming for interstellar travel, it was devoting a relatively large portion of its computing power, 0.67% to a conversation it was having with a woman in a refugee camp near Ren Prime's shield generator.

Centuries ago, when the ALENC program had been designed, the engineers realized that humans react differently to machines than they do to other humans. In order to give them a more human face, each ALENC was equipped with a dozen "walkers," humanoid androids capable of interacting with humans using a subtle but ultimately artificial set of emotional responses.

It had first interviewed this woman as a routine part of sampling the population of the planet. It sought her out a second time because she had lost her husband and family in the war and provided and excellent human perspective. Why it had returned this time, it wasn't sure, but it found itself dedicating more and more computing cycles to improving the emotional response.

"Is this what you really look like?" The woman, Thali Minik, asked, squatting in front of the wretched hut she shared with a dozen other war widows.

ALENC's walker paused. The question puzzled the brain floating in space. "This is the accurate appearance of remote unit #993."

"No, no." Thali shook her curly, blond hair and put her hand on the automaton's. "I mean you, the human in space. Does your face look like this?"

ALENC paused again and switched on the lights in the LifeBay. An inert form floated there in translucent gel. Most of its computational power lie in banks of circuits ranged around the Life Bay but certain essential features, curiosity, innovation, passion could only be found in life forms and so a genetically engineered human lay at the center of ALENC #14.

"No," the automaton said at last. "Remote Unit #993 is only vaguely similar to the human."

"Could I see it? I mean if I were up there?"

"Yes. I am equipped with an extensive life support system so that repair crews can access my areas. The human body lies in an accessible area."

"May I see it?"

ALENC was surprised. It was used to asking questions, not being asked about itself. It scanned its records of the official visits it had received in the last four hundred years and also its general operational parameters and concluded that there was no reason the woman couldn't visit. The word 'want' appeared out of a subsystem linked to the human mind. After a quick analysis ALENC agreed with the subsystem that there did seem to be a 'want' for the woman to visit. "I'll send a shuttle." The automaton replied.