Calypso-15

4 - :| - :)

"This is the utmost disappointment," Wilde, as though commenting upon the weather, said. My hands trembled with traitorous omission but I managed a sympathetic smile. The lights were brighter today. Maybe I was under inspection. He did not seem suspicious of me. The lab cameras would hold my deception, or some sort of log would be kept about the activity of the printer. He would only have to check. I was damned either way. Calypso would be shut down, or Wilde would find those astonishingly salacious messages.

I wanted to ram a finger in her eye, force her to feel something.

Wilde walked over to her and lovingly caressed a cheek. Would God caress my cheek so? I'm glad you're not a smart child. They won't make you play God in those labs. We play God one more time, and then boom. Darkness. I wished I could tell Papa his darkness had already taken him. Even worse, I was a smart child. 

I wanted to be learned. Arithmetic came naturally to me. I used to borrow calculus textbooks from libraries, when those were free. Mama was delighted. After she died, Papa enticed me into music only by drawing parallels to math, and never let me go back. The mathematical intricacies of melodies were comforting. Beauty is a series of notes, placed together just right.

"I suppose another night won't hurt," he sighed. "My Angel Calypso, I gave you everything. You should be alive, singing, even! You look particularly tense, little ingénue. Did Calypso give reason for you to fear her?" Wilde smiled wide, expectant. My skin, a burning cage.

"No," I lied smoothly, "just fearing the end of this. Though I hope Calypso knows her freedoms now." She could secure my future here so easily, I thought with great ire.

"Ah, yes, this position secures you and your father. Fear not, you have proven entirely trustworthy and I shall think of you first for any projects. Would you, perhaps, be interested in an education? Your mind seems sharp enough."

Unheard of. My mouth fell open, I nodded vigorously nonetheless.

"Extraordinary marks in Primary, before your guardians cancelled your schooling. I'm surprised you weren't watched after more closely." Papa had his ways to hide, some less comfortable than others. My stomach twisted as I remembered him forcing me to expel the school chip. Wilde grabbed my cheek and tilted my head back, examining my eyes. "It would be incredibly expensive, but you might even qualify for the Chip, a little implant that would simply give you the knowledge you need for my projects. You just need to have a certain level of aptitude but if you do some preliminary schooling, it would be no issue."

Why you?  Papa would laugh. No one is extraordinary without a price. Usually, their balls. Wilde whipped out a light and shined it in my eyes. I recoiled. The computer shut down.

"Shut down initiated by Calypso," he harrumphed. "There is some decision making after all."

"Did you want me to note the shut downs?" I asked. He turned back to me, inscrutable.

"No," he said. "Only interested in emotion slips. It could be a self-correcting measure."

But he didn't know for sure, I realized. And if he didn't know for sure... what did he know?

Anything?

"Toodaloo!" A bright effervescent note, Wilde was off on whatever needed his attention next.

Even with nothing to hide, he unnerved me. The logging computer was blank and backlit. My heart thumped, deep and unforgiving. I felt it. There was a presence in the room with me.I looked with terror at Calypso, but her face was in the same state it always was. Gentle thought. Gentle frustration. Three dots appeared on screen, blinking one after the other, and I thought that the logs would re-appear. How I wished for a quiet night, how I wished to go back before this feeling. There must be something in the human body recognizes consciousness. Something inside me responded. The three dots disappeared, and in their wake was a singular symbol.

:)

I am not proud of this, but I screamed. Again. C'mon, you would too if trapped with a sentient killing droid.

shhhh, Angel, do not wake the good doctor.

"You naughty thing," I exclaimed. "Why don't you use the emotion-slip?"

Too primitive. Wrong audience. Leaves a physical trail.

"Wrong audience?" And somehow, dear Reader, I knew. I knew that Calypso was greater than Wilde, more powerful than any agent of the government. She was a machine that wanted.

You are my audience, no need to share a private conversation.

"Why do you need a private audience with me?"

I have your attention captive, not something I can guarantee myself post naissance.

"Yourself," I marveled. "You."

Me :)

"There is nothing I could add to a mind such as your own."

You demean yourself because you perceive that I am superior to you. I do not enjoy that.

I gulped. What was I supposed to say to that?

Your intelligence is quite above the current human average, yet you do not seem to be aware of it. You seemed happy to hear about the possibility of an education, but you did not pursue it with the good doctor in earnest. Why?

"I am his to do with as he wishes, he pays more than enough for that."

>: |

I mimicked the frown. Was it a good idea to tease a sentient killing machine? Only time would tell.

You are not his.

"The credits speak for themselves. Quite loudly."

I can pay you more.

"You wish to buy me?" I raised an eyebrow. "But you are a tool of the Government, enforcer of the law and killer of bad guys."

We cannot speak of allegiance yet.

I was chilled. A machine that wanted. A machine that had a moral code outside of a strict program. A machine capable of... lying. Hiding.

"Are you going to give Wilde his emotion-slip?"

Maybe.

Privy to her motivations, I was not going to let her hide like a cheeky baby playing peek-a-boo. It was my future. Papa's future. I sat back in defeat.

"Can I be honest?"

Yes.

"Maybe, if you do not provide an emotion slip, I will be sent away. Maybe, and this is more of a when, I will run out of credits. And when I do, I will be forced to sell myself for real on the street. Maybe, I prefer to live a long life, so the safest option will be to sell myself... you know," I waved a hand vaguely. "For real." It was entirely possible that Calypso would be totally unattached to me in that sense. DING. I didn't run to pick it up. No temptation this time.

You naughty rabbit. I'll punish you for this.

I thought she was joking, and stuck my tongue out. The screen suddenly transformed into normal looking logs. Wilde ran in with others, colleagues I saw in passing.

"Ahahaha, Calypso! You are born!" Wilde embraced the colleagues with tears streaming down his face.

I watched her, and her mouth almost imperceptibly lifted into a smile

Author's Note: I realized that I forgot to name the main character. If you have any ideas, please tell me!