TK Special #7 - Return to the M'Verse: An Ooorah Anthology

Basilisk - by @johnnedwill

Toussaint shrugged. "You came to me, so you must know my reputation. Would you care for something restorative - a brandy, perhaps?"

"Yes." The professor mopped his brow with a linen handkerchief. "A brandy would be good."

"Yves," Toussaint called. "Also a brandy for the professor."

The mécanique returned from the kitchen, bearing a tray with a coffee ewer, a porcelain demitasse and a balloon of brandy. The academician took the glass and gulped back half its contents before sitting down again.

"Now, professor," Toussaint said in a reassuring tone. "You were saying?"

The professor took a minute to recover from the draught of brandy. "I am a professor of philosophy. My colleagues and I have been investigating the possibilities of cognitive engines."

"I was under the impression that the engineering of such devices was understood?" Toussaint asked. "After all," he gestured towards Yves, "we have a fine example here."

Arsene Bertrand looked carefully at Yves, as if noticing her for the first time. "Indeed," he said after a moment. "But the powers of the mécaniques are perforce limited. I do not mean any offense," the professor added quickly. "It is just that a mobile carriage can only support a certain size of cognitive engine." Yves sniffed and tossed her head in an all-too-human manner. Bertrand ignored her. "Chevalier - are you a religious man?"

Toussaint shrugged. "I regard myself as a man who is rationally religious." He stressed the word 'rationally'. "I go to confession. I attend mass."

"But do you truly believe, or is it a situation of Pascal's Wager?"

The chevalier chuckled and nodded. "And why not?"

"Then I trust you will not consider what I am about to tell you to be blasphemous."

"Perhaps." Toussaint stared at Bernard. "But that should have no bearing on the need for me hear you. Please tell me what you and your colleagues have been doing, and why it should cause a rational man such distress?"

"Forgive me." The professor took another mouthful of brandy. "We are undertaking an investigation into the nature of gods."

"How?"

"Through a simulation."

"Nom de Dieu." Toussaint could not suppress his explanation.

"And you indulge in blasphemy when it suits you." Bernard got to his feet and began to pace the floor. "It began as a simple philosophical discussion - can mortals ever truly know the mind of their creator? We debated it in our salons. Not seriously at first, but we soon became entranced by the notion.

"We came to the conclusion that while mortals could not comprehend the nature of a deity, perhaps we could simulate one and come to understand that way. One of our group - a man with a most practical bent - proposed that we could design a cognitive engine so complex that it could fulfil this role. After all, if mécaniques can emulate the thoughts of a man - or a woman," the professor glanced at Yves, "then could a god be possible?

"We recruited the best engineers and craftsmen in France; we sought freethinking patrons for our funding. By some miracle, whatever we needed seem to fall into our laps. Soon we had the beginnings of our great mechanism - our divine cognition engine! And then - ."

Throughout his speech, Professor Bernard had become more animated. He spoke with increasing passion, gesticulating expansively and enthusiastically. But, at the last minute, the professor's voice faltered and he slumped back onto the chaise-longue, clasping the balloon of brandy to his chest.