Recursion Protocol

Chapter 12: Reunion

Clara found herself alone at a corner table in the facility's cafeteria, methodically working through what passed for lunch—a sandwich that tasted like it had been engineered. The space reminded her of every institutional cafeteria she'd ever eaten in, all beige walls and fluorescent lighting, except for the subtle differences that reminded her this wasn't exactly a normal workplace. No windows. No clock. No sense of the outside world.

She was cutting her sandwich into precise quarters when a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Mind if I join you? I've been wanting to discuss biological programming with someone who actually understands the science."

Clara looked up, and her fork clattered to the table. Standing beside her with a lunch tray was Daniel Frost, the Berkeley philosophy professor she'd last seen in Geneva, moments before the world changed forever.

"Daniel?" she whispered. "But you're... I thought you were..."

"Dead?" He settled into the chair across from her with the same thoughtful expression she remembered from that conference room. "I can see how you might think that. The Geneva Institute didn't exactly end well for anyone."

"How did you survive? How did you get here?"

Daniel took a bite of his sandwich and considered the question. "Honestly? I'm not entirely sure. One moment

I was in that conference room, watching you and ARIA decode what seems to be a copyright notice in human DNA. The next, I was being hustled out a back exit by people I'd never seen before. They said they were protecting me, but..." He shrugged. "I'm not sure protection is the right word for this place."

Clara stared at him. "You've been here since Geneva?"

"Just a few days now. Though time gets a bit fluid when you're living in a place without windows." He gestured around the cafeteria. "I keep thinking about some of the ideas I used to explore in my writing. The nature of consciousness, what it means to be human. I thought they were just philosophical thought experiments. I never expected to be living in the proof."

Clara nodded. "The questions about what makes us who we are."

"Exactly. Though I have to say, discovering we're all biological machines with built-in documentation does raise some interesting questions about the nature of identity. I used to write about these concepts as speculation. Now I'm sitting here, eating a sandwich that tastes like it was designed by a committee, talking to a woman who found literal programming in human DNA."

Clara leaned forward. "But why are you here? Why did they keep you alive?"

"That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?" Daniel said. "I'm just a philosophy professor who thinks about big questions. I'm not a scientist, I'm not a researcher, I don't have any special knowledge. Best I can figure, someone decided my perspective might be useful..."

"You're here because you understand what it all means," Clara said slowly.

"Maybe. Or maybe I'm here because I can help other people understand what it means. Look around—every one in this facility is brilliant, but they're all scientists and engineers. People who think in terms of data and mechanisms. Maybe sometimes you need someone who thinks in terms of meaning and purpose."

Clara stared at her sandwich. "I keep thinking about that decoded fragment. Series 7, Production Batch 2847.

It makes us sound like... we are some products on an assembly line..."