I was at a loss to describe my feelings while I held Gital’s hand as we moved through the crowded walkways of the metropolis EOS. He brought us both dark long garments many of the natives of the city wore instead of a PBM. My head and shoulders were covered in a shawl similar to those worn by bonded females on this world while Gital wore a shrouded hood. With these flowing garments, we weaved through the crowds of people unnoticed. I did not know where Gital was taking me. From what I saw on the many viz screens we passed, Gital was sought after to the same extent as I!
Leaving my crewmates behind made me uncomfortable, but it was far more important to be with my companion. After two hours of constant walking, we stopped inside a small shop selling hot beverages. There were no chairs and several gestated beings stood inside either at the main counter or the counter which hung around the circular space. There were strong odors of local plants and fungi used in the drinks which percolated or roasted over burners. A few heads and proboscis turned towards us as we entered but made no note of us. It was a relief to walk into a space in this vast city and not have people swarm over me.
“What are we going to do here Gi....” I was given the shushing gesture by my companion as he led me to the wall counter. There stood a being covered in a white garment that reflected the dark yellow of the hard light candles illuminating the space. “There’s someone who wants to talk with us.” I felt my eyebrows tense wondering who Gital had brought us all this way to meet when everyone in the city was looking for us. The tall being turned to face us and I recognized those mechanical eyes instantly. It was the former passenger Da Vinci!
The mysterious cybernetic human I encountered on DROMEDARY in transit to AIPOTU held a long index finger against his lips warning us against speaking. In his other hand was a small highly reflective gold sphere which he handed to me. Not sure of what to do, I looked to my companion and Gital gave a slight nod of approval. When I extended my hand, Da Vinci tipped his over and the orb fell towards my open palm but did not fall into it! As the orb floated over my hand, thousands of search queries filled my PHUD to define the nature of the strange device. For an instant, I felt unstable. My PHUD flickered and then the search queries abruptly canceled.
Da Vinci led us to the farthest point of the shop and walked through what had to be an access point within a hardlight projection of the wall. Gital urged me through and then we stood within a small dark space. My visual array began cycling through the electromagnetic spectrum beyond visible light and I still could see nothing. Gital still had his hand on my shoulder, yet my concern was growing. There was an unexpected flash of light and then a pair of doors opened revealing the light emanated from actual sunlight. We stepped out of what was in reality a Particle Wave Transport Pad and onto the stone deck of a scene I had only seen simulated aboard DROMEDARY!
A quick look up at the azure sky and I could tell we were on the daylight side of the planet and below the flat stone deck with whitewashed waist high walls lay a red sand beach with clear amethyst colored waves lapping against it. Trees similar to Earth Palms waved wide blue-green fronds in the warm breeze to shade a two-leveled home. Strangely, the structure was covered in material identical to the rocky cliff face it was perched against. Da Vinci held out his hand to me and my hand involuntarily released the orb. The device floated into his grasp and the dark man’s smiling face was accented by first by his brilliant white garment. “Hello Pandora.”
Da Vinci gestured for us towards a hemispherical bench covered in white linen-like cloth. “Please, sit. You both are well past your usual regeneration periods. Rest here if you would. I have had rooms prepared for you.” It only occurred to me just then to take note of my chronometer and there was only thirty minutes Earth Standard Time before I had to rendezvous with the shore party and check in with DROMEDARY. I felt a sudden surge of anxiety flush through me and I stammered, “I-I cannot stay! I must get back to EOS City and rendezvous with my shore party on time!”
Gital chuckled, “No, you don’t.” I looked at my companion quizzically and replied, “But what about check-in? All crew planetside must check in first with their shore party leader and with DROMEDARY....” Gital cut me off by saying, “You will check in with me... the Captain and confirm with the Transport when I do. You still have sixteen ESH worth of Liberty left. I hope you are willing to spend some of those hours with me?” Gital’s question was illogical for I requested he and I come planetside together! I could barely contain my pleasure and put my hand over Gital’s.
“You two are quite amazing!” said a smiling Da Vinci. Ignoring his compliment I turned to our host and queried, “What was the device you handed me? Somehow, it momentarily affected my systems.” The conversation was interrupted when a particularly lovely young woman with dark red skin and long black hair softly padded towards us on bare feet. She carried a large tray containing a crystal pitcher filled with blue liquid and three plates of exotic looking local foods. My PHUD was running search queries to determine whether she was human or manufactured but it could not confirm any data pertaining to the woman. She gracefully placed everything onto the low white stone table and then sat next to Da Vinci.
Training those odd old-fashioned cybernetic eyes on me Da Vinci queried, “Have you determined whether Semele is human or not Pandora?” I shut down the search queries and tried to run a scan on her but my systems could not make a determination. As if he was reading me Da Vinci laughed and requested, “Why don’t you try guessing Pandora?” I could not prevent myself from flinching from the suggestion of not using my instrumentation to ascertain the nature of the being called Semele. Apparently, my flinching pleased Da Vinci as he laughed yet again and asked, “Remember what we talked about during our last visit on the DROMEDARY Pandora?”
Without having to replay my memory logs, I recalled our last conversation involved my learning to ‘take things at face value.’ I placed considerable thought towards understanding its meaning during the remaining Bubble Time in transit to AIPOTU. I also discussed it briefly with Gital and came to the conclusion that it was the ability to understand someone or something just by looking at it. It was a uniquely human ability, but I found it was an acquired skill. With that in mind, I observed Semele while her black silky hair moved gently with the breeze and her dark amber eyes stared back at me. In an instant, I knew what she was!
“You look like you have an answer Pandora, what do you think?” Still focused upon the red-skinned woman I replied, “Semele is your companion of many decades. She is a Bio-Engineered Manufactured Being, but there is something unusual about her configuration which I cannot define.” Both Da Vinci’s and Semele’s faces morphed with pleasant surprise and they clapped at my answer. Semele turned to Da Vinci exclaiming, “She is amazing as you said she would be!” Confused Gital queried, “Was Pandora correct? I can’t figure it out. I’d say you’re human.”
Still smiling, Da Vinci acknowledged both our answers. “You are both correct. Semele is a highly advanced Bio-Engineered Android, but she was not always so. Initially, she was my human wife. We met when I was much, much younger yet she was far older. We became permanently bonded in the old-fashioned way by right of marriage. However....” Gital finished the older man’s sentence saying, “Ancient Earth-style Marriages don’t hold up under Galactic Law without a Contract for Viable Genetic Exchange.”
Nodding, Da Vinci agreed. “That’s correct young man. Though Semele was modified to maintain a reasonably youthful body and mind, she was well past the age of viable genetic exchange. Since we could not become permabonds, we ‘married’ each other instead. When she could no longer maintain her original body, she wanted to continue life with me. Had she chosen to become a clone, the law would have turned her over to her family where she would have begun life anew without me.
Semele took Da Vinci’s dark hand and said, “I could not bear the thought of doing such a thing. Instead, I had my consciousness transferred into this body and became his companion, this time legally. I have the body of a Manu, but the mind of a human woman. To have guessed closely as you did Pandora and without the aid of instrumentation was remarkable!”
Holding up the golden sphere, Da Vinci reminded me of those ancient humans in Gital’s Viz Library called ‘Magicians’. “Pandora, have you wondered why there were thousands of people waiting for you when you arrived at AIPOTU Station? How they all knew you had been given the name ‘Pandora’ by your companion? Don’t you find it strange how no matter where you went crowds and reporters were always waiting for you?”
Semele passed her hand over a portion of the table and four meters distance an expansive, semi-translucent 3D display was generated. Contained inside the wide rectangular display were numerous viz feeds showing crowds of people surrounding me at the various places I visited. Strangely, I instantly recognized many of views from the streams matched my visual logs exactly! “Wait, I remember looking directly at Supervisor Florez as she put that crystal tiara on her head in the EOS City Eastern Quarter Grand Market....”
Da Vinci’s voice barely registered as I watched feed after feed showing everything I had done during my first hours of liberty on AIPOTU! I was mortified to see the feeds from multiple angles as Sundy and I danced in the nightclub.... “Pandora you have a built-in Live Uplink that casts to the Planetary Net. Already, hundreds of millions are seeing what you have so far here on AIPOTU. Within days, everything you’ve done since coming online aboard DROMEDARY will be fed out to the Galactic Net in syndication. In the Entertainment feeds there will be shows, advertisements, animations and of course pornography featuring you, your companion Gital and everyone you’ve encountered. All except for the children and myself that is.”
I couldn’t imagine how, but I believed Gital was more stunned than I at the news. He sat there wide-eyed and said nothing. “B-but why?” was all I could stammer. Da Vinci coldly replied, “You are part of a massive new product launch Pandora. If you think the crowds in EOS City were something, Core forbid you set foot down on one of the Central Worlds. Billions would turn out to greet you!
Understand Pandora it may have been HEPHESTUS CORP which completed your final assembly, but ZEUS INTERSTELLAR INDUSTRIES is the entity planning on your line becoming the cornerstone of high-end android sales. ZII will stop at nothing to make sure that you their prototype generates enough excitement to have paid back orders for Personal Android series Zero Romeo Alpha’s on the logs for the next three hundred ESY!
And they’ll do so for you are one exceptional Android Pandora. In many ways, you exceed Semele here for she too is one of a kind. There are billions upon billions of gestated beings who will want an android with your capabilities. For now I have shut down your uplink. While you are here, your thoughts and memories are your own.”
I could see what Da Vinci said was already coming true. In the feeds were news exposé’s, advertisements and previews of upcoming shows featuring Gital and me! It was difficult to take in without running search queries. Only now coming out of shock Gital turned to Da Vinci and asked, “How do you know so much about Pandora? Who are you?”
Sliding a pair of plates towards us and then gesturing for Semele to fill our crystal cups a knowing smile exposed Da Vinci’s bright white teeth. “Young man, I know everything there is to know about Pandora. I should... I designed her. As for ‘who I am’ you may have heard of me. I am Vivian Banneker, recently retired CEO and Chief Designer of PROMETHEUS GROUP. You both have some time left. Stay and rest. We will talk more later.”
****
ZEUS INTERSTELLAR INDUSTRIES HEADQUARTERS - OLYMPUS PRIME, MOUNT OLYMPUS STATION
“Director Graves... why has the prototype’s uplink been interrupted?” ZII’s R&D Director Tacia Graves had no answer to give her CEO which was good news. “Mr. Gates I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience! Far as the signal telemetry is concerned, Unit 001 should still be uploading. Somehow, the signal is being blocked.”
Jobs Gates tapped his still fresh chin stubble as he pondered this occurrence. Things weren’t bad at the moment as the time delay of the broadcast of Unit 001... ‘Pandora’ was sufficient to be covered by ZII controlled media outlets on AIPOTU to keep the frenzied interest going until she was found and brought back online. The initial feed nearly sixteen ESH prior left audiences with a cliffhanger as the unit was brought online after the ‘lucky winner’ was introduced. The live feed was cut for five hours to allow transit from OASIS 10 to AIPOTU.
The live viz feed was there to keep an audience full of potential purchasers unable to turn off their feeds to see what the most advanced android ever devised was up to. So far, three chapters of her activities aboard the DROMEDARY were edited and compiled into a compelling drama. With the live feed cut, the drama would have to premier earlier than planned. Already, pre-orders were piling in at a solid pace. The only thing keeping complete captivation of potential Zero Romeo Alpha purchasers at bay was that damn One Pointer captain and his reluctance to bed a Manu! Once Pandora was put through her paces sexually, the influx of orders would flood in like stellar plasma falling into a gravity well!
Then again, the sexual tension between them trended well with the test audiences so the situation was salvageable. The current issue was who and how they managed to block the unit’s live feed? Unit 001 had the most advanced encryption system available. In addition the built-in communications array was designed to transmit at full signal anywhere there was access to a Planetary or the Galactic Network. With all that in mind, Gates’ thoughts coalesced on the most pertinent question, “Director Graves, what would it take to block so specific a signal?”
The Director did her best not to wither under the stern gaze of the Galaxy’s most powerful person. Her hands flew about her display and among the thousands of search queries she found the answer she needed. “Sir! Though there are several hundred advanced methods available, all but one requires considerable power resources. Only a ‘Data Blocker’ could block the signal locally with the results we are experiencing.”
Gates’ salt and pepper brows furrowed as he flatly retorted, “A Data Blocker? There is no Data Blocker in existence powerful enough to block a data stream with such high encryption. If there were, I would know about it!” Before she said anything, Director Graves forwarded a file to the incensed prime executive. “Mr. Gates, you should have the file I just sent.”
Gates held his ire in check to open the file and an immense schematic filled the large hardlight display before him. The schematic was comprised of what looked to be quadrilayered molecular circuitry. He could barely believe what he was seeing! Thousands of years past when human technology learned to design molecular circuitry, software and so much more were all based upon the most complex molecule in existence... DNA.
Basing data storage and circuitry on DNA was conceived in the Pre-Awakening Era of Earth during the 21st Century. Seventy years after its inception, the method was perfected and the possibilities of human technology released the species from its ancient shroud of ignorance. Even with numerous assimilations of captured alien technologies decamillenia later, the core of human technological design followed the two-strand DNA model. Gates rubbed his salt and pepper short cropped hair dumbfounded. What he stood before was a circuitry schematic not based on two linked molecules, but four!
“Where did you get this?” Once more the Director forwarded corroborating files before giving her answer. “Sir, what you are looking at is a proposed prototype for a portable Data Blocker. My search query found the schematics in a Cancelled Project Archive.” Unable to keep his eyes from following the intricate and twisting lines of interwoven molecular circuits an amazed Jobs Gates gasped, “This would be nearly impossible to make! Quadrillayered technology is still in its infancy. Not even the Mdkvc had such intricate systems. When was this schematic proposed?”
Gates looked at the file’s proposal date and saw the plans for the Data Blocker had been shelved shortly after it had been submitted nearly fifty ESY past. There was something important about that time ZII’s Chief couldn’t put his finger on. “Director, unseal the submission file and tell me who submitted the proposal?” Director Graves input the code revealing the submitter’s identity. It was standard practice for corporations to acquire plans and prototypes for new or innovative technology then seal them to prevent their implementation or sale. No submission was ever destroyed for there would always be a later time in which it could be put into production or sold for a profit.
With the files unlocked, Jobs Gates got his answer. “Core be damned... ‘DA VINCI CORP CREATIVE’.” Without confirming by search query the Director asked, “Mr. Gates, wasn’t DVCC headed by Semele Lighter and Vivian Banneker?” His hands deftly moving the schematic about the display Gates coolly voice commanded, “Display schematic in three dimensions.” The massive display complied the schematic which then took the shape of an intricate layered structure. “You are correct Director Graves. Fifty ESY ago, Semele Lighter was a heavyweight in the galactic innovative technology arena.
Sixty ESY prior after she partnered her company DVCC with PROMETHEUS GROUP, Lighter’s influence rivaled my own. However, there were rumors she was in a long-term relationship with PROMETHEUS CEO and Chief Designer Vivian Banneker. That was a big no-no. She was well past the age of genetic viability and was not allowed to permabond. The potential relationship also presented a conflict of interest according to the DVCC and PG Board of Directors. She died at the age one thousand thirty-three, had no heirs therefore left full control of DVCC to Banneker. Banneker separated DVCC from PROMETHEUS prior to the proposed merger with my company. This brilliant work! Who gave authorization to shelve this design?”
It was no surprise to Gates when the Director answered, “Vivian Banneker gave the authorization sir.” Gates scaled down the schematic until the model could fit in the palm of his hand. “Son of a popper! He did it. Somehow that bastard made this damn thing!” Somehow and in absolute secrecy, his old rival Vivian had done the impossible. Gates did everything but gloat when Banneker finally stepped down and went into retirement after the merger of the three great companies in the galaxy was complete. Now from outside the corporate sphere, his former rival just stuck his thumb in Gates’ eye and did so in a manner only he would know it!
Gates felt a sudden cold flush down his back. Vivian for all intentions designed the Series Romeo Alpha Androids damn near down to the molecular level! He no doubt was on AIPOTU and had some agenda going, but what could it be? Whatever Vivian had planned, it would not amount to anything because the ‘experiment’ was near to being enacted. It was doubtful even the PROMETHEUS GROUP Recovery Team would be able to avert the experiment coming to fruition.
Terrible shame concerning the Prototype Unit. ‘Pandora’ ending up on the same Transport as the BOX came from the usual incompetence of lower level employees doing the bidding of their corporate masters. There would be terminations and sanctions placed on the contracted compensation of those responsible to recover investment costs of the prototype. On the bright side there was already so much interest generated for this new series of android, initial sales would easily recoup its loss. “Director, contact the asset aboard DROMEDARY. Commence the experiment.”
© 2013 H. Wolfgang Porter. All Rights Reserved.
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