Chapter 2 already... Yeah... that was quick.
Still nothing erotic, so I go on posting it here. But if you prefer to read it over at ff.net tell me and I'll give you the link. (In my taste the layout there is a bit more reader-friendly... )
Chapter 2Dextra resided in a tall column-like building, towering high over the ENCOM's Grid. And the room from where the program was operating – where also one of the arrival gates from outside was located – was wide, huge, cylinder-shaped and made of glass all around. In the middle there was a round podium with a construction in its middle that looked a bit like a lectern. It was the operating desk from where Dextra was guiding the other programs and redirecting the User's commands.
The program was turning around as Ed arrived, was leaving the podium and heading towards the User appearing.
"Welcome, User", Dextra greeted him formally.
"You're female?" Ed stated surprised, as he saw Dextra for the first time.
She was a strikingly beautiful female program with sharp features, an alabaster skin and shiny black, long, straight hair which she was wearing open. Her amply circuitry was of the same rich aquamarine as her almond-shaped eyes, and her smooth, glossy, anthracite suit coated her delicate body with a flimsy, skin-tight sheathe.
"I always thought every program mirrors the semblance of its creator," Ed remarked, slightly suspicious about this unexpected divergence from the norm.
She smiled at him with sober politeness in her expression. "Not in my case, as you programmed me autonomy. And I decided to be female."
While questioning the actually pointless circumstance that programs had to have a gender at all, Ed replied: "Yeah, um… so what's the problem here?"
Dextra kept on smiling courteously . "There is no problem", she spoke, calmly.
Ed furrowed his brows. "Then why were you forcing me to come to the Grid?"
"I wanted to get to know my creator." She was walking two smooth steps more in his direction.
"What?" Already, he began to regret this Grid visit. "
That was the reason? That's not quite of prime importance!"
"For me it is. If a program gets to know its creator then the connection between program and user grows much stronger, and it will enhance the quality and efficiency of work immensely." Her speaking was a firm, confident, somehow melodic but emotion-lacking flow of words, as blandly spoken as if preset. A program's talking.
Ed took a deep sigh, briefly letting his hands twitch up some inches in a gesture of annoyance. "Whatever..."
Dextra was moving further, stopping before him at about arm's length. "How are you, creator,
Edward?" Her smile grew somewhat wider, but seeming to be stipulated as well, like rehearsed. "May I call you Edward?"
Ed shuffled his feet unsteadily. "I don't care. Listen: I have work to do. I can't allow myself to waste any more time."
"Keep my company, Edward."
He shook his head, spreading his arms while talking. "What's even the sense in doing so? You have fellow programs to keep company with. The whole Grid is full of them."
"They are boring", Dextra responded. "I was talking to everyone of them, absorbing all their knowledge. And now I am bored. I want to get to know a User. They are not
calculable. That makes them much more interesting." Her smile, although remaining quite sober, became enriched with a stiff expression of cheekiness. Like a bad actor simulating emotions.
Ed sighed. "All I can do is feed you with every new input possible. But I have to do that
on my computer, in the real world." Unwittingly he pointed up to the sky as if the Users were somehow located above, overhead the programs. A gesture he didn't make on purpose.
"That would be very generous of you, Edward. But I would appreciate to get some input directly from you as well, from a User's intellect. I want to get to know about a User's experiences and his mind. His personality."
"Believe me, Dextra, all knowledge I have I can transfer you per data communication through my computer. Everything beyond this is not required for your working process and doesn't need my presence in the Grid."
Amidst talking he already set his legs in motion in a gesture of bringing, almost forcing, this conversation to a finish.
"But there are concepts you
can't transfer per data," Dextra was talking on, detaining him with the persistence of an inquisitive child. "Concepts which are not understandable for a program – such as character, inwardness, soul – unless they get explained by the User himself."
Reluctantly turning back to her Ed sighed, briefly licking his lips and sullenly rolling with his eyes. "I don't really get the point why this should be useful for an administration program."
"I have to organize many things for ENCOM, dealing also with personal employee's affairs, dealing with
human beings. So in my notion it would be very helpful, as well as expedient, to also
understand human beings, understand their mentation, in order to support them in all my conscience. I'm sorry, Edward, to bother you, but that's how you have programmed me: Ever-hungry for knowledge and understanding, furthermore willing to do my work as diligent as possible."
Talked down by his own creation, Ed found himself incapable to argue on. He blinked several times wordlessly towards his program, embodied by a nearly intimidatingly beautiful, flawless woman. "Maybe another time. I have too much work to do today."
"But that's what I'm here for; to take work from you, to help you, support you, to be your
Right Hand." Dextra's complaisance was tinged with insistence.
"Yes, sure. But there are things I still want to do with my own hands, you understand?"
"No, for I'm only a program."
Was there cynism hiding in the corner of her stiff smile? Ed wasn't sure but decided to not be fooled into interpreting her facial expressions, for she wasn't human and therefore it was pointless to look at her from a human's view.
"Maybe I should feed you with some writings of philosophy then…" He suggested, more to himself, turning around again, heading the transfer gate at a quick pace, not intending to let himself held back by Dextra one more time.
"Thank you, Edward", Dextra replied politely. "I'm expecting to meet you soon again."
Not if I can help it… Ed was thinking to himself as he positioned in the light-column of the Grid-gate, closing his eyes, letting himself being dragged into the real world again.
.....
Programs…Ed sat in his luxurious padded office chair, leant backwards, legs folded, looking up to the ceiling, engrossed in thought.
Programs behaving complicated, like persons… How tedious.
One thing he loved about his job was the reassuring and satisfying aspect that it kept him from having to interact with other people all too often, that it didn't require huge abilities to teamwork, that he could work on his own without having to explain and to discuss and to act socially fitted, being polite and having to mind his every word. The programs were doing what he told them to do, he simply had to type in commands and codes, ones and zeros, and none of these things could be taken the wrong way.
But what was remaining of all of that if programs more and more were beginning to act like human beings? He didn't feel comfortable with that at all. He had witnessed first-hand how
human a program could get. Therefore he was on his guard.
And he decided to create an emergency brake, just in case.
.....
Because the rain had passed off, Ed and Judith were spending the last half hour of their lunch break on one of the balconies of the ENCOM building. Something they did quite often, to enjoy some fresh air and to have some minutes of distraction on their own. A small recess of freetime and togetherness.
It was one of the balconies attached to the very top floors of the building, a small, narrow and not much-frequented one at the building's corner, and most of the time they were alone there. Not that they were sharing tenderness… Judith knew Ed wouldn't appreciate that, and she respected his nature. Apart from this the balcony wasn't granting them full privacy anyway.
The sky was still grey and overcast.
Judith was leaning with her back against the railing, sipping her coffee and watching Ed casting his glances over the city. The wind was playing with his hair, but couldn't really get it to be tousled for his hairdo was just too neat and firmly fixed. As if he even was braving the weather with his outward immaculacy... Judith was smiling to herself while eying him in silent affection.
"Dextra called me to the Grid", he began to tell Judith about his experience earlier that day, still looking down to the city, arms leant to the railing. "And you know for what reason? To learn about a human being's heart and soul..."
Judith turned around, bowing forward in interest. "That's exciting!" She replied enthused with glowing eyes and smiling broadly.
"Yeah…
great", he sniffed and took a sip from his coffee.
"Tell me about Dextra! How is he?"
Ed turned his head, looked at her. "Dextra is female."
"Oh!" Judith prompted surprised.
And Ed went on to depict the whole story about his first encounter with Dextra.
"Could you please take up the job of teaching her about
the soul of a User?" he ended his report, a trace of aversion in his voice. "I really have no nerves for stuff like this."
Judith sighed. "She's
your creation. And she asked
you to do that. I think it's on you to recognize responsibility in this case."
"Ah…I don't even know if I have heart and soul at all. So it would be pretty pointless to try to teach a program about it", he reacted with a slight hint of cynism in his voice, swinging his cup and pouring the last drop of coffee down his throat.
"Oh, come on!" Judith said, giving his shoulder a quick, slight slap with the back of her hand.
For two, three heartbeats she stood there in silence. Then she said: "Apart from the fact that this is your job, Ed… Well… Don't take me for a coward, but I'm kind of through with talking to programs about emotions."
Ed looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "I highly doubt that Dextra falls in love with you and goes mad."
Judith smirked. "Maybe she falls in love with
you," she joked.
"Heaven forbid!" Ed snorted. He looked up to the sky silently, then he added. "No one falls in love with me except from you."
"Why is that coming across like an insult on me?" Judith said, grinning. And as Ed turned his head he had a faint smile in the corner of his mouth. He straightened himself then, looking at his watch with a sigh. "Duty calls."
.....
The next few weeks were passing without any interruptions or irregularities. Dextra was running optimally and already the working with her was showing its positive results. The human error rate was reduced to nearly zero because of Dextra re-checking, optimizing and organizing almost everything. The whole company was noticing and appreciating the changes, from the lower power drain, caused by Dextra's economical way of saving energy, through to the mathematically elaborated arrangement of the employee's vacations and freetime dates.
Furthermore Ed was feeding her with every kind of data and she seemed to be satisfied with that.