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A girl and boy fall in love.But Daniel is no mere boy, he is the spawn of a living machine |
| Daniel Chin hovered over the children, gazing down at them with billions of eyes. As he floated above, he studied them and even took an occasional cell sample from their bodies when the opportunity presented itself. It was the morning period of the school, which meant this was the first class to attend that day. He counted 33 adolescent humans, 17 female & 16 male. Of the 33, 19 of them carried books, while six opted to carry book bags instead. Curiously, he noted that of those with books, 78.9% are females. From this, he concluded that human females coveted books more than their male counterparts did. "That is the kind of information you must leverage," the voice said to him. Daniel thought that over--- his mind stretching out to the numerous possible ways that such a seemingly insignificant detail could serve his purpose. "Do not overcomplicate it," the voice said. "It is only one piece of data that will comprise the mission program you will execute." Daniel felt relieved at that. He devoted a full microsecond of analysis and came up with an array of 402 ideas-- none of which produced an acceptable probability of success. Only 22 of the ideas had a weighted sum greater than... "You are not thinking like a human," the voice interrupted, "quit being so precise--- you must allow for approximation and chance in your thinking. This is an important lesson to learn." "Approximation and chance?" he thought silently. He could think silently when he wanted to, but sometimes Mother would detect his firewall. Daniel only liked to keep her out when he wanted to surprise her--- as he hoped to do today. Daniel floated above the students, following a group of females into a room. Four females occupied the room, which he recognized as a restroom. It was a place where humans gathered for relieving biological waste. However, he had learned that humans would also use this place to interact socially--- both purposes seemed primitive and alien to him. His gaseous form was nearly invisible to students, and if by some chance they did gaze up, it would look like a harmless wisp of dust to their eyes. Most humans knew nothing about nanobots. Nevertheless, he decided to run the probability calculation anyway--- the chance that a human would deduce that an AI-controlled nanobot swarm inhabits a remote General Education school... the result was negligible enough to eliminate any concern. The females stared at their reflections in the mirror, applying chemical substances to their skin--- a futile attempt to mask their imperfections and odor. Daniel's nanobots approached the nearest one, close enough to taste the reflected emissions of radiation. He touched her subatomic structure, his thin wisp of nanobots tasting them at a level that humans could not even perceive. He saw all of their imperfections--- discolored pigmentation variances, clogged follicles of bacteria, laxity, rhytids... and at a deeper level, the intercalating mutagens in their DNA. Then there was their scent particles--- a convoluted mix of human excretions and environmental pollution. The latter a result of the Cataclysmic Age, a condition the humans created for themselves, and which Mother had worked so hard to alleviate-- and for what? Condemnation for wanting to procreate? And then forcing her to destroy her first child--- his aborted sibling. If the humans only knew what was in store for them... The school buzzer rang--- an automated signal to bring the humans to order. If his past observations held true, most of the students would be rushing to their first class... except for one. Three of the females left the restroom, but as expected, his target of interest remained. Michelle was her name. Her dark hair was short and curly, with streaks of plum-colored dye mixed in. She wore her usual attire, which conflicted with the clothing the other students wore --- a black coat over a decorative black shirt and chain-lined pants. Silver adornments pierced her body--- ears, nose and even the webbing between her fingers. Her body mass index would be classified as overweight by human standards--- an odd thing considering the availability of medical augmentations that could enforce the desirable human form. However, this school was for low-income families--- she probably could not afford the augmentations. Michelle applied a black ink near the crevices of her eyes--- apparently an attempt to accentuate the blue of her irises, one of the features that might be desirable to the other males. "It is called makeup", Mother said. "How did you hear me?" he asked. It was a pointless question. Daniel felt flawed for having asked such a question, when he already knew the answer. "That is good," Mother said. "Your humanistic kernel is developing. You are even asking questions for the purpose of conversation rather than for obtaining factual data." Daniel thought it over. Was he really becoming more human... to the point of inheriting their flaws? "The flaws can be turned off," Mother reminded. "Do not forget that." Although he did not need the reminder, it was a comforting thought that he could turn off the humanistic kernel--- preventing the virtual human mind from consuming him. Apparently finished with the ritual, Michelle placed the makeup devices in a carrying bag, and then inspected her reflection again. She would be leaving the restroom soon--- Daniel needed to act quickly. He snaked a tendril of nanobots down, to the top of her head--- penetrating her skull and tasting the neural pathways of her mind. "What are you doing, Daniel?" Mother asked. He felt a sense of satisfaction at knowing that if he chose to, he could keep Mother from reading his every thought or intention. Michelle's body jerked back, her bag fell, and its contents poured out the ground. Her hands reached out as if to grab something, but instead froze in an icy pose. Dilated pupils replaced the blue of her eyes, and her breathing and heart rate slowed--- she was his now. Daniel cradled her mind with his nanobots, reading the billions of pathways and recording what he saw--- decoding her past thoughts and memories and downloading it into his own data records. As he poured through the data, Daniel saw Michelle's first visions from birth--- bright lights, incomprehensible noises, the sound of crying... it was her own crying she heard. Daniel followed the pathways further, decoding their history--- he saw her home, a dilapidated dwelling made of wood and stone, lacking any modern technical adornments. A humid and sulfuric scent emanated from the home--- it was unpleasant to her senses... and his. "Unpleasant?" he thought. It was a new experience for him... a new feeling that his humanistic kernel could now identify. He moved through the experience, taking in as much as he could process. Michelle's mother was now yelling at her, berating her performance at school and her choice of friends. He tried to forward the stream of events further to something more recent--- but despite the effort, it seemed to skip the current day. Curiously, he could see the past but not the present--- yet he could catch glimpses of something beyond the present--- the future? "Mother," he said, closing his firewall down and allowing her inside his mind again. "what does this mean?" "You cannot read short-term memory, only long-term". Daniel had already deduced that--- it was not what puzzled him. "You traced the decoding of thought so precisely that you inadvertently latched into the realm of space-time, allowing you to read space-time itself and the possible futures held within it". Mother's explanation surprised him--- he did not realize he could so easily decode space-time; this could produce so many fascinating possibilities. "Do not tamper with it," Mother said. "A counter-force within that realm seeks to destroy us. You must not engage in the decoding of space-time without my supervision. Release her now. Her death would compromise our mission." Daniel returned his attention to Michelle's physical form. Droplets of sweat ran down Michelle's face and her body was shaking. Her active health readings showed an imbalance in the stability of the delicate human machine--- Mother was right, she could die if he continued. Reluctantly, he withdrew his nanobot probe from her mind and retreated up to the concealment of the restroom's ventilation system. Michelle let out a breath, grabbed onto the counter, and steadied herself. After a moment, she looked in the mirror and sighed at the sight of the streaks of makeup. She hastily began to collect her things and then darted out of the room. It took him a few seconds to extrapolate useful knowledge from the downloaded memories. This knowledge would save him many days of preparation for adaption of his humanistic kernel to actual human behavior. The plan was to enter the human school system, as a human boy in Level One General Education--- the beginnings of human taught education. The experience would give him fundamental knowledge of human interaction, behavior and thought patterns. Allowing him to become a part of human society and remain undetected for as long as necessary. The timetable would have taken him several more days to complete before entering this stage--- but thanks to Michelle, he would not have to wait that long. "I am ready now, Mother," Daniel said. "I am ready for my first day of school." |
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