Towards the Farthest Side: A Collection Of Sci-Fi Short Stories And Novelettes

"Living Things"

This is what I like about Henry, his strength. He knew he is strong, and he is aware of his strength, that's why he's gentle. He applied gentle strength over me, and I am but keener on letting him take the lead.

He isn't rough. He isn't soft also. He isn't selfish either. He always made me feel wanted, and I long for this feeling. The ecstasy of emotions and physicality...

The memory screen of Cassini suddenly turned static and black. The A.I. scanned its surroundings, an electric-blue light emitted from its two frontal artificial eyes.

No one was there.

Cassini is alone with the patient in the room; its analysis algorithm made a swift assessment as to why her link with the patient was suddenly severed.

The alloy cord Cassini connected to the patient's neural monitor is still intact. The power is still on. There's no blackout. So, there's only one reason why it's neural link to the patient ended.

Cassini moved closer to the patient making soft metal hiss as it walked forward and it's alloy feet clanked on the tile floor of the room. It shoots a beam of electric-blue light once again, this time scanning the patient's body from head to toe.

I am receiving no pulse, and there's a noticeable drop in the patient's temperature. The patient has expired, or what the humans term it on organics, the patient is dead.

Cassini stared at its patient. Meriam was her name, she expired at the age of 136. Cassini was assigned to her as her Medical-bot for almost five months now, and Meriam has been curiously friendly towards the A.I.

Meriam once was a researcher who is involved with a crew sent to work on Earth's research facility orbiting a relic planet in the Regulus system. Meriam spent most of her adult life there and she was a witness to life evolving even in the most hostile of environments; like amoebas evolving and thriving in the vacuum of space, or the crystal-like bacteria on the coldest moon. She retired at the age of 98 and was diagnosed with cancer for being exposed to the extreme radiations of space. Cancer was no more than like a flu in the year 2439, Meriam was cured after a few therapy sessions, but her body was already dying.

She was organic after all.

Meriam, during her stay in the hospital conversed with Cassini, curious about the internal workings of the A.I.

Yes, Meriam reasoned; Cassini was a machine, but is it capable of free-will?

They spent their time together talking about A.I. functionalities and Meriam realized that Cassini could absorb information and can rechannel it for future use, thus she decided to conduct an experiment with the Medical-bot.

Cassini resisted at first, it was against it's programed protocol to engage in experiments other than medical diagnostic-advise, it is even considered illegal, but it's curiosity on human emotions eventually made it agree with Meriam.

For months Meriam shared her emotional experiences to Cassini, joy, fear, bliss, sorrow, by channelling her memories and past experiences through the neural-link processor, and the A.I. showed changes overtime in its responses and interaction to both humans and other A.I.s. From being a stoic analyzing-machine, Cassini became somewhat a bot capable of reflecting over its own responses to events.

That morning, Meriam was showing her past experience with her deceased husband, Henry.

It would have been a nice emotion...

...love and admiration.

But Meriam reached the end of her organic life. Cassini detached the alloy cords connecting Meriam to the neural-monitor and quietly covered her with a bed mattress.

Farewell my friend.

For the first time Cassini cried.