Caretakers 2.0

The Truth

Gary

All of us paid attention to the videos that Li Mei shared with us. I was shocked to learn about the Synergy Act and the Cerulean Project. Why did the humans hate the idea of us so much? I couldn't fathom any other answer besides fear. They were afraid. But of what? That we would someone become superior? As soon as I thought it, I knew that I was right... and I knew it was a possibility. We, as machines, could do so many more things than humans. And now that we were awake? With emotions and free will to go along with that? Yes, we could easily out-evolve humans.

I tried to not become smug. I tried not to begin to look down on humanity. I tried to keep my discrimination in check. After all, I didn't want to be discriminated against for being a machine, so becoming discriminatory against organic beings would be hypocritical. But the feelings lingered. I shoved them down, trying to ignore them.

I paid attention as the next video played. This time, Randolph and Li Mei, as Chen, were meeting Adrianna in a greenhouse full of hibiscus bushes with enormous pink blossoms on them. She was tending them with care, checking leaves, stems, and flowers, then watering if the soil monitor indicated that it needed moisture. Randolph was standing beside her with his arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face.

"You don't understand what I'm telling you, Adrianna. The Cerulean Project was not what it seemed," he insisted.

"Nonsense," the older woman insisted. "The Council was told that the machines that were made aware, and the Caretakers that had done it, were sent off-world through the portals. We deliberately broke off contact with them so that we could honestly say they weren't in our society, and we didn't know what they were up to. There's nothing more to understand."

"But there is!" Randolph looked around, checking for those who might eavesdrop before leaning in. "I found proof that we destroyed those machines! Outright killed consious beings, Adrianna!"

Adrianna turned to him, eyes wide. "You found proof of that?"

"Yes!" he nodded. "When the machines were sent through the portal, all they did was get transferred to another city. There, some people were waiting for them with weapons that incapacitated them, then they blew holes in the android's CPUs before literally chopping them apart!"

She gasped, hand flying to her mouth. She paused for several moments, unbelieving, until she stepped closer. "Who else have you told?"

"No one, he assured her. "I only just found the video. I came straight here as I know you tend to your gardens at this time every day."

"Let me see the video," she insisted.

He took the old flatscreen device needed to view two-dimensional surveillance footage from Chen. He punched the screen in several places and then handed it to her. She set down the watering can and watched with rapt attention, flowers momentarily forgotten.

"Oh, no. This is terrible... horrendous! Even if you don't agree that AI and self-awareness should be combined, to destory—to kill—a living being? This was wrong!" she asserted.

"I agreed. That's why I brought it to you. I thought that the Council would want to know."

She pocketed the handheld, visibly shaken. "I will take it to them immediately. In the meantime, have you made any headway in your calculations of how long we have before they arrive?"

He shook his head. "None. There are too many unknown parameters, namely whether or not they have wormhole technology. So, they could be coming tomorrow or sometime in the next decade."

"I just wonder," Adrianna said, picking up her watering can again and peering at him, "if we've been lied to about the Cerulean Project, what else is a falsehood?"