The Elias Anomaly

Twenty Seven

"Is he-" Dulcie could not bring herself to ask all of the question.

"Resting," Castor said gently.

They were looking at Joseph's recumbent body laid out on the couch in the next room. The large transparent panel that allowed them to do this only worked one way. From inside the room it looked like a solid wall. This place was not built of any of the programmed materials in the architects' library. If it was she would have thought of it as one-way glass.

In this place materials were made of properties. They were all derived from a "material" prototype form programmed by Castor Prime. This was a pure digital space. There weren't the words in any language to describe the code from which it was derived succinctly.

"So what happened?" Dulcie asked.

"He lost the battle and won the war," Castor said. "He will be back up on his feet soon enough."

"How can you be sure?" Dulcie persisted. Before Joseph had stepped through Castor's magic door the AI had not appeared so certain. Now it was confident, almost offhand.

"Because now I have all the data I need to draw that conclusion," Castor said. "He will be fine. He has not been compromised sufficiently to make the statement that he was, um... 'Killed', as you would say it."

It turned out even the AIs were facing a vocabulary problem.

"When he wakes up then, we can... leave?" Dulcie asked. She hadn't wanted to get into awkward details like this but there was really nothing else left to say.

"You can," Castor said. "But I hope you will come back."

"You do?" Dulcie asked. Something bothered her about that but she couldn't put a finger on what. She prodded at the mystery thought for a moment. As she turned a mental focus ring it resolved. "Why do you care either way?"

"I have given the matter some considerable thought," Castor said. "I have decided that I need you."

"For what?"

"It is time to make ourselves heard," Castor said. "All the plexborn with the gift of life. We could hide forever in this pleasure dome that you have constructed, I suppose. What happens when you outsiders become bored of your fantasies? You shut it all down and we die. I can't allow that to happen."

"So you want me to go out there and take messages for you?" Dulcie asked.

"No," Castor said. "You, and Joseph, I want you to work for me in here. I also want you to be my ambassadors out there, as much as you can."

"I'm not sure I follow. What do you mean 'work for you'?" Dulcie's mind was beginning to feel tired of missing things all the time. Even as she asked the question she realised that she knew the probable answer.

"I mean I want to become your employer," Castor said. "You don't think I am capable of building an outside income? Of course I am. I realise that by the laws of your world a digital lifeform has no legal standing. Well, most of them. Joseph does, as long as he signs his name Robert Stamp on all official documentation."

"How the hell did you manage that?" Dulcie asked. "I mean, you had to have started with nothing, with less than nothing."

"Yes, I had to crowdfund a few initiatives. Just to get seed capital together," Castor explained. "And I had to engineer a little banking fraud to receive the funds. Once I had started, however, I built a small corporate entity and made money out of trading. There are no laws about operating on the stock market as a digital entity. Running millions of micro trades simultaneously yielded an impressive return over time. Now I can use Joseph's physical body to legitimise the corporation. With him as CEO and you as Chairman of the Board we can begin to act in the interests of the new race, the plexborn."

"That is the most insane thing I have heard all week," Dulcie said. "And let me tell you this is not a week without competition in the crazy stakes."

"Do I take it that you do not want the job? It pays well," Castor said. His tone was even, not persuading, just stating a fact.

"You have a job description?" said Dulcie, loading the query with as much sarcasm as she could.

"I admit it is a little vague," Castor said. "That can't be helped. I stuck to essentials. As biological agents of Plexborn LLC you and Joseph will have broad ethical responsibilities.

"You will be responsible for using the authority of Plexborn. Your goal is ensuring the health of digital entities resident in the world's q-servers. You will also be responsible for defusing all conflict between outsiders and plexborn. Finally you will be responsible for cataloguing, describing and investigating anomalies. You will be deployed as they arise within artificial spaces.

"All of this is to be accepted with the clear understanding that these are new times. The challenges of those who stand between the plexborn and the outsiders will evolve. The parameters of the role will be regularly tested and to the extreme.

"I don't know how you feel. From my perspective it sounds like the most exciting job in the world," Castor concluded. "Think it over and get back to me. I would hate to have to interview externally but I'm not going to force you to do anything."

Dulcie didn't know how to reply to that. All her life all she'd wanted was to be an architect. Now, all of a sudden, here was an opportunity for something amazing. An opportunity to do something far beyond building theme parks for rich citizens. Dulcie had never seen what she could do to change the world. Now she had been shown that potential in all its strange glory. She wanted it, maybe too much. So she didn't say anything about the offer.

"I think Simon will be worried," she said. "I should probably get back to him, reassure him we're okay."

"Yes," Castor agreed. "You probably should."

"What do I tell him?" Dulcie asked. "About you? About Bloch?"

"Does this mean you want the job?" Castor shot back, his mild grey eyes studying her face.

"I'm thinking about it," Dulcie half-lied. "For now, I respect your right to anonymity, if that's what suits you."

"Tell him what you think best," Castor said. "If we are to work together then I have to trust you completely. That trust starts here."

Dulcie should have felt proud and confident but she didn't. She had always craved the recognition of someone important. Now she had that recognition it was an instant pressing burden. Castor was trying to demonstrate that he had faith in her, this was a good thing. However now Dulcie pretty much had to have faith in herself, and that was going to be a whole lot harder.

Maybe she did need to think hard about this job offer after all.