The Fourth Law

Chapter 10, Part 1

Lily typed as quietly as she could, wanting to finish her report before bedtime. Of course, since Carli was having one of her night terrors and so was in Lily's bed, she assumed she'd make do on her tiny couch. She typed on.

"...with most forecasters agreeing that the coming winter will be at least as cold as this past, we expect additional expenses for both..."

She saw her messenger button flashing. I wanted to finish this first, Ai! She turned down the volume for Carli and clicked the icon.

The palest, most cautious eyes stared out at her; framed by outstanding ears, though. "Oh, Thaad, it's you."

He blinked. "That's certainly an effusive greeting. Nice to see you, too."

Yeah, that had been kind of rude. "I'm sorry, you'd never called before; I thought it'd be Ai."

He shrugged and turned to point at some part of 'her path.' "Are you familiar with what's called the doctrine of co-creation?"

"No clue."

He looked sharply at her. "I learned it from your religion; you can at least try to keep up! Even though your god created everything, he also allowed creation within that order: plants and animals grow and change their environment, and humans even more so."

"Uh, huh." Her eyes started to slide back to her report.

"So, I've concluded that simply by introducing you here, into this place, you brought some aspect of your life here. Changing both the landscape and anyone that comes into contact with... are you listening?"

She flicked her eyes back. "Sure! I made a mess in your place. Sorry!"

He shook his head. "In a way we don't understand, you made Dorina older just by her walking along the path and touching the plants. It's why you're able to stay so much longer now."

That got her attention. "And... that's why you're so reluctant to touch anything from it? You're afraid to change?"

A slight frown. "Fear is not an issue here. Uncertainty is. Suppose this uncontrolled change is strong enough to..." He seemed to be thinking about the proper words. "...to alter our fundamental nature."

"Uh, huh."

"All right, let me give you a personal example," he said with exasperation, "suppose Fausta ambled down your path, only to have the Laws wiped from her at the end. She'd be coming for you right now."

Eeek! Now he had her concerned!

"So, I need to bring some shovels, maybe a weed-whacker... Round-up! That'd be good...!"

"Oi. Would you please stop babbling. There is no way to undo what you've done here. We can't make anything younger. I wanted you to know so that you'd take more care the next time you're here."

She rested her chin on her hand. "So, the silly human girl stirred up your nice, ordered world? Jeez, Thaad: do you have any idea how much Ai, your silly machine girl, has stirred up mine? Let me lay it out for you: when I met her, I wanted to die. Badly. I am alive because one of you strayed into our place. And you're worried about some plants?"

She was rewarded to finally see his eyes show an emotion. "You make me older, Miss Lily. I must think on this."

-connection lost-

If only everything was that simple, she thought. She checked on Carli, yawned, and returned to her report.

Sending it off to Carol, she skimmed her emails before bed. "Ad, delete; ad, delete... huh? From 'Texas A&M Department of Engineering, Office of Robotics'?" She opened it. As she read it, her incredulity grew.

"You guys have no sense of subtlety, do you?"

Ten days later, on a cloudy but warm Saturday, a maroon and white van with "A & M" emblazoned on the side pulled into a parking spot at St. Edward's. That was a rare enough event that several of the kids wandered over. Having heard them drive up, Lily was already walking out of the Office. I wonder what word Thaad would use for 'nervous, excited, worried, curious', she thought.

Her conversation nine days ago with Ai had been much the same.

"You... arranged for a prototype android to be shipped from Japan to Texas? Just like that?!" Lily asked.

Ai was back in her 'room,' and spun about in her chair. "No, it wasn't just-like-that! It was an exchange: Somi Corporation needed to field-test their latest design, and I wanted to play. So, I sold them some code and told them to send it to you!"

Japan had always led the world in robotics, and some of ones she'd seen at a demonstration her senior class went to were astonishing. A few companies had claimed they could pass the, what was it? Turing Test? But that was still disputed.

That 'I wanted to play' from Ai worried her.

Three men got out of the van. The driver walked toward her. "Are you Lily Barrett? Bill Casey. Good to put a face to a voice! This here's Ned, one of our coders," he indicated the one with the beard, "and Patrick, hardware specialist."

She shook Casey's hand and nodded to the others. Patrick went around to the back of the van while Ned took out a tablet and started tapping at it.

"Any problem with the drive?" she asked politely. What's it going to look like? She was having trouble not acting like a kid on Christmas.

He shook his head. "They've done a pretty fair job keeping 45 open. Back roads can be a little iffy. And nobody tried to get stupid with us," he grinned. She'd noted they all had sidearms. But who didn't?

Patrick had opened the back of the van, and she heard Karl exclaim, "Oh, my GOD!" He looked as if he'd seen a ghost. Holding its hand, Patrick walked the android around the van.

It. Can't. Be.