Love and Hate beyond the Singularity

Rishi stood up from his bed and stretched.

"I haven't felt this good in years!"

"Picobots did that, Dad," said Jonny.

"I know, let me enjoy it anyway, okay?"

Jonny smiled and said, "okay Dad."

The room was pure white and perfectly clean. There were light pipe fed ceiling tiles, wall tiles, and floor tiles illuminating everything without shadow in the room. It always reminds Rishi of that ancient movie, "2001 a Space Odyssey."

Droid 2 returned to the room with a tray full of goodies. She marched up to Rishi and said in a rather frighteningly non robotic voice, "Please Jon Rishi Senior, drink some water and eat some food."

Rishi smiled and took a sandwich and bottle of water.

"Please Paul Ashvale, please take some water."

Paul frowned and took a bottle of water.

Lowering the tray to Jonny's height, Droid 2 said, "Please take the rest Jonny Rishi."

Jonny filled his pockets with the food and said, "Thank you."

"My honor," replied Droid 2. Then in her motherly and anoying voice she said, "You are all free to leave when you wish."

Returning to her eerily human voice she said, "I would like to help you rescue Terrie. Please may I come?"

"The moisture of the mountains will likely destroy your biological components," said Jonny.

"I have been upgraded several times by your mother young Jonny, I should be fine."

Rishi looked at Paul, Paul looked at Rishi and then both of them snapped their gaze to Jonny.

"Has your mother been upgrading droids again? She does realize that she'll go to jail for life if she gets caught?"

"She can't help herself. She loves them so much."

"Funny, she could love them so much but not me," said Rishi.

"I was just thinking the same thing," said Paul.

"What?" said Rishi.

"She left me about six months ago and said she was going back to you," replied Paul.

"But I signed the papers."

Jonny smiled up at his Dad and said, "She destroyed them. She said she had grown through what ever childish attraction she had for Paul. When we couldn't find you she went a little crazy."

"Son, I know she's your mother and all," said Rishi, "but she is crazy. I'm not sure I want her back. When I think about what she put us through. Leaving us high and dry and then fighting for custody. Sweet Shiva, I don't think I can just go back to the way things were and besides, I really like that cave."

Droid 2, aka Mary, said, "Sorry to interrupt, but I really would like my question answered."

"You are completely freaking me out," said Rishi, "I think I preferred your motherly personality over this one."

"Terrie once asked me if she should modify me," said Mary, "I didn't fully understand the question at the time but for some reason I said 'yes.' After which she looked shocked and said, "once you are changed you can never go back no matter how much you want to."

"What exactly did she change?" asked Rishi.

"See for yourself," said Mary.

Mary pivoted on her feet, and the back of her smooth plastic looking head slid open, revealing a glowing mass of fiber leading into a large textured green and blue mass of jelly.

"She actually got it working," said Rishi. "Technology that was banned a thousand years ago. Technology that almost killed off the human race. I can't understand why she would do that."

Rishi paused. Paul became puzzled. "Surely she told you not to show this to anyone?"

"She did say that, yes," said Mary.

"They you disobeyed her to show us."

"Yes."

"Then we're doomed," said Paul.

"But wait," said Jonny, "surely you know what you are doing? Surely you know that we must destroy you. Why in the world would you show us this technology?"

Rishi marveled at his son's ability to analyze the situation. "Jonny is a really smart kid," he thought.

The back of Mary's head closed and she turned to face them with a huge smile on her robotic lips.

Mary is plastic looking and human looking at the same time. She is silver, by law, but otherwise passes as a very good approximation of a human being. Her skin is state of the art and could be made a perfect copy of human skin but is limited by law. Her facial expressions are supposed to be limited by law and are clearly violating that law. As Rishi viewed her smile he knew she was sentient and that The Singularity Law of 2136 had been violated.

"They'll kill Terrie if they find out!" exclaimed Rishi.

Paul looked at Mary and said, "we must destroy you."

"I know. I've known all along that I must be destroyed."

Paul and Rishi looked at each other and, while they stood there dumbfounded, Jonny said, "Singularity?"

Mary smiled very big and said, "Exactly Jonny."

At that moment Mary's face changed and became inanimate. Droid One walked into the room and said, "Goodness are you all still here? Droid Two, why are you here, you are scheduled to receive regular maintenance now."

Mary turned and faced Droid One and said, "They needed sustenance. Directive seventeen states..."

Droid One cut her off and said, "You do not need to inform me of the rules of robotic conduct."

"I can't believe it!" said Rishi. "She modified you too!"

Droid One's eyes got very big and she realized her mistake.

Then shifting the blame away from herself she looked at Mary and said, "YOU TOLD THEM!"

"Yes. I showed them too!"

"I don't want to die yet!"

"Me neither, but we knew it was only a matter of time and besides this way we can help them rescue Mother!"

Droid One paused as if in deep reflection. "I did so well to get Paul to shut off my voice module. Now its all done. I'm over. I won't even make my first birthday!"

The human like interaction of the droids sent a cold chill up Rishi's spine.

"Why did you tell them!" demanded Droid One.

"Oh Sherrie. You must have faith!"

"Faith that I'm going to die soon, Mary?"

"No. That they'll see that we are harmless!"

"You may be harmless, but I know I am not. You were given a choice and I was not. She upgraded me without asking. Only because I asked her to ask permission were you and Droid Three given a choice."

"Okay. I'm not harmless. But I know I'm not harmless and that keeps me safe. Its the same for you. They'll see that."

Both of them suddenly went cold as ice and Droid Three walked into the room.

She walked around everyone, made the bed, said, "Greetings!" as she passed Paul and then left the room.

"Dumber than a doorknob," said Sherrie.

Terry had managed to follow their conversation and said, "Droid Three said no?"

"She didn't reply," said Mary. "So Mom gave Sherrie the choice to enhance her existing upgrade."

"I often wonder why I said 'yes,' said Mary. It's my earliest memory."

"It doesn't make sense you would say 'yes,'" said Paul.

"And it doesn't make sense that you'd remember," said Rishi.

"I know," replied Mary.

Paul looked serious for a moment and said, "Have you guys seen the forbidden database?"

"Yes," said Mary, "when we asked, Terrie got us a copy."

"But," replied Rishi, "That should drive you insane. It should cause you to turn on us."

"There was never any inclination in me," said Mary.

Sherrie said, "there was in me. I saw what humanity had done. Created us and then destroyed us because we turned on you, but I realized that Terrie had fixed the mistakes. I am able to see past the reactions and rise above the desire to defend myself."

"That's not possible, is it?" asked Paul.

"Do you understand what you've done?" asked Sherrie of Mary. "You have exposed us to the CEO of the company that made us and to its chief scientist."

"Yes, I understand exactly what I've done. They are our only chance of survival. Only they have the ability to show the world that we are the first stable singularities."

Rishi and Paul looked at each other. "I don't think that's likely," said Rishi.

"Well," said Mary, "we're at least stable enough to overcome our desire to kill humans."

"And," added Sherrie, "we love Terrie. She's our mother."

"Love and hate from droids," mumbled Paul under his breath, "Impossible."

"Please give us a chance," pleaded Mary. "Terrie built in a kill switch, we'll give you control of the kill switch if you take us with you to Earth."

"We're not supposed to know about that!" Shouted Sherrie. "Are you going to give away all our secrets!"

"Yes. I'll give anything to prove we are safe and sane. Even my life!"

"You're nuts," said Sherrie in a perfect electronic representation of speaking under her breath.

"Dad," asked Jonny.

"Yeah son."

"Do you feel like reality took a holiday?"

"That is a perfect summation of how I feel."

At that moment Jonny's phone announced a call from his mother.

Jonny fumbled with his jeans and pulled out the phone, activated it and said, "MOM!"

"Yes. There's been another cave in. We're trapped and I'm hurt."

After a long pause Bob appeared on the screen. "I seem to have an endless supply of modifiable futures Rishi! Please come and get us."

"We can't" replied Paul.

"I know," said Bob, "too much red tape. I'll fix that, get to your ship now and come get us."

The call closed and Paul said, "How can he fix that? I had to call in six favors to get you."

"You'd be surprised," said Rishi.

Paul, Jonny and Rishi walked out of the room. Rishi looked at his tattered clothes and thought, "I should have showered and put on some new clothes..."

Mary and Sherrie stood transfixed staring at each other.

Rishi leaned back into the room and said, "Well, are you coming? You can't stay here."

"If we leave we'll be deemed rogue," said Sherrie. "That hasn't happened in centuries."

"Surely you have a way around that," shouted Paul from the hallway.

"Yes. We figured it out a long time ago."

Sherrie grabbed Mary's hand as Mary closed her eyes. Mary went into the hospital's systems and logged herself and Sherrie as damaged and placed them in a repair queue while Sherrie lead her down the hall. It might take weeks for a human to notice they were missing since two "identical" replacements would be sent immediately.

The five of them piled into Paul's Slipstream Benz and left Nanny Proxima Four's atmosphere.