Binary, page 12
I heard a loud click behind me, the same noise my bedroom door had made only moments earlier. I jumped and spun again. My attention turned towards the robotics laboratory door.
Pope walked around the corridor and stopped in front of me. His body language was tense.
“Alexis?” he asked.
“Yes?” I asked in return.
“What are you doing out of your personal quarters?”
“Quarters?”
He motioned his head down the hall. “Your living area.”
“Someone was just in my room,” I answered.
“Who?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head, fidgeting in place. “I thought it was Bruce.”
“Bruce?” he asked. “The robot they’re working on? The Project?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “Bruce.”
Everything about the man screamed hostile, perhaps one of the reasons he was working there. They said he was the best person for the job: he never hesitated, never paused, never slowed down. He believed in the research they were doing, but he was cold and calculating. He thought like a computer.
We must have shared a good ten seconds of silence while he looked me over. I did everything within my power to analyze him as well, but only got a few things: on the surface he was cold and had no desire to change the fact, but down below... well... I was not sure.
“Follow me,” said Pope.
I followed him to the robotics laboratory. I did not care what anybody had told me about him. All my instincts said he was dangerous, though he had not proven it yet.
He stopped when we reached the laboratory door and looked in. “Your robot is still in its cage.”
His words were malice. I wanted to look, but Pope was not moving. It was obvious I was going to have to force my way past him. I squeezed my compact frame between him and the door to investigate the window myself. Warm, cold-laced breath on the back of my head...
“See,” said Pope. “As lifeless as always.”
He was half right. Bruce’s silhouette still rested in that unconventional chair in the middle of the robotics laboratory. That left Pope as my prime suspect for the intruder.
He placed his hand on my shoulder and firmly nudged me toward my room. I tightened my robe around my waist, but something caught my eye. Something from the robotics laboratory.
A wire, the one always plugged into Bruce when he was in that chair, was hanging freely at his side. It was moving as if nudged by a breeze. Either Bruce had entered my room while I slept, or somebody recently working on him had.
Maybe it was Dr. Schultz. I had to tell someone. Whether they would believe me was the question.
I reached my living quarters and punched in the entrance code to swipe my card, looking to my right as I opened it.
Pope was standing in the hallway again, glaring at me. “Just making sure you’re safe.”
I had neither need nor urge for communications with him. There was no love in his eyes, and it was not just with me. I was sure he had a soul in there somewhere, but I had reservations about its location. Perhaps Dr. Crane was right about him—he was best ignored.
15-3
Paranoia
The click of the door signaled it had secured, but I no longer trusted it. It had proved itself insufficient once. Then there was the fact everybody in the compound probably had the code to my room.
I looked around, grabbed a chair, and propped it under the door’s handle. A few minutes crept by as I sat there, listening to nothing. It was not until I made my way to the bedroom that I heard Pope’s footsteps walking away.
Maybe it was him?
I entered my personal living quarters and turned on the television, stacking my pillows as high as I could get them against the headboard to form a makeshift backrest. My nerves had not settled yet. So, I got up and took one last look at the chair propped against the door and set a glass on it for good measure, knowing I would hear it break if someone tried to come through the door was a nice mental tranquilizer.
There were going to be plenty of people to talk to about the incident tomorrow. I knew there were security cameras all over the building, and I was determined to watch the footage. I would not take ‘you were just dreaming,’ or ‘you’re paranoid’ for an answer.
I would not let it shake me. To stay sharp was the priority, because I had another session with Bruce scheduled the following day.
Chapter 16
An hour to kill
WHEN MORNING CAME, the chair was still against the door. A clock next to the bed said I was early. I felt rested. It was going to be a big day, and my spirit was ready to attack it with positive gumption.
Sleeping on something is often the best thing to do, which was the case that night. I would mention nothing regarding my nighttime visitor to anyone. I would wait until I spoke with Bruce and seen what they had done with him.
After wiping the sleep from the corners of my eyes, I stood from the bed, ready for the day to begin. I stretched and yawned. An unpleasant smell accompanied the foul taste in my mouth from eating so late the night before and not brushing my teeth straight away. It was yucky evidence taking care of your mouth before bed does more than make your teeth pretty.
I took my time in front of the bathroom mirror that morning. It was a pleasant experience after rushing, worrying, working on a solution to link the Heart Device, or waiting anxiously over the last few weeks. It was also going to be nice to examine the cybernetic man’s curiosity peaking when he saw me. My plan was to appear different from the last time. I was not sure if he would recognize me all dolled up. The possibilities were intriguing.
I brushed my teeth, flossed, styled my hair, and polished my nails to a serious shine before going back into the bedroom.
The closet held all I needed to create a new appearance for Bruce. I wanted to leave him as awestruck as he had me when I first saw him. Not because I felt a compulsion to impress him. It was more to study his reactions.
I had brought one formfitting outfit with me in case a special occasion arrived. Our next meeting was going to be that occasion, hence the makeup. We needed to learn whether the advanced A.I. system was sentient, but I also wanted to understand if it had developed its own complex system of attractions, likes, dislikes, and potential emotions.
Could he think on his own? Could he feel happiness, sadness, or love? Could he make complex life decisions? For all we knew, he could grow to feel various levels of sexual attraction, which I was planning on finding out, providing it safe to test such waters. Not that I was planning on sleeping with a machine.
Nobody at the compound knew my intentions. Nor did they know my reasons for wanting to explore such boundaries. Then again, they could not see what I saw in Bruce.
16-2
A missing star
I peeked into the corridor expecting it to be empty, but Doctors Landry, Crane, and Shultz were at the other end of it talking with Pope. Certainly, he was telling them I crept from my quarters the night before.
A sinking feeling set in when I saw Pope, leaving me to wish I had waited a few more minutes before coming out, but figured I would take advantage of the situation. My plan was to ease upon them slowly, quietly enough to gather a little of their banter before saying good morning, but the door slipped from my hands and clicked shut. Everyone turned to face me.
“Hi,” I said.
“Alexis,” said Dr. Landry. “Come on over.”
I made my way to the group and watched as Pope stared me down with a curious intensity before turning back to the conversation. It was weird. It must have been the makeup; and he was not part of the conversation. He was listening.
The closer I got, the quieter they talked. They were shifting the subject before I joined them. Part of me found it troubling, but I was sure they were going over safety protocol with Pope and a few faces in the group I had not met yet.
Pope took a few steps from the others when I grew close. He still saw me as a new fish in the pond and had not come to trust me. It was something I could not earn overnight, not from him.
“You’re up bright and early,” said Dr. Landry. “How are you feeling today?”
“Good,” I answered. “Slept like a rock.”
Pope cleared his throat.
Dr. Landry raised his brows at Pope. “Ah, yes.” He turned back to me.
I had either been the center of conversation before approaching the group, or I was about to be.
“Desmond tells me you had quite the scare last night,” said Dr. Landry.
“It was nothing,” I said. “Just had a bad dream and got a little spooked, is all.”
“Heard you ended up here in the hallway,” said Dr. Crane. “It must’ve been hard to fall back to sleep after getting up like that.”
“It wasn’t so bad, actually,” I answered, studying those around me. “I was already pretty exhausted.”
“He said you wanted to look at Bruce,” said Dr. Landry. “May I ask what for?”
“Okay.” I sighed. “Someone was in my room when I woke up last night.”
“Are you sure?” asked Dr. Landry.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I am. Whoever it was, they came towards me, but I fell off the bed when I jumped.”
“Were you dreaming?” asked Dr. Crane.
I shook my head. “When I got up, my door was closing on the other side of the room. I heard it click shut.”
Dr. Landry turned to Pope. “Did you see or hear anything unusual last night?”
“Nothing,” answered Pope.
“Have you checked the video feed yet?” continued Dr. Landry.
“The system went down for an hour to do its quarterly update last night,” answered Pope.
“That’s quite the coincidence,” said Dr. Landry. “Don’t you think?”
Dr. Schultz adjusted his feet. His lips parted and his head went back and forth between Dr. Landry and Pope as they talked, nervous that the security system was shut down.
“I don’t,” answered Pope. “It’s the same date, same time, and same length of shutdown for the same reasons it’s rebooted every quarter of every year from the moment Maria installed it.”
“Were the cameras still recording?” asked Dr. Landry.
Pope’s jaws cinched. “I’m not one hundred percent sure just yet.”
“Dr. Landry,” said Dr. Crane. “It’s time.”
“Right. Let’s move forward, shall we?” Dr. Landry turned back to Pope as he left. “Double-check that video feed as soon as you can.”
He got a slow nod from Pope, and we split ways, him in one direction and us in another. We rounded a corner and stopped at the general meeting room. It was one of the few rooms on the floor I had yet to be in.
The group moved in, but Dr. Landry stopped me shy of entering. “We have to discuss some pretty pressing matters involving the future of The Project.”
“So...” I paused. “For now, I’ll just...”
“Whatever you want,” answered Dr. Landry. “You still have about an hour before your meeting with Bruce.”
“Should I hang out in my personal quarters?” I asked.
“Do whatever you’d like,” answered Dr. Landry.
His smile was big and proud. He was authentically happy to have me on board. And, despite recent events, it filled me with pride. The only concern I had was for the unknown, and there was a lot of it surrounding The Project. Everything about the compound was a slippery slope.
“Alexis,” called Dr. Landry.
“Yeah?” I turned.
“We’re missing something,” he said, “and we can’t seem to find it.”
“Missing?” I asked. “Missing what?”
Dr. Landry held up his fingers as if to pinch something. “It resembles a small, star-shaped disc about the size of a quarter. Have you seen anything fitting that description lying around?”
I shook my head. “I haven’t.”
“No worries,” said Dr. Landry. “I’m sure it’ll pop up.”
His forced smile and calmness told me he was lying. He was clearly concerned about it. It must have been important.
I turned back towards my quarters, believing I was not part of the group at the compound yet. I was ‘in’ with them, and that was it. I was not part of them. The cliques I saw while studying at The Institute popped into my head.
There was a price to be paid for such a thing, but I was always the head of my class. I never took the time to make any real friends, so I did not have any. Nor did I take time away from my studies. I had never had a boyfriend. Awkward at big gatherings is how I would have described myself, and, worst of all, I had never kissed a boy.
Who had not kissed a boy at twenty-four? Or a girl? Or at least held hands with one?
There was one good thing that came from it. I could sit down with an enigma of unknown circuitry and be as happy as anyone else in the world.
I sighed. “I’m seriously doing some socializing once I’m done with this phase of my life.”
16-3
Nerd’s paradise
There was a single aspect of everything that captivated me more than anything else. I was in the same building as a self-progressing auto-atomic life-form running off thorium the rest of the world was still talking about developing someday. Th—atomic number 90, of all things to choose from.
The doctors had harvested its power and inserted it into a machine that might grasp the unknown concepts of the world and take them farther than we could hope to do alone. The possibility existed because both Bruce and the Heart Device were otherworldly. Anything was possible once they linked them.
It would sound boring to most. For me, it was splendor. I was in a nerd’s paradise and not looking back.
I walked into my bedroom, set my alarm for 50 minutes, and got ready for the meeting the best way I could. I ate, put on the halo, and surfed the digital spheres in my office.
All at once, I was nervous, excited, happy, and terrified. Maybe it was all the additional information I was trying to take in. Things I had recently thought impossible in the current state of technological development were suddenly in my lap.
I was smart enough to analyze everything, but I had worked my mind into a turbocharged state. It was wide open since my arrival. I was learning and solving things fast, like figuring out how to install the Heart Device when no one else could over the years. In a few more weeks, I would have a better grip on what was going on than Dr. Landry himself did.
The doctor’s meeting would be over soon. Then they would either call or come get me. After that, I could have my next scheduled meeting with Bruce on time.
Chapter 17
Sideways
I MADE MY WAY into the Social Room and patiently awaited Bruce’s arrival. Dr. Landry would most likely be escorting him with a few other doctors. It had been the norm so far.
My fingertips stroked the tabletop in thought about Dr. Schultz’s comment regarding Bruce being nothing more than wires and hardware. Then the table dipped beneath my fingertips. I stopped to examine the inconsistency. A shallow dent came into view.
I squinted in skepticism. “That’s impossible.”
The indentation was four inches in diameter. A thumbprint at one end. It could not be. I moved my hand to the underside of the table to feel. My fingers dipped into more indentations. I dropped to look.
It had been running through my mind as a possibility since the dream, but it was now a fact. Bruce left his handprint in the stainless-steel table. I could no longer deny the severity of danger.
I thought about our first session, rubbing my once bruised forearm as physical reassurance it would not happen again. It must have occurred when Bruce grabbed me with one hand and the table with the other as I tried to pull away. He could have crushed the marrow from my bones.
The sound of the exterior corridor’s entryway opening startled me. I settled into my seat on the other side of the table, hoping the doctors would catch the handprint when they entered.
The subtle buzz of the overhead U.V. lighting system reverberated quietly. Fog would soon pump into the room. My attention deepened.
The decontamination fogging system clicked off and the interior seal broke loose, releasing its purifying contents into the room. The door opened slowly. Someone was stepping through the fog, but I could not make them out.
It would be a few seconds before he came into view. I had no choice other than waiting. My fingers tapped until in anxiousness, but it was a subtle disappointment when it happened, for I had never seen the man standing before me.
I cleared my throat and rounded the table to meet him, wondering why there were so many people I had not met on The Project yet. He was beautiful, like an Adonis from a movie I had yet to see. Part of me was happy to have some eye candy in the otherwise stagnant compound.
I held out my hand. Was he going to be the type to shake a lady’s hand the way he did a man’s or the type to cup it like an old-fashioned European gentleman?
“Hi,” I said. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced yet. My name’s—”
“Alexis,” he interrupted. “I know.”
“I’m sorry.” I snickered. “I think I’m at a disadvantage here.”
The mirror caught his attention, and he moved towards it, looking himself over, rubbing his hands across his cheeks and lips. It clicked as he turned to me with an overwhelmed expression on his face... and those baby blue eyes locked onto me.
“Bruce?” I asked in astonishment.
Everything about him was vibrant. His skin was perfect, indistinguishable from the real thing. A minute outstripping definition passed.
“Do I look like you?” asked Bruce.
“Your voice...” I paused.
“Is it not, right?” asked Bruce.
