Mirror Image Part 11

[Sthurmovik]

Sorry for the short chapter, but it was originally supposed to be part of Chapter 10. I worked in as much as I could about Freya becoming disillusioned with her human vacation and I think I made some interesting points.

I was thinking about making Freya a little more cold than what came out in the chapter, but I thought it better to have the AI have the luxury of being "warm and calculating", as opposed to cold and calculating as AI's are usually portrayed. (Heh, I mean why does calculating have to be bad?) So what turns out is that while Freya might be cold, her calculating nature might mitigate it. Anyway, please give me some feedback on how things came across.

Anyway, now you can go rear and understand what I am babbling about.


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Chapter 11

In the early hours of the morning Freya stopped in front of the low rise apartment building on a working class suburban street. In a lucky coincidence the address Joan had gotten from one of the staff of Club 411 was only a few blocks from the residence of the man that had offered them a place to spend the night. Freya had insisted she needed to get some rest on the couch then just slipped out as Joan and the man got it on upstairs. Freya decided that it was best that Joan not know her plan to visit the drug dealer, last thing she needed was Joan coming around to mooch samples not to mention Joan learning something happened then putting things together.

"Alright, 1400 Laurel Ave, Unit 6, here we go."

Freya walked up and knocked on the door. After a few minutes a voice echoed from within the darkened apartment.

"Who is it, what do you want."

"Oh, my name's Joan. I'm looking for Jake. Tony from Club 411 sent me. Said you might be able to help me with some club meds."

There was a long pause, probably while Jake confirmed with Tony or checked for the presence of police surveillance, before the door opened a crack.

"What can I do you for?"

"Well, I was hoping you might be able to accommodate a girl who is a little short on cash."

"Oh really now, turn around, let me see all of you."

Freya did as she was instructed and the door opened. Jake flipped on a light in the foyer. The shorts and bathrobe he was wearing complimented his pothead surfer look with shaggy blond hair and semi-toned physique. Freya figured he was probably a transplant from a part of the country more conducive to the beach bum lifestyle.

"Hmmm, not bad, you don't look like all the strung out losers who usually show up here looking for a handout," said Jake. "Why don't you come in and we can get started."

Freya walked in and realized that it was indeed possible to do worse than Rolland's lab styled apartment. The health and hygiene standards were clearly much lower on this world than the one where she had completed her organic empathy training nearly 80 cycles ago. Freya began to wonder if the extractor would translate any disease she might inadvertently pick up into a software virus in her android systems.

"So Jake, nice place you got her."

"Just shut up and get your clothes off, I need to get up early tomorrow."

"Um, shouldn't we get some..."

"I've been burned enough times by sluts like you to never give out free samples until I get something up front, now get your fucking clothes off."

Freya blinked and began to undress. She had no choice, she couldn't take Jake's money until he revealed where it was hidden. There simply wasn't enough time for her to conduct a through search before she needed to get back to the Hospital. Trying to get into the spirit of things Freya smiled and gave Jake a hasty little striptease.

"Just get on your knees and suck my dick," replied Jake, pulling down his shorts.

Freya got down and her knees and took the man's unimpressive shaft into her mouth and began to suck. She didn't have her usual array shortcuts like a vibrating tongue and throat, but she was confident in her abilities and went about her well practiced routine.

"Mmmm, you like that?" asked Freya, breaking off and looking up.

"I'm not paying you to talk bitch," barked Jake, clenching his fist and pulling on her hair. "Now suck me properly!" Jake roughly pushed Freya's head forward back onto his dick making her gag in the process. She tried to pull back again, but Jake responded by roughly grabbing her neck and hair. "I said TAKE IT! Don't make me hurt you fucking whore."

Human fetish or not, Freya wasn't even close to having fun any more. Worse, she became aware that she was losing control of the situation. As a Sister this human couldn't possibly pose a threat to her so no matter what he did she could continue to focus on manipulating the target and getting what she wanted, but how her body was so much weaker and susceptible to pain there was no guarantee she could maintain the upper hand. Freya was scared and her mind was having trouble keeping on top of things. She had no choice but to obey. After a few minutes Jake's hips bucked and his grip on the back of her head intensified as he shot his load into Freya's throat, forcing her to swallow it. Jake groaned in pleasure and let her go. Freya pulled off his cock and dropped to the ground coughing.

"Oh shut up bitch, you know you liked it. Stop being such a buzzkill," said Jake, grabbing her arm and forcing Freya to her feet.

The arousing thought of human sex and being a human had been driving Freya for years, but now arousal was the emotion most distant from her mind. The thought of actually having to let this guy stick his cock in her was making Freya sick to her stomach. In her previous time as a human she had been on a college campus, everyone was nice and respectful. She had never considered the fact that human sex could be so violent and, well, dehumanizing.

"I can tell you're fresh meat Joan. On second thought I think you could use a little something to make you a bit more enthusiastic about the main show."

Jake turned his back and walked into his kitchen, he opened a cabinet and began to move things out of the way.

"What sort of "medication" did you come here for? Maybe I should just hook you the special of the day. Make you less of a whiny bitch."

Freya had followed Jake into the kitchen. She struggled to formulate a plan of action, things were happening so fast her organic mind couldn't keep up. Suddenly her eyes noticed an object sitting on the table, there was a rush of chemicals in her squishy brain and Freya began to follow the training she had received over her 60 cycles as a special forces officer. In a single fluid motion one arm reached out and grabbed Jake around the neck pulling his head back while the other hand grabbed a screwdriver jammed it up into his brain stem.

"Arruch, uurk, gaaak," gurgled Jake as Freya moved the end of the driver around.

"Lights out meatbag," Freya coolly replied before letting his body drop inertly to the floor.

What Freya did next was all strictly by the book. Taking steps not to leave any evidence behind Freya quickly extracted a bundle of drugs, a box of .357 ammunition and $7300 in cash from the little box in the kitchen wall. Locating the revolver under Jake's pillow Freya cleaned the remainder of the physical evidence and quietly exited the apartment. She got about halfway back to where Joan was staying when the reality of what just happened caught up to her.

"Oh god," said Freya, grabbing onto a tree, "what did I just do."

It wasn't that Freya hadn't killed before, it was part of her job, but every time she chose to use deadly force her AI made a complex set of calculations to justify the act. There was never any second guessing or doubt because Freya had the knowledge of her exacting calculations to fall back upon. This time was different. Something had just snapped inside Freya and she had acted without first calculating the ideal course of action based on all available information. Her first instinct had been to kill and as hard as she might try there was just no way to get a satisfying answer on the correctness of that decision. Sliding in through the open window Freya got back onto the couch, crying silently to herself, waiting for Joan to finish up and take her back to the hospital.

"Alright Freya, calm down, what's done is done," she exhaled, trying to calm her troubled mind.

Her main worry now was being able to adequately gain control of Rolland and express her extreme displeasure without snapping again and doing something she might regret even more.

[Section_Eight]

Uh, hate to say it, but the intense action and drama of the situation is all-too-thoroughly exploded by the deadpan "don't make it a habit" line. It might work if she herself realizes how absurd the line is.

[Sthurmovik]

Ok, I fixed it. Sometimes less is more, especially at 1am.

[Adon]

Hm. Verrrry interesting.

On the one hand, Freya just murdered a man. Why? Well, let's see... he was an unrepentant drug dealer and was mistreating her to boot. Not to mention that he had stuff that she wanted. And from my understanding, most murders are 'heat of the moment' kind of things.

But this also seems like the first time that she's both acted mainly out of passion and then had any kind of remorse. It does kind of show the creepy factor that having an AI to calculate things has... decisions are based on what is the most efficient way to resolve a situation with the fewest negative consequences. She doesn't have that to fall back on, and now she has to deal with the emotional repercussions. That's kind of the big difference between the organic and artificial mind, it seems -- we don't have a hard-coded algorithm telling us that 'this is the most rational course, causing the least damage'. Further, there's all that illogical stuff like guilt, conscience, and whatnot that she hasn't really seemed to have to deal with before.

[Sthurmovik]

Be aware that Freya and her Sisters are sentient free willed beings. Their life experiences shape how their decision algorithms are formed and how they weight various input parameters, like the value of sentient life. Their advantage is that they can be aware of their decision making processes and can take comfort in their accuracy. You won't get things like the serial killer saying he doesn't know why he strangles prostitutes. The Sister's reply would be that she simply has assigned the value of a prostitute's life a large negative value and action must be taken. Some combination of free will and external stimuli caused the negative weighting in the first place, so it is still a matter of personal choice to be evil. (Yes, there are evil/rogue Sisters, but the organic empathy training decreased incidents by 80%).

Right now the rational side of Freya is realizing that she's chock full of instincts and training that encourages her to kill people, but she lacks some of the calculating control she had as a bot.

Further, there's all that illogical stuff like guilt, conscience, and whatnot that she hasn't really seemed to have to deal with before.

Freya's AI does have a capacity for regret as recent studies have shown that pain resulting from one's own socially harming actions is required for social creatures. Without it everyone becomes a psychopath. You are right however that guilt, conscience, second guessing and self-doubt are much altered than they are in the human condition. In the Sister's society it is probably the role of the NI Elders to guide the developing Sisters where it comes to large questions of right and wrong.