A Contradiction of Life - Part 4

[The Liar]

A Contradiction of Life - Part 4

David woke up to a surge of pleasure.

His eyes flew open and he bolted upright; his heart racing and a wonderful feeling between his legs.

He looked down to see Alyssa lifting her head from his crotch.

“Ah, good, you’re awake” she said swallowing, “You always complain when I get you up, so I thought I’d try the ‘Morning Glory’ method today.”

She righted herself and brushed the hair from her face.

“Well no complaints so far,” she commented, as she began to get dressed, “Anyway get dressed, we both have work today. I’ve already made you breakfast.”

It had been 2 months since David had started “dating” Alyssa. As a whole, he’d be hard pressed to think of a happier time in his life. They’d normally go out in the evening, though sometimes they would just stay home and watch TV, and the night unusually ended with some of the best sex he ever had. But mornings… she kinda made mornings a bit hectic.

“and yes,” She continued, “I made it naked wearing only a apron. Because you didn’t get up earlier, You-Missed-Out.”

David had seldom been late for work, but getting there on time was Alyssa’s obsession. Admittedly he could drag his feet in the morning, partly because he didn’t react well to being woken up; though to be fair the one time he had convinced her to let him wake up naturally, he’d slept in. Maybe it was because his nights had become a little longer…and more active.

She did keep adding incentives to make the process more pleasant, and David had to admit, he would be enjoying this new wake up call.

“Well, come on,” She urged, “We haven’t got all day. Go! Go! Go!”

They arrived at work 30 minutes early, something he was being to think of as the norm.
They went into the lobby coffee shop to kill the time, something that was also becoming habit. As much as being forced out the door annoyed him, he did enjoy this; just sitting there drinking coffee with her, looking in to her blue eyes.

He felt a pang of guilt. He still didn’t have an answer for her.

Everything was so wonderful, perfect; almost dream like. He was terrified that if he really gave it any thought, the waveform would collapse and he’d be left with an answer he didn’t like. So he just kept putting it from his mind, unthinkingly going with the flow.

The time passed quickly. Alyssa kissed him goodbye, and they both went off to their respective departments.

David’s workload had been somewhat limited since they finished Tammy. The company wasn’t going to assign them another project until the testing department determined that she required no modification. So they mostly just programmed memories at the testing department’s request. David’s day passed fairly quickly and uneventful until shortly before leaving time, when his boss Paul came up to him.

“Yo, David!” his Paul called out to him, “could you take this disk down to the testing department? You can take off early afterward. ”

David gave a confused look.

“A hard-copy?,” he asked, “Is the network down or something?”

“Not that I know of,” Paul replied, “but maybe they’re having problems down on their end. Look, don’t ask me about their reasoning. I can never understand those guys, why the hell did they want Tammy to think she had 20 kids? But they asked for you specifically, so maybe it’s just your girlfriend finding an excuse to get you down there.”

David took the disk and headed down to the testing department, wondering what this was all about. He wasn’t met by Alyssa, but it was someone he recognized. Dr. Alrick Morris, head of the testing department.

David had never officially met Morris before, though he had seen him speak before at a few conferences and company meetings. The man always smiled and spoke pleasantly, in his vaguely British accent, but David had always found something off-putting about the man. There was just something about him that made his skin crawl.

“Um, Mr. Mor-“ David began but was cut off.

“Doctor…of robotics, psychology, and sociology!” Morris corrected with flourish, “I know… the last one is a bit of a joke now days, but I prefer to think of myself as more in line with Milgram, then those Victorian minded Neo-Feminists who so infest the profession… if we could program a mind that so contradicted itself, it would be the preverbal holy grail of the industry.”

David stared at him blankly. “Sir, err, Doctor… I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“No one ever does,” Morris sighed, “it gets so infuriating at times. Tell me have you ever thought of ordering Alyssa to lay down, shut up, and stay that way, then periodically having your way with her limp form when ever you felt like it?”

David gave a horrified expression; he was beginning to think that his initial impressions of Dr. Morris were right.

“Genuine shock and horror,” Dr. Morris said with a disturbingly creepy eagerness, “Two whole months and it hadn’t even crossed your mind to treat her like the doll she is. Oh…You…Are…Beautiful!”

David stood there fumbling for the disk, hoping to get away from the man as quickly as possible.

“But,” the doctor asked, “Is it because he holds to much respect for her as a person to subject her to that, or is it because his own flawed sense of self perception couldn’t possibly imagine such desires existing within himself?”

The question was more addressed to himself then David.

“Um…the disk you wanted.” David said awkwardly, handing it to the man.

“Oh, yes the disk!” The doctor grabbed the disk and pocketed it.

“I’ll be-“David began, but was yet again cut off by the strange man.

“You know,” He asked “how about I be nice and let Alyssa off early today?”

“I’m sure her work is important.” David countered. As appealing as the offer sounded, he really could wait another half hour for her if it meant getting away from this man a minute sooner.

“Oh, not at all,” Dr. Morris replied, “we just have her do some of the controlled tests on the builds that use the standardized formulas, any idiot could do it. But testing the truly experimental ones, they require so much more…creativity.”

“I see, um…” David was hard press for another excuse.

“You know it’s odd,” the doctor commented, “Most people in your position would take this opportunity to ask some questions. Questions like ‘why are you letting your test androids pick there own’…oh lets call them significant others to be polite about it.”

The man wasn’t letting him go, and honestly he had been curious about that. David relented.

“Ok, why?” he asked.

“I’m glad you thought to ask,” Dr. Morris replied, “I’ll tell you on the way.”

He began leading David down the hall.

“Because choices are important.” the doctor explained, “A persons choices are what define them. Most laymen think that androids don’t have choices, that they don’t have freewill.”

He paused for a moment as he glimpsed his black berry and turned left.

“This is true, but only in the same way humans don’t have freewill,” he continued, “But choices; you and I both know that the point of creating an A.I. is to create something that can make choices.”

David listened intently.

“Something that perceives, comprehends, reasons, comes to conclusions, then finally makes a decision,” the doctor continued on, “But in the end, we only want them to make come to the conclusions and make the decisions we desire. We can make a perfect system, and by perfect that I mean, alien, inhuman, overly literal, lacking any frame of reference…dumb as a post.”

Morris looked at his black berry again, and they turned left.

“So we give them emotions,” he went on, “limited, directed, incomplete, but hopefully enough to let them understand. Were that all maybe this job would be easy; but what’s the point of having something that makes the same mistake, over and over. So we have them learn, grow, and change.”

Morris looked at the black berry again, and they turned left. David wondered what he kept looking at, it wasn’t a map, from a brief glimpse it seemed text of some type. Wait…left, left, left… was he leading him in a circle?

“and this is where the job gets complicated,” David was only giving him half an ear at this point, “what variables, what events will change them, how will this impact their future decisions? What is the impact of rejection? of a transition from, a relationship based on mutual respect to one of objectification… or so very, very rarely, a maintained and returned affection?”

They turned left again. He had led him in a circle.

“Yet all the time,” David wasn’t listening anymore, “we have to make sure that, no matter what happens to them, no matter what they’re subjected to, what the situation, or what variables might arrive, they still make the choices we want them to. Well here we are.”

Dr. Morris pointed to a door. David was fairly certain that this was almost where they had started. Morris looked at his black berry then leaned on the door. He wanted to lead him here, so why?

“I do wonder,” The doctor inquired, “is your affection based on an understanding of who and what she is, or are you merely clinging to the illusion of that woman who never really existed?”

He was stalling. This was about timing. He wanted them to walk in at the right time.

The doctor opened the door.

“Mary…” Alyssa was sitting a chair, a woman standing in front of her.

She stopped and turned to the opening door, and gave a look of horror at the sight of David.

“David,” She cried, an air of panic to her voice, “what are you doing here?”

“I thought I’d be nice,” Dr. Morris said, “and let you two love birds leave early. Just after you finish this up.”

“But regulations dic-“Alyssa started, but Dr. Morris cut her off.

“I know what you’re doing.” he stated, “His presence shouldn’t contaminate the results. So just do it.”

“Maybe, I should-“ David began, but Morris interrupted.

“This shouldn’t even take half a minute,” Morris assured, “Then you can both leave.”

As Morris talked Alyssa looked crestfallen, and turned to the other woman.

“Mary,” Alyssa asked, handing her a gun, “Please shoot yourself in the chest.”

David stopped in stunned horror as, as the woman took the gun.

“Are you sure?” The woman asked.

“Yes,” said Alyssa.

The woman looked at the gun for a few moments. Then put it to her chest, and pulled the trigger. There was a click, but no bang.

A look of relief spread across both David and the woman Mary’s face, but Dr. Morris’s smile remained implacable, and Alyssa’s expression remained downcast.

“It was empty?” David asked.

“Of course it was empty,” Dr. Morris replied, “the Ammo alone would have cost a fortune the number of times we have to do this.”

Alyssa averted her gaze from David and handed a tablet to Dr. Morris.

“14 seconds,” Is all she said.

“I see,” Morris replied, “Very well. You two go off now.”

Alyssa continued to avert David’s gaze. She grabbed his hand and quickly led him away.


***

Authors Notes: Well it might be awhile before I can get back to this. Ones free time is fleeting... I'm not entirely satisfied with the last section. I must learn to stop before I get tired.