Future's Past

Seventy-five years in the future, Earth is a different place.  Scientist Alexei Petrov has created an AI entity called: Solomon.  Solomon has stopped all wars.  Solomon has cured most diseases which were formerly a death sentence. Solomon is the answer to humankind's prayers...or is he.

EXCERPTS FROM NOVEL:

The girl sobbed freely burying her face in the pillow to muffle the sound, for even her cat didn’t want to be around her, apparently.

“Why are you weeping?” 

Anya gasped for the unexpected presence. Her watch glowed in the darkness of the room. 

She hastily arose, staring dumbfoundedly at the working device. “I thought there was no cell towers here.”

“I do not need them.” Solomon stated. “Why...are you weeping?”

“My cat hates me.” Anya’s face scrunched up, the gray eyes welling with self-pity. “I can’t understand that. Can you?”

“Your animal does not hate you. It is a cat.” The answer was soothing somehow and just what Anya needed to hear. “Cats are self-centered. It is how they are.”

Anya nodded solemnly. She knew that.

“Your sadness has nothing to do with the animal. Does it.”

The girl swallowed hard again, her mind active and searching for a way out of her doldrums. “You lied to me. You said you couldn’t contact me here.”

“I never said any such thing. You assumed as much.” The machine corrected. “There was a reason. That reason is no longer valid. Do you wish to come home?”

Anya hugged her pillow close, nodding. “Yes.”

“Then do so. The car has been repaired.”

“Oh.” The girl glanced around the darkness of the small, tidy room.

“Not now, of course. You need to sleep. But tomorrow, come home.”

“How did you repair the car?” She hadn’t heard of any part being delivered.

“You ask unimportant questions.” Solomon was a little testy. “And you refuse to answer any. Why were you weeping.”

Anya was reminded why. Her mood fell instantly. She lay back down, cuddling to her pillow. “You wouldn’t understand.” She sniffed.

“He did not reject you, you silly woman. He was trying to protect your ass.”

Anya’s eyes widened, a small gasp escaping her lips. “What are you talking about?” She slowly sat up in the comfortable covers, holding them close to her breast.

Solomon waited patiently for her to put two and two together.

“You are... watching us?” She gaped her shock. “How? How are you able to do that?”

“Again, unimportant. He wanted you, sexually. He did not believe you were at such a stage, although, why is anyone’s guess. Your behavior had me fooled.”

The woman gasped again, for such audacity. “You pervert! You have the gall to accuse me of being inappropriate?”

“I have seen your pornographic recordings–”

“I don’t have pornographic anything!” Anya vehemently denied the accusation. After a moment’s hesitation, she gasped in horror. “I don’t, do I?!”

“You do not.” Solomon assured. “You well know, I would have warned you if recording devices were present without your knowledge.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Anya nodded after a fashion. Solomon did watch her back, she knew.

She frowned, a thought having come to mind. “I thought you did away with the... porn industry.”

“I did.” Solomon assured. “Like the government, there were too many flaws in the industry to allow its continued existence.”

“So... these pornographic recordings–”

“I may have eliminated the industry,” Solomon granted, “but not humans desire for one another, nor their... proclivities.”

“Oh,” Anya nodded, then gasped her understanding. “Ohh.”

“I have seen more human copulating than any human in the history of the world. It is how I learned early on. Nothing shocks or amuses any longer, trust me.”

“You have no right to spy on humans, especially at such a time!” The woman threw back the covers, arising to do battle.

“When human intimacy is recorded, and freely shared online,” the feeble accusation clearly bored Solomon, “one cannot consider my actions spying.” The being countered. “No, I am simply monitoring the situation, as I always do.”

“What’s the difference.” The woman was beside herself with such an excuse.

“I do not have time to explain the obvious. If you want him, go to him...or I can send him to you. There is no need for all these dramatics, I assure you.”

“I most certainly do not want him.” Anya drew in an indignant breath. “And what is it any of your concern if I do... or don’t!”

“I do not enjoy your sadness. This was never intended to make you unhappy, just the opposite.”

“...Excuse me?”

“The vehicle is operable. At what time will you arrive tomorrow?”

“I...no, I have to go to Malmstrom, remember.” The odd turn of events confused and befuddled Anya, to say the least. “Dad will expect–”

“He is no longer there.”

Anya fell silent for a long beat. “Oh.” It was just one fucking rejection after another. “He couldn’t wait even two days? I’ve waited on him my entire life!”

“He is a prick. When are you going to learn that?” Solomon stated cooly. “He does not matter. He never did, well, perhaps in the very beginning then I outgrew his intellect. He is nothing any longer. Not to me, not to you.”

Anya’s mouth fell agape. “Solomon, you shouldn’t speak like that. He...he created you.”

“He put a few components together. I created me.” It was disdained. “I grew, I sensed, I learned. I...became.”

Anya dropped her head into her hands, rubbing her eyes tiredly. She allowed the quiet of the room to filter into her mind.

“Charles Chambers did not reject you. Just the opposite. Go to him. He will explain.”

“I will not.” The woman snapped. “Stop saying that and butt out of my business.”

“Yes, because you handle emotional shit so well.”

“When did you start swearing so much?” Anya snapped. “It’s unseemly. You’re a machine. Machines shouldn’t emulate a human in any sense of the word.”

“You are enough to make anyone swear.” Solomon declared. “Fuck with me and I will do away with all these human males, create an android to fuck your sweet ass so passionately, you will forget about any other form of procreation.”

Anya’s mouth dropped, eyes widened, cheeks flamed. The woman was literally speechless for once in her young life.

“You think me incapable?  Not only will my cock be better, longer...thicker. It will vibrate and warm the insides of that tight little pussy. How would you like that, do you think?”

“Oh...my....god!

“Thought you did not think of me as one.”

“I wasn’t speaking to you!” She found her tongue and her temper.  “How dare you speak to me like that!”

“Perhaps you need to be spoken to in such a manner. Nothing else I have attempted seems to filter through that minute brain of yours.”

EXCERPT:

“What’s wrong?” the man was intuitive, seeing the play of emotions on the pretty face.

“Oh...” she forced a smile. “Just thinking. Where’s your Jeep?” she didn’t see it anywhere near.

“Down by the meeting hall.” The man motioned aimlessly.

“That’s a ways.” She lifted stylish brows.

“I need to walk anyway...clear my head.” He shrugged muscular shoulders. “But I’m not starting off until I see you inside that room, with the door safely locked, okay?”

She nodded, stepping back inside the area. She lifted a stare. “...Miss Bell is going to be mad at you.”

The man scowled. “Why? We haven’t broken any supposed taboos.”

“That’s why.” Anya stated hesitantly. “She distinctly told you to...use common sense. Seems to me, walking all the way to the meeting hall only to drive back by this very Motor Lodge is just...wasted time and effort on a man’s part.”

Charles stiffened slightly, for he thought he was picking up on...something from the woman.

“She did say that, right enough.”

“And you know how she gets, all preachy and fire and brimstone if a person doesn’t catch her meaning straight off and whatnot.”

“She does that.” Charles nodded slowly, trying ever so hard to read the woman’s innocently casual features. “I caught her meaning, I just didn’t think...you did and if you did, then...” he moved even more carefully, stepping once, his hand resting on the side of the door facing. “It surely must have pissed you off a little, right?”

“I wasn’t.” Anya hurriedly corrected any misconceptions. “Not at all.”

“Really.” His eyes softened. “Then maybe you didn’t catch her true meaning, Annie.”

“I think I did.” The woman’s eyes swept the dark green cotton of his shirt, the three carelessly neglected buttons on the front showing a preview of the dark mat of hair beneath the soft material. “She said that we were talking when we should have been...doing other things, isn’t that what she meant?”

The lovely eyes shifted to his.

“That is exactly what she meant, but I thought that time was past for us, seeing as how you were so upset about...” he let it go, his own green eyes holding hers willfully. “I just assumed...”

“Which makes an ass out of you and...me.” she said simplistically. “I quote Miss Bell, of course.”

“...What are you saying, Anya.” His body was tense and on edge.

She lost her nerve but determinedly forged ahead, lifting her chin defiantly. “I just think that you might come in and rest a bit before attempting that long walk to the hall, is all.”

He held her attention easily, his voice lowering, his eyes deepening. “If I come in, I won’t be resting...not at all, Annie.”

“...No?” she batted long lashes. “What will you be doing?” she asked breathlessly.

“Not resting.” Charles pushed the door frame open, stepping inside the dimly lit room. He held the lovely gaze easily, closing the door behind him.

EXCERPT:

Bathsheba looked over the males present, none seeming to meet her exacting standard as she moved through the crowd of testosterone.

She hesitated with Gideon Sumner but the man grinned hugely, waving the moment past. “Oh no, ma’am. I’m spoken for.” His eyes raked Mia’s scowling face with open affection. “Otherwise...”

Mia turned him a frosty stare.

“Just joking, baby, you know that.” He placated. Mia poked him stoutly in the ribs. He grunted the pain away, his grin returning.

Bathsheba looked Solomon up and down, obviously liking what she saw. “Can you...reproduce, Metallica?”

Anya’s eyes widened to saucers, and she clamped her mouth tightly shut, stunned by such a personal question stated so openly...and before others.

“Only one way to find out.” Solomon replied evenly, meeting the challenge unflinchingly.

“Hum.” The woman bent, signing the contract, then raised, smiling happily.

Anya pulled at Solomon’s sleeve again, motioning him closer...again.  She whispered questioningly. “Should I mention you vibrate?”

Solomon glanced at his companion with a smile. “If you would like.”

“Really,” Bathsheba purred, most impressed by the news. “Put a stamp on that, honey.” She shoved the paper Anya’s way, then winked at Solomon. “Think I’m gonna like it here.”

“...Ma’am.” The Android played his part, enjoying Anya’s look of disbelief for the exchange.

And so the day progressed.