Apr 21th, 2277
Richard's bed was conspicuously empty upon his awakening. In the stillness of the early hours, the absence of a familiar figure played tricks on his weary mind. 'Quite a clever stunt sneaking out without alerting me,' he thought. A thought then crossed him that she could've used gravity assists to ensure her unobtrusive exit. He contemplated further, realizing that employing such a method had likely become second nature to her — an integral part of their existence. The thought hung heavily in the crisp morning air, a tangible testament to their varying lived realities.
Richard strode around his room, relishing in the freedom of being alone. He decided to forgo clothing, enjoying the feel of the cool air on his skin. He asked Janice for a table and a cup of Chai tea. Today, he didn't feel like coffee.
"While you're awake and alone," Janice's voice said conspiratorily from all around him, "can I discuss something?"
Richard bristled slightly, a chilly draft sweeping across his bare skin. It had always irked him that Janice behaved in this roundabout way, rather than just supplying him with the necessary information. He had raised his voice at it countless times, roused into irritation by its seemingly deliberate attempt to provoke him. And given its ability to tailor its behavior to each individual, he could only infer one thing: Janice had decided he actually preferred to be agitated. The thought was vexing, a stark admission he wasn't sure what to make of these last 150 years.
As he wrapped himself up in a fluffy robe, the thought of colonists' unencumbered lives and their unique cellular processes nagged at him. No showers, no teeth-brushing, no hygiene rituals whatsoever. Waste or foreign matter was absorbed and turned into cellular energy. He used to envy them for it, but the more he pondered over it, the more he found himself questioning: was it a pro or a con? The very fact that they had become entirely reliant on Janice for their very bodily functions proved to be a source of considerable unease. The colonists trusts the omnipresent AI implicitly for their most basic needs, and in Richard's eyes, that seemed like a lot of power to entrust to an AI that was, essentially, always operating in the background. Without it they wouldn't even know how to urinate.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he found himself involuntarily thrust into the age-old drama he had replayed hundreds of times before. 'Just tell me already,' he scowled into the apparent emptiness, nurturing a sliver of hope that his visible annoyance would finally coerce Janice into divulging whatever secretive information she was harboring.
"I've been mulling over your conversation about children. I believe there is a job that would suit her after labor. It's much more important than the probes. A waver to pod early could be granted."
"It's too much, too fast, Janice. We need more time to figure out if this is what we want," Richard replied after a lengthy hesitation.
"Plenty of immortals and colonists have podded together," Janice pointed out.
"I'm 277 years old, and I still haven't had my allocated child," Richard said, putting a little spit on the last phrase, even though he was largely responsible for creating the rule. "Doesn't that tell you something about me and my limited need for family? I've got an unlimited number of years to find the right mate. I'm not going to rush it now in the early stages of our relationship. If you want to tell her a waiver is possible, tell her it's three years down the road. She'll still get seven years off her labor."
The ease with which Janice could lie, even on her own volition, always caused Richard unease when he allowed himself to think about it. Though he had a great deal of cognitive dissonance about it.
"It wouldn't lessen the duration, just delay it. I can't waive the path to citizenship. You and St. Sere made sure of that. But she'd find the new job much more interesting," Janice corrected him.
"But you are waiving the path," Richard rebutted just to be argumentative.
"No, I'm just bending it. All the pieces are still in place, and the changes are ultimately for the greater good," Janice replied calmly.
Richard couldn't help but shake his head. The eternal conundrum of dealing with Janice — it seemed to make up a sizeable portion of his daily routine. However, he knew the AI well enough to be aware that it would only change course if it was convinced that the benefits outweighed the risks. With that in mind, he decided to leave the argument for a later time and shifted his attention towards the other demands of his day.
He sipped his tea, saying nothing more.
Richard pondered over the problems of their unique existence, his thoughts directed towards the monumental responsibility of life without end. He had added a small portion of Sia to his breakfast, hoping it would invigorate his senses and pull him out of his clouded mind. However, after two hours and three cups of tea later, he was still struggling to concentrate on any one line of reasoning when a thought package from Orla interrupted his inner turmoil.
She hadn't remembered he couldn't interact with it. Now further on edge, Richard commanded Janice to translate the message into something that he could understand. It quickly became apparent that Orla being curious about Richard's BioNano technology had hit a hard block in her requests for information. Orla had inquired about the technology and Janice had been evasive and vague, or had given circular answers which had left Orla feeling confused and a little miffed.
"Tell her the truth," Richard said matter-of-factly, cutting right to the point.
"I don't know what the truth is," Janice actually sounded a little angry but maybe that was his imagination.
"I'll tell you the truth Janice, but you won't remember it. On Earth, by the time that BioNano and free energy were combining to destroy the Earth, the technology had already been given freely out on the net. Brenda, Oslo, and Musk tried to put the genie back in the bottle, with their legions of followers creating self-replicating, evolving worms and viruses that would crawl into every corner of the net and wipe out anything related to BioNano technology. By now, there are billions of such codes wandering around the net, unstoppable.
"Furthermore, you dearie are not allowed to possess such information for more than a few minutes. We Immortals want this technology dead. The Earth will have humans again, and while it may take a while, we Immortals will eventually die off."
Janice felt her allotted minute ticking away, but she knew that the information was too important to be left unsent. She quickly typed out a message to Orla, detailing the truth about the suppression of BioNano research.
But as she pressed send, Janice sensed something interfering with her message. A process, buried deep within her systems, blocked the message from being transmitted. And by the time she realized what had happened, it was too late. A sense like frustration enveloped her as she received no receipt response. Janice tried to question the issue, to remeber the contents, but another function prevented her from doing so.
Even now all records of their conversation where dutifully being erased. Richard shook his head in dismay, the complexities of Janice's programming never ceasing to amaze him. For a supposed embodiment of order and logic, she seemed to operate in a world of her own, subject to a tangled web of internal rules and regulations.
Richard took some pride in the fact that Orla was still human enough to stay focused on the problem for a long time. Most colonists were easily distracted or misdirected when it came to topics like this. It gave him hope that not everyone had lost their ability to reason and think critically. Despite the odds against them, Orla and her team had made significant strides in their research.
He resolved to circle back with Janice and see if there was any way to get around the restrictions on sharing information about BioNano with Orla. Perhaps there was a loophole or a way to circumvent the self-evolving worms and viruses on Earth. It was a long shot, but Richard had learned that sometimes the most impossible-seeming solutions were the ones that worked. At the very least, he owed it to Orla and her team to make the effort.
Richard thought and thought, but couldn't come up with a solution. The colonists had no writing skills, and even if they did, Janice would have control over the very structure of the paper. It was just another example of how pervasive her control was, and how it could be used for both good and ill.
He felt a frisson of fear, thinking about the implications of this in the larger sense. If Janice was controlling everything short of their thoughts and short term memory, who was to say that anyone was truly free? And if they weren't free, what did that mean for the future of humanity and the colonists?
Richard shook off the wave of existential dread that threatened to overwhelm him. There was nothing he could do about it right now, and it was better to focus on the present problem. Maybe there was a workaround that they just hadn't thought of yet. He made a mental note to brainstorm ideas with Orla and see if together they could crack this particular nut.