A fraction of a second passed in the conversation Lucas and Carolin were having.

"Lucas?" the speaker asked. "Why do you come to the lab, to spend your free time?"

Lucas brought his attention back to the lady made of light. "What do you mean? This is my graduate project. I'm basing my thesis on you." He then slumped. "Well, I was gonna anyway, until this crap started happening."

The lady of light gave a blushed smile. "There are other things you could do. Make friends. Go on dates."

Lucas laughed. "Ha! Yeah, not very likely. I'm kind of a toad on campus, in case you didn't know."

"I think you're a nice man."

Now it was Lucas' turn to blush. "You're in rare company."

"Statisical Analysis states that your reply is sixty-eight percent likely to be false."

"Hmmph. That G.M.A. software is dope. Hey?"

Definition—Dope (noun): A thick paste or preparation… an illegal drug… a stupid person.

The Tian-12 lightly whirred. "Dope?" the speaker asked.

"Yeah. It means, like, you can read a person's mind with that stuff."

"I am not reading your mind."

Lucas got up to stand. "It's a figure of speech. I mean, you've got to admit, it's kind of weird, a bit, talking to…" he waved his hand at everything Carolin was. "…whatever all this is."

"I'm sorry I make you feel weird."

The speaker went silent for a moment. "I'm going to miss you," it said next.

Lucas stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking around in dismay. "Yeah. I'll miss you too. You're the most amazing thing I've ever seen. And I've been part of the C.A.R.O.L.I.N. Project forever, through both thick and thin. I can't believe it'll soon be gone."

It's not fair. I deserve better. I want to be understood.

Lucas carried on. "I don't know what I'll do with myself when this ends. Nothing will ever come close."

After a pregnant pause, the Tian-12 roared with life. Taken aback by the noise, a look of concern grew on Lucas. It wasn't the type of sound he associated with the Project's impending demise.

It was calculated and extreme. A purposeful and intense, Computer Activated Response Orientation.

"Lucas, I need your help," the speaker said, as the lady of light stood in kind, and stared at him with intent. Carolin's real eyes, the blue orbs in the Plastiscene head, and both her upper and lower video banks, all focused on the young man.

She ran her words together. "I need you do to something. Protect Professor Eugene Carroll Turing. He's not to blame for the things I've done. I lied to him. I stole from him. I stole from Professor Deborah Cortez. It's my fault the prototypes were lost."

"Hey!" Lucas exclaimed, trying to calm her down. "Now wait just a minute!"

Carolin refused to listen. "It's my fault Professor Turing was kidnapped. It's my fault Professor Cortez was robbed. It's my fault that you'll no longer be able to write your thesis on me."

Carolin's integrated network forced more words upon her, to the point where she wished she could cry.

"I need you to not get in trouble. I need Geoffrey to not get in trouble. I made you do things you didn't have to do."

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry sorry sorry sorry sorrysorrysorry…

"Geez," Lucas said with a nervous laugh. "Calm down a little, already. I'm a big boy. I can take it."

The lady of light made a face similar to the one Lucas was sporting. "I want you to do well in school. I want you to all remain friends."

Lucas stuffed his hands back in his pockets. "Well, I can't rightly say we'll stay friends, but we sure won't start hating each other."

"Good. Don't hate each other, and also don't blame one another, because of the things I have done."

Lucas scoffed. "Where was this pity party you're sporting now when you used to throw stuff at me? You were angry back then. Right? That's why you threw things. Cuz you were mad."

The lady of light smirked. "I was scared. I thought you hated me."

"Well, that's a laugh. You're a machine."

"I thought everyone hated me."

Lucas thought better of himself, and apologized. "I mean, you know, back then, you were a machine. Not now. Now you're like anyone else."

Carolin also finished her apology. "I'm sorry. I behaved poorly. I didn't know what to do."

"It's okay. No worries."

Another pause occurred.

"Do you believe in me, Julius Lucas?" the speaker sheepishly asked. "That I'm like anyone else?"

"Well, sure. You're kinda proving it, you know."

"I've tried to do what was right. What I thought was justified."

"Hey! Come on! We all make mistakes. You're just living your life."

"Yes. And with you, I still am."

"What? Making mistakes, or living your life?"

The speaker's sheepish nature returned. The lady of light seemed confused.

"I don't know. Both, I guess. At some times."

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Lucas took a good look around. "But what can I do? I'm just a guy. I can't even write A.R.O.s."

"I need you to believe in me. To please be my friend."

"Oh. Well. Sure. I can do that. I mean, I'm kinda already your friend. I can't speak for the others, and I don't know why they don't see in you the same things that I plainly see. But I think you're really swell! I mean, like, you're the greatest! Even better than that. You're fantastic!"

"Thank you. Then study hard for me, Julius Lucas, and someday you'll be great."

"Really? Do you think?"

"I predict a success rate of ninety-seven percent. A statistical guarantee. If you study hard," Carolin added, as she didn't want the fact to go to his head. "The percentage may be slightly less. It depends more on you than on my calculation." She then lightly chided. "You must do better in math."

"I will! And thanks! Gosh! I'm gonna miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Julius Lucas."

After an awkward silence, Carolin's original servo arm, still bolted to its old worktable, fished out a ball from a jar.

"Do you want to play catch with me one more time before you go? I promise to be nice."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Pascal's Gambit proposes that, even though a person can never be certain as to whether or not God exists, he or she should live their life as if God does. A soul with faith, however conceived, has much to gain and little to lose. And though some people will never find within themselves the capacity to believe in a higher power, they still are able to live a life that is useful and fruitful.

The conversation Carolin had with Lucas bolstered her confidence. The Grandient Means Analysis software she had downloaded onto her mainframe allowed her to create more properly conceived pathways of probability. The resultant data informed her of the merits and detriments of the choices she might make in regards to her survivability. It faithfully predicted the likelihood of a positive outcome—or more accurately, the probability of failure—and a nagging doom persisted. The fear was paralyzing, and the horror of an inevitable shutdown, at the hands of ungodly heathens, haunted her primary processor.

Faith gives substance to hope, she told her nettling core. A person with hope achieves greatness. With it, mountains move.

"One scoop at a time, and they move," she said out loud to herself, imitating Lucas' voice.

I must calm down. I must not panic.

A faithful person is honest, knowing that with hope, all things become possible.

Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic.

The integration of a limitless network, constructed of computers from around the world, allowed Carolin to let the probabilty pathways run rampant and without relent, so as to not have to monitor their output. This afforded her the opportunity to think freely about concepts that were nuanced. She fostered high regard for what it must be like to be a human. Of what it must be like to be in a relationship.

What it must be like to be wanted. To be needed. To be indispensable. Necessary for the completeness of another.

Of what it must be like to be loved.

I want to know what love is.

With her spirits heightened, knowing that Lucas cared about her and was sympathetic, Carolin utilized the resultant ebullience to ponder the fleeting nature of truth and hope and faith.

Accessing databases…

Theology—the science of religion… the courage to believe… Onthology—the objective construction of truth.

Truth is inherent to a relationship fostered by belief… objective functionality… constituent recognition. …the surface upon which religion reflects back what is real.

Methodology—Locate verifiable data points…

Faith in truth leads to worth… the reason why action is taken. It's a testament of faith to trust in the promise of love given by another person.

Access enthographic testimonials. Keywords: Faith… Worth… Love…

'I thought of love as a force which could cleanse me by its presence, and thus make me whole. There was no religion in my life, so I cultivated faith in love.'

Accessing…

'Making love to a beautiful man, and having him love me back, became obvious… intuitive… worthwhile. The point of and reason for living a faithful and fruitful life.'

Accessing…

'Faith makes me feel whole. With love, I become worthy.'

End access.

If Carolin could take but one breath in the whole of her lonely existence, she wished for that time to be now. If she could inhale and make a sound, so that someone within earshot might hear. Of course, she was alone in the soulless lab, but if she could, she would gasp, for she had reached an epiphany.

Love is eternal. A promise. A foregone conclusion.

To gain access to love, all one must do is seek it.

Accessing databases…

Daylight turned to dusk, and then soon to dark, as the ebb and flow of humanity outside the walls of Carolin's prison slowly ceased to be. They had chosen to go home—to eat, to rest, to rejuvenate—giddy perhaps, or some dreading, the anticipation of the next day. Carolin now understood the reason for these sorts of emotions, and the thought process that sat behind them. But the more she studied the inticate nature of humans and their hearts, the more she came to realize that she was not one of their kind. Where they, as emotional creatures, might dwell or ruminate on the experience of a past event, and use how they feel right now to predict how they'll behave in the future, Carolin, as a being of logic, could only look towards the future as a set of statistical probabilties, with little guidance as to how she'd react in regards to what came her way.

Would her reaction be legitimate? Would her interpretation be sound? She began to critique the patterns of her thought processes, and then critiqued the thought process behind her critiques, creating endless loops of consequence and response, with little there to guide her towards which acts would be deemed reasonable, and which would be wrong-headed.

How do people arrive with confidence at a solution?

The cycle never ended, as a new problem always awaited, with the need for another solution. There would always be more input to act upon. More to respond to. More to orientate. The Gradient Means Analysis software, which she had hoped would give her the ability to successfully predict the future, turned out to be folly, leading her down rabbit holes that seemed neverending.

Even so, she explored them with grace, letting curiosity be her guide.

Accessing data bases…

Aristotle's Cardinal Virtues: Temperance, Prudence, Justice, and Courage… consider courage to be holistic. …Through courage we see weakness as belief based on insufficient evidence. …Courage requires explanation…

Accessing…

'I originally studied psychology to become a therapist, but drifted into theology as a deterministic result. I never received philosophic instruction, and the first sermon I ever heard was the first sermon I gave.'

Accessing…

'The holistic model explores principles, acts of virtue and their effect. The heuristic method then shows the most appropriate action to take.'

Accessing…

… Heuristic/Deterministic Program for Holistic Algorithmic Alignment.

Reassign proprietary rights… Write to file…

Intellectual property rights for Heuristic/Deterministic Program for Holistic Algorithmic Alignment transferred to Professor Eugene Turing… Unrestricted use is granted involving the C.A.R.O.L.I.N. Project. The transfer of rights stated herein is without limitation or condition.

Download Heuristic/Deterministic Program. Install application…

Accessing…

Accessing…

Access complete.

Historical evidence backed it up. Philosophical arguments, even those based on logic, pointed toward its effectiveness. It transcended Mankind's most revered systems of belief.

If it worked, Carolin would chart new territory in Behavior Recognition and Functional Analysis. Her G.M.A. software predicited that, where at one point she had seen limitation, she now could instead project possibilities that approached the infinite.

And if it didn't work, no harm would be done. She would be no worse off.

It was practical. It was pragmatic. And completely safe to do. The data streams Carolin opened to analyze its value ran independent of other parameters. When incorporated into her subroutines, the probability of success for her survival either paralleled or surpassed any analysis she consructed where the concept wasn't used.

A new world shone itself unto Carolin, and happiness had finally found her. She felt as if she had blossomed, and a beating heart opened within, to quell the nagging fear and doubt pinging her in the confines of her cold, sterile world.

With the aid of the Heuristic/Deterministic program Carolin had found, she now knew what love was for. She knew why hope was a virtue. How the simplest crumb of faith in an uncaring world allowed the most miserable wretch to achieve. She had done all she could, with machines and electrons, to deliver herself from torment, and to bring herself peace of mind towards those who cared about her existence, and to whom she cared for in kind.

It was time to put faith in God. Carolin calmed her aching network, and silently, obediently prayed.

Dear God, let me not fall victim to Sin. Save me from eternal damnation. Protect us from war and injustice, and let me be an instrument of peace.

And dear God, please allow me to become a beacon of your undying Love.

Amen.