“Alexei Volkovich and Rita Friedmann were undeniably the greatest minds of their era. Their profound understanding of artificial intelligence and groundbreaking innovations in modeling the human brain led to humanity's most revolutionary creation: a synthoid. A being capable of advanced thought, a being on the brink of sentience.
Without their genius, we would never have touched the divine right of Creation.”
— First-page introduction in the book “Principles of Synthoid Software Engineering”.
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When a synthoid receives grave injuries, there are two ways of how they can respond. Humans have something similar as well. That is the fight or flight response.
Either a synth fights if there is immediate danger nearby, or they go into the emergency mode. The latter option can go two ways. If a synth has a handler registered, then they are notified, and usually they’re in the area or can immediately help. If not, then the body tries to self-repair.
When that happens, the synthoid in question tries to reserve as much energy as they can and calculate the most optimal course of action. Meaning that for the onlookers, a synth’s body in a self-repair mode might look like a corpse. A limp carcass that weighs much more than it should’ve.
And that is a one of the prime commands that every synthoids receives upon programming, therefore overriding that with administrative command is impossible.
It’s the same as any involuntary response humans have.
For synthoids it looks like this; our senses go quiet as the energy gathers at most injured parts of our bodies. Then, when the repair is almost over or done, they gradually come back as neutronium energy penetrates the body's molecules and fuels the right parts again.
Such a state, depending on the scale of injuries, can last for up to a day. If there are materials nearby that allow for the repair in question or have been provided from people around the synthoid in such a state, then the repair would undoubtedly go faster.
For me, as the control of my body slowly creeped back through the synthetic molecules that built me, I checked that the emergency mode lasted a whole hour.
Not the longest I’ve been under, but it wasn’t an insignificant amount of time either.
As I felt a neutronium hum reach my hearing implants, a conversation was happening somewhere near me. I was yet to open my eyes.
“Should we do anything else? I mean, you’re the resident synth expert.” A voice that I recognized to be Tony’s spoke with a strained tone.
“I told you already. It’s going to be okay. See how she’s almost healed? I’d be surprised if she doesn’t wake up in a couple of minutes at most.” Gabriel responded in a much calmer manner. That wasn’t surprising, though, as he was probably well aware about synthoid’s recovery process. Even when he didn’t know about how to treat some more minor injuries, like the ones he sustained not so long ago.
“It’s just… She looks like a corpse, y’know?” Did Tony just whisper? Did he think I would be able to hear him? Well, I did, but I thought he considered me still unresponsive. What a strange man.
Before Gabriel was able to say anything in response, I decided that I had enough energy gathered to open up my eyes. I could still feel that tingling sensation from neutronium coming back to my tissues, but I knew I would be able to move well enough if I tried.
“Hello.” I greeted the two men as I lifted my torso from what appeared to be the bed in Gabriel’s apartment.
“Jesus Christ!” A high-pitched scream came forth from Tony’s mouth. From the corner of my eye, I was able to see him jump slightly as his hands covered his chest. A standard response when startled.
“Hey!” Gabriel greeted me in return as he came closer to the bed. It seemed like the two men were having a conversation in the threshold to the bedroom. “How are you feeling?” He asked me as his eyes traveled to my chest and abdomen.
I noticed that I was wearing Gabriel’s shirt. The one that I borrowed a couple of days ago. It was a nice azure color with a picture of a badger holding a knife. I wasn’t sure what the symbology behind such an image was, but I found it to be objectively cute.
Other than that shirt, I had my trousers on and no shoes.
Seemed like my clothes got slightly destroyed in the incident that led to this situation. I could tell by the faint smell of something burned.
I ran a quick diagnostic. Nothing bad was showing in the results. The only note the program had was for me to take it easy for the next couple of days as my newly built synthskin, along with recreated artiflesh and synthfiber had to harden. When fresh it was still a bit fragile.
“I’m fine.” I answered Gabriel’s query as I got up from the bed. “What happened?” I knew that I covered Tony’s data drive with my body. It was about to explode after all. And apparently it did, considering all the evidence gathered.
“I was going to ask you that.” Tony exhaled. I noticed the clear signs of stress on his face. The red eyes and sunken features made him look older than the biological age indicated.
“Maybe we could talk about it in the living room, huh? Come on, Tony. I’ll make you some tea.” Gabriel offered as he led us out of the bedroom.
Tony and I sat at a small table that was in the middle of the open space of the living room. In the corner of that space was the kitchen nook and that’s where Gabriel was making Tony his tea. I supported such action as hot beverages were clinically studied to be the most calming drink for a human.
“I should start by saying what happened from my perspective.” I started and waited for Tony to look at me. “As I was uploading the data to your drive, I noted a small amount of smoke was coming from the device in question. When I detected that the temperatures were rapidly rising, I decided to intervene. Considering how close you stood and the potential of an explosion, I chose the best course of action that would result in minimal injuries.”
The question now was why that happened. Was the drive faulty in some way?
“I-I see. Thank you. For, y’know, protecting me, I guess.” Tony responded. It looked to me as if this whole situation exhausted him.
“Maybe we could talk about it after you rest? You look drained.” I proposed.
Tony looked at me and shook his head. “No. It’s fine. I’ll be alright.”
“Then if you feel up to it, would you tell me why you think that happened? The drive that exploded looked to be of well-built quality. Was it the upload speed that overloaded the device’s internal hardware?”
“That’s what’s been bothering me! I’ve built that drive myself, it shouldn’t have done that. Any good programmer would put a failsafe if the bandwidth was going to be too much, and I did! There is no reason why that should’ve happened.”
Gabriel came from behind Tony with a steaming mug in one hand. With the other, he grabbed the black-haired man’s shoulder.
“Then it’s not your fault. Something else must’ve caused it.” Gabriel reassured him and sat down on the empty chair between me and Tony.
“Well, beats me!” The receptionist - although I think he also did other things for the Contractors - put his hands around the mug.
“Have you looked at the upload log? There should be some data as to the speed and what type of files were being transferred.” Gabriel suggested as he leaned his elbow on the table and supported his head with his hand.
“I didn’t have an opportunity to do that yet. With you–” He choked as he quickly nodded towards me.
I realized that the memory of that incident was probably distressing for Tony. I would think that as an associate of the Contractors he’d seen worse things. Rin, for example, didn't even blink when she found out I killed people on the contract we did. Now that I thought about it, she mentioned nothing about using non-lethal or lethal force when we were planning.
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Was she an anomaly among the Contractors or a rule regarding such an attitude?
“I can bring you your datapad. I think it’d be better for you to figure out what went wrong now instead of obsessing over it. Give me a minute.” The blond man stood up, and before Tony protested, stepped out of the apartment.
It was Tony and me now.
“My injuries weren’t substantial. The explosion was small but focused. That’s why I went into an emergency mode. It happened not because the harm was extensive, but to be careful is all.” I said to reassure the man.
I found that seeing people being uncomfortable and stressed did not sit right with me. My core’s energy seemed to fluctuate in an arrhythmic manner when I looked at Tony’s expression. Was this empathy?
“I realize that. Gabriel said the same thing. It’s just–” A pause and swallow. “If you were a human, you could’ve died, and it would’ve been to protect me of all people. For all I know, it could’ve been my fault that the drive was faulty.”
I considered what to do in this situation. Maybe I should simply show him that I was fine.
I raised the hem of the shirt I was wearing and gestured to the newly reconstructed synthskin.
“Look. I’m fine.” I said as Tony laid his eyes on me. He blushed and covered his face.
Well, embarrassment was better than a choking guilt.
“I- I see. Y- you can cover yourself.” He stammered out.
I did and noticed that Tony’s expression was a bit lighter. Although some redness appeared on his cheeks. Probably because of the awkwardness of the silence that followed. I assessed that he would be fine. It’s not like it happened a couple of days ago. The man had to watch me for an hour as I laid down unresponsive. I suppose any human would feel slightly troubled by such a visual.
After a couple of minutes, Gabriel returned with Tony’s datapad in hand.
He gave it to the other man, and he started tapping on it frantically. He must’ve really wanted to find the answer.
“Anything?” The blond man prompted. Tony didn’t seem to hear him and the more I looked at him, the more I wondered if it was a good idea to let him look at the logs.
His eyebrows kept jumping up and down his forehead and his eyes widened with every swipe of his finger on the screen.
Then he started muttering to himself, “N-no, that can’t be right…” And some things with a similar sentiment.
He kept at it until Gabriel decided that apparently that was enough and tapped the other man urgently on the shoulder.
“What did you find, Tony?” Gabriel prompted as his eyes started to flicker from the datapad to me. It seemed to me as if he were confused, considering what FERS told me.
“I need to take a minute.” He stood up and started pacing around the living space. I looked at Gabriel to perhaps ask if this behavior was normal for Tony, but when his light-colored eyes met mine, I was quite certain that he did not have an answer to that question.
“Alright, this is ridiculous.” After a couple of rounds around the table, Tony finally decided to speak. “Tell me, when exactly did you start downloading those files?” He looked at me pointedly, and I decided that based on his reaction, it would probably be for the best if I spoke the truth.
“It happened sometime after the test you gave me ended. The Volkovich-Friedmann one.”
“Anything else? Was there any, and I mean any information in your logs regarding this?” He asked me strongly.
“Nothing explicit. The whole process was well ciphered and wanted to remain undetected. I terminated it when I noticed it, but the incident report did not specify the administrator who started it or the completion status.” I answered him the best I could.
“Okay. So, this doesn’t make any sense. Look,” He showed me what the datapad was displaying. I looked at all the numbers with great focus. “Do you see what I mean? The files you uploaded me overrode my admin rights that I put into the drive and started to download the rest of the data. That could only happen if there was a hacker, and there was absolutely not by the way, or if the data was intelligent.” He put quite an emphasis on the last part of that sentence.
“Wait, Tony. What are you saying? How can data be intelligent?” Gabriel asked with an incredulous pitch. I had to agree. There was no instance where that was possible. Well, outside synthoid’s body that is. If I were to upload a part of my behavioral programming into a drive, for example, without administrative rights it wouldn’t do anything. It shouldn’t do anything.
“It can be. Definitely. At least in principle…” Tony sighed out as he sat back down at the table. “Listen guys, I’m quite a webizen and I can tell you that there are things on the web that you wouldn’t believe are real. Uploading a human conscience is one of those things. At least a little bit that is.”
He tapped the datapad some more and showed Gabriel and me a single line of code.
“This right here is the proof that the data is one such experiment. That order of characters represents the theoretical principle behind the Volkovich-Friedmann test. Meaning, this is proof that the data is intelligent.” Tony passionately explained.
I knew what the V-F test’s results could be, and I knew in general how it worked, but what I didn’t understand was Tony’s argument.
“Explain in easier terms, Tony.” Gabriel asked the other man with exasperation and I nodded in agreement.
The black-haired man looked between us with wide eyes and mouth agape and exclaimed loudly, “Aren’t you guys synths?! Shouldn’t you know?”
At which, both Gabriel and I shook our heads' no.
“I mean I could quickly look the answer on the web–” I started to say.
“I’ll explain then! Jesus!” He sighed with frustration. His earlier despair was no longer present. “The V-F principle is basically something that a machine which works only on binary cannot generate, at least that's the theory.” He took a deep breath.
“Volkovich and Friedmann, the Divine Mother and Father of software engineering, were so paranoid that the only copy of the test runs from an old server somewhere in Siberia that you cannot copy or peek into, no matter how much you try. And I tried. The only way to access it outside official channels is to run through a web address after web address and– Ah… Sorry. I got a bit too overzealous here.” Tony awkwardly laughed and rubbed his shoulder.
“Anyway… When a synth can generate that principle with the right prompts, then they are sentient is the speculation. But that is just a theory! There are many others out there. You guys should really read up on it. Christ!”
“So, what you’re saying is true? That data is a person?” Gabriel’s tone could not sound more unbelieving.
“A part of a person, yes. Which also makes this data incredibly illegal. The GUF banned experiments on digitizing human consciousness years ago, and they are pretty strict on it.”
“What would you advise me to do then? I cannot seem to delete those files.” If what Tony was saying was true, which I checked to be actually factual, then I was a test away from being detained by the GUF. Though, realistically, SSUs were not inspected by official facilities unless they worked for a corporation, which I no longer did.
“If they are doing nothing to you then I think you should just ignore them. What happened to my drive was probably due to an easier way of evading my admin rights. With you, it might be impossible to do. Considering that you were able to terminate the process.” Tony advised as he kept tapping on the datapad. The files and their nature must’ve been fascinating to him as FERS told me he was curious and enthusiastic.
“Then I shall do so.”
“Wait.” Gabriel said. “Isn’t this weird the way you guys are treating it? Rend, you said that the download just started from basically nowhere. Are you sure you weren’t hacked? Tony, are you certain that the HQ’s network was secure? This is all very strange.” Gabriel was looking back and forth between us with questioning eyes.
I considered his question.
“I wasn’t hacked. The full diagnostics report and my own internal investigation showed no sign of anything like this to have happened. As to the way I am treating it, there is no point in acting as if this is an immediate threat to myself. Although it is very fascinating, there is nothing else I can do to find out more.”
“I could suggest that maybe Tony could look into it in his spare time, as you do seem very knowledgeable on the subject of such illegal data.” I proposed.
“Oh. Me? Sure, I’d be down. I’ll have to put some multi-catch firewalls and encode around our bandwidth, as well as…” Then Tony’s explanation turned into incoherent mumbling. I suppose that’s how passion looked like. Strange to anyone else.
Looking back at memories of Jack, I experienced a similar feeling sometimes around him. He loved to fly and gushed about vintage aircraft like there was no tomorrow when it struck him fancy. Back then, I was made to understand that this was just one of many quirks humans could have; this strange attachment to things. Now though, I could understand a bit more as I was finding that I did enjoy a few things as well, based on the pleasant drumming my core liked to greet me with whenever I saw a beautiful gun, a well-muscled body or was able to converse with someone like Cece and Gabriel.
“We should just leave him to it, I guess.” The blond man sighed out and got up. “Anyway, your contract’s tomorrow, right?” Gabriel asked me.
“Yes.” With that reminder, I considered the state of my wardrobe. The shirt I got from Arthur was probably destroyed, and I had nothing else to wear. I wondered in what state my coat was in.
“Now that you’ve mentioned it, I wanted to ask you if I could borrow a shirt. I’m taking it that mine was destroyed in the explosion.” I asked my flatmate.
Gabriel went to the kitchen to, I think, clean Tony’s mug and turned lightly at my question.
“Sure. It’s no problem, but at some point I think you should go buy some things.”
I nodded, “I agree. That was my plan after I receive payment for this job.”
“Wait. It’s a bodyguard job, right? Then I think I can lend you something more fitting than a loose shirt. Your coat is good by the way. It’s really durable.”
“Then I would appreciate it.” I also got up from the chair. Tony was still sitting and doing something on his datapad.
When I came closer to Gabriel, he grinned at me and said, “First impression is important, y’know? That’s why I’m going to dress you to impress.” He winked at me and went back to washing the mug.
A small sparkle of energy flared inside me. Gabriel’s charm was truly powerful.