Jeremiah entered the chamber where Delta had been born.
“Delta’s empathy receptors are malfunctioning. I think we should take her offline until we address the problems,” Ash said.
“What are the risks of taking her offline?” Jeremiah asked.
“Although most of her neural network is backed up to the core database inside of Leviathan, there is a small possibility of data loss.”
“What is the status of her neural net?”
“Her learning capacity has a problem because the empathy receptors are malfunctioning, but it shouldn’t cause any significant performance loss.
She speaks of my granddaughter as if she is a machine, Jeremiah thought bitterly. She will learn respect. They will all learn.
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“We need to be careful. I don’t want to proceed if April is in danger,” Jeremiah said.
“Delta is not in any real danger. We just need to perform a tune-up,” Ash said.
Ash opened an access panel on the back of Delta’s neck and took some measurements. After a few more adjustments, Delta’s eyes opened. She tried to turn her head, but couldn’t. Restraints were in place. Her lips trembled.
“Grandfather? I’m scared!” Delta said.
She sounds just like April. Jeremiah felt his eyes water over. What’s wrong with me?
“Need to make more adjustments,” Ash said.
She took some tool and started working, as Delta continued to plead.
“Grandfather, she’s hurting me!”
Jeremiah watched Ash as she worked. Jeremiah could see tears running down Delta’s face.
She is in pain. Why am I letting her suffer?
“Is she in pain?” Jeremiah asked.
Ash paused before answering. “Not in the traditional sense. The pain she thinks she feels are mental memories that she has. The operation was a success. All neural pathways are active and working. I think she is functioning fine—”
“She seems to experience pain!” Jeremiah insisted.
“Pain is just electrical signals in our brains telling us that something is wrong. She is in pain, but she is not human anymore. She is beyond that now. She is Delta.”
What have I done? Jeremiah thought.