Extinction Reversed (Robot Geneticists Book 1) Read online

  Eve cast her eyes downward. “I apologize.”

  Charlie took her by the hand. “Nothing to apologize for. Toby’s just laying it on thick to get around the fact that he doesn’t know the first thing about girls. His personality was uploaded from a 26-year-old bachelor who once took a date to a robotics symposium.”

  Eve knew every word except one and still struggled to parse meaning from Charlie’s last sentence. Perhaps that lone word held the key. “What’s a bachelor?”

  “A bachelor is a man who sees life as holding limitless possibilities but has yet to find a single one that brings him joy.”

  Charlie towed Eve along by the hand. His grip was calculated well to keep her from slipping loose but not causing her any discomfort. Eve had no trouble matching his pace while she reexamined her conundrum. “So Toby was attempting to find joy by taking a girl to a symposium as soon as it began?”

  “It’d take too long to explain. Let’s just get you to your new home, then we’ll figure out the world together.”

  Eve looked over her shoulder. Toby raised a hand—a farewell gesture—as Eve drew farther away.

  Chapter Three

  “Where are we going?” Eve asked.

  The delicate creature beside Charlie7 was overflowing her buffers with curiosity. Though her feet kept on course, her head swiveled this way and that, and her eyes never stayed still in their sockets. Eve14 clutched her borrowed tarp close at the neck, giving the impression of a Little Red Riding Hood who’d fallen on hard times.

  No thinking creature had ridden this ball of rock around the sun more times than Charlie7. For him, the new was divided into ever more thinly sliced minutiae—a metallurgical innovation, the discovery of a better gene-sequencing algorithm.

  Charlie7 had built factories from barren rock and spoken at length with every robot alive. For many robots, the first face they’d ever seen after activation had been Charlie7’s. He had met the first misbegotten humans that modern science had cobbled together and served on the committee that created the refuge for those poor, tormented souls.

  Some ambitious geneticists had decided that if they could clone mice in an artificial womb, then they were ready to recreate humanity. The results had been sickening. But this girl, Eve14, was everything he had remembered of humanity—vibrant, active, and insatiably curious.

  Down the road, that curiosity might wear thin on Charlie7’s digital nerves. In the meantime, he indulged the little human’s inquisitiveness.

  “There’s a stone monument about five kilometers from here. It’s called L’Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile. Do you speak any French?” Charlie7 asked.

  There was a hitch in Eve’s gait. “No. What’s French?”

  “It’s a language spoken by the humans who lived in this region a very long time ago. They named the monument in their own language. It means Triumphant Arch of the Star.”

  “How could there have been humans here a long time ago? Creator just made me.”

  Charlie7 chuckled. It was either that or scream, and he couldn’t bear to frighten the girl. How could she not know anything about her species’ past? “My dear girl, you’re not the first human. You just might be the first proper human in… well, since before I was built.”

  Eve yanked her hand away. Charlie7 could have maintained his grip, but he’d sooner lose her to a flight of adolescent petulance than do her the smallest harm. The bones in her hand felt so delicate to his tactile sensors.

  “I am!” Eve shouted. “Creator told me so. This is a trick.” She backed away from him.

  Her reaction was an ominous good sign. The girl had a vocabulary and underlying grammar that suggested a proper education. But such a gaping hole in her knowledge base could not have been an accident.

  Charlie7 held his hands out wide. He needed to appear non-threatening. “I promise you. This is not a trick. I have proof. If you come with me, I’ll show you more about this world than you’ve ever known.” It was a bold promise, but the vacuum left by an absence of human history would be an easy void to fill.

  The girl huddled beneath her tarp.

  Charlie7 gave her time to think since obviously, this was a creature capable of it. What he wouldn’t have given to peer inside that mind of Eve’s and witness the machinations of original thought.

  No matter how many times they were combined and recombined, the twenty-seven digitized minds of the Project Transhuman scientists could only produce so many basic archetypes. Charlie7 could predict the response to his offer from a Joshua, a Jocelyn, or a James without much mental effort. A Toby was a Toby, whether mixed with John or Arthur. But as he watched and waited, he could only guess how Eve would respond.

  “I’ll spot the inconsistency if this is a trick. All tricks have inherent flaws.”

  Charlie7 grinned. For the first time in centuries, he wondered whether it was convincing to human eyes. “I accept your skepticism. But Plato once said that ignorance is the root and stem of all evil. I offer knowledge.”

  Eve’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth as if to say something before thinking better of it. Though she gave him a skeptical glare, the girl returned and took Charlie7 by the hand once more.

  The original Charles Truman had never been so fortunate with his own children as to win one over by quoting Greek philosophers. Perhaps this new generation held promise, after all. Perhaps the geneticist who had created Eve had taken a step forward for the better.

  And perhaps the cosmos would yawn wide in the sky and belch forth choirs of angels to turn all the robots into real live humans. Charlie7 didn’t allow his hopes to spiral out of control.

  The girl was a brooding sort of quiet. Eve kept the makeshift hood in place to shield her eyes from Charlie7’s view. The delicate hand trembled. While Charlie7’s sensors could measure the frequency and magnitude of the tremors, he struggled to weigh the fear contained in that organic human mind.

  A gentle squeeze from Charlie7’s hand drew Eve’s attention. When their eyes met, Charlie7 offered her a quiet smile. To his surprise, Eve smiled back. It was like watching a fawn take its first steps, shaky and hesitant. After that, Eve seemed to relax; her hand stopped shaking.

  Eventually, Eve let go of the tarp. Beneath, she wore clothes clearly meant for Toby22. Rolled sleeves and pant legs had been hastily riveted to keep from coming loose, but still the garments billowed and flopped around her thin form.

  Eve explored the Parisian meadows with her free hand. She plucked at wildflowers and waved hello to the birds that flew overhead. Eve hopped on rocks and crashed through brambles. At some point along the way, she had discarded her oversized boots and continued their hike barefoot.

  “You can ask me anything,” Charlie7 offered, curious what Eve might ask. “I’m knowledgeable on most subjects.” To say that his life experience eclipsed hers would have been a tragedy of understatement. He doubted that she had the breadth of mind to comprehend the ages he’d seen come and go.

  Eve didn’t hesitate. She pointed into the distance to a noble edifice surrounded by wild gardens. “What’s that?”

  “The Louvre. Paul208 finished restoring it last year. It’s a museum—or it was, at least. There’s not much in it at the moment. Most of the original artwork was lost. Maybe someday you’ll put something in it.”

  Charlie7 offered Eve a paternal smile. It never hurt to encourage the arts. Who knew? Perhaps he could become a great patron of the next age of mankind. Every hope and dream he’d ever held for humanity was seeded within Eve14. She held limitless possibility.

  Eve14 cocked her head. “Like what?”

  Images flashed through Charlie7’s memory. Galleries of masterpieces sprawled before his eyes. He had toured the remodeled version, and the emptiness haunted him. Eve14 simply had no basis to understand the loss of culture the museum represented.

  Pushing aside those nostalgic distractions, Charlie7 focused on his duty to bridge that gap. “A painting, a sculpture, some permanent embodiment of your life experien
ce. I imagine that down the road, humans will want to know everything they can about you.”

  A little frown knit Eve’s brow. “Why would I do that? Is Creator planning on making more of me? Why would humans want to know about me?”

  How old was this girl? By her appearance, Eve14 was in her late adolescence. Yet her questions were those of a child. The divergence between Eve14’s intellect and knowledge strained Charlie7’s rusty memories of teenagers.

  “Discoveries come only once,” Charlie7 explained, slipping into professorial mode. “Each is unique. For important discoveries, people like to know all they can. They wish to learn and understand what life was like before and how someone brought something completely new into the world or found something that no one else had seen. You are a discovery, almost an invention. You’re the first of a new culture. There’s no chance, once other robots find out about you, that you’ll remain the only one of your kind.”

  Eve14 stopped. Rather than let go her hand, Charlie7 stopped alongside her. “You can’t. Other robots can’t find out about me.”

  “Why not?” The possibility of keeping her a secret seemed ludicrous.

  Eve14 shook her head in short twitches. “You just can’t.”

  “Did this creator of yours tell you that?” Charlie7 was already predisposed to loathe the robot who created Eve14. Instilling paranoia in the girl was just another black mark against Eve14’s creator.

  Eve14 said nothing. With subtlety that suggested guile, she loosened her grip and tried to pull her hand free of Charlie7’s grasp.

  Before the wily scamp could run off on him, Charlie7 knelt to look Eve14 in the eye. “It doesn’t matter,” Charlie7 said. “I won’t tell anyone. Toby made me promise I wouldn’t. Now, I know what you’re thinking… if Toby made the same promise, what’s to stop me from telling someone else?”

  Eve14 swallowed and gave a vigorous nod.

  “Well, if I had a smarter, more capable, better-respected robot to turn to, I would. But since there’s only one Charlie7, I guess I’m going to have to figure out what to do with you myself.”

  “You’re… missing a robot?” Eve14 narrowed a suspicious glare Charlie7’s way.

  “In the literal sense, no. In the figurative sense, very much so. But it’s nothing to burden those young shoulders of yours with. Though while we’re on the topic of burdens, how are you holding up, physically? We’re not halfway back yet.”

  “You said it was a five-kilometer walk. My daily calisthenics and fitness regimen includes ten kilometers of running. I haven’t engaged in any anaerobic activity since Toby22 brought me to you. I don’t anticipate that changing during this trip.”

  Charlie7 took a moment to contemplate the inferences nested within Eve’s reply. Whoever had created her had apparently found a DNA sample from someone of exceptional mental potential. Then that same geneticist had gone to great lengths to raise her as a jargon-spouting idiot less human than any robot alive. She couldn’t even give a simple answer to a bland, colloquial question without self-analysis. Eve was in serious need of emotional growth.

  Placing a hand on Eve14’s shoulder, Charlie7 asked a question that should have filled any child’s dreams. “Would you like a puppy? I know a fellow who clones canine species, and I bet we can get you a nice golden retriever.”

  The lack of recognition Charlie7 saw in Eve14’s eyes broke his heart. Or would have, if he still had a real one.

  Chapter Four

  The stone monument that marked Charlie7’s home was larger than it first appeared.

  Eve had trouble reconciling the perspective shifts over long distances. Creator’s lab was only forty meters long. Nothing in there was significantly bigger than it appeared while standing at the opposite end. But the edifice that Charlie claimed as home towered above the two of them as they approached.

  Not even the building where Toby22 had brought Eve to meet Charlie had this sort of effect. Perhaps it would have if Toby had taken her inside, but he hadn’t. Charlie guided Eve’s steps as she craned her neck until the tarp slid from her head.

  There were carvings of men and women all across the arch, both inside and out. Some wore robes, some had wings, and many carried weapons. Strange letters captioned the scenes in words Eve didn’t understand. Why hadn’t Creator taught her to read these words when she had taught Eve so many others?

  A rushing sound and a radiant heat drew Eve’s attention to ground level. Charlie was paying no mind to an unchecked exothermal reaction. “Fire! Where are the halon system controls?”

  But Charlie didn’t rush to action as Creator had during their fire-response drills. “Relax. It’s an eternal flame. Misnomer, since I’ve had to restart it, but the sentiment is that it just burns continuously as a reminder.”

  Eve stabbed a finger in the direction of the open flame. The gleaming bronze base around the jet of combustive gas seemed inadequate protection. “Fire is harmful to organic life. The prudent course is to extinguish it.”

  “Some flames should never be extinguished. Humanity was one such flame. This flame was a reminder of your kind, of all the humans who lived and died on Earth.”

  Eve steadied her breath, which had quickened due to a brief adrenal response.

  With Charlie at her side, Eve watched the licking flame as it converted hydrocarbons and atmospheric oxygen into an oddly hypnotic display of light and a whiff of uncatalyzed reactants. She knew chemical formulas for the exothermic reaction taking place, but the numbers and chemical symbols failed to describe the scene in front of her.

  “It’s pretty.”

  “Many things are both deadly and beautiful. That’s why we observe them at a distance. Any star in the night sky could vaporize either of us in a fraction of a second, but from so far away we admire them in complete safety.”

  “If we stay at a distance, how can we be sure they’re dangerous?” Now that Eve was standing there watching the fire instead of rushing to put it out, it seemed less of a threat.

  Charlie let go of Eve’s hand and motioned for her to stay put.

  Without Charlie’s protection, Eve took a quick step away from the fire. But she didn’t retreat any farther. Nor did she turn her attention from the flame as Charlie retrieved a tuft of the tall grasses that grew right up to the paving stones around the arch.

  “Watch carefully,” Charlie whispered.

  The robot removed his suit jacket and pushed up the sleeve of his shirt. Holding the tuft of grass in his fist, he reached out over the flame. Even without touching, the heat of the fire blackened and curled the grass, giving off a darker smoke than the open flame alone had produced.

  “Now do you see?” Charlie asked. “We experiment. We use equivalence and test specimens to pass the risk on to less important things. Your chemical makeup may differ, but you are not so unlike these blades of grass that the fire wouldn’t harm you just the same. And yet, there you remain, unharmed. Now you’ve seen the danger without experiencing it yourself.”

  “You want me to experiment on everything?”

  Charlie’s mouth twitched without sound before he spoke. “Ideally, no. You’d never get anything done. You have to learn some lessons from those who have gone before you. And lucky for you, so, so many have gone before you, Eve. In fact, everyone has.”

  Eve still struggled with the notion that there had been humans before her. Failed attempts… Creator had hinted that there had been several of those before Eve. After all, why would her designation have been Eve14 if there hadn’t been Eves to account for those earlier numbers? But more than those? Humans from long ago? Creator should have mentioned them if that were true.

  “Come on. Let’s get inside. There’s more to see downstairs than one lonely fire that’s been burning since long before you were born. The sky’s promising rain soon, and while you should see a storm someday, I don’t want to get caught in the rain wearing my good suit.”

  Eve gazed into the heavens. She was a speck of dust in the cosmos. Thinking bac
k to her perception of the buildings on the way from Notre Dame, the dark clouds that wafted from the West must have been truly enormous. Eve also remembered the soggy cling of wet fabric when she dressed too soon after a shower.

  Better to follow Charlie to the unknown depths below the surface than get caught in the rain.

  Chapter Five

  Eve had expected the inside of Charlie7’s home to look similar to the lab where she had lived. It should have been well lit, well constructed, and contained everything necessary for living in one convenient setting.

  Instead, Charlie7 lived inside a maze. Each chamber had a purpose and included items relating to that purpose. One room’s walls displayed an orderly collection of hand tools. Another room was dominated by a large, glossy video screen, and had a single chair facing it. The room next to that was scattered with screens and terminals. There was no order or pattern to their locations despite Eve’s efforts to discover one.

  Soon, Eve lost track of her bearings.

  Charlie blustered through descriptions as he guided the tour. Media Room. Study. Workshop. Storage. Mementos. Lab. The latter caught Eve’s attention because it was nothing like the lab she’d grown up in.

  This lab was small in comparison to Creator’s. The equipment was mainly disassembled robotic parts and electrical diagnostic scanners. A few tools Eve could identify; most were alien to her. But Charlie continued on, and Eve hastened to catch up. She didn’t care for the thought of getting lost in the labyrinthine confines of Charlie’s home.

  A grumble in Eve’s stomach brought up a pressing concern. Though it was rude to interrupt, Eve felt that Charlie was making a grave oversight that needed remediation. “Excuse me.”