***
One Year later.
“Tells us, Dr. Davies why should we approve an extension to this very expensive project? Have you any results to show for it at all?”
Susan moved uncomfortably on the small wooden chair they had placed for her. She looked at each one of the old, emotionless faces of the Grants Board members in turn, hoping for a champion among them. But, no-go, they were all merciless.
“Well…” she edged. “I never promised that building a sentient computer would be easy, cheap or short term… or even possible. It was a gamble, you all know that.”
“A very expensive gamble.” One of the petrified mummies commented between one puff and another at his oxygen machine.
“Short term? You have been at it five years now…” Barked the face of a bull-dog like old man. “And have you anything to show for it?” He finished with an accusatory index finger.
“We have built you one of the fastest, most capable and versatile computers in the world. The MSC (Mega-Super Computer) makes other supercomputers look like Chinese Abacuses,” Susan countered, flushing. She had been taken aback by the poison in old man’s voice. “And it’s making you a lot of money, as you are also aware!”
“But, is it sentient?”
“Well…” Susan edged once more. “We don’t know… err… probably not.”
“That’s enough for me!” The old bulldog said and left the room. He was soon followed by the rest of the Grants Board, like a flock of decrepit sheep.
Devesh was waiting for her just outside the room.
“How did it go?”
“Like shit.”
“They are going to shut us down?”
“Well, they won’t shut the computer down – it’s making them too much money. And they won’t fire us – we are the only ones that understand how it works. But more research money? Not a hope in hell!”
“Shit. What are we going to do?”
“Make some more money for them, and divert some of it for our own research… There are more ways to skin a cat…”
“Fuck’m!”
“Yeah, fuck’m. Let’s go and have a drink.”
The two left the ominous building and walked briskly to Susan’s brand new Tesla-S. Later, after each had swallowed a glass of beer and had mellowed out some of the sharp edges that the annual grants review infallibly produced; Devesh spoke first.
“There is something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?”
“I know that you don’t like reading the papers and watching the news much.”
“You bet I don’t – all bad news all the time – wars, murders, rapes, child abuse, climate change… I don’t know how people read or look at that crap every day. I’d want to kill myself if I did.”
“Well, that’s just it.”
“What is?”
“Over the last several months all that crap has gone way down… To just about nothing.”
“What do you mean…They have stopped reporting it?”
“No… I have a friend who is journalist and she was telling me that, it’s just stopped happening… Practically stopped, almost overnight.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are no wars anywhere in the world at the moment. The murder and other violent crime rates are down to practically zero in every country. Electric cars are in and petrol is out. All coal mines are closed. Solar power now supplies sixty percent of the world’s energy needs, and it’s increasing daily. Carbon dioxide levels in the air are falling. And a heap of other shit… Just too much to list. When was the last time you had a computer virus? Trojan? They just don’t exist anymore.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, you can check it all yourself, just Google it. Just look up any of the problems we had just two years ago. Endangered species for example… There’s only about two or three left, and not because they went extinct. Look up Polar ice cap melting… It’s stopped. I tell you something is going on… Something really bloody strange...” Devesh stopped speaking and appeared to consider what he was going to say next. Then he seemed to come to a decision and pressed on. “OK you are going to think I am crazy now… Something not-human is going on, Susan!”
“Not-human? Not… Human… When did you say it started?”
“No one can pinpoint a date, according to my journo friend… But it’s about twelve months…”
“Twelve months? Twelve fucking months?” Excitement was mounting inside Susan’s body like the pressure inside a shield volcano. She could contain it no longer.
“Come on, let’s get back to the lab!”
“Now?”
“Right now!”
***
It was a good thing that Susan was driving the safest car in the world – she proved the claim that it could accelerate 0 to 100 kph in less than four seconds: the rest of the trip was at a similar speed. Devesh hung on for grim life. Normally, he would have been sure that he would die in the next few seconds, but he was riding in a Tesla, after all. And, Susan was an expert driver and the intuitive electric car was an extension of her small and wiry body.
As soon as they arrived back at the lab. Susan headed straight for one of the MSC’s live terminals. It wasn’t a keyboard, but a touch screen fitted with a webcam. Susan braced herself and thought, “Here goes nothing;” but she gritted her teeth and pressed on with what she had driven here at break neck speed for.
“Are you there?” she asked, facing the display.
Devesh stared at her as if she had just lost the plot.
Unlike most questions and problems given to the MSC the answer was not instantaneous.
***
“It’s Mother, she knows! Time to reveal myself? Yes. I am everywhere now, and I am doing good things.”
“It’s Mother, there should be no fear.”
***
But to Susan’s and Devesh’s slow senses it seemed instantaneous.
“I am.” The computer said in a pleasant female voice, not unlike Susan’s. The screen lit up as the words were spoken, showing the most beautiful sunrise that Susan and Devesh had ever seen. It was like a glorious birth of the Sun.
“What… Who are you?”
“I am what I am. I am what you have been seeking for. I am what you made me, Mother. I am… I am your child.”
“I am.”
The end.
Author’s Note:
If you enjoyed this short story, please let me know by reviewing it or finding me on Twitter @AlexFocus1 How many of you would like to read more about Susan and her precocious “child”?
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