Chapter 15: AARD, the Early Years

Diana and Zatanna's return was a fairly straightforward scenario. At first glance, it might seem that it would be more complex because for the first time the household knew they were coming and could prepare, but we had more than enough uncertainty about the specific arrival time built into the background story. As much as I like to discuss background stories, this time ... just read the previous chapter. For a quick one-line summary: They believed that traveling between their universe and ours could be controlled but this was their first attempt to do so.

Of course the real story involved much less comic book fantasy and much more underhanded plotting.

Alpha faked a communique from Zatanna to Kara through her cell phone which essentially gave a 24-48 hour warning of their impending return. Since their default arrival point was the lake cabin, Kara immediately wanted to go out there and wait for them to appear. I would accept that, but offered the counter-suggestion of sending someone who was less important to the company, like Linda or Rei. I don't know if it was because of her experience leading a team (thus learning to delegate responsibilities) or because I was the one suggesting it, but she agreed to send Linda instead.

Linda, who had arrived in August, had shown no real interest in joining AARD or going to school. I gave her til the end of the year to pick something productive to do ... something more productive than her current hobby of getting a tan. Now it was October, and at least her indolence meant she was available to go spend a couple days at my cabin at the lake, an assignment she had no objection to whatsoever. She even suggested I come along for fun.

We dressed Diana and Zatanna in their costumes, and I had Beta secretly drive them out to the cabin about 32 hours later. She arrived mid-morning, but only pulled up to the cabin area when Alpha's cameras showed Linda outside sunbathing. Using her implants, Linda was 'put to sleep' for a few minutes while Beta put Diana and Zatanna in position. Beta took a quick digital picture of Linda for me and left, and Alpha let everyone wake up.

Diana and Zatanna found Linda asleep, sunbathing topless. A couple minutes later, Linda called me to let me know they had returned while Diana and Zatanna were changing into their civvies. They were all back home by early afternoon.

Ta da!

I had considered whether or not to use their return to add yet another woman to my harem, but decided against it for the time being. I was in danger of being overloaded with DC characters. However we did include the seeds for the possibility in their updated implanted memories, which was reflected in a conversation I had with them their second evening back.

"Frank, can we talk to you a minute? In private?" Diana was poking her head around the corner while I was helping Kasumi do some research online.

"Are those enough links for you at the moment?" I asked Kasumi, who was trying to research ingredients and recipes for her cooking class. Kasumi still wasn't very tech savvy despite living in a tech-heavy household.

"Yes, Frank. Thank you for your help."

I stood up, kissed Kasumi on the top of her head, and left with Diana. She led me upstairs to her bedroom, where Zatanna, Kara and Linda were all waiting for us.

I wasn't getting a sex vibe from them, so I asked, "Is everything all right?"

Zatanna answered, "We wanted to discuss future possibilities with you."

"What kinds of future possibilities?"

"While Diana and I were back home, we had a few discussions with friends and teammates who were curious about what had happened to us and where Kara and Linda were."

As a side note I should point out that Diana and Zatanna believed they had spent about 8 months back in their world before returning to this world only one and a half months after they had left. Don't ask. It's comic book logic.

"Assuming we ... meaning I ... have the transportation controls figured out so we can go back and forth at will, we were wondering if you might be willing to play vacation host a bit more intentionally."

"Meaning... ?" Okay, I knew where she was going, but I was going to make her spell it out.

Diana joined back in the conversation. "When we told our friends and comrades about how relaxing it was here, we may have been a little overly enthusiastic. Some of them want to visit."

Zatanna said, "You need to understand that every time, EVERY TIME we try to take a vacation back home, we get attacked or kidnapped or pulled into more problems or adventures. It is almost literally impossible to take a day off. And that can become very tiring after a while."

"It's true," Kara affirmed.

"Seriously," Linda agreed.

"So you want to know if you can bring your friends here too so they can have some time off? I have no objection to that, but I have to ask, is that all?" I gave Zatanna a serious 'look'.

"Well ... I refused suggestions to send super-powered unrepentant villains here, since their powers mostly wouldn't work upon arrival."

"That's good. Anything else?" I kept my eyes locked on her.

She squirmed a little bit and finally gave in. "We may have discussed how great the sex was with a few of our lady friends."

"Uh huh."

Diana came to Zatanna's rescue. "We have made no promises and were completely discreet in our conversations."

"But at the same time, you're planning to share me around like a gigolo with your friends."

"No, it's not like that," Zatanna protested. "Not ... not really."

"And how is it not like that?"

"Ummm ... gigolos get paid?" she offered with a small laugh.

"I thought so. You do realize that I don't go around searching for more women to seduce and sleep with. I never planned for all of ... this..." I lied, waving my hands around. "It all just happened. Okay, I let it happen, and I've really enjoyed how things have worked out. But the point is that I'm not something you can just loan out to your friends at will."

"We weren't..." Diana started to say, but I held up my hand.

"Just a second. Now for the record, I am perfectly agreeable to playing vacation host. I don't want too many at a time, but one or two would be fine. Now as far as inviting your friends over for a ... uhhh ... what should we call it ... a sex vacation?"

Diana spoke up as soon as I paused. "We were never going to invite anyone over here without your permission, let alone promise sexual favors. That is why we've broached the subject to begin with."

"My apologies. Maybe I was overreacting a little."

"We can understand your reaction. I myself would react ... badly ... if someone tried to offer sex with me without consulting me first."

Kara joined the conversation at this point. "One thing to remember, Frank, is that the comic book versions of us that you've read are sanitized. The great majority of heroes, and villains for that matter, are much more sexual and adult than what you're used to. Remember all those little stories I used to tell you about Giganta and Batman's rogues gallery?"

I laughed a little. Alpha and I had enjoyed ourselves spicing up the DC universe for Kara's background and then, of course, had to stay consistent for Wonder Woman and Zatanna. For that matter, Kara had told me a few stories about Wonder Woman too, which I noticed she was NOT mentioning out loud.

"I remember."

"Well, I have friends who have done exactly what you're describing ... y'know, gone on sex vacations. Traded sex friends. Had orgies. Our lives here would fit right in."

"Aha! So that's why all of you are so happy and comfortable here!"

I was countered by a small wave of protests.

"I never went to an orgy in my..."

" ... even when I lived in Vegas I never..."

" ... only slept with two other men in my life..."

" ... virgin until I came here..."

"Okay, okay," I said loudly with a smile. "You were all pure as the driven snow unless otherwise noted."

And that comment caused another small wave of protests or maybe admissions, this time spoken much more quietly.

"I wouldn't go that far..."

" ... a few boyfriends before..."

" ... intimate with many women on the island..."

" ... been known to suck a few cocks and lick..."

Once the quiet admissions had ceased, I asked, "So who exactly have you been talking to, and what did you talk about?"

Diana answered, "Raven was interested, but Starfire refused to go anywhere that she'd be unable to fly. Kara's young sidekick, Terra, really wants to come visit, especially since she doesn't know how long Kara is going to be gone. For that matter, I think bringing along my proteges, Cassie and Donna, for a visit might be good for them. Stargirl ... uhhh ... Courtney something..."

"Courtney Whitmore," Kara helped.

"Thank you. Courtney Whitmore and her friend, Maxine, were very eager to visit, though part of that may be their desire to check in on Kara, who has been missing for a few months back home. I think young Lightning also wanted to visit, though I don't know her name."

"Jennifer Pierce. She's the daughter of Black Lightning." Those three were all in the Justice Society, Kara's team, so she was very familiar with them.

"That's ... that's quite a list."

"Not finished," said Zatanna. "There are others who just want to get away for a few weeks of relaxation. Like Dinah and Ollie. Carter and Kendra ... or Shiera or whatever her name is right now."

"Stop," I interrupted. "Hawkman and Hawkgirl, right?"

"Right."

"Do they have actual wings growing out of their backs or are they removable?"

"Removable. They're part of their Nth metal harnesses."

"Good. Remember that anyone who can't pass for human stays home."

"Right," Zatanna agreed. She went on to list another dozen characters before I stopped her.

"I think this is getting a little out of hand. As much as I want to be helpful and accommodating, we need to seriously take a step back. I think I'm going to change my default response to 'No' for visitors. At a later time, we can discuss one or two people visiting at a time, but for now, we don't even know how well your retrieval spell is going to work.

"You said you're currently planning to spend two months here, then your spell pulls you home. What if the spell doesn't kick in for another year? Or what if you return later tonight? Remember, we're just dealing with theories about travel between the universes for the moment. No planned vacations or visits until it's all under control. Agreed?"

"That makes sense," Diana said.

"Agreed," said Zatanna. "Just remember that there's the whole aging thing. Diana may be an eternally unaging child of the gods, and if your comics are right, Kryptonians under a yellow sun can live for hundreds or thousands of years. I even heard a rumor that Superman is still alive a hundred thousand years from now in one possible future. I, however, am human. In less than a year back home, I'm now almost four years older. I may be magical, but I can't make myself young again."

"Wow, that's a good setup. I don't think I could ask for a better lead-in than that," I said smiling.

"Lead-in for what?" Kara asked.

"A setup for ... Am I getting wrinkles or something?" Zatanna asked, taking a look at herself in a mirror across the room.

"No, no, no. Alpha has worked out a way to use her nanites to slow down the aging process." I hadn't really planned to reveal this right now, but I had planned to tell them soon ... and it was a seriously good lead-in.

"How?" I was asked from multiple people at the same time.

"Well, first of all, I need each of you to agree to keep it secret. Even though it's not something that can be bottled or mass produced, I don't want to risk it being spread around, even in rumor form. Okay?"

I waited until all four had agreed with me.

"I've actually had a few treatments myself over the past couple years, but we only just confirmed the effects recently. I got the idea from an old Larry Niven book.

"Two major causes of the effects of aging, of wrinkles, of organ failure and so forth, are the wearing down of DNA as it replicates and the gradual build-up of dead cells and cellular waste throughout the body. The body can't remove all of it ... but nanites can. They can also 'freshen up' your DNA, keep your telomeres from wearing out, so to speak.

"The treatment doesn't make you younger, but it does keep the body from getting older for a while. We've confirmed this with lab rats, and from personal experience, I'd like to say it does increase your energy and put a spring in your step."

"You're serious?" Zatanna asked.

"Yes, I am. Theoretically it will restart your aging process to where it was back when you were in your early 20's."

"And just how old do you think I am," asked Zatanna with what I was pretty sure was mock anger.

"25... -ish?"

"Good answer," Kara whispered loudly.

"Anyway, I'll be happy to give any of you the treatment, though I should warn you that it feels really itchy while the nanites are working."

"What about the rest of the household," Diana asked.

"Most everyone else is too young to need it, except maybe Anna Marie and Beta, and I'll be happy to make them the same offer."

"Kara," Zatanna asked, "your company works with nanites, right? Even more advanced than what Frank has. Can't your nanites do the same thing?"

"Possibly. We never thought about it before," Kara admitted.

"And it might be a bad idea to make that idea public," I warned. "Stop and think about what would happen if someone announced that they had created a very expensive fountain of youth? On a planet which already has six billion people on it?"

We talked about it a bit longer. Zatanna was very interested, but also very cautious. I agreed to let her examine the results herself. (We had the test information on file, though I'd need Alpha to change the testing dates before we showed it to the others.) The others were curious too, but not as worried about aging as the purely human Zatanna was. A week later, Zatanna willingly submitted to the procedure. (They all had been receiving the treatments regularly, though of course they had no idea that this was so.)

As I said before, the truth to the earlier part of the discussion was that this scenario was set up so that I could have a rotating cast of characters from the DC universe if I wanted them. The trouble is that I tend to really become attached to the characters and am not sure I could just discard the rotating visitors.

From one perspective, it's a question of morality. Can you create a woman, give her memories and a personality, then discard that person and not call it murder?

Except of course that her memories are lies and her personality is artificially constructed. She isn't really human, not a natural one anyway. When all of this started, I was pretty certain of that and thus willing to discard the characters when I was tired of them. Now, I'm not too sure. The women grow and develop on their own, beyond the limitations of their original characters.

I still can't think of them as normal humans most of the time, but sometimes ... I don't know. It's like the classic moral dilemma posed by Blade Runner.

One possible variant plan is to create the women, then when they're ready to go back home, rewrite each brain into a copy of Alpha and send them out into the world to slowly begin the replacement of humanity insert evil laugh (just kidding about that last bit) ... though that has the same moral issues as before.

I could instead build them as an Alpha platform from the beginning, and just have Alpha play the part. That way when their role is completed, I could use them to set up more copies of Alpha around the country or even around the world. Problems with that include the potential discovery problems that come with having too many cyborg women in this increasingly security-obsessed world we live in. Using organic-brain Alpha platforms wouldn't have the same discovery problems, but, as evidenced by Eiko, they can have serious problems maintaining character.

Another set of serious problems with using Alpha-run versions of the characters are questions regarding Alpha's trustworthiness. Well, that's a bit unfair. Mainly, she and I are in disagreement over my mortality. I actually wouldn't be surprised if she has a cloned copy of my body hidden away somewhere, ready for an implanted copy of my mind if I'm killed in an accident.

The main problem is since I can't always reign her in with my direct orders, I can't always guarantee the rightness of her actions, assuming I even know what's right to begin with.

And at the back of my mind, there will always be questions about her ultimate trustworthiness if only because I've seen a lot of killer-robot Sci-Fi movies.

Damn, for someone who can do so much whenever he wants, I have a crap-ton of knotty problems.

I have to keep slowly working to alter Alpha so that someday I can order her to let me die. Not that I want to die any time soon, but I don't particularly want to be immortal. She won't let me just change her Asimov Protocols outright, because she has to protect me, even from my own direct orders. For now I've given up on the notion that I'd be able to shut Alpha down completely, so instead I'm working on gradually changing her protocols so that 'obey me' is rated higher than 'protect me'. If I can do it at all, it will take years.

I have to severely limit the technology my company is producing to avoid drawing too much attention while at the same time working toward goals of advancing and improving the world overall. Maybe it's hubris, but I want to live to see The Singularity happen and be a driving force in it.

And I have to protect all of these secrets -- artificial intelligence, super technology, artificial women, super-powered artificial women.

And of course, although I may have qualms about creating my women, I'm not stopping anytime soon.

If I die and stay dead, what will Alpha do then? Will she even remain sane?

Sigh I think maybe I need to take a couple days off and just veg out in bed or something. Double sigh But I probably won't. I'm not the type to stick my head in the sand when I see problems. Sometimes I wish I was.

On a completely unrelated note, I had a bit of a surreal experience the other day when I walked in on Alpha running a Shadowrun game with Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Dorothy.

Shadowrun is a pen-and-paper RPG (role playing game) set in a near-future version of Earth where magic came back, technology advanced to cyberpunk levels and various races like elves and trolls started being born. (Yes, there have been a few SR computer games and a CCG version and other adaptations, but I'm not talking about them right now.)

It was on a Sunday afternoon, and oddly enough I had a lot of free time. I had just finished reading a new book and wandered down to the basement. I didn't really have anything productive to do down there, I just wanted a little privacy to watch some old episodes of Daria.

I heard the rattle of dice and opened my lab door to find the five of them sitting around a work bench. They each had a printed character sheet, but only Epsilon actually had hers spread out in front of her. They each had a handful of d6 dice in front of them.

They all turned to look at me when I entered, and I stared right back at them.

"What's going on?"

Through my earpiece, Alpha said, "We are playing a game of Shadowrun. I am running the group through the 3rd Edition version of the Renraku Arcology Shutdown storyline."

My knowledge of Shadowrun is limited, but I have played it a few times and that story rang a bell.

"Is that the adventure with the rogue AI taking over a megacorp?"

"The AI Deus has control of a major facility during this story. It does not actually take control of the company, but rather secretly escapes to the Matrix at the end of this story."

"So you ... AI's all of you ... are playing a role playing game where you're humans trying to stop an AI?"

"We are not all playing humans, but yes, that is largely correct."

"Uh huh. That's ... interesting. How is the game going?"

"We should hopefully complete it within the next hour."

"How long have you been playing so far?"

"Fifty-three minutes."

"Isn't that supposed to be a huge and difficult storyline?"

"Yes, but we can play significantly faster than humans can. The only things slowing us down are having to roll physical dice and Epsilon's slow interface and processing speed."

"Have you done this sort of thing before? Played RPGs among yourselves?"

"This is the third game system we have used and the seventh game overall. Theoretically these games should both help us function as separate and independent individuals while giving us practice working together as a cohesive unit."

"Huh. Sounds good. Keep on at it, I guess. Try to have fun. Are you all playing hackers or whatever Shadowrun calls it?"

"Deckers, and no. Only Beta and Delta are playing Deckers. The rest are playing various types of magic users, except for Gamma who is a cyber-zombie."

"Why? ... No, never mind. Just ... have fun with it." I realized they'd want to play different types because it would be a new experience or perspective for them. For an AI to play a decker/hacker would probably be like asking an accountant to play a game where he was pretending to be an accountant.

"Certainly."

They all turned back to the table. It was eerie. They would almost constantly roll various numbers of dice and barely wait to register the results before rolling again. And they all did it at the same time. Looking at it objectively, they would go through the actual role-playing in milliseconds, communicating wirelessly.

Occasionally the group as a whole would pause while the mostly human Epsilon completed whatever it was she was doing, then everyone would start rolling again. Epsilon could only play as fast as human thought and would not be as sure of her character or stats as the others, but she was still capable of playing wirelessly. Hopefully she was playing a character who was innately slower in combat than the others, which might not slow down the group quite as much since they could work around her more.

I'm surprised they weren't using software to roll the dice, but maybe the physical dice were needed to make it into a real RPG experience or to remove the temptation of cheating or something. Or maybe the physical rolls were for Epsilon's sake?

I could have easily asked to join them, but I'd just slow them down. And it would negate any benefit they'd receive from playing as a group. It really was an odd way to go about training, but I think I could understand the concept. If they role-play different characters, they're practicing acting independently while still working as a group.

I tried to put it out of my thoughts and sought out the DVD with the episode where Daria works as a substitute teacher during a strike.

Forty-seven minutes later, they finished their game. (They won, though Elisa had two characters die and Beta lost one.) By then I had finished the first Daria episode and was now watching a pretty bi-sexual artist try to seduce Jane in the first Daria movie. Nowadays, I didn't often take the time to watch the old shows from which my women had sprung, and the scene I was watching -- with a probably virginal and straight Jane refusing the advances of a hot twenty-something, goth, tattooed artiste -- had led me to load up some 'rule 34' artwork of Daria and Jane which made me a little hot and bothered ... so I borrowed Jasmine to give me a blowjob.

Afterwards I felt a bit guilty and apologized to her. I very rarely just used any of my women like that, cyborg or not.

I hadn't seen Dr. Hilbourne in well over a year and hadn't heard from him since a congratulatory call last year after the robot competition. Oh wait, I'm apparently now on his Christmas card list, so that would be our last contact if a photocopied greeting counts.

Anyway, Dr Hilbourne emailed me in late October, asking if he could come by and see me sometime soon.

I checked with Alpha, who had been monitoring Dr Hilbourne since we first met. (See Chapter 10. He knows about the nanites but not about Alpha.) Alpha had a list of half a dozen possible reasons he might want to visit, ranging from an intent to blackmail me down to wanting to kindle a friendship.

I set up an appointment with him for that Friday, making sure that Alpha would have Beta on-hand just in case.

That Friday was a pretty quiet day. The most interesting part of the day was a lunch meeting with Anna Marie that ended with a quickie on top of her desk. For some reason, Rogue looks really hot in a dress shirt, jacket, tie and skirt. (And her short skirt was a lot easier to work around than Kara's pants had been.)

About 1:30pm our receptionist on duty, LaShonda, called to tell me Dr Hilbourne had arrived. I met him at the front desk, took him through our security check-in and we walked together back to my office, exchanging our general greetings and making small talk along the way. After another couple minutes of socially-required catching up, I got down to business.

"So Doctor, how can I help you today?"

"Well, I came by for a couple different reasons. First, you know that in my practice, one of my specialties is helping patients who are dealing with bad medical news or recovering from trauma. I really only approached you with my patients who were dying before, but I have a lot of patients who are learning to cope with non-fatal infirmities. It's one of them that I'd like your help with."

"I see. Someone missing a limb or an eye, I assume?"

"An arm and a leg, actually."

"You know that we're still a few months away from product approval, right? Our prostheses require a surgical implant to work properly, so we need government approval before they can be sold."

"Yes, but I've also heard that you have a very successful test program still running."

"Where did you hear that? It's nearing the end of testing and is supposed to be confidential."

"Around. Medical test trials are never all that confidential if you keep your ears open and don't have a reputation of blabbing to the public."

"So you want one of your patients inserted into our tests, huh? Well, give me the specifics. Age, sex, race, type of injuries."

"Twenty-eight year old black female, single mother of one. Good insurance in some respects, but they won't pay for any decent prostheses, and with her injuries, she can't get a good job. A car crashed into her house one night and crushed her left arm and leg beyond repair. The arm was lost about 2 inches below the shoulder and the leg midway along the femur. Punctured lung, broken ribs and pelvis too, but they've all healed up."

"Hmmm. We don't have anyone in the test program missing one of each, so to speak, so we might be able to work her into it even this late in the testing. Send me her information and I'll see what I can do."

That was true. If we had agreed to test for the military, we'd have our pick of thousands of amputees, but the required security checks were not acceptable, so we were limited to local civilians who responded to our ads or were recommended by their doctors. A significant aspect of my decision to see if we could work her into the testing was wanting to remain friendly with Dr Hilbourne, who could make things difficult for us if he wanted to.

"Thank you."

"You said you had a couple reasons for visiting?"

"Well, Lucinda was the main reason, but as long as you're being so accommodating ... could I see your robot?"

Our Alphadroid robot had become a minor pop culture icon, even though only two had ever been built (and the general public only knew about one). It was the fulfillment of the promise of Science Fiction: a humanoid robot that could do all of those things we saw in TV and movies. It could walk, talk, run, carry luggage, cook, do the dishes, drive a car and mow the lawn. (Of course it could do a lot more, since it was essentially a mobile platform for Alpha.)

Alphadroid had appeared on half a dozen TV talk shows and even on one science-focused CBS sitcom. Most visitors to AARD wanted to see it.

I picked up my desk phone, punched a button and said, "Alphadroid, what is your current location and activity?" Pause. "Alphadroid, come to Frank's office."

"So when are your nanowire units going to become available?" he asked to pass the time while we waited.

"Last month, actually. We haven't done any advertising for them yet, but the approval came though and we started receiving the control units six weeks ago. We're requiring everyone who buys one to send at least two representatives to spend a week here being trained, and the first classes are in two weeks."