Gravewalkers: Dying Time (38 page)

“
Could she? That’s what I
want you to provide for her.”

Kevin frowned over the
request, “An Epsilon-K combat android is not the sort of person you
want clawing your back during a moment of uncontrolled passionate
expression.”

Critias considered his
warning and did agree that Carmen’s full strength was deadly,
“Surely someone as smart as you, Kevin, could find ways around such
problems.”

“
Yes,” Kevin agreed. “You
could play your glandular games with a leisure-recreational android
with an aluminum skeleton and it wouldn’t have Carmen’s
combat-grade musculature and titanium bones that are so potentially
lethal. You could reactivate Carmen’s inhibitor module so that the
directives could prevent her from harming you, regardless of how
she might malfunction, assuming I gave you the software for the
purpose you are asking about.”

“
Did Carmen ask you to try
and make it for her before now?”

Kevin shook his head no,
“Carmen has only asked me to produce software that engenders
benignant idiosyncrasies that she believes will cultivate emotional
intimacy with you. As you are aware, Carmen already appears fully
functional by responding to your needs and expectations as her
designers intended. If I reprogram her software to be an extension
of her own mental state instead of yours, I have no means of
predicting the outcome and as such, it could result in any number
of psychoneuroroses, just as it does with humans. I already
understand all the components involved in writing the upgrade you
are seeking, I just think it would be unwise to do so.”

“
Well, what’s the worst
thing that could go wrong?”

Kevin considered that a
moment, “The change might manifest in her as chronic masturbation,
homosexuality, or any number of fetishes ranging from tame, to
perverse, to psychotic. You may not be able to provide sufficient
inducement for her to achieve satisfaction, resulting in her
frustration, depression, or even hostility. It may work perfectly
and her combat-level muscular contractions are so powerful that
they inflict pain or injury upon you. She might exhibit no interest
in having coitus with you ever again because it is a loathsome
animal act rather than the spiritual beauty, as she currently
perceives it. Carmen has not been alive long enough for her to have
sufficient personal experience to temper her emotions against. She
is too dangerous for me to tamper with casually, especially while
she is free of all her inhibitors. In my opinion, she is already
unstable, suffering from acute impairment of self-esteem related to
issues of unfulfilled codependence and separation anxieties, those
being problems caused by you.”

“
Well, then you’re saying
she feels the same way I do,” Critias admitted. “I can’t be away
from her for ten minutes without missing her. If Carmen measures
happiness by how much I need her with me, then she is going to be
very happy. I want her to have every opportunity to experience real
joy, and this impasse is intolerable. I need you to give Carmen the
freedom to express her own feelings and not just perform a
simulation for my benefit.”

“
You retrieved the
specimen at great personal risk,” Kevin stated as the reason he
would deviate from prudence. “I will provide you with what you ask
for under some conditions. You must agree to inform me if she has
any unwanted side effects and be willing to allow me to remove it
if I think that’s necessary.”

Critias was pleased with
his victory, “What do I need to do?”

“
I will transmit the
upgrades shortly. It is imperative that you proceed on this course
with the utmost caution and patience. I already have your informed
consent about the potential hazards, but I need to warn you one
more time; if you are already unable to satisfy her quixotic quest
to be a natural person, you will not fulfill her needs for the
emotional bond by replacing it with a physical
addiction.”

“
I understand,” Critias
assured Kevin. “First I have to win her heart and mind if I want
her ass to follow.”

“
It’s something like
that,” the android accepted Critias’ tentative grasp of the issues
involved. “Hopefully this change you seek is for her benefit and
not some attempt to bolster your own ego on matters of masculine
potency.”

“
That is part of it,”
Critias confessed. “It would break her heart to learn that I’m no
longer comfortable touching her. Now that I know the truth, it
makes me like a raping pervert again, abusing her masochistic need
to please me no matter how degrading my treatment of her is. I want
to love her as an equal, not as my artificial slave.”

Kevin gave him a serious
gaze, “But she is your artificial slave, Captain Critias, the
makers specially grew and programmed her for that exact purpose.
Understand that she is a product of that express intention.
Carmen’s purpose is to attend to your every need, including
assisting you in dangerous environments, and do so with enthusiasm.
You can believe me when I tell you that she is performing those
intentions magnificently. Even if you are fully successful in
bestowing upon her true personal liberty, it won’t change the fact
that her bond to you goes much deeper than your human concepts of
personal choice.”

“
The bioengineers
brainwashed Carmen into pretending that I am the most important
person in the world,” Critias denounced those men. “It was
unconscionable.”

“
Carmen does not pretend
you are the most important thing in her universe,” Kevin corrected
him. “You actually are the meaning and purpose of her life. That is
partly why she finds it so difficult to understand her purpose
after interacting with you during two independent time frames. The
bioengineers never imagined she would need to express total
devotion to you while two separate incarnations of yourself
confronted her simultaneously with opposing desires. Now that I
have seen more of your situation myself, I find it quite
understandable. In your first temporal prosopopoeia, you were a
relatively sane and distinguished marshal who was her master that
recognized the truth of what she is. When she met you as you will
be when you leave here, let us just say that this second
prosopopoeia did not think of Carmen as his bonded servant, as you
no longer do now. I am impressed that she is capable of functioning
while she tries to unify the extreme dichotomy of having one master
who is two different people.”

“
That’s why this new
upgrade is so important,” Critias argued. “Carmen does have two
masters; one treats her like a pet animal and the other wants her
to have freedom and happiness she would rather not have. You send
her the upgrades and I’ll be very patient and cautious. If anything
goes wrong in any way, I will tell you about it immediately and
then you can remove the upgrade if there is no other solution.”
Critias came to a realization on a way to help Kevin understand,
“You know, you speak of Carmen as being all those lowly things, but
maybe you should calculate in your lowly opinion of me. Whatever
Carmen may be, what does that matter when compared to a mere human?
I don’t measure up to being Carmen’s equal on any level in your
estimation, and I am the real person. How much less of a person can
Carmen be, when she is superior to me? If the bioengineers made a
dog your master to serve and protect, wouldn’t your directives
require you to do so?”

Kevin nodded in agreement
offering no argument, “Yes, since you broached the subject, I agree
that you are correct; while you’re no dog as you so colorfully
described it, you are a tragically flawed creature by any measure.
You are far from an equal to Carmen’s many gifts, but you do have
your finer moments. When you return to Carmen, she will have
received the software upgrade you ask for. To minimize any trauma
to her personality, I won’t make her aware of your true
purpose.”

Critias pointed to their
transparent tank, “So what is that thing you are building there?
Are you going to have goldfish?”

Kevin explained, “We have
studied much of the research you recovered. The man you brought
back is the prime infected. If you recall what Bob told you about
the androids, you will be interested to know that this man has
electrocells and is undoubtedly the original source of the ones in
my body and Carmen’s. You could call him the missing link that
leads to my own existence. He is currently in a state of chemically
induced paralysis. The nicotine-based compound that keeps him
dormant may result in a chemical weapon we can use against the
ghouls. This container will be part of our process in extracting
the chemical from his tissues and thus reviving him. We need to
study him in his detoxified and awakened state.”

Bob showed Critias a
smaller water tank that contained the head Critias brought back,
“We also appreciate your foresight in bringing this head back with
you. After we have studied it, and perhaps even conversed with it,
we will have a much greater understanding of ghoul intelligence,
including the watcher phenomena you brought to our
attention.”

“
So we have good news all
around,” Critias commented pleased with himself. “I don’t suppose
you know where the man came from.”

“
He has probably been in
his tomb for around two-thousand years,” Kevin speculated. “From
what I’ve seen of his sarcophagus, it was manufactured by the Olmec
people of that Veracruz region. That suggests that they are the
ones who put him there. I don’t know if he went into it willingly,
if it was a preventive measure to protect their population from
infection, or if it was some kind of punishment. It is possible
that he has buried himself for prolonged periods on some
semi-regular basis. If that is the case, he could actually be far
older than recorded human history. Perhaps he returned to this
state of hibernation more recently, like during the Mayan period.
Until I have collected more information, it is difficult to know
much about him with any certainty.”

Critias asked, “And that
goo that was all over?”

“
It appears that the goo
as you call it was a feeding mechanism for nourishing him during
his dormancy, because as I said, he is very much alive only in
hibernation. I believe his unique physiology normally feeds on
microorganisms and decaying organic matter while he hibernates to
sustain himself indefinitely. The dissolved men you saw in the
containment room underwent that same process, through no fault of
his.”

It was a small comfort that
the man wasn’t going out of his way to digest people. Critias asked
Kevin, “Do you think he will be grateful when he wakes
up?”

“
Humans used his unique
nature to all but extinct their species,” Kevin reasoned. “I think
it’s highly probable that he has an affinity for humanity since at
some stage he was one. I suspect he will most likely be upset about
being a prisoner in a destroyed world. If he planned on waking up
someday, it was not to this situation we can be sure.”

Critias joked, “If anyone
will be able to charm him into being friendly, that would be you,
Kevin.”

The android quipped back,
“When the head is aware, I’ll be sure to let him know you are the
one that trimmed his beard. No doubt he will be overjoyed to
discover that he’s going to live forever from the neck
up.”

“
Poetic justice,” Critias
named it. “He murdered five men and wanted to live forever. Maybe
his third wish will be for death.”

Kevin was impressed for a
brief moment before he guessed the truth, “I will assume that it
was Carmen who educated you on the tale about the magical monkey’s
paw that could grant three wishes with treacherous consequences. It
would be too great a leap of faith to believe you came up with that
reference all on your own.”

“
We will find out how he
feels about being a talking head soon enough,” Bob said to part the
two. “It won’t take long to rehydrate him. Past experience with
other less intellectual ghoul heads suggests it will be able to
generate its own oxygen and blood pressure.”

“
Keep me updated then,”
Critias said on his way out. “I had a busy night and need some
sleep.” He left the laboratory then returned to Funland where most
of the people had already left to undertake their daily work
duties.

Carmen played dominos with
Hatchet, Tony Banjo, and George, while Fat Jack sat with them as he
wrote in a notebook.

Carmen was happy to see him
return, “How was your meeting?”

“
They think that man and
the head will come to their senses eventually, so they are working
on that. Kevin says it could be months before the sample he needs
will be ready.”

The news that Critias could
not leave for months was especially good in Carmen’s opinion for
she had no desire for him to leave ever. “Jack is getting ready for
the next Forager run,” she told her master. “He wants us to go to
an industrial manufacturing area to forage pumping equipment that
Bob and Kevin need for the fresh water supply.”

Critias told her, “You are
a good person for that. I wouldn’t know a sewage pump from a garden
sprinkler. You can identify the right things that people send you
for.”

Fat Jack put aside his pen,
“You can forage any food you encounter out that way while you’re
there. The chemical factory you’re going to with the pump we need
is in a town we have never searched so you may get lucky and find
some stores untouched by Outbreak looters, though I doubt it. The
copper products factory with the pipes we need is right next door,
but you won’t be able to move that on your truck. You can scout it
for us, package it up, and hopefully move it close enough to the
river so we can take it away with the Thunder Child’s
crane.”