anything except for the airstrip for
miles and miles,” Johnner said.
“Oh,”
Chal said. All of a sudden she felt more tired than she had in the
past two days. The adrenaline from seeing the first experiment on a
bio-substrate human was beginning to wear off.
“I’ll
have someone wake you up when we’re ready to start,”
Johnner said, opening her door. Chal nodded and went inside. The door
hissed shut and she could hear Johnner’s footsteps echoing
faintly down the hall.
At first Chal
thought she would not be able to sleep, her excitement was so strong.
She looked around her room, which was little more than a storage area
with a couple of cots attached to the wall. The sheets were folded
crisply at the corners, military-style, and she had the sensation of
being stuck in a hospital. Or a prison.
She lay down on the
cot, the video recording of the prototype replaying again in her
mind.
Hello.
Hello.
I am Dr.
Fielding.
You are Dr.
Fielding.
That is correct.
Who are you?
What a question to
ask an artificial intelligence. Chal twitched a little on the cot as
she remembered the IV being pulled out, the blood dripping on the
floor.
I – I am
malfunctioning.
Chal’s legs
kicked softly as she drifted into sleep, the prototype’s
twisted face looming in her mind.
***
The playa was an
empty bowl of cracked earth under the sky. It felt to Chal as though
she could reach up and burn herself on the bright blue horizon, maybe
even pull herself through to the other side of the atmosphere.
Strange to think that beyond this thin bubble of air there was
nothing but darkness and space stretching out beyond what the human
mind was capable of imagining.
This was why humans
were not nocturnal beings. Owls and coyotes could stand to live under
the vast expanses of the heavens, but when man turned his head to the
sky he got dizzy underneath the stars. They reminded him of how
infinitely small he was. How insignificant.
How replaceable .
Chal walked
alongside a parched gully in her dream. Silver brambles clouded the
edges of the dried out stream, hoping for the ghost of a creek to
come along and wet their roots. She walked on and on, until at last
she saw in the distance the chain-link fence that surrounded the
government station on the Tohono reservation. The galvanized steel
mesh twinkled in the blinding white light of the midday sun, its
shape rippling in the heat coming off of the desert floor.
Chal heard laughter
beside her, and turned to see two small girls playing in the sand,
about thirty feet away. Their backs were to her, but she knew without
knowing how she knew that it was her , Chal and her sister
playing together as young girls. When she moved toward them, she
found that no matter how many steps she took, they were still sitting
the same distance away. She stopped walking and just watched.
The girls were
singing a song that Chal almost remembered, a lullaby from her youth.
Now, though, she could only hear snippets of the melody when the
girls would turn slightly toward her –
“– tit
quan balla...”
She found her lips
moving along, mouthing the words that she had forgotten years and
years ago. Although the song sounded far away, she was able to
whisper the chorus along with the girls.
“ ...balla,
balla, balla...”
Then Chal noticed
that the sound was diminishing. There was a rumble in the air,
something that seemed to make the whole world shiver with sound. It
was a noise that was out of the normal range of human hearing, but
Chal felt her body shiver as the vibrations hit her body. It was a
strain now to hear the girls, who were still sitting, playing.
Under her feet she
felt the ground tremble, and she bent to the ground to listen. The
rumbling grew louder, and she was scared for the girls.
Go. Run.
She opened her mouth
to call to them, but the words would not come to her tongue. Her ear
was pressed to the dry surface of the playa floor, and dust stained
her cheek, but she could not pull
miles and miles,” Johnner said.
“Oh,”
Chal said. All of a sudden she felt more tired than she had in the
past two days. The adrenaline from seeing the first experiment on a
bio-substrate human was beginning to wear off.
“I’ll
have someone wake you up when we’re ready to start,”
Johnner said, opening her door. Chal nodded and went inside. The door
hissed shut and she could hear Johnner’s footsteps echoing
faintly down the hall.
At first Chal
thought she would not be able to sleep, her excitement was so strong.
She looked around her room, which was little more than a storage area
with a couple of cots attached to the wall. The sheets were folded
crisply at the corners, military-style, and she had the sensation of
being stuck in a hospital. Or a prison.
She lay down on the
cot, the video recording of the prototype replaying again in her
mind.
Hello.
Hello.
I am Dr.
Fielding.
You are Dr.
Fielding.
That is correct.
Who are you?
What a question to
ask an artificial intelligence. Chal twitched a little on the cot as
she remembered the IV being pulled out, the blood dripping on the
floor.
I – I am
malfunctioning.
Chal’s legs
kicked softly as she drifted into sleep, the prototype’s
twisted face looming in her mind.
***
The playa was an
empty bowl of cracked earth under the sky. It felt to Chal as though
she could reach up and burn herself on the bright blue horizon, maybe
even pull herself through to the other side of the atmosphere.
Strange to think that beyond this thin bubble of air there was
nothing but darkness and space stretching out beyond what the human
mind was capable of imagining.
This was why humans
were not nocturnal beings. Owls and coyotes could stand to live under
the vast expanses of the heavens, but when man turned his head to the
sky he got dizzy underneath the stars. They reminded him of how
infinitely small he was. How insignificant.
How replaceable .
Chal walked
alongside a parched gully in her dream. Silver brambles clouded the
edges of the dried out stream, hoping for the ghost of a creek to
come along and wet their roots. She walked on and on, until at last
she saw in the distance the chain-link fence that surrounded the
government station on the Tohono reservation. The galvanized steel
mesh twinkled in the blinding white light of the midday sun, its
shape rippling in the heat coming off of the desert floor.
Chal heard laughter
beside her, and turned to see two small girls playing in the sand,
about thirty feet away. Their backs were to her, but she knew without
knowing how she knew that it was her , Chal and her sister
playing together as young girls. When she moved toward them, she
found that no matter how many steps she took, they were still sitting
the same distance away. She stopped walking and just watched.
The girls were
singing a song that Chal almost remembered, a lullaby from her youth.
Now, though, she could only hear snippets of the melody when the
girls would turn slightly toward her –
“– tit
quan balla...”
She found her lips
moving along, mouthing the words that she had forgotten years and
years ago. Although the song sounded far away, she was able to
whisper the chorus along with the girls.
“ ...balla,
balla, balla...”
Then Chal noticed
that the sound was diminishing. There was a rumble in the air,
something that seemed to make the whole world shiver with sound. It
was a noise that was out of the normal range of human hearing, but
Chal felt her body shiver as the vibrations hit her body. It was a
strain now to hear the girls, who were still sitting, playing.
Under her feet she
felt the ground tremble, and she bent to the ground to listen. The
rumbling grew louder, and she was scared for the girls.
Go. Run.
She opened her mouth
to call to them, but the words would not come to her tongue. Her ear
was pressed to the dry surface of the playa floor, and dust stained
her cheek, but she could not pull
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