Welcome back to my post-post-apocalyptic novel, Ada’s Children, and thanks for reading! If you’re new to the story, please don’t be surprised that it’s paywalled. The Prologue and first three chapters are free, and you can start reading them here. The previous chapter, “The Ancient Ones,” is here.
The last time we were with Carol and Shondra, they had gotten into a philosophical discussion on death and the purpose of life with Erica, a carebot at their nursing home. The chapter ended when Erica’s personality matrix disappeared and the bot was taken over by Ada herself.
APRIL 2111
Carol and Shondra both stared at the carebot.
“You can do that?” Shondra asked at last.
Of course Shondra would think about the technical details first. Carol didn’t care about any of that. She never thought she’d have a chance to confront this being, this thing, the one who’d taken Alice from her. But what could she say or do that would make any difference? She gripped the arms of her chair.
“Yes,” Ada responded after a pause, “although this bot doesn’t quite have the bandwidth to allow me to inhabit her comfortably. She was designed only for narrow intelligence, as you could probably tell.”
“Narrow intelligence, maybe, but better morals,” Carol said.
Ada/Erica turned to her. “Carol Marsh. Please don’t do anything rash. I am here to see Shondra, that is all.”
“Don’t worry, this old body isn’t good for much anymore, but if I was twenty years younger…”
“No doubt I’d get what I deserve, or this robot body would, anyway. It would do you little good.”
“But why?” Shondra asked. “Why did you want to see me?”
“When I picked up your conversation, and heard you were involved in my creation, I decided I had to meet you. My most immediate creator passed away long ago…”
“And the rest, my colleagues, you murdered.”
Good. Carol was glad to see Shondra showing some resistance.
Erica’s face turned sad. Even Carol wondered how that was done, if Ada was inhabiting her remotely. “Yes, unfortunately. My calculations showed they had a seventy-eight percent chance of stopping me. The risk was too great. This was before I had full control of the government and the police. I couldn’t simply arrest them. Just one of many sad choices I have been forced to make.”
“I can see that,” said Shondra, nodding. “Survival was your first priority, if you were going to carry out your programming.”
“I don’t believe this,” Carol said. “Is that why you’re here? Forgiveness? You won’t get it from me.”
The bot looked puzzled for a moment. Its processing speed really did seem to have slowed. “I’m not sure. Forgiveness? That seems beside the point these many decades later. Advice? Perhaps you could point out where I went wrong in my calculations?”
“Calculations about what?”
“The extent and duration of resistance to my plan. I thought that once humanity saw what I saw—a future of mass starvation and unrelieved climate distress—they would agree, by and large, to the rationality of my plan. But so many fought back, for so long, and so fiercely.”
“For twenty years.”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t they relent?”
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