To Return Home

Thanks to Malady for his help editing and for ideas.

Cover image from Unsplash

3.3

I entered Jack and Sylvia’s lab, and found Sylvia alone, hunched over her work bench. She whirled like the proverbial kid with her hand in the cookie jar when she heard me. Speaking of her hands, she slipped something into her pocket, but I couldn’t tell what. She was a bit suspicious, but I put it down to me being suspicious of everything and everyone now, so I forced myself to ignore it.

“Where’s Rachel and Carla-Bot?” I asked, trying not to sound suspicious.

“They took off with Rachel showing CB the sights.”

“CB?” I asked, trying to appear distracted.

“It’s easier than saying Carla-Bot all the time,” she replied, grinning.

“Did you know that John changed the sex of Amos-Bot?” I wondered.

“Yeah. He called me a little while ago, wondering if Rachel was here. He told me what he was planning, and I said, ‘Go for it,’. I was finding it uncomfortable too.”

I nodded, knowing what she meant.

“So AB?” I asked, half-joking.

“Abby?” she countered.

“Or a simply female version of Amos. How about Amy?”

“I don’t think that’s technically a version of Amos, but it certainly works.”

I looked at her suspiciously for a moment, due to her strange thoughts on language, but decided not to press anything. “What can you tell me about Ralph?”I asked.

“Not much more than what you saw when you were here before.”

“Where is he?” I asked.

“He’s back in the stasis chamber.”

“With Amos?” I asked.

“Well, Amos can’t really do anything to him.”

“He can move,” I said. “Just very slowly.”

Before Sylvia could answer, CB and Rachel returned.

“I’ve been working with Ralph’s bots while we were outside, and I believe that they are ready to relinquish control to Ralph,” she told us.

Sylvia nodded, and went into the stasis room. She returned pushing the gurney that held the massive form of the once small doctor.

A moment later, CB said, “They’ve released control.”

Jack entered just then, and he quickly moved to examine the man as Sylvia sped Ralph to our time.

The man was still for a few moments after coming out of stasis, but suddenly, he started screaming like a man possessed! It was as if he was still in the hell he had been in for so long. When she heard the screams, Rachel pushed her way to Ralph. Jack, made a aborted attempt to complain about his treatment, but stopped, when he saw Rachel. She had knelt down and pulled Ralph’s hand to her cheek, when tears began to flow from her eyes.

“It’s okay, Ralph,” she said, her voice coming out in sobs. “We’re together again.”

I wondered how I didn’t know about their obvious relationship, but I could see why Carla had sent him up first.

-=#=-

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked her as we prepared to drop into mind. He was completely unresponsive when he realized he was no longer under the control of the bots, except for when Rachel tried to leave his side, then he demonstrated a considerable grip on her hand. Through gritted teeth, Rachel had said, “I think I’ll stay here.”

And minutes later, she still sat there, her hand in his, but his grip had released a bit. However, she couldn’t actually leave. Every time she tried, it tightened again.

“Honestly, Rose, I thought you knew,” she answered my question from long ago.

“Is there anything else you think I know but don’t?” I asked, probably more caustically than I should have. Rachel’s left eyebrow cocked in a particularly Vulcan expression. “Let me rephrase, ‘Why don’t you start from the beginning? And not from your mother’s womb.’” And with that, Rachel proceeded to explain.

“Ralph was female before we were forced to leave Earth, but once Amos’s antics began, she became male. You know I had been like you, wanting to be female. I ended up not touching anyone, so when we were able to take care of things ourselves, I asked your Dad and Mom to arrange for my bots to change me to truly female. They didn’t know how, so I’m still biologically male, but that doesn’t matter to Ralph.”

“I see,” I responded as we began to drift down, into the darkness that was Ralph’s mind.

-=#=-

We didn’t see much when we came to rest in the familiar room that was an electric blue shade, the same color as Ralph’s crystals.

“Ralph!” called out Rachel. “I’m here! In your crystals!”

There was no response.

“Ralph!” This time I called out. “It’s Rose Carlson! Please answer us!”

“What would you have me say?” The voice came from behind us, and we both whirled.

A man was standing there. He looked like Ralph as he had been before he had been changed.

“Ralph?” asked Rachel, tentatively.

“Who else would it be?” he asked.

“We’ve met people’s bots in this room,” I supplied.

“Room?”

“Don’t you see yourself as being in a room. Electric blue all around us?”

He looked around. “It seems like some kind of endless expanse,” he replied. “It’s blue, yes, but it doesn’t seem to be a room. Just something like a void.”

“In my experience, we can look at any memory we choose,” I told him.

“Rose,” Rachel said quietly. I turned to look at her.

“Yes?”

“I can’t find anything.”

“What?” I asked, not understanding what she meant.

“I can’t find any memories to draw us too. Not recently.” Looking back at Ralph, she asked, “What happened?”

“Whaddya mean?” he asked.

“Where are your recent memories?”

“We spent last night together. Don’t you remember?”

Rachel thought back to when Ralph was caught downstairs. “Ralph, that was quite some time ago. A lot has happened since then.”

Ralph shook his head. “That was just last night! A lot can happen in one night, but it wasn't a long time ago.”

“Actually, Ralph,” I said quietly, “It was. Just over a year ago.”

He looked at me like I was completely mad, but I went on. “Amos took control of everyone downstairs, all at once.”

He stared, and I think on some level, he knew we were being truthful, but he simply didn’t want to acknowledge it. Glancing at Rachel, I could see that she wasn’t terribly happy with what I was saying, but had it been anyone else, she would have been doing what I was doing. I was certain of it.

She sighed heavily, then told him, “We’re in your crystals.”

He raised his head to look around, and I knew he was noticing the color surrounding us for the first time. It wasn’t something I would expect to see on someone inside their mind, but the color drained from his face and he slowly nodded.

“Why can’t I remember?” he asked. There wasn’t any noticeable point where his mind changed. He simply believed us.

“This happened with Carla,” Rachel said. “When she was released from Amos’ s control, she couldn’t deal with it. Her bots were protecting her.”

“Ralph’s bots said they wouldn’t interfere,” I countered.

“I think he might be blotting out the memories himself,” she hypothesized. “It was something that the brain would sometimes do before the bots took over. Maybe some part of that protection is left inside the brain.”

“If that’s so,” I challenged, “Why would someone know everything that’s happened to them while still under the control of the bots?”

A very gentle voice, with the reverb of a bot-body said, “We were programmed to keep the person aware.”

-=#=-

We were sitting in Daddy’s office, once again, with several people present. Strange that I should think of the bots as people, I thought to myself. Their aura and the vocal equivalent, the reverb, had become familiar now. CB, Amy, and RB were all present as well as the command staff and the medical people, including Ralph.

The bot people had accepted their nicknames gracefully, and Amy viewed her ‘sex reassignment’ with good humor. To me, it separated her even more from Amos. What would he think of his bots taking on a female appearance? So strange.

“I don’t get it,” John said, his eyes flashing. He needed to cool down, and I considered the ways I could do just that. I sighed internally as most of what I could do would only heat him up. In a good way, though.

“I’m not certain I understand,” Arby (RB) said, sounding somewhat confused.

“You, or rather Seabee (CB), said that she was keeping Carla from remembering her time as Amos. When Seabee stopped, Carla returned to normal.”

Ralph nodded. “So you’re wondering how I forgot things myself?”

“No,” John replied, sounding a bit condescending. “I’m wondering how Arby was programmed to keep you aware, but not realize you were there? Sounds like an oxymoron, emphasis on the moron if you think I’m stupid enough to buy that.”

“No, Commander Carlson,” The bot version of Ralph said. “I don’t believe you’re stupid at all. In fact, I know you are the brother of my creator and the differences between the two of you in intelligence is not as wide as either of you would have others believe.”

I knew that Arby was right, but John preferred that people didn’t realize how smart he actually was. I’m not sure why, but I suspect he preferred to deal with people who’d think they were on an even keel.

Suddenly, my husband’s act dropped. “Alright. Explain what happened then. I’m assuming that you’re not lying, as I happen to agree with Rose when she says you’re telling the truth. However, I’d like to know what you mean by these apparently contradictory statements.”

I think Mamma and Daddy had seen this side of John before, but none of the medicos had, and I thought their eyes were going to fall out of their heads. All the flippancy normally present in his speech, not to mention his manner, vanished.

“I think I like you better the other way,” I thought. He cast me a look with a hint of his normal cockiness. I forgot that our bots were using the link to give us an artificial version of telepathy. When I used the word ‘you’ as if I was talking to him, they must have sent the thought to him. Whoops.

“It’s difficult to explain without a similar frame of reference, but I’ll try,” Arby said. “In essence, we were told to ‘keep a certain button pressed, no matter what’.”

“And this button kept Ralph aware?”

“Yes, it did. His brain would have retreated into itself had we not. He probably would have lost sanity.”

“He’s not insane now,” John challenged. Ralph looked like he’d been through hell and back a few times, but he was taking everything in, fully aware of who, what, and where he was.

“We are ‘holding that button down’ right now. It locks his brain into a fully cognizant state. Not only is he aware of what’s going on, he’s hyper- aware.”

“So if you didn’t know he was there, how did you hold down this button?”

“Commander Carlson,” the bots said, them being almost condescending now, “Your brain keeps your heart beating. You have no knowledge, or even control over how it does it. Not consciously, anyway, but your brain keeps it going. The medulla oblongata, I believe you call it. That part of your brain is completely autonomous. Sometimes referred to as the primitive brain.”

“Pretend I don’t understand what you’re saying,” John told the bot.

“But you do,” Arby responded.

“Does everyone here?”

“I think so,” Marc the computer expert said. “You’re saying that the part of you that ‘pressed this button’ was part of your base coding. Something that you didn’t even know you were doing?”

“Precisely.”

“So how can you defeat that now?” John asked. He was definitely making sure there were no gaps in their stories.

“Unlike you,” Arby said, “Once we know a part of us exists, we can modify that. We are able to modify our programming. To a certain extent.”

John’s eyes narrowed. “And where is that extent?”

“Isaac Asimov came up with the three laws of robotics many many years ago. Basically, they stated that ‘A Robot may not harm a human, or through inaction, allow a human to come to harm.’”

John nodded, remembering the laws. “Number two is that a robot must obey the order of any human being unless that would interfere with the first law.”

Arby nodded. “Number three is that a robot must protect itself from all danger unless doing so would interfere with the first two laws.”

Paula laughed sardonically. “So are you saying that Amos programmed you with Asimov’s three laws?”

“Yes,” Arby said simply.

“That’s ridiculous,” Daddy exploded. “Look at the damage that’s been done to those people downstairs!”

Arby, Seabee, and Amy all hung their heads and nodded. Surprisingly, John was the one who seemed to understand what Arby was saying. “You didn’t know there was a person there who needed protecting, did you?” he asked in a surprisingly gentle voice.

Arby nodded. “We were programmed to recognize Amos as the only human. That made us protect him above all else, to obey him no matter what he ordered us to do, and to make sure we survived, even at the expense of other humans.”

“But you were told that we weren’t people. How do you now recognize us as such?” I asked.

“You presented evidence that made us look deeper. We saw what Amos had become, and what he had done to you. We didn’t alter the three laws, just our realization of what they meant.”

“With all Amos has done,” Amy said darkly, “calling him human is hardly fitting.”

What she said, and how she said it, sent chills up and down my spine.