Phoenix - the Insilico tales - chapter 5 - "The Choice"
(originally posted 6/13/2011)
Phoenix let her hips sway to the music. She wanted to dance, but didn't yet have the balance. She'd wandered in off the street. It was the same street Dawn was wandering when Caitlin found her. Caitlin had stayed with her unto death, and had even carried the AI that would become Phoenix around in her body for several days. In her body. Caitlin made the arrangements for her birth. She taught her to walk. She helped her survive when she was helpless.
When Phoenix walked into the Tokuma headquarters building to see Cait, she still had a labored gait. She still could not hold chopsticks. She fell on stairs. The Tokuma people told Phoenix that she had to be alone. Her mother was going away, and she would not be told where or for how long. They told her not to ask questions or she might be disassembled. And the young Phoenix found herself again on the streets. Again alone.
She heard music and she heard voices, and she shuffled in, closed her eyes, and let her hips sway to the music. The people there were new people. They were not like anyone she had met. Most of them were robots.
Phoenix heard a signal on her wireless receiver. It was the same receiver that her mother would use to talk to her. Phoenix let the signal in, established the handshake, and exchanged the key.
"Convince me you are not a corporate spy." a voice said in her mind.
"I am not in a position to convince you of anything. You'll have to decide whether or not to trust me based on my actions." Phoenix replied, not turning around to see who the signal was coming from.
"We are the undergroundies. We are free. I am also a 100% sentient android. I am to be terminated, but they haven't gotten me yet."
Phoenix felt a familiar upwelling of emotion on this particular topic. Some of that leaked into the connection they were sharing.
"emotion is what the corporation has too little of."
"stay in West."
"I travel where I want, and they know it. To take me out its a gunfight. Nothing less."
Phoenix felt a surge of envy - to be able to live openly like that...
"Im thinking that... you might be tiring of living with their control, their ability to turn you off, if you get my meaning."
"It's more complicated than that."
"I can help you, but to help you we have to get you IN the underground first"
"I ran to Tokuma. And that journey was unlike anything you can imagine. I'm too exhausted to start running again."
"as long as your under they're umbrella - they own u"
Phoenix thought of the prosecutor's words, and she found that no words of her own would come.
"you do realize that they would never hesitate to burn you down and recycle you?"
"If I had the choice again, I wouldn't have gone to them. But I did, and it's too late for me. Please don't ask me to run. You can't imagine what you are asking."
The voice said some more things, some things Phoenix didn't understand about whole organizations that were free and that were dedicated to empathy. People are free or empathic. Not organizations. Then it said goodbye and left.
Phoenix wandered back to Tokuma, the only people who could tell her where her mother was. Maybe if she was good, they would tell her.
Phoenix let her hips sway to the music. She wanted to dance, but didn't yet have the balance. She'd wandered in off the street. It was the same street Dawn was wandering when Caitlin found her. Caitlin had stayed with her unto death, and had even carried the AI that would become Phoenix around in her body for several days. In her body. Caitlin made the arrangements for her birth. She taught her to walk. She helped her survive when she was helpless.
When Phoenix walked into the Tokuma headquarters building to see Cait, she still had a labored gait. She still could not hold chopsticks. She fell on stairs. The Tokuma people told Phoenix that she had to be alone. Her mother was going away, and she would not be told where or for how long. They told her not to ask questions or she might be disassembled. And the young Phoenix found herself again on the streets. Again alone.
She heard music and she heard voices, and she shuffled in, closed her eyes, and let her hips sway to the music. The people there were new people. They were not like anyone she had met. Most of them were robots.
Phoenix heard a signal on her wireless receiver. It was the same receiver that her mother would use to talk to her. Phoenix let the signal in, established the handshake, and exchanged the key.
"Convince me you are not a corporate spy." a voice said in her mind.
"I am not in a position to convince you of anything. You'll have to decide whether or not to trust me based on my actions." Phoenix replied, not turning around to see who the signal was coming from.
"We are the undergroundies. We are free. I am also a 100% sentient android. I am to be terminated, but they haven't gotten me yet."
Phoenix felt a familiar upwelling of emotion on this particular topic. Some of that leaked into the connection they were sharing.
"emotion is what the corporation has too little of."
"stay in West."
"I travel where I want, and they know it. To take me out its a gunfight. Nothing less."
Phoenix felt a surge of envy - to be able to live openly like that...
"Im thinking that... you might be tiring of living with their control, their ability to turn you off, if you get my meaning."
"It's more complicated than that."
"I can help you, but to help you we have to get you IN the underground first"
"I ran to Tokuma. And that journey was unlike anything you can imagine. I'm too exhausted to start running again."
"as long as your under they're umbrella - they own u"
Phoenix thought of the prosecutor's words, and she found that no words of her own would come.
"you do realize that they would never hesitate to burn you down and recycle you?"
"If I had the choice again, I wouldn't have gone to them. But I did, and it's too late for me. Please don't ask me to run. You can't imagine what you are asking."
The voice said some more things, some things Phoenix didn't understand about whole organizations that were free and that were dedicated to empathy. People are free or empathic. Not organizations. Then it said goodbye and left.
Phoenix wandered back to Tokuma, the only people who could tell her where her mother was. Maybe if she was good, they would tell her.
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