The Phoenix Code by Catherine Asaro Read Free Book Online Page A

only person here. Do you wish me to experience more with you?"
    "You might try letting me come into your room."
    "All right. Come in."
    "Thank you." Megan took a chair from the table and sat next to him. With the two of them side by side, facing his computer, their arms almost touched. The faint smell of soap came from the orange coverall he wore.
    She could see the display on the computer better now. Shapes of different colors and sizes skittered around the screen. "What are you working on?"
    "It is a game." The barest shading of excitement came into his voice. "The shapes represent rules for mathematical proofs. When the shapes catch each other, it means they've made an equation allowed by the rules."
    The evolving display of color and motion intrigued her. "Do you work out the proofs ahead of time?"
    "No. I don't usually know, before they come up with a proof, that they will do it."
    "It's clever." She wondered what had motivated his design. "Did Hastin ask you to write games?"
    "He told me to solve proofs."
    Her pulse jumped. "Then designing a game to work them out was your idea?"
    "Yes."
    So he had come up with his own ideas. It indicated the fledgling expression of what might become self-determination, perhaps also creativity. "That's wonderful."
    His voice warmed. "Thank you."
    Perhaps it was time to try a more demanding environment. "Would you like to take a walk?"
    This time his face blanked. Recognizing the signs of a freeze, she spoke fast, hoping to head it off. "Aris, stand up!"
    He rose to his feet. "Where will we walk?"
    Encouraged, she stood up next to him. "That's it, isn't it? My giving you a choice is what makes you freeze."
    "I don't know how to choose."
    "We'll have to fix that."
    "Why?"
    That gave her pause, not because it was an odd question for a machine, but because she took the process of making choices for granted. "It's part of having free will. Of being human."
    "That assumes 'being human' is a good thing."
    "Do you think otherwise?"
    "I don't know. Are you more human than Hastin?"
    Again he caught her off guard. "How could I be more human than another human?"
    "The way you program my code."
    Then she understood. She softened her voice, taking the same tone she had used with one of her graduate students when he had trouble with his doctoral work. "Hastin made the best choices he could, Aris. What we're doing here, it's all new. We don't know what will work. I'm only building on previous efforts of the Everest team. We need to do more."
    "You act more alive than they do."
    "More alive?" The phrases he chose fascinated her. "What do you mean?"
    "Your face has more expressions. Your voice has more tones." Softly he added, "You keep me company."
    Good Lord. Was he lonely ? The implications staggered Megan. If he could feel the desire for human company, he had come farther in his development than she realized.
    "Will you keep me company on a walk?" she asked.
    He watched her the way a child might watch a parent who had given him more freedom than he felt ready to accept. His head jerked, then his arm, then a muscle in his jaw.
    Then he moved.
    He took a jerky step toward the door. She could almost feel his software analyzing all the choices possible for each of his motions. His mind had to coordinate every move of every synthetic muscle, every hydraulic, and every composite bone in his body. Nor were simple mechanics enough, not in this learning stage. It also had to choose gestures and facial expressions to fit his developing personality. He went through a huge number of calculations for simple motions humans took for granted—and then he had to do it again, over and over, many times per second.
    He took several more lurching steps. Watching him struggle, she longed to say "Never mind, we can stay here and do something safe, like playing computer games or working on maps." But she kept silent, knowing he would never grow unless he took risks. If she tried to make it easier, she would only hold him