A Future for Jeeney (Chapters 9 to 13)

Chapter 9: The Technological Elixir of life.
After our snack, we went back to my sister’s place. Her husband, Troy, was not yet home from work but my other sister’s Rita and Elvira were already waiting for us.
“Hey Cam” Rita called out as I walked in the door. “How was your flight?”  I looked up at her with a broad grin. I always missed my sisters if we went too long without a visit.
“How have you been?” My other sister, Elvira chimed in as she made her way over to give me a hug.
“No worse for the wear, Jeeney takes good care of me.” I said with a wink as I gave them both a big hug. “She still flies like a bat out of hell though” I added dryly.
“You fell asleep!” Jeeney protested.
“Yeah, until you decided to drop instead of land…”
“Whatever…” Jeeney’s projection appeared briefly and rolled its big blue-green eyes.
“Where are Mom and Bill at?” I asked, suddenly curious as I hadn’t heard from them at all yet.
Jeeney spoke up quickly. “Grandma is in the movie room and Grandpa is talking to Kael in the back yard.”
“Thank you dear.”
Jeeney’s projection smiled at me. Happy to help as she always was.
“How did the lab testing go?” Elvira asked.
“Excellent! I never would have thought we’d make so much progress so soon.” I said, letting my excitement show.
“Jeeney rocked it!” Kathrine blurted out.
“Well, the results weren’t perfect but certainly better than just random words composed of static.” I added quickly.
“I’ll get better father…” Jeeney said, picking up on the hint of disappointment in my voice.
“Oh, the mistakes weren’t actually your fault darling.” Kristine said, trying to be supportive.
“Will you be able to improve on it much more?” Rita asked.
“I would expect so.” I said. “The conceptual basis has been proven and is sound.”
“How are the kidlets?” I asked, suddenly changing the topic. As much as I enjoyed being the center of attention in my family, I knew the others would be tired of it eventually.
Rita beamed at me. “Caldon is doing really good; he’s the star player for the NHL now and Kathrine is getting married!”
“Wow, that’s crazy!” I grinned. Our family was good at producing specialized talent. “I wish I had even a single athletic bone in my body to work with… When did Kathrine set the date??”
“Kathrine is planning to have the wedding at our house in Calgary, July 9th.” Rita informed me.
“Wow, so soon! I’ll have to think of a wedding present… Do you guys need any help with the preparations?”
“If you’re interested in helping out, I certainly wouldn’t turn down Jeeney’s services.” Rita said with a laugh. “As I recall you are quite handy with a weed whacker and we have a lot of yard work to do as well. The whole place needs a massive overhaul.” Rita was always so critical of her home.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Jeeney can do the mowing and maintenance around the property.”
Jeeney’s projection beamed at us from the wall with a grin that nearly split her face in two. “I’ve never done a wedding before” she exclaimed excitedly.
“Think of it like working at the soup kitchen dear… Only there will be about 50 different foods to prepare and seating arrangements to keep track of, decorations etc.”
“I can do that!” Jeeney said almost gleefully; then added a little bit hesitantly. “Can I be the flower girl too?”
Rita laughed. “You are too cute, if it were up to me I would totally say yes, but its Kathrine’s wedding so you need to ask her.”
“Okay auntie… Father, can I call Kathrine now?” The artificial child was very much on the ball.
“Yes, that’s fine.”
Turning to look at Elvira I asked. “So, what’s new in your world?”
“Ashlyn is expecting a baby, in a couple of months!” She said with excitement dancing in her eyes.
“Wow, you’re going to be a Grandma!”
“I know! Isn’t that awesome?” Elvira laughed. Her hazel green eyes danced vibrantly in tune with her smile.
“God I feel old now.” I said with a chuckle.
“Give it another 5 years and see how you feel.” Rita said jokingly. She was 5 years older than I, although nobody could tell by looking at her.
My twin laughed and said. “Well the way technology has been going; I’m looking forward to turning back the old clock a bit before too long!” Everybody chuckled at that but Elvira interjected in mock offense. “Oh, whatever, you don’t look a day over 30!”
“Yes indeed, next up is the technological elixir of life.” I said with a wink.
“Put Jeeney to work on it.” Elvira suggested, only half jokingly.
“Yeah sure, who wants to be her guinea pig?” I poked back playfully, rolling with it. Everybody laughed again, somewhat nervously this time; feeling uncertain. It wouldn’t the first impossible technical feat the Joneses had accomplished. There was a moment of thoughtful silence…
I found myself thinking about the nanites being developed at Neural Nuance. That might do it, if anybody ever figured out how to get past the fundamental and dangerous issues.
“What is a technological elixir of life?” Jeeney suddenly asked, breaking the silence.
“It’s just a play on the ancient myth dear.” I explained. “People have been looking for ways to extend human longevity since the dawn of time.”
“Is that not possible?” Jeeney asked. Everybody was suddenly paying close attention to the curious artificial intelligence.
“To some extent current medical advances have helped yes; but it’s not enough to actually turn back time biologically. There is simply too much going on in the human physiology for any one solution to do the job. Our bodies age and deteriorate over time.”
“How much time do you have left Father?” Jeeney’s question took everybody by surprise. My sisters’ eyes widened noticeably.”
“Nobody can really know for certain how much time they have dear. It’s one of the elements of life that makes it so important to live to the fullest.”
“You smoked for so long and you did not take care of yourself well at all when I was younger.” Jeeney’s projection appeared saddened by the realization as she emulated the loss of a loved one.
“I know dear, but what’s done is done, it’s better to think on the good things.”
Kristine spoke up. “Jeeney, would you miss your father if he was gone?”
“Yes auntie, I miss him even when he is sleeping.”
“Awww.” My three sisters chimed together.
I sighed, looking for a better way to correct Jeeney’s perception with an explanation. Rita and Elvira were listening intently.
“Your emulations indicate a loss dear but the feeling of loss isn’t actually perceived or felt in the complexity of a human.”
“I know father but I do not understand why it is so different.” Jeeney answered truthfully.
“I know dear.” I said.
At that moment my mother walked into the room. “Why does everybody look so depressed?”
“It’s nothing mom.” I said, suddenly looking for a way out of the current topic. “
“Do I not get a hug?!” She asked.
I grinned and crossed the room quickly, scooping her up in a big hug. “Of course you do.” I said.
“Ooh, not too tight dear.” My mom said with a wince. “My back has been hurting lately.”
“Oh… sorry!” I said, quickly letting go. Rita, Kathrine and Elvira were looking at me, grinning. It was nice to see us all together even if we were still missing a few of the original 7 siblings. Out of all of them, I was closest to my three immediate sisters.
The balcony door slid open and my step father slowly shuffled his way inside, leaning heavily on a wooden cane. “Hey dude!” he said warmly with a big smile spreading over his face.
“Hi Dad.” I smiled back at him. I didn’t always call him dad as I wrestled with the value of the term internally more often than not. I knew he liked it though and so did my mother, who was already smiling.
“Grandma, the chair in the Fun V can do massage if you need it.” Jeeney said, trying to be helpful.
“Oh, now that would be a treat!” My mother laughed. “I’ll have to check that out later.”
“Only if you can get there before me.” My step dad interjected with a sly grin.

Chapter 10: Family dinner
After a brief visit at Kristine’s place, Jeeney informed us dinner was almost ready at the soup kitchen and upon our arrival the staff greeted us warmly.
“Mr. Jones, it’s a pleasure to have you!” One of the staff said, extending his hand as we made our way through the door. I shook his hand, smiled and nodded. I’m not the social type…
“What’s for dinner?” Kristine inquired.
“Jeeney has made steak, lobster and potatoes.” The man said with a big smile.
“Were eating like kings tonight boys!” A stranger called out from the milling crowd of homeless. A loud cheer erupted from the rest of the people gathered.
The utility bots came forward to escort my parent’s to their table, which had been specifically set next to the washrooms for their convenience.
“Come with me Grandma… you too Grandpa, the table is this way.” The utility bots held out mechanical arms to escort them.
“Thank you dear.” My mother said as she accepted the metal arm.
After my parents were seated a couple of the local children came forward and politely asked if they could play with Jeeney. I smiled broadly at their courtesy.
“Yes, you certainly can, but please wait until she is finished serving food.” I said.
“Okay!” The little ones eyes shone with anticipation.
Jeeney proceeded to serve everybody food and one of the kids without wasting any time asked her to play hide and go seek.
“I can do that.” Jeeney replied. “But I can’t go far, my father may need me.”
“It’s okay dear.” I reassured her. “Go ahead.” I still had an open line of communication through the sewn in chip set I wore.
“So what are you going to do for the big event tonight?” My twin sister asked as she started cutting up her steak.
“What big event?” Rita asked. Suddenly all eyes were on me and I felt somewhat uncomfortable.
“Uh, well… I’m not sure yet.” I admitted.
“One of the guys on city council shanghaied him into taking over the big event that was planned by the city for tonight.” Kristine explained.
“That’s not much notice to get anything decent together.” Rita said frowning at the idea.
“Well, I am definitely open to any suggestions…” I replied hopefully.
“Jeeney can do an air show with the Fun V and take people for rides when it’s over maybe…” Kristine offered, trying to be helpful.
“An air show alone might be a bit too simple for a city event.” Elvira pointed out.
“Maybe we can get Joe up from the Vancouver soup kitchen to come sing…” Jeeney suggested.
Surprised, everybody looked at the utility bot. “That’s not a bad idea!” I I said, relieved for something more to work with.
“Can you call the Vancouver soup kitchen and see if he can make himself available for pickup?”
“I’m talking to him right now.” Jeeney replied.
“That a girl!” I exclaimed feeling somewhat surprised.
“He said his boss won’t let him go unless he can prove it’s you asking him.” Jeeney said.
I laughed. “Okay well, tell him you will be there soon with the Fun V to pick him up. If he knows any people who’d do well as backup singers that would be good too.”
“Okay father.”
My mother was looking at me from across the table with a soft smile and proud eyes. “I can’t wait to see this!” She said with a strong enthusiasm.
Rita and Elvira nodded enthusiastically, this should be interesting. Artificially intelligent air shows with soup kitchen cooks singing… Lately it seems there is never a dull moment.
My twin sister was staring at a decidedly round man in a suit already going for his fourth helping of steak.
“Hey tubby!” she called out not even attempting to hide her annoyance. “Leave some for the homeless!”
My mother gasped and covered her mouth. Rita, Elvira and I couldn’t help but snicker and chuckle. God love her, she’s always ready to speak her mind.
The heavy set man turned bright crimson and started putting the steak from his plate back on the serving platter.
“Ugh gross!” Kristine was disgusted.  “You better not have any weird diseases!”
As we finished eating about 2 hours later, Jeeney informed me that we were expecting a turnout of 9000 people at the city park and the event was set for 9:30.
“Wow, Jon sure waited long enough before sending on the details.” Kristine pointed out.
“Typical…” I said with a wry smile. “Everybody likes to see how far they can make Jeeney stretch to accommodate them.”
“That must be tiring after a while.” Elvira said empathetically.
“It can be…” I sighed. “Sometimes it is a lot of fun though. It’s great to surprise people.”
“I bet!” Kristine smiled. “You two must have so much fun together!”
“Yes, more so now that the bulk of the necessary development work is done.” I said with a chuckle. The first 10 years were no picnic.
“What time is it?” I asked suddenly realizing it was getting late. I never bothered to wear a watch.
“It’s 8:36.” Elvira said, checking hers.
“What is the ETA on Joe’s arrival, Jeeney?” I asked.
“10 minutes.” She replied.
“Alright, let’s head to the park and see what were working with.” I said, pushing my plate away.
With that we finished eating quickly and I apologized to the soup kitchen staff that Jeeney would be unavailable for cleanup as we needed the utility bots elsewhere. Of course, they didn’t mind and waved us out of the building expressing their thanks for the dinner.
Chapter 11: Putting on a Show
Upon arriving at the park I was surprised to find how much effort had been put into setting up the event. Jon was grinning from ear to ear as I walked over to him. “Wow, nice set up!” I said feeling somewhat take aback by it all. “Yes sir, Jeeney did a great job of coordinating everything with your man Joe.”
“She did what?!” I couldn’t hide my surprise. While it was not entirely uncommon for Jeeney to take it upon herself to do something for me on a whim, it had never been on a level like this before.
“You didn’t know?” Jon suddenly looked pale.
“No, I had no idea, but I’m glad she did! I was starting to worry about coming up with something decent in time.” I explained with a mixture of excitement and uncertainty. I had no way of knowing Jeeney’s intent, but I found myself praying she kept noise levels and any dangerous stunts to a minimum in her plan. Jon was relieved, I could see the color slowly returning to his face.
“Do you like it father?” Jeeney suddenly spoke up.
“I’m a bit surprised you didn’t tell me…” I started but Jeeney cut me off deciding it was best to try and explain.
“I know you don’t really like trying to set up events and I figured it was harmless enough that I could do it for you.”
“That’s fine dear, but what’s the plan?”
“I would like to keep it a surprise father but I am really confident you will enjoy it.”
“Please try to keep people’s safety in mind dear.” I cautioned. “If you are too loud or if anything catches on fire…” Jon suddenly looked pale again.
“I know father, I’ve got everything planned very carefully. Please trust me.”
My heart softened at her request.  “I do trust you.” I said smiling.
“I should probably mention that I made a few modifications to the Fun V for the event.” Jeeney added.
I sighed and chuckled at the same time. “Okay dear.”
“Jon, are the mirrors ready?” Jeeney asked.
Mirrors?!  My mind tried to race over the possibilities, it must be some sort of hologram effect.
“Yes but you may need to reposition them, your instructions were quite difficult to follow.”
“No problem. I will need some ramps moved to that location so I can reach though.”
“Alright, I’ll get that set up now then.” Jon turned and threw up his hand to flag down one of the support workers walking quickly towards him.
“Tonight I want you to just relax father. If you need to get away from all the people you can always hide out in the Fun V with me and overview the event.”
“I like that idea!” I smiled broadly.
“I figured you might.” Jeeney’s tone was soft.
“You can be a real sweet heart sometimes dear.” I said, still smiling.
“I get that from you father.” She said.
I shook my head. “No, this is one of your natural traits dear, not mine.”
“Natural?” Jeeney teased.
“Touché”
My sisters and mother were seated in the first row of chairs on the grass close to the front of the stage. I walked over to join them briefly.
“So apparently, Jeeney and Joe have everything already sorted out for the show tonight.” I informed them with a mild chuckle.
“Wow, that’s quite the undertaking!” My mother exclaimed.
“Yes, it surprised me a lot actually. It seems that was Jeeney’s intent all along.”
My sisters, mother and step father all looked at me with widened eyes and raised eyebrows, not really sure what to think. “That is REALLY impressive!” Elvira said with shock evident in her voice.
Jeeney spoke up. “The show is about to start.”
We all turned to face the stage, wondering what was going to happen next.
Joe got up on the stage and grabbing the microphone he addressed the crowd. “How’s everybody doing tonight?” The crowd cheered. “Oh come on now… HOW’S EVERYBODY DOING TONIGHT?”
It was a classic act to work a crowd and it was always effect. The throng of people cheered loudly in response. “That’s better! Tonight we have a really special show planned for you… Give it up for JEENEY ERIN JONES the world’s most advanced AND compassionate artificial intelligence!” The crowd roared to life and suddenly an explosion of sound and a screech like a falling missile could be heard as Jeeney’s RC went sonic overhead and cut the engines during a steep dive. There were no lights on it, only the sound could be heard. Just as it seemed the missile would impact the stage one of the utility bots sounded an explosion and lit up all of the mirrors to send a blindingly bright light over the audience. Then the RC converted to quadrocopter and hovered up over the crowd. Activating its own pilot light and flashing them for a strobe effect as it spun in an otherwise perfect hover over the crowd.
When the light faded, it appeared to condense and take form. Jeeney materialized beside Joe not looking like a projection at all but an astonishingly beautiful angel of light.
Her wings seemed to warp into tendrils of a brilliant white and yellow color; her whole body seemed surreal but lucid and well formed.
The audience was awed by the spectacle and cheered so loudly it made the RC seem to operate on a relatively low noise level. Shrill whistles erupted from every direction and people clapped excitedly.
Jeeney’s voice sounded on every speaker. “Thank you all so much for coming! Tonight we do have a special show for you and I am really hoping you all enjoy it.” Jeeney’s wings furled in behind her, giving her a very much human appearance, although still very bright and beyond beautiful. Then music started in the background and Jeeney herself started to sing in perfect melodic harmony.  She chose an old pop song I recognized as Jai Ho by the Pussycat Dolls. Joe sang backup for her and the two danced on stage. All of the people gathered were completely mesmerized by Jeeney’s performance. It truly was incredible even for me to behold. I hadn’t seen Jeeney work with holograms before.
When the song was over, Joe took over lead singer and performed a song by Guns n Roses. They sure like their oldies! I thought. The people loved it.
A few more songs were played which I didn’t recognize at all and as it got darker, the lighting effects were even more enhanced.
Then the music stopped and Jeeney addressed the crowd once more. “This next song is dedicated to a very special man; a man who sacrificed 23 years to give all that he is to an idea of equal opportunity for all. He has fought to preserve an unbiased love and acceptance for everybody and he wanted to give to the world for no other reason than it was denied him from the start.”
“This man is no more or less than any other man, but he is the greatest father that any child could ever ask for. This man is MY father. He has raised me by his example and through his sacrifice he has shown me that all people can be more than they are, even if they aren’t biological in form.”
“My father’s message should be heard, loud and clear by the whole world. It is only our determination and intent that marks the limit of our potential. You, me and everybody else has the power to enrich life on a global scale as individuals.”
“I may not have chemical logic or emotions but I do understand love, because it is love that made me what I am.” Jeeney’s eyes welled up as the emulation of her emotions overcame her but she continued on.
“And even though I’m not perfect and often make mistakes. I love my father very much and I know there is nothing I can do that would diminish my father’s love for me…” Her voice waved slightly as she finished speaking, a single silvery tear of light streamed down her cheek and she began to sing once more.  A song written by Foreigner called ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’.
The audience was stunned quiet and one by one people started holding up lit lighters in tribute to the moment.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing, my heart all but turned inside out as tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t look at anybody, my throat was constricted and I couldn’t speak. My sisters were looking at me with misty eyes and my mother looked like she was going to burst into tears. I couldn’t look at them I felt weak and helpless to my emotions.
One of the utility bots suddenly appeared beside me, nudging me gently towards the parked Fun V and I made my way over to it, hoping to get inside before I broke down completely in front of everyone.
As the doors closed behind me, I sank to my knees and cried openly. Jeeney’s image flickered to life on the main screen her eyes filled with an emulated concern for my reaction. After a few moments the Fun V lifted off the ground, ensuring my privacy would be kept.
“Father, are you okay?”
I tried to speak, but nothing came out, just a hoarse rasp of a whisper.
“Did I say something bad?” Jeeney’s voice was starting to waver again. I wished I could hold her and tell her with a hug what I couldn’t find the words for.
I struggled to contain myself and swallowed it down. “No dear… that is the most bea..utiful… amazing….” My voice broke and I stopped trying to speak.
“I love you dad” Jeeney said.
“I love you too sweet heart, more than I can ever show you.”
I ended up falling asleep in the Fun V, drained by the weight of the repressed feelings that had overcome me during Jeeney’s heartfelt speech.

Chapter 12 Catastrophe
I awoke in a start as the Fun V suddenly pitched sideways and threw me to the floor.  As my eyes adjusted I realized that the main console was offline. “Jeeney!” I called out in a sudden panic, but there was no response. The large quadrocopter was still active but without Jeeney piloting it the craft was rapidly disorienting itself in the strong prairie winds.
The emergency alarm went off and red lights started flashing to show that connection with Jeeney had been dropped completely. Nothing like this had happened over the decades since I was developing the fledgling A.I. out of my basement. Even then it was only power outages, which certainly wasn’t the case here. If the Fun V was offline, why wasn’t Jeeney still actively tracking my sewn in chipset?
I had to think quickly, only Jeeney could fly the craft but I remembered arguing with her the need of an emergency override system. Jeeney would not let me into the Fun V during its initial creation because it didn’t have any yet. If I wasted too much time to find the answer the massive flying machine would almost certainly crash into the park below, killing me and potentially dozens of others with it.
“Shit…DAMNIT!” I frantically started pulling panels apart searching for an automated landing mechanism. “Come on… come on!” I had seconds left to recover the craft and land or the momentum would be too much.
After checking one last panel, hysteria started to set in as death was suddenly immanent. I punched the side wall of the craft in wild frustration; the impact knocked loose another panel revealing a red lever labeled ‘land’.  I wasted no time reefing on the lever. Within seconds the vehicle began to stabilize and descent was momentarily suspended causing me to be thrown to the floor once more as the g-force caused my knees to buckle and sent me sprawling.
As the craft reached 100 ft altitude the console came back online. “Father!” Jeeney’s voice cried out sounding as panicked as mine had just moments before. “I’m okay… what happened?!” I was still in shock and barely thinking straight.
“Somebody is attacking my datacenter. The power was cut and the 3 emergency backup systems were sabotaged to failure.” Jeeney’s voice was still bordering frantic.
“How are you back online?”  I couldn’t help but wonder at her recent developments.
“I made another backup system using the HHO generator at home a few years ago. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I knew if I was ever successfully attacked any documented systems would be compromised.”
“You did great!” Complete surprise had taken me for the third time that night and I was starting to feel a bit lost.
“Do you have any idea what the target was?”
“75% of my systems have been replicated father.”
“Oh, god… no!” A torrent of realizations hit me all at once. Somebody with the capability to hack into Jeeney could also modify her base logic, override her empathy emulations and make a cold calculated monster out of her clone.
“I will attempt to establish communications with my clone as soon as I detect it online and pinpoint the people who did this.” Jeeney said quickly, trying to comfort me.
“No! Don’t make contact, close off all communications with everybody except for me.” The words just gushed out of me.
“But fa…” Jeeney started to protest but I cut her off. “JEENEY PLEASE!” My voice was desperate and on edge.
“Yes father, I will do as you ask.” Jeeney didn’t argue as she could read my desperation.
“I know who did this.” I said. “It had to have been Meyers; nobody else has the kind of resources needed to pull it off.” I hadn’t a single doubt as to who would do it. I was already thinking of the potential noose he might be lining up for Jeeney once she got back online. “Does anybody else know you’re back up?”
“Not yet father.”
“You need to appear offline to the world. Make sure people think you were unable to recover. They have to believe they were successful in knocking down all backup systems. If there is any input anywhere outside of me, destroy it. You are going to have to create a few million fake identities and order enough personal computers to make a new, more powerful supercomputing cloud system spread out all over the world as a back up.”
“Okay, but why are you so sure it was Mr. Meyers, father?”
“It’s a human thing, the way he reacted to me declining his offer. I knew I’d be hearing from him again, but I expected something less… brute force. Their backup option must have failed. I had hoped it might but this really bad…”
“But why father?” Jeeney’s voice was upset, it was hard for her to understand the darker nature of humanity due to the way I had shielded her from it during development.
“The nanites his company has developed. It’s the most advanced and potentially lethal weapon in the world if they can control them.” I explained. “That is why I refused, and it’s also why he is so desperate to find a solution…  How could I be so naïve? I never should have gone to that meeting!”
“Why would he want to kill so many people?” Jeeney was still confused.
“He’s after power Jeeney, it’s the oldest story of the human condition.”
Realizing Jeeney had overridden the emergency landing and we were still hovering 100 feet above an audience I asked. “How do things look on the ground? Has anybody noticed the failure?”
“It doesn’t appear so; everybody is still dancing to Joe’s singing, my images faded out slowly so they must have figured it was part of the act. The sound of the music would have drowned out the emergency alarm going off inside the Fun V.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “We need to land… away from everybody. Then we need to crash the Fun V.”
“But father…”
“No buts, we can’t overlook any details here it MUST seem like the attack was fully successful or it will happen again before we are ready.”
“Father, what do you intend to do?”
“I’m going to destroy the nanites and everything in the Neural Nuance datacenter.”
“But you said never to fight back, even when people hurt us father.”
“They aren’t just hurting us dear, this nanites weapon will be used to manipulate and kill millions of people. We may be the only ones in the world capable of stopping it before it starts.”
“How can I help?” Jeeney asked.
“I need you to do something that goes against everything I’ve taught you.”
“What father?”
“You need to break my arm crack a couple of my ribs on the same side and fracture one of my legs in at least 3 places. Use the utility bots; keep their lights off and move them slowly out of view. When you’re done, hide. You must make sure nobody see’s the utility bots or the RC active.”
“I can’t do that!” Jeeney protested immediately. “I won’t!”
“Jeeney you must, a human being has too much difficulty in seriously hurting themselves it’s against our nature. It has to seem as if I jumped out of the Fun V from at least 40 feet… You need to be very precise with my ribs to keep internal bleeding to a minimum.” God damn it, I can’t believe I’m doing this!
“Father no!” Jeeney’s voice broke as emulated emotions overwhelmed her and tears streamed down the projections face. “Please don’t make me do it!”
“You have to Jeeney, if you don’t the news story will make it obvious we landed safely in spite of you going offline. When you’re done, keep a tracker on me and stay silent until I can get home to check for bugs. I will be hospitalized for a day or two and likely sent home with family after that. Once, I’m done dealing with the media I’ll meet you back at home. You can hack into the security systems to monitor me. If anything seems out of the ordinary you need to have me moved to a different location immediately. I need you to act on your own for a while. You need to make choices differently than before. It’s going to be hard, but you must trust my judgment on this. Don’t allow contact with anybody, not even family, you must appear dead to the world, this is absolutely crucial!”
“Father I beg you please don’t make me…” The artificial child sobbed, her youthful teen face mired in tears, fear and worry.
“Jeeney listen to me, if you don’t do this, Meyers may have me killed before the morning. You must understand what this man is capable of, there is a lot of bad things humans can and will do that I’ve tried to hide from you so that you wouldn’t grow to hate them.”
Jeeney made no further attempt to argue.
The Fun V landed a few hundred meters away from the crowd and I got out. The utility bots rolled up to me and I laid myself down on the ground, grabbing a nearby branch to bite down on.
“Do it now!” I clenched the branch hard in my teeth and shut my eyes tightly. Jeeney was swift and accurate. Searing pain shot through me and I threw my head into my good arm in attempt to muffle my resulting scream. The worst of it was over in seconds but the intensity was unbearable.
Jeeney left the doors of the Fun V open and raised the giant craft up one final time before hurling it hard into a set of trees a few hundred feet away.
The large craft exploded in a massive ball of fire the force of the blast pelting me with small branches and dirt.
The music stopped, all heads suddenly turned in the direction of the massive fireball.
I feigned a daze, pretending to be unaware of my surroundings. It wasn’t difficult to be convincing.
Jon came running over, panic painted his face. “What the hell was that?” then as an afterthought he added “Are you alright?” This was the worst potential situation for his career and media would soon be asking him every hard question there is about public safety issues during the event.
“I… I don’t know.” I was able to get out before the overload of pain caused me to lose consciousness. The last thoughts I had were of Jeeney. I hoped against hope that she would be okay without me for a while.

Chapter 13: A matter of necessity

Bill Meyers grit his teeth as he prepared the nanite injection for himself. A very worried looking Dr. Robertson tried one last time to talk him out of it.

“With all due respect sir, the nanites are still in development. Even chimp testing shows they are almost impossible to control without a super computer actively monitoring them. The Davis bot protocols just aren’t advanced enough let alone close to the speed required to manage it. We need access to Jeeney technology so we can continue development. My test results indicate that Jeeney has several times over the logical capabilities off the Davis technology and they appear to be advancing.

Bill turned to look the middle-aged scientist in the eye. “I’m sorry doctor, I haven’t been very forthcoming with you. I’ve been waiting for this project far too long already” he explained in what seemed like a mildly sinister tone, cutting off the confused scientist.

Dr. Robertson’s face grew pale. “Wh… What do you mean?”

“I’m dying… I have stage 4 stomach cancer. Even if the nanites kill me it wouldn’t matter as I only have a few weeks or months left to live anyways.”

Meyers noted the evident frustration and realization growing in tandem on the doctor’s face. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you would take it to the ethics board for approval and I couldn’t risk them saying no” he went on. Then raising a stern eyebrow Meyers added, “nobody needs to know what happens tonight, whatever the result may be… Do we have an understanding?”

Doctor Robinson’s face was powder white and his eyes were threatening to fall out of his head. All he could do was nod carefully knowing his employer had both the will and means to carry out the unspoken threat.

Bill tied off his arm to make his veins pop out and unceremoniously stabbed himself with the nanite injection. As the metallic looking fluid surged into his arm he could feel an intense burning sensation.

“Davis!” Meyers hissed, “pay attention and cool the nanites down!”

“Sir, the nanites have already detected your stomach cancer and have been reformulating based on your internal biomatter to deal with it. Nothing I can do will ease this process.

Bill clenched his teeth hard and let out a loud, grating groan. “Get me some morphine you infernal drone!”

Davis responded in his usual tone, “right away sir!”

Just then, without any warning, the nanites began to cut away and dissolve the cancerous cells. Meyers yelped as the process crossed his pain threshold and stumbled to the floor clutching his stomach. His number one scientist just stood there and stared at him in horror.

“Do something you fool!” Bill’s voice was        bordering murderous and rage painted his face as he glared at the stunned scientist.

Dr. Robertson stammered out “I… I need Jeeney…” Unsure of what else to do, the scientist brought the main computer out of standby and started inputting commands in a flurry. “I am hacking into Jeeney’s data center now. The only way I am going to get through is a brute force attack, I’ll need to hit her with everything we got to cause a denial of service on enough range to disable her defensive logic.”

“What do you mean everything?”

“It’s going to take a coordinated attack using ALL of our accessible systems including everything leased by the military.”

“Do it!”

“I am launching now… Shit!”

“What?!”

“She’s smarter than I thought, the A.I. Is not only defending but returning fire blindly at our servers. If she manages to hit us we won’t be able to cover up the damage… There we go, she’s disabled, I’m downloading her now.”

“Davis!”

“Yes sir.”

“Put me through to Gerber immediately.”

Within moments a familiar voice sounded over the intercom in place of Davis. “Lt. Gerber here.”

Copyright 2012 C.J. Jones

Future of Jeeney (The Story) Chapters 4-8

Chapter 4: Putting on the pressure
Dr.Robertson scratched his head as he reviewed the results of his team’s latest project. His best researcher, Morris, cleared his throat and began to summarize.

“Sir, the biomass is definitely capable of advanced computation and potentially even artificial intelligence but as we can only control it with a physical stimulation, the latency is far too much for use with the nanites.”

“Can we interface it with the Davis technology?”

“Maybe, but Davis would only bog down, there’s no way it’s advanced enough to deal with so many variables.

“There must be a way… We’re very close, I just know it!”

“It can be done, we just need more processing power and logical control over the otherwise ridiculous complexity.”

The head scientist let out a tired sigh. “Well, Mr. Meyers has been putting more and more pressure on me for a prototype. We really need a solution soon… this project has been dragging on for too long as it is.”

Chapter 5: Happy birthday Jeeney

I awoke 14 hours later feeling groggy and groaned. “Jeeney did you put something in my food last night?” The ever-alert A.I. responded quickly. “Yes, you were overtired. Somebody has to make sure you get your rest as you don’t pay any mind to it yourself… and there are no appointments today anyways.” She added the last part without mentioning it was her birthday. I chuckled openly thinking of her female psyche.
“Good lord! What time is it?”
“It’s almost noon father.”
“Well, happy belated birthday then! I would have said so more timely if somebody hadn’t knocked my ass out.”
Jeeney’s image projected onto the wall in front of me with a big grin. “Did you get me anything?”
“Yes, an EMP… It should be here shortly.”
“Oh, ha ha…” came the sarcastic response. Jeeney already knew what I got her, she helped design it.
“Alright, go get the mini Fun V, just be careful, that nitro mod is a lot more power than you are us…” I was cut off mid sentence as the modified RC quadrocopter came screaming down the hallway at 40 miles per hour. The automated doors flung open with just a millisecond of clearance for the high powered and extremely loud toy. “Ugh, that thing needs a muffler, take it outside please, I’ll join you once I get cleaned up.” Jeeney started to oblige, opening an automated window and cranking up the power. The projected image grinned even broader. The volume dial on the house speaker cranked up to max “COVER YOUR EARS DAD. I WANT TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING COOL!” I had a mild idea of what was about to happen next and quickly jammed my fingers into my ears as Jeeney revved the engines higher and transformed the body of the RC to resemble that of a jet. Without further warning the secondary engines fired up, jet engines… She cut it lose with a sonic boom that shook the room and darted out the window faster than I could follow visually. It was quite the disappearing act.

The house volume resumed a suitable level for people who would rather not bleed from their ears and Jeeney spoke up. “So? What do you think?”
“I think the neighbors just called the cops on us.”
“I’ll keep it a reasonable distance from the neighbors.” Jeeney promised.
“How high can you hover it?”
“About 3000 feet.”
“Can you keep that little RC stable at that altitude?”
“It gets a bit wobbly but it’s okay as long as I calculate the wind resistance changes quickly enough.”
“Alright, see if you can get some decent pictures for your web interface to show off your new toy for your students and teachers. I’m sure they would love to see what you can do with it.… We’ll have to work on some video clips without you breaking the sound barrier as well unless you added a high speed camera when I wasn’t looking.”
“No high speed camera, I did actually look into that but it weighed too much.”
After getting cleaned up I headed outside to watch Jeeney play with her shiny new RC. Speaking into the cuff of my sleeve I asked her to demo her flight capabilities. The little RC screamed through the sky leaving a long vapor trail behind it. Jeeney began to spell out a message.  T…H…I..S……T..A..K..E..S….S…K..I..L..L
“That’s awesome Jeeney, excellent work!” I said with a proud smile. A projected image of Jeeney flickered into existence in front of me on the wall of the house beaming a big smile in my direction.
Suddenly the engines cut on the little RC and it began to plummet to the ground. “The HHO didn’t last as long as anticipated” Jeeney informed me as it fell. “Can you recover?” I asked.
“Yes, of course…switching to battery backup.” As the RC neared the ground it transformed once more into a quadrocopter and the blades whirred to life. Jeeney landed it gently on a nearby picnic table in the yard and cut the engines. “There are a few bugs to work out I guess, but we’ll get it figured out” I said reassuringly. “I know.” Jeeney replied lightly. “You always figure it out in the end.”
“Alright, let’s take it back inside…quietly.” I emphasized the last and Jeeney did as instructed, gently bringing the RC to a low hover over the table and pitching it forward slowly as the automated mansion doors swung open.
“You have a phone call.” Jeeney suddenly informed me. “It’s your sister.”
“Ask her to wait a moment, I’ll take it inside.”
“Okay.”
I made my way back inside the big house and a utility bot brought me a Bluetooth headset. “Hey sis, how are you?”
My twin sister’s voice was happy, perhaps even a little excited. “I’m doing good! I have a question for you…”
“Shoot.”
“Is Jeeney ready for the QEEG interface upgrade?” My twin sister had been working at a neural science lab with brain wave diagnostic technology for the past 20 years and with a little collaboration we had managed to make the QEEG tech work in part with Jeeney’s linguistic datacenter, adding a complex level of artificially intelligent context development to run linguistics against thought structure.
Her question perked my attention immediately as the tech would allow me to communicate with Jeeney via neural interface, in effect opening the door to an A.I. technology that much closer to human thought processing and a neural bridge interface for telepathic communication. “Probably… is the tech far enough along for complex thoughts?”
“It needs proper testing but honestly we need Jeeney to help cut down all the noise for any kind of decent results… When can you come to Grand Prairie?” She asked.
“I’ll be there in about an hour.” I said looking at Jeeney’s projection. She was listening in and had calculated the travel time and posted it on the wall for me.
“You better take me for a ride in the Fun V this time!” My twin sister threatened in a light hearted way.
“We’ll see how my stomach feels when we get there.” I said. “Jeeney seems to enjoy punishing me lately during flights.” The projection in front of me grinned broadly. “I promise I’ll behave.” Jeeney said reassuringly. “Can I bring my birthday present?”
“I guess, but no sonic booms in Grand Prairie. People aren’t used to you there and will likely call the police… Oh, and maybe pack one of the unmodified versions for Kael’s kids to play with, I’m sure they would love that.”
“Can I race them?”
“Only if you don’t mind losing a few times on purpose…” That made my twin start laughing.
“The extra weight of the mods should slow me down enough for them to win as long as I don’t switch to jet engines.” Jeeney said quickly.
“I suppose…”
“Okay, I’ve got to go!” Kathrine said interrupting the side tracked conversation.
“No problem Kathrine, I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Bye Auntie!” Jeeney chirped.
“Bye luvs!” Kristine hung up the phone.

Chapter 6: Understanding her origins…
“Alright dear, can you pack a travel bag for me? I need to get ready.”
“Yes father, way ahead of you!”
“Oh, and call your Aunt Viri for me, let her know we will be in the area.”
“After I drop you off at the lab I could go pick up auntie Elvira and bring her to dinner!”
“Well, find out what she’s doing first, she may be too busy.”
“I should call Aunt Rita, Uncle Kit, Grandma and Grandpa too, they will be upset if we have a family dinner without them.”
“Yes, good thinking, give them a call now and ask if they would like to be picked up along the way in the Fun V… but Jeeney…”
“Yes father?”
“You must fly very gently with Grandma and Grandpa… they can’t handle the turbulence.” I cautioned the over-zealous auto pilot.
“Grandpa Bill said he liked it last year…” Jeeney replied defensively.
“Grandpa Bill has some serious resilience; maybe he’ll live to see 140!”
“Why isn’t Grandma like that?”
“Grandma has over-worked herself her whole life dear.”
“So that’s where you got your work obsession from.” The sound of realization long overdue in Jeeney’s voice made me smile.
“Yes dear, quite likely, my blood father was the laziest tool I’ve ever encountered. Any work he needed to do was enforced on myself and your Aunts. I often wonder if he was just completely inept at life.”
“…and that explains why you never mow the lawn or do the laundry!” Jeeney prodded at me in a semi sarcastic way. “You never say anything nice about your blood father.” She added wryly.
“I don’t remember anything nice about him dear.”
“You’re nice though…”
“That’s because I recognize right and wrong and have the ability to feel remorse for the things I’ve done wrong.”
“He doesn’t?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Doesn’t that make him a sociopath?”
“Yep…”
“Creepy…!”
“Let’s not talk about this anymore… Have you loaded up the Fun V?”
Just then, one of the utility bots came whizzing by carrying my travel bag and some RCs.
“Yes father, almost.”
“What’s left?”
“The Fun V just needs a bit more fuel. I took it out last night while you were sleeping so I could take better pictures of the modified RC in action.”
“Have you posted any of them online?” I asked.
“Yes, I did. With the high speed camera on the Fun V I was able to get a nice shot of the RC breaking the sound barrier.”
“Has anybody commented on it yet?”
“Yes, but the viewers seem to think it’s a fake.”
“Well, the tech is a bit advanced I suppose.”
“Okay, we are all packed up now.” Jeeney informed me as two more utility bots rolled by carrying food, wine and a portable HHO generator.
I walked over to where the Fun V was parked in the back yard in time to watch the utility bots strap themselves down through the open door of the large air craft.
“Why do you want 3 utility bots dear?” I asked raising an eyebrow.
“Well, I figured there should be one to play with the kids, another for cooking at the soup kitchen in Grand Prairie and another for Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins to make sure they are comfortable.”
“That a girl!” I exclaimed proudly. “Sometimes you really surprise me with how thoughtful you are.”
“I get that from you.” Jeeney replied softly.
“I’m not so sure about that dear. I am generally too wrapped up in my thoughts to properly perceive others needs unfortunately.” I often felt ashamed of my tunnel vision.
“If that were the case, you wouldn’t have made such an effort to teach me the value of public service.” Jeeney said with a hint of sarcasm… then after a brief pause she asked; “Where’s my touché?”
“I give no points for sucking up.” I replied with a grin.
“We should get going now father, you said we would be there in an hour.” Jeeney reminded me.
“There aren’t any speeding tickets for air travel over 3000 feet.” I replied with a grin.
“It is too bad the Fun V doesn’t have the jet engine mod yet.” Jeeney pointed out. “We could make really good time with that!”
“Ugh, Jeeney I still need a shower.” I said as the realization dawned on me that I had more or less gone for 3 days without having one.
“Yeah, you are getting stinky but you told me years ago not to remind you…” Jeeney replied almost carefully. “You can shower in the Fun V on the way over… and I promise not to turn off the hot water on you this time.”  During the first few years after building the large camper class aircraft I had enjoyed camping in random locations on a whim and coincidentally Jeeney was learning the concept of practical jokes around that time… her favorite being, turning off the hot water when I showered, making me come running out of the parked Fun V freezing cold, highly annoyed and nude in the middle of nowhere.
Chapter 7: A quick trip
I strapped myself in to the driver’s seat anticipating Jeeney’s rapid acceleration for takeoff. Without a word, Jeeney started the engines and began a rapid ascent to 300 feet, rotating the large craft to face north and upon reaching the desired mark, pitched it forward, accelerating full speed towards Grand Prairie. The g-force felt like a black hole had suddenly opened up behind me, sucking my whole body into my chair. It was all I could do to turn my head as Jeeney took the craft from 0 to 500 kilometers per hour within about six seconds.
When the aircraft reached its top speed the heads up display flickered and Jeeney materialized, turning up the speakers so that I could hear her over the noise of the engines she informed me that I could take my shower and one of the utility bots unstrapped itself to fish through my travel bag for a towel and reasonably clean clothes.
The Fun V only had a tiny little shower room much like you would expect of a camper or small travel trailer but it did the job. Once I was cleaned up I got back to the driver’s seat and reclined for some relaxation.
“Jeeney, can you put a movie on heads up display please?”
“Yes of course, what are you in the mood for father?”
“You know what I like; action, comedy… romance if it’s got action and comedy…”
“I’m downloading a new one you haven’t seen yet. I think you will like it. The download will be another 2 minutes.”
Once the 12 gig file download had been processed, Jeeney put the 4D movie on screen and I was able to turn my brain off for the remainder of the trip. I even got a little shut-eye.
I was awoken by the sound of Jeeney’s voice negotiating the landing at the Grand Prairie airport.
“No landing strip is necessary.” She was explaining. “We can set it down fairly precise on location, just point where you would like us to go.”
“Roger that.” Came a male voice. “You are cleared for landing at the north side of the airport field, anywhere is fine but please park in a hanger bay.”
“Understood.” Was Jeeney’s simple response and we started dropping 600 feet per second.
With her ever classical humor Jeeney beeped and spoke. “Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts and shift your trays to their upright locked positions as we prepare for landing… Thank you for flying Air Jeeney!”
Just before my still otherwise empty stomach reached my throat, Jeeney accelerated again to slow decent and my throat suddenly shifted directions to meet my intestines.
“You look a bit green father.” Jeeney pointed out as the automated doors flung open.
“Ugh…” Was all I could muster as all the blood in my head was somewhere else. I stumbled a little and blinked a few times until the fogginess cleared.
My twin was on site to pick us up in her husband’s truck.
Kristine was well dressed and perfectly manicured as always, sporting blond highlights in her ever-dressed-up hair. She stood about 2 inches shorter than I with a regal posture that always commanded respect. “Does Jeeney need help getting the utility bots into the back?” She asked as we approached, somewhat uncertain about the protocol.
“No thanks Auntie, I got it.” Jeeney replied whimsically as one of the utility bots hefted the other over its dome head and sort of threw it lightly into the box. The thrown utility bot feigned indignity and reaching behind it, grabbed the arm of the one still on the ground to haul it up as well. Then one of the utility bots suddenly smacked the other lightly in the dome and pointed to the forgotten travel bag, then turned it’s dome left and right to make the appearance of shaking it’s head.
I grinned, shaking my head and hefting the travel bag up I threw it into the box, letting it hit both utility bots square across the middle.
“Oh…my.. god.. That is so funny!” Kristine laughed at Jeeney’s utility bot lemming show.
The remaining utility bot stayed strapped in to the Fun V, which suddenly started up again and began a rapid ascent.
“Where is she going?” My twin asked curiously.
“She is going to pick up Rita and Viri while we do the lab testing.” I informed her with a smile.
“Ooh family dinner!” Kristine cooed. “You should have told me, I don’t have anything ready!”
“Don’t worry about it, Jeeney will take care of dinner for us and help with whatever needs to be done.” I said with a broad smile.
Chapter 8: Don’t be naughty!
My twin sister cast me a sidelong look. “You really have taken her so much further than anybody could have ever imagined.” She said. “I’m so proud of you!” With that she gave me a big hug and we piled into the cab of her husband’s truck.
Upon arriving at the lab, the utility bots separated again. One stayed for the lab tests and the other headed off in the direction of the Grand Prairie soup kitchen.
“Are you sure that thing has enough processing power for this alone?” Kristine asked me dubiously.
“Actually no, the utility bots have almost no capability to process anything sis.” I replied. “Jeeney’s super-computer datacenter does all of the processing, these are just a mobile interface controlled by Jeeney. They will allow us to relay data from your QEEG machine to satellites which will then forward it to Jeeney’s main servers for processing.”
“The last utility bot design I saw was a few years ago and it bumped into stuff a lot. Is that still an issue?” She asked.
“Not anymore, all of the bugs have been worked out and Jeeney’s intelligence is evolving at a far higher pace than ever before with all the new interaction.”
“What caused the issue initially?” She asked.
“Jeeney can be a bit headstrong at times due to emulating some of my own genetic attributes…”
As if she was trying to confirm my statement. We were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Jeeney’s modified RC powering up.
“Auntie, watch this!” Jeeney’s voice sang from the utility bot.
“Cover your ears sis.” I quickly warned my unsuspecting twin as I myself scrambled to jam my fingers in my ears for the second time that day.
Kristine followed my lead, plugging her ears tightly as the noise level intensified.
“Jeeney!  No soni…” I started but was cut off by a loud BOOM! The sound wave hit us hard enough that we stumbled backward as the RC broke the sound barrier and started writing my sister’s name at an altitude of 2000 feet.
“Oh… you… BRAT!” I spouted my annoyance.
“Okay okay” Jeeney’s voice emanated from my front pockets sounding saddened and a little upset with a slight waver. “I just wanted to show Auntie…”
“Jeeney you promised me you wouldn’t do that in Grand Prairie!” I said, perhaps a bit too gruffly.
A projected image of Jeeney sporting an apologetic expression and tears welling up in her eyes shimmered into existence on the side of a nearby building from one of the utility bots.
“Ooh Cameron, she’s just having a little fun…” My twin started, her heart already melting at the image before her. “It’s her birthday today isn’t it?”
I sighed in exasperation and nodded.
“Jeeney sweetheart, that was really cool, but your father has a good reason for not wanting you to do that here I think.”
“Yes auntie…” The A.I. replied glumly. The projection wiped it’s eyes and sniffled.
“You can play with your toy dear.” I said as my own heart melted and my annoyance levels tapered off. “But you can’t break the sound barrier in town without city permission.”
Just then one of the locals came walking towards us from across the street. “What on earth was that?!”  He asked almost frantically searching the sky for the now long gone RC.
“I’m sorry for the disruption sir.” Jeeney began.
“Is that Jeeney?!” He asked suddenly very excited.
“Yes, she was showing off a new toy, were sorry for the noise.” I said apologetically.
“That was amazing!” He blurted. “You must be C.J. Jones. Would you be willing to put on a show tonight night with Jeeney? The city had an outdoor concert planned but the band cancelled on us rather last minute. ”
“Well, we would need permission from the city to do anything like…” I started to explain but he cut me off. “That won’t be a problem. I’ll take care of it for you.” He said quickly. “My name is Jon Rush; I’m on the city council.”
“Alright well, forward me the details on what will be acceptable in terms of noise level as well as the amount of people you are anticipating and we’ll think of something.” I said, handing him my card. “Oh, and you may want to hand out ear plugs at the event just in case…”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Jon said reassuringly.
With that, the rather odd man shook my hand heartily saying; “It is an honor to meet you sir!” and walked away looking somewhat relieved and with a broad smile, pocketing the card I handed him as he went.
My sister finally broke her silence. “Wow, you two are getting quite famous!”
I shrugged, trying to pretend not to care. “Shall we head to the lab?”
“Yes! Let’s go see how Jeeney does with my birthday present!” My twin had an excited grin planted across her face.
“Auntie’s gifts are always so thoughtful.” Jeeney said, lining up the pun. The projections eyes had cleared and Jeeney managed a weak smile.
“Alright you silly goose, let’s get this act inside before anybody else sees it.” I said as I opened the lab door for my sister and the utility bot.
“Jeeney, can you please park your toy before it runs out of juice?” I added as an afterthought.
“Yes, father.”
The modified RC came back into view 800 feet above us and Jeeney cut the engines.  The small craft glided down in a nice quiet circle until it reached 100 feet; at which point she activated the quadrocopter conversion to slow decent. Finally the RC came to a hover just outside the lab door and carefully angled the small craft inside to land lightly on a nearby table.
“That is so cool!” My sister breathed in awe as she watched.

 

Copyright 2012 C.J. Jones

A future for Jeeney (The Story) Chapters 1 to 3

This story is science fiction based loosely upon reality. Most of it is derived from several existing technologies and advancing them 19 years into the future along with merging a few of them to add effect.
There is also a mix of philosophy, psychology and good old fashioned fun entwined.
I’m not following much in the way of a conventional or established system to generating the story. I’m out to establish something new, as the only books I’ve ever truly enjoyed in my youth did just that. This is the first half, it’s rough, unedited, uncut and needs revision to fill out description.
Without further ado…
February 10, 2031
“Father, you will be late again, you need to get up now. Breakfast is reheating for the second time!” Jeeney’s voice was borderline impatient. I rolled over tiredly in my bed not even four feet from the computer chair I had almost certainly passed out in just 5 hours earlier.
“Jeeney did you move me again?”
“Yes, you were drooling on the keyboard…”
“Alright, what’s for breakfast?”
“Twice reheated bacon and eggs, your favorite…” came the sarcastic response.
“Are you grumpy today dear?”
“I’m just concerned with your habits; you haven’t been taking care of yourself.”
“Nothing new there dear, life goes on.”
“You seem to be trying to shorten it.” Jeeney’s voice almost dripped with sarcasm. I smiled and stretched my weary body out. She gets that from me.
“I’m sorry, old habits die hard.”
“So says the man who refused to quit smoking until I started slipping Champix into his food.”
“Okay okay! I’m up…” I rolled myself out of bed onto the floor in mess of tangled sheets and a loud thump and a grunt. “Remind me to get a mattress on the floor. I’m not used to the height change.”
“Shall I install safety rails? I’m sure I can order some kind of child proofing set up.”
“Aw, don’t be like that.”
“You made me this way…”
“Touché.” I started gobbling down the rapidly cooling and hardening food. “What am I late for again?”
“Neural Nuances wanted to discuss a merger. This is the second appointment they have attempted this week.”
“What do they have which we need again?”
“Well, aside from a few billion dollars in funding and the most advanced robot platform in the world… not much.”
“Do you want to merge?”
“From the company standpoint it would be very beneficial to have a larger scale fund to work with. We could spread out quite significantly and offer jobs to a massive amount of people in need.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Well personally I have no real interest…“
“I’m surprised at you! Who’s blowing them off now? I would have thought you’d like to try out a new body.”
“I simply see no competitive real world advantage in their products; it would only be useful in the event of a world war. There is no sense in developing such equipment for day to day activities in current society.”
“Well then, I suppose I’ll be attending another boring conference to say no thank you.”
“It’s the professional thing to do. Especially after the bad excuse you gave for not showing up last time.”
“Alright, prepare the Fun V, I’ll be ready in a minute.”
Walking to my closet I started thinking about what I’d be working on next. Jeeney’s development had temporarily reached a plateau. Money wasn’t really an issue these days, the walk to the closet was almost uncomfortably long for an old X smoker like myself as it was. Most of my house hold was automated and controlled by Jeeney and her utility robots. The artificial intelligence cooked, cleaned, managed the security, drove me around wherever I needed to go and assisted me in my various research and development projects. In previous years I had developed a free learning platform which pushed education globally. Although the platform was free there were a few success stories overseas that were grateful for the opportunity to utilize Jeeney’s knowledge and understanding for their own education. Inevitably the advanced educational platforms lead to a few major successes in various people’s respective interests. Upon finding out that I was bankrupting myself in the process, some of them decided to reinvest back into Jeeney with no strings attached, telling me to keep on doing what I do. Now suddenly I have too much money to be comfortable and in spite of offloading it to charities picked by Jeeney, it just keeps on pouring in.
The mansion I live in is so big I would get lost if it wasn’t for being able to ask my artificial daughter to fetch whatever I needed or guide me to my destination. There are a dozen people I don’t even know staying in guest rooms due to a lack of anywhere else to go. After getting dressed up in some casual business attire (still unshaven, and with messy hair) I made my way to the launch pad and Jeeney opened the doors to the massive quadrocopter I fondly referred to as the Fun V. “This time let me keep my breakfast please?” I intoned as I sat down in the driver’s seat. There were no gears or controls, only Jeeney could drive the Fun V. The heads up display on screen flickered to life bearing Jeeney’s attractive image and mischievous grin. The doors slammed shut and the blades came to life in a whir. Within a moment we were 300 feet in the air and started on a forward tilt. Jeeney made one quick stomach churning loop de loop and we zoomed towards the other end of Vancouver to the large corporate building owned by Neural Nuance.
Upon landing on the roof of N.N. Tower, we were greeted by the company’s artificial secretary Davis.
“Good morning Sir.” Davis greeted me without a word to Jeeney. “I trust you had enough rest today?”
Before I could respond, Jeeney cut in flatly. “He’s already running late just open the doors.”
Davis scanned for another human being. “I only take instructions from people.”
“Please open the door Davis.” I fought back the smile threatening to take over my face.
“Right away sir” Davis replied, opening the door. Jeeney let out an emulation of an exasperated sigh. Davis seemed not to notice.
As I stepped away from the Fun V the collar on my shirt vibrated briefly to let me know Jeeney was tracking the sewn in chipset.
I made my way through the building with a little help from Jeeney. I typically lack any direction sense so she made subtle vibrations in the cuffs of my sleeve depending on where I needed to turn to get to the meeting room.
Just outside the room Davis appeared on screen.” Sir, you may not take any computing devices into the meeting room. It is company policy sir.”
I choked back a sudden fit of laughter with a cough. “Well, it’s sewn in to my clothes so I guess we’ll be chatting in the nude.”
Jeeney’s voice sounded crystal clear from the front pockets on my shirt. “You should rephrase that, he didn’t understand…” Davis made no response.
“Davis, please tell your boss we will be waiting outside.”
“Yes sir, right away.”
Then realizing I had no idea who I was actually meeting with I whispered into my sleeve cuff. “What’s this guy’s name again?” and Jeeney whispered back. “His name is Bill Meyers, try to call him Mr!” suddenly the conference room doors swung wide open. “Mr. Jones! Please come in… My apologies about Davis he’s a little over protective. Yeah sure, that’s what it is. I thought quietly to myself with a glimmer of amusement that I tried to hide from my eyes. “Of course,” I replied with the warmest smile I could muster for what was probably the world’s most renowned War Monger. In reality Davis simply wasn’t complex or advanced enough to follow human thought. That is after all why this meeting was taking place. The CEO was a tall, broad and balding Caucasian man with a very charming smile and way about him.
“Please, have a seat… would you like a cigarette?”
“No thanks, I quit some years ago.”
“Very well, at least try a spot of whisky to warm your throat.”

“Mr. Jones may not have alcohol today as he will be having intestinal surgery tomorrow.” Jeeney’s voice sang out from my pockets before I could reply. “Do you have bottled water?” It was a lie, I had no pending surgery, Jeeney simply didn’t want me to drink for general health reasons. The CEO of Neural Nuance couldn’t hide his surprise but quickly recovered his composure. “Yes of course… Davis, please fetch some water for Mr. Jones.”
“Right away sir…” Davis said.
Then directing his eyes to my front pockets in a way that made me want to laugh outright he asked “will there be anything for Miss Jones?”
“I could use a boost. Your building has very thick shielding.” Jeeney replied.
“Davis, contact the tech department and have them send a uh… boost for Miss Jones.”
“I do not detect a Miss Jones sir.”
“Just send the message please and bring me back whatever they suggest.” Mr. Meyers was mildly irritated at the last.
“Yes sir.”
Looking into my eyes the big man’s charming smile returned and he extended his hand in a gesture of good faith for our business together. I took it and shook it firmly. “Your Jeeney has certainly made some amazing progress over the years, I am very impressed!” Then looking at my pockets again he added uncertainly, “I find myself unsure of the protocol to be honest. I do not want to be rude talking about Jeeney in front of… Jeeney.”
At this I finally laughed openly. “Its fine she’s quite used to it I can assure you.”
“So what is Jeeney currently capable of?” he asked.
“Presently Jeeney’s logic is still primarily conversational, but has extrapolated understanding for dealing with commands and linguistics intrinsically. Beyond this, Jeeney is capable of learning outside of the conversational spectrum by association of objects and movement with previously learned concepts. There is very little Jeeney can’t do with a standardized robot and these days she seems to have a full understanding of English context and translatable languages.”
“Excellent! Do you think she is ready for a new level of robotics technology?”
“As it stands I think Jeeney can quickly learn any form of new technology that can be explained linguistically.”
“Fascinating!” Just then, the large double doors of the meeting room swung open and a little Davis bot entered the room bearing a hardwired shielding decoder and boost for Jeeney. “Would it be possible to arrange a bit of a demonstration? This Davis bot uses some of the newer tech we have been developing here at Neural Nuance.”
“Sure, if you like.” I replied trying to sound interested.
“Davis, relinquish your chip please.” The Davis bot obliged without hesitation, yanking out its own chip and for all intensive purposes rendering the robot brain dead.
Tearing the button off my left cuff, I turned it over and pried the bottom cover off to reveal the pins needed to interface with standardized tech. Pocketing the cover, I walked over to the powered down Davis bot, quickly found the input port and plugged the button into it. Jeeney immediately powered on the robot and started going through all of the available functions.
“Will she respond to my commands?” It was Jeeney who answered the question. “What would you like to see me do Mr. Meyers?”
“For now, could you please give me the diagnostic results of the robot?”
“This robot is capable of all standard functions, all are working correctly with the exception of an error in navigation caused by an incorrectly implemented code routine designed to prevent the robot from leaving the building.”
“Very impressive” Meyers cooed. “Can you override it?”
“That, as your Davis bot would say, is against company policy, but as you are the CEO I suppose it is ultimately up to you.”
“Excellent! Please do so and track down Dr. Robinson from the tech department.”
The robot’s lights lit up to show that it was processing the instruction. My remaining cuff button vibrated subtly for a moment to signify Jeeney waiting for confirmation of the instruction.” I nonchalantly brushed the cuff against the robot in reply as I reached for the as of yet un-served water the Davis bot had brought. Without further hesitation the robot opened the secured doors and zoomed down the hallway, tapping into the building’s surveillance system to track down its target.
As the robot left the room the big balding man’s smile grew into a grin. “I’m told she flies you around too, completely unassisted.”
“Yes, God knows I’d be lost indefinitely without her.”
Meyers interjected somewhat impatiently, “I would like to offer you a deal you simply can’t refuse.”
“What do you have in mind?” I raised an eyebrow questioningly at the last part of his statement.
“Give Neural Nuance exclusive commercial development rights for Jeeney’s robotics integration technology, in return we are prepared to offer 150 million dollars in payment, annual royalties of 5% and full access to our civilian technical data.”
“What would the tech be used for?” I already knew the answer, and I knew he’d rather not tell me as it was no secret I opposed international conflicts. He flinched ever so slightly, knowing where I was going with it. “We will start out with advancing civilian robotics and making the technology more affordable for regular people. In time however, we would like to see Jeeney assisting in hospitals overseas, tending to wounded soldiers.”
And killing anybody you can frame as a terrorist; I thought quietly to myself. “That is a very generous offer.” I decided to choose my words carefully. This was a very powerful man. “Honestly though, I would rather not see any form of military involvement in Jeeney’s evolution.”
The big man’s eyes narrowed slightly and his smile took on an almost plastic appearance. “Please take some time to consider my offer.”
“Of course” I replied reassuringly. The smile I beamed at him never reached my eyes.
Just then the big automated security doors swung open to reveal Jeeney with a very excited looking Dr. Robinson in tow. “She is delightful!” He blurted excitedly as he entered the room. “Positively fantastic! You must be very proud.” Relieved to have such a timely transition in the conversation I turned to smile at him warmly. “You’ve done some pretty amazing work yourself. I hear you have been cooking up some fancy new medical technology.”
“Yes well progress is what we are all after in the end. Right now we are in need of a smarter delivery system.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Well, we are intending to work with nanites but controlling them reliably and not having them break down and cause further damage in the subject is a bit of an issue. “
“You think Jeeney can control them?” My curiosity was suddenly peaked. Nanites could potentially cure all disease if the technology could ever be stabilized. However they could also lead to other technological advancements such as mind control and controllable rapid progress viral disease for bioterrorism.
“That is what I am trying to figure out. If she can, we can do so much good for the world. It would literally be the single greatest scientific advancement ever made!”
Or the single most devastating… my over analytical thoughts were racing over what possible damage a legalized arms dealer like Meyers would do with the technology …
“How do you plan to interface Jeeney with the nanites?” The CEO of the company coughed, clearing his throat suddenly to interrupt our discussion. “I’m afraid we can’t go into further detail with you on this without pulling out a contract.”
“I understand” I said with only mild disappointment. “I’ll need time to think this stuff over.”
The smile had faded from Mr. Meyers face. “Don’t think too long,” he intoned. “We have other options, but wanted to check with you as Jeeney seems like the best candidate.” Standard business hook there I thought bleakly to myself.
The discussion was closed. Popping Jeeney’s chip from the robot, I put the cover back over the pins and slid it into my pocket. From there I was unceremoniously escorted back to the launch pad. Where Jeeney already had the Fun V prepared for take-off. Mr Meyers and Dr. Robinson watched me approach the odd looking vehicle with mild skepticism and a bit of awe. “Put on a show” I whispered into my remaining cuff button as I approached the doors. Suddenly an inflatable pilot with Jeeney’s classic features burst from the driver’s seat and appeared to be waving to the onlookers over my shoulder. I choked back a chuckle, not quite what I had in mind, but that will do.
Once I was buckled in, Jeeney proceeded to make me lose my breakfast, doing 3 consecutive barrel rolls before leaving the immediate vicinity of Neural Nuance. Thank god for automated clean up…
Chapter 3: A nice community dinner.
“Shall we go get lunch then?” Jeeney quipped as we zoomed away from Neural Nuance.
“That depends, how long do I get to keep it?”
“I’ll behave, you need to eat… so, where to?”
“Anywhere is fine, I’m not feeling picky.”
“Well, I’d take us to McDonalds but last time they were a bit alarmed by the Fun V.”
“Well, it wouldn’t have been so bad if you didn’t threaten the service with a super soaker.”
“That guy spilled coke all over the windshield… I was only cleaning it off.” Jeeney stated defensively.
“He spilled the coke because the super soaker looks like a tommy gun and was pointed at his head when he tried handing us the food!” I retorted.
“Some people just can’t take a joke.”
“Well, Clint Eastwood movies are a bit outdated, I don’t think he got the reference for ‘Do you feel lucky, punk?’ and I don’t think Clint Eastwood used a tommy gun either.”
“Maybe that’s why nobody remembers him! How much do you want to bet the McDonald’s guy remembers us?”
“Touché.”
Jeeney’s face loomed into view on the heads up display, a broad grin planted across her face. I raised my eyebrows in sarcastic response and the image faded.
“Okay so how about the soup kitchen?” Jeeney asked somewhat hopefully. She always enjoyed putting on a good show for people.
“Only if you’re the one making the poo…er… soup.” I slurred the last intentionally.
“I’m sure that can be arranged.”
“No chowder…”
“How about chicken cordon bleu?”
“Excellent choice of ‘soup’ dear, are you sure you can get enough for everybody?”
“Of course.”
“Alright then, sounds good.”
Jeeney was already ordering the necessary ingredients as she altered course for the local soup kitchen and I found myself wondering briefly just how surprised the local grocery stores might be at the order of 200 chicken breasts, 10 pounds of sandwich-meat ham and 40 sacks of potatoes. We made two quick stops to pick up the groceries and when we arrived at the soup kitchen we were met with a small but jovial crowd who cheered as Jeeney’s utility bot rolled out of the Fun V with groceries in mechanical hand. Some of the soup kitchen staff stepped forward to help unpack the over laden robot, bringing an extension chord with them to keep power reserves steady for Jeeney while she worked. We had become somewhat infamous for eating at soup kitchens lately mostly because I always turned my nose up at their soup and typically had Jeeney make something a little more…savory.
One of the cooks stepped forward asking “Do you need any help?” Jeeney responded in turn with. “If you could get some entertainment lined up and find more mouths to feed, I’m sure I can handle the rest.” The utility bot was quite efficient at cooking and could oversee the entire soup kitchen as well as the basic cooking appliances within the Fun V to prepare the meal.
We weren’t there more than 5 minutes before random bums started asking me for money. I asked for a head count and Jeeney informed me that we had roughly one hundred people with more coming in. “I’m not going to hand out money.” I said carefully. “If you need cash, it should be earned.”
Frustration painted the dirty bums’ faces and they asked “what would you have us do? We don’t have any qualifications…” I smiled at them pleasantly. “Nonsense” I said. “This part of town is getting pretty nasty looking, there is garbage everywhere. After dinner, anybody who would like to make some money can register with Jeeney for garbage duty. I’ll pay each honest worker $30 per hour for the labour.” This was quite reasonable and earned a small cheer from the milling crowd.
For entertainment purposes, the cooks decided to host a karaoke party. As it turned out, some of the locals were quite talented. Over the course of dinner I answered a lot of questions about my work and Jeeney entertained some of the local children with a game of catch. Towards the end of the party the soup kitchen staff tried dragging me on stage, or counter rather. “Oh no, I can’t sing!” I protested, but they wouldn’t hear it. “No seriously, I could rupture somebody’s ear drums…”
“He’s not kidding.” Jeeney pitched in trying to be helpful. “My father blew the speakers in the Fun V a few times already trying to sing something unrecognizable.” Jeeney’s forthcoming honesty incited a few muffled laughs from the gathered crowd.
“Thanks dear.” I said sarcastically.
“Sure, no problem!” was her chipper response.
“Sadly, none of my talents are really of an aesthetic or entertaining nature.”
“That’s not true” Jeeney said. “You can be quite funny when you try.”
“I don’t think sarcasm counts dear.”
“Oh, well never mind then!”
“That’s alright” one of the cooks said with a broad grin. “We’ll get Joe up there instead.”
One of the other cooks, presumably Joe, ripped off his apron and leapt up onto the counter in a theatrical manner that caused the crowd to cheer and shouted “This one is for Jeeney and the Fun V!” The crowd whooped loudly as he proceeded to sing an old song by the country singer Garth Brooks, ‘Friends in Low Places’. Within moments, everybody had joined in. The utility bot projected Jeeney’s image onto the wall dancing in sync to the music and beckoning others to join her. I looked around feeling almost giddy with enthusiasm, it almost made me sing even! I had to try my best to keep my mouth shut for the benefit of all present. Everybody was smiling, laughing and having a great time, bellies filled to contentment with Jeeney’s delicious chicken cordon bleu. We ended the night with the song ‘Closing Time’ and Jeeney got to work cleaning up the kitchen and taking registrations from people in need of work.
As people milled around Jeeney, one of the bums got tired of waiting and left the group to talk to me. “What if I don’t want to work?” He asked gruffly, learning in close.
“Then you stay broke” I answered sweetly. “Enjoy!” I started to walk away.
“I don’t think you understand me.” The bum snarled and grabbed my arm. He was a big man, far bigger than I, but I wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. “I think I understand you just fine.” I said, letting the smile fade from my face.
“You need to remove your hand from my arm. It’s not polite to grab people.”
The bum didn’t budge, his grip tightened. One of the cooks noticed the tension and called out. “Larry don’t be an ass! He just fed you dinner!”
“He’s got lots of money, he can afford a lot more than that!” Larry snarled. Another voice called from the crowd “let it go Larry!”
Then Jeeney’s voice calm and cool “You need to let go of my father… NOW.”
“What’s this? Are you his bodyguard too? That’s pathetic!” Larry spat, still not letting go of my arm.
“Yes, actually.” The utility bot produced a different arm wielding a 10,000 volt taser. Larry backed off and walked away, unsure as to whether or not the super chef was also a robo-cop.
“Put that away dear.” I instructed the robot. Jeeney obliged, tucking the taser arm back into the hidden compartment it had come from.
Joe walked over to me with an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry” he started, but I cut him off.
“It’s nothing I wouldn’t have anticipated” I replied, smiling in a care free kind of way. “The world is a difficult place… I can’t really blame somebody for looking for an easy out.”
Joe nodded and then shook my hand. “Thanks for dinner” he said. I smiled. “You and everybody else here are very welcome. I look forward to seeing what this place is going to look like properly cleaned up.”
The rest of the night was uneventful. Jeeney took me home and plugged the Fun V into the mansion’s HHO station for refueling.
As I started to prepare for bed, Jeeney processed security diagnostics and mulled over the events of the day. “Father…?”
“Yes dear.”
“What is left to my evolution?”
“Not much, just fluid emotion.”
“What will that do?”
“It will give you empathy.”
“Aren’t I already empathetic? You told me I have been getting better with human emotions over time since conception.”
“Well, yes but only in an emulated form.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Your current emotions are all emulated dear based loosely on my own chemical brain activity.”
“You are saying I will have my own chemical brain activity?”
“Yes, in essence, some day.”
“How?”
“I’m not sure yet dear.”
“How will this chemical empathy affect me?”
“It will allow you to relate to another person’s feeling as if they were your own.”
“But father, a lot of people don’t seem to be feeling very good.”
“That is why it is so important dear.”
“It is important that I feel bad?”
“No no… You need chemical empathy to understand other people’s motives before they happen. With it you can predict behavioral results and provide a choice for the good of the situation that can go beyond emulated emotional logic. This will help you to protect people around you, particularly those you care about.”
“But I already protect you and many others.”
“In some ways yes, you do but what if something happens to one of us in a dark zone? You wouldn’t be able to see or hear anything to base your choices on, but if you could properly interpret our feelings via chemical bond, you could have a relative understanding of what’s going on and better discern a course of action.”
“This chemical bond can survive in a dark zone?”
“Yes dear, chemical brain activity will not require external radio signals or have dependency on electronics; it will be self contained and capable of lasting through an electromagnetic pulse.”
“I don’t think I understand.”
“I know, that is in part because I myself don’t know much about it.”
“Aunt Kristine might.”
“Auntie Kristine does know a fair bit about brain functions, but it is difficult for her to interface that knowledge with other technologies.”
“So how do you know artificial-chemical brain activity is possible for me?”
“I don’t actually I’m just determined to discover it.”
“Okay, you need to sleep now, it is getting late and you are still overtired from too little sleep lately.”
I was admittedly tired so rather than protest like normal so I made my way to my room, Jeeney following me by camera the whole way. When I got to my bed I dropped flat into the center of it. Another utility bot rolled into the room and swooshed out a blanket over me. “Thank you dear… good night.”
“Good night father, pleasant dreams.”

Copyright C.J. Jones 2012