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