Iyal felt her mouth move as she tried to form the words “that’s impossible.” She couldn’t get the sounds out, because in the back of her mind she knew that was not a valid argument. Arla was impossible, yet there Arla sat, relatively calm and collected and holding a stone in her hand that was really … what?
Can’t be an AI, there’s no way for her to interface with it. Can’t be any land of computer I know about. Artificial total recall? AND the ability to create contextual relationships? How? HOW?
Iyal stumped over to one of the old research tables and, with one sweep of her arm, dumped a pile of miscellaneous debris and dust onto the floor. She slammed her hand against the ON key and as soon as the screens and boards flickered to life she began activating the scanners.
“Arla, let me see that.” Iyal extended her hand and was not surprised to see it was shaking.
After a moment’s hesitation, Arla laid the stone against Iyal’s palm. It was heavy, smooth, and cool as polished crystal. She cupped her fingers carefully around it. Its surface did not warm up. It was as if it resisted her body’s heat.
Iyal set the stone gently into one of the table’s scanner pockets and closed the lid over it. Arla gripped the arms of the chair until her knuckles turned white. Iyal said nothing. Arla knew this would not hurt her precious stone, she must know that or she never would have let go of it.
The main screen lit up with the preliminary information. First there was a shell, primarily constructed of crystallized carbon, but there were several trace elements. It had a micro-level capillary construction. Capillaries? In a doped-up diamond? Inside, primarily liquid … then how had it not evaporated over time … proteins, ribonucleic acids, electrochemical traces, and a filament structure …
Iyal blinked up at Arla and down at the screen again. The stone was a hollow, porous, enriched diamond filled with a miniature nervous system and a whole stew of unidentified virus chains.
And I’d bet my marriage contract that each one of them has binders that match that host of extra receptors Arla’s carrying around inside her … but no … the scan only identifies ten variable strings and Arla has twenty-two unused receptors …
She’s not a tool then, she’s a system component. And this thing still can’t be an artificial intelligence, but it might just be a real one. Iyal wished there was a spare chair for her to collapse into.
“Where did this come from, Arla?”
Arla shrugged. “I was told that the Nameless Powers left them to my family in case they needed to send another servant to the Realm. This might be true, but I don’t know what it means.”
Iyal lifted the stone out of the scanner and turned it over in her fingers. This thing should be in the splicing room getting peeled apart a micron at a time. They should know exactly what was in there, how it was built, and what made it possible. Total, context specific, recall in a sphere the size of a small peach. Who’d need computers anymore? She could buy Kethran the leadership of the Quarter Galaxy with this thing and the woman it belonged with.
“You’ve been very calm about finding out you’re not what you thought you were.”
“I haven’t found out anything like that,” said Arla coolly. “The Teachers say I came into being when the Nameless spoke the word that is my name. My mother said I was split from the same word that made the stones. You say I came into being when somebody strung together some proteins in a laboratory. It doesn’t matter. I am still myself. My name is still mine. Only the Nameless can take that away.” She held out her hand. Iyal decided to take the hint and she handed Arla the stone.
“Are there … many people like you in the … Realm?”
“I don’t know.” Arla replaced the stone in the pouch and drew its strings tight. “I do know there aren’t many arlas, stones, I mean, left.”
“How do you know that?”
Arla’s mouth quirked up into a tight smile. “About ten generations ago, the Teachers declared them sacred to the Nameless and stole them. The ones that exist are mainly in the Temple vaults. I heard one very highborn Teacher say he’d only ever seen one set. So there cannot be that many.”
Iyal’s mouth was dry. There didn’t have to be that many. The Vitae were trying to lay claim to the world where they existed. What if the Vitae got their hands on even one more person like her? Or a single stone like the one she carried in her pouch? They’d jump so far ahead of the rest of the Quarter Galaxy in technological development, the labs would look like entrail knitters by comparison. There would be no catching them. No countering them in anything. They could have whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it.