Just the Facts

Posted on Thu 2nd Aug, 2018 @ 8:15pm by Elizabeth Anderson M.D.

851 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Oblivion
Location: Orchids & Jazz, Deck 600
Timeline: MD 9, 1430

Coming into Orchids & Jazz so often the last few days had made it seem almost like a second home to Dr. Elizabeth Anderson. She offered a smile to the doorman, who was not Mr. Velasquez today, but someone she'd seen before. Across the restaurant, she saw Jenna refreshing some of the vases of flowers, in preparation for the more crowded evening ahead, and she waved.

The restaurant was never empty when it was open, but the late Alpha shift was close enough. Customers ate and chatted at widely scattered tables, and there was a 3-piece jazz combo just coming back from a mid-shift break. She had noticed it wasn't the same three people each day, and Jade and mentioned that they were all Starfleet personnel who liked to jam together, and a few of them enjoyed a little extra income for their families or hobbies and habits. Jade paid everyone in latinum. She pointed out that credits were good, but latinum was better, because it felt like real wealth.

Walking toward the corridor down which she always found the humaniforms at this time of the afternoon, she spied Jade talking with a trade-representative at the bar. She guessed it was someone who supplied one of the authentic liquors Jade served ... or maybe Coca Cola, though Elizabeth still wasn't entirely sure what that was, even after having it one night.

Anderson knocked on the door of the room which was the androids' territory and the door opened almost immediately. "Ah ha!" Gladia cried. "I win!"

"What did you win?" the counselor asked, smiling as she entered.

"The pool predicting what time you would arrive. It's never quite the same time, but there is a pattern to it," Gladia assured her.

"Not much gets by you, does it?"

The android laughed, "Nope, not much!"

"So what's the pattern?" Podkayne asked.

"I'll never tell. I worked it out, you can, too, so don't be a lazy brain, like the men!" Gladia advised. Even after several meetings, Podkayne seemed younger than the others. Perhaps it was in the way they treated her, since all of them were the same age ... or no age at all.

Arkady looked up from his game of chess, seemingly played with no one, so Elizabeth presumed he was pitting himself against the base computer. "Still haven't picked our brains enough to write a paper and become famous?"

Surprised, Anderson asked, "What made you think I'm writing a paper?"

Seldon answered, "You ask a lot of questions. Of course, you don't need to take notes, because you are recording everything and storing it somewhere ... on the main computer, maybe?"

Ignoring the implied question, the counselor said, "That doesn't mean I'm writing a paper."

"Good point," Elijah contributed. "However, you are a doctor. Even if you don't work for Starfleet any longer, and we only have your word for that, you have asked all the kinds of questions that a researcher would ask. If you aren't writing a paper, then why are you asking? If you don't work for Starfleet, then why are you investigating us so thoroughly?"

Why indeed? Elizabeth thought. She could hardly tell them the real reason, the idea that had been growing in a subroutine which processed everything these androids said to her. They weren't ready for that. Stalling for time, she answered, "I could simply be curious. I know it isn't a function of a positronic brain, but you're curious about some things, aren't you?"

Olivaw answered quietly, "Only where it affects us. We ... have difficulty investigating simply for the sake of finding information. When it's something that is pertinent to us, such as your writing a paper or a report to Starfleet on us, then we can question your motives. Otherwise, we have no need to know and we do not ... question things."

"But I thought you told me you liked to do research," Elizabeth protested this explanation.

"And so I do ... on things that are of benefit to me, or to our group. Have you heard us ask you questions which are not relevant to our own situation?" Daneel pointed out.

"Noooo." Elizabeth was annoyed at herself. She ought to have set a subroutine to look for patterns in the answers she was getting from and about the androids, and not depended on her own programmed training to sort things out. That was a lazy mistake, and she set the subroutine search now, going back over previous conversations, and going forward into future ones.

"On reflection, I see that you are exactly right," the counselor said. It was a little disappointing. She'd met these six androids, certain of their limitations, and as she'd come to know them, she'd begun to forget her previous ideas. She'd begun to see them as equals, and yet, their limitations were set in stone. They couldn't outgrow what they were programed to be. She was chagrined to realized she had fallen into the same trap Damion had, wanting them to be more than they were. If she were truly human, she'd cry for them.

 

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