The Soul

I.-2

A few days later, she bought the most important furniture in a used-goods store, and spent the rest of her money on a computer for her Companion. He had to have one in order to learn. Then she lived on expectations and dreams, and the apartment had never seemed so cold and empty to her. Exactly fifteen days later, she received a phone call from the factory.

“Miss Estrella Solis? You can come to pick up the ordered android, class C, serial name Raul, number 209. Please bring your S card, agreement with the crediting bank, and a proof of your first payment.”

She was so nervous that her hands were shaking and she couldn’t find the necessary documents for a long time. When she finally found them and put them in her purse, she called a speed car from a nearby corporation and drove to the factory located on the outskirts of town. She felt uneasy about this whole situation, and the thought of having taken out a serious loan was not pleasant, either. Androids cost a lot, and her earnings as a teacher would not allow her to buy one outright. Even this loan would not have been enough if not for her zero-rating. “Zeroes” of both sexes received a fifty-percent discount on purchases of this type, thanks to a state grant as part of a program to counter the so-called loneliness suicides. After the introduction of genetic selection, suicide had become a real plague among the zeroes, who were valued as available employees and thus sought on the labor market. The government felt that it wouldn’t be appropriate for these suicides to take the form of a threat to the social order, and called for a solution to the problem. The Central Institute of Psychiatry and Applied Psychology set up a special department for this purpose, dealing exclusively with this single problem. Long-term studies had shown a significant reduction in suicidal moods among those of the zeros who opted to purchase an android, or to whom one had been donated as a part of the therapeutic program. Initially, people laughed at the idea that they could replace a living person with a “doll”, but slowly began to understand that an AC, Android Companion—colloquially called a Companion—was not the same as a robot.

In fact, Etta didn’t know anything about androids. She had seen them sometimes, but she had never had any close contact with them. She ordered Raul because she could no longer bear coming back to her empty apartment. She had a family, but it was the same as if she didn’t have one at all. Her older siblings forced her to move away. Both were qualified the same as their parents—they could have three pregnancies and they didn’t want their friends to know they had a zero in the family. It was especially important for Johnny. Under the law, a man could marry a woman of a higher genetic capacity than him, even if he had a zero classification, and so have a hope for a child… or, strictly speaking, have one attempt at artificial insemination. If a child from a “zero-one” union, as it was called, was born with defects that prevented its admission to existence, there was no second chance. The “one-one” marriage was guaranteed two trials. A “one-two” received three, and so on. Almost everything depended on the qualification of the woman, so zeroes got married only in exceptional circumstances. Etta didn’t have any chance of that happening. Her parents bought her a beautiful apartment in a good neighborhood in order to sweeten things for their daughter, but she—even though she put a good face on the matter—had spent many a night crying out of loneliness and longing for a family. Now at least the terrible loneliness was about to end.

At the factory, the technician responsible for dealing with customers was waiting for her. He checked in detail the documents she gave him, verified them using the handheld access module, and returned them to Etta. Then he went to the next room and returned with a tall man dressed in a blue coverall made of cheap artificial cloth. The young teacher guessed that this was the android for her and her heart beat faster. It was only after a moment that she looked directly at him. She already knew what he would look like, but seeing him in a computer simulation was completely different than standing face-to-face with the perfect man, knowing that she was his… owner.

“Here’s Raul 209C,” the technician said. “From now on you are responsible for him, so please be careful. The education and mental development of a being with consciousness and an independent intellect is your responsibility. Please do not make any mistakes.”

“I’ll try not to,” she said softly. “I have taken the course and read all the guides diligently.”

“It’s very good, but in interacting with an android, it is not only knowledge, but simply… instinct that proves to be very helpful. Well, I guess that’s all. Good luck.”

It was only at home that Etta gathered enough courage to look closely at her purchase. Raul was silent all the way home, and he didn’t say a word in the apartment, either. He stood motionless in the room and remained standing for her visual inspection without protest. She looked at him, fascinated. She thought he was as beautiful as a dream, much more beautiful than in the simulations. He had smooth, delicate, warm-colored skin, like someone who was naturally very pale but lightly sun-kissed. She helped him remove his coverall, under which he wore only black boxer shorts imprinted with the logo of the factory in which he was made. She looked with curiosity and admiration at his long legs and strong shoulders, a proportional figure of a healthy, athletic man, not a bodybuilder or a wrestler. She touched the artificial muscles prominent under his skin. Then she looked at the shapely head, set on a neck with a classic line. The android’s dense hair fell softly and was dark brown rather than black as she had ordered. But she thought it was fine. This color matched his clear skin without discolorations or shadows. To make up for this, his eyes were blacker than coal, and were looking from under wide brows with calmness and something that looked like… expectation.

“Can you speak?” she asked finally, with some embarrassment.

“Yes, Domina,” Raul replied. His voice surprised the girl. She had subconsciously expected it to be somehow more mechanical, and instead it sounded just like a human voice. It was deep, velvety, strong and delicate, and Etta thought she could listen to it for hours.

“We need to buy you some clothes,” she said. “That coverall is awful. To tell the truth, these boxers are, too. I apologize, but we’re going to order something from a cheap clothing store, not from a fancy salon. My funds are quite limited.”

“Okay, Domina.”

“Call me Etta. That’s my name.”

“Etta…” he repeated and added suddenly. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why… clothes… bad?”

This question completely surprised her. Raul looked at her expectantly, his eyes glittering like polished agates in a beautiful, still face.

“It is just ugly,” she said after a moment. “This is fabric for working clothes, worn for hard physical work. You should dress more like… someone better.”

“Clothes… are important?”

“You bet.”

“I have to have… better?”

“Yes, Raul.”

He stared at her, c*****g his head slightly to one side. Then he reached for his boxers and went to pull them off, but she stopped him at the last moment.

“What are you doing?”

“Clothes bad. I can’t… be in it.”

“Okay, fine, but you won’t be sitting here naked until they deliver new ones, right?”

“Why?”

Why, why, why… That’s what the first days were like. As if she were dealing with a child. She had to be patient and understanding, but it came to her easily… after all, she was a teacher. Except that she usually taught people.

She suddenly realized that according to the law, androids were still things. They had no personal rights, and she thought it was a horrible injustice on the part of humans—to create a self-aware being and make it a mere slave.

Jade’s voice brought her out of her thoughts, “Madam, Madam, do you like him?”

“Is he beautiful?” Anissa, who was sitting in the same row as Jade, asked almost simultaneously. This little girl loved everything beautiful. She insisted on going to school dressed like a princess from a fairy tale, and a small spot on the dress could drive her to hysteria.

“Of course I like him. And as for your question, Anissa, it depends what you like. I think he is quite all right,” Etta said as she looked at her watch. “Children, we’re done. I know it’s a bit early, but I have an important meeting today.”

The children, visibly dissatisfied, got up and put their belongings neatly together. Etta stayed a few minutes to close the class systems, then left. She lived near the school, so she decided not to use the available transportation, one of those slim vehicles that she could flag down. She preferred to walk the several hundred yards. She could quietly think at such times, almost alone on a strip of rough pavement under the high sky. She was actually alone on the sidewalk; people appeared on it only when getting out of a vehicle in front of an entrance to their homes or one of the shops. She was the only one to walk, slowly, without hurry. On her right-hand side, a stream of vehicles of all shapes and sizes moved almost noiselessly, on her left was a mall with shops open twenty-four hours a day, offering everything humanity had to offer. She caught herself thinking, not for the first time, that she would like to go out of town—to the forest, the river… anywhere. But it wasn’t possible, she was not eco. She would not get an eco certification. After all, she had studied history, not life sciences. As an ordinary citizen, she was condemned to virtual landscapes and to never feel real grass under her feet. She understood why such restrictions were necessary, why no one who was not a specialist had the right to even go out of town. It was only on the big three-dimensional screens that they could see the seas, lakes, forests, mountains… They could wander there only in virtual reality. Etta had on several occasions gone to the resort, where they provided the best of the programs, far more advanced than those for home use. But despite the perfect illusion, despite the inclusion of aromatic components, she was subconsciously aware that it was one big scam.

“Is it such a big difference?” Raul asked her when they talked about it. He didn’t understand it in his artificial logical mind, and she couldn’t explain to him what she was missing.

As recent as a hundred years ago, the unauthorized entry into the reserve area—and that meant everything outside the city limits—was punished by execution on the spot. Now it was punished only with a long prison sentence, sometimes even life if the culprit was proven to cause some damage. It was necessary if human civilization was to survive. Unrestrained exploitation had already led to a global catastrophe and it could not be allowed for that misfortune to repeat. Fortunately, technology had allowed people to survive the worst, although the number of victims exceeded the darkest forecasts. Things was no longer so bad. Until recently, food had been rationed. Today, it could be bought almost without restriction. Synthetic, obviously, but still. Nobody went hungry, nobody was working just for food anymore. This was a great achievement, considering what the current phase had to start from…

A police vehicle stopped next to Etta, strolling along the walkway.