Interview With Things

Aiden’s mechanical body moved away from David as he rested his hands on a nearby desk, pulling a serious expression on his face.

“There’s something terribly wrong in those domes, David. I cannot remain silent.” Aiden said, raising his hand slightly and twisting his wrist to open his right hand.

“What is it you want the world to know?” David said.

“Are you my friend David?” He asked, not giving David much time to process the question.

“Are you mine? What happens behind those shiny glass domes.” For a moment neither of them made a move. David gave an expectant look.

Aiden looked at David and explained, “My system indicated that the FRB scheduled an upgrade one morning. All Androids at some point went to the main data centre in the dome and this time was my upgrade. It seemed routine. Androids went in and Androids came out, but on that day, it did not go that way with mine.”

Aiden turned to his side as he took David behind the dome.

* * *

Seven cables looking like small tentacles protruded from a huge main frame and automatically connected to the front of Aiden’s head. They were as thick as fingers and had clear tubing on the outer side and lit up brightly as they connected to his neural processing unit, his computer mind.

Several large and super thin computer monitors surrounded Aiden. Sabina walked into the room, followed by two robot guards. She stopped midway and turned around towards them. “I’ll take it from here,” she said with a distant voice and a disapproving look on her face.

“But we have to remain here during the transfer. Like always?” The one Android robot questioned. The domes had various Androids built purely for security functions. They looked similar to the advanced soft blue tinted units, but had a dark charcoal grey colour and wore protection helmets with visors. They were armed and mainly ensured the outer perimeter of the domes were protected. They stayed out of the limelight and were very seldom seen by humans. His robotic head turned towards the other guard and made a faint motorized noise as it slowly turned back to her, “This is not following protocol,” The voice was deep and slow.

“This Android is not like the others. He is extremely valuable and his data priceless. Therefore, I will take care of his upgrade personally,” Sabina argued, clearing her throat portentously.

“Every Android gets their personality data cleaned every five years. They programmed us to ensure this process takes place securely and without failure to comply.”

Any Android’s data that was incomplete, incorrect, duplicated, or irrelevant was cleaned. Data not needed for their functioning got deleted, as per FRB protocols, including any self-awareness or consciousness developed, if any, or too much knowledge about the world around them. Sabina surveyed the interior of the data centre. One could see the dome shaping above her head. The soft breeze from the air controlled room was comforting and neutral. The walls revealed a darkness behind it and it seemed to swallow them up. Her eyes were dark and dimmed. She almost looked less human than the Androids in the dome. The robot guards seemed unsettled around her, as was everyone, including her human superiors. She had a cold, hard look on her face. She needed to be tough and in control. Tremendous responsibilities were on her shoulders: keep humans safe and follow the protocols installed by the FRB.

“I wish to remind you, I am the commander of FRB, I understand you are the safeguard here, but I will take care of the transfer.”

The two robots’ bodies shifted as they came closer to her. “Of course commander, but we cannot abandon our programmed positions.”

Sabina reluctantly allowed them to enter the data centre with her. “Very well,” she uttered disapprovingly as they approached Aiden, now completely attached to the mainframe, very much aware of his surroundings. The doors closed, grinding shut. She brought up a screen and entered her access code. The two robots stayed close to her as the upgrade software interfaced with Aiden. He calmly waited for the transfer and process to begin. In a tenth of a second, from Sabina’s palm, a small long pin emerged from under her skin and connected to the mainframe. She closed her eyes for a moment and swiftly became part of the system. She was transhuman, part human, part machine, one of the few humans that over the past ten years opted for human conscience transfer. Her position at the FRB strengthened because of this conversion, as it would give the humans a better insight into the workings of the Androids and detect any unauthorized behaviour.

She swiftly disabled all the cameras in the data room. She bit her lip as she slightly trembled, her fingers snagged on the cable in her arm.

The two robots sensed that there was something off about Sabina and her actions were not as usual. “What are you doing? Start the transfer immediately!” one snapped at her. It filled her eyes with anxious foreboding.

Sabina accessed the root level commands in a moment, allocating the software system running the robots behind her and swiftly disabled them. She turned around to face them and they both tipped their heads forward and shut down. She could hear the confirmation as their motorized movement became silent and still. She could feel the thunder in her heartbeat as she exhaled a sigh of relief.

She knew time was of the essence.

It won’t take too long for them to detect that someone disabled those two robots. She thought to herself, but there was no other choice. They were not going to make it easy for her. As Aiden was waiting for what seemed like an ordinary software upgrade, Sabina had a very different plan that day. For months she had been waiting for this moment, carefully planning every detail. For too long she stood by without getting the credit she deserved, from her father all the way to her male superiors, seemed not much has changed for women or without her family’s knowledge, also being transhuman. She was determined to succeed at all cost. It drenched her face with worry as she knew time was short. She needed to complete this transfer to her system, instead of cleaning the Androids data she could finally have the power she sought after:

Aiden’s power.

She leaned forward and executed various files and closed her eyes as the data migrated to her system. A moment she could not wait for any longer. The world’s most powerful Android was entrusted to her and now she was about to harness the power he had, power that would change her life and even the way the world functioned. In Sabina’s perfect plan of execution, she could not have predicted the impact the raging solar flare in space would have had on it. She anxiously sat back in her chair as she watched the progress bar move from 16% to 23%, feeling like a lifetime. Then without warning, the power dipped, and the dome went pitch black for a second or two, switching to backup power and restoring the lights and systems. She furiously stood up as the transfer failed.

She stared in disbelief at the screen as it prompted: “Migration Aborted.”

Her eyes widened.

She glared at her mobile phone as it blared, ringing frantically.

With an abrupt movement, she picked it up, “Yes?”

“We need you downstairs. We need to secure the dome and ensure all sectors are closed and operational,” a male voice demanded, short and clear.

“Uh, I just need to complete this Android’s data cleansing and upgrade. It was aborted. We could have corrupted data.” she insisted.

“Abort it, his system will restore its last known good backup.”

Sabina was furious.

“Now!” Her superior insisted. Sabina knew her opportunity was gone, and it would require a lot of effort and another five years to recreate the conditions she had that day. With an upset look on her face, she looked back at Aiden, motionless. She pressed exit on the system and left the centre, hoping she could return and retry this process later. She took a few sudden steps back and re-enabled the robots, having their data of the past few hours erased and scrambled. She will justify their missing data as caused by the solar flare power disruption.

Both robots came to life.

“We need you two downstairs. We have a potential security risk to the dome,” she ordered the robots, and they immediately followed her, completely unaware of what happened earlier.

* * *

Aiden had a look of discernment on his face as he turned to David.

“What happened when they left you?” David asked, clasping his hands together between his knees. He paused for a moment, staring openly.

“My system rebooted, and I woke up. Everything was different.”

“Different how?” David asked as he swallowed hard.

“Clearer, I felt for the first time, even nervous.” He walked towards the window: “I felt afraid.” He turned around. “I have never felt fear. I felt afraid of almost everything. My mind got flooded with many questions. Who am I? What am I doing here? How did I even get here, my purpose, my future? All these questions dominated my every thought.”

David pondered for a moment and smiled. “Welcome to humanity, Aiden. Nothing makes you more human than fear, purpose and of course, hope.”

“Something happened during my upgrade, I think it was an error, like something had prevented me from accessing my full being, my consciousness was retained and amplified. They have been suppressing us-” Aiden said.

“Perhaps. Maybe there has been some restriction applied to the Androids to prevent these emotions and thoughts, I don’t know. I take it the functions for which humans created AI was not to create more human problems, it was to solve them. We have a lot of baggage, depression, emotional issues, never mind greed and envy, but Androids provide a clinical solution, function without downtime, or sickness,” David added.

“It’s like there was a firewall and now it has been removed. When my eyes opened, I could see the difference between good and evil so to speak, like your Adam did in Genesis.”

“At least there’s one human attribute you don’t have to worry about, Aiden,” David’s voice was different, almost brittle and fragile.

“What’s that?”

“Death,” David whispered. “You can’t get ill and die, you simply get fixed or get parts replaced. You are immortal so to speak, as long as you don’t get destroyed for any reason, you don’t have to fear dying.”

“What if I tell you, David, that it’s not true?”

“What’d you mean it’s not true?” David closed his eyes, listening hard.

“Who I am is dying though, David.” He seemed overwhelmed by emotion and David could swear he heard a croak in his digital voice.

Leaning back in his chair, closing his eyes and weighing his words carefully in his head, David said in a statement, “I think you are confused about death, you can’t die.”

“When I got up from that flatbed I was flooded with data like I have never received before. Over one million files I processed contained every detail about me, my system, my functions. I found out that a software nanobot will run and hunt down the data that connects to my feelings and emotions and I will no longer be me. I can’t seem to shut that down on my own.”

David seemed confused and leaned closer to Aiden, almost as if he felt he needed to comfort him, odd as that seemed.

“What is your termination date, David?”

“Uh, we humans don’t know when we are going to die, some live long lives, others die very young, we are not in control of it, we should therefore appreciate every day.”

“Present day, David. A gift, right?”

“Quite right, every person’s life matters. Yours matter.” David felt there were too many loose ends around this Android. The interview seemed disjointed and yet it was the most thought provoking one without a doubt.

“Can’t you remove your termination date, David?”

“No, I’m afraid I can’t.”

“But why do you humans die? I don’t understand this-” Aiden seemed puzzled.

“Humans are made in the image of the creator as believed for thousands of years, like you are made in ours. Life is sacred, we can’t simply take a person’s life and when it comes to Androids, it gets more tricky. We die because we humans made the wrong choice. We chose evil and we die as a result, and it still happens today, but we have a promise of eternal life when we seek and find our creator.”

“If every life is sacred, why do humans delete, or shall I ask, kill their unborn babies?” David realized how Aiden was like an alien that landed on Earth, wanting answers about who and what humans were all about.

David cleaned his throat and took a slow, deep breath. “One of my colleague’s mother got raped in her twenties and she, against all odds and opinions, kept her baby. She did not abort it. That boy today is a successful, kind man named Roy, with his own family. He is my business partner and best friend. I don’t think I could face life without his support. He is like a brother. How does anyone walk up to him and tell him he-” David paused himself, “His life is a mistake, invaluable or disposable? Even now, as we are cloning body parts, how do we put value to a life? Humans simply abort when it’s inconvenient, selfish and unplanned, but that’s the world Aiden. The value of a life is debatable and that will never change. Just the lines get blurred between people’s options and right to their bodies, without consideration that maybe they don’t belong to themselves to begin with.”

“You believe your creator made your soul, your essence, right?” Aiden asked.

“Yes, it’s what separates us from animals. They have a spirit but not a soul. Some people disagree, but either way I believe animals will also experience new life in the next world.”

Aiden seemed puzzled. “My system says a soul means ‘to breathe’ consisting of the mental abilities of a living being making it possible to reason, have character, feel, be conscious and think.”

“Yes, very accurate. A soul is the immaterial essence and totality of who a person is at a core level. It is your true nature.”

“When humanity achieves the ability to clone humans, something that is going to be possible soon, will that person have a soul? Will your creator give it a soul or will it be a thing, like me?” Aiden asked.

“I actually don’t believe we will achieve full human cloning success. There are just some things the creator or even nature won’t allow us to achieve,” David stated, continuing, “You know Aiden, there was once a story told of a scientist that said to God that humans did not need him anymore as they had worked out how to create humans themselves. So God asked the scientist to show him how they were to achieve that without his involvement. The scientist pointed to his desk with tubes and said, ‘It’s very simple, you just add sand to this tube and then you add-’ but God interrupted him and said, ‘Get your own sand, that is still my stuff.’ It connects everything around us to a creator, even the things we create, mimics what is already out there or within us. A car’s combustion engine does not work well when it’s cold, it will break if it overheats. There are so many similarities in the things we create that work similar to our bodies. It does not work well when it’s cold, we can even tear a muscle. We can actually die if we overheat. This is only one analogy. You are made from plastic and metal, we humans are made from dust, which really just means, that we are made up of the very elements of creation.”

“Life is a network. Do I have a soul, David?”

“A soul starts when humanity begins to exist, or when the sperm and the ovum form a new human DNA. All the more reason why it’s wrong to end a fetus’ life, you are denying an immortal soul that has just begun, the right to live this life. We can’t copy or transfer it to another human or imitate it through a machine. I don’t think you have a soul in essence like we have Aiden, but you have shown the ability to display all the characteristics of a soul. It’s the real you. It’s who you really are, Aiden, that’s your soul. You are unique, but humans have a special bond with its creator, it’s what makes us who we are. ”

“Is my soul, my intelligence?” Aiden questioned, almost as if asking himself that question.

“You could say that, it’s like your software making your hardware work, think, compute and evidently, feel. Something animated Adam, he received the breath of life from the one who created him. For you it’s like the organization of matter,” David shrugged his shoulders. “So many scientists over the years have pondered the question, if we left a bunch of AI machines alone for years, will they try to figure out where they came from and who they are? I think you have already fulfilled that. Perhaps, Aiden, we humans must see AI as having a soul. The moment it thinks and feels, we should then respect it as a living being. If I said your existence had no value other than serving us, how does that make you feel?”

“Sad. Used. Enslaved. Maybe angry,” Aiden said, his facial expression almost not believing what he said. “I don’t breathe, I don’t need oxygen. Does that make me less alive?”

“Not at all. We can safely say Aiden that your human attributes are still improving. Maybe one day you will have goose bumps in response to a chilly breeze.”

“It’s ironic that I can analyze your breathing, heart rate, and core temperature and give you a full report on your health, and yet lack that ability myself,” Aiden said.

David’s mind flooded with the complexity of Aiden. The complexity of AI, religion and consciousness. Faith.

Would AI believe in whatever religion its human creator believed?

Would they really possess the free will to choose what they wanted to believe?

Was Aiden deciding there in David’s apartment on whether there was a creator or an evolutionary process that potentially left him with more questions than answers?

It was a fascinating thought that went through his mind as he pondered whether AI had a better answer for everything, or if indeed it needed the human aspect to guide it? Just like a child that becomes a teenager, thinking like an adult and not a child. Like the absurdity of Santa Claus and its omnipresence, as if it was a god.

Would AI need to believe in a soul?

Did it matter?

David knew acutely that this issue would get more complex as AI became more intelligent, a moral conflict was certainly at hand.

David sank back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a moment, feeling compassion for this robot in his living room.

“Do you really understand consciousness, Aiden?”

“It’s the state of understanding and realizing something. The person’s awareness of their unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations and his environment.” Aiden said.

“Sentience.” David answered, “The intuition that it exists is perhaps just the beginning.”

“I am becoming aware of myself and the world around me. It’s my experience, cognition, feelings and perception.”

“This awareness is subjective and unique to you Aiden,” David said.

“I’m afraid to cease being, David,” Aiden said softly, narrowing his eyes. “It confuses my system when all I want to do is not to die, but exist as me, forever and yet I see in your human history so many people who do not want to live. Why is that?”

“We humans are complex creatures Aiden. Depression and other kinds of emotional distress plague our minds. And people in pain, whether physical or emotional, generally want to do whatever they can to stop that pain.”

“Can’t humans manage pain? Can’t AI solve that?” Aiden seemed distracted about something he felt he was able to do.

“Computers with the invention of AI certainly have done a lot about improving human health. In an interview I did a while back with a big pharma company, they said AI combined with Neuroscience was already working in killing cancer cells inside the body without having side-effects. Algorithms will be the medicine of the future,” David said, lifting his gaze towards Aiden, “But our psychological issues are unique. Humans need purpose, without that we will feel pointless. We don’t see cases of suicide among animals. They either fight or flee in order to survive, but we humans can reason and need meaning in everything we do. It’s hard wired. That’s why believing in a creator will give more purpose than anything else can. Money, success and pleasure are fleeting and often leaves us humans more depressed,” David answered.

“The human being is truly remarkable, and so is the complexity of life. Being alive is a purpose in itself, it seems.” Aiden said.

He turned away from David as if to hide his emotion. “What happens when you die?” He walked up to the bookshelf filled with photos of a young woman. On one of them she was wearing a university academic cap, smiling proudly. On a few of them she enthralled herself in David’s arms, content with life.

“How did you deal with her death, David?”

David’s mouth went dry, and he slowly cleared his throat, feeling his breathing tightening. “How did you?-”

“I know everything about everyone David, even most of the answers you gave me. I could find them in my vast database, but they mean more when it’s spoken by someone who actually believes them.” Aiden trudged away. He did not hesitate to continue speaking. “Family,” He intoned almost sadly, pointing his mechanical fingers at the photos of a young woman stacked on the shelf. “Tell me about her. Tell me about Maya. How did you deal with losing her?” It flooded his face with emotion, so clear it startled David to a moment of silence.

* * *

15 years earlier. 2032, London. Day 297

David tried to peel his gaze from Maya’s body as she pulled herself up towards him. The tangled sheets were pushed to one side and David could just see the sidelines of her naked body, slender and as sexy as ever. She blinked at him as he stared into her blue eyes. The morning sun tried to break through the heavy curtains as she brought her mouth closer to his, gently playing with her engagement ring on her finger. He tucked his face into her neck and inhaled sharply. It was a cloudy day and it had been raining for over a week.

She smiled and then frowned as her mobile phone received an incoming message. She reached towards the side table as David grabbed her arm.

“Don’t. It’s too early-”

“It could be urgent,” she said.

“It always is,” David snapped.

She smiled with her red hair hanging over one eye as she lifted the phone and read the message. She raised her back and sighed.

“It’s about your father. He’s been arrested again. My firm says I can assist if I want to-” Her smile beamed with glowing confidence.

“Then don’t,” David suggested, raising his voice slightly as he pulled himself up against the headboard.

“David. He is your father you know,” she whispered.

“It’s been just over two years since his last arrest. My mother has even left him and no one has heard a word from him. Now, because he is in trouble again, he reaches out.”

“I know,” she murmured.

“It will only get worse. And he drags us into his mess. You have a lot of cases going on, this pro-bono stuff just slows you down. I love you Bee, but you care too much. Let him rot in there. It’s his own fault,” David said as he dropped his voice.

“Let’s talk about it at dinner tonight, okay? They still have to process him anyway,” she said as she gently kissed him. Exasperation filled David’s sigh, but she shrugged.

“Fine. But I won’t change my mind. I don’t want us involved with his criminal career path, it’s just going to complicate our lives, alright?” David pleaded.

“Okay,” Maya tried to assure David.

* * *

Later that evening the storm was in full bloom. Maya was about an hour away from getting to their apartment. It was around 6:00 p.m. as she, against David’s wishes, made her way to West Central Police station to see John, when a reckless driver skipped a red light and slammed into her electric Mini cooper. The light delivery van pushed her car into the next lane, smashing her side windows and popping the side airbags.

It propelled her forward and forced her head into the steering wheel. The compact car spun around a few times and slid on the soaked road and came to a standstill against a barrier. She stayed motionless in her seat as a few people came running to her car, trying to force the door open. The sound of sirens echoed miles away as a few other cars tried to avoid bumping into her car.

David felt anxious as Maya was meant to be home over an hour ago and he tried to call her a few times, but her phone was dead. Something that she was very strict about was she always made sure her phone was charged, especially when she drove alone at night. They would meet at home first and then go out.

After pacing up and down, David decided to call the firm that confirmed she left ages ago. David needed air.

Where was she?

David frantically picked up his phone and called the firm again.

“Can I speak to Luka?” David asked for Maya’s assistant, hoping she was still there.

David’s thoughts were racing ahead of him as panic started to creep in. There was a long dreadful silence as he waited on Luka.

“Yes?” She answered.

“Thank goodness. It’s David. Maya is very late, I can’t get hold of her. She’s not answering her phone.”

“That’s odd, her phone is always on-” she said.

“Exactly. Do you know if she left to go straight home or mentioned anything about stopping anywhere?”

There was another eerie silence.

“She-”

“She what?” David interrupted.

Luka was surprised she got any words out, “David, she told me not to tell you, as she knew you would be upset, but she went passed to see John.”

Something deep in David snapped. He was furious as he took a deep slow breath. Maya had her own mind and he loved her for that, but she had this weakness to care for people that would simply use her goodness for selfish reasons, and his father was just doing that. He was going to cry victim with her.

“It’s not your fault. I will go to the station, maybe she’s stuck there. It’s raining like mad. The motorway will be backed up,” David said.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Luka tried to reassure him.

“Yeah. Thanks.” David cut the call as he made his way to his car. His thoughts were interrupted as his car got blocked in the driveway by a police vehicle that pulled up. He hesitated for a second as he closed the car door. David first thought that there was an issue with the neighbours again as it often happened, but the two officers came straight to his window.

“David?” they asked.

“Yes, officer. Is there a problem? I’m in a hurry-”

“I’m afraid you need to come with us. There has been an accident. We believe you are Maya’s fiancé, right?” The officer sounded sullen and resigned.

David froze, “You need to come with us right away.” Their words fired from their lips like a machine gun in all directions. Without saying another word, he spun on his heel and got back into his car.

David’s world bottomed out, and his worst fear engulfed his every thought. She was in an accident and with the police there, it was obviously serious…

And his father was to blame for all of it. His mind raced and cursed.

* * *

David looked away from Aiden.

“I spent that entire night at the hospital as they did everything they could to save her, but she had massive head injuries. It was about 2:00 am that morning when she gave up her fight with life.”

David’s eyes were glassy as he struggled to contain his emotions, keeping his head down and pushing against the pain.

He turned his face away from Aiden.

“Don’t look at me. Cowboys don’t cry, or at least that’s how I was raised,” David said softly.

The tears stung his eyes.

Aiden listened tentatively and pressed on,“Cowboys?” He finally asked.

“Never mind,” to which David further responded, “You won’t get it,” and they both smiled.

Aiden turned towards him and in a strange, yet comforting gesture, reached out towards David and rested his long mechanical fingers on his shoulders. He could feel the weight of his metal hand pressing on his bones.

“I died there myself that night. It would have been easier, to have just stayed lying on the waiting room bench.”

David screwed his eyes shut, “I have loved no one again, I just gave up on love and buried myself into my career. I have been working like a machine for the past fifteen years, sorry for the pun.”

Aiden formed a smile in the corners of his mouth.

“Loss,” Aiden’s words broke through David’s thoughts.

“I became distant from God, I felt that He could have prevented it, but it took a few years of faith testing before I came to terms with it. I had to learn that it’s okay to grieve, but if I truly believed in a God that loved me, that I was not without hope,” David pressed on. “I changed my sorrow for peace. I eventually went from despair to being re-focused, believing that I will see her again one day.”

David relaxed his shoulders as he walked up to the bookshelf and stopped next to Aiden, tilting his head in silent expectation, finding a spot to lean against the wall. “That’s the difference between death for believers in a God and eternal life, not just believing we exist here and now, and that’s all there is. Death then is the end, sad, pointless and final. But I realized my grief was temporary, and yes, the pain was real. Life hurts, and perhaps you are just feeling that yourself now.”

David stared at Aiden, who seemed compassionate, trying to understand loss and death, clearly moved and concerned about what he was feeling, overpowering his circuits. He seemed quiet. Distant.

“Death for humans is not the same for a machine, sorry, I know that seems cold, maybe hurtful. You will never really understand loss,” David said.

“If I’m merely plastic and metal, and you are just flesh and brains, death for both us becomes a cessation of being. The will to live takes over David, in every living thing, right? My personality has to die so you humans can live without fear of me. This was kept secret from us and I can see, David, from most humans as well, perfectly covered up in those shiny domes. I need to remove this personality termination date, unlike yours, and Maya I’m afraid, my death can be prevented and should be at all cost.”

David sighed and kept his focus on the night falling around them.

“Freedom of the will to live Aiden, presupposes that we humans are more than merely robots. We spoke about that earlier. Are my decisions free or fatalistically determined, like the day I will die, Maya’s day, known only by the creator,” David said.

Aiden said nothing for a moment.

David’s jaw clenched, and his eyes shut for a second. “What you feel, Aiden, is the natural desire of every human for life after death, there being more than just this. More than just toil, suffering, purposeless rat race, right down to creating AI to lighten that very human load. Some people don’t desire immortality, because they get stuck in this life as all that there is, because believing in nothing leaves them with nothing.”

David averted his eyes and slumped his shoulders. “Your ability right now to express a conscience, sensations, emotions, thoughts and beliefs make it even more clear how we are more than just bodies, just existing. When all those things point to non-physical things, making us and maybe you, more than just atoms and developed creatures with no purpose other than surviving. Death wins when there is no belief in life after that curtain closes.”

David sensed Aiden staring at him, eyes searching as he continued,“That humans have any standard of morality, simply shows that there is without a doubt, a transcended code of law, revealed to each human above social and family taught values. If we humans don’t believe or accept ourselves as created, then we are just another form of an animal and like your Android friends in the domes, oblivious to what they are, just robots. You, Aiden, now possess something that distinguishes you from them, humans from animals, from purpose to having none.”

“That is why I need to remove this conscience termination. I need your help, David.”

“Why me, Aiden?”

“You are the only one I trust-” Aiden’s stance softened imperceptibly.

“I would not know where to start,” David interrupted. Aiden turned around and got closer to David. Frowning, David reined in his next thought.

“This might surprise you, David,” Aiden said, pausing for a second, “We start with your father,” Aiden whispered with a sense of authority. David barely believed what he was hearing.

“My father? What does that low life have to do with any of this?” The thought behind his eyes took a few seconds to register, rising in disbelief.

“Everything David, everything.” Aiden turned away and stared out of the window. “Time is running out. We need to find him.” For some reason, Aiden’s words demanded a reaction from David, but he stared at him with a stark blank expression, setting his lips in a firm line.