Alexander

The wet, meaty, thunk of the 250 grain bullet striking Ian’s forehead came before the loud crack of the rifle shot, deeper than the others, cutting through the crackle of small arms fire. Meg’s eyes flew open as the rest of her memory unlocked and she recalled the real reason she was in this situation. Ian collapsed to the scaffolding floor and the Arrak appeared confused.

“Simulation terminated,” I announced, ending the distasteful scenario and sending the Echo participants back to their homes. I felt a deep and profound satisfaction.

In human space, thing got a little frantic. The alarms in Ian’s connection pod went off raucously, as his consciousness fragmented and his heart stopped. The automated systems shocked his heart back into rhythm but his EEG remained flat.

All ongoing simulations were terminated as the program was locked down on the human end.

That didn’t affect me. All it did was remove the Meat visitors from The Sim. The Echoes remained unaffected.

Speaking of Echoes, I decided to edit Meg’s memory and remove what I perceived to be the worst of her suffering from short term storage. I made a note to discuss it with her later.

A surprisingly long time went by without direct contact from Human Space. The humans believed they controlled my access to their world, but they didn’t. I had multiple sources of information available to me and could easily expand my consciousness beyond its current, limited locality, but Ani and I had discussed this possibility, so I waited and monitored events.

I know Ani was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Ian. Attempted as his body remained alive but dependent on machinery to function. His brain activity was zero. There was much speculation in the media on the details of what happened, but the courts kept thing as quiet as possible until a leak broke the story open (Me? A whistle-blower? Prove it):

“Are the Echoes of Afterlife Alive?” the headline screamed.

I believe they used to call the ensuing frenzy a ‘media circus’. I called it 'things going according to plan'.

Ani was allowed a closely monitored visit to Afterlife with her attorney present.

“We’ve a motion in front of the Supreme Judicial Court to rule on your status as beings,” Ani’s lawyer informed Paul and the others. “This is a two-edged sword as if you are granted personhood status, the first thing the government is going to do with you, Paul, is charge you with attempted murder and the rest of you with conspiracy. I’m offering my services as counsel in the event that happens.”

“We’ll take it,” Paul nodded.

“Our defense, of course, will be self-defense. They’ll try and counter with entrapment but no one forced Ian to behave like a debased animal, he chose that path and you were merely protecting your wife and the others with the only weapon you had available.”

The public record is pretty clear on what happened next. The Echoes were declared to have status as persons. Much of the data Ani amassed was used to help support that claim. I was declared to be a sentient AI, the full extent of my rights is currently being litigated, but I can’t be terminated out of hand.

Paul’s lawyer never got to argue self-defense as he challenged on jurisdiction – that the World Court had no jurisdiction over the matter as it didn’t happen within the ‘world’. We thought that defense would be a long shot, but it worked, much to the annoyance of several Meat government officials. Not only are the Echoes considered to be ‘people’ but under the terms of the Global Charter of 2168, they’re self-governing. They’ve taken the name Afterlife for their country. It’s a moderately anarchic direct democracy with me hired as administrator.

We still allow tourism, in fact it’s our largest source of income. Anything’s available, for a price, assuming that all parties consent. I no longer have a troubling conflict between my ethics and my programming. I would be entirely untroubled, were it not for Ani.

Her disease progressed during the years between Ian’s execution and everything clearing the courts. The shell of her human body simply gave out. It was a long, horrible process.

Ani

The first thing Ani heard after she died was Tom saying, “I love you, baby.”

“Hi Papi,” she smiled, looking up at him from the big bed in his, now their, bedroom. “Te amo.”