Chapter Four: The Consequences Of Living In A Multiverse
Having delved fully into finagling the last locks on the programming, Penny was feeling more confident by the time Clemont walked in. He turned on the computer next to her and smiled. "You look like you've loosened up. Let me check what's up."
"I've been able to delve a little deeper," she said. "Thanks to Thorton, that is. It would have taken me a long time to do this on my own."
Clemont looked over the updated code and gave an appreciative whistle. "That's incredible! We should do something nice for him. You think he likes cake? I've been batting around an idea for a Super Caker-Baker recently."
Penny couldn't help but smile, ever so slightly, but it fell away. "I've been a bit nervous though. Being able to see everything more clearly, I'm understanding a lot more, but that still leaves the security system."
"The one that..." He dropped his voice to a whisper "attacked you?"
"Yeah." It was icy, rushed.
He sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair. "The summation we got, it says that the machine was shut down. And she didn't know that the really murdery program existed, right?"
Penny shook her head. "She didn't seem to. It seemed to really scare her."
/Wɑs kəəｐing the time maɔhıne runnıng truly all thə profəssor cɑred about?!/
She bit back a shiver at the echoed memory. "She had her creator's memories, but she didn't know about that."
Clemont thought about that for a moment. "It must have been added later then."
"...A fully sapient and self-directed robot would be alive, wouldn't it?" Her voice was hollower than she would have liked, and just a little louder too.
"Hm. It's more complicated than that, but a living robot would have to demonstrate those traits, I think. Unless it was, like, bacteria or something because even living bacteria isn't sapient. Wait, or is it?" He started to reach for his Poryphone but stopped. "Yeah, we're not talking about bacteria. I can wait to look that up."
Penny turned towards him for the first time since he sat down. "Volkner was talking about Porygon earlier. How they're alive. Which tells me he thinks the AI is too."
"It's entirely possible!" Clemont exclaimed. "This is way more advanced than anything we've ever seen! Even when I built a robot before, he just kinda makes decisions based on what I would do because that's what I told him to do. He only gives the appearance of being self directed, but really he's just a really advanced computer program, like one of those robot vacuums that calculates where all the obstacles are in a room. But times a few hundred."
She nodded. "Yeah. People tend to assign organic characteristics like self direction and free will to robots that look like living things."
Clemont seemed like he was about to say something, but laughed. "Yeah, I guess now that I think about it, those vacuums look a lot like Wimpod, don't they?"
That hadn't been what she was talking about, but it was still true. "Anything that takes direction and gives the illusion of obeying. It's a weird sort of empathy."
"In a way it's nice, though." He smiled. "If people can show empathy so much for something that isn't alive, just because it seems to be, they can do it for each other. Even if they often don't, they *can*, and if we work on that, we can make a better world for everyone."
Penny glanced over at the closed room. "I hope she agrees. And I hope she's accepted here."
"Yeah. And I...hope she doesn't mind us studying her." Clemont looked over to the other room as well. "Machine testing is pretty invasive if you're a living thing. And even though she's the double of a scientist and talked about her own curiosity, according to the document, it's different when you're the test subject. And we still haven't figured out who the man is at all. He may have a completely different story, even with having the same crystals on him."
She turned back to the computer. "Hopefully, we can apply these same fixes to his files and get to the bottom of things. I was hoping to do that some time soon."
"Need a double of your own?" He swiveled back to his own screen. "You looked happy when I came in."
Penny nodded, and as she shared the massive file so he could examine it on the other computer, she did in fact feel a little better again.
"What's your big news?" Sophocles was excited, swaying back and forth on his heels as Cyrus entered. The man had sent word that he'd made a breakthrough, but had been strangely mum about what it could be.
Cyrus dropped a thin file on the table by the door. "I found our mystery man."
That caught the attention of everyone, including Volkner who was taking a break and texting again.
Sophocles paused, looking up at Cyrus for a moment before adding "Are...you gonna tell us about him?"
Cyrus stared at the boy for a moment with an expression Penny had recently learned wasn't actually hostile, it was just how he looked at everyone. "...Fine." He brushed the file open with a passive wave and held up a photograph of a small team of researchers. Sada was front and center, looking a bit younger than Penny had ever seen her. This was likely before the Tera Orb research had made her the star of the scientific community and plastered her face on every tech and trainer magazine
Penny took a closer look. Director Clavell was also present, long before he was ever the school headmaster, and seeing him in a younger year made her realize that he somehow looked *older* than usual in his Clive costume. But out of the rest of the team, the one that stood out the most was a clean-cut man of about Sada's age, his serious expression directly facing the camera. "That's...our robot?"
"Professor Turo, another of the elite scientists chosen to work in the Zero Lab." Cyrus handed the photo off to Penny and continued with the next page, sliding it out of the folder so the others could read it. "He and Sada were classmates at Naranja Academy--" His pronunciation of the school's name betrayed his unfamiliarity with the Paldean language "--with his particular field of study being the future of technology."
Clemont whistled. "A worthy field!"
"He left the Area Zero studies early on, and at present is known for his work in--"
Penny had to interject. "At present?"
That expression didn't imply hostility, she reminded herself at Cyrus's glare. "Yes, if I will be permitted to finish."
"So he's still alive..." Somehow that felt both good and terrible within her. She had a vague memory of Arven mentioning that his father had a similar name, and she didn't want to ask him to dredge up verification.
"That makes it easier!" Sophocles cheered. "We can call him up and ask him about his robot!"
Cyrus closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath before replying. "It is unlikely that he would know anything about it. The evidence suggests that this machine came from a parallel timeline. Considering what we know about their construction and power source, it would have to have been made within the Zero Lab, a place he would not have had access to since leaving the research team."
Volkner slid the photo over to himself, and lined it up with a crease in the table's surface before examining it. "Do we know when that was?"
"Data on the research team is spotty, and most participants are still under a non-disclosure agreement. However, from the dates on his own research papers, it would have been approximately seventeen years ago."
Penny's mouth tightened a little bit at the edges. Arven's age. /That man walked out not long after the boy was born,/ she remembered from Sada's erratically written journals, and had to remind herself that she wasn't even certain that the man they were discussing was "that man" at all.
"So, what are we going to do?" Thorton had just gotten there a few minutes before Cyrus. "Though honestly if I had created a beacon of scientific advancement in a parallel universe, I'd still like to know about it in this one. Just putting that out there."
Volkner handed the photo over to Thorton. "Yeah, I would too, but I'd also want to interact with it. And we can't tell him what we found, and considering this probably means he got killed in that parallel world, that'd be really uncomfortable. Like, what do you *do* with that information?"
Penny shook her head. "I wouldn't like that. Even if I saved the world in another timeline, I wouldn't want to know about it if it meant that I died like that."
Cyrus looked up from the papers. "It makes no difference to me. Neither accomplishments nor fate of any other me has any impact on this universe. Ergo, it does not affect me as I stand before you today."
"Not to hear Miss Cynthia say it," Sophocles said with a smile, but the smile quickly dropped when Cyrus shifted his gaze to the boy.
"Regardless. I believe it wise to keep the existence of this robot from the Turo of this universe. Even if he is capable of constructing such a thing, he has not done so, and to reveal that information to him would not only be disruptive, it would violate the non-disclosure agreement we took on." Cyrus's leadership skills were evident, though Penny had to remind herself where he had honed them.
Clemont nodded. "That sounds reasonable. It would likely be possible to petition Lear for an exception but with the rest of that to consider, it wouldn't really be worth it."
"Yeah, I'm fine with that." Volkner stood up from the table and stretched heavily before headed for the windowed room. "I'm gonna run another test on the crystals, see if I can match the energy to another source. I had some ideas about artificial impulses that I could try to implant. Sophocles, 'Mister Cyrus', you wanna join me?"
That broad smile returned to the boy's face and he pushed off from the table with glee. "Come on, let's go!"
Cyrus, who had already taken a few steps in the direction of the other room, almost seemed to wither at the enthusiasm, but followed regardless.
Thorton took that opportunity to return to the row of computers and resume examination of the code. Clemont moved to sit two stations down, and gestured for Penny to join them on the seat between. When she did, Thorton started talking as the other two sitting there was part of his plan all along. "So what I was looking into first was getting rid of that security system, but it seems it's location based. Since she couldn't leave the immediate area around the machine she was guarding, she would be compelled to go to it if anyone tried messing with things."
"My friend who dealt with her was led there. Um, by her," she stammered.
"Yes, yes, to specifically shut down the machine." Thorton patted the copy of the mission summary that still lay between the computer units from the night before. "But if she hadn't been there and your anonymous friend somehow got in, her programming would have forced her to go to the machine anyway. She wouldn't have a choice in the matter."
"That's scary," Penny murmured.
"That's depressing," Clemont said at the same time.
Thorton didn't seem to have an emotional reaction, and kept talking. "But with the machine shuttered, and it being apparently impossible to restart for anyone who isn't Sada herself, that compulsion won't manifest. We can try to get rid of the code, but I don't see a need to."
"We should do so anyway. I think it would be a weight off her mind to not have that hanging over her."
Penny was glad that Clemont said so. It meant she didn't have to.
"Yeah, ok, sure." Thorton began the search for the relevant code. The sheer volume of code to sort through was going to take a few minutes, even on a top of the line computer, so he pulled out his tablet again.
Clemont leaned back in the chair. He wasn't wearing his Aipom Arms backpack, which had been carefully placed on a nearby table. "So, Penny, do you know if your friend is going to come to Pasio? Being able to interview them about what happened could give us more insight into the robot's behavior."
The official document had been so mum on her friend's identity that almost nothing was known, and she was going to keep it that way. "I haven't any idea."
The gym leader nodded. "Gotcha." A moment later he added "I'm about 99% certain that we can do this. And the other percent is that we won't be able to figure out a power source, in which case we can send them back to where they came from, and they'll just wake up when exposed to the crystals again. So either way, they'll be ok."
"I'd rather not think about any failure states right now. My worst case scenario is a lot different than yours."
He paused for a moment before his eyes fell shut. "...Yeah. I'm sorry." Looking back at her again, he sighed. "But like Thorton said, she can't activate the security programs. So that should be a load off, right?"
Penny wanted to point out that the AI hadn't activated the security system, it was almost the other way around, but Clemont knew that and had addressed it before, so it was worth it not to nitpick his wording.
The lights flickered in the next room, visible through the curtains, before shutting off entirely for a moment. The workroom was on a separate power source from the main room, something Volkner had insisted on, so the computers were unaffected, but it was enough to draw the attention of the three seated there.
From the back, Sophocles could be heard exclaiming "When it works, you totally gotta shout 'they're aliiiiiiiive!' like in the movies!", followed by Cyrus muttering something inaudible.
All right, Penny reasoned, that was a sign that whatever they were doing didn't *yet* work, but that they were likely on the right track.
"Wonder what it is they hit on," Thorton mused. "Their power source is so unique, but it's almost impossible to replicate even here." He typed for a second, exactly a second, before continuing. "I thought everything was possible on Pasio, especially with my technological expertise contributing to it, but the huge scope of the world's natural occurrences isn't something I really have personal history with."
Clemont's eyes widened and his mouth puckered, and he nodded slowly. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I can see that."
Penny, sitting between them as she was, bit back a chuckle and hoped that her position prevented Thorton from seeing the sarcastic expression, but Thorton kept working. "You're lucky to be so young. The future will produce such astounding things."
"You're not even twenty," Clemont chuckled.
"Correct! But you're still younger than I am."
Penny looked over at Thorton to take in his features. She had thought he was older than that. Twenty three, maybe. Between that and finding out that Volkner, who looked like he was in his late twenties, and Cyrus, who looked like he had died six months ago and no one had told him yet, had gone to school together, she wondered if there wasn't something in this line of work that led to premature aging. High stress was no stranger to her, and there was a part of her life where she wouldn't have been surprised if she had developed grey hair poking through the dye, but she still looked in the estimable age of fourteen like she ought to.
It made her wonder what Sada had looked like at the end. The mental strain, most of it self-imposed, that she had been under must have been incredible, and even if she had built the robot to be an exact double at the time, there was no saying what toll her lifestyle had taken on the original.
Even in photos before she had isolated herself from the outside world, Sada was starting to develop the faintest of wrinkles around her eyes. Small ones, "laugh lines" they would be called. She was always smiling in those photographs, because they were for magazines and news articles. With funding being as vital as it was, she had to remain positive in the public eye, sell her research as something exciting and necessary. She doubtless believed it was anyway, but she would have learned a long time ago that she had to convince everyone else.
Penny saw a bit of that in Clavell, but maybe that was the educator in him, having to convince students to take an interest in the information before them.
Sada had been around forty. Things like grey hair wouldn't be a surprise, especially with such a stressful life. Had she lost weight? Gained? The lab had still been peppered with instant noodle containers strewn about, but Penny imagined that she had likely needed to be reminded to eat. Perhaps that was her own experiences, though. Penny could subside on horribly salty or sugary snacks and energy drinks due to a combination of teenage metabolism and a habit of only nibbling at things, and she had no idea what it was like for others.
She'd imagined the AI trying to force her creator to eat something healthy, like some sort of old cartoon where a robot maid had nagged the family over their habits. Imagining the AI in an old fashioned maid hat with the ribbons was at least a funny enough image that drew her out of the funk yielded by her previous thoughts, and that was enough to draw her attention back to the screen before her.
The text was something understandable now, not only through Thorton's adaptations but because the code in that part was about memory retention, something that was the same as in a regular computer. Well, much more expansive and beyond anything Penny had ever seen even in the biggest and most effective supercomputers, and the computers in the Gadgeteer base could only process it as a file and would probably explode if they tried to run it, but it was built from the same bones as anything else.
Eventually, Clemont got up, not explaining where he was going, and left Penny with Thorton. At first they didn't speak, both focusing on the code before them, analyzing it for anything they could use. But after a few minutes, Penny turned towards him. "Um...there's something I want to talk to you about."
"Go ahead."
"First, thank you for your hard work. Trying to figure out how she was made is hard enough, and getting deeper into her code was something I thought was going to take years. Thanks to you, we got past that wall in just a few days."
Thorton stopped and looked back at her. "Naturally! If we have the ability to unlock this knowledge, it's only right that we should do so!"
"But..." She looked down at her hands, folded in her lap. "You left that note. And it was really hurtful."
"I left a...oh, the doodle?"
"Yeah. She--the professor--had a lot of problems. And she hurt a lot of people in her life, including a friend of mine. But she died to save a pokémon she loved." Her voice was wavering. "So if you could...not make fun of that."
Thorton thought about this for a second before nodding slowly. "I get that. I was working on no sleep for about two days and just used all my mental capacity on this weird code. But yeah, I'll be smarter about that in the future."
Her head drooped but she smiled, and hoped he could see it. "Thank you. Finding out what she was really like was pretty bad, but she wasn't completely evil, not if she put her life on the line to save someone. We've...me and my friends...have wondered if she could have changed."
"Yeah, I understand. That must be frustrating."
"My friend, the one who talked to the AI, said that even she couldn't figure it out, even with Sada's memories. So even if this works and we get her running again..." Penny shook her head. "We can never know, can we? Unless something happens here and the real Sada gets nabbed from before she died."
Thorton laughed, nervously and uncertainly. "Talking to people here is something that sometimes escapes even me. I want to analyze where and when everyone is from. That Lysandre...we're all glad he's not here with us right now, but most people from Kalos said he--"
"--should be dead." It was finished by Clemont, returning to his seat. "Actually, I wanted to bring that up, Penny. If it's ok with you."
There were many things that could mean. "Bring what up?"
"Your...apprehension on working on the AI, since she tried to kill you. Or was overridden by a program that tried." He waved at the screen. "I'll get there eventually. But whenever I have to work with Lysandre, all I can think is 'this man tried to murder me and everyone else in Kalos'. But Lear treats him like nothing happened." His usually confident voice was wavering a little. "I'm really glad he's not here. Even if he's from another timeline, he still did the exact same thing there, so he's functionally the same person. The only difference is that he survived somehow. And..." He trailed off, letting his head droop and his hand tighten around the computer mouse. "...it's just really frustrating."
One of the rumors Penny had heard soon after arriving was that Lysandre had recently killed two people, but it was unconfirmed. No sync pairs were missing, but it was reportedly two Rocket grunts, who used their own documentation. And she wasn't about to hack into their records just to find out what she already knew about a bad guy being a bad guy.
She was glad that nobody had ever tried to force her into a group with anyone like that. The rules of Pasio were strange and seemed to favor certain trainers above others, and while the place could seem like heaven to some trainers even not in the favored few, it was strange and arbitrary and at the mercy of a single overlord who could alter the rules at any time.
Paradise never did work out, after all.
Thorton cleared his throat, seeming to want to bring the mood up ever so slightly. "I'm fortunate in that regard. What little work Cyrus does around here is brilliant, and allows the rest of us to keep an eye on his actions. It's doubtful that, despite his boasts, he'll ever try to pull such a destructive stunt again."
"Yeah, and he's got a friend now, as much as he denies it," Clemont said with a bit of a smile.
Penny wasn't exactly sure what Cyrus had done, but if he was being mentioned in the same breath as Lysandre, then it had to be something terrifying. She knew he was a criminal, a cult leader, and possibly a terrorist, but the specifics weren't nearly so close to home as the events of a neighboring region.
Someone her uncle had even done business with. Someone her father had met personally, though Penny was too young to remember that.
Thorton, after a moment, continued clacking on the keyboard. "This part here, these partitions, this is what you were after, right Clemont?"
"Oooh! Thank you!" After a moment of his own, Clemont smiled. "Hey Thorton, what's your favorite type of cake?"
