For Want of a Nail by Mary Robinette Kowal

Author:Mary Robinette Kowal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: women, short story, science fiction, space, ai, hugo
Publisher: Mary Robinette Kowal

***

Cordelia’s cameras swiveled to face Rava as the door slid open. “He’s dead, isn’t he?

Rava nodded. “I’m sorry.”

The AI appeared to sigh, coded mannerisms to express grief expressing themselves in her projection. Her face and cameras turned away from Rava. “And me? When do you roll me back to the earlier version?”

Rava sank into the seat by Cordelia’s chassis. The words she needed to say filled her throat, almost choking her. “They . . . I can offer you two choices. There’s another AI in the hold. The family voted to replace you.” She dug her fingernails into the raw skin around the cuticle of her thumb. “I can either shut you down or let you remain active, but unconnected.”

“You mean without backup memory.”

Rava nodded.

Under the whirring of fans, she imagined she could hear code ticking forward as Cordelia processed thoughts faster than any human could. “For want of a nail . . .”

“Sorry?”

“It’s a proverb. ‘For want of a nail—” Cordelia broke off. Her eyes shifted up and to the left, as she searched for information that was not there. “I don’t remember the rest of it, but I suspect that’s ironic.” Hiccupping sobs of laughter broke out of her.

Rava stood, hand outstretched as if she could comfort the AI in some way, but the image that showed such torment was only a hologram. She could only bear witness.

The laughter stopped as suddenly as it had begun. “Shut me off.” Cordelia’s image vanished and the cameras went limp.

Breathing shallowly to keep her own sobs at bay, Rava pulled the key from her pocket. The flat plastic card had holes punched in it and metallic lines tracing across the surface in a combination of physical and electronic codes.

Counting through the steps of the procedure, Rava systematically shut down the systems that made Cordelia live.

One. Insert the key.

She had known what Cordelia would choose. What else could she have opted for? Really. The slow etching away of self, with pieces written and over-written.

Two. Fingerprint verification.

Uncle Georgo had chosen to stay, though, and Cordelia might have followed his lead.

Three. Confirm shut down.

If only Rava hadn’t dropped the chassis. . . but the truth would have come out eventually.

Four. Reconfirm shut down.

She stared at the last screen. For want of a nail. . . Tomorrow she would visit the consignment shop and get some paper and a pen.

Confirm shutdown.

And then, with those, she would write her own memories of Cordelia.

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