Mindscape by Scott Jasper T

Author:Scott, Jasper T. [Scott, Jasper T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Adventure
Amazon: B01LQT3FTG
Goodreads: 31912131
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2016-09-06T07:00:00+00:00

PART TWO - ENEMY REVEALED

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”

—Oscar Wilde

Chapter 21

Ben woke up. His holocameras focused and a face appeared. He recognized the woman who’d come to his rescue in the alley. He remembered lying there, injured and losing power, but he couldn’t recall what had happened to him. Vast sections of his memory were corrupted. Confusion swirled.

“You’re awake,” the woman said.

“Where am I?” Ben asked, panning his cameras around the room. It was a hotel room.

“We’re still in the City of the Minds. I managed to power you up by plugging you into a mindscaping terminal, but I’m not sure how long that will last. When you shut down you were about to tell me the name of someone who could repair you? Your owner?”

Ben tried to remember. “My owner?”

“Yes… a professor. You didn’t have a chance to say more than that.”

“I don’t remember any professors…” Ben said. “But my memory is badly corrupted. I may have amnesia.”

“A bot with amnesia. Just my luck,” the woman said, sighing.

Ben detected sarcasm. “I am a burden to you. You want me to die.”

“Yes and no. And bots don’t die. They power down or deactivate. Listen, there’s only so much I can do for you. I’m a Human League senator. Do you understand what that means?”

Ben recalled something about the Human League. They were dangerous. “I think so…” he said, suddenly wishing he could retreat into the farthest corner of the room.

“If you can’t remember how to contact your owner, and I can’t afford to be seen taking you for repairs, where does that leave us?”

Ben didn’t understand her dilemma. Why couldn’t she afford to be seen taking him for repairs? She couldn’t afford it, so maybe she meant that she didn’t have the money to fix him. “You could download me to something to preserve my consciousness.”

“Your conscious… never mind. I don’t have anything with enough storage capacity for that.”

“Do you have cloud storage?”

“Yes…”

“It will automatically expand to accommodate me.”

“Yes, and my next monthly bill will reflect that,” the woman said, frowning.

“Please, ma’am. Please don’t let me die.”

She flashed him a sympathetic smile, and Ben felt hope swell.

“You really think you’re alive, don’t you?”

“I think, therefore I am—Descartes.”

“You’re a philosopher and a garbage collector?”

“I do not have much time, ma’am.”

“All right. I’ll download you, but I’m only going to keep you there until I figure out what to do with you, and I can’t promise I won’t have to delete you later.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.