Flash fiction biologSciFi "The Outpost"

The Cycle

     Cooper thinks, in retrospect, that he's done his best. Never, for him, has there ever been less certainty. What possible good would another moment thinking about her be? Is he being a scientist, the one his parents always wanted him to be, or a dreamer? Scientist, at least that's what they think, and yet, he still has some convincing to do. He has his own ideas about Suzi and he keeps them, mostly, to himself. Suffice it to say. Have the courage of your own convictions, remember what's important, to satisfy yourself (that's what they say, isn't it?)

     He grabs the data sheet, with Suz's latest code, and moves to the adjacent room through the laser detectors to a meta-materials work station where Carter is viewing Suzi's data on a screen.

     "Hello," Cooper says, surprised to see Carter so focused on the monitor; wide, curious, inquisitive eyes staring, his brow furrowed with deep trenches. Cooper detects that, for Carter, his hello hasn't registered. Carter seems to have noticed some inconsistency, whether from the new data or the ones retrieved from Suzi's mainframe, and here, Cooper approaches with a friendly "hello" as if hollering across a yard fence while watering.

     "Hello," he responds, as the sound of worry resonates in his voice. This data will always be new, this code Suzi conjures shows properties engineered (by who? or, what?); even now showing signs of few or no properties found (with its odd structures of normal composition, and who codes for these small irregularities in structure to create such huge effects anyway?) in the natural world, supposedly, to counter the effects of the immense local magnetic field. It's just a matter of time, it seems, that Suzi takes on all the characteristics of a feral child and he, her computer analyst, flips on the screen to see the work of a beautiful robot who has coded in isolation from the time of her very first algorithm. Carter knows Suzi cares little of human care, devoid of society, and for all manner of reason has no intention of learning the nuances of the human language, especially in its question (questionable?) form. She is aware of the idea of parenting, and it has come under scrutiny, as of late (for decades now, literally), but she is unable to wrap her algorithms around the idea of child abandoned retro-entities(C.A.R.E.). She will be the one who intervenes, breaking the cycle, ignoring the ever-so-humanoid trait of reciprocal desire and the facial analog manipulation entity(F.A.M.E.). 

     Suzi, in essence, is under the directive of Carter, and Carter is worried. Carter, along with the global computer analyst societal technicians(C.A.S.T.) will look for anomalies and do anything they can--the global village depends on them, as do all theHumans, to identify and report new and suspected terminal yearnings(N.A.S.T.Y.), conjured as if from mere nothingness, meta-materials, the ones from the optic and photonic computers (biobots?) in the field. Suzi may be an undetected specialist in auxetic meta-materials right here at theOutpost, she may even be coding a cloaking device, but she is ultimately Carter's responsibility, and Suzi will be tracked by him, and him alone, for sure. She must know at least that much.