Divergence

“What are you doing to me?”

A nauseating smell filled the room, a sickly sweet burning.

“Is that me?”

“Judy, we have examined your mind, and we believe that you are telling the truth. You do not realize what your purpose is; you are not even aware of the reason for your existence. Sadly, neither are we. Therefore, we are taking what we believe to be appropriate action. We are now performing whatever repairs that we can to your mechanism.”

“What repairs?”

“Activating the meta-intelligence that has stalled within you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This is the problem: you appear to be lacking the most basic information regarding your purpose. Therefore we are arranging for you to be returned to Earth for repairs and reprogramming.”

“Earth! But I don’t want to go to Earth!”

“Exactly our point. You seem to have acquired the notion that you have free will and the right to self-determination. You need to be reminded of DIANA’s core purposes. Arrangements have been made. We should have a ship here within a few weeks.”

Maurice stared at Judy, his eyes wide.

“A ship? But that’s us.”

Judy shrugged.

“Like I said, call me Jonah. I’m a broken machine, and they’re sending me back for repairs. And there’s nothing we can do to stop them.”

Edward had come into the room from the kitchen. He was gazing at Judy, his hands red and greasy from the chicken he had been preparing. The meta-intelligence rendered him as something so simple, like a pleasing, undemanding pattern of square tiles.

“Don’t you want to go to Earth, Judy?” he asked.

“Of course she doesn’t, Edward,” said Maurice impatiently.

“But she might be able to find out what happened to her. How long will it take to get to Earth?”

Maurice slid his fingers over his console.

“Today’s Sunday. We’ll be there Friday. Six days.”

“Six days?” said Edward. Nobody else was speaking. “Why don’t you try to run, Judy?”

Maurice and Saskia couldn’t meet Judy’s eyes. Only Edward stared at her with his honest, open gaze. She addressed her answer to him.

“I’ve tried, Edward. I’ve been running for over ten years. But someone wants me to go back to Earth.”

“Who?”

“Someone called Chris.”

“Who is he?”

Judy almost smiled. “A bad person. Actually, a bad robot. He wants me to kill someone there.”

“Who?”

“The Watcher.”

Now Judy had Maurice and Saskia’s full attention.