Renegade World: Future Past (2 page)

“I don't forget things,” she insisted loudly.

“OK, show me. If you can show me all of the ones we just
did and do them correctly, I'll show you a couple more.”

She climbed up and went through all of the tricks. At the
end of the swivel hips, she whispered, “There's a blond girl over there who has
been watching us. Is she a friend of yours?”

He turned and waved. “Erica, come meet Naami.”

Naami said, “I know who you are. You’re Erica Carlson. Your
mom won an Olympic silver medal in saber, and you are ranked in the top five in
the nation. How tall are you? Is Aaron your boyfriend?”

Looking at Aaron, Erica said, “Why I think she made you
blush Aaron.” Turning to Naami, she said, “Aaron and I are just good friends.
The answer to your other question is that I'm six feet tall. Why do you ask?”

“Aaron said he was six two, and you look almost as tall. I
want to be six feet tall when I grow up. Mom says I probably won't, but I know
I will.  Are you still growing? Why isn't Aaron your boyfriend?”

Erica looked at Aaron, who had turned even redder, then
turned back to Naami and said, “I'm sixteen, and most girls don't grow too
much after they are fifteen, so I probably won't grow much taller.”

“Oh, you're older than him. Is that why he's not your
boyfriend?”

“No kiddo, that's not the reason. We’re just friends.”

Aaron sighed to himself.
What she didn't say is that she
has had a steady string of boyfriends since she was twelve.
  The thought
that she could be his girlfriend was inconceivable to him. In his opinion, she
was the most beautiful girl in the school.  Her deep blue eyes, high cheek
bones, and wonderful smile were his picture of the perfect girl.

Naami looked at Aaron and then Erica. “Oh, I guess maybe I
was wrong, but I'm not wrong often. Do you want to watch me learn some more
tricks, Erica? Aaron promised me that he would teach me more tricks if I showed
him that I could do all of the tricks that he already taught me.” Turning to
Aaron, she declared, “And I did all of them correctly, right Aaron?”

“Yes, you did.  Get down, and I'll show you a front drop.”
He climbed up and demonstrated the front drop several times as Naami walked
around the tramp.”

Naami exclaimed, “Enough! My turn!”

“Are you sure, Naami?” asked Erica, looking concerned. “You
could hurt yourself if you land wrong!”

Naami started bouncing. “There's no need to
fear, Underdog is here.”

“What?” said Erica.

“I am a hero who never fails. I cannot be bothered with
such details.” She dropped to her stomach and back up to her feet.

“Perfect!” laughed Aaron.

“My front drop or my imitation?” She giggled.

“Both!”

She scrambled down. “Well then, next trick, please!”

Aaron climbed up. “This trick is a combination of two of
tricks that you already know. Watch.” He did a seat drop and then without going
to his feet, he bounced up and over to a front drop and then up to his feet. 
He did this several times while Naami circled the tramp. He stopped and slid
off the tramp as Naami scrambled up.

She executed the combination perfectly and then pleaded,
“One more?”

“Do you have time?” Aaron asked Erica.

“Sure. I have time if you have time.”

“Where are you going to go?” asked Naami.

“We're going to an archery range,” they both said
simultaneously.

“Can I come too?”

“Sorry sweetie,” said Erica, “We’d have to get permission
from Rebeka Lee. She has an archery range on her farm.”

“Ask her to let me come watch you because I'm going to
pester you until you do.” What she didn't say was that she knew Rebeka Lee.

Aaron climbed up. “The last trick for today is a turn table. There are
three variations of it. First I'll show you it using a tuck, then a
pike, and then a layout.” He did a front drop, and as he bounced up, he pulled
his arms and legs into a tuck position with his back still horizontal. Then, he
turned 180 degrees, landed in another front drop, and bounced back up to his
feet. He did this several times before changing it slightly.

Instead of tucking between front drops, he bent at the
waist with his torso and legs straight, doing the turn table in pike position.
He did it this way several times, and then he changed it slightly again.

Instead of piking, he kept his body perfectly flat between
the front drops, doing the turn table in layout position. As he finished, he
received an incoming peer-to-peer thought.
She shouldn't try this. It's too
hard!
The thought came from Erica. He thought his response back to her,
She’ll
be fine. Don't worry.

Naami watched them closely as they exchanged thoughts.
Abraham, do you think they are talking about me?

I estimate that the probability is greater than 95
percent that they are connected and conversing.

Using a suspicious tone of voice, Naami asked, “Hey guys,
are you talking about me?”

What?
thought Erica.
No way she knows we are connected!

Yes way
, Aaron replied and closed the connection.

“How could we be talking about you?” asked Erica
innocently.

“Abraham and I think you were talking across a peer-to-peer
connection to each other.”

“Who's Abraham?” asked Erica.

Naami hesitated, “He's ah, he's ah, he's my pretend friend.
You might call him an alter ego. I talk to him about things.”

Aaron saw a connection request but ignored it. Changing the
subject, he challenged, “Bet you can't do all of the turn tables!”

Erica shot him a dirty look.

“Just watch me! When Naami's doubted, she does not
shirk. She shows the doubter who's the jerk.”  She proceeded to do the turn table
perfectly in all three variations, and then bouncing higher, she exclaimed,
“When the trick is easy, this I know, I can make it go and go.” She proceeded
to do five turn tables in a row without coming back to her feet. Stopping, she
stuck out her tongue and said, “So there, naah, naah, nah, nah, naah, naah!”

“Excellent,” said Aaron, “You showed me! Let's see if you still
remember all of the tricks next time!”

“Naami, will you promise us not to practice without someone
watching you?” pleaded Erica.

“OK,” said Naami, crossing her fingers behind her back.
“What tricks will you teach me next time?” she asked Aaron.

“Let's see. There's the backdrop, the half twist to a backdrop,
a backdrop to a front drop, a front drop to a backdrop, and a cradle.”

Naami repeated them all to herself. She said, “Thank you,
Aaron, for teaching me these tricks.”

Aaron received a connection request from Naami.
Aaron?

Yes?

Will you be my friend?

Yes.

Oh good! And Aaron?

What?

Erica really should be your girlfriend
. The
connection dropped.

Aaron shook his finger at Naami as he said to Erica, “Let's
go before the Empress of the Absurd zings me again!”

“What?” Erica looked confused.

“Thanks! Bye!” yelled Naami.

As Aaron and Erica walked away, Naami was able to listen in
because of her exceptional hearing.

“Who is Underdog, and why did you call her the Empress of
the Absurd?” asked Erica.

“Underdog is a cartoon superhero who was popular over a
hundred years ago. I called her Empress of the Absurd to tease her because she
teased me.”

Erica opened a connection.
She's too young to have a
sensory splice!

I would have thought so too, but she proved otherwise.
She’s a bundle of surprises. I've never seen a five-year-old learn that fast.

“She seems like a fifteen-year-old trapped in a
five-year-old's body.

“Kind of like the inverse of Josh in the movie Big.”

“I’ve never heard of that movie.”

“Really, Erica?”

As the two disappeared from Naami’s view, she heard a motor
opening one of Aaron’s garage doors. A faint higher pitched noise became
clearer as the garage door clanked to a stop. Looking up, Naami noticed a small
delivery drone fly over his house and continue past her. She stared at it until
it disappeared.
Abraham, save all video of drones that I see.

Why?

I think I’ve seen that same drone twice before today.
Mom said to pay attention to suspicious activity.

It’s probably nothing, but I will save it.
Normally, Abraham stored just over a day’s worth of video before either purging it or archiving it to what Naami referred to as big brothers.

E
rica pulled on her helmet and pulled her archery gear
over her shoulder as Aaron walked into his garage. “Catch me if you can.”

As Erica took off down the driveway, Aaron lifted his bike
down off of the wall bracket. He put on his lightweight helmet and then grabbed
his bow, quiver, and other gear, slinging all of it over his back. The garage
door closed as he chased after Erica.

When he caught her two miles later, she opened a connection.
I guess, given who her parents are, I shouldn't be all that surprised that
she has a sensory splice.

Aaron pulled closer and watched her face.
I'm guessing
it’s not just audio and visual splices but full neural splices. I was watching her,
and her lips didn't move. While it’s true that you can sub-vocalize without
moving your lips, almost everyone does.

As far as I knew, we are the only people in the world who have full neural interfaces.
She frowned.
Do you think she has AI software on he implant? My parents wouldn't even let us have the AI software on our implants.
She stuck out her tongue.
Unlike you.

He shook his head.
I should have never told you.

Don't worry. Your secret's safe.

AI would help explain part of why she is so advanced
for her age. As far as I know, only my dad's company has developed true AI.
He paused.
As usual, Dad wouldn't give me any project details, but I know Naami's parents were subcontractors on the AI project, so Naami could have the AI software on her implant. Her reference to Abraham certainly makes me suspect that.

Erica looked concerned.
It's not open knowledge that
real AI is a reality, and there is already uproar by the religious right and
others to prevent further work on AI. They'd go nuts if they knew how advanced your
personal AI is.

I see where you're going. If Naami has AI software,
you’re afraid that she'll give it away, causing big problems. I'll talk to my
dad about it.

He thought for a minute and then continued,
I think we
also need to be more careful about using a peer-to-peer connection around other
people. We need to fake moving our lips. Other people may be as perceptive as a
bright five-year-old.

Erica thought for a minute.
You're right.
She
dropped the connection.

They turned onto the gravel road that led to Rebeka Lee's
farm, now conversing out loud about less sensitive subjects as they rode.

A
fter Erica and Aaron had left, Naami continued to practice
the tricks that Aaron had taught her.
Abraham, I need information.

What do you require?

I need good vids on those other tricks that Aaron said
that he would teach me next time.

I will search the net and preview them. When do you want
them, and do you have any specific criteria?

I want them by tomorrow, and I'll let you decide which
ones I should view.

May I bring up another subject?

Naami was pretty sure she knew what Abraham was about to
say.
Go ahead, since you would anyway.

We need to be more careful about what we let on to other
people. I will warn you when I think you might give something away that you
shouldn’t.

Alright. Go ahead and warn me, but I thought it was safe
this time since we were sure they both had neural implants before they used
them. We also guessed that Aaron had his own AI and that Erica had…

A search engine and database that she refers to as her
pseudo-AI.

Oh, don't be such a snob, Abraham. Mom said that Erica
and her brother had state-of-the-art programming for their implants.

Speaking of Mom, we should tell her that Aaron and Erica
know that you have a neural implant and that they probably have guessed that
I'm the real thing.

OK. I'll tell Mom at dinner.

Abraham? A couple more things. Pull together tutorials
on exercises that will help me jump higher. Also, I would like to see tutorials
on archery.

Remember that my memory is not infinite! Even terabytes
of memory can fill up. Do you know that you ask me for over two hundred
searches a day? And most of them have hundreds of megabytes of video.

Alright, already. Offload the data from older requests
to Big Brother. Guess what I will want soonest and keep it in your memory. For
sure, keep today's requested information. And speaking of stomach, I'm starved;
time to go eat.

R
ebeka Lee was out in the pasture brushing one of her
donkeys.  She knew that most people considered her to be a bit eccentric.  Her
grandmother used to say, “You come by it honestly.” What she meant was that Rebeka
Lee was not the first person in her family to be considered eccentric.

Her grandmother had loved to tell her the history of the
farm and their family, starting with John Taylor, a Black Seminole, originally
from Oklahoma. John Taylor had been a buffalo soldier at Fort Buford in the
early 1890s. After leaving the army, he first worked as a cowboy and then
later as a horse dealer. John owned donkeys as well as horses and bred and sold
mules as well as horses.  In the late 1890s, he purchased the original property.