11 – Pick Up

“These people really like living in space all the time?” I smiled at the thought.
“People and things.” She smiled back. “Though you are better off just calling them Angels. And as most of them have no place else to go its not really a case of liking living in space.”
“Why?” I was glad she was smiling again.
“Well most don’t mind which you call them, and quite a lot of them could be defined either way, but some of the people don’t like being called things and some of the things don’t like being called people.” She put her arm around me.
“No,” I moved closer to her. “I meant why have they no place else to go?”
She shrugged, “Quite a lot of the people have had things done to them which are illegal in most other places and none of the things would have an legal claim to independence and self- determination anywhere else.”
“What exactly you mean by people and things?” I relaxed against her.
She took a breath and started to explain. “Well ‘people’ are either straight Human Beings or Humans that have had surgery to adapt themselves to free fall conditions, or to enhance their senses, or to link into computers, or whatever. Where as ‘things’ are creations of laboratories. Either AI units that have been scrapped, or ‘set free’ by somebody, and have managed to survive and keep themselves going. Or, increasingly often, people that have had so many major changes performed that they are outside all legal definitions of what a Human Being is.”
I was intrigued by this new world that Jazz was describing. Now that I had admitted to myself what I knew all along, that I was different from everybody else, Jazz was describing a place where I might be the same in my difference. “What do you mean by AI units that have been ‘set free’ by somebody?”
She yawned. “There was a fad a few years back for creating robots with AI units that could function independently of any direct commands and simply setting them loose.. Some were taken by other people and rebuilt or reprogrammed for another use or sold for scrap. Some simply broke down. Some were designed so badly that they were doomed to fail. Others survived. And a few were designed to reproduce themselves.”
“Why?” I moved against Jazz.
“I don’t really know.” She put her arm around me. “Some people believed that they were creating a new species, like they were god or something. Some people, particularly students, did it just to prove they could.” She squeezed me. “Some people are still building them, but mostly new ones come from those free AI units that can make new AI units.”
“So what do they do?” I looked up at her face but her eyes were closed.
“They do all sorts of things. Anything that somebody will pay them for so they can afford to make repairs to themselves.” She shrugged, “Mostly they keep to themselves.”
She took her arm from around me, “Let’s get some sleep now.” Rolled over and half curled up to sleep.
I snuggled closer and put my arms loosely around her.
We floated there for a while and I made a decision.
“Jazz, ” I whispered in her ear.
“Mmm,” she murmured mostly asleep.
“I’m going to find out who made me.”

Chapter 12 – Hit