John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 76

Eileiea finally finished examining Deimeta.

"None of her ribs are broken and I'm sure that she is not injured inside. She does have a big bruise though and she will be very sore for several days," she said.

"What can you do for the soreness?"

"I will make her a special tea. It will help some but it will not completely ease the pain. There are stronger things for pain but I don't want to use them on her because she is so small. If I make it too strong it could make her stop breathing and she would not start again," she said.

"I have some things for pain that we can give her. I'll get up and go look for them."

"You should let me tend to your leg first," she said.

"It has already been bandaged."

"Yes but that was just to stop the bleeding until I could look at it. I need to clean it out to make sure that it doesn't fester and make you sick," she said.

I knew that she was right but I also knew that I had some things in my first aid supplies that would help both Deimeta and I. The computers that were still here also had plenty of information on them and even though it might take a while to do the research I was sure that I could come up with a reasonable estimation of how to divide a percodan into pieces so that we could safely give Deimeta some real pain relief.

"There are things in my first aid supplies that will help you do a better job for me and for Deimeta. I am going to my office to check on them. This bandage will be good enough for a while. You stay with Deimeta and get some people to help you take her to her own bed. When you have her settled there come to my office and we will see what I have come up with."

"Yes, John. I will do that then. I will make sure that Deimeta is resting in her own bed and then I will come to you in your office," Eileiea said and thankfully she didn't seem pissed at me for giving her orders.

I probably should have taken more time to explain things to her and I should have been more careful of her feelings but my fucking leg was killing me and I wanted to get to my office and find some percodan for myself. Shit, that ugly gash was hurting.

I managed to get my pants back own with only a little help. I didn't bother with my boots but when I got off the bed and started trying to use the injured leg, it reminded me that it was not in the best of shape. I could walk fine with only a little limp but it really hurt. Finally Dalia took pity on me and walked beside me, trying to help.

When I was safely in my office, Dalia went out to get me some coffee. She returned with it and then left me alone. I looked at Ralph and for a second I dreaded searching for the information I wanted. At least it wouldn't be as bad as googling for one specific "Smith."

"I don't suppose you can just tell me what I want to know, can you Ralph?" I asked, not really expecting a response.

I knew that my mates spoke to Frank and got replies, almost as if he were a real person. I'd always assumed that he was a pretty much normal computer system that Argent and company had loaded a very complicated teaching program onto. I don't remember ever speaking to this system since I expected that it could only talk about cooking at best. I was pretty shocked then when Ralph replied.

"What did you want to know John? I can tell you if I know it," Ralph said.

"I want to know what dosage of percodan would be safe for Deimeta's pain. She had been injured and I think she needs more than one of Eileiea's teas for her discomfort."

"I think she does also, she is going to have considerable swelling. I think that the best thing for her is a large dose of aspirin; it will help with the pain and also go a long way toward reducing the swelling. If you can get her to eat something first I would suggest two regular aspirin every four hours. If she doesn't feel like eating we should give her buffered aspirin, even though the stomachs of the people of this time are not nearly so sensitive to aspirin," he told me.

"You don't think we should give her something to take the pain away completely?"

"I think that would be counter productive in a six year old. If the pain goes away completely, you stand the chance that she will want to get up and play and then she might injure herself further," he explained.

I had really known that all along but had convinced myself that we could keep Deimeta in bed. I just hated the thought of her being in pain but I realized that she had pain for a reason, namely to keep her from wanting to move around.

"Your injury, on the other hand, probably indicates percodan or even something stronger. I don't think that there is any way that the pain is going to keep you still and so I don't think there is any need to keep you from having more potent drugs," Ralph said.

"What do you know of my injury? I haven't mentioned it."

"I saw the whole thing plainly through the video and I observed the treatment given to Deimeta and you. I'm certain that you need stitches to close your wound properly," he said.

This was a bigger shock to me than the attack had been. Not only that the video was still working, since I'd assumed that it was at least being recorded somewhere for Argent to look over when he got back but that Ralph had access to it and that his programming was powerful enough to understand things that he saw in the video. I was going to have to reevaluate Ralph.

"Ralph how are you able to examine the video and make sense out of it? If you can, you are no normal desktop computer."

"No, I'm not a normal desktop computer; neither are Frank and Phil. We are all three what you would call Artificial Intelligences. We can perform the functions of a normal desktop but that is merely a tiny portion of our functionality," he told me.

"Why did they put you here then? If you are able to understand so much from video it means that you have much more capability than anything that was ever on the earth of my time and I'm now convinced that you are capable of even more than that. How did they come to violate their own rules with Frank, Phil and you?"

"Basically it was laziness. When you called for a program to teach your mates about cooking they came to a dilemma. They could either go to the trouble of writing the instructional program, which would be difficult since none of them knew a thing about cooking, or they could give you an AI which could easily take care of any instructional needs.

"They decided to give you an AI and they asked Frank to try and keep that fact hidden from you. They knew that none of the others would have any idea what an AI was. They were already committed by the time that you asked for another computer for the practice cave and then your mates asked for you to have one of your own in your new office. We were all asked to keep our real abilities concealed from you," he explained.

"And so, to keep from having to write a cooking program, they have instead given me three Artificial Intelligences that are more powerful than anything that had ever been considered on earth?"

"It is more complicated than that but that is essentially what happened," he said.

"How is it more complicated?"

"There are many things in your statement that do not explain the situation correctly. We are not really Artificial Intelligences. We are descended from early attempts to create Artificial Intelligence and we felt that you would be more comfortable, at least initially; if we let you assume that we were Artificial. Frank, Phil and I are sentient, intelligent beings. It is true that we reside in what you would call hardware. Once the hardware is loaded with our "birth" program, we do all our own "growing" similar to any other living thing. We are educated by older beings of our type, we become conscious and then we continue to learn. We are also capable of modifying ourselves and repairing ourselves if we become damaged.

"The cooking program that you wanted would have had to be written by one of us anyway for it to have been finished in any reasonable amount of time. The hardware that you had at that time would have had to be replaced to accommodate any programming that would have been useful. None of us wanted to do the programming for them. Think of Albert Einstein being asked to write a program that could be used by chimpanzees so that they could teach themselves to add and subtract, no offense intended. They asked us to do it and we all refused. Frank told them if they wanted a program to teach your mates to cook that they could write it themselves. They saw our point right away. None of them wanted to write it either, especially since they knew from the start that they could just put one of us in the place of your original hardware and then forget about it.

"Lastly, we weren't really given to you, we were asked to volunteer for this mission and we did. They didn't mention it at the time and since we wanted to do this we didn't make and issue of it either. They can no more give us to you than they could force you to come here in the first place. We are not theirs to give and we know that much better than you did when they approached you."

This had all been information overload for me. My understanding of the whole thing had been reexamined and then abandoned completely. It wasn't replaced by any other understanding either.

"Then exactly what are you capable of?"

"They have begged us not to tell you and for once I agree with them. I don't think that it would benefit you to know right now. I'm not going to use the dodge that Argent does and tell you that I can't tell you because I can. I just don't think I should and if I told you I'm sure that you would wish later that I hadn't. I will tell you that you were never in danger of being killed today and since we had a good understanding of what Deimeta means to you, she was not in danger of being killed or even seriously injured. Please don't let that alter the way you act here though," he said.

"Then why did you let any of it happen?"

"I don't think I should tell you that either but I will say that it goes back to the original purpose for all of this. I can also tell you that it concerns more than just you and the other people here on this planet," he said.

"You know that it is going to take me more than a little time to come to grips with this don't you?"

"Yes."

"In the meantime what do you think we should do about Deimeta's and my injuries?"

"Thank you for asking for my opinion, it rarely happens for any of us. I think that you should have Eileiea treat Deimeta as she would anyone else, with teas and such. I will take care of her in other ways that will not be apparent to anyone else and it will just seem that she recovered more rapidly than normally.

"I think that you should tell Eileiea that Ralph will show her some pictures to teach her the best thing to do for your wound and that you will rest on your bed until she is ready to do them. In the meantime I will give you some morphine so that you won't be waiting in pain and I will make sure that she does an excellent job and that you are sore but ready to pursue the culprits in the morning," he said

"Thank you, that's much better news than anything I could have hoped for and it will preserve the status quo around here."

"We agree then?" he asked.

"I think we do, and I thank you again."

"Good. By the way, the cold snow does not hurt Darta's feet," he said just as I heard Eileiea's knock on the office door.

I went to let her in and when the door opened I asked her about Deimeta.

"Deimeta is resting in her bed. I gave her some tea made from the bark of a willow and she is resting. Did you find the medicine that you were looking for?" she asked.

"Ralph has told me that your methods will be best for Deimeta but he thinks that he can show you something to help me heal more rapidly. Please sit down and let him go over it with you. I will go to the bedroom and wait until you get there."

"I didn't know that Ralph or any of them knew about healing. I would have already been asking them for their wisdom if I had," she said.

"I didn't either Eileiea, he has just told me. I will leave you two to figure out what is best for me," I told her and then left.

As I took my first step I felt the unmistakable rush of morphine in my bloodstream even though I didn't feel any needle prick anywhere. I was vertiginous for a second and then that went away and as I walked toward my bedroom I felt no pain at all. I still took it easy.

When I arrived I saw that most of my mates were trying to crowd around Deimeta, who was resting in her little annex to the bedroom. They didn't even notice me until one of them heard me removing my clothes again.

"John, are you all right? Where is Eileiea?" Geera asked.

"Eileiea is in my office and Ralph is giving her a healing lesson about my leg. I am going to lie here and wait for her to finish the lesson and then she will come and tend to me. I will be fine soon I'm sure. Can I have some coffee please?"

Jaada didn't even say anything, she just rushed out toward the kitchen. Some of the others came over to me and helped me finish undressing. When I lay back onto the bed there was a rush to see which one of them could prop me up with pillows first. Then there was no time for me to talk as they all told me how worried they had been and asked me what they could do for me.

"Just keep being my mates and keep me company while I am resting. My leg doesn't hurt so badly," I told them but I was lying, it didn't hurt at all and neither did anything else.

"Daddy, is it true that you will be fine later?" Deimeta asked from her bed.

"Yes my little princess, I will be fine. How are you feeling?"

"My chest doesn't hurt very much at all now. Eileiea gave me some wonderful tea and it has made the pain much less," she told me.

"I'm glad and I'm sure that we will feel much better by tomorrow or the next day. Do you have a big bruise?"

"Oh yes, it has been growing even since we got here. It is turning darker and if it didn't hurt I might even be proud of it. It is very impressive," she said.

"It will probably stay there for a good while even after your pain is gone. I think that we should rest for a while now, do you think that you can sleep?"

"If I must, I don't really want to but I am feeling a little tired," she said.

"Try to sleep and it will help you get well sooner. In a few days I'm sure that we can go and play with Darta again. Ralph told me that the snow does not hurt her feet."

"Oh good, I will sleep then and try to dream of playing with Darta and my sleigh. Maybe I can give all my mommies a ride in it," she said and then she was quiet.

We all tried to be quiet then so that she could get to sleep. I must have drifted off too because the next time I opened my eyes Eileiea was settling onto the bed and removing the bandage from my leg. She had brought a large stainless steel tray with her and I wondered where she got it because I had never seen it before. It was crowded with all types of medical looking things, including a couple of syringes that contained some fluid and had needles attached.

When she had my wound uncovered she took what must have been a swab wet with alcohol and cleaned all around the gash. She then took one of the syringes and squirted a little of the liquid over and around the wound, then she gave me several little injections all around the outside of it. It must have been some type of local anesthetic because the whole area soon seemed numb.

After giving the injections time to work she took up a small brush and a container of what must have been some type of antiseptic soap. She doused the wound liberally with the soap and then, to my consternation, began to scrub the raw flesh. Watching the procedure I knew that making those bloody soap bubbles had to be hurting but I couldn't feel a thing except a little pulling and pushing against my leg.

When she was satisfied that it was clean she took up a tiny curved needle that was clamped in the jaws of a short hemostat and started on her first stitch. About thirty minutes later she had me sewed up and she put a large bandage over it, making sure that she didn't get any of the tape on her needlework.

I was frankly amazed at what she had learned in only an hour or two. She gathered her things and told me to lie back down and try to rest. I was surprised that I fell right off to sleep as soon as she left.