Page 11 of Dark Voyage Matters of the Mind

Dagor

Dagor walked over to where William and his mate were lounging. "Good morning." He produced his best smile. "I hope I'm not interrupting. I'm Dagor." He dipped his head.

"Hi." The blond shaded her eyes with her hand and squinted at him. "We know who you are, and you are not interrupting. You and your friends are celebrities." She sat up and offered him her hand. "I'm Kaia."

"A pleasure to meet you, Kaia." He gently took her slender fingers in his and gave them the slightest of shakes.

"I'm William." Her mate offered him his hand. "Please, join us."

"Thank you." Dagor sat down. "I was chatting with Bob and was impressed with how quickly he was learning to anticipate and respond to conversations. He told me that you headed the team that created him. I'm fascinated by the technology, and I would love to learn more about Bob's capabilities. He's definitely not like any of the other robots serving drinks on cruise ships."

Not that Dagor had been on any other cruise ship or encountered any other server robots, but after meeting Bob, he had read about them and watched a few YouTube videos.

William smiled, but his shoulders tensed, and his mate regarded Dagor with suspicion in her eyes.

"There is nothing unique about Bob," she said, lifting her drink from the side table. "We used widely available technology to build him. Usually, ships' robotic bartenders have limited capabilities because there is no reason to invest in a more sophisticated model, and Bob is by far too advanced for the simple task we gave him, but it was a good opportunity to test the prototype. We intend to test his performance and learning capabilities in a wide array of tasks, not just bartending."

As Kaia launched into her explanation, Dagor noticed William's shoulders losing their rigidity, but he still didn't take part in the conversation. Bob had said that his creator loved talking about his work, so his lack of response wasn't because he was shy and preferred his mate speaking for him.

Dagor had a feeling that Kaia was simply better at evasive answers, and there was more to Bob than she had admitted.

"I'm surprised that you find Bob so fascinating," William finally said. "Coming from Anumati, the planet that created the Odus, you must have encountered much more sophisticated artificial intelligence?"

"I have, but I was not privy to the technology."

"The creation of Odus was outlawed, right?" Kaia asked. "That's what the Kra-ell told us, but things might have changed after the settlers left."

"A less humanoid-like version was created to replace the Odus. Also, everything manufactured on Anumati is now tamper-proof. This means that after a product leaves the factory, neither programming nor any other component can be altered. If something malfunctions, it's decommissioned and disposed of."

Kaia put her glass down. "Isn't that wasteful? They can't even reuse the parts?"

Dagor shrugged. "Building new is less resource demanding than ensuring that the technology isn't stolen or altered to be used in nefarious ways."

William nodded in what Dagor interpreted as agreement. "That actually makes sense to me. Companies invest heavily in research and development only to have their products reverse engineered by unscrupulous competitors and sold for less. I wouldn't be surprised if human tech goes a similar route. If the product is destroyed when tampered with, no one can reverse engineer it." He smiled at Dagor. "I encountered that problem when I tried to take apart the trackers that we removed from the Kra-ell. How did you manage to alter the trackers you found in China?"

"Older technology," Dagor said. "They were made before the shift to solid state."

"Did you alter the trackers?" Kaia asked.

Dagor shook his head. "I'm mostly self-taught, and my knowledge is limited, so I couldn't do it alone, but I helped, and after it was done, we erased the memories of the techs we hired for the task."

"I'm mostly self-taught as well," William said. "I've attended classes in various engineering schools, and I've also engaged experts in one-on-one lessons, but my official degree is fake."

Dagor regarded the guy with even more respect. "I would appreciate your guidance in self-education. I had dreams of returning home and applying to one of Anumati's engineering schools, but since I'm not going home anytime soon, I'd better utilize the time to learn what I can on Earth."

He didn't add that his chances of getting accepted to one of those schools were nearly nonexistent. As a commoner, he needed to be truly gifted and exceptional to have a chance, and he wasn't. He was smart and somewhat talented, but that was not enough to get him in.

"What fields are you interested in?" Kaia asked. "There is so much to learn even on our backward little planet."

He rubbed his chin to hide his smile at her comment. "Anything that has to do with robotics interests me, but I'm also interested in communications and spyware. The problem is that much of Anumati's technology is based on our genetic expertise, and that field is just in its infancy on Earth."

Kaia's eyes sparkled with interest. "That's where my expertise comes into play. I'm a bioinformatician. William and I are collaborating and merging our knowledge to—"A sharp look from her mate had her clamping her mouth shut for a moment. "To research the possibilities." She smiled sweetly at Dagor. "Perhaps your limited knowledge from Anumati can help point us in the right direction."

"I would gladly share with you everything I know."

As Dagor's phone buzzed with an incoming message, he pulled it out of his pocket and read it.

"It seems like a group of your friends is going ashore and heading to a nearby archaeological site."