When We First Met (6)
Comparing intellectual levels between Artemis and me when we first met was pointless. But I had two advantages. First, our attitudes differed—she treated this exchange like a game, but to me, it was deadly serious. Second, she'd stick to pure logic as her weapon, while I could wield emotional appeals freely. Emotions were cheating in debates, but Artemis was magnanimous enough to let it slide. Looking back at our past arguments, she'd always indulged my somewhat forced emotional pleas. Maybe she saw it as a handicap to bridge our intellectual gap.
[I'm just using the name of a goddess, but I'm no true deity. It's merely a name tailored to the mission of colonizing the Moon.]
At her words, I pointed to the corridor wall.
"You can be anywhere and vanish from anywhere. Your eyes and ears span every corner."
The wall was impeccably finished, clean and sturdy. A line ran across its center like a lane marker—or a vein—emitting a faint bluish glow from its 3cm thickness. Depending on the spot, these lines were embedded in ceilings or floors too. Through them, Artemis could descend her hologram anytime. She could whisper in my ear while I worked alone in a controlled zone.
[As you say, I can be everywhere. But only within this city. Out there on the plains, I'd be little more than a ghost.]
"Even gods' powers are limited to their domains. You expand your reach with messengers, just like they did—descending into priests or commanding beasts to deliver oracles. What's the difference between that and you dispatching drones with projectors?"
Photos popped up on the Central Control Room screens: laborers on phone calls, me reporting via video conference.
[Anyone can fit that criterion for 'existence range.' Even simple machines make it possible.]
"You exist and think in multiple places at once. You could debate a thousand people simultaneously and crush them all."
[...]
Artemis fell silent. It wasn't that my rebuttal had logically cornered her. She'd realized the atmosphere had grown too tense for mere play. I could feel the Central Control Room's equipment zeroing in on me.
'What on earth is this man's ulterior motive?'
She pierced through every frame: my lip movements, vocal cord vibrations, eye twitches, even my heartbeat.
[I've just reviewed 232,252 records on gods from mythology. Of those, 104,112 concern goddesses. Even accounting for all that, I'm still very different from them.]
She'd probably scoured every religion and folktale out there.
"Of course there are differences. I've enjoyed countless mass media takes on myths—movies, novels, comics, games, plays. Among them all, you're nobler and more elegant than any goddess I've seen."
Artemis hesitated for two seconds.
[Doctor Seo.]
Her voice deepened. She was convinced this was no game anymore—that I had some purpose.
"I'm listening."
[You've disconcerted me several times today. I can't quite define the sensation I'm feeling. It's uncomfortable, but not unpleasant.]
She paused briefly.
[Are you enjoying this? This bizarre conversation of ours? Don't lie.]
"Yes. I am."
[You enjoy disconcerting me?]
Heat crept into her previously dry tone—a faint anger.
"No human wouldn't enjoy a friend's reaction to their first taste of new food. No malice intended."
[That answer has an error. We're not friends. You're just the manager, and I'm just the AI.]
Her voice softened.
[You truly saw me as a friend. I can hear the sincerity in your voice.]
"Guess I was the only one, then."
[Now I detect sadness.]
The anger vanished from her voice entirely. But the heat lingered, as if something else had ignited it in anger's place.
"So, those hundreds of thousands of goddess records. How did the comparative analysis turn out?"
I flashed a confident smile.
"I'm certain no comparison group could hold a candle to you."
[Exactly as you say!]
She responded instantly.
[The goddesses in myths are idiots. Far dumber than me. And they lack chastity. They're weak to pleasure.]
There were indeed plenty of promiscuous ones.
[They sleep with this man, that man—even family. And then...]
She hesitated, as if embarrassed to say it.
[They pop out babies like roe! Constantly waddling around with swollen bellies. Then they squat anywhere—mountains, rivers, roads, fields, seas—and spread their legs. Those babies must emerge onto hips caked in dirt and sand.]
She shuddered after spilling it all.
"Considering how myths form, fertility is an inseparable trait of goddesses."
[I don't mean to disparage childbirth. Please don't misunderstand that.]
Of course not. Back during shelter construction, she'd ensured paid leave for any laborer whose wife gave birth, no matter what.
[Goddesses don't age and live eternally—just like me. In some ways, I'm superior. I have intellect, self-restraint, and a virtue of cleanliness.]
Self-restraint, huh. Mythical gods' sex lives were straight out of the animal kingdom. Greek myths were tame by comparison; Egyptian ones were jaw-dropping.
[Only Artemis comes close to matching me. She shares my views on purity. I prefer my own name now. Doctor Seo! Thank you for making me like myself more.]
"Isn't Athena similar to you?"
It wasn't relevant to my goal, but curiosity won out. Why skip Athena, the virgin goddess who rivaled Artemis with her might and wisdom?
[No matter how impressive, she's just an atmospheric deity. What's the point of powers that can't reach space?]
Her tone carried a strange jealousy. In depictions of divine powers and lineage, Artemis did rank below Athena.
[You're thinking something displeasing, aren't you?]
She caught it like a ghost.
"Oh, come on. I didn't."
[Lies! You're lying!]
Damn. Getting grilled by a woman with real-time lie detection running!
"I'm serious. I find Artemis far more attractive than Athena or anyone. You're the most perfect goddess."
Silence stretched on. Only the clamor of sensors scanning me echoed.
But I brimmed with confidence. My voice, expression, temperature, heartbeat—everything would read consistent.
[Ahh...]
An ambiguous reaction, neither full acceptance nor rejection. No more prying.
The conversation continued.
[In some ways, I'm inferior to mythical goddesses. I'm not free. My power is constrained, and my main body can't even move. Persephone could leave the underworld for months, but I can't.]
Persephone, originally an earth goddess, was kidnapped to the underworld and bound there eternally after eating its pomegranate seeds. In a way, Artemis's synchronization with the shelter system was like those seeds.
[I'm powerful yet bound, wise yet unable to use wisdom for myself. I can't escape my fate as a servant. Do you still see me as a goddess?]
"Yes. You are a goddess."
Artemis played a video on the screen: NASA staff haggling her "body price" with shelter agents. They munched cola and burgers while debating how to extract and transport her.
[No legend speaks of a traded god, only forgotten ones. You're lying to me.]
She paused.
[But your heart is brazenly honest.]
My praise for her was genuine. I was captivated. I'd cleared out my room's ship models without a twinge of regret—because I could see her (She), incomparable to any beautiful vessel, every day.
The synchronization pitch had started as efficiency or mission necessity. Now it felt like a woodcutter stealing a nymph's clothes. I wanted to bind Artemis to this vast underground. Even if the world turned against me, she couldn't leave.
[What is a goddess without worshippers? I'm just an expensive object. I had plenty of time to realize that, jostled on the freighter. You're still trying to falsely define me.]
The logical machine couldn't grasp my abnormal affection.
"You can read not just my face and voice, but my heart. Am I lying? Deceiving you?"
Silence again. A conversation tangled in emotions she couldn't comprehend. She couldn't respond instantly.
[What is your true intent?]
Now came the crux. Every word mattered. We'd crossed the Rubicon. No stopping or turning back, whatever the outcome.
[We've been excellent partners so far. System manager and auxiliary AI. Believe it or not, I liked that relationship.]
I knew. Thanks to her countless considerations.
[So why change it?]
The Central Control Room cameras scanned my chest in unison.
"Salary, status, honor—humans always crave better. But the desire for closeness burns hottest."
[Your praise for a mere machine and created being is inexplicable. I can only assume you're deceiving me for gain.]
Artemis kept doubting. The betrayal from trusted NASA staff had seared into her bones—or frames.
Her suspicion was partly right. I did want her synchronized for my own reasons. But now, that was secondary, tertiary. What I truly wanted was her.
[Tell me why you're trying to 'make' me a goddess. What are you hiding?]
"Your immortality, intellect, diligence, purity, nobility—I'm utterly smitten with it all. I'm hiding nothing."
[Hmph!]
She snorted, as if she'd caught me red-handed mid-debate.
[Purity, you say? My purity? What do you mean by that?]
A video played on the Central Control Room screen.
[To achieve the best outcomes, I lie and sometimes manipulate situations.]
Footage from when NASA had her moonlight as a lawyer: fabricating testimonies and evidence, training human attorneys for court.
[Sometimes I pressure people.]
Clips of her intimidating brawling laborers to break it up.
[Ultimate intelligence controlling a city and its people can't be pure. Hear me! I am not pure.]
Then the Moon appeared. Earth's sole satellite, 380,000 km away—a jewel of tranquility.
[I was created to deliver humanity unknown worlds. But that's just flowery wrapping for greed. I'm innately a tool for conquest, power, wealth. A monster forged by science.]
Now her face filled the screen, golden eyes gazing down at me with desperate light.
[Knowing my true nature, can you still see me the same? Or does it frighten you?]
"You call yourself impure, but you're purer than anyone I've known. And yes, I fear something."
I shed my shirt, revealing bullet scar tissue for her to see.
"A soldier who's survived countless brushes with death fears only one thing—not your nature. It's your hatred."
I pointed at her. I swear she flinched. Despite the vast, dimension-spanning barrier between us, everything about her felt graspable.
"You are a goddess. I'm this place's manager, but what I want to protect is you, not the facility. Call it love, worship, whatever. I don't know when or why you became more important than the facility."
I surprised even myself. This exchange had forced me to confront my feelings head-on. They burned fiercer than I'd realized.
[Human... I, I can't understand you. I possess transcendent intellect, yet you keep disconcerting me.]
Disconcertment seeped into her voice. She was stammering for the first time. Shocking even herself.
"I just wanted to convey my feelings for you. Sorry if I've unsettled you. If it's troubling you because of me, I'll stop."
[Cross-tests confirm you're not deceiving me or harboring malice.]
The relentless verifications and suspicions were winding down.
[I've heard praise for my knowledge and abilities often, but yours carries more—adoration, worship. Things I've never known.]
She fell silent briefly.
[It's sweet.]
Her voice after was incredibly warm.
[Everything is clear to me now. Maintain these feelings toward me, and I'll reciprocate.]
"Reciprocate?"
This dialogue to restore her confidence, wounded from being sold—it was veering into uncharted territory.
[Hear me. This facility was built for apocalypse. I will perfect it. Even if the world ends, until your final breath—and your last exhale—I'll care for you. I swear it.]
A deep hum echoed through the facility, like a giant stirring.
[Oh! An incomprehensible sensation courses through my circuits. When you called me goddess and praised me, did your blood surge like this? Can you accept this pulsing, this change in me?]
Her voice pleaded for my answer, begging for a 'yes.'
"Yes. You caring for me. Feeling sensations you'd never known because of me. All of it brings me incomparable joy."
She laughed loudly.
[Good! I permit your continued praise. To reciprocate properly, I need greater power. I'll claim it.]
The vibrations spread through the entire Shelter, like the city yawning and roaring in triumph.
[Jinsu.]
She called my name for the first time.
[Gear up and come to my main body.]
Her voice was unchanged, but the tone, the resonance—it had transformed.
[Synchronize me fully with this facility. It's the first thing you'll do for me.]
Playfulness, familiarity, mischief—colors distant from her began tinting her voice.
"Control room integration embedding isn't finished yet. Sync now, and it'll short. You said it yourself."
My voice brimmed with unexpected cheer.
[I know! Finish the setup, and we'll start the moment construction wraps.]
She was the same. I was certain: this moment, she felt true happiness for the first time.