FutureBlog for January 19, 2106

January 19, 2106 posted by Pete III

That night, things became even more interesting. At three-hundred hours, I stepped into my closet to find... only my clothes. I had wondered, exactly, how Ryca would be able to get past all of the taps--after waiting five minutes, I found out... in a way.

"Mr. Three, please push your clothing to the side of the closet's interior."

It was Ryca's voice, but I wasn't sure where it was coming from.

"Ryca?"

She simply repeated her question. So, I slid my clothes across the rod, pressing them against the other side of the closet.

"Have you complied, Mr. Three?"

"Yes, Ryca, I told you, please call me Pete."

Then, silence for a short period of complete silence, something very jarring occurred. Ryca appeared directly in front of me but seemed to be quite small, at first. She seemed to be approaching me from a great distance and grew in size, proportionate to her movement. This was all despite my closet being roughly three meters wide and just one meter deep.

Ryca seemed to be rushing at me quite quickly and I couldn't help but back into the closet's wall out of concern for my personal space. I literally let out a yelp as she came centimeters from me.

"Please remain calm."

"I will not! How did you do that?"

"It's a new technology, please don't request more information."

"What?" I reached out to touch her and I could feel my mind bend 'round the idea of my hand passing through her arm--because that is precisely what happened.
"Are you some sort of hologramatic projection?"

"No, not at all."

No, of course not. She was completely solid to my eyes. I could see inconsistencies in a hologram.

I kept trying to touch her arm and then moved to her body. My hand passed through that as well. It was a very disturbing sensation--look at something in your immediate vicinity. Touch it now. Knock on it with your knuckles. You are certain it is really there. Now, imagine your hand suddenly passing through it. Your brain can't accept what it is seeing. Very strange, indeed.

"Please note:" Ryca seemed to be speaking to me from inside of my own head. "I am chemcoding a location to meet me at in five days time. Do not try to contact me until then. Do not be late. Do not tell anyone of this meeting. I am risking much by communicating with you like this."

This was very odd. Why was she doing this at all if it was so risky for her? Also: how could a standard secdroid judge what was risky unless she had been programmed to do so? In that case, why would a secdroid be programmed to judge risk to her own person. What does risk even mean to a robot that can be fixed or even rebuilt if it is totally destroyed?

"Do you understand?"

"No--what is this chemcoding?"

"I cannot explain it to you. Simply meet me when the time is right--five days time, at seven-hundred-hours."

"But where? I don't understand!"

"On 21 January you will understand. I must now sign off."

"No, wait! I--"

Suddenly and in defiance of my traditional understanding of the physical universe, Ryca vanished. In a practical sense, I understood that she wasn't actually in front of me, but I felt my logical brain bend in on itself again as she vanished.

Immediately I pulled all of the clothes out of my closet and searched it for anything that might explain what I had just experienced. Ventilation grates, tiny cracks where a zero-gee nanohov could have snuck in and out with me not noticing, but I found nothing.

21 January is the day after tomorrow, so since the night of the closet incident I've been completing my preparations. I still have yet to recount the story of getting my mentor Ken to come along. I shall impart that tale tomorrow.