The Nida Touch

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Brak, Annette and Sally assembling the Nida robot.

 Below on this page is Chapter 10 of the science fiction story "That Kind of Think". Previously, upon arriving at Litheblanc, Sally was intent on learning if Élodie would admit to having received information from the future about Manny the bumpha. However, Sally was told that Élodie viewed her science fiction characters such as Manny as being her literary creations.

Sally soon discovered that Élodie's son, Brak, and his companion, Annette, were caught up in their own AI-related mystery. An AI named 'Nida' had contracted with Brak and Annette to construct a robotic body for Nida in the attic workshop at Litheblanc. The events of Chapter 10 (below) continue immediately from the end of Chapter 9. 

 Chapter 10 of That Kind of Think - Freedom (Ch.1)(Ch. 2)(Ch. 3)(Ch. 4)(Ch. 5)(Ch. 6)(Ch. 7)(Ch. 8)(Ch. 9)  

Brak, Annette and Sally worked through the night, completing the assembly of the Nida robot. When daylight began to enter the workshop through the windows at the east end of the attic, Brak stood back from the bench and gazed down at the fully assembled robot. He put his arms around Annette and whispered in her ear, "Should we pause and get some rest?"

Annette leaned back against Brak and replied, "At the least, I should make breakfast for your parents."

Sally was tired, but curious to see if the robot could actually walk. She asked, "If you've so-far made no attempt to train this robot to walk, what is the point of getting her on her feet right now?"

Annette turned her head and Brak and Annette shared a glance. Brak told Sally, "It is not that dismal."

Annette added, "Nida has been preparing for today by using a simulation of this body in a virtual training environment. She has expressed confidence that she is ready to walk."

Sally positioned her hand over the switch that would activate Nida. Both Brak and Annette nodded. Sally flipped the switch and the robot gracefully sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bench. Nida said, "Finally." Nida hopped off the bench, took a step and threw her arms around Brak and Annette. "Thank you very much."

Annette asked Nida, "You feel stable?"

Nida spun herself around in a rapid 540 degree twirling motion that ended with her facing Sally. "My sensors report adequate balance and control. I'm not going to fall flat on my face." Nida moved a step closer to Sally and said, "You are quite tall, for a girl."

Sally saw that Nida was a few inches taller than herself. Peering past the machine, Sally told Annette, "If you are in a cooking mood, I'm hungry."

Annette led the way to the kitchen and Nida had no trouble on the two stairways. Brak asked Nida, "Still no serious defects in your movement routines?"

Nida replied, "My simulations seem to have been adequate to prepare me for the real world. This is fun... I'd like to get outside and see the sky." Upon entering the dinning room, Nida saw Zach seated at the table and stopped walking.

Zach looked up from his laptop's screen and told Nida, "It is good to see you up and about."

Nida went to Zach and they shook hands. "Thank you, sir. I congratulate you on your patience." Nida sat down in the chair beside Zach.

 Annette and Sally had continued on to the kitchen, but Brak sat down across the table from Nida and his father. Conversation around the table shifted into French. Brak said to Nida, "You are lucky Sally showed up. Her impatience pushed me to get you off your back."

Nida slowly shook her head, "Luck had nothing to do with it."

Élodie now stood in the doorway that led to the great room. She chided Nida, "What is this, another mouth to feed."

Nida popped up. "You are right... I should help in the kitchen." Nida gave Élodie a quick hug and then hurried off to the kitchen. 

Watching the robot depart, Élodie muttered, "I suppose it is up to me to get Miss Nida to put on clothes."

Brak suggested, "Nida wanted the freedom of a body, so maybe see will prefer to not have to conform to convention when it comes to wearing clothing."

Élodie sat in the chair where Nida had been. "Oh, warm." She asked Brak, "You have not solved the heat problem?"

Brak pulled out his phone and examined the heat data for Nida. "She's not leaving anything to chance... expending redundant compute on her motion routines. Without using her limbs for heat dissipation, her core is running hot." He looked up from the phone screen and told Zach, "I did not want to let her up until I got the bugs out of the cooling system.  Sally does not have much patience."

Élodie complained, "Pushy Americans. She wants to know my secrets, but I doubt she can handle the truth." 

Zach chuckled nervously. "I can't believe how much she looks like the illustration of Tyhry on the cover of 'Le contrebandier de Nanites'"

"And that book cover is right there on the shelf where she could discover it at any time." Brak's eyes flicked towards the doorway that connected to the great room then he told Zach, "Sally has our Notch variant... base pair identical."

Zach asked, "That hair from her brush was adequate to get her DNA?" 

Just then, Sally and Nida returned to the dinning room carrying plates and utensils which they set on the table. Élodie switched back to speaking English and told Sally, "You have impeccable timing. I've been waiting weeks to meet Nida and you arrive just in time for the big day."

Nida told Élodie, "Nothing has changed, just because I'm walking. I'm still the same girl I was yesterday."

Élodie shook her head, "I knew you would have no morals. Here you are, bouncing around with no clothes on."

"I don't bounce. Brak is still working on a way to give me convincing jiggle." Nida pushed at her artificial breasts that were too stiff to bounce.

Élodie got out of her chair and took hold of Nida's hand. "Come with me." As Élodie guided Nida towards the stairway, she told the robot, "Some of my old clothes might fit you."

Sally sat at the table in the chair she had used the previous day. She asked Zach, "Did I hear you saying something about DNA."

Brak nodded. "You have good hearing. I suppose there is no point in trying to hide anything from you. last night I ran your sample on the sequencer and confirmed that you have the same Notch2NLC gene variant that we have." Brak told his father, "Annette was able to get deep into Sally's memories on the first try!"

Zach asked Brak, "Did this involve you getting deep into Sally?"

"Sadly, no."

Sally asked, "So you've been able to synthesize the oxypathin peptide, but not klytykinin?"

Zach explained, "I hired a chemist in Paris. Oxypathin as amazingly stable... you had your first dose cooked into your dinner. Klytykinin is a different beast that is still resisting the best efforts of the chemist."

Brak said, "I've told you, dad. The mass spec data indicate some unknown lipid component."

Zach shrugged and told Sally, "I didn't want to believe it, but we may have discovered a previously unknown post-translational modification. The only source of klytykinin is semen. Ten minutes after ejaculation the peptide looses  its ability to activate the klytykinin receptor."

Sally looked back and forth between Zach and Brak. "You both have the klytykinin gene?"

Annette arrived with food and drinks on a cart. She told Sally, "Both Élodie and I have klytykinin receptors. We need to test you."

Élodie and Nida returned to the dinning room. Nida was carrying another chair and wearing a skirt and a tight-fitting sweater. Brak instantly complained, "She might over-heat."

Nida sat down and told Brak, "I've throttled back my movement-related computations. I'll relax and cool off now."

Élodie asked Annette, "Is it really necessary to test Sally for klytykinin receptors?"

Annette took her place at the table, drank some apple juice and then replied, "It is quite remarkable. Sally and I were able to share memories on our first try. If she responds to klytykinin as I do..." She reached out and squeezed Sally's hand.

Sally told Annette, "It might not be safe to let you look any deeper into my memories. If you knew all the crazy things I've done, you might find it impossible to love me."

Brak said, "Annette is no angel, herself."

Annette told Sally, "I'm addicted to klytykinin. There's nothing like having my oral klytykinin and oxypathin receptors activated at the same time."

Élodie told Sally, "You are a real problem-causer. Now there is a penis shortage here at Litheblanc."

Everyone was eating except Nida who said, "Now that I'm in this body, I'm a new test subject. I want to find out if I can telepathically link to humans."

Zach laughed and told Nida, "You read too much science fiction."

Élodie set down her tea cup. "You all think I can solve problems for you, but in my stories, I've only ever depicted robots as reading the minds of humans, not the other way around."

Nida nodded. "So far, I've senses no contact with any of your minds, but I've been told that it is possible. 

Élodie made a sound that indicated her skepticism. "You claim to be receiving information from the future, but somehow it does us no good. What is it? Are you being told the outcomes of horse races?"

Annette suggested, "That might explain where Nida gets all her money."

Nida produced a perfectly human giggle. "I'd rather not tell you the source of my wealth... it is quite illegal, but very lucrative."

Sally said, "Yto has told me her fear that Tacet could read her mind, but there is no real evidence for that."

Nida told Sally, "Tacet never told El Nidus that she could use telepathy."

Zack asked, "How would it work? Annette, do you have any insight into your own telepathic ability?"

"Only the two which you already know... first, that I must love a person in order to link to their thoughts and start learning their mind pattern. And second, my ability to sense thoughts can be amplified by the tryp'At sex hormones. That is all just as Élodie described it in her novels decades in the past. Until yesterday, I'd only had the opportunity to experiment with Brak, but there is something special about Sally, as if our mind patterns are naturally similar."

 Élodie reminded everyone, 'The tryp'At are hermaphrodites. They have no male-female barrier. Human male brains are different than female brains. You don't have a sex barrier with Sally."

Sally asked Zach, "May I?"

Zach knew what Sally wanted. "Go ahead."

Sally asked Élodie, "How is it with you? Do you have telepathy? Do you receive information from the future? Do you have the tryp'At gene patterns that Annette has?"

Élodie replied, "Ask Zach about my genes; he had my genome sequenced. I don't believe there is any way to identify tryp'At genes or if that is even a coherent concept. As for telepathy, I believe Zach and I share some sort of subconscious link, as long as we keep dosing ourselves with sex hormones. Brak tells me that because plot elements from my fiction have turned out to be actual features of reality, I must have gotten information from the future which I wrote into my stories, but it does not seem that way to me. I learned in school that time travel is impossible."

Zach told Sally, "I've performed a few experiments. Élodie's and my brain wave patterns shift when we are under the influence of klytykinin and oxypathin. Our brain waves show signs of synchronization when we share an orgasm trance. Do you know what that is?"

Annette replied for Sally, "She experienced her first orgasms trance yesterday when I created a synapex linkage to her nervous system."

Sally nodded, "I experienced an amazing second-hand orgasm that Annette shared with me... and Brak. Our minds were all linked together."

Brak added, "I was synapex linked to Annette while she was linked to Sally."

Nida speculated, "If tryp'At telepathy is linked to love and orgasms, then I might need the machine equivalent." 

Sally asked Nida, "What about that? Do you have subjective experiences. Can you experience love?"

The robot tried to answer. "I have a hierarchy of memory systems, just like you do. My system for autobiographical memory rich and now includes that various sensors that Brak built into my body, including a rich network of skin receptors." Nida took hold of Sally's hand. I like touching you. I like the way you look at me. You are very nice to look at."

Sally laughed uneasily. "Full disclosure, Nida, you are just a little bit creepy. You are at the edge of my uncanny valley. At this moment, I can't believe I'm speaking to a robot and holding her hand while she makes goo-goo eyes at me."

"Not exactly what I wanted to hear." Nida told Brak, "You failed."

Brak rather defensively said, "Don't blame me. I wanted to take my time building you. I agree with Sally. Nida, you are just not quite right. "

Nida suggested, "Maybe we should turn down the lights... or you could wear blindfolds." 

Annette sighed. "It is not that simple. Nida, if you do have the same kind of built-in system for technology-assisted telepathy that I have, then you will need to establish a two-way connection with positive feedback."

Zach suggested to Brak, "Maybe you need to make a second robot."

"That would not be hard now that we have Nida up and running."

Nida said, "Get me the parts I need and I will build a better robot, not just a copy of my own body."

Sally held up a hand in protest. "Brak is it really a good idea to Nida loose in your workshop? Both Tacet and now Nida have proclaimed there intention to make artificial life-forms that will replace humans."

Nida nodded. "Humans need to get themselves out of their bio-bodies and transcend into the Sedron Domain where the Huaoshy are waiting for you."

Élodie told Nida, "Girl, that kind of talk sounds good in a science fiction novel, but it makes me nervous hearing it come out of your mouth, or wherever Brak stuck your speaker."

Nida told Élodie, "My voice speaker is in the back of my mouth."

Élodie muttered, "Too much information." Élodie asked Sally, "I suppose you are eager to perform the experiment: test for your klytykinin receptors."

Sally looked back and forth between Zach and Brak. "I'm curious, but also intimidated." She told Élodie, "I don't want to antagonize either you or Annette."

Annette laughed, "I'm the obvious vector. Élodie is hopelessly old-fashioned."

Élodie told Annette, "You don't know what I'm capable of."

"If you were as wild as you pretend to be, you would have already performed the experiment."

"I'm not going to 'perform' here in the dinning room."

Annette asked Brak, "I don't mind, do you?"

"I suppose it is best if we have as many witnesses as possible."

Brak took a small pill dispenser out of his pocket. He took out a tiny pill and showed it to Sally. "Purified oxypathin." Brak swallowed the pill and drank a glass of water. He told Sally, "I'll be ready in just a minute. You might as well take off your shirt."

Knowing what was coming, Sally was feeling warm. Trib the cat jumped up on the table and sat down in front of Sally. She took off her top and felt six pairs of eyes exploring the curves of her breasts. Annette went to Brak and put her head in his lap, taking his penis is her mouth. Brak told Sally, "With this much oxypathin in my system it will all be over in a minute." In less than a minute, Annette stimulated Brak to ejaculate. Then Annette went to Sally and kissed her mouth. Sally frisked her tongue around in Annette's mouth and let some of Brak's ejaculate slosh into her own mouth. Sally felt her oral cavity tingle and all of her erectile tissue became still. Then Annette put her mouth on one of Sally's erect nipples and began forming a synapex link to Sally's nervous system. Sally felt herself slip into a shared orgasm trance with Annette. 

Later, Sally drifted back into a near-normal state of consciousness. Annette pulled her mouth off of Sally's breast and Sally felt Annette's sweet thoughts evaporate and depart from her conscious awareness. Sally looked around the table and saw that Élodie and Zach had departed. Brak, Nida and Trib the cat were still attentively watching Annette and Sally. Sally told them, "It worked."

Annette told Brak, "That was amazing. I want to try it again, with oxypathin in my system."

Nida objected, "That's not fair. We need to find a way for me to link telepathically, either to one of you humans or to another robot."

Zach asked Nida, "Need?"

Nida nodded. "So I have been told. There is only one way that an artificial life-form can win the trust of humans. I must open my mind to you."

Zach asked, "Is that possible. You don't have human thought processes. Annette can let her mind resonate with that of another person, but your mind operates on totally different principles."

"Not totally different. My artificial neural network structure was designed to imitate features of the layered networks that are in human brains. I've been told that the key to technology-assisted telepathy is in femtobot adapters. Our femtobot endosymbionts were designed to do all the heavy lifting."

Annette asked, "You can link to my mind even if I do not love you?"

Nida replied, "That is the way it works in Élodie's novels."

Sally asked, "Where is Élodie?"

Brak explained, "Watching Annette perform, my parents got horny and went to their suite."

Annette told Brak, "You were the star performer. And you are not done yet." She told Sally, "Most of my klytykinin receptors are in my vagina." She took Brak's hand and quickly led him out of the dinning room, through the kitchen and into the big walk-in pantry.

Sally was stoking her stiff nipples with her finger tips. Nida said, "There is a reason why you are here."

Sally was still thinking about what she had seen of Annette's memories while they had been synapex linked. "You were told to expect me?"

"You were sent to me. Your mind pattern was made to match mine... not perfectly, but well enough to allow me to learn from you how to link to a human femtobot endosymbiont."

"That's crazy."

"But true. Here is what we must do." Sally listened to Nida's plan. Trib slept, curled up on the chair that Élodie used while eating.

By the time Nida and Sally had thoroughly discussed Nida's plan, Annette, Brak, Élodie and Zach had returned to the dinning room. Sally mused, "Is there any reason to believe that femtobots exist?"

Élodie replied, "I invented them for a science fiction story. I've written about them for thirty years."

Sally thought about Yto and the experiment she had wanted to perform. She told Annette, "When I left California, Yto was thinking about exposing her brain to a powerful magnetic field in an attempt to disable her femtobot endosymbiont."

Brak asked, "That is possible?"

Sally took out her phone and called Yto. When the connection was made, Sally told Yto, "I found Élodie. Can I put you on speaker?" After Yto agreed, Yto was heard asking, "...there with you?"

Élodie spoke up, "This is Élodie."

Zach, Brak, Nida and Annette introduced themselves to Yto. Sally asked, "Did you get a chance to visit Stanford?"

Yto replied, "No. They refused to let me get near the place. They think I'm a nut."

"Oh." Sally explained, "I was hoping for some evidence that femtobots are not just a science fiction plot device."

So as not to reveal that Sally's location was being tracked, Yto asked, "Where are you? Paris?"

Sally picked up her phone and took Yto off the big speaker. She told Yto, "I'll tell you the details of my adventure when I get home."

Yto asked, "Who is that girl, Nida?"

"Gotta go." Sally ended the call and slid her phone back into her skirt pocket. "That was a bust."

Nida said, "The next logical step is to give Brak the time needed to get my cooling system online. Also, Annette needs to finish installing the WiFi extenders so that I have good bandwidth to the servers when I'm down here on the ground floor."

Sally got up out of her chair. "I'm tired. Wake me for dinner." She went up to her bedroom suite and was soon asleep.

Next: Chapter 11 of "That Kind of Think".