«Thank me?»
«Vartan told me that he confided in you. That you made him understand …»
Ignatiev shook his head. «He was blind.»
«And you helped him to see.»
Feeling helpless, stupid, he replied, «It was nothing.»
«No,» Nikki said. «It was everything. He’s asked me to marry him.»
«People of your generation still marry?»
«Some of us still believe in a lifetime commitment,» she said.
A lifetime of two centuries? Ignatiev wondered. That’s some commitment.
Almost shyly, her eyes lowered, Nikki said, «We’d like you to be at our wedding. Would you be Vartan’s best man?»
Thunderstruck. «Me? But you … I mean, he …»
Smiling, she explained, «He’s too frightened of you to ask. It took all his courage for him to ask you about me.»
And Ignatiev suddenly understood. I must look like an old ogre to him. A tyrant. An intolerant ancient dragon.
«Tell him to ask me himself,» he said gently.
«You won’t refuse him?»
Almost smiling, Ignatiev answered, «No, of course not.»
Nikki beamed at him. «Thank you!»
And she turned and raced off down the passageway, leaving Ignatiev standing alone, wondering at how the human mind works.
Once he got back to his own quarters, still slightly stunned at his own softheartedness, Ignatiev called for the AI system.
«How may I help you, Alexander Alexandrovich?» The image looked like Sonya once again. More than ever, Ignatiev thought.
«How will the sleepers’ brain scans be uploaded into them once they are awakened?» he asked.
«The ship’s automated systems will perform that task,» said the imperturbable avatar.
«No,» said Ignatiev. «Those systems were never meant to operate completely autonomously.»
«The uploading program is capable of autonomous operation.»
«It requires human oversight,» he insisted. «Check the mission protocols.»
«Human oversight is required,» the avatar replied, «except in emergencies where such oversight would not be feasible. In such cases, the system is capable of autonomous operation.»
«In theory.»
«In the mission protocols.»
Ignatiev grinned harshly at the image on the screen above his fireplace. Arguing with the AI system was almost enjoyable; if the problem weren’t so desperate, it might even be fun. Like a chess game. But then he remembered how rarely he managed to beat the AI system’s chess program.
«I don’t propose to trust my mind, and the minds of the rest of the crew, to an untested collection of bits and bytes.»
The image seemed almost to smile back at him. «The system has been tested, Alexander Alexandrovich. It was tested quite thoroughly back on Earth. You should read the reports.»
A hit, he told himself. A very palpable hit. He dipped his chin in acknowledgement. «I will do that.»
The avatar’s image winked out, replaced by the title page of a scientific paper published several years before Sagan had started out for Gliese 581.
Ignatiev read the report. Twice. Then he looked up the supporting literature. Yes, he concluded, a total of eleven human beings had been successfully returned to active life by an automated uploading system after being cryonically frozen for several weeks.
The work had been done in a laboratory on Earth, with whole phalanxes of experts on hand to fix anything that might have gone wrong. The report referenced earlier trials, where things did go wrong and the standby scientific staff was hurriedly pressed into action. But at last those eleven volunteers were frozen after downloading their brain scans, then revived and their electrical patterns uploaded from computers into their brains once again. Automatically. Without human assistance.
All eleven reported that they felt no different after the experiment than they had before being frozen. Ignatiev wondered at that. It’s too good to be true, he told himself. Too self-serving. How would they know what they felt before being frozen? But that’s what the record showed.
The scientific literature destroyed his final argument against the AI system. The crew began downloading their brain scans the next day.
All but Ignatiev.
He stood by in the scanning center when Nikki downloaded her brain patterns. Gregorian was with her, of course. Ignatiev watched as the Armenian helped her to stretch out on the couch. The automated equipment gently lowered a metal helmet studded with electrodes over her short-cropped hair.
It was a small compartment, hardly big enough to hold the couch and the banks of instruments lining three of its walls. It felt crowded, stuffy, with the two men standing on either side of the couch and a psychotechnician and the crew’s physician at their elbows.
Without taking his eyes from the panel of gauges he was monitoring, the psychotech said softly, «The scan will begin in thirty seconds.»
The physician at his side, looking even chunkier than usual in a white smock, needlessly added, «It’s completely painless.»
Nikki smiled wanly at Ignatiev. She’s brave, he thought. Then she turned to Gregorian and her smile brightened.
The two men stood on either side of the scanning couch as the computer’s images of Nikki’s brain patterns flickered on the central display screen. A human mind, on display, Ignatiev thought. Which of those little sparks of light are the love she feels for Gregorian? he wondered. Which one shows what she feels for me?
The bank of instruments lining the wall made a soft beep.
«That’s it,» said the psychotech. «The scan is finished.»
The helmet rose automatically off Nikki’s head and she slowly got up to a sitting position.
«How do you feel?» Ignatiev asked, reaching out toward her.
She blinked and shook her head slightly. «Fine. No different.» Then she turned to Gregorian and allowed him to help her to her feet.
«Your turn, Vartan,» said Ignatiev, feeling a slightly malicious pleasure at the flash of alarm that passed over the Armenian’s face.
Once his scan was finished, though, Gregorian sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the couch. He stood up and spread out his arms. «Nothing to it!» he exclaimed, grinning at Nikki.
«Now there’s a copy of all your thoughts in the computer,» Nikki said to him.
«And yours,» he replied.
Ignatiev muttered, «Backup storage.» But he was thinking, just what we need: two copies of his brain.
Gesturing to the couch, Nikki said, «It’s your turn now, Dr. Ignatiev.»
He shook his head. «Not yet. There are still several of the crew waiting. I’ll go last, when everyone else is finished.»
Smiling, she said, «Like a father to us all. So protective.»
Ignatiev didn’t feel fatherly. As Gregorian slid his arm around her waist and the two of them walked out of the computer lab, Ignatiev felt like a weary gladiator who was facing an invincible opponent. We who are about to die, he thought.
«Alexander Alexandrovich.»
Ignatiev looked up from the bowl of borscht he had heated in the microwave oven of his kitchen. It was good borscht: beets rich and red, broth steaming. Enjoy it while you can, he told himself. It had taken twice the usual time to heat the borscht adequately.
«Alexander Alexandrovich,» the AI avatar repeated.
Its image stared out at him from the small display screen alongside the microwave. Ignatiev picked up the warm bowl in both his hands and stepped past the counter that served as a room divider and into his sitting room.
The avatar’s image was on the big screen above the fireplace.
«Alexander Alexandrovich,» it said again, «you have not yet downloaded your brain scan.»
«I know that.»
«You are required to do so before you enter cryosleep.»