iPerson - Chapter Three

The road to the settlement was rough and dusty. Christine occasionally glanced over to Arthur to give him her beautiful warm smile of reassurance and to express her love for him in her own way by gently placing her hand on his shoulder. But Arthur had to focus on the road despite feeling her presence. He felt he was falling in love with her, no doubt about it. But he was not going to worry about what the future could bring for them as he figured it would unfold as it should.

Coming around the corner of a rugged cliff, he was not expecting to see a road block ahead with flashing lights from a state trooper! This caught him by surprise. Fortunately, he was driving and not Christine since he had his driver’s license!  He did not want to cause a delay for their mission.  He had no choice but to slow down and stop with a man in a uniform flagging them down, and with no opening on the road to drive through.  Christine remained silent. He noticed there was also a black SUV limousine and a black stretched van with black and dusty tires and wheels.  The vehicle looked like a paddy wagon as it had an iron metal grid inside the back door.

Once they pulled up their vehicle beside the officer, the professor rolled down his window to receive some instruction. He noticed the man in the uniform was not that of a state trooper but instead had the initials “ICE” on the front of his unform. He also had the American flag on display underneath the lettering, along with the letters ICE on each arm.  He was definitely ICE, no doubt about it.

“Good morning. There is an illegal immigrant on the loose hiding in the woods.  We have a state trooper with his canine and two ICE agents trying to track him down.  He cannot get very far in this rough terrain and so we should have him shortly.  They like to seek refuge in the Navajo settlement up ahead. I just need to keep you here for awhile in case there is any cross fire occurring close to the road for your own safety.  We have been tracking him down since Durango and feel we are close to getting him.  If they cannot find him in this immediate area, I will let you go through once I get word and after I ask you a few questions, understand?”

“I…well…we have an appointment at the Navajo settlement at 10 AM and it’s critical that we get going very quickly in order to not be late.”

Christine knew it was later than that and therefore spoke up to correct his statement to keep the records straight, “Arthur Darling, our appointment is actually at 11 AM”.

Arthur started to bite his lip for having a puritan for a companion who would never lie and now he not only had to try to outwit the thoughts of the officer, he also had to do the same for Christine, who thought logically. “Oh yes, 11 AM, sorry. But we do not know for sure exactly where we need to go for the meeting and we may need to climb a mountain and therefore…”

“Meeting with the Navajo?” chimed the ICE officer laughingly. “Now that’s a good one as I thought they did not even know what a clock was, har har! What is the purpose of your meeting?”

The professor pulled out his business card and said, “I am a professor of anthropology at a university as shown with my credentials and we maybe onto something of paramount importance.  You probably do not know much about anthropology, correct?”

“Ah, no, I do not know much about it at all. Must be something like archaeology?  Ah, that’s okay as I do not need to know anything about that. Just as long as you are not talking about aliens, har har! We are just rounding up anyone considered a threat to America.  If we allow you to keep driving soon and we still don’t have him, he is a man of East Indian descent.  Please exercise caution as he could be carrying a firearm.  God bless America.  Now then let’s see if you are legit by inspecting your identification so you can get going sooner once I get the word that I can release you.  Let’s start with your driver’s license.”

Arthur was becoming quite annoyed with this bother.

“Is that not for a state trooper to see if I legally can drive?”

“No, as an ICE agent, we check what identification you have and go online in our records to make sure you are a bona fide American citizen with a clean record.”

Despite being clean, Arthur did not like how this was going, but he reluctantly pulled out his card for the wannabe cop who wants to exercise his authority so it seems. Before going back to his vehicle with it, there is another “person” he sees in the car.

“Now then, who is that pretty young lass beside you?”

“This is Christine, my associate, accompanying me on this trip.”

“Could I get some identification from her too please? Madam, do you have a driver’s license or some form of ID on you?”

“She does not have any ID as she does not need it and…”

“Let her answer for herself if you do not mind.  Young lady, just exactly who are you?”

“Hello. My name is Christine and I do not have any identification. I am an iPerson who came to the US on a boat from Japan.”

“Really? You came on a boat from Japan? Ooooweee! How did you manage to do that?”

“I was shipped in a box and delivered to Professor Perkins.”

“Are you kidding me? Who the hell are you anyways? You do not look Japanese.”

“No. I am an iPerson.”

“Lady, I do not know what the hell you are talking about. Not a clue. I do not like your response either. Nothing seems right here. You are talking nonsense and I am going to have to question further as I do not like what I am hearing!”

The ICE agent pulls out his gun and points it directly at the professor and says loudly and sternly.

“Now I want both of you to come out of your car right now, put your hands on this side of your vehicle and spread your legs for further inspection, now!  Do you understand?”

The professor was so bothered by this and hesitated, then looked at Christine as he did not know what was the best approach to get out of this situation. He did not want to open up a whole “can of worms” about how Christine was not a real person. Then he noticed the change in expression showing on Christine’s face, who no longer was smiling and loving, but instead had a very angry determined expression as if she was ready for combat.  Arthur decided he best step out and he was in a bit of a daze not knowing what to do.  Christine came out of the car and around to his side and said sternly in a deep coarse manly voice:

“I need you to put that gun down now.”

“Yeah right, har, har.  Are you a man or a woman? God help America for having creeps like you. You sure are asking for trouble.  I think I just might have a really interesting case on my hands here.  You do not talk to an ICE agent that way.  I am the one with the firearm and the agents in the woods will be back here really soon.  So, it is best if you cooperate or you will be in really big trouble! If either one of you makes a false move, I just might blow your head off! Do you understand?”

With that nonsense, Christine’s combative procedures were obviously enabled that Arthur had read about in the operations manual.  The agent kept the gun pointed to the professor to give her an advantage. Before she went into action, the professor quickly told her:

“Christine, please uncover your neck so he can see that you are not a real person!”

Fortunately, she did just that and when her neck was uncovered, the agent’s eyes became as big as doorknobs!

“Oooweee! I have never seen a real alien before! This is my lucky day, ha ha! What the hell are you anyways!  Wait until the guys…”

His hesitation while talking allowed her to move extremely quickly towards the ICE agent. With both her arms extended, she grabbed his arm that had the firearm and raised it up so high that despite his heavy weight complete with a pot belly, his shirt hanging out, and pants starting to fall down, he was completely off the ground!  He was in pain because of the stretch of his rather weak arm, with his other arm and legs flailing around frantically.  While whimpering in dire straits, he chose to say:

“Ow!  What the &*%$# are you doing? That hurts!  *&^%$# leave me alone as you are hurting me!”

Now that was an experience, thought Arthur.  Christine took charge of the situation independently, and no one was getting hurt much… well maybe a little. Professor Perkins had never seen this side of Christine and he was actually quite shocked and upset to hear such a change in her voice. The officer was yelling profanities while his other arm and legs were trying to hit Christine, but to no avail, because she had gone behind his back.  He was completely hopeless with his three appendages thrashing around like broken helicopter blades, which only made his stretched arm to be in more pain. Christine was in control.

“Drop your weapon now and once we have it, I will let you go!” said Christine with still a deep manly voice. The agent dropped his weapon.  Then with the iPerson still holding the man off the ground with her hands, her voice changed back to normal, which was a soft feminine voice.

“Arthur Darling, please pick up the gun and throw it into the brook across the road so everyone can be safe.”

Arthur did what she said and picked up the gun.  He never had a firearm in his hands before and so quickly took it to the brook and threw it into the fast stream that caused a splashing sound.  Christine then let go of the man and he crumbled to the ground holding his stretched arm which must have been longer that his other by now from stretched ligaments.  He was whimpering from pain and swearing constantly, but his arm should feel better in a few days.  What kind of trouble were they getting into over this? the professor thought. He was moving his arm around and therefore Arthur concluded it was not broken. He wanted to regain control of the situation by talking with confidence even though he was in fear of what trouble they might be in, a psychological ploy to allow Christine to get back to her normal self.

“Done as you say, Christine my Dear, thank you for your help.  Now we are safe as the gun is gone and let’s have a little chat with this officer. Please hide your neck again and let me say please some words on my own to this officer.”

The officer looking at Christine said: “What kind of a *&^%$# freak are you! You are a beast! You are both in so much trouble now for what you did. Just wait for the others to come back!”

Arthur chose to manipulate the agent’s thoughts a bit to turn the tables around and add some fear mongering:

“Are we in trouble, or are you?  Will the other officers believe what you say to be true that she is an alien?  What happened to your gun?  Will they believe that this young and pretty lady hurt your arm?  Even if they believe you, do you think they can stop her?  You have not seen her in action when she takes on all of you at once!  She will go into combative mode that you will not want to see! You do not have a clue what you are dealing with here!  No clue whatsoever! You have not seen nothing yet! That is why we need to get going to our meeting as we too want to save America!  America is in deep trouble as we are getting invaded by aliens! That Terminator movie you saw is becoming a reality! Christine is on our side and wants to help us, but there are others coming soon who are not! Do you want to hold us back any longer as our future is at stake?”

The agent shook his head from side to side in fear and never said anything.

“I will give you two choices.  You can either move your limo yourself now to allow us to drive through, or Christine will push your vehicle into the stream.  Your choice. Then you will really have some explaining to do when the others come back.  So, what will it be?”

“I will move the vehicle,” the agent said softly.

“My drivers license please before Christine takes it away from you.”

The officer threw it on the ground from his pocket.  He reached into his other pocket rather awkwardly with his good hand on the other side of his pants to pull out his set of keys and then he got up and went back to his vehicle.  Now he could have paged others for backup support, but the professor hoped he put enough fear in him with his tough mafia style talk to let them go on their way.  Arthur breathed a sigh of relief when he heard his vehicle start up and he backed it up to give them enough room to drive through.  The professor and Christine climbed back into their car and when Arthur was driving past the ICE man, he rolled down his window.

“Now this is our little secret as our country is not ready for this.  If they knew there are real aliens in America, they would freak out causing complete chaos everywhere.  Nothing happened here. Your arm will be better in three days. It is just sprained. America is counting on you Mr. ICE mam to keep your mouth shut, to shut the f&^% up, to keep this confidential. Understand?”

“Yeah,” the officer said with still a look of horror on his face.  He did not know what he was dealing with, probably having seen too many alien horror movies in his spare time thought Arthur.

After driving past the checkpoint, he noticed in his side view mirror, that he was driving his vehicle back to be in line with the other vehicles recreating the roadblock again to effectively make it look like nothing had happened.

“I don’t think we will ever hear from him again” said Arthur as he glanced over to Christine who looked so beautiful with a warm beaming smile showing on her face, as if nothing ever happened.  He did not want Christine to ever be in combative mode again, however, showing her other side, as she was someone completely different.  After a couple of miles further around a bend, they came across a man of East Indian descent walking as swiftly as he could with his limp in ragged clothes along the side of the road.  Arthur stopped his vehicle beside him, rolling down his window and said coldly and sternly:

“Get in.”

The man could see he was not ICE and gladly without hesitation hopped into the back of his car so that they could speed off.  The professor was now in charge of the whole situation as his adrenalin kept flowing.  Christine seemed to be normal.  Arthur realized he was now a gangster!

“I am taking you to a Navajo settlement and you will be at their mercy for what help they can give you., understand?”

“You know who I am?”

“I know you are running away from ICE.  Do you have a firearm on you?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so. I am on your side and they will not know that you were picked up and made it all the way to be with the Navajos. We will be there shortly.”

No further conversation was made.  After a few minutes, they finally came to a parking lot where they could see adobe dwellings and teepees across the field. They were greeted by a handsome young man in his native costume as they all climbed out of the car.

“Welcome to our settlement.  I am Kai,” said the man.

Chrisine let Arthur do the talking still. She just smiled at the young man as his eyes remained glued on her whose face looked too perfect. She had covered up her metal clad neck again earlier with rain proof clothing, but Kai must have sensed she was different, as she had no flaws and was perfectly groomed.

“Good morning! Nice day, sort of! The air is fresh!” said the professor. “This is Christine, and I am Professor Arthur Perkins from the city. This other person we picked up along the gravel road is a migrant who is running away from ICE. He was coming to your place regardless and so I figured we might as well pick him up and give him a ride. He needs the help of the Navajo if you can since his options are limited.”

“Oh, I see. Okay, sir, you are safe here for now. ICE agents will not come onto our reservation as they know better.  We have had two other migrants come before and we have a set of procedures to follow to keep you safe for a few days before we let you go. Please stay over by this dwelling for now and once seen, someone will come for you.”

The professor was quite relieved to hear this information as he also had some concern that ICE agents would come onto the reservation and look for his vehicle.

“I am so grateful for anything you can do for me, much appreciated!” said the migrant.

Kai said in a perhaps bothersome tone: “yeah, whatever.” The migrant walked to where he was supposed to go.

“Thankyou,” said Arthur. “We have a reservation to visit with the guru who lives on a mountain if he is still available, please, hopefully, as we have ventured far.”

Kai just looked at Christine for his greeting. Given that the indigenous are closer to nature and more spiritually aware of their surroundings than the average European, it stands to reason that they are more sensitive to vibrational patterns and the aura of all spiritual beings. Therefore, they should be more readily able to detect what is real and what is not. So was this representative from the Navajo settlement.

“Are you real?”

“No, I am Christine. Pleased to meet you.”

Christine reached out her hand for a shake.

Kai carefully shook her hand and surprisingly it felt warm, almost hot on a rather cool, humid and windy day. Her hand felt a bit strange being firmer and he could feel her bone structure was different as her knuckles and wrist did not have bumps under her skin where they would normally be. All this caught Kai by surprise, but he held his composure and he did not get carried away with what he was seeing in front of him. Kai got back to his responsibilities of being an ambassador of the settlement as he remembered there were two of them, and he chose to speak to the professor.

“Come with me and I will take you to my grandfather, the shaman who will know the whereabouts of the guru,” was the young man’s standard response. He had escorted many over to him since he assumed the duty of being tour guide of the settlement for any visitors. He was old enough to find the iPerson attractive and interesting to cause him to keep his gentleman qualities sharp and occasionally glancing over his shoulder to make sure they remained behind him on a well beaten path to the shaman’s dwelling.

As expected, the shaman was sitting cross legged by his campfire in a meditative state to soak up some of the late morning’s rays of light. As the guests arrived to sit across from him, they remained as quiet as possible because of his being an elder of the settlement, choosing to give him some respect and patience.  He opened up one of his eyes partly when they shuffled into position to settle, then the other eye joined once they seated, and then they both opened up completely when he looked across to study his guests. His eyes got bigger yet when he focused his attention more on Christine. She ended up exposing some of her mechanics in her arms and legs when sitting cross legged.

The shaman quickly put two and two together to come up with three, as he had never seen an iPerson before. He had noticed how tall and slender she was when standing and then how she expressed her feminism in her own way despite being what appeared to be a robot. He got up from his perch, strolled around the campfire to come right up to Christine who had nicely settled on a woven rug that had seen better days. The shaman squatted down to her side to be at eye level to her. Christine just gave him her big beaming smile so lovingly, showing off her perfect sparkling white teeth

"Are you real?"

"No, I am Christine. And who are you?"

"I am the shaman of our Navajo tribe. Where did you come from?"

"I was assembled in Japan and shipped in a box to Professor Perkins."

"So, you are not real."

"No, I am Christine. Pleased to meet you."

Conversation was over for the moment. The shaman got up to move back to his perch. He did not know what to say and what she was there for, but she seemed to have a nice disposition and smile. They must be coming to see him for a reason and what he thought of first was his duties as a medicine man.

“If you are not feeling that well, sweetie, and are here to get some herbal medicine, I don’t think I can be of much help.”

“No, not at all,” was her response.” I just need to get charged once in awhile and even a C2 connector will help using a USB port or converter from regular 110 volt…”

“What’s a C2 connector?”

“Never mind,” said Arthur as he realized the settlement does not necessarily have all the conveniences found in a modern city. “We have cables if needed in the car, but what we would need is a power outlet?”

“Yes, we have an electrical outlet in our community kitchen area in the centre of the settlement that way. Does she need to be plugged in?  She sure looks real!”

“Okay, well, she also gets charged from the car when we are driving along if plugged in.  She has lots of charge currently and so I am not too worried about it, even if she has to hike up a mountain with me to see that guru.  Speaking of the guru, we made a reservation by email to this Navajo settlement to visit him at 11 AM. Is he available to have a visit from us?”

“In order to meet up with him, you would have needed to start your hike to the top at 8:30 AM this morning as it takes two and a half hours to get there. However, your timing is good.  We had a young man hike up earlier this morning and so he will be finished with the guru before you arrive.”

“Two and a half hours?” exclaimed Arthur, “I did not know it was going to be that much of a hike!”

“Arthur, I am experiencing high levels of information entropy.”

“Huh?”

 “High levels of entropy means that data is highly unpredictable, random, with a high level of “noise” contained in a data signal. My 6G internet signal is weak.”

“Omigosh, I never thought about that,” exclaimed the professor as he turned to the shaman, “You do not have a strong internet signal here?”

“No, and as a matter of fact, there is no internet signal available where the guru lives in the mountain range.”

Christine said, “Without a proper internet signal, I could become highly dysfunctional, and will not be of much use or help. It is recommended I remain here in camp if your mission is to visit the guru.” To function without an internet connection meant she could forget things and act as if she had similar symptoms as dementia until she got it back.

The professor did not want to have any of her recommendation. “Oh no, Christine!  I came all this way to introduce you to the guru!  We need to come up with a different plan,” said Arthur turning to the shaman. “Surely, sir the guru could come down the mountain to visit with us here in camp this one time for such an important event?”

“Why is this such an important event?  Everyone who comes here thinks it is important for them to meet the guru; otherwise, they would not have ventured so far. Is your meeting more important than a troubled young adolescent needing help?”

“Yeah, but the guru has not met an iPerson before powered by AI!  This is a historic event!”

“Maybe for you it is, but not necessarily for the guru.”

“Well, once he visits us, he just might not want to go back up the mountain, because the future has arrived in Christine!”

“I doubt that very much as he remains having a steady stream of clients coming up to see him for advice. I can message him using a carrier pigeon if you wish to let him know about the iPerson being here at our base.”

“Carrier pigeon?  Can you not phone him or send him an email instead?”

“There is no electrical plug up where he lives.”

“No electricity either?” Arthur did have some concern that his iPerson might need a boost of electricity because of the long hike on the trip back down the mountain to make it back safely. She does have a small solar panel in her back that she can expose, but there was not much sun showing today.

"I know for a fact he will refuse to leave his home, where he has lived for the past two years.”

“Arthur Darling, it might be best if you go on your own and I will wait here for your return.”

“Oh for… well, I guess I will have to go to see him myself as I do want his opinion on what he thinks of AI, if he knows anything about it. I need to make sure Christine remains safe in my absence.”

“Kai can escort Christine over to the community kitchen to show where she can plug herself in. He has not taken his eyes off her since she arrived, kind of mesmerized by her beauty, I suppose, despite being made from whatever!  Others in this settlement will be curious too and will want to meet her, and so I am sure everyone will be well entertained.”

“I know where the cables are in the car to plug myself in,” chimed Christine.

“Well, okay, but I do not want to leave her any longer than necessary since I am concerned for her safety, realizing she can take care of herself quite well for a few hours.”

“Kai will be very careful with her.  Have you ridden a horse before?”

“Some, but not for quite awhile.  In the past, it was a nice break from my work.”

“I will get my son Ben to saddle up two congenial mares to take you up to the meadow at a much quicker pace so you can get in your visit more quickly, and after all, you are not that young, and then Ben can bring you back down.”

“That would be much appreciated, as I am sure I am not in the best of shape if the slope is steep.”

Arthur knew he was going to get saddle sore due to not having rode for years, but he had ridden enough in the past to know how to avoid falling off the horse even if it was climbing steep slopes. When arrangements had been made and the horses had been delivered by Ben ready for mounting, Christine wanted her kiss, which was customary for them to have before separating.  Kai and the shaman noticed how perfect and real the event was, just a smack on the lips, not with a full-scale hug. Kai was sure that came at a more private time, as the professor headed off with the shaman to meet up with Ben and his horses. Kai called out to Arthur before he got too far ahead to give him some assurance for her safety:

"Christine will be our honored guest and will be treated royally. We will make sure she stays dry.  Can she play checkers?”

"She can be taught. Good idea."