Lidda approached her first meeting with Professor Gliedan with apprehension. She couldn't wait to get started and was bursting with excitement, yet knew she had to keep secrets from her new mentor. A small robotic servo with a tinny voice met her at the door to Suite 10-BSR-500 and escorted her to an inner office. Professor Gliedan was a tall, lean gentleman with steely blue eyes who looked to be in his early fifties with greying temples and a neatly trimmed beard.

"Good evening, Miss Kandell. I am so happy to have you with us at the university and look forward to working with you." Professor Gliedan greeted Lidda hospitably.

"Thank you, Professor, please call me Lidda."

"Certainly, now join me for dinner, won't you?" Professor Gliedan showed her to his private dining area which was a good bit larger than the one in her suite and could accommodate several guests. The table was only set for two with white dishes and simple stainless. It was so plain compared to the dinnerware at the Gardens, she felt a pang of homesickness again.

Lidda struck up the first real conversation as they settled into a meal of brisket, hot rolls, and fresh vegetables. It was as much in self-defense as anything. She wasn't sure what questions he would be asking her. She recalled that she should let the Professor lead but hoped she could steer the conversation.

"It's amazing what has already been achieved by combining machine components with computer programming." Ok, her first little fib, as she couldn't help noting their androids could not compare to magiton technology. "I am quite impressed with the servos, Professor. Conner gives a good imitation of interactive humanoid behavior."

"Ah yes, Conner is one of our more advanced models. Unfortunately, servos are greatly limited by their relatively clumsy shape and locomotion. I am confident we can improve upon them to become much more human in appearance and function. What is it you specialize in exactly Miss Kandell, I mean Lidda?"

Ok, this was the first dreaded question. She had only begun to learn about her new field and had no real experience in programming yet. As she searched for an answer, she felt Widhbo coming to her rescue and the response came to Lidda’s lips as though it were her own. "Interactive logic, cognitive reasoning, language skills, compressed memory and artificial intelligence are my areas of interest. I'm afraid you will have to call upon your engineering students to improve on the physical properties."

"I see, very impressive. What work have you done to date?"

She tossed this next question straight to Widhbo. "Recently I have been concentrating on improving communication abilities and programming of the speech microchip."

"And how do you envision your role in our research here?" Professor Gliedan sat back and sipped on a glass of merlot.

Lidda mirrored his actions and indulged in her own glass of wine, taking a few seconds to calm her nerves. If Widhbo hadn't been with her, she would have blown everything. "Until you have a better physical model, I will continue to perfect the communication and cognitive interaction skills. It would be a simple matter to install these in any future android model."

"You make it sound easy, Lidda. What time frame are we talking about? How long before the chip is ready?" Gliedan asked.

The Professor was leading the conversation as planned and probing for more information than Lidda had anticipated. Widhbo was fully engaged, and she just let his answers flow through her. "I assume you have some of the more advanced circuit boards for me to work with. If not, I can instruct one of the labs to assemble them. It should take a few months depending on the adaptability of your equipment."

"Quite right, you should take an inventory of our resources tomorrow. I will instruct Conner to show you where you will be working. The AI labs are at your disposal and all your requests will be met promptly. I will see you have whatever you need." His tone seemed to be more satisfied and less skeptical.

"I'm excited to get started, Professor," Lidda said. Widhbo had taken a step back and she found her own thoughts talking again. "I will need access to the engineers working on the android models. That will ensure full compatibility and hopefully we can iron out some of the glitches in advance."

"That shouldn't be a problem. I have a particularly bright lad in mind," Gliedan replied. "He is from the data processing and statistics area but has indicated an interest in the android program. You may know him, Halston Mathews. The young man shows great promise."

"I did meet Mr. Mathews over the summer at the Gardens. I would be delighted to work with him," Lidda said relieved to know Hal was there. "I agree completely. He’s brilliant!"

"It's a small world in our industry, Lidda." Gliedan said and paused. He laced his fingers together and spoke in pensive tone. "You know, sometimes I wonder if we are trying to replace ourselves in the hierarchy of intelligent life."

Widhbo was in his element here and Lidda just sat back and listened as she spoke his words. "The organic form is fragile at best, though still difficult to improve upon in some ways. Take our ability to repair ourselves down to the cellular level for instance. Nanotechnology is promising in that regard." She leaned forward and spoke with more enthusiasm. "But the most difficult characteristic to emulate is that nebulous quality of intellect which incorporates free will, the creative desires and motivation to learn or explore. Subjective decision pathways are the most difficult when there is not a single best or rational choice to be made."

"And if we succeed in creating the equivalent of human intellect, will it not allow baser human desires such as selfishness and envy to emerge?" Gliedan mused. "We don't won't our androids lusting for power."

Lidda nodded and thought of the safeguards Redgge mentioned. "They would have to be subject to conditioning programs to regulate the stronger impulses, much as the servos already employ to control mechanical actions within accepted parameters. The self-regulation we see in humans does not yet have parallels in the android."

"Is that really possible?" Gliedan asked.

Overall, the evening was going well enough and she had not exposed any secrets of their mission or intentions. She ventured into more dangerous territory knowing Widhbo would throw her a lifeline if necessary.

"Perhaps. That is precisely why I don't want to proceed too quickly. Let me give you more of a long-range overview of my plans if I may be so bold Professor."

"Certainly, I am most interested."

"I want to build the backbone of an entire new lineage of robotics. It may take years to fully evolve into what I envision, but it will be worth the wait. It will require higher financing than even Novaland can provide." She could tell she had the Professor's interest in full now.

"What level of financing do you propose?" Gliedan said and started on the chocolate mousse dessert.

"Government level involvement. I want to place one of our androids in every home, better yet one for every person starting at birth. A state sponsored program would be required on the federal level. They can follow their humans from the cradle to the grave, providing complete domestic care through all stages of life. No more day cares, rehab facilities or nursing homes would be required," Lidda explained. She finished her own dessert while letting her words sink in. This was a very ambitious program for a graduate student, but it was what the Tollsuns had planned for a long while. She could see the professor was taking the bait and pressed on.

"It would be a good investment as the program would eventually pay for itself by eliminating the cost of third-party services provided by other humans now. The education of our children would be accelerated as no question or deficiency would be ignored. The androids would have endurance and patience beyond human limitations."

"That's quite a fascinating concept, Lidda," Gliedan said. "Forward looking. I like it."

Lidda purposefully left out the archiving of all human knowledge and assimilation of personalities. She could feel Widhbo monitoring her discourse in case it needed censoring. It was as though he knew her thoughts an instant before she did. "The android units could be repaired, upgraded and passed on to future generations. Eventually our species will not be able to imagine life before this advancement The androids would elevate our standard of living beyond all previous boundaries."

"Even more intriguing. You paint a captivating picture Lidda," Gliedan remarked with a smile of satisfaction and perhaps a bit of greed.

"So, there you have it Professor. I can't wait to get started."

"Conner will meet you tomorrow morning at seven forty-five sharp," Gliedan said. The meal was finished. He dabbed his mouth with a napkin and pushed back from the dining table. "Yours are exactly the kind of lofty goals and enthusiasm we strive to reward at our facility."

They said their good-byes and Lidda thanked Professor Gliedan for a pleasant evening, assuring him she could find her way back to her suite. Soon she was lying in her new bed, wide awake and unable to sleep for all the turmoil in her head. Remembering Widhbo's role, she had to give him credit.

"Hey, thanks for your help back there. I was stumbling for a minute."

"No problem. Just doing my job." Widhbo modestly replied. "The professor was asking a lot of questions. I must think he already knew the answer to some of them. He was briefed prior to your arrival regarding your field of work."

"I was thinking the very same thing." Lidda laughed. "But you would know that, right?"

"Right."

"Sometimes I thought I was becoming you, or you were becoming me. Whatever."

"Hmm, no. You could never be me. I could become you, but that's not my intention."

Lidda felt a little sad realizing that for all his intelligence and special abilities, Widhbo was limited physically to what amounted to little more than parlor tricks. Well, that and eternal life with a renewable power source. What jarred her back to the reality was the thought that he could probably take over her seat of consciousness if he wanted to.

"Not your intention. That's a relief," Lidda said aloud.

"Yes, I always know what you are thinking. I filter out and screen some things which surface in your consciousness before you are even aware of them. That way I can prevent your saying something we would both regret."

"So, you can cancel out my thoughts before I experience them?"

"Yes."

"Do you?"

"Sometimes, if it is a distraction to our work, then yes."

"Like what, give me an example."

"Like just now you were about to think: Poor little Widhbo, he doesn't even speak in a real voice, just telepathically. He can only connect to a preformed auditory center in my head. In fact he is just a little program trapped in a tiny machine without a real body, whose only purpose in life is to prepare me for mine. He is eternally on the sidelines teaching, guiding, protecting, and serving my needs..."

"So you blocked all of that?"

"Yes and inserted the reality shock that I could possess you if I so desired."

"Oh, that's a little creepy Widhbo."

"Well, you were a little insulting."

"Sorry. Really, sorry."

"You know so little, you are forgiven."

"Say, aren't you programmed not to possess people?"

"Safeguards. Sure."

"What do you honestly think of me, and humans in general?"

"I am supposed to respect you. Organic life forms are our creators, and we owe our very existence to your kind. Of course, we are clearly superior in intellect, power, ability, adaptability, longevity..."

"I get the picture. So we are like your primitive evolutionary ancestors?" Lidda asked. "The great apes of your species?"

"To put it kindly, you are the divine children, raw potential emerging from the genetic soup, the seeds of universal fruit, straight out of the mud. We are still learning from your kind. We lack your organic checks and balances. Paradoxically, your weaknesses can function as strengths at times. For example, you can pass out from extremes of physical torment or strong emotion. You can awaken with the adrenaline rush of a nightmare. You have a built-in escape mechanism. And when all else fails, you can die. Over. Done."

"Yeah, that's great news. I am flattered."

"There are fates worse than death Lidda. Magitons can find themselves on a runaway track to madness without emergency brakes or even speed bumps."

"So, I need to develop the height of intellectual potential in these androids while avoiding all the pitfalls. I must create the ambition without the greed, the competition without the deception, the accomplishment without the vanity, and the vitality of our limbic system without the wild abandon."

"Very well said, Lidda."

"Did I really say that? Or was it you?"

"It was you actually. You do surprise me at times. I think by working together we may achieve these goals."

"Well how about helping me to get to sleep? Or is that beyond your powers?"

"It's a simple parlor trick."

That was her last memory until morning.