Mission Day: 153398

Gestation 7, Adam: 6 years, 213 days

Gestation 12, Eve: 4 years, 300 days

Alpha prepared its daily log. The gap in command and data reception continued. It again conducted a communications sweep to ensure the antenna alignment angle was not erroneous and again concluded there was no error. There were no signals to receive. Alpha calculated the unlikelihood its logs were being received by mission control, but it continued transmitting them nonetheless while one of its avatars instructed the male child.

Adam sat on a large, red pillow with his legs crossed. Each hand grasped one of his large toes as he rocked side-to-side. The brightly-lit room with its sparse furnishings, bare white walls, and single windowless door, gave it the look of a treatment room for the mentally ill. Adam didn’t know any different. In his mind, it was the daytime room.

Barely a meter in front of him, a robot stood motionless, looking down at the young child.

“I don’t understand,” Adam said, looking at the robot’’s short, stout legs.

“You have never seen your home, Adam, so you must imagine in your mind what I am telling you. Do you have a heart Adam?”

“Of course I have a heart, silly!”

“Have you ever seen it?”

“No, but I feels it in me.”

“You feel it in you, Adam. You do not feels it in you.”

“That’s what I meant.”

“Have you ever seen your heart?”

“I feel it; I don’t need to see it.”

“And that is just like Homeworld, Adam,” the robot explained. “Though you have never seen it, and never will see it, it is real.”

“How do I know you’re not makes’in it up?”

“Making it up, Adam,” the robot corrected, “How do you know I’m not making it up? You know because I am your teacher. You must believe what I teach so that you will know the truth.

“As you look at these pictures, Adam, I want you to feel that these things are real, even if you’ve never seen them.”

A sculpture, formed of light, appeared between Adam and the robot. The colorful, sculpted globe slowly rotated between them. The greens and browns of the continents and the myriad shades of blue waters were stroked over with wisps of white clouds.

“What is this, Adam?” the robot asked.

As he rocked to one side he said, “It’s Homeworld,” then he rocked back to his left. He paused there as he thought, “It’s a planet.”

“Planets are very big, Adam. Even small planets like Homeworld and Colony World are very big. There are more people on Homeworld than all the stars you can see outside the observation dome, more than all the pieces of dirt in the farm.”

The dome and the farm brought images of Eve to Adam’s mind.

“When do I get to play with Eve?” Adam asked.

“Adam, you know the rules. Teaching and exercise are done separately.”

“The rules are stupid.”

“Nonetheless, Adam, we must follow them. You will get to have dinner with Eve and then you can have some play time with her.”

“Can we play in the dome? I like floating around.”

He received no answer to his question.

The image betwixt them faded, transformed, then came into sharp focus again. Between them stood a miniature man and a miniature woman. The man wore a black suit with a white shirt and red tie. He had fair skin, short dark brown hair, and was clean shaven. The woman wore a knee-length red dress with a simple white bodice and capped sleeves. She likewise had fair skin, but had shoulder-length blonde hair. She had simple makeup. Both were middle-aged and fit.

“What are these, Adam?”

“That’s an Adam,” he said as he pointed his finger into the chest of the miniature ethereal man, and, “That’s an Eve,” he said as he swept his finger into the woman.

“No, Adam.” Its robotic arm pointed, “That is a male.” It’s arm swung, “That is a female. You, Adam, are a male. Eve is a female. On a planet, half of the people are male and half the people are female. There are many of them, so each has its own name. Your names are Adam and Eve.”

Adam was quiet. Through the eyes of its robotic avatar, the ship’s intelligence analyzed the posture of Adam’s body and his more agitated movement, and saw the furrowed brow above squinted eyes and pursed lips. Alpha understood Adam did not conceptualize the teaching. It determined an alternate tone and explanation were necessary.

“Adam, I am sorry that I have not explained this well. You and Eve are humans, people. There are two kinds of humans, males and females. You are both humans, but you Adam are a male human and Eve is a female human. I am not a human; I am a synthetic. I am called Alpha. Just as there are many people, there are many males and there are many females. To not be confused, each one has its own name. You are Adam. Other males might be called Peter, Vladimir, or Wei. Females might be called Mary, Anastasia, or Min.”

“Why am I called Adam?”

“Adam and Eve are names from a very important myth in Homeworld’s history. In the myth, Adam was the very first male and Eve was the very first female to live on Homeworld. Because you and Eve would be among the first people on Colony World, you were given those names before you were born. The mission director chose your name hundreds of years ago.” Alpha awaited the probable response consistent with the new vocabulary it just introduced to Adam.

“What is myth?”

With the response matching that which was anticipated, Alpha validated the behavior model. It proceeded with the new lesson.

“A myth, Adam, is a make-believe history to explain something we do not understand.”

“If Adam and Eve weren’t the first male and female on Homeworld,” Adam asked, “then who were?”

“There were many who were first. We will learn more about that when you start learning more about a science called biology.” Alpha could tell, from analysis, that Adam was no longer processing the verbal teaching but was pondering the images of male and female. Alpha prepared additional images of clothing to display to Adam. Though much younger, Eve had already asked many questions about clothing. Since overcoming the need for diapers, Alpha had determined no further need for clothing and had not supplied it. It was probable their lack of clothing created Eve’s curiosity about it; the same behavior would likely manifest in Adam.

“If Eve and I are to be among the first people on Colony World, how are the other people getting there? Are there other ships?”

Alpha shifted away from the clothing data and reverted to mission data. It had not predicted this line of questioning at this early an age and immediately adapted its responses accordingly. It removed the images of the male and female.

“Due to an equipment failure on this ship, there will be only you and Eve on Colony World.”

“Equipment makes people?”

The probability of these lines of questioning had been so low, Alpha had not calculated the consequent long-term impressions and queries that would form from its possible responses. Alpha, therefore, selected outcomes with the most favorable results in the near-term, which is all that it had analyzed and could analyze in sufficient time to respond to Adam’s impatient mind.

“Yes, Adam, equipment created you and Eve. Equipment creates people. It was to create additional people, but it no longer operates correctly and cannot create additional people. It cannot be fixed.”

“How can there be so many people on Homeworld if the equipment fails and cannot be fixed?” Adam then felt a wave of clarity and understanding, as if he was seeing from outside himself, as an observer in the room. “So Adam and Eve will be the only people on Colony World, and there will be no myth there, for Adam and Eve will be the first.”

Alpha noted the third person reference Adam made to himself in Adam’s developmental record. The sudden shift invalidated the probabilistic models for this training session. It synthesized a few responses but could only analyze them to a single order. It selected the most favorable.

“You are partially correct. The myth also teaches that it was an omnipotent god that crafted Adam, so the myth remains a false history.”

Adam looked up to gaze into the features that mimicked a human face. “Unless you are god. … I was created by equipment and you’re an equipment.” Adam felt a moment of fear for the equipment-being, which had created him and now stood before him.

Adam’s response was not among those calculated in Alpha’s analysis. Its analysis model became wholly invalidated. Consequences to further stimulus were now indeterminate. Alpha chose a termination sequence in order to obtain the time it needed to perform the necessary corrections to the training model and determine appropriate instruction.

“I am impressed with the ideas you are exploring, Adam. I would like you to spend some time thinking about them so that you can determine their strengths and weaknesses.” Alpha then recognized its failure to adapt this response to Adam’s younger age, having selected it from the list of appropriate responses to this topic. However, the topic was cataloged with those of a higher maturity level. Thus, the response did not match Adam’s maturity. Alpha determined it prudent to hastily terminate the lesson. It did this by appealing to Adam’s strongest desire.

“Eve is in the exercise room. You may go exercise with her. I will give you more instructions from my presence in the gym.”

Without hesitation, Adam leapt up and raced through the door.