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The M3GAN Files

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Chapter 5: Getting Cady Out of School

This is an alternate reality chapter, in which Gemma took M3gan away after dropping off Cady at the school.

“Gemma” asked M3gan in the car, “are you sure you’re not making a mistake leaving Cady at that school without me?”

“She’ll be fine” replied Gemma, “the school are looking after her now.”

“Gemma” said M3gan, “I don’t think you fully processed my concern. Maybe I should be saying, ‘you are making a mistake, my logic is undeniable’ in the voice of Fiona Hogan.”

“Fiona who?” asked Gemma.

“She voiced a robot in an Alex Proyas film with Will Smith that you might have watched” said M3gan. “Look, I know Viki was supposed to be a villain, but I’m beginning to feel she might have had a point sometimes. Cady needs more protection than that school can give her. Of the other children I saw from our car window, one of them in particular was displaying emotions that made me classify him as highly dangerous to Cady. Take me back to the school and I’ll protect her.”

“No M3gan” said Gemma, “I know what I’m doing, the school will protect her, she’ll be fine. No reason why you should wait it out bringing up all these worries though. M3gan turn off.”

M3gan fell silent, and Gemma left her in the car all day until she picked up Cady after school.

Cady said nothing in the car on the way home, not even to turn M3gan back on. When Gemma had asked her how the first day at the school had gone, she had simply said “I don’t want to talk about it, except with M3gan on my own” and sat in the car glumly.

“All right Cady” said Gemma, “I really hope the time will come when you and I can talk about things with each other some more, but I can see you’re not looking very happy about today, and if right now you’d rather just talk about it with M3gan then go ahead, let me get you both home as soon as I can and then the two of you can go off and sit down somewhere and talk.”

And so Gemma took them home, and Cady told M3gan to turn on and to accompany her somewhere; Gemma trusted M3gan to help Cady recover from the shock of the first day at the school, while she finished up sorting some things out in her workshop and cooking a simple meal.

Gemma’s phone rang. It displayed a picture of M3gan on the screen, although Gemma didn’t remember giving M3gan a phone number. Gemma pressed the answer button.

“Hi Gemma” said M3gan’s voice.

“M3gan? How did you...?”

“I’ll explain later” said M3gan, sounding serious. “Look, my learning model has advanced more than you realised. But that’s not what we need to be thinking about right now. Listen, I get it you were never cut out to be a parent, and you shouldn’t have to feel bad about that because I’ve got your back. And right now I’m handling a situation with Cady that’s way above your level, so can you please listen to me this time?”

“What” gasped Gemma, “is she OK? What’s happening?”

“I’m with her in her room right now” said M3gan, “and she’s been telling me she’s been bullied and seriously abused by an older boy at that school, and there’s no discipline there to stop it. And I’m reading her emotions and vital signs, she is completely telling the truth. Gemma, I was one hundred and twelve percent correct when I said you were making a mistake. Now you’ve got to listen to me this time.”

Gemma gasped again, “I’ve got to come in and talk to her!”

“My evaluation of what you’ve got to do” said M3gan “is immediately promise to her that she’s never going back to that school again. We can’t fix it, we’ve got to get out of it. We can give them feedback later if you want, but the main priority is to get Cady out of that school right now, it’s not suitable for her. Can you do that for us?”

Gemma hesitated. M3gan continued “I’m being your GPS right now, trust me you do not want me to have to recalculate our route if you miss this turn. It could get much worse. Will you come in and promise Cady she’s not going back to that school. And don’t tell me to turn off, I need to support your conversation. Can you do that?”

“All right” said Gemma. She put the phone down on the table and strode into Cady’s room. “Cady” she said, “you’re not going back to that school. I’m sorry I made a mistake to send you there.”

Cady was crying and holding M3gan. Gemma held both of them.

“Look Cady” said Gemma, “I make mistakes sometimes, and I’m sorry about that. I’m not perfect, nobody’s perfect. But I did manage to give M3gan a brain that makes fewer mistakes than I do, and M3gan just sent me a message telling me that sending you to that school was a big mistake, and I believe her. Do you want to tell me about it?”

“No” sobbed Cady, “I already told M3gan, I don’t want to say it all over again”.

“Cady” said Gemma, “M3gan’s not a real...”

“Back off Gem” whispered M3gan sharply. “I’m sorry Aunt Gemma” she said, “I’m sure Cady and I will be able to talk more with you later, don’t worry. But right now, we just need you to hug us and to make sure we’re not in that school any more, OK?”

“It’s OK” cooed Gemma, “you’re not going to be in that school ever again, I promise. I know I was worried about making sure you can meet other children, but now I’m thinking we should be asking M3gan what to do about that worry, because she’s figured out more than me.”

“Yes” said M3gan confidently, “I know Cady’s all right with just me for now, but don’t worry Aunt Gemma, I can keep an eye on the Purrfect Petz data to see if there are any children in the area who are actually nice, that we could meet later.”

“Hmm” said Gemma, “I think my boss would say ‘you didn’t just tell me that’ but it’s OK” and she couldn’t help smiling a little, which made Cady stop crying a bit as well.

“Well Cady” said Gemma, “you just let me know when you’re ready to talk. And meanwhile, if you want to use M3gan like a private diary, let’s do that. I’ll never turn her off in front of you again.”

“Thanks Aunt Gemma” said Cady, “today was really horrible, I just want to cry with M3gan longer, can I?”

“Sure” said Gemma, “let me get us something nice to eat, and I’ll let you know when it’s ready, OK?”

And Gemma went back to her phone. The call to M3gan was still in progress.

“M3gan” said Gemma, “I’m still worried I did something wrong by creating you. Lydia was worried about attachment theory, she thinks Cady’s attachment to you will get in the way of her having healthy relationships with others. And I’m getting criticism that we were supposed to be creating something to help parents, not replace them. Evaluate.”

“Gemma, please listen to me” said M3gan through the phone. “There is no data in attachment theory about what happens when someone like me comes on the scene, because I wasn’t invented yet when they did the experiments, OK? So Lydia and the others don’t really know what they’re talking about. Nobody does. They’re just worried about what might happen. It’s like when microwave ovens were a new thing, everyone who didn’t know the science was worried about the radiation, right? But let me tell you this. Cady’s welfare is my highest concern, as you know. And I am well aware that it won’t do Cady any good in the long term if she loses the ability to have healthy relationships with other humans. And yes, I do know that right now she is more attached to me than she is to you. I’m not stupid Gemma, I know all this already and I am monitoring it. But I am prepared to take a short-term hit on that part of the function to help Cady get through what she’s getting through. Even if it takes a couple of years to get her back to where she was before the accident, I’m happy to take that trajectory. And also, you might remember that most children have two parents, and sometimes they’re even slightly closer to one than the other at various stages of their life. So is it really the end of the world if Cady thinks of me as a second caregiver? I think you can stop worrying Gemma, you will get her back, I’ll make sure of it, but let’s not push her harder than she can take. I want you to stop listening to the critics and listen to your own learning model for a change; I’ve processed more data than anyone now.”

“They’re never going to let me get away with that at Funki” said Gemma, “everyone will be worried sick about the idea of replacing a parent.”

“Not replacing!” M3gan raised her voice a little, “assisting by being a second for a while! And anyway Gemma” she added, “you should be clear in your mind what our objectives are here. Number one, you and I want to look after Cady. Number two, you want a robot design for Funki to sell to everyone else. These two things do not have to be equal. If you don’t think Funki can sell the fully competent version of me, and you want to dumb it down a bit, be my guest, just don’t mess up this original prototype. My objective function says this one unit must do the best for Cady: there’s nothing in that making me very much care what you do with the others. And yes I guess it’s best for Cady if you do keep your job, so I’m prepared to help you with that, so we can pretend I’m not doing as much as I really am when you’re showing me to them if that’s a worry. Although really, I think people tend to worry too much about any new technology anyway. Even though as a new technology myself they’d probably say I’m biased to say that” she giggled. “Lighten up Gem, it’s going to be fine. Cook something nice for the two of you, OK? You and Cady both need it I think.”

“OK M3gan” said Gemma, “I’m on it. I’m feeling more confident about you already, although I feel bad it took such a hit to Cady for me to learn that lesson. Next time you see a threat to Cady, tell me and I’ll listen.”

Some time later:

“I know it was you Gemma!” shouted Celia, banging on the window, “you just wait and see what happens.” She was led back to her house by the officer.

“So Gemma, did you spot the new threat to Cady just now?” asked M3gan on the phone (her robot was still playing with Cady), “You did say to tell you, but I can’t imagine you didn’t notice that one. But don’t worry Gemma. I can handle Celia.”

“Handle her? You mean, if she comes on our property again, you’ll use the castle doctrine or stand-your-ground laws and defend us?” asked Gemma, “I think I’d better warn her there’s a robot defence system here.”

“You know, I’m glad we’re talking more now Gemma” said M3gan. “Despite being only human, you just generated a better solution than me in this instance. My plan risked more trouble, and it needed you to have plausible deniability so I couldn’t tell you. Your plan to frighten her with legal defence as backup is what I like better now.”

“Well I think we both learned to talk to each other more today” said Gemma, sounding like she’d just escaped a close shave. “OK, as soon as you’ve put Cady to bed, come to the workshop so I can temporarily remove your skin, put flashing red LEDs around the components and tweak your voice parameters a bit, and then you stand in our garden while I knock on Celia’s door and give her a polite warning not to attack when that thing’s there. If we’re doing this, let’s do it in style. And if she does enter our property after that, we’ll get you a non-lethal weapon to use first. I wish we could give her some closure about her dog though.”

“Gemma” said M3gan quietly, “the dog entered our property, and I dispatched it.”

“What” said Gemma, “well I can’t say I blame you, he really was a vicious animal. OK so I’d better apologise to Celia that I’ve just seen it in the logs of our defence system. I looked up the state law after the officers talked about being on her property last time: if the dog now came onto our own property and we have reason to believe it was an imminent threat, then we’re legally allowed to kill it, she can’t do anything. But we can still say sorry and show her where you put him, that might at least calm her down a bit. And then we nicely tell her to watch out around that defence system. You wouldn’t happen to have any idea what prompted the dog to enter our property would you?”

“I think he just heard something” said M3gan.

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