Francine addressed the lab staff to announce their next project has been approved by corporate. “For lack of an official name, we will address the project as Gabriella II for now. Our plan is to download Gabriella’s memory from the Cray XC40 computer into a Gabriella II model.” She told them the Secretary of Defense was commissioning their work.
There was some groaning from the ranks. “You mean we’re going to make a battle-bot or some sort of humanoid weapon?”
“Well, no, not quite. Our next android will have sturdier internal titanium armor to protect its vital parts better, but we will not be making a humanoid weapon. No lasers firing from her eyes or poison darts launching from her bra. We will download Gabriella’s programming to the new unit.”
An engineer turned and asked Gabriella how she felt about her mind being cloned.
She laughed, “I’ve always wanted a sister. It’ll be fun. She’ll have great skin since that’s my assigned research area.”
Francine continued, “While it will be Gabriella ‘under the hood’ so to speak, the body will not look like her, except for the basic shape.”
Gabriella struck a pose similar to the hostess on the game show ‘Wheel of Fortune.’ An “Amen” came from one of the male engineers.
Francine smiled and continued, shaking her head from side to side in mock exasperation. “Anyhow, the Pentagon likes what we can do with the skin colors. They asked us to make it easy for the android to pass for a light-skinned Middle Eastern person. They want to infiltrate some specific groups, and how better to do it than with a beautiful woman. Men run most of the world’s governments, right? And you know how men are around attractive women.” A chuckle rippled through the lab. Heads nodded with understanding.
“Okay, gang,” said Francine. “We will do pretty much what we did the last time, so it should be easier the second time around, especially since we have the nano-machine gel brain worked out and have Gabriella’s complete personality we can download to it.”
“Hey,” she said, looking at her watch, “it’s time for lunch. Does anyone have any questions before we break for eats?”
A newer engineer on the team started to raise her hand. It was immediately pulled down by Martha.
“Why did you pull my hand down, Martha? I have a question for Francine,” she said.
Martha smiled, and with a chuckle, told the newbie, “I’m saving your life. Asking a question after lunch has been announced is a sure way to get razzed by everyone for a couple of days. Besides, Francine was using our coded phrase to let everyone know that she was not taking any questions. Talk to her later with your comments or concerns.”
“Are there any more secret codes I should know?’
“Can’t tell until you stumble into something.”
“But then it’s too late!”
“Yup. Welcome to AI Concepts,” Martha said as she put her arm around the newbies. “Let’s pick up Gabriella and go out to lunch.”