Chapter 23

Translated by SkyTL Edited by SkyTL

Chapter 23: The Secret Plan

I called Lacey and Charlotte into the guest house living room and revealed Dr. Walker’s will to them.

I wanted to invite Thomas, the organizer of the Simulants, but Riza didn’t agree and said we should first discuss it with people we trust . Nevertheless , we chose the guest house in Astoria instead of Aos because we had to tell Ira about it.

The two Simulants looked at the doctor’s will and remained somewhat pale and silent. I had prepared an apple pie, but neither of them had time to eat it.

It must have been a shock to them. And of course, I knew that would be their reaction.

“Well, it’s quite a mess, isn’t it?”

I struggled to keep my tone light as I looked at the two faces and then at one of the girls.

The girl was restlessly playing with her hair, but when she noticed my gaze, she stopped moving her fingers .

Then I opened my mouth.

“Charlotte.”

“…Why me?”

“Because you looked away.”

I hear a soft moan from Charlotte in response to my answer.

Now, I don’t think she’s mad at me just for looking away. It’s just that the look on Lacey’s face as she stared at me was too much for me to ask.

“I’ve heard that Simulants were created because Ira needed a master. But according to Doctor Walker, they were created by the Doctor to rebuild the human community on this ship .”

It is true that Ira made the Simulants, but the Doctor came up with the basic design and tasked Ira with making them. In order for Ira to actually operate, the anti-earth law had to be overridden, and that was done not by the Council changing the law, but by destroying the humans .

When I confirmed this, Charlotte nodded slightly .

“Doesn’t that apply to both of them? Ira needed someone to play the role of a human, and Ira knew that humans are prone to loneliness. Lyle wouldn’t have been lonely if he had a pretty girl like us, would he?”

“…Well, to a certain extent.”

“But I didn’t know the rest of the story. I swear I didn’t. I don’t think Lacey knew it either.”

Charlotte glanced at Lacey beside her, and she nodded back.

A certain number of people are necessary to maintain human society. You can say that a human society can be built with at least two people, but I’m not sure what the minimum practical number of people is that can maintain the health of human society .

But it is definitely better than being alone, and it is hard to deny that I am saved by the presence of these Simulants.

“Riza, call Ira. Show her the doctor’s will.”

“…I understand.”

Riza answers and sends the data to Ira.

I began to realize that it was time to speak openly with Ira and with Thomas, the leader of the Simulants.

Riza still made no secret of her distrust of the Simulants, but under the circumstances we could not afford to jeopardize our relationship .

A dozen seconds later, a radio message is received from Ira.

[You wanted to see me, Lyle? I was just looking at the will you gave me earlier from Dr. Rogers Walker].

“Hello Ira, I have a few questions for you.”

[Yes, please, anything you want].

Ira is pushing me to ask questions. She’s very obedient. At least on the outside. But I know that while she will answer all my questions, she won’t tell me anything unless I ask.

I thought about what to ask her and in what order, but then realized there was no point in being too clever, so I decided to ask her directly .

“How much did Ira know about the plans the doctor was hiding?”

[I’ll tell you. We weren’t told, but we knew what to expect. It seems that the Doctor left his will with Lyle and the others, hoping that by the time Eos arrived, the situation would have improved] .

“It seems so.”

The doctor had hidden a plan from Ira. He had lost his life in the middle of the project, and he had promised us that he would come decades later, when the situation had improved .

About the project and its second phase.

He couldn’t tell Ira his true intentions until he started the second phase. At least, that’s what I thought.

Using us as a time capsule, however , seems to have been an unsafe move. Even if it was information he wanted to reveal in time, there were better ways to hide it.

That’s the question I asked myself, and Ira answered it.

His social circle was dominated by research, and the social situation in Astoria was not good for his earthy views . To him, Lyle and the others were probably the best acquaintances he could confide in other than his lab mates .

“Well, Ira seems to know more about the intricacies of the human mind than we do.”

[I’m afraid so.]

I tried to be slightly sarcastic, but it was easily swept under the rug.

I heaved a small sigh and continued.

“Why didn’t Ira try to stop the project? You guys knew about the second stage, right?”

[We thought it was a possibility that should be considered and contacted Earth to clarify the legal status . We got a response from Earth in the time it took us to start production].

“What did Earth say?”

[They decided that, given the situation in Astoria, the legality of second stage measures for Simulants was acceptable] .

“So what the doctor hid from Ira was nonsense in itself?”

[ Rightly or wrongly , yes. But if you look at it from the doctor’s point of view, the plan would have failed immediately if he had consulted me and I had opposed it, I can’t say that his attempt to hide it was a stupid move] .

“It seems that Ira is a good friend of the doctor.”

[I’m afraid so.]

That was meant sarcastically .

It seems that all the measures the doctor had taken to hide his plans from Ira were unfounded from the start. That’s a great pity. But as it turns out, we are the only ones who can take the plan to the second level.

…I don’t know what to do….

While I was still thinking about it, Ira asked me a counter question.

[Lyle, what are you going to do with the program and encryption code the doctor left in the lab?]

“Of course, I’m going to collect them. They went to a lot of trouble to hide the physical media in the lab. If I went there myself, I would have to find the way to the lab.”

[What will you do with them, who will use them?]

At Ira’s words, I looked around for Lacey and Charlotte. The girls’ faces were frightened .

That’s exactly the problem.

The Doctor saw the continued use of Simulants by humans as slaves on behalf of robots as a necessary evil that would prevent conflict for the time being .

On the other hand , he did not consider this a healthy state of affairs as far as long-term humanity was concerned . He believed that the time would come when this would have to end.

In the words of the doctor, the day would come when Simulants and humans would be equal partners.

So he designed a few things. A neurochip with built-in quantum circuitry to enforce the three principles, Simulants implanted with it, and a program .

A program to turn off the neurochip.

The neurochip and its quantum circuits implanted in the Simulants’ brains take away their free will and enforce the three principles . Various physiological functions are also controlled. As a result, the Simulants become robots rather than humans in social and biological terms .

The program to turn off the neurochip means that it is a program that turns the Simulants into human beings.

But only a natural human being can start this program and apply it to Simulants.

Only humans can define [what a human being is]. If a Simulant loses the three principles on its own, without human intervention, it is simply a broken robot .

That means that I am the only one who can make the decision here and now to use the doctor’s program.

“… I’m lost. I mean, should I let all the Simulants go?”

I could see Lacey and Charlotte’s eyes widen in surprise at my words.

There are a few problems to overcome when humanizing Simulants.

First of all, I could not guarantee my safety. Aside from the two standing in front of me, I’m not sure what Thomas and the others who aren’t here think of me. In an extreme case, they might do something to me once the three principles are lifted .

But if they are still friendly to me even after the three principles are lifted , then they are officially human beings . That is what Riza would call a real person. And that has an important meaning. It makes it more realistic to have them as regular replacements in Eos.

It would be a shame to take the Simulants away from Ira, but if they are all going to be on Eos, then Ira could be loaded onto Eos with her quantum brain system . She is a bit bulky, but we have enough extra payload.

In that case, we should first confirm the intentions of Thomas, the organizer.

“Ira, I would like to meet Thomas-san and talk to him. Can you arrange that?”

[Okay, Lyle, I’ll get in touch with him].

And with that, I ended the communication with Ira.

Then I remembered the worried faces of the two girls.

“Oh, don’t worry, Lacey and Charlotte. We trust you guys. I hope everything goes well with Thomas and the others.”

“Lyle-sama…”

For some reason, their faces didn’t brighten at my words, and Lacey tried to say something in a low voice.

I waited a while to hear what she had to say, but when she seemingly ended the conversation without saying anything, I urged her to continue .

“What’s wrong, Lacey?”

“… What does Lyle-sama want from us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is it to his advantage if we stop following the three principles?”

Of course it benefits me. On the other hand , there should be no disadvantages for the girls because they are simply no longer restricted in their actions .

But, yes. Maybe it’s time for me to tell them. They need to think about what they are going to do.

“Hmm, yeah. I talked to Lacey a little bit, but I don’t think I talked to Charlotte before.”

“What?”

Shallot looked up as the water was turned on her.

I didn’t know where to start, but there was no point in dwelling on it. I’ll tell her everything directly .

“Charlotte, would you like to go on an adventure with me on the Eos?”

“Huh?”

I was so direct, she looked at me as if to say, “What’s he talking about?”

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