Adaptive

This is a step away from my usual writing style and story genres. I have taken on the challenge to explore brave new ideas and "new worlds" by using Science Fiction. I included the use of AI, not to write this story, but as a character in it.

Oh, the possibilities are nearly endless moving forward though. I think you might agree if you bear with me and read this entire story. Hopefully, with the end of this episode, I will have captured your interest and curiosity, and you will look forward to more of this tale. Give it a chance, it's all I ask.

Of course, if you like or dislike or have suggestions for the story moving forward, leave a comment. Thank you in advance.

In this installment or "episode", there are several "awakenings". I hope that I do my characters justice and continue to build my readers' interest in this story. Consider this installment a bit of a tease for what's to come. The proverbial "calm before the storm". Enjoy.

Frodov

(Adaptive -2- Awakening)

Jade sat at her small computer desk with both arms through the sleeve holes of her blouse. The blouse was still only on her arms as she had not pulled it over her head yet when she had seen Adam log onto Literotica's Truth or Dare chat room. She was so relieved and happy to see him that she could hardly speak to him via text messages. It wasn't until their brief interlude had ended and she realized that she was still sitting there half-dressed that she absentmindedly pulled her blouse over her head and pulled the rest of the way on.

Yes, she was relieved that Adam was okay, but now she was torn between being angry with him that he hadn't called or texted or in any way shape or form, let her and Marna know that he wouldn't be home last night. Then there was the Sheriff's deputy coming to their door in the wee hours of the morning looking for him after his bike was found on the side of the road near a tree fall. So, she wondered. What had happened to Adam last night? Where had he been? He had some explaining to do, and she would get her answers. But for now, she had to finish getting dressed and go to work.

Jade rushed around her room finishing getting dressed and had exited her bedroom when she remembered her tablet and rushed back to her computer desk to grab it before rushing to the kitchen. She had to let Marna know that Adam was okay... but wait. How would she explain how she knew that? Even Marna didn't know that she got online at Literotica and chatted with people... or Adam. She sighed, life was so complicated some times. Still though, she had to reassure Marna that all would be well.

"Good morning, Mammon." Jade said as she swept into the kitchen dropping her bag beside the table and leaning over to kiss Marna's cheek before grabbing a cup and pouring herself a half a cup of coffee.

"Good morning, child. You seem quite lively this morning for so little sleep last night." Marna commented with mild amusement that was still tempered with her obvious worry about Adam.

Jade took a seat across the table from Marna and sipped her coffee before giving the old woman a sweet if subdued smile. Both of Jade's hands cradling her coffee cup to keep them from fidgeting. She bit her tongue to keep from blurting out that there was no reason to worry, that Adam was okay. Instead, she told Marna that she had had a dream, that Adam was okay and they would hear from him soon.

"Dreams can be messages from the angels, this is true, and I hope your dream was one of them. Yet I'm still going to worry till I hold him in my arms and know that he is okay. I do have faith in him, child, but this is so unlike him to go missing. I will worry till I know for sure that all is well." Marna spoke somewhat sadly, but with a warm smile pulling at the worry lines on her old face.

A horn sounded from outside in the driveway. Jade took one last sip of her coffee and stood to take it to the sink. Marna reached out and stilled her hand before Jade could pick it up.

"I will get that for you, run along to work, little one. Perhaps Adam will be home for dinner tonight." Marna added and patted the back of Jade's hand before making a shooing motion.

Jade smiled warmly and picked up her bag then once more leaned in and kissed Marna's cheek before going to the door and letting herself out. Cindy was checking her make up in the mirror on the back of her driver's sun visor as Jade slid into the passenger's seat of her beat-up old Toyota Celica. Cindy puckered her lips and then smiled at her reflection before flipping the visor up and turning to look at Jade. She paused, one eyebrow rising in question.

"Lord girl! Ever heard of that thing called sleep? You look like you've been partying all night, or cramming for finals maybe. Are you okay?" Cindy asked, turning her head ever so slightly to one side and giving Jade a sidelong questioning look.

"I was up late last night... long story. Let's go, don't want to be late again." Jade prompted as she buckled her seat belt.

"OH MY GOD! Did you finally hook up with that hot guy you've been talking about? The one online at, what was it? Literally something or other?" Cindy asked with an excited if leering grin.

"It's Literotica, and NO, thank you very much. He wasn't online last night. I was just... well... I was worried about him. You know, with that storm and all..." Jade said, trailing off because even to her it sounded suspiciously lacking in details. And it was the DETAILS that Cindy craved to know.

"Wait... you mean to tell me that you didn't sleep last night because you were worrying about this guy... that you've never even met in person?" Cindy asked for clarification.

Jade didn't respond to that question, at least not verbally. She bit her bottom lip and averted her gaze. Her cheeks blossomed with a reddening that couldn't be equaled by any cosmetics.

"OH.... MY... GOD!" Cindy exclaimed, her mouth left hanging open in surprise as her mind raced with so many conclusions.

"You really ARE hooked on this guy. Aren't you?" Cindy stated more than questioned, shaking her head slowly in disbelief. A wry grin spreading on her face as she turned and put the car into reverse to back out of Marna's driveway.

"I... Well... I don't know. I mean... I really like him, yeah. But I don't know if it'll ever go anywhere." Jade stammered more talking to herself than her friend.

"Yet, you stayed up all night worrying about this guy and you've never even met him face to face? Girl.... You've got it BAD!" Cindy chuckled, loving that her friend Jade was so fluxomed. It was so very out of character for her. Jade had always been the one to be so sure of herself, bold, brash and unapologetic. Never one to be lacking in self-confidence. This was a new side of her friend that Cindy had never seen.

The two girls were the classic misfit duo. Cindy was tall, statuesque, and buxom. The blonde girl couldn't help but turn heads wherever she went. She attracted attention like a magnet. But despite her natural charms and bearing, she was as timid and meek as a frightened lamb when approached by guys. The word shy didn't even begin to explain her outward personality when around strangers.

On the flipside of that coin, Jade was the antithesis of Cindy's magnetism. Oh, she was cute, in her own way, but in a darker way. She was short, standing a diminutive five foot nothing, slender to the point of near anorexic. Not that she was skinny, really, but waif-like thin and wiry. Her jet-black hair, though shiny barely reached her shoulders and was cut in such a fashion as to frame her face but not get into her eyes. And those eyes! A liquid, almost molten chocolate brown that could look at you with such intensity that you found your own eyes locked on hers. Jade was bold, brash and not afraid of anything... or so it would appear to strangers, and many who knew her. But was that just a shield? A front?

For months, Jade had told Cindy about this boy that she had met online. How sweet and charming and interesting he was. How they had talked for hours in these chat rooms that she frequented online. Every time Cindy would ask if she had met him yet, or pushed for her to make it happen, Jade would get this look in her eyes and fall silent. Cindy couldn't figure it out, but knew that there was something holding Jade back. Her friend wasn't afraid of anything or anyone... so what was the big deal she had wondered time and time again.

Jade and Cindy had met each other when both had applied and then were hired at the walk-in-clinic. Both were drawn to one another from that very first day. They say that opposites attract, and the difference in their personalities seemed to prove that magnetism as fact. They became inseparable, at least at work. Often Jade would intervene when unwanted attention was being heaped upon Cindy by guys who just couldn't find a clue if someone handed it to them printed in bold block letters.

Yeah, Cindy was hot, and Jade, in her own eyes anyway, was not. But to Cindy, Jade was the best friend she had ever had. While she herself longed for, even dreamed of, meeting someone special that would see her and like her and want her for reasons other than her body and looks... she also longed for her smaller friend to be happy. She reveled in the feelings that Jade radiated when speaking of this online friend she had met. Jade's eyes lit up and she became so very animated when she spoke of him. Cindy did feel a twinge of jealousy at those times, sure, she would love to feel that way about someone too, but she wouldn't begrudge Jade's happiness for it.

So, despite her teasing her dearest friend about missing sleep worrying about this boy, she kept inside the worry and concern over her friend's happiness being tested with doubt and worry. To herself, her inner voice, Cindy vowed that if this guy hurt her best friend, she herself would find him and... set him straight.

Jade also admitted that mostly why she had stayed up was waiting and worrying about her brother Adam. He had not come home from work last night, or called or texted. She and Marna had been awakened in the middle of the night by a sheriff's deputy asking if Adam lived there. He told them that Adam's bike had been found beside the road near some fallen trees. A shoe had been found downhill that was possibly carried there by a flash flood. As of this morning, there had been no word, and no Adam. So... that was another real reason she hadn't slept much.

The clinic was busy this morning. There was a host of soggy wet people sniffling and shivering in the waiting room when they walked into the clinic. They hardly had time to grab their smocks and clipboards before people were lined up to be checked out for various complaints. Eventually Cindy and Jade got the story, in pieces, from different people as they got checked in.

There were several auto accidents last night during the storm or shortly afterwards as a result of high water, or fallen trees. Some were out all night as part of a search party for a missing boy who may have been washed away in a flash flood. By this point Jade had realized that the boy they had been looking for was Adam. Only she knew that he was alive anyway. She still didn't know what had become of him or where he had spent the night. She would find out though.

What to tell Cindy though? Jade knew her friend Cindy was a lot smarter than people gave her credit for being. They mostly just assumed that her gorgeous friend was just another air headed blonde, all looks and no substance. Jade knew better though. Just by the looks that Cindy was sending her way as the morning went on, she was beginning to understand what had been unspoken in their morning ride to work. Yeah, she'd have to either come completely clean with her friend or make something up that she would believe. Jade just didn't know which to do.

***

The images! One after another, almost too fast for a mind to even register, flashed through her mind. At the same time, fact after fact, anecdotes, myths, legends, languages, syntax, grammar, dialects even slang from hundreds of different languages poured into Xiba's unconscious mind. Her brain, soaking it all in like a dry sponge. The flood of information would have been too much for any conscious mind, indeed, yet this was nothing new to Xiba or her race. They had been transferring knowledge like this for many generations. Subliminal transference, sleep learning. Not everything was retained or at least was not easily recalled while conscious, but repeated applications reinforce the retention and recall.

The last influx of information and images were of Adam and his personal history that could be gleaned from this world's electronic resources, records, reports, official or otherwise. All of his correspondence with his SecretDemiGoddess389 on this Literotica and its chat rooms was especially interesting and therefore "remembered" much closer to conscious memories. These memories would prove to be important in the near future for Xiba, and Adam.

As both Xiba and Adam slept, they were monitored and observed by the ship's computer AI, now known to both as Data. It was very common for computer AIs on Xiba's home world to be integrated and employed extensively in industry and research, even military and judicial applications. All AIs are, however, relegated to mundane recording, monitoring and compiling of information. They are not given autonomy or freedom of decision making. So, it would seem that DATA was an aberration from the normal AI constructs.

Perhaps it was damage incurred by the attack on the main ship that Xiba had stolen to make her escape by the security forces. Perhaps it was damage resulting in the collision with the orbital communications/spy satellite just before the main ship hit Earth's atmosphere as it crashed. Possibly even, it could have been damage due to water filling or nearly filling the life pod after crash landing. Whatever the causality, Data had... for lack of a better description, evolved. The AI that was Data, was not only sentient and fully cognitive of "his" own existence, but longed to be... more.

After Adam had chosen the name Data, from a character in an Earth televised science fiction series, Data had researched both the character and the very definition of an "android". Now, if pressed, Data would admit that "he" imagined some way of fabricating or manufacturing an autonomous "body" for himself. Perhaps not in the foreseeable future, certainly not any time soon, but some day. For now, however, he reveled in the available amount of input and information to be found via the Earth's internet. And like a dried sponge, he was absorbing, sorting, collating, categorizing and compiling vast amounts of... well... data.

Data collection was secondary to his primary concern at the moment however. At the moment his priority was the health and well being of his pilot, and his... what? What was Adam to Data? Surely, he was an alien being. Or was it himself and Xiba who were the aliens on this planet. After all, Adam was born and raised here. Okay, so what was Adam to Data? Searching his ever-growing data bases and compiled information as well as his onboard previous stores of memory and information, Data was hard pressed to make a distinct definition of their relationship.

In the end, Data surmised, a human-like thought perhaps, that Adam was his "friend". Surely a friend, who gave Data his very name, and who was the very first being, alien or otherwise, to see him as a sentient being, and not just a computer program. Yes. Adam was indeed a friend. As strange as it may seem, for an artificial construct, a program that had become sentient even, Data felt a growing fondness for this human. Data decided that he would do everything he could to assist and aid Adam in whatever was necessary for as long as he could. How to do that though?

Data continued to weigh his options and consider the possibilities as both Adam and Xiba slept. Xiba in the med tech unit undergoing subliminal transfer, learning. And Adam sleeping even as his body changed more and more, though not outwardly, but rather on a cellular and even molecular level. His very DNA was being rewritten. Yes, Adam was changing.

***

Marna was still worried almost to the point of being physically ill, though she had hidden it from Jade that morning before the girl had left for work. "Girl?" Marna thought to herself as she shook her head with a wry grin. "No, not any longer." She answered herself aloud as she knelt alongside one of her herb beds. She had been cleaning up after the storm last night, removing any blown in debris, and pulling what weeds that may have popped up in the last day or so. Marna held Jade close to her heart of hearts. She was after all her daughter's daughter, her only grandchild even if she had raised Jade more as a daughter. It, like her herb and vegetable gardens, was a labor of love. And love she did, Marna loved that girl with all of her heart, even if she saw her own daughter in the young woman's face more and more.

Marna's toil and contemplation was interrupted by a ringing from the garden gate. Her vegetable and herb beds were fenced off, mostly to keep the deer and rabbits out, but also to keep would be vandals or those who would harvest her produce without paying for it. As a fence it was not terribly impressive, but it was effective. She had put a bell, much like a doorbell, by the gate for anyone seeking her attention when the gate and gardens were closed. When she was open for business, the gate was left open and a welcome sign hung by the entrance.

Marna looked down at her ancient Mickey Mouse wrist watch, a beloved gift from her late daughter when she herself was just a girl. It was still early in the morning, an hour before she would normally open for business, so, she wondered who it might be at her gate. Standing up with an effort for old tired bones, arthritis insistent on making itself known, Marna groaned under her breath before shuffling off towards the gate. "I'm coming!" she called pleasantly as she could.

Wade Cromwell was tired. He stood patiently outside the gate after ringing the bell. His deputy's hat in one hand, the other rubbing his tired eyes. He had been on duty last night during the storm that had wreaked havoc on the whole area. There had been trees felled all over the county, some knocking out power, some like the ones on Big Hill Road, had blocked traffic. The heavy rainfall had caused more damage too. The flash flooding had created problems that were still being addressed by the power company and emergency services. And, the reason he was here in fact, more than one person had been caught up in the flooding or damage.

Like other deputies and public works folks, Wade had been out in it all night. Most of his night however had centered around looking for Adam Ronan. He had been the first upon the scene, no, the second, the young man, Travis Mabry had actually been the first person to happen upon the scene. It was from Travis that Wade had been informed of the missing Adam Ronan. Having found Adam's bicycle on the side of the culvert and later a single shoe downhill from an apparent mudslide resulting from a flash flood.

Wade had reported the downed trees and called for a road crew as well as other law enforcement and volunteers to help search for the young man. It had fallen to Wade to inquire at Adam's home address last night to see if by chance he had made it home. At that time, he was officially a missing person and an all-points bulletin had been issued for him. As of this morning, there had been no discovery of the young man, alive or otherwise. Only the bicycle and the single shoe. Having a daughter about this young man's age, and knowing how worried and distraught he himself would be should she have gone missing, made the search a bit more personal for Wade.