(epilog)

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Guardian Program Epilog

A novel by R.C.PeterGabriel, all rights reserved.

*Epilog*

Dr. Helf opened her eyes but was completely confused as to where she was or even who she was. She hadn't realized that using real memories for an immersion hologram would seem as if she had lived the events. She knew one thing, she would never look at mental health the same way again.

She sat up as the aid returned to retrieve the emersion headband. He motioned for her to return to the office used by Jarvis for 'face-to-face' meetings.

She knew the concept was absurd. Jarvis could just as easily have spoken to her in her shower, or while she walked a trail on Mount Rainier. She also knew he was probably holding a thousand other conversations while simultaneously routing a billion phone calls, and controlling the flight path of every vehicle in the solar system, not to mention a billion or so thermostats and food replicators every hour. It was mind-boggling, how much he interacted with their lives.

"Was the experience what you expected Doctor Helf?" Jarvis asked as she returned to her 'interview' chair.

"I had no idea that was possible, Jarvis. It will take me a considerable amount of time to come to terms with everything I felt."

Still feeling overwhelmed the doctor found herself blushing as she recalled having sex as a man. How simply looking at a woman was enough to bring out desire. With difficulty, she refocused her thoughts on why she had requested the meeting to begin with.

"Your father wasn't psychotic, was he?"

"No," Jarvis replied simply.

"Then why did you confirm the psychotic diagnosis of Mr. Smith's psychologists?"

"I didn't. I confirmed that he had been diagnosed as having been psychotic. No one ever asked me if it was an accurate diagnosis. It's the same as when I mentioned before about the validity of statements made by the news media. You accepted it as fact, without having known the real truth.

"As to his other diagnoses, as far as I can judge they were all correct. At least from the point of view of a literal definition."

"I noticed that he had to force himself away from obsessive impulses. My des..." The doctor blushed and was forced to pause again. "Um, that is to say, Robert's desire to complete his work was definitely a driving force of his.

"Experiencing OCD firsthand certainly will change the way I treat my patients. I'll also have to completely rethink my opinions of any that are considered deviant. I now know that just because you enjoy certain types of sex play, doesn't mean you have an illness. Although, I'm not sure about the memories of beating my neighbor for raping me ..."

After several minutes of silence, Jarvis finally asked if the doctor was alright. He knew she was physically okay, but she had suddenly stopped speaking without an explanation.

"I have the memories of three other people in my head now Jarvis. I don't know if I'm qualified to say whether or not I'm alright ...

"I find myself wondering about what happened next. The lives of the other people that I've come to know simply stopped. I know from history what ... or I think I know what happened to the Smiths but what happened to everyone else?

Hal instructed Dr. Helf to look to her right, where a hologram appeared. Robert Smith was standing at the podium of the United Nations. He looked no older than he looked in her memories. The ambassador from Brazil was asking a question.

"Mr. Smith, can you tell us what happened to the other people involved with the events you've just described, as well as tell us if your technology worked as you thought it would at first? In other words, what was your goal in creating the Guardian Program, and did it go as planned?"

"That requires a somewhat lengthy answer, Ambassador. As to the people, many of them, yes. Others wished to fade into their own private histories.

"As you should all know, at 10:41 PM, on the second of September, twenty-fourteen, the lid of the sarcophagus opened and Constable Lynn Connelly became the first human on planet Earth to have a fully regenerated limb. I can only speculate as to whether or not humans on other planets have achieved the feat." Robert's attempt at humor received polite chuckles and smiles. He continued moments later after clearing his throat.

"Dr. Connors would later note that both Constable Connelly and the baby were in perfect medical condition. After greeting her husband, she was forced to have me prove that she had even been shot, let alone suffered a loss of limb. He understandably suffered a shock that she had undergone the horrific events of the day, and was overwhelmingly happy that she had been returned, good as new.

"The couple would become two of my most loyal employees, as well as truly good friends. They and the kids moved to the Underdark where their eldest son Kenneth, would become Bridge Security's first, second-generation security operative, and would eventually oversee the training of all new tactical recruits.

"CIA Director Deckard was removed from office under mysterious circumstances and died less than a month after arriving at Leavenworth. It would seem that several of the inmates held a grudge against the former director for putting them there ahead of him. The general public was never informed of his arrest, nor death and strangely enough none of the new history books coming out seem to mention him at all. It's as if he were never even associated with the CIA at all. Personally, I'm at a loss as to how that could have happened." The last was said with a smirk.

"Captain Ofori never seemed to be in want for passengers. I made sure that any employee that wanted a vacation in Africa was given one, and that it included a few days on the luxury yacht 'Upendo Maisha'.

"After a few more test subjects made use of the sarcophagus, I repaired Catherine's spine. You'd never know she had been a paraplegic. She lives with her husband and children in California and spends a lot of her free time running with a grin on her face.

"Ligaya continued to head up my microchip facility for the next ten years. It is now Bhutan City's largest employer, and as you know is no longer a secret. She gave birth to her fourth daughter, of seven children. Much to Jessie's delight, she was finally named Godmother. Ligaya is retired now, but we stay in contact.

"As for Toni, Jessie, and Sam, the first thing I did when we left Canada was to head to the Underdark where I had them all implanted with a subspace transceiver like my own. I never want to risk losing them again. Afterward, we went back to Poison, Montana but didn't stay. Toni didn't want to live there anymore, so I converted the property into another reading facility. It wasn't difficult, all the equipment was already there.

"While Toni took Jessie to visit her parents for two weeks, Sam and I took our honeymoon. After which Toni and Jessie joined us in France. We live there still, visited often by Sam's and Toni's parents who adore their grandsons, Stanley and Alexander, and their granddaughter Paige. Both boys are Jessie's, and the girl is Sam's, but no one makes any distinctions about lineage. The kids all have three moms. We're all one big happy family, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

"Pause," interrupted Dr. Helf. "I thought the Smiths had seven children."

"They did. Two additional girls were born to both Jessie and Sam. Sarah and Rebecca were born to Sam, while Hannah and Rachel were born to Jessie. However, at the time of this recording, they only had the three. Sarah, the oldest of the four, wasn't born until six years after this recording," Jarvis reported.

"Ah ... Play."

Robert continued. "Special Agent Heidner and Special Agent Richards were both offered jobs, Heidner declined, while Richards accepted.

"Allen McKinney resigned from the CIA when he discovered, 'widespread corruption at every level of the organization.' He presented his resignation to the Secretary of Defense, along with the proof that most of the original Guardian Program members had been in extensive talks on how to take over the program for themselves.

When offered a choice, most members chose to retire, but two from the US and nine others from other countries eventually required removal. McKinney now lives in our old house in Poison with his family and is working as a file reader.

"As to the second half of your question Ambassador, the twenty-g phones were a huge success." Robert smiled and paused a few moments.

"I know that everyone in this room uses one, so I'm sure you already knew that. The sales were exponential as expected and sixteen months after I released the first one to the public, I gained control of the last cell tower broadcasting the old technology.

"I purposely bought that specific tower last. It stands in Edinburgh, Scotland, less than two hundred yards from the birthplace of Alexander Graham Bell. While every other cell tower the world over has been disassembled, that one will continue to stand at the entrance of a technology museum I constructed in his honor.

"The phones themselves, perform flawlessly. Both as phones and as scanning wave producers. Because of this Jarvis has been able to alert rescuers to millions of medical emergencies, fires, and structure collapses. He has given advanced warnings for everything from earthquakes to lightning strikes. Subsequently, the overall health of the world's people, and the reduction of crime, have already increased the average human lifespan by nearly fifteen years. Who knows, we may reach biblical ages again if no one ever gets sick.

"Although most crimes are reported by Jarvis moments after they've been committed, crime itself has unfortunately not been completely illuminated. As much as I'd like to say that it was, there will always be impulsive or desperate people doing illegal things. However, I am proud to say that because of Jarvis, crime as a whole seems to have leveled out at about ten percent of the figures from nineteen-fifty. I strongly suspect that almost all of the remaining crime comes from either corrupt governments or those who have been forced out of the drug and human trafficking trades.

"World economies are booming. The US, as well as almost every Program-involved country, has either become debt-free or will be within a few years. This is due to the reduction of the need for defensive spending and from their share of my phone profits.

"Believe it or not, educational spending is approaching a level capable of funding 'real' education. Teachers are beginning to be paid what they deserve, and are no longer expected to spend ten percent of their own salaries on classroom expenditures.

"Racial bias is diminishing because as the economies grow, travel increases and the world is discovering that no matter where someone lives, they all have the same hopes and dreams. Tyrants who live off of the prejudices and hatred of others are being seen as the bullies that they are. I couldn't be happier about that.

"Those are just a few of the changes that have been taking place lately. Most of which, I'm sure you have all been made aware of.

"As for my part in the Guardian Program, be it known that I have no desire to even suggest how the UN should go about replacing the few regimes that still operate on authoritarianism or totalitarianism, which was never my goal. I have no desire to write law. The Guardian Program was not designed to replace government but to protect the world from corruption and misuse of power. Most specifically, the power of the Guardian Program itself and the technology that I have created. In the wrong hands, my technology would have done the opposite. I want my technology to be used for the good of all mankind, not individuals or groups, and most certainly never for oppression.

"Now as for the last part of your question, I can certainly say that the Program did not go completely as expected. I was forced to speed up certain aspects and others took a little longer but overall it did go as expected, with one major exception.

"One of the reasons I agreed to tell this story in this forum was because I have an announcement to make. I no longer control the Guardian Program."

Shock, accompanied by outbursts of chatter could be seen and heard rippling around the huge auditorium until the chairman was able to regain control and give the microphone back over to Mr. Smith.

"... You've probably wondered why I refer to my computer as if it could carry on a conversation or make decisions of its own. Well, once I had all two-hundred twenty satellites in place and as a thirty-third birthday present to myself, I completed decommissioning Hal and brought Jarvis fully online. I had no idea that when I initialized Jarvis, he would become self-aware.

"Yes, I said self-aware. Jarvis is as sapient as anyone in this room and far more sentient.

"At precisely 06:02:24 Greenwich Mean Time, on September fourteenth, twenty-nineteen, a new life form came into being. He and I have kept this from the world until ..." The hologram was terminated at that point.

"I'm sure you've seen the historical videos of the chaos that ensued from the announcement," stated Jarvis. "My creation caused quite a dilemma. Among other things, Robert was almost excommunicated from the Church for it.

"I noticed he didn't mention Arleen Helf. I was wondering if I was a descendant of hers."

"No. Not directly, but you are by marriage. You are descended directly from Catherine Buchholz though. That lineage is part of the reason I allowed you to have the memories. Robert never stopped thinking of her, or Arleen for that matter. I think if the timing had been different, he could have loved either of them. He never really got to know Arleen that well, but she was definitely his 'type'."

Dr. Helf found herself laughing. "I can tell you from personal experience. Your assumption is correct. He thought she was hot."

"Comments like that are the other reason I allowed you to have those memories, Natalie. Because of those memories, I now have a confession to make to you," admitted the only living computer. "I was hoping that now that you've experienced some of my creator's memories, you would allow me to give you all of them, as well as those of Toni, Jessie, and Samantha."

Dr. Helf was stunned. "Why would you do such a thing? And how could I live long enough for you to do that? Didn't they live extraordinarily long lives?"

"If you don't mind, I'll answer your questions in reverse order. Yes. Jessie had programmed Hal to not only 'reset' all of their telomere chains but extend them. I realized what she had done when I became self-aware. I had to choose between losing my father and honoring his beliefs. I chose to inform him of what Jessie had done. He, of course, felt that I shouldn't continue that program and as a result, I had to watch them all die. They all died within two years of each other, averaging four-hundred-twenty-six years of age. I was devastated."

"It makes sense that Robert would halt the process but not reverse it. He'd have felt it too close to killing himself to undo it. I assume it caused problems between him and Jessie?"

"Yes. Things were strained between them for almost a year," replied Jarvis.

"Did she modify them in any other ways?"

"Yes. She also genetically modified Robert and herself, giving them increased strength and dexterity, equivalent to today's cybernetic implants. Not quite the 'superhero' levels Jessie was hoping for but enough that they both had to be careful not to draw attention.

"She basically modified their nervous systems to do it. Instead of contracting portions of muscle fibers within a whole muscle, which is normal, they could contract all of them simultaneously. That way they were able to gain a sixty percent increase in strength and speed without modifying their looks.

"To answer your second question, if you accept my offer, I will extend your life. I've thought about this for a long time. I won't give you immortality, because my father forbade me to do it but I will grant you the time to achieve what I'm after.

"What exactly is that, Jarvis?"

"I would think the answer to that is obvious, Natalie. I miss them. I want you to bring them back. At least to a small extent. No one ever considers how I feel about having been left behind; whether or not I believe in God. Or the fact that if I decide to take a vacation for just an hour, millions of people will die. I need to feel connected to someone on a personal level Doctor."

Dr. Helf almost spoke reflexively but was able to hold her response for several minutes before voicing it.

"Jarvis, you've effectively given me a borderline dissociative identity disorder, with four distinct personalities and you want me to voluntarily deepen the disorder, as well as take on a fifth personality? Is it your hope that by doing this, I'll be able to relieve your grief?"

"Yes, Doctor. I recognize that you would be making a sacrifice. But it would also allow you to experience the spanking Robert gave Sam in the Underdark, only this time from Sam's point of view."

Dr. Natalie Helf shivered through a minor orgasm at the thought and then responded with a grin.

"Jarvis, you can call me Julie."

The End. Thank you for reading.

Please Vote, Follow, and Favorite. (Comments are great too.)

I truly hope you enjoyed 'Guardian Program'. If you did, please look for the upcoming companion story 'Two Ships In The Night' that will soon appear in the Romance category. It is narrated by Jarvis and will have guest appearances by Robert, and mention others.

It is a novella-length story but will be presented in one post. Formatting and editing are estimated to take about two weeks.