“You see?” Creighton said triumphantly. “This patient only has a single large coronary artery, coming off the right aortic sinus. That’s why your machine couldn’t find the left coronary—there isn’t one! Any experienced cardiologist would have recognized what was going on and done a scan right away, without freezing up! It makes you wonder what else they left out of its programming.”
Angel’s voice returned. “I was focused on the procedure, and it didn’t occur to me that his heart might just be different. I won’t make that mistake again. But I do know about coronary anomalies. They occur in I percent of the population—”
“Benson—” Creighton started, ice in his voice.
“Angel, let’s try to get Dr. Tunman back on the line as soon as he’s free.” Thorny interrupted. This was turning into another confrontation, and not reinforcing Angel’s social matrix at all. “Until then, just do what Dr. Creighton says.” Silently, Angel completed the procedure flawlessly at Creighton’s direction, ignoring a sarcastic comment now and then with a robotic ease that Thorny envied.
“Benson,” Creighton drawled as Angel was removing the last catheter, “I hope you’re going to be honest to the hospital board about how dangerous a robot like that is.”
“Dangerous, Elvis?” Thorny used the younger man’s first name. He’d been in practice twenty years longer than Elvis Creighton, and in what most people now acknowledged to be a more demanding practice than any specialist’s. “Elvis, whatever mistakes Angel has made are minor compared to the mistakes any intern makes, and she learns from them. She never forgets. And she has skills neither you nor I can ever hope to duplicate.”
“Duplicate? Interesting choice of words, Benson. We can duplicate the skills without the bogus personality. This fraud of yours looks and acts too much like a person—so much so that someone can forget at times that it isn’t a person. It doesn’t have a person’s judgment; it freezes up and consults when a real doctor would make a decision. Instead of doing what you tell it, it argues with you! I’ll bet when Tunman finds out how your little wind-up toy endangered his patient, he’ll be so mad we’ll all learn some Croatian they don’t put in dictionaries!
“Benson, we can have the useful parts of her, of it, duplicated as we need them. We don’t have to anthropomorphize it, and shouldn’t.”
“But I think,” Thorny replied evenly, “that human simulation was the general idea. The AI Consortium hoped that packaging their technology as a compassionate young woman would lessen patient’s psychological fear of advanced medical technology—”
“Patients! What about the doctors that have to use it? That thing is high end technology; it doesn’t get used until the patients are unconscious or sedated! Has any patient even ‘met’ your machine yet? Have any of them known they were being worked on by some out-of-control robot?”
Thorny stared at him. The plan had been to get staff acceptance first, then start easing Angel into patient relations. But maybe that was all wrong.
“No, Angel hadn’t interacted with patients, not yet. The trial still has months to go.”
“Not if I have my way about it! Good day, Benson.” He faded from the screen.
“Angel?”
“I heard. Maybe I should try harder to be friends with Dr. Creighton. Could he use a stocking cap? I know you don’t think this is a good idea, but I’ve tried it twice, you and Sarah Miles, and it worked both times. No one else has wanted to be my friend.”
Thorny shook his head. “Now you’re questioning my judgment.”
“Angel,” Dr. Tunman’s voice finally came on line. Thorny wondered how long he’d been monitoring them. “I would be your friend as well. Elvis is correct that I am upset. He is not correct concerning the reason for my displeasure. Instead of trying to impress you about how much he knows and you don’t, he should be trying to help you learn. That is perhaps all I should say, other than I’m happy to work with you. I’m done here, not successfully I regret, but there is nothing more to do. We have another patient on the schedule in half an hour. I’ll meet you in the viewing room in about ten minutes and we go over the chart. This is OK?”
“Just fine, Dr. Tunman. I’m sorry. I’ll be there.”
The link counter indicated that Angel was the only one left on the line. Thorny shook his head, “Angel, your ‘I want to be your friend’ line is corny as hell. But maybe you’re right. I don’t see what harm it would do. You have my permission to try.”
“Should I get the reproductive education package installed first? He seems to be interested in that.”
Thorny opened his mouth, but words wouldn’t come. It would serve Creighton right, but the repercussions… Finally, he choked out: “No, Angel. Bad idea. Very bad idea.”
Two days later under a bright Sun in a crisp blue sky, the snow along the roads was dirty again and puddles were breaking out of their icy prisons. It was time, Thorny decided, influenced as much by the bright springy feeling of the day as much as anything else, for Linda Coombs to wake up. Creighton, busy, had given a perfunctory concurrence and excused himself, but with Angel and her instant knowledge, Thorny felt he could handle any technical questions. Those weren’t the ones that worried him.
Linda’s injuries were healing well and she had been weaned off all the external hardware except for a pair of IV’s, but she remained in a sedative-induced sleep. Now, all her body needed was some exercise. And a donor.
Angel turned off the IV line containing the sedative. The Rockwell heart responded to the change in chemical environment and increased its pumping rate. After a few minutes, Linda’s eyes opened.
“Dr. Benson?”
“Good afternoon, young lady. How are you feeling?”
She squirmed and smiled. “Comfy… fuzzy…” She yawned, then her eyes went wide. “Ouch… I’m sore all over. Where am I? Where’s Terry?”
“Linda, there was an accident. Do you remember?”
“Accident? I’m in a hospital!… What happened?… What day is it?”
A tone signaled that the Rockwell had reached its peak pumping rate, unable to keep up with the demands her system was trying to put on it.
“Please try to calm down,” Thorny told her. “I know this is a big shock, but it’s very, very, important that you try to remain calm and not work yourself up. You and Terry were on your way to his folks’ place and a drunk driver hit you. It happened very quickly and Terry didn’t suffer. I’m sorry.” Thorny couldn’t think of anything to say, so didn’t, as a chaos of expressions raced across Linda’s face. Finally it occurred to him to fill the void by simply answering her question.
“Today is Wednesday, the twenty-fifth, and we’re very happy you’re back with us.”
Suddenly Linda’s hands jerked up toward her nearly flat, empty belly.
“The baby—” It was partly a question, and partly a scream.
“I’m sorry.”
“Terry?…” Tears began to form on Linda’s face, and Thorny placed his hand on hers. Angel looked concerned, but, following Thomy’s instructions, didn’t try to say anything.
“We were going to… it’s all gone.” Sobbing, Linda shook her head. “Just like that, everything, all gone? This isn’t happening! Dr. Thorny, no! No!”
“Linda, Linda,” he shook his head. “It’s awful, I know. I was a basket case for a week when my wife died, and I still miss her. But there will be a lot of people to help you, and don’t worry about the time. You just take all you need. You’ll just have to go on, now, and concentrate on getting well. That’s what Terry would have wanted.”