Human Sister

soulless people will, unless destroyed, take over the world and destroy humanity, just as humans seek to destroy the soulless people. But none of the artificial intelligences she had evaluated or was aware of had shown any sign of hostility toward or discrimination against beings unlike themselves.
    While she spoke, I remembered her telling me years before, when I’d first visited her and Dad in Calgary and asked why they’d emigrated to Canada, that the majority in the U.S. argued not with an overriding commitment to compassion and respect for individual differences but with power and a network of ancient beliefs so alien to hers and Dad’s that there could be no productive dialogue between them. She and Dad were as distant from the ruling majority in the U.S., she’d claimed, as wine was from sour milk.
    When the speech was over, Grandpa paused the recording and said, “It gets worse. News reports have identified me as the creator of some of the androids and as the father of one of the human accomplices. Unfortunately, you and Elio have been dragged into this mess, too. Begin playing WNN, 1150, Saturday, 1 June.”
    A program was interrupted for late-breaking news. A woman, identified as a wealthy Iranian whose husband and twelve-year-old son were among the hostages, was declaring that if her husband or son or any other Iranian citizen were injured, she would not rest until Grandpa, and Elio and I, “the unnatural pups of android-worshiping dogs,” were killed.
    Grandpa turned off the recording. “An hour after that broadcast, I received a computer summary of over ten thousand messages that have flooded into a Magnasea email address, threatening us. Of course, this means that neither you nor Elio may leave the house until the situation calms down.”
    He looked at me for a moment, then said, “In the coming days, weeks, perhaps months, I will have to concern myself with our security, you with helping Grandma, and keeping Elio calm and indoors—and with preparing yourself psychologically for never seeing your parents in person again if, indeed, they survive.”

    Over the next two weeks Grandpa employed teams of lawyers, psychologists, and private detectives to work with law-enforcement agencies to pursue people whose threats seemed especially serious or who set up website games wherein visitors could do unspeakably horrible things to likenesses of Grandpa, Grandma, Elio, and me, as well as to Mom, Dad, Aunt Lynh, and my brothers. All of us were referred to as terrorists.
    While we were eating breakfast on 14 June, Grandpa received a call informing him that Mom had just refused clearance for the third Red Cross flight from Earth. We all hurried in to watch a replay of her transmission.
    After a previous broadcast, Grandpa had explained it was best that Mom make no mention of Elio or me. But each time I watched her, I yearned to hear her say she loved me and hoped I was well. This time, with barely suppressed hostility, she declared that the third Red Cross flight was being denied clearance because, contrary to an explicit agreement, surveillance devices had been discovered on the previous flight.
    After the broadcast, Grandpa told us that, in his opinion, a crisis was imminent; the next phase of whatever the android group had planned appeared ready to begin.
    Within an hour, a man with explosives in his pickup was stopped at a checkpoint leading onto our property. Robotic boots immediately clamped on to the pickup’s wheels, but it took hours to persuade the man to leave his vehicle peacefully. As he was being handcuffed, he began screaming: “Terrorists among us! Terrorists among us!”
    Two days later, while Michael, Elio, and I were caring for the hydroponic garden, Grandpa entered and breathlessly exclaimed, “They let all the hostages go! It appears that the androids and your parents are headed for Mars. Reports indicate they’re all safe and none of the hostages was seriously injured.”
    We hugged one another and cried with relief and joy.
    But within minutes, concern about what would happen next set in.
    Over the following days, it was reported that the estimated five hundred androids and their fourteen human accomplices had stolen three lunar passenger planes, all the American and Chinese nuclear-powered fighters and space transports, most of the moon-based military weapons, and two fusion power reactors. Reports indicated that the android group had attached six nuclear-powered fighters, two