Torchwood: Exodus Code

at an old-fashioned writing desk, a fountain pen in her hand. At first glance, Jack thought she looked like a woman from the nineteenth century, demure and modest. Looking closer, he noticed a nose piercing, a neck tattoo and more than a delicate amount of skin showing when the dress shifted from her shoulder.
    Jack laughed. ‘So this is what you think Mary Shelley would look like today?’
    ‘Shelley, meet Captain Jack Harkness,’ said Eva.
    A sultry woman’s voice with an English accent answered. ‘The pleasure is all mine, Captain. Welcome aboard the
Ice Maiden
.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Jack.
    ‘I believe I’ve corrected the glitch in my programs that allowed you to seduce me so spectacularly.’ Shelley’s voice was youthful and playful.
    ‘My apologies for that, Shelley.’
    ‘Apology accepted. May I ask… were you the creator of the program you used? It appeared so elegant, so graceful, and yet it was quite brutish in its approach. Its power took me quite by surprise.’
    ‘Let’s just say it’s not from around here,’ said Jack.
    Vlad and Eva glanced at each other, puzzled and slightly disconcerted by the nature of the exchange. Shelley was a powerful AI, but social conversation was not her strongest program . They’d never needed it to be.
    ‘May I show the others what I’ve learned?’
    ‘Be my guest,’ said Jack, setting a flat disc the size of a hockey puck on top of Vlad’s desk.
    Jack tapped the top of the disc and in an instant Mary Shelley was standing in front of Vlad’s desk, morphed from a talking head on the screen to a fully formed female, a hologram, but an incredibly sophisticated one. Nothing translucent or wavering about her. To the eye, she looked alive, standing before them clad in a body-hugging calf-length black velvet dress that looked like a character from one of Vlad’s steampunk stories. On her feet, Shelley was wearing a pair of shiny cowboy boots.
    ‘I must admit to always having had a silly fascination with the Wild West in America,’ she giggled, kicking up her heels. Her fountain pen remained firmly gripped in one hand and her black leather journal in the other.
    ‘Wow!’ exclaimed Eva, staring wide-eyed at their avatar.
    Shelley curtsied towards Eva.
    ‘Well, fuck me,’ grinned Vlad.
    ‘That function,’ said Shelley, pirouetting in front of Vlad, ‘is not yet operational.’
    ‘Well done, Shelley,’ said Jack. ‘You’ve adapted the software to your scaffolding quite quickly.’
    ‘Yes, Captain. It feels as if it has been an integral part of me all along. Although I’m still absorbing a few minor details, I predict I’ll be fully functioning for your needs in the next few days.’
    ‘I can’t wait,’ said Vlad, keying commands into his computer and staring in awe at what he was seeing. ‘Look at this, Eva. She’s synchronised with all the ship’s systems, including a mobility function.’
    ‘Yes, Vlad, I can be accessed in this form anywhere on the ship and off via the satellite.’
    ‘Bloody brilliant!’
    Jack laughed, pleased that his gift to the
Ice Maiden
was making Eva and Vlad happy. He knew Cash would approve and he certainly owed him a favour, more than one. It was also the least he could do given what he was coming to realise about the submarine tremors, the wide-spread synaesthesia and his own fragmented memories, Jack had a feeling that their pleasure may be short-lived.
    Eva leaned over Vlad’s shoulder, checked out his screen then stared back at Jack. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. You’ve multiplied her functionality, adapted her modalities, increased her scope and intelligence… It’s like you’ve…’
    ‘Made her bigger, better, smarter and sexier?’ said Jack, winking at Shelley who winked back.
    ‘All those things,’ said Eva. ‘But she still looks like our avatar.’
    ‘This design is amazing; I’m impressed. The algorithms are brilliant,’ said Vlad staring at the code, and every few beats glancing up at Shelley smiling next to him. ‘You’ve morphed her in a way that I didn’t think we – I mean our governments – had the capability to do yet with artificial intelligence.’
    Eva had pulled her chair up next to Vlad. ‘This is some serious cutting-edge restructuring. I read about this code-layering in a paper once, but it was based on some sophisticated theories, pretty sci-fi level design.’
    ‘Exactly,’ said Jack.
    They both paused in their analysis of the program. ‘Where did