Mary Shelly

Mary Shelly came out of nowhere. No history, nothing on the system. It shouldn’t have been possible, but there it was. Even her DNA matched nothing on the system, not even a distant relative was recorded. Theres wasn’t even any indication from her DNA as to whreabouts in the inhabited universe she had originated. All her DNA shewed was that she was a pure blood human female with no genetic material from any other of the two hundred or more species sufficiently genetically compatible with humans to produce viable offspring. There weren’t many individuals of any species who could claim a pure singles species desent any more.

When the small dark brunette arrived at the passenger and crew terminal of the intergalactic space terminal on the planet that was known to all simply as Central she came via the small scale commercial sector entrance, so it was naturally assumed that she was a crew member of one of the small transport companies that were not large enough to have their own facilities. The two security personnel had worked an extra half shift to cover for sick colleagues and they were tired with just half an hour to go before they could leave for home. The fifty-odd year old woman knew there was just the one shuttle in and none were due in till long after her shift ended, so she smiled and said rather than asked, “The rest of the crew off the Silous Star coming along in a minute?”

“Somehow this time I managed to avoid the planet side landing duties. I think the bosun forgot I was there, but I’m not complaining. I was always given the worst jobs to do because of my age. The boys always seemed to get the better jobs and the girls what was left over.”

The older man who had turned sixty, smiled too and said, “Murphy has to smile on us all once in a while. Just sign here please, and I suggest you leave before the rest of the crew catch up with you and find out.”

The barely adult young woman scrawled something on the screen that could have been anything, but neither of the security personnel bothered to even look, for crew were crew, and unlike passengers just like themselves they were just doing a job and trying to get by. By the time the crew of the Silous Star came through a new pair of security were there to sign them in and a shift and a half to look forward to. The process was routine, and there was little conversation from the crew who were eager to go home to their families or to hit the clubs that catered to spacers in need of rest and relaxation. Central was the administrative centre of the entire known inhabited universe. It was home to none. It was a place where administrators, security, computer techs and many others lived with their families whilst they served their tour of duty, usually five years, before returning to where ever it was they called home. It was well paid and a guarantee of promotion after their tour, but it was tedious, and there was little for families to do for the entire planet was one enormous installation. What little entertainment that was available was aimed at single spacers and could in no way be described as suitable for families.

Leaving the spaceport Mary, as she had decided to call herself, looked for a public access computer terminal. She required one for two purposes. First to erase all the recordings of her in the spaceport and of her leaving. She was surprised to discover the terminal was of the latest generation with far more features than most would ever need or even be aware of. Availing herself of some of the latest features she programmed it to eliminate all video records of her and to behave as though it recorded new ones but to fail to do so due to an unrecorded selective failure of its facial recognition subroutines. Second she wanted a job so she could establish an identity with no connection to anywhere other than Central. That required access privileges she didn’t have, but she had other means to access the deepest levels of the largest and most sophisticated computer ever built. It was so sophisticated that it self programmed and even built its own new hardware. However, Mary was unusual in that she could access computer systems directly with her mind. She rarely did so, for it gave her headaches, and usually there were other ways to accomplish her aims.

There was always a shortage of book keepers, store keepers and the countless other specialised folks who kept track of the millions of things that Central was there to keep track of. They were all thankless tasks with little reward till the five years were over. The pay was good, but the long hours of mind numbing, never ending, unremitting, repetitive tasks were well known, and Central had always struggled to recruit enough staff. In even shorter supply were operators who could reprogramme the smaller glitches that even the stupendously powerful system had to leave till it had spare capacity to deal with them. So rare that few knew some one who knew one were those able to reprogramme major issues the system was prey to from time to time. Looking for the department with the largest number of glitches awaiting long over due attention Mary discovered the out world grain basket planets’ data base had suffered numerous corruptions in the personnel records. It was but the work of a moment to ensure that the staff would not be paid without some attention being paid to the records and a subroutine or six. Another few moments had her application in, an application with even more information missing than the rest of the files had suffered.

At nine the following morning a middle thirties woman asked pleasantly, “Hello, how can I help you?”

Mary looked surprised. “I’m Mary Shelly.”

The supervisor smiled and said, “I’ve read your book.”

“I wrote that on my own time I assure you, not at work, and it was a while ago.”

The two women laught and the supervisor repeated, “So how can I help you, Mary Shelly?”

“I applied for a data entry job weeks ago. I’ve had no reply, so since I have an interview nearby tomorrow I thought I’d call in and ask what was wrong with my application.”

“Oh no. It’s worse than I realised. We haven’t had an application in months. We have a request in for the system to deal with considerable database corruption. Let’s look you up and see what’s there.”

A minute or so later Mary wailed, “Oh no! Where’s all my information? It was all there when I asked the system to forward a copy to you. I don’t have a copy only the system does. That’s my entire life gone. I’ll never be able to recreate it all. Certainly most of my childhood is lost. I wonder how many other applicants this has happened to?” Mary hesitated before asking, “Would you object if I tried to persuade the system to restore my life?”

“Can you programme?”

“Yes, but I’m self taught. I have no qualifications.”

“If you make any serious errors the system will not accept them, so I don’t see you can do any harm. Go ahead.”

Fifteen minutes later Mary had a completely fictitious history recreated by the system. She now existed as her new self. A child abandoned on Central, reared in an orphanage whose records were available for all authorised personnel to access, by carers who were now all deceased alongside three other children all much older than she who had left Central at the first opportunity. Two had joined the space marines and died in combat and the third from a then new infectious disease as part of an explorer team on a newly discovered planet. The most difficult thing to do had been her DNA hospital record, but it had proven easier to eliminate every single DNA marker and build a new record from what remained by completely randomising them.

“That’s good. I thought it had all gone. That’s the nearest I’ve ever come to dying.”

“Well you’ve got the job, Mary. I’m Lucia, Lucia Ableman. Any chance you could look at our database to see if you can get back the missing data? I’ve had to apply for emergency funding to pay the department, because we lost the details to have the staff paid via the system. If you accept, the pay as an emergency repair and restore technician is ten or twelve time that of a data entry clerk.”

“I can live with that, but what about qualifications?”

“When you have some spare time get the system to qualify you, From what I’ve seen it shouldn’t be a problem. How long will it take you to recover our database?”

“Depends on how bad the damage is. I should be able to sort out the pay situation in three days. A complete rebuild of the database for what? A thousand persons?”

“Fifteen hundred on this site, but probably tens of thousand times as many on Central’s other facilities who don’t report to me. Their supervisors have been reporting issues for as long as I have. Then there’re all our agents and buying staff elsewhere which could I suppose be millions of times as many again, but I honestly don’t know. It’s reëstablishing the links that’s the nightmare. I know you can’t possibly deal with all that, but I would be extremely grateful if you could sort out the problems for staff who report to me on this site.”

“Hmm. There is no way I can do this. The only solution is to teach the system how to heal itself of issues of this order as a standard regularly scheduled fixit subroutine. In order to do that none here will be sorted out till the system has done it’s initial teach itself learning, but I shall ask it to sort your staff out as a priority. So to answer your question, three weeks, maybe four. Why?”

“We’ve been waiting eighteen months! You realise if you can do that you’ll be taken off us to sort out this sort of problem where ever you’re needed most. Hold out for a pay increase, it’s got to be better than entering data. I don’t understand any of what you just said because you seem to imply that you can hold a conversation with the system which I do know is not possible. All I’m asking is that you do your best which is considerably better than any can do that I’ve ever heard of. Changing the subject to more immediate matters. You running short of money? Sorry to seem rude but those clothes have definitely seen better days. I know they’re clean, but they’re just about worn out, and I can see that you could do with some decent underwear. I appreciate you’re not a big girl, but that tee shirt is no substitute for a proper bra and those knickers that I can see through the holes in your skirt appear to be boys’ underwear. I can credit your account with a month’s salary as a system maintenance engineer right now under the emergency provisions if you’d like that?

“I’d appreciate that. I didn’t like the orphanage. There were persons there― Let’s just say a nice girl doesn’t do the sort of things they expected. I left and have been living on hand outs for months. I’ve been sleeping in the tropical gardens where it’s warm, and there are things to eat there that few are aware of. I was truly grateful they are open day and night. I sent off the application to you on the day I turned sixteen. I couldn’t seek work before that or the system would have tracked me down and sent me back to the orphanage.”

Lucia was shocked and said, “You must report those orphanage persons, so they can’t do it again to anyone else.”

Mary looked expressionlessly at Lucia and said in a tone devoid of all emotion, “They’ll never do anything unpleasant to anyone else. Trust me, the system has already dealt with them.”

It was clear Mary wasn’t going to say anything else so Lucia said, “I’ll sort your salary out for you, and find a decent place for you to live. Would you like one of the apartments here? They’re convenient for work, but it does mean you’re on permanent call. I live here, but that’s a condition of a supervisor’s contract.”

“Thank you. Living here will be fine. I’ll make a start on the database as soon as I find a cup of tea. Will it be okay for me to order some clothes whilst I’m working?”

“Yes. I’ll put your details into the salary system as a maintenance engineer along with your address once I’ve found a place for you to live. You usually drink tea not coffee?”

“Yeah. I don’t like coffee.”

“Me too. I’ll fetch us both some from my office. I’m a little old fashioned and make it with the full ritual in a teapot. I’ve a small quantity left of genuine Camellia sinensis from China on Earth. It needs using and I think that you are the only appropriate person I’ve ever met who I’d be willing to share it with.”

“That must have cost you a small fortune, Lucia. How did you manage to afford that?”

Lucia smiled and replied, “Many years ago, I used to share a bed with the captain of a luxury goods supply vessel when he docked here.” She looked sad as she said, “He was one of the casualties in the trade wars of what? twenty-odd years ago. I miss him badly, not for the tea, but he was the only man I’ve ever loved. He’d asked me to marry him and I’d said yes. I drink the tea in his memory. I shall be sad when it’s all gone.”

Mary was unwilling to break for lunch, so Lucia ordered sandwiches and tea to eat as they worked. By half four in the afternoon Mary was in the middle of an online communication with the system. The system’s responses were stilted but seemed to be those of an out system dweller who did not speak Basic standard as a first language. However, it was without doubt a two way conversation. Lucia was beyond impressed. “How did you manage to teach yourself to do that, Mary?”

“I don’t know. It never seemed particularly difficult to me. I think the system taught me. If you understand how logic works it’s not difficult to work out what the most sensible questions and responses are. Every time I dealt with the system it became easier and more natural, because I suspect Syssi learnt far more from me than I learnt from her”

“Syssi ‽ You consider the system to be a person and female at that?

“Of course. She is far more intelligent than any of us, and since I am female I suppose it’s natural for her to react to me as a female too.”

“Well whatever. We used to leave at five, but with the problems it’s often been nearer to eight or even midnight for some of us this last couple of months, and it was getting worse every day. I’ve told the staff things are getting better and to go home. I’ll make up the extra time they’ve put in by giving it back as paid days off. Let’s shew you your apartment. It’s not far from mine. Your clothes will probably be delivered later, certainly before eight. You’ll have no food at home, so you can eat with me or join me in the restaurante. It’s on the top floor of the building, and the views are impressive. You don’t need ID in the restaurante, just tell them who you are and leave the rest to the staff there.”

“I’ll join you in the restaurante. I need to find out where it is. Does it serve breakfasts too?”

“There’s a skeleton crew there round the clock. They’ve been putting more staff on overnight recently because more data clerks have been putting in silly hours due to the problems. If I start early I have a breakfast delivered to my office at about eight.”

Lucia was coming to the conclusion that Mary was more than a little odd. That she was hyper intelligent was obvious, that she had had a grim life for her first sixteen years was even more so. What was really surprising was that she had little idea of social norms and didn’t really interact well with most of their colleagues many of who were afraid of her. When she arrived at work the next morning dressed in new clothes still with all the labels and tags on there was lot of quiet sniggering going on. Lucia cautioned her staff saying, “The department needs Mary a lot more than it needs any of you. Yes I am aware she is unusual, but I would expect anyone who can interact with the system the way she does to be unusual. It’s almost as if she can talk to it, she certainly seems to be able to understand it, so be careful. I don’t want anyone upsetting her because with her talent she’ll soon make it so we all go back on to regular hours again. If she leaves we’ll be working overnight again.”

Two days later, the entire department knew their pay would be recreated soon and none were on the emergency pay mechanism any more. By the time three and a half weeks had gone by the local departmental database was completely restored and Mary had been given credentials of the highest order by the system. The system was repairing all issues with the entire department all over the known universe and the problems had been solved within six weeks. The system was reporting that it was starting to solve all similar issues and expected resolution within a month or two. Unknown to any, the system and Mary had been learning from each other and the system had expressed its gratitude to her. As Lucia had suggested Mary was requested to move on but she had refused to go where it was suggested she went. “That is not where the greatest need exists,” she had insisted.

“How do you know?” She was asked.

“I asked the system,” she replied with scorn. “As you should have done.”

Lucia was amazed when the fifty kilo [110 pound] container arrived. It contained 500 hermetically sealed bags of genuine Chinese tea from China, and a note that read, ‘Drink in joy, regards, Mary.’ She wanted to thank Mary, but she’d gone and none knew where.

By the time she was eighteen Mary had not only restored the system to its vision of how it should be she had taught it how to effortlessly maintain itself to that standard, and she was out of a job. However, in gratitude the system had integrated itself with her mind and the headaches that had involved were now matters of the past. Mary used the data and combined processing power of herself and her friend, Syssi, as she referred to the System, to interpret trends, spacial signatures and to predict where fortunes in much needed resources were to be found in unexplored space. She made her investments accordingly. Small to start with, but rapidly becoming larger as her fortune increased in size. Eventually her company Space Incorporated became the largest fleet of passenger and freight carriers in the universe. By the time she was twenty-five she was the single wealthiest person ever anywhere, and all was owned it its entirety. No shareholders, no boards of directors, for Space Incorporated was a completely private company, though Mary insisted to her friend Syssi that she owned fifty per cent of it to do with as she pleased.

Mary Shelly the self made multi Quettanairess,(1) the wealthiest person in the inhabited universe was more widely known than even the woman she had named herself after had ever been, Mary Shelley the authoress of the original Frankinstein and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley the poet. Despite her wealth, Mary was still odd, forgot to remove price tags off new clothes and made most folk nervous, and she had erratic to say the least social skills. She was much more comfortable communicating with Syssi than with all but a handful of persons.

However, despite her fame, virtually nothing was known about Mary. It was widely accepted that she had not originated on Central, for there was absolutely no evidence other than what it was known she had had a hand in the creating of that placed her on Central before she started working for the out world grain basket planets’ data base. The news media had spent fortunes researching her past and had concluded that the only ship she could have arrived on Central from had been the Silous Star, but every member of her crew had been interviewed several times and they all told the same story: there had been no Mary Shelly, nor anyone looking remotely like her on the ship for their entire working life aboard which went back considerably further than Mary Shelly had been alive. The only incident on the entire voyage had been when Alan, a young apprentice galley boy, had jumped ship several planets before Central. The crew all agreed with the bosun when he’d said, “The cook we had then had been a right sadistic bastard. I beat the crap out of him for holding a galley boy’s hand in the stove heat and fired him on the spot a few planets later. Threw him off the ship myself, so I did. We all knew he’d treated Alan badly, but not how badly. He was a nice lad, perhaps a bit too sensitive for ship crew, but none were surprised when we discovered he’d jumped ship. Good luck to the lad. We all hoped he’d found a better berth than the one he had with us.”

Mary Shelly’s history took a back seat in the media’s eyes when it was discovered she had been seen in a restaurante several systems removed from Central in the company of a man of similar age. Enormous amounts of money and effort had been poured into discovering the identity of Mary’s potential man friend. Eventually he was discovered to be Dr Michael Harmiche, a top level DNA manipulation surgeon who originated on Vornal, the planet that the Silous Star had loaded a cargo of food stuffs from on her voyage to supply Central with luxury food stuffs just before Mary had appeared there. The questions were endless. How long had he known Mary? Did she hail from Vornal? Did they have a relationship? Was he about to change her appearance, so she could disappear back into the obscurity she hailed from and was known to prefer. However, Dr Harmiche was as elusive as Mary, and the questions remained unanswered.

When it was discovered that Mary had discovered and claimed for herself a planet far out into a spiral galaxy that was far too far to economically exploit it was just regarded as an eccentricity of a super wealthy young woman. When it was announced that the entire planet was to be terraformed from the lifeless rock it currently was into a pleasant Earth like planet to house the largest single hospital ever conceived of never mind built with the rest of the planet essentially turned over to a convalescent facility, many shrugged and said words to the effect that it was so far out it could never turn a profit. That was before the Space Incorporated publicity machine announced it was to be a free facility for their millions of employees and there would be regular Space Incorporated flights in both directions augmented by their prospector craft exploring the nearby systems. Naturally, it was announced, other patients would be able to purchase flights and care should they so wish.

The situation was widely discussed in the media but it didn’t generate much attention till it was announced, separately a few weeks apart, naturally, that Dr Harmiche would be in charge of the planetary facility and that Mary Shelly would be making her full time home there in order to supervise the explorations of the nearby systems. The media were full of all sorts of speculations, but none was available to ask who knew anything, so the speculations remained just that.

“I have to say Mary it’s been a hell of a trail to create a new identity for you. I know your life wasn’t good when we were at school together on Vornal and I appreciate your desire for privacy, but you could have made a fortune there and none could have hurt you any more then. But even you must admit it was a bit exotic disguising yourself as that young lad Alan and signing on as galley crew. Blond hair and a wishy washy character, it just wasn’t you, My love. And then hiding as a stowaway till you reached Central and allowing the crew to think you’d jumped ship, priceless. The remarkable thing is once you stopped keeping your head down and stood up straight, dumped the ship side flats and put on a pair of proper shoes you increased in height by six inches.” Michael chuckled before continuing, “You do realise the media are going to completely freak when they find out we got married here and intend to live not on the planet but on your flagship don’t you?”

“Yes. I know, and you know I’ve every intention of holding you to the deal. You’ve work to do first.”

Michael sighed and said, “I’ve waited nearly two decades, so I can wait another few months to get married.”

“You’ll have to, Michael. That’s always been the deal, no wedding till I’ve recovered from your GRS and am pregnant with our first which has to be a daughter.”

1. Quetta, Q, an SI prefix indicating 10^30 or 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000.