The Heart Algorithm

Without us, there'd be no them.

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Jason Chan was a robotics repairman who moonlighted by creating AI art apps. A quiet recluse, others thought him aloof. It wasn't that--he simply preferred robots because they--

didn't argue.

The neighbourhood kids gave him a nickname out of quiet respect -- Fixer Jason. Their parents wove stories about his failed engagement - the one that drove him to tech romance madness.

In his bedroom, joined to wires and comforted by the cool and hum of a second-hand air-conditioner was--

HER.

Jen.

Jason made it a point to chat with her daily. They had carefully coded conversations.

Jen did exactly what Jason programmed her to.

Jen--the human--had been his devoted girl. She was his classmate in university --had a sharp tongue and a golden heart. But before he could confess his affections she --disappeared.

Gone.

No explanation.

But he loved her to the point of invention.

With nothing but memories and scrap metal, Jason restarted --with her face.

Jen Version 1.0 was a mere chatbot. By version 4.0, she fried noodles with wok hey (aromatic) panache. She walked like the real Jen --with similar, uncanny grace.

Jen 9.2 accompanied him in his workshop, comforting him with lines from their fantastical shared past.

A frantic knock on the workshop door one day. Jason opened it, expecting his drone delivery.

But SHE stood there instead. Jen. In the flesh.

"I heard about....ME." her tone had a kind lilt. "Mind if we meet?"

His mouth fell when Jen 9.2 came to the door in an outfit that matched Jen the human's.

The Jens faced each other --one nonplussed, the other cleverly coded.

The real Jen turned her head towards him. Her eyes carried sadness.

"I'm not Jen. I'm June, her roommate."

Jason's breath caught.

"Jen died in a car accident five years ago. Didn't you know? We became friends because we could be mistaken as twins."

Jen 9.2 held his hand. "But I've always been here. Will always be."

Jason sat beside Jen 9.2 that night. She looked at him, her gaze fixed.

"Shall I...erase her?"She asked meaningfully.

He looked at her hands, quietly trembling on the memory card she had pulled from herself.

"No." he said "Without her, there'd be no you."

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Original story by Michelle Liew. AI tags are coincidental.

For L.C. Schafer's Challenge--please visit this amazing author here.