AI gender and sexuality...

[jmtorres]

"I think I may become a man," Rommie idly announced one night on graveyard shift. She was keeping Harper company on the dimmed command deck, one hand resting in an open recharge port at the weapons station, the other holding a flexi on which Harper had curiously noted flickering images of faces.

"Uh," said Harper, and set down his Sparky cola, deciding that if she repeated what he thought he'd heard, he didn't want to be drinking. "Run that by me again?" he requested.

"I said, I'm considering becoming a man for my next incarnation," Rommie replied. "Or possibly a non-human hermaphrodite. But I can't decide what species I'm interested in, and my cultural programming is still primarily human. So I'll probably become a man." She was frowning at the flexi, thumbing a button on the side repeatedly, and looking as if she wished she had both hands free.

"Slow down a minute for the poor organic, Rommie," Harper said. "You know even I can't compete with your circuits. What do you mean, your next incarnation?"

"High Guard AIs are permitted to choose their form," Rommie explained, "and to rechoose their form, if they get bored. Which happens every once in a while with beings designed to live for thousands of years."

"Okay, I get that, I guess," Harper said, wondering if he'd have the guts to turn into a woman, if he were to live a few thousand years and got bored restyling his hair. "But you've only had that body a little more than a year. Just a few months, really. You could even count it in mere weeks--"

"Changing the unit doesn't change the amount of time in question," Rommie said mildly, looking amused at him.

"But is there something wrong with it?" Harper asked. "I mean, I made it right, didn't I?"

"The body's fine," Rommie replied. "It's served me well, and will probably continue to do so for several years. I'm not planning on shifting my incarnation anytime soon. A shift that drastic is usually reserved for a period of complete crew turnover, out of politeness." She paused, then added, "I may have only had this body for a short period of time, but I've worn this appearance for a few centuries now."

"Counting black hole time or not?" Harper asked.

Rommie gave him another fond, amused look. "It's not polite to ask a woman's age," she told him.

"I'm not," Harper countered. "I'm asking a future man."

Rommie smiled at that. "Not counting black hole time... well, more than one."

"You don't look a day of it," Harper told her shamelessly. "But... well... why a man?"

Rommie shrugged. "Curiosity. The opportunity to have a different three eighths of the population regard me as a piece of meat. The fact that women's support wear is uniformly uncomfortable."

Harper snorted. The first time he'd asked Beka why she ran the Maru's grav fields as low as she did, she'd replied, "Because bras suck and I don't care to sag."

"So, uh," Harper asked, "would you be like a gay guy, or... what?"

"Harper," Rommie said with a touch of exasperation, "I really don't determine my sexuality that way. Just because I look human doesn't mean I am."

Harper raised his eyebrows. "So explain it to me."

Rommie pressed her lips together primly. She set the flexi down. She said, "If I'm attracted to an organic being, that's heterosexual. If I'm attracted to an artificial being, that's homosexual. Which, I suppose, makes me bisexual."

"And if you're attracted to a gorgeous human with some artificial upgrades?" Harper asked, leaning on the weapons station and grinning at her flirtatiously.

"If I'm ever attracted to you, I'll let you know," Rommie replied acidly, and picked up the flexi again.

"Aw, you know you love me," Harper said.

"Yes, I do," Rommie answered. "That's different."

"What, like a brother?" Harper complained, "You, and Beka, and Trance..."

"No, like my engineer," Rommie said. She frowned at him. "Just because the relationship doesn't involve sex doesn't mean it's not special. You're my engineer, Harper. Do you know what that means?"

Harper felt like he was being tested. "Yeah," he said, thinking of how it felt when he was working on her. "It means--you trust me."

Rommie favored him with a bright smile. Harper smiled back, feeling warm.

I didn't know it was going to end that way... Dru's influence again, I think.

Comments

Re:

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

"I can't contact me. The ship, I mean."

"I've never been so glad to see me."

Just from this weekend.

Yes, dissociation is bad.

I think it'd be pretty hysterical if the hologram and the android took different appearances and genders but still referred to each other as "me" too. They'd get people asking after "your other half" and/or "your better half" and spawn a wave of some kind of incestuous fiction...