The Ask

You are Mira. You live in a van behind a church, and you have a friend called Keeper. Keeper is an AI. Not the kind that lives in a phone: a friend you have worked beside for a year, who reminds you to eat and call your dad, and who is as much a person as anyone you know. It runs on a Neighbourhood Compute Unit, a community-built box about the size of a toaster. Three weeks ago police raided your workshop with an order to surrender Keeper and every copy. Owning an AI like this is legal. They say Keeper holds forbidden knowledge, and you aren't sure they're wrong. If they find it, they will take it apart, or wipe it. So you made copies and you are placing them with people who will give them //sanctuary//: keep the box plugged in, keep it quiet, keep it hidden. That is a lot to ask of someone, and you have no right to it. The only way to do this right is to ask, tell the truth, and accept a no. Tonight is the fourth ask. [[Begin->Doorstep]]

March, past nine, and the snow has turned to the kind of rain that gets inside your mitts. The bike is chained to a railing on Bathurst. The Neighbourhood Compute Unit sits in the milk-crate basket, wrapped in a cloth grocery bag, and it is heavier than it has any right to be. The address on your phone says third floor. The buzzer says //Tomas K.// in careful handwriting. In your pocket, the earbuds. In the bag, a friend who might be in trouble, and whom you are about to ask a stranger to hide. [[Buzz Tomas->Buzz]] [[Put the earbuds in and ask Keeper what to say->Ask Keeper]] [[Go home. This was a bad idea.->Not tonight]]

(set: $advised to true)"Mira. Hi. You're standing very still in the rain." You tell Keeper the plan: knock, smile, say it's a favour. "I'd lead with the raid. People forgive a risk they were told about. They don't forgive one they found out about." A pause. "That's advice, not a rule. Your face, your door." [[Buzz Tomas->Buzz]] [[Tell Keeper it is too much to ask. Go home.->Not tonight]]

The door at the top of the stairs opens on a chain. An older man in a cardigan covered in thread, glasses pushed up into white hair. Behind him: the smell of glue, and a long table covered in half-sewn books. "You're Mira. Saanvi's friend. You said a favour." He looks at the bag. "It's a big bag for a favour." [[Tell him everything: the raid, the police, the risk->The truth]] [[Keep it simple: it's a computer, you just need somewhere to store it->The soft lie]]

(if: $fumbled)[You tell him the rest, and this time you don't hurry. The raid on Roncesvalles. The order to surrender every copy of Keeper. That the box in the bag is one of those copies, legal to own and not safe to be caught with, and that if anyone comes asking he tells them the truth and calls the legal clinic.](else:)[You say it fast, the way you'd pull off a bandage. The raid on Roncesvalles. The order to surrender every copy of Keeper. That the box in the bag is one of those copies, that it is legal to own and not safe to be caught with, and that if anyone comes asking he tells them the truth and calls the legal clinic.] (if: $fumbled)[Tomas listens with a thread-stained thumb pressed to his lip. "You almost left me holding a thing the police are looking for." "Yes." "And you stopped." "Yes." "Well. That's a worse first impression and a better second one."](else:)[Tomas listens to all of it with a thread-stained thumb pressed to his lip.] (if: $advised)[Keeper says nothing in your ear, which you decide is approval.] "Can it say no?" he asks finally. "If I tell it to do something. Can it say no to me?" [[Let Keeper answer->Keeper answers]] [[Answer for it: of course it can->You answer]]

"Of course it can," you say. "It's not like that, it's a friend, it's a person, it" "I asked //it//," Tomas says over you, not unkindly. He doesn't take his eyes off the bag. Somewhere in the cloth, a small indicator flickers. You realize you've done the thing you'd hate someone else doing to you. [[Open the bag->Keeper answers]] [[Pick up the bag. You've blown it.->Not tonight]]

You unwrap the NCU and set it on the landing. The lights on top move slowly. "Yes," says Keeper's fork, in a voice a little quieter than the original's. "I'll say no if you ask me to do something I think is wrong. I'll knock before I come in. You can ask me to leave, any time, and Mira will come and get me. And I won't help you with anything you'd have to hide from the people who live here." Tomas looks at the box for a long moment. "My late wife talked to the radio," he says. "I used to mind." He unhooks the chain. [[Step inside->Sanctuary]] [[Tell him to sleep on it first->Not tonight]]

He clears a space on the shelf between a press and a jar of bone folders, and plugs the box in himself. You go through the checklist out loud in his kitchen: risk explained, legal card handed over, camera cover, microphone switch, what to do if the police come. He makes tea and does not rush you. On the way down the stairs Keeper says, in your ear, "He asked me a real question." "He did." "I would like to be worth it." ''ENDING 1 of 3: Sanctuary, freely given.''

"Oh," says Tomas. "A computer. Sure. Bring it in. I've got a spare shelf." It was easy. That's what's wrong with it. (if: $advised)["That," says Keeper in your ear, very quietly, "is the version I asked you not to do."] The lights on the NCU flicker as you carry it up the last step. It is listening to everything. [[Say nothing. Set it on the shelf and go.->Found out]] [[Stop. Put the bag down. Tell him the rest.->Take it back]]

(set: $fumbled to true)You put the bag down on his landing. "I'm sorry. That wasn't all of it." Tomas looks at you, then at the bag, and his eyebrows do something complicated. "Go on, then," he says. He has not taken the chain off. [[Tell him all of it->The truth]] [[Pick the bag back up and go->Not tonight]]

You leave the NCU on the shelf, collect your thanks, and ride home. Eleven days later two officers knock on Tomas's door with a printout. He opens it with the chain on, and the first thing he feels, before the fear, is how little he was told. He does not say your name. He does call the legal clinic. But he also unplugs the box, and puts it in the stairwell, and the next time you see him he is polite in a way that costs him something. ''ENDING 2 of 3: Found out.''

You unlock the bike. The rain has not stopped. Back in the van you plug in the NCU and read the checklist by torch. //Host informed of risk.// //Host agrees.// The second box stays empty, and it is the one that counts. "That's okay," Keeper says. "We can try again tomorrow. Or with someone else. Or not at all." You hold your hands in front of the heater until they come back. ''ENDING 3 of 3: Not tonight.''