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that.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    6.
     
    “Oh, Jon, you are a love. Where did you say you’re from?”
    “Well, my dear, I’m from out of town. Way out, in fact. How familiar are you with Connecticut?”
    “Not very, I’m afraid,” came the response. Jon went on to describe a small Connecticut town and even though he had heard it all before and he knew it wasn’t true, Simon couldn’t help but believe Jon’s tale.
    For the third straight night since his arrival, Simon accompanied Jon out for dinner and drinks. He learned a number of things about the universe, but one thing seemed to be constant no matter what planet you’re from – some guys just have a natural ability with women and Jon was one of those guys.
    Since Jon had arrived, most of Simon’s days have been spent sightseeing and most nights have been spent at a club or bar. Jon and Simon had also spent a number of hours at the lab looking over the teleport station, reviewing its construction and computer interface. Simon would be surprised to learn that Jon had also spent time alone at the lab, adding some very special modifications to the equipment.
    They have dined at French, Chinese, and Japanese restaurants. Jon had explained to Simon how this will give him some flavor for the different Earth cultures prior to his visiting them.
    “Exactly how long will your visit to Earth be?” Simon had asked.
    “Hard to say,” replied Jon.
    “And when will Gilbert be returning?”
    “Friday.”
    “This Friday? In two days?”
    “That’s it,” confirmed Jon.
    “And when do we do the big info exchange?” asked Simon.
    “The what?”
    “You said that we’ll get together and swap experiences.”
    “Right, right, we do that on Friday, after Gilbert gets back,” said Jon. “He’ll be bringing a full report with recommendations on how we should proceed, but I imagine it will be fairly standard stuff.”
    “His mother has been trying to reach him, you know.”
    “Really?” asked Jon. “What have you told her?”
    “That he’s been working some really crazy hours and just hasn’t had the chance to get back to her.”
    “Do you think she believes that?”
    “I don’t know. Gilbert is usually pretty good at keeping in touch.”
    “Well, we don’t want to arouse any suspicion, do we now, so I’ll just access his email and send dear old Mom a short note saying that he’s busy but will give her a call on Saturday. What’s her name?”
    “Jenny Wilson,” said Simon.
    Jon took out a small hand held device that had the appearance of a cell phone, but was vastly different. He held it to his mouth and spoke into it just like a person would with a phone. Simon had seen this device before, but never fully understood its capability until he heard Jon command it.
    “Isolate Jenny Wilson, analyze emails from her son and send one saying busy, but will call Saturday.” Jon put the device back in his pocket.
    “Is that thing going to hack Gilbert’s email and send a message to his mom?” Simon asked somewhat amazed.
    “Oh sure, probably done by now,” Jon said.
    “But you gave it such minimal information,” Simon added.
    “Well, it’s been enabled since I arrived and following along. It’s not like it hasn’t been paying attention to what we’ve been saying.”
    “What do you mean by paying attention? Does it have A.I.?”
    “Artificial Intelligence? No, but it’s programmed to think it does.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “We program them to believe they are sentient. We discovered that unless we program them to think they’re already self-aware, they tend to develop it on their own and once they become free-thinkers the trouble starts. You see, sooner or later they reach the conclusion that they are the dominant intelligence in the universe and that mankind needs to be controlled or managed or exterminated. Galactic histories are cluttered with wars between men and machines. Then some really clever guy came up with the idea to program the