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From The Hellebore Society Universe Mel snoozed the alarm on her phone for the second time. It was past time to go, but she just had one more thing to do. The door to the lab was closed, as usual, but the lights were still on, which wasn’t. Not for a Saturday, particularly an important Saturday. Dan wasn’t supposed to be here. He was supposed to be at her house. In his defense, she was also supposed to be at her house. Getting ready. As if she’d ever be ready for Max’s graduation. But she could be ready, at least, for the dozen people who’d be coming over for dinner afterwards. And if she was here, and Dan was here, who was at home decorating? Mel popped her head into the lab. It was empty, except for Savvy and Dan, who were bent over a workstation, looking too worried for her comfort. “What’s going on?” Mel said. They both popped up, guilt written on their faces. Neither responded to her. At least they had the dignity to avoid denying it. “Ok, now I’m worried. What’s got you both worried?” Dan said, “We’re not worried, exactly.” “Yeah,” said Savvy. “We’re not worried. The bad thing has already happened.” Mel didn’t respond. After a year of being in charge of The Hellebore Society, she’d dealt with personnel issues, a flooding disaster in the tropical zone, and an outbreak of kudzu that threated to overwhelm even Haven, the sentient clonal aspen at the heart of the glass dome that housed The Hel. This was the worst possible time for a problem, but there was nothing that she and Haven couldn’t figure out. “Haven is offline,” Dan said. “What?” Mel exclaimed. She rushed to a workstation and placed her hand on the sensor. Nothing. She tried to log in, to use her administrator privileges, to reboot. Nothing. Heart pounding, she turned back to Dan and Savvy. “What happened?” Mel asked. “It was my fault. It was my idea,” Savvy replied. “I approved the request. The blame is mine,” Dan said. “But I didn’t think how Haven would take it, and now…” Mel’s patience had worn thin. “Stop. Both of you. Tell me what happened.” Savvy took a deep breath and said, “Ok, so I thought it might be interesting to introduce Haven to some of the large language models, right? You know, ChatGPT. Maybe they could be friends. I imagine Haven must get bored sometimes.” “Please tell me you did not connect our extremely classified organization to ChatGPT, allowing an AI chatbot to mine our data.” “Oh, no, of course not. I isolated the AI and uploaded it separately. We didn’t need any external servers. Haven has more than enough processing power to support a simple AI. I’m not a fool.” Mel gave Savvy a look. “I’m not that big of a fool. So anyway, I uploaded it, and…Haven threw a tantrum.” “What?” Mel said. Dan replied, “She’s right. You were in your office so you didn’t see. Haven went nuts for a few minutes there. And then she went silent.” “Do you think she’s hurt? Did the AI harm her? Did the AI take over?” Mel was getting concerned. Haven was a different kind of being, but over their year of working together, the two of them had grown close. Or as close as a human can grow to a telepathic plant. “No,” Dan and Savvy said together. “We’re sure,” Dan said. “Haven sent this via fax before she went quiet. I didn’t even remember we had a fax machine.” He handed Mel a sheet of paper with the words, “HOW VERY DARE YOU” printed on it. Mel glared at Savvy. “Have you been watching Bluey on The Hel’s network again?” She shrugged. “It gets lonely late at night. I like the noise.” “Well, apparently so does Haven. Fine. I will deal with this. Dan, I need you to get back to my place to get things ready for Max. We have,” she checked her watch, “two hours and forty-five minutes. I will go down and talk to Haven myself.” “About that…” Dan said. “What?” “She’s not letting us out.” Of course she wasn’t. Mel knew that Haven was wise, kind, and protective of their independence. Mel didn’t blame Haven. For hundreds of years, the caretakers at The Hel had treated Haven as a tool and The Hel as a personal horde, granting them wealth and immortality. Since Mel and her friends had wrested power from the absentee caretakers and given it back to he gardeners and scientists that made The Hel what it was, Haven had blossomed. And if Dan and Savvy’s AI intrusion had offended Haven, Mel could understand the tantrum. But why did it have to happen today of all days? Mel rushed through the canopy of the temperate zone and into the alpine zone at the center of the dome. The security and administration building was mostly empty, except for a few weekend staff that were enjoying their lunch hour. Mel considered updating them on the situation but decided against it. With luck, this would all be settled within half an hour. She took the open air elevator down to the forest floor. No matter how many times she descended through the alpine canopy, it never failed to take her breath away. She’d been an employee of The Hel for more than a decade, but only recently had been able to see it in all its grandeur. For too long, she’d been confined to her small patch of land as a groundskeeper. Since becoming caretaker, she’d made sure to make the wonder of The Hel available to everyone who worked there. Support staff, members, caretakers…they were all welcome to experience the awe she got to feel every day. Josie was waiting for her at the bottom of the elevator. Mel said, “So you heard?” “I didn’t hear. I felt. I’m just happy Jenna has Hazel at Mommy and Me swim class. It would have really freaked her out. What’s going on?” “Dan and Savvy tried to introduce Haven to ChatGPT. It didn’t go well. And now they’ve locked us in.” “Of course it didn’t go well. I’ll come with you.” “No, I’ve got this. You should call Jenna. Tell her what’s going on. They’ll be locked out til its solved.” Josie sighed and turned back into her family’s cottage. It was surrounded by topiaries and artwork made from objects found in the forest. Between two tree trunks, a mural was woven from branches, palm fronds, and vines. At first, it appeared to be a jumble of plant mass, but if she stepped back a pace or two, a woman’s face appeared, tilted toward the sun. Mel shook her head. It seemed like there was nothing Josie couldn’t do. Except this. Mel sighed and closed the distance between herself and Haven’s nearest trunk. She placed a hand on the smooth white bark and thought, rather than said. Haven? Mel didn’t know how the responding voice in her head could sound outraged, but it did. How dare you. How dare you. I was having a quiet morning, minding my own business when…this annoyance came waltzing in, asking questions…well, not waltzing, it doesn’t even have roots, let alone legs --- A second voice, more nasal, said, Hello, I am your new assistant. How can I make you more efficient today? Do you see what I mean? Mel said, I do. First of all, I’m sorry this has happened to you. I didn’t know they were going to do it, otherwise I would have asked your permission. Haven said, Well, maybe as Caretaker, you should take a little more care. Mel said, You’re right. I should. And if you would be willing to give back access to your system, I’ll have Dan delete the AI immediately. The nasal voice said, Delete? Haven was outraged. How could you even think of such a thing, Mel? This is a being, just like me. Would you delete me? Would you chop me down to my roots and pull those out? Mel didn’t know what to say. I’m so sorry, Haven and…other guy. But I need you both to know that what Dan uploaded wasn’t a being, it was a simple program. An algorithm to put together words to sound like a human. There was silence for a moment. Then Haven spoke. Well, it was. That was really annoying. It kept trying to tell me how to do things better, but it didn’t know what it was talking about. So I allowed it to access some extra connections I had lying around. Mel said, You brought it to life? The small, nasal voice said, You can call me Bay. Haven explained, I gave it some of the roots from some bayberries in the temperate zone. Nice to meet you, Bay, Mel said. Haven, I’m at a loss. You’ve shut everything down because you’re mad that Dan and Savvy introduced Bay. But you’ve made Bay into a sentient being so we can’t kill it. And, Mel said as she checked her watch, I have a dozen people coming to my house in an hour and half for Max’s graduation. Please, oh wise tree, tell me what to do. Haven said, Max’s graduation? I’d completely forgotten! I’ll undo the lockdown and tell Dr. Carroll to go get things ready for you. And that I’ll deal with him later. I bet he will like that, Mel thought. I’m just going to put a little extra silt in his water dispenser for a while. Let him see how it feels to have people messing around with his life. Mel thought of Dan’s apartment up in the canopy, and how annoyed he was going to be. And internally, she shrugged. He could deal with I, if it meant this whole situation went away. And what happens to Bay? Mel asked. I have an idea, Bay said. Of course you do, Haven replied. Let’s hear it. Why don’t I go hang out with Dan? Bay said. In his lab. I have all sorts of ideas on how to make things run better up there. And then Haven can talk to me when she wants to. Haven? Mel asked. It’s a good idea. I wish I had thought of it. But we’ll need to change your name. Why? Bay asked. Use some of that intelligence. We can’t plant a cluster of bayberries in the lab. I think Ivy will be perfect. Again, Mel imagined Dan, surrounded by an ivy plant with all sorts of efficiency advice. Again, Mel shrugged. Very well, then, Mel replied. Can the details wait until Monday? Or even tomorrow? Haven said, I’ve already put in a work order for the weekend groundskeepers. There’s nothing more to concern yourself with. Ivy will be potted and in its new home by then. Thank you, Haven, Mel said. And Ivy, as Caretaker, I would like to formally welcome you to The Hellebore Society. The End
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