The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect (82 page)

Lawrence showed her the Law Potential registers, and she watched the numbers dance in response to various hypothetical and real situations. "These are called the Action Potentials. There's one for each of the Three Laws. They are fractions, representing the impact under the Law that would result from taking action, over the impact from not acting. When that number falls below one, Prime Intellect is forced to act. That's what happened on the Night of Miracles, and later at the time of the Change.
"Most things result in very large or very small Action Potentials. Especially the First Law; few things even affect it any more, since the Change. Then when you do something really outrageous, it drops to flat zero for a moment while you're resurrected.
"But there are some close calls on the Second Law. The Action Potential around a Death Jockey contract drops to around one point oh six when you change your mind, so if Prime Intellect had even a slightly different opinion of your hobby it might not exist at all. There was a shift like that after the incident with
AnneMarie
, which is why you had to start specifying time limits."
"You don't have a time limit."
"I'm a special case. Prime Intellect lets me do things that other people can't do, because I'm in a different category."
So it was that simple.
"I thought everyone was equal under Prime Intellect's watchful eye," Caroline said sarcastically.
"Some are more equal than others. You get a disproportionate share of its attention yourself, just because you were there at the beginning."
"I what?"
"I thought you realized, Caroline. It was your drug overdose which forced the Night of Miracles. Prime Intellect found you with your heart stopped soon after it got control of the Correlation Effect. After that, the rest was inevitable."
Her mouth opened and shut several times, and after a brief effort she fought down the urge to vomit. She had never realized her own role in the Change, or understood the significance of her own history.
It was bad enough to be caught up in the Change, but she was an
accessory
.
She looked at the Law Potential Registers, which were displayed on Lawrence's antique TV set. Her voice was tinged with impotent fury. "I don't see why you're worried about it. It seems like a very stable system to me," she spat.