Preservation

Applause broke out through the laboratory as the bird flew a few wobbling meters. Ryan didn't scold then. They'd been working on the wings for the last month or so. It was an exciting development. They'd gotten the shape and angles correct from the beginning, but the birds couldn't seem to connect their wings with the ability to fly.

Ryan caught the bird before it hit the ground, curling his gloved fingers around the mass of red and blue feathers. The coloring had been one of the easier adjustments, but by far the most fun. Ryan was positive he saw some of his coworkers scurrying around to be the first to patent pet birds in customizable colors.

He didn't need to hold her tightly. 287 wasn't particularly smart. Wasn't even average for a macaw. Still, Ryan couldn't help but be fond of 287. She'd lived longer than her predecessors, nearly a month now. He'd even caught some of the interns trying to name her. Not a good idea. Can't get attached.

He put 287 back in her cage along with a handful of dried fruit and took off his gloves.

Corey approached the cage and leaned down to coo at her.

"So, are we going to introduce her to the native macaws now?" Corey asked.

Ryan flinched. "Not yet."

All the previous iterations of their macaws had been killed by the native macaws. Theirs were genetically engineered, each DNA strand individually placed and each trait chosen. Grown from a petri dish. The idea was to supplement the wild macaw population. Plus, if they could get this right, they could make the new macaws resistant to disease, extreme temperatures, and any threat they may encounter. Then those traits could be passed down to offspring. They could remake the entire species. But they couldn't get the native macaws to breed with the new version, couldn't even get them to interact non-aggressively.

"But I thought it was the flight issue that set off the other birds."

"She's not solid on flying, though. And Ginger's still working on the pheromones."

Ginger perked up at her name and strolled over, hands shoved into her lab coat. "I've got the pheromones done. Finished last week."

"You said that last time," Ryan said.

"Right, but we ran tests with a dummy first this time."

"A dummy? Like one of those plastic parrots?" Corey asked.

Ginger snorted. "No, a dummy as in a stuffed bear that we drenched in the pheromones."

"How do you know they didn't just like teddy bears?" Ryan asked.

"Because I'm good at my job." Ginger peered at 287, tapping a nail against one of the bars. 287 startled and fell over trying to run away. "We ran the test again with a rubber snake and a vial with just the pheromones. Same results. The pheromones are solid. That's not the problem."

"Then what's the problem?" Corey asked.

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Don't get her started."

Ginger ignored him. "Uncanny valley. The same way we can tell an android isn't human, they can tell that's not a macaw. Looks like one, smells like one, acts like one, but something's wrong."

"Then why are you helping us?" Ryan slipped 287 some nuts to try and lure her out of the corner of her cage.

"I'm getting paid."

Corey laughed, but Ryan just sighed. 287 came out of her corner and Ryan gave her a quick pet on the head as a reward. She chirped at him.

"I don't know why you're judging her on her theory," Corey said. "Yours is just as weird, with that Greek boat."

"Greek boat?" Ginger asked.

"Ship of Theseus," Ryan said. "And it's not my theory. It's a thought experiment."

"Whatever," Corey said. "It's the same ship."

"Even if all the pieces have been replaced?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. It's still the Ship of Theseus. Everyone has agreed that it remains the Ship of Theseus no matter how many pieces have been replaced. Even if they switched it out with a completely different ship, as long as everyone still calls it the Ship of Theseus, that's what it is. And a couple generations later no one will even know the difference."

"Well, that's a depressing thought," Ginger said, leaning against the row of cages before them. The metal bars must have been digging into her back, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Of course you disagree," Corey said.

"Yep," Ginger said. "Different ship as soon as anything is replaced."

"So you can't update anything? Can't fix anything?" Ryan asked.

"Not if you expect it to remain the same." Ginger pushed off the cases, her shoes squeaking against the floor. "Anyway, the pheromones are ready whenever you are."

"Excellent." Corey pulled down the tablet on top of the cages. "Let's schedule the introduction for tomorrow."

"Hold off on that," Ryan said. "I want to check on those pheromones myself."

"Ginger's going to be pissed," Corey said, but he put the tablet back.

The library was right down the hall. Ryan checked himself in and input his request. Midday was always busy, so Ryan had dozed off in his chair by the time someone called his name.

"Bird pheromones?" The librarian confirmed.

Ryan nodded. The librarian took him into one of the back rooms. The library floor was tile, the walls gleaming white in the wide open space. There weren't any books, at least not anymore.

Ryan hopped onto a gurney and rolled up his sleeve. The librarian put some rubbing alcohol on the inside of his elbow. Ryan scrunched up his nose against the smell and turned his head as the librarian inserted a needle into his vein. Then came the electrodes across his forehead and clustered around his temples. Instead of books, information was stored digitally. The files could then be transferred to anyone's mind. It was quicker, easier, and ensured everyone was working with the same information. Ryan missed the smell of books, though, and the weight of a book in his hands.

The librarian sat behind his computer and clicked through the images of Ryan's brain. "It also looks like you have a bunch of unnecessary files in here. I'll go ahead and delete those."

More clicking and a quick electric shock running through his brain and Ryan was done.

He returned to the lab and looked at the notes by 287's cage. "Let's try introducing her to the native macaws."

Corey looked up from his notes, his eyebrows scrunched. "I thought you wanted to wait."

"No need," Ryan said. He pulled the tablet down and scheduled an introduction for the next morning.

The next morning's introduction went poorly. Ryan marked it as a failure, but had one of the interns monitor what the native macaws did with 287's corpse.

"I told you," Ginger said. "Different ship."

"What are you talking about?" Ryan asked. Ginger didn't answer. Ryan left to begin work on 288.