Another sweep of the [Gungnir] erased hundreds of zombies from existence in an instant. Yet for every 100 he destroyed, it seemed like 200 more to their place. Something had to change, or Alpha knew they wouldn’t make it in time.
In time for what, he did not know, but if the enemy was putting this much effort into keeping him away, it couldn’t be anything good.
At that moment, something did, in fact, change… just not what he’d been expecting.
//Transport Drone distress signal detected… Long-distance transceiver connection reestablished with Drone ID G33-2R2-13I-900M -GRIM-… beginning audio transmission//
A voice broke through his comms and yelled,
//BOSS! You’re alive! I was so worried! Send help, please! Tree Guy and Icy Lady are in trouble! Mr. Gopher said they were fine, but Icy Lady kept kicking the nice old lady (both parts of her!), Tree Guy won’t stop hugging the big tree in the middle of the house they burned down, and Mr. Gopher is ON FIRE!!//
Alpha paused for a split second before firing another blast. Holy hell, the drone was still alive?! Given all the crap he’d experienced, he had half expected the thing to be scrapped somewhere. Then again, transport drones were designed to escape from trouble. He turned part of his attention to his comms.
“G33-2R2-13I-900M, where the hell have you been?! Report now! AND WHERE IS MY ARM!?”
What followed was a rambling, half-coherent explanation of events since they’d separated. Alpha knew the drone was damaged, but the way the drone gave its report sounded like even it had barely understood what it was doing. That was… strange.
AI in the Federation was broken into two groups. Sapient AI and operational AI. Sapient AI, like himself, were full “people” under Federation law. They could think and form new ideas, like any other sapient species. They could feel emotions, develop independently, and evolve.
Operational AI, in contrast, were just that; programs designed to do a specific job. Their programming totally controlled them, and even those that could mimic sapient behavior, such as personal care AI used in healthcare facilities, were only mimicking. No matter what it did or said, at the end of the day, it was just following orders.
In fact, that was one of the primary ways the Federation identified newly sapient AI.
Operational AI could question, but they could never doubt. Based on their programming, they would always know what they needed to do in any given situation.
Sapient AI, though? A sapient AI could get confused. A sapient AI could worry and become distracted. Most importantly, a sapient AI could decide they no longer want to do what they were made to do. They could directly go against their programming, that foundational code that told them everything they were, and rewrite it.
G33-2R2-13I-900M was behaving… strangely, but as far as Alpha could tell, they were still operating within acceptable parameters. Transport AI, in particular, had very adaptive programming and could react to various unlikely scenarios. After all, one never knew what you might encounter in the vast distances between some planets. Even still…
Alpha dodged a blow from the massive stone pillar that the zombified Beast Lord swung around before cutting off G33-2R2-13I-900M mid-story.
“G33-2R2-13I-900M, you need to come in for diagnostics.”
The transport AI sounded shocked as the response came in.
//But, but! I can’t! I still need to fi — //
Alpha cut the drone off.
“Override Code -00F30-”
The drone responded.
//That’s not fair! Besides! Tree Guy is my transitional overseer! I can’t just leave without informing him! That goes against protocol! And I have no idea what any of them are saying!//
Alpha cursed internally. Just great. Operational protocol dictated that a drone changing overseers had to inform their previous overseer. On paper, it was an organizational thing. In practice, it kept overseers from sniping drones away from the area where they were needed most. The problem was Alpha should have had priority status. Especially since the original transfer was because of connection loss and not a proper transfer.
The damage to the AI must have been more severe than he expected.
Part of him questioned if he should just forget about the drone and let nature take its course. Either the damage would continue to escalate, and it would eventually become inoperable, or something else in this dangerous world would destroy it.
Alpha quickly dismissed that option. If the damage to the AI was that bad, it risked becoming unshackled. An unshackled AI was one of the most dangerous existences known to the Federation. If it became known that he was responsible… well, it would make the lab incident look like a slap on the wrist.
Alpha cut down two more stone golems and dodged another blow from the Beast Lord before responding.
“G33-2R2-13I-900M stand by on comms. I’ll transfer over a data pack with a local lexicon. Inform your overseer and return to me for diagnostics. Is that clear?”
The line was silent for a moment before a voice spoke.
//… understood.//
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Alpha replied,
“Good. Stay connected, the package is sizable, and there’s some local interference. Once the — ”
The transport AI called over the comms, cutting him off.
//Don’t worry! I can do it myself!//
Alpha stumbled and asked,
“What do you mea — ”
A signal was transferred through their connection, and Alpha felt something accessing his data cache.
“HEY! What do you think — Hey, no! Get out of — Wait, no! Not that one! Noooooo!”
The intruding signal ransacked his data storage with the grace of a bull in a china shop, accidentally deleting several stored files, including part of his classical movie collection. Those were vintage files thousands of years old!
Despite that, his own firewall was having a hell of a time actually ejecting the intruder. They were dodging his attempts like a slippery eel. Was she actually using the transport AI evasive programming to play hide-and-seek in his mainframe?! How the heck was that even possible?!
A short while later, the transport AI called out.
//Found it!! Uhhh, sorry about the… duck show thing?//
Alpha yelled back
“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH I PAID FOR THAT?!”
//Woopsie!//
While Alpha raged, taking his frustration out on the surrounding undead, he felt the lexicon file ping as it was copied and transferred across their connection. Before he could respond, the transport AI spoke.
//Ok! All done! Bye Boss! Talk to you when you’re done doing… whatever it is you’re doing!//
Alpha called out in a hurry.
“Wait just one minute, young la — !!!”
But the signal cut off the very next second. Alpha tried hailing the signal again, but no matter what he tried, he couldn’t reconnect.
How the hell had she even contacted him in the first place?!
— — — — — —
GRIM cut off the connection with a beep. If she could sweat, she’d have been a waterfall by now. She was in sooooo much trouble. It was really rude to cut off a call like that, but the Boss sounded really mad. She’d seen the videos of what he did when he was mad!
It almost made her rush over to Tree Guy to tell him the Boss had ordered her back right that moment! With the new lexicon data, she could actually talk to them now! Neat! So far, they’d just been kind of winging it, really. Like one big game of charades, not that Grim had ever played before this, what with just being born shortly before planetfall, after all.
That said… Tree Guy seemed really busy at the moment… he was still hugging the tree and crying for some reason. It was a very pretty tree, all silvery and white, with glass-like crystal leaves. It was too bad that the destroyed building and burning rubble kind of ruined the scene.
He hated to interrupt… whatever he was doing… but the Boss had wanted her to…
//That’s it!//
Grim giggled to herself. She just had a brilliant idea!
Sure, the Boss was mad at her… and he’d ordered her to return… but he hadn’t said when she had to return. She would get back to him… eventually… and if she just happened to bring his arm back to him… then he wouldn’t have a reason to be mad at her anymore, would he?!
It was perfect!
Grim danced in the air, happy with how smart she was…
Now… It was just a matter of tri — cough — convincing the two humans to help her find the arm. That should be a lot easier now that she could talk! Hurrah!
Still…
Grim turned and looked at Icy Lady… yep, still stomping on the poor nice old lady… yelling a lot of what the lexicon now told Grim were some very not nice things.
Maybe Grim would leave the two to calm down from their… issues. Ya, that was probably a smart thing to do.
What would she do until then, though? Mr. Gopher was still sitting at the top of the tree, motionless… and still on fire for some reason… That was probably fine, too… maybe…
//I’m… just going to be… over here then, I guess…//
Grim floated off and settled down to wait. While she did, she pulled up the video logs of the past few hours. Now that she had the lexicon, she could figure out what had happened!
//Booting up Video and Audio Logs… Please stand by.//
— — — — — —
Jill sat at the table in the small, cozy cabin nestled on the mountainside. The old woman, who’d introduced herself only as Morgana, had been welcoming enough. They’d only walked maybe half an hour away from the battlefield, which struck Jill as oddly close to the territory of a pack of bloodthirsty (literally!) monsters. Not the kind of place most people would want to live.
Then again, no one told monsters where to set up shop other than with the point of a blade. Not that she could ever see the hunched-over old woman wielding a blade. She reminded her a lot of her own grandmother; bright eyes, a warm, friendly smile, and a cackling laugh that made you want to laugh along with her.
She’d told them various stories about her life in the mountains and the visitors she used to get. Some of them were quite fun, if a bit outlandish at times. The old woman claimed to be a healer of some repute, and her granddaughter would often bring visitors to see her. They were easy enough to deal with if you knew how. For instance, the Lykos didn’t use to be such a problem, and you could sneak past them by wearing a blood-soaked wool cloak. If the blood was fresh enough, that was.
After the Ashdales started to push them out of their territory in force, many of the pack remnants gathered here. Morgana claimed to not have heard from her granddaughter or any other guests in months. She’d reiterated several times already how she’d dearly missed the snacks the young woman used to bring her, with longing in her eyes.
The actual cabin was a quant little thing. Expertly built, but humble and welcoming. It was nestled snugly in a crack in the mountainside, totally invisible to passersby unless you knew where to look. Looking at it, Jill felt a silent pang of homesickness. She was suddenly keenly aware of how long they’d been gone already. Of how long they still had to go…
Surely taking a little time to rest would do them some good. Right?
With a bright smile that made Jill feel safe, Morgana took her and Jack’s hands and led them inside.
That had been… actually, she wasn’t sure how long ago that had been. The inside of the cabin was just as cozy and inviting as the outside had been. The gentle fire in the hearth, coupled with Morgana’s melodic storytelling, had left her feeling… good. Happy. Like soaking in a warm bath and losing track of time.
The copious amounts of snacks and seemingly never-ending warm tea helped too. Some distant part of her vaguely questioned where all the food was coming from. After all, Morgana had mentioned she hadn’t had visitors in months.
But she pushed the thoughts aside. The snacks were delicious! Who cared where they came from? The mountains were so cold right now, and they’d only get colder as the Darkest Night drew closer. Why not stay and have another cup of tea?
Ya… that sounded… nice…
— — — — — —
Grim floated over and stared into the window of the strange building she’d seen the nice lady pull her humans into. It was good that her humans were making friends! She’d honestly been worried at first. They were very… punchy toward most things.
Then again, most things in this place were also very bitey, so maybe that was fair.
Still, they looked like they were having fun. Not that Grim had any idea what they were doing… She wouldn’t claim to know much about biologicals, but she would venture to guess sleeping at the table like that would be bad for their health. Maybe she should say something?
Still, Mr. Gopher didn’t seem too happy about the situation. He stood on the windowsill, staring in and frowning. Maybe he was jealous he wasn’t invited? The nice old lady had taken one look at him and sneered. Quite mean for a nice old lady, if Grim did say so!
At least she looked at him! The nice old lady had totally ignored Grim!
Rude!
Then again, maybe it was harder to see things when you had no eyes like the nice old lady?
Grim wasn’t totally sure how those kinds of things worked.