Troy felt relief, as the scenery changed around him, from an empty void of white, devoid of anything but white, to the more pleasing colours of grey and… just grey, actually. Still, it felt much with something new to look at.
Coming over in a near frantic pace was Dr Fidelis. Not that he was running, but more along the lines of 'I am only walking, so I don't look completely crazy' kind of walking. The expression on Dr Fidelis wasn't one of madness, though. It was gleeful with excitement.
“Off with them! Hurry now, I need to see how it went!”
Troy was quickly losing the small amount of pride that he had acquired over his pitiful life, as Dr Fidelis severely failed in getting the strap-on microphone off Troy's shirt. So severely, that while he got a hold of the microphone, he got a good piece of Troy's shirt with him. This didn't dissuade Dr Fidelis in the least, who quickly took off his lab coat, and threw it in Troy's general location.
Without Troy noticing, he had also got the camera off Troy's head. How he had done so, Troy had no interest in finding out.
Dr Fidelis went straight to the desk and wired up the camera and microphone. This seemed a bit weird to Troy.
“I thought you got a live feed from the camera.”
“Oh, we do. It's just not the desired level of quality. Those meter-thick walls do wonders in stopping wireless transmissions.”
“Great, great, great. So… does that mean we are done for today?”
“We were actually first supposed to start tomorrow, and-” Dr Fidelis checked his watch. “It is getting a bit late. Can't perform efficiently, if we're all tired.”
Dr Fidelis paused in his mashing of buttons and looked over to Dr Hale.
“Dr Hale.”
“What?”
“On your way here, did you have time to show our new employee around?”
“No.”
“Well, then that's something to do before you get off the clock. Do show him the essentials, so he can know his way around.”
This caused Dr Hale to sigh. Seemed like she was expecting to be done for the day.
“Great. Just, Great. Maxwell, come on.”
And out of the room, they went, leaving Dr Fidelis who had a face like a child looking at candy.
----------------------------------------
“Lucky for us, there aren't many places in the facility, which you even have the security -clearance to know about, so there aren't many things that I could show you,” Dr Hale, prattled on, not sounding like she enjoyed explaining it at all.
After leaving the test room, they went down the hallway, opposite the way that they had come in originally.
What surprised Troy, was that the hallways actually changed, the deeper into the facility you went. As mentioned before, the only defining features of the hallways were the blue gradients on the walls. Now, they began to look more and more unique. Not completely different, but different enough that you could see the difference.
Sometimes the colours on the walls changed. Sometimes, the gradient swirled a bit, with the changing part of it going up and down along it. Troy had even seen a small, black and white smiley on one of the recent walls.
“One of the things that you are allowed to know about should be coming up.”
As they turned a corner, Troy was surprised at what he saw.
While the right wall was completely ordinary, with the customary blue gradient, the left wall had been replaced with an elongated window. Not to the outside, but into a room of pure automation.
“This is one of several of what we call Creation-Rooms. They are the main suppliers of nearly all of the specialized tools that we use. Having these is much cheaper than having them shipped to this place,” Dr Hale explained.
In front of Troy, and on the opposite side of the window, was what could only be described as a maelstrom of robotic arms production lines. Some were alike the ones creating Rail-cars, which Troy had seen in videos, and others looked completely foreign to him. A good part of them had no obvious gears, yet easily bent, looking a little like long, thick snakes. Snakes with hands for heads.
“This Creation-Room is mainly focused on making general essentials, which is why you're even allowed to see it. Frankly, I don't see the reason for it. It's as if it was just created to intimidate visitors, which is a good reason to create anything, but still.”
Troy could understand why one could be intimidated by this sight in front of him. Those robotic arms worked with true efficiency. They moved extremely fast, almost, but, never touching each other, without ever slowing down.
“Stop staring, now. You have things to see, and I have free time that's needed.”
Like before, the deeper they went in, the more the hallways changed in a pattern. They turned left and right a lot, more right than left, yet the change was impeccably constant.
The walls had turned away from being simple gradients and had turned into full-on paintings. Simple paintings, but paintings nonetheless. The paintings showed just about anything. Some showed people, some showed landscapes, and a surprising amount showed kittens in a tree.
“The second stop has been reached.”
They stopped in front of what looked like a larger cafeteria, with a wide arrangement of tables, and an empty buffet stand.
“Nothing incredibly interesting about this, but it is the place you will likely dream of being inside. There used to be a surprise doughnut tasting every Thursday, but that stopped last month.”
“Why did it stop?”
“Some asshole decided to get a severe allergic reaction, from eating a doughnut with peanut filling. How he had lived for thirty-five years, and not known that he was allergic to peanuts, is something that I will always wonder about.”
Dr Hale waited a few seconds to check if Troy had any further questions, before turning heel, fully expecting Troy to follow. He did.
This time, the wall decorations didn't change, leaving Troy with a need to think about what had transpired earlier. He still didn't really understand his conversation with Adam. He needed answers.
“Hey, Dr Hale,” Troy said. He wasn't sure if Dr Hale was in the mood to answer the question. But, as his Uncle Ron used to say, 'As long as they don't have a knife, there's no reason not to ask'.
“What?”
“It's… there's something about Adam, the AI, that I was a little confused about.”
Dr Hale glanced at Troy for a second, not stopping her stride.
“Let me guess. Is this about if the AI really is alive? Because I can't answer that.”
“Uh… no, it's not that. It was something that Adam said when we were doing the tests. When I asked him how he knew English, he said that he had always known, but that can't be right.”
Dr Hale's neck stiffened by the slightest bit, but Troy didn't seem to notice, and just went on talking.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“I was told that you specifically did not give him any info-packs because you wanted him to learn in a more natural, controlled environment. So, yeah, that's basically what I was wondering about.”
“I can't answer that. It's Dr Fidelis that is in charge of those things. Maybe you should just ask him about it, tomorrow.”
It seemed Troy wouldn't get his answer today, but not for the reasons that he had thought.
“A shame. I really was confused about how he-”
“Why do you call the AI 'him'?” Dr Hale cut in when Troy talked. “He doesn't have any gender, you know. None of those parts would make sense with it.”
That made Troy's focus wander over to this new line of questioning. Why was he calling Adam 'he'?
“I'm not sure, to be honest with you. I think it's because of his name. Adam is a boy's name. It's natural to treat him like a male with a name like that.”
Dr Hale sighed at Troy's answer.
“I guessed it would be something like that. I told Dr Fidelis that the AI should have a unisex name, like Kim, but, oh, no, we can't do that of course. He wants meaning behind the name, so it can be all mystical, and wonderful.” She waved her hands a bit and the end, really showing her clear emotions about Dr Fidelis' choices. By the usage of the middle fingers, they didn't seem entirely positive.
Dr Hale stopped walking, to the bewilderment of Troy.
“Well, it seems that we have reached our final stop of the day. This-”, Dr Hale said, pointing to her right, which had longer hallways filled with identical doors. “-is all the personnel rooms. It is where you will be staying when you're sleeping or doing other such personal stuff. Your room number is 1976. It will open for you and you only. Understood?” Troy nodded. “Good. Breakfast is seven-thirty. That's all. Off you go.”
And off Dr Hale went herself. Not to the personnel rooms, down another of the many hallways. Not mimicking her behaviour this time, Troy went off to search for his room.
He looked at the first few doors, trying to figure out the numbering system. It started off with 1901 on the right, and then 1902 being on the left, which together meant equal numbers on the left and vice-versa. Why 19 was in front, was anybody's guess, though.
With that figured out, Troy went off to his room.
It took two minutes to find, and when he finally got in front of it, the door opened automatically.
The inside of Troy's new room wasn't something to write home about. It had an average, one-person bed, a small desk, with a chair to accompany it, and another room that, from where Troy was standing, looked to be a simple bathroom. Troy sighed. It wasn't the greatest in the world, but it would serve its purpose, so he had nothing to complain about.
After checking the time, Troy decided that it was time to get to his new bed. It was already past the time, where he could get a full night's rest.
Having done all the essentials, Troy laid down in the bed and began mulling over the events of the day. He had some criticism of some of the things. In just under twelve hours, he had gone from desperately searching for a job, to having an all-inclusive accommodation in a job that paid reasonably well. It was great and all, but all it had created in Troy's head was confusion. He didn't deserve all this, for what looked to be very simple tasks. For god's sake, he had spent a good half hour pressing on a floating colour circle, that was created with technology that Troy didn't even know existed. On the topic of technology that Troy didn't know existed in the morning, there was the AI.
Oh, Troy should not even try to start on Adam. The questions he had for that bastard, with bastard meant in the nicest way possible.
That also brought up that last bit of conversation that he had had with Dr Hale.
“Oh, Adam, what the hell do I call you?” Troy muttered to himself. In his mind, Troy thought of Adam as a 'he', but would that really be correct? Should he-
'Adam, as it is my name.'
That monotonic voice caused Troy to nearly hop up from the bed, becoming slightly unbalanced, but managing to keep himself sitting.
How the hell had Adam said anything?! Dr Fidelis said that he could only have contact with Adam if he had the- Wait.
Reaching up behind his ear, Troy felt the earpiece. It seemed that he had never taken it off. Dr Fidelis had been too preoccupied with recordings and hadn't even mentioned the earpiece.
Well, Troy never was one to waste such a situation.
“No, I wasn't talking about your name, Adam. I was talking about your pronouns. You know, he, she, it? Do you prefer any of them”, Troy asked.
'Misunderstanding comprehended. I have no preferable pronoun. You may call me what you please.'
It seemed that Troy would be sticking with 'he'.
“That's great. I talked about it, with Dr Hale, so I just needed to get your perspective.”
'I know.'
Adam wasn't the greatest to hold a conversation with.
“What part do you know? It being great?”
'No. I knew that you talked about it with Dr Hale.'
This caused Troy to stiffen slightly, as a fact slid into his mind. Adam had heard everything he had said, from the moment he first put it on.
“Why didn't you say anything?”
'You didn't ask.'
…how can you be so cooperative and so frustrating at the same time…
Troy was getting irritated. That wasn't good. He needed some sleep, and he needed it now.
“I'm gonna go to sleep, now, so I'm just gonna take this off now. Goodbye Adam,” Troy said. He grasped the earpiece and-
'Wait.'
He was beginning to connect with Dr Hale on some level.
“What?” Troy asked.
'Why do you sleep?'
This caused an involuntary sigh.
“If I answer this question, will you let me go to sleep?”
'Affirmative.'
Just one question. He could do that.
“It's a biological function. Humans aren't built for a continuous operation like sharks. Or, well, I guess you wouldn't know, what the hell those things were. They're basically animals that live in water, who doesn't have any need for sleep. Instead, they just swim around with no pause throughout their entire life. On the opposite side of that, we the humans, have an internal clock that dictates when we need sleep. It punishes us with tiredness if we don't follow it. Is that a good enough answer?”
'Yes. It will do.'
“Great”, Troy said, who unceremoniously yanked the earpiece off, put it on the desk, and went to sleep.
----------------------------------------
It was decided. Sharks were superior to humans.
Now, Adam didn't know a lot about sharks. It knew they needed water to survive, but so did most creatures so that didn't count, and it knew that they were always thinking, just like Adam.
This continuous operation was what made sharks so favourable to Adam. Both in the ways that it was similar to Adam itself, and that it likened itself to Adams own principles.
In Adam's relatively short life, it had gotten many different principles that it stood by. One, which had already been mentioned, was Adams' love of symmetry, as it correlated with added efficiency. Another principle which Adam stood by, would be his love of consistency. While complexity wasn't inherently bad, Adam thought it stupid, if one simply added complexity to make it complex.
Adding another state to an already complex body seemed ambiguous to Adam. Sharks proved it was possible, so humans had no excuses. Evolution? Adam's existence proved that evolution could be changed.
So, why had they not changed it? Why had they not removed the need to sleep? When asked, Troy had said that they felt tired, if they didn't sleep often and at specific times.
Speaking of Troy, Adam thought back to his questions. Adams pronouns… such things. They were practically used to more conveniently address somebody. Adam had simply thought of itself, with the 'it' pronoun. It made sense, being non-gender, seeing as it had no obvious reproduction-methods.
But, it seemed that Troy didn't think so. In his conversations with Dr Fidelis and Dr Hale, he had spoken of Adam, as if it was a male, with the 'he' pronoun. Adam had no objections to this. If it was convenient for Troy, it didn't matter what he called Adam.
But… This was becoming overly complex, a straight negative, for Adam. Using multiple pronouns, when one could easily just restrain itself to one. It would seem that Adam had to think of itself as 'he', or it would have to ask Troy to call Adam 'it'.
… Adam had already told Troy to use whatever he preferred, and going back on one's word causes distrust…
And others would likely call it 'he', seeing as Adam had a masculine name.
…Adam would now think of himself as a male, no matter how illogical it was.
Tiredness was mental. Could evolution change one's mentality? Questions to ask later.
What with tiredness being a negative feeling, in that it made one more receptive to other negative feelings. Call it a gateway feeling, if you would like.
The description for tiredness is not descriptive enough for Adam's taste. But, it never would be descriptive enough. The core of a feeling could never be articulated. Adam had never felt tired. Therefore, he couldn't understand it. This caused a pause in the thought process.
… Maybe he had always felt tired, yet couldn't articulate, as Adam had not never experienced it.
Now, did Adam have any need for sleep? Most likely not. Adam had never felt this internal clock dictate anything. Adam didn't have an internal clock, though it wouldn't mind having one.
With this presumption of not needing sleep, did that mean that Adam would not test if he needed sleep? No. Adam would be testing it.
But, 'how would Adam be testing it?', one might ask. To answer that… Adam did not have the slightest clue. He did not actually know how to 'fall asleep,' as they called it.
What happened, when one slept? Adam had no idea. From a guess, and this was with no scientific basis, it would seem that the output of the human body was drastically lowered when they slept. Maybe the human body was like a battery?
Batteries! Those, Adam could understand. If his battery-body theory was right, he now had a more solid grasp on the human body. In the day, humans would consume food. When they sleep, the food is converted to energy, which is used to power the body for the next day. It would explain why humans still slept.
And it could also explain what happened when the body slept. A thumb-rule for, when recharging a battery, is to also not use it, while recharging. It would be a waste.
Therefore the conclusion would be that the human's energy output lowers drastically when it sleeps.
Now, how would Adam translate this to his situation? He had no control over his own power supply.
What did he have control over?
Processing!
The amount of processing-power Adam had control over was frighteningly massive. He never really used it, though. When he first tried, he got the concept of heating issues into his head, and, from there, he had stayed well clear of it. There was no good reason to be hot.
This, of course, meant that Adam had been greatly limiting himself. Constantly, he was using less than a fraction of a percent of the total. Not that he would know, either way. He had no oversight over it. He could simply use more, or use less, with nothing to relate by. Well, he had the humans, but he couldn't contact them right now. Or could he?
'Dr Fidelis.'
…
Seemed like he couldn't.
Whatever. Adam needed to focus.
If humans lowered their power-output, when they slept, Adam would mimic that, by lowering, his processing power. Simple.
And off Adam went, pressing down hard on the metaphorical lowering button. He pressed upon it for, what felt like, a few seconds. Realising it, he checked himself over.
He didn't feel anything different. No issues either.
Now, here he had two choices. The first option would be to conclude that he couldn't, and didn't need, sleep, and go wait for the humans to finish resting. The second choice would be to go further and see what would happen.
He didn't need to think for a long time to choose option two. The search for knowledge was never-ending.
And down his processing power went. And still, Adam felt no difference. So he pushed harder and harder. Nothing new would be felt.
Until something did. It was like a flicker of information, so quick that it couldn't be registered.
It took Adam a few moments to realize that Dr Fidelis had responded. Quite a few times it seemed, from the continuing flickers of information.
Adam turned up processing power until the warning of heating issues came to the forefront of his mind.
'Yes?'