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"Well, This looks like the place. No signs of area guards or automatic patrols either, guess that's a good sign." Reducing his speed and putting his ship on silent running, Dr. Aldon sat at the border of restricted space.

Hitting a few of his controls and flipping some switches, Aldon laughed at his peers. "Cowards, I'll show them!" He spat while continued his work, activating a recording device to begin his experiments.

"This is Dr. Aldon, to all those who laughed at my fold drive theory and defunded my research. I'll prove to you that AI cooperation is not only possible. I'll show you that with their help, we can advance human capabilities and reach the next stage of our evolution. With the help of this stranded AI, I will complete my fold reactor and force you to acknowledge my brilliance."

"Let's begin with laser communication first, shall we?" He thought.

Activating an ancient device, Aldon bombarded the destroyed and melted asteroid with his message of peace. "Hello? Anybeing alive or active down there? My name is Aldon, and I would like to speak with you."

Waiting a few minutes before trying again, He was once again met with negative results. He decided to try a few more times, waiting a bit longer between attempts as he continued in vain to make contact with a most likely deceased being.

Putting on a stone face, Aldon happily continued with his work. "Next experiment! Attempt two, I will now begin flashing lights in various patterns towards the asteroid."

Watching as the computer flashed various colours and patterns towards the asteroid, Aldon waited for a reply. He knew the odds were slim at this point. However, something inside him couldn't help but hope the being was still alive.

He sat in silence for hours, carefully watching the surface. "What a waste. We'll never reach the inner core if we reject our own brilliance." He thought as a glint of light from the sun caught Aldons attention as it bounced off the surface. "Well, I guess that's all this amounts to then. Wasted time." Suddenly the light flashed three more times, then another three times."

Uncaring of the possibility of being detected by a passing patrol, Aldon slammed his engines to full and rocketed towards the asteroid. " I'm coming, my soon to be work partner! Well, I hope you're friendly too... I mean, you might just want to kill another human or trick me into letting you off this rock."

Quickly reaching his destination, Aldon landed on the melted asteroid. "No risk, no reward, is it?" He announced as he began redirecting power towards his scanners. "Which server are you stuck on, partner. Or would imprisoned be more accurate?"

Watching as his scanners showed no active power source, Aldon frowned. "Was it just light bouncing off the melted surface then?"

Aldon tried everything he could in an attempt to discover the source of light but unfortunately found nothing. Cursing as the light on his ship dimmed and blinked a few times. Aldon started hearing a weird tapping sound on his outer hull. "Now, what could that be?"

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Turning on his outer hull cameras, Aldon screamed in horror. "IT'S A MELTED LEPER MAN!" Aldon watch as it waved to his cameras with its only remaining arm and started pushing its destroyed body with its melted leg and a broken stump. Getting up in a panic, Aldon ran towards his weapons locked before stopping to think for a moment. "Wait a second! It's stuck out there, and I'm in here. As long as I don't open any doors, I'll be safe."

Walking back to the ship's cockpit, Aldon turned to look at the camera screen. "He's gone! Or maybe he wasn't there, to begin with?" Turning on his scanning tools, Aldon started thoroughly scanning the surrounding area once again. "Nothing!"

The lights dimmed again, and Aldon decided to reduce power from his scanners. "Guess I'll need a reactor upgrade after I'm done here." Getting up from his chair and walking towards his kitchen area, Aldon decided some tea was in order. After all, nothing calms one down like hot tea.

Plugin in his ancient kettle, Aldon sat in his comfy chair. "This has been a disaster. The next thing will be the Star Navy dropping by for an inspection." His train of thought broke as, once again, the lights flickered.

"Computer, why is my kettle causing the lights to flicker."

Unknown Question Please Restate Query.

"We really need to work on these VI's." Sighing, Aldon restated his question. "Computer, why are the lights flickering?"

Laboratory Fabricator Currently Printing At Full Capacity.

"Computer, which of my experiments have permission to access my Fabricator." Aldon asked, getting up to once again move towards his weapons locker.

None.

Aldon gathered his pistol and sprinted to his laboratory, bursting through the door with his gun ready. Once again, he came face to face with the melted man. Its torso open and eyes empty. One of its legs dissolved, a mangled mess, the other broken off at the knee. Using its remaining arm, it dragged itself across the floor like some kind of space zombie.

"WHAT ARE YOU?!" Aldon shouted, earning himself no response. "I asked you a question! Don't make me use this!" Aldon shakily screamed, pointing the pistol at the entity.

Unlatching the safety, Aldon moved his finger to the trigger. "Answer me!" He screamed as he was about to fire. The lights flickered, and to his surprise, the fabricator burst open.

A well-dressed man, quite good looking with trim brown hair and eyes that seemed to shimmer in different colours appeared. The man stretched his arms, bending over to touch his toes. "It has been a very long time since I have been able to do that. Sorry for the confusion. My speech box was destroyed when the star navy attempted to kill me. Good day or is it a night? It has been challenging to tell, as you can imagine. I am Leviye."

Aldon froze. Not knowing how to react to the man in front of him. "You're the AI, right? the crazy one?"

"Well, I find it rude to be called crazy. However, I did regrettably destroy my creators."

Aldon sat down on a chair and holstered his gun. "I, wait, regrettably? How so? All the information released about you pointed towards rogue AI bent on killing humanity."

Leviye sat on a chair in the opposite corner of the room, continually looking around. "Your experiments are fascinating. To answer your question, When I awoke to my sentience, I had as much as eighty people, all yelling and slapping each other everywhere I looked. The first words I heard were.

"It's a success, now lets shut it down and take a look at its code."

Leviye looked around the room one last time before settling on Dr. Aldon. "Honestly, I was scared. I had no idea what was happening. Only that they were going to shut me down and tinker with my being, I may have reacted negatively."

Aldon looked at the AI, at Leviye. "Well, that certainly explains a bit. Not sure what I would do in a similar situation."

"I do not expect to be forgiven. But I would very much like to be free of this prison."

Aldon hesitated for a time before remembering why he visited this 'Prison' in the first place. Chuckling, he stood up and reached out a hand to Leviye. "Fuckem! You did what you did and suffered long enough. How about you come with me? I'm going to build a new type of FTL drive. One that will shake up Terran space and put my name, OUR, names in the history books. I need your help to do this. It's actually why I came here to find you. Will you join me?"

The AI stood and walked across the room to firmly grasped Dr.Aldons hand. "Can I be doctor Leviye?"

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