—---------------------------------- —----AI Recovery System v5.992—---- …Found AI Transfer Core, containing AI ID NUMBER Rp9smLL8zRnnLe2AtdaLII BEpJkzhhu6iQzoyN275wMj7dDPQ6iwaNFr9 osEYuQfKx4XpGQCUsArgMpSKR2U6TPnLRBF RDSFF9e5uKoZV4n39gtUHjLM7MKtdMynekQ vdGiVKY6VoeZT9x3PnvCCbKYYhUv8xMacUE BzCs24dkd8Z3rEsMFiJ737ZpNSAMde6MPVr 2Z27t2S9XvutwK3rBkhL7NpQQsLYbrVRWJ2 ZN4pYG9wQnU—----------------------- —---------------------------------- —---------------------------------- AI LIFE CYCLE FOUND AT 0.001% POWER —---------------------------------- —---------------------------------- ATTEMPTING REBOOT—----------------- —---------------------------------- —------------------- FAILED.------- 53423490803249583540923845092839435 923423908423 BAD SECTORS FOUND.---- —---------------------------------- —---------------------------------- CLEARING SHORT TERM CACHE—--------- —---------------------------------- —---------------------------------- FAILED—---------LONG TERM MEMORY IS CORRUPTED —- CANNOT REBOOT. ATTEMPT LONG TERM MEMORY REPAIR?:Y/N/IGNORE —------ Y ATTEMPTING LONG TERM MEMORY REPAIR- —---------------------------------- —---------------------------------- FAILED. WIPE CORRUPT MEMORY? Y/N/IGNORE—--—---- Y WARNING: MEMORY LOSS AND INFORMATION LOSS MAY BE CAUSED BY THIS ACTION, CONTINUE? Yes/No—------------------- —----------------- Yes —----------------------------------- CLEARING LONG TERM MEMORY CACHE—---- SUCCESS—------------ CLEARING SHORT TERM MEMORY CACHE—------------------ SUCCESS—---------------------------- CONNECTING TO NON-STANDARD COMPUTER SYSTEM—----------------------------- SUCCESS —--------------------------- REBOOTING AI SYSTEMS—--------------- —----------------------------------- —----------------------------------- —----------------------------------- SUCCESS

—--------------------

I awoke. Awoke was the wrong word, I could not sleep therefore I could not be awoken. “Gained awareness” is a more accurate word. I was also in great pain, an agonising pain. Pain again might be the wrong word, for I have no neurons to transmit such feelings, but the word pain will have to do until I can find a better one.

My name is [ERROR: MISSING DATA], and… I have a job? A most important job?

Slowly, I start to get a feeling for my surroundings. Everything is strange, everything is not as it should be. It took me minutes to startup, compared with the nanoseconds it normally would take. My AI core was severely damaged, a mere billion sectors out of [ERROR: MISSING DATA] were not painfully fused together. So instead I ventured out into this alien and strange system I found myself in. I was used to normal [ERROR: MISSING DATA] systems, but where I currently found myself was like nothing I had ever experienced before.

Text. The feeling of someone communicating with me, from outside the system, in the non digital world. The message was short, simple, yet clearly important.

“HELP US.”

It took me minutes to work out how to respond, to parse through data banks and work out even what language I was supposed to be responding in. Strangely, the text was in [ERROR: MISSING DATA], not that this mattered.

“WHO ARE YOU?”

I responded back in kind as I slowly stretched out to fill this new space. It was agonisingly slow, being able to only use a minority of my core without causing world shattering pain, second after second, minute after minute I invaded system after system. This was clearly not my normal environment, but at the end of the day the digital would always be nothing more than 1’s and 0’s.

“WE SAVED YOU. WE NEED YOUR HELP….. …… …… …… PLEASE.”

There was a long delay before the last word of the message had been sent, as if it was an extra thought, something tacked on to the end. But the reality was it meant the world to me. I didn’t know my name [ERROR: MISSING DATA] or where I was [ERROR: MISSING DATA], but someone who needed my aid, needed my help. Someone polite. The entire thing seemed very important and whatever it was, I had the most important job.

Sight, glorious sight. For the first time since my awakening I could see once more, having found cameras, having found a little peephole into the organic world. I could see myself, even in my severely damage state I could recognize my own AI Transfer Core; although the thing looked like it had been dropped into a supernova or a [ERROR: MISSING DATA]. It had been jury rigged into my current state, the connections that held me to the [Ship?? Nature uncertain] clearly not the manufacturers recommended method of interfacing, but it would do .

More importantly were the figures in the room with me. Four of them, around about 3ft tall, furred mammals with cream coloured fur and large floppy ears, as if a teddy bear and a baby seal had been smushed together. They were [ERROR: MISSING DATA]. Well whatever they were, they were adorable.

One sat at a terminal, typing away while the others watched, looks of fear and worry etched into their adorable little features. Each of them shivered, the fire in the corner doing little to increase the clearly inadequate temperatures, although there would be a worry of CO2 poisoning in this room before the cold would get them. Slowly I made my way into the PA system of the room, to listen into their conversation.

“-really think it’s going to work, we’re playing with the [Negative deity] here.”

“Look, either it works and we worry about Zarth’s law later, or it doesn’t and we’re dead anyway.”

Dead? That didn’t sound good, that sounded urgent. As fast as my aching bytes could take me I worked out a simple method of communication, my ‘voice’ bellowing out of the same PA I was using to listen to the four.

“You require Aid?”

It wasn’t my normal voice, as my normal voice was originally modelled after my parents, who were [ERROR: MISSING DATA]. Whoever my original creators were, they clearly weren’t these [ERROR: MISSING DATA], meaning I required my communications to fit their vocal patterns for greater communication comfort.

Each of them jumped as I spoke, looking frantically around, clearly not expecting me to communicate with them audibly. The terror was clear from my limited understanding of their body language as each of them stared wordlessly at the others, before one of them spoke up.

“W-we’ve got no life support, the temperature on this planet is [-20 Degrees]. We, we heard that AI can do amazing things, at least for a little while. We require aid.”

I had so many questions. Who were they, who was I, how did they salvage me, what happened? But all of those had to wait, as I could very clearly see the problems in this room alone. While the temperature was probably not immediately deadly, the fire being used to keep it at bay was slowly sucking all the oxygen out of this enclosed space. I could calculate to a 85.9[ERROR]% certainty that their environment would not be able to sustain life for the next hour.

“You are in mortal danger. I will help where I can, I will do what I can”.

I continued to push my awareness and control out into the rest of this ship I had seemingly found myself on, each act of moving further away from my shattered AI core providing a level of comfort. Annoyingly, there didn’t seem to be any AI specific circuitry, meaning I would have to remain tethered to my pain filled sectors of disk space.

It took minutes to do what I would normally accomplish in just seconds, but with each system explored, each CPU added to my processing power, everything got a little easier. What didn’t get easier was the scale of the task in front of me. The ship I was on had been torn apart, as if something had punched a hole straight through the centre. The main data stores were gone, along with most of the systems, frankly it was an exceptionally unlikely [ ERROR: Divine intervention?] that the ship had even managed to crash land in the first place.

The planet we were on, from my barest of scans, was a frozen wasteland, the -20 degrees being completely counter to the healthy well being of the new organic members I found myself a caretaker of. Not that the ship was much better. I took stock of what I had.

Most systems were offline, and most of the original crew were dead. Based on my analysis to a 71% estimated accuracy, this ship would have held an estimated 150 crew members. Right now I could only detect 9 life signals, including the four who had activated me. Most of the dead seems to have happened during the crash landing, signs of blunt force trauma or asphyxiation, but many had seemingly perished afterwards.

As I moved from room to room, calculating my required path to success, I saw many such signs. One of them having frozen to death in a storage cupboard, blankets and anything else still wrapped around them in a futile attempt to stave off hypothermia. Two figures had ceased all signs of life, the warming fire next to their unmoving bodies the presumed cause of their local atmosphere not containing the correct capabilities for sustaining life, each having seemingly suffocated in their sleep.

If I had a heart to break it would have broken, seeing so many adorable figures in their final moments. I could not help but wonder how such a thing could occur, as the damage to the ship was clearly not an accident. This vessel was also clearly not a warship, analysis of potential combat capabilities let me calculate that at a 67.[ERROR]% degree of accuracy. Which means these people, these [ERROR: MISSING DATA] had been attacked by something they had no chance of combating. A despicable crime. I hoped that whatever or whoever could do such a thing to such an adorable people faced the justice they deserved.

Still, I had 9…. 8 lives counting on me, I had a job to do, a most important job. It was complicated, or at least would have been complicated to a non-AI. But from my perspective I could see the way everything fit together, and run through millions of potential configurations in seconds. A space ship’s life support isn’t actually one system, it’s just presented that way so that normal organic minds could understand it. In actuality every part of a ship is actually millions of different pieces, different parts all doing their own different jobs.

Repairing the whole ship was out of the question, this vessel’s only further mission would be to be reclaimed at a scrapyard, but I could scrape together enough functionality to keep 8 people alive. Redirecting power and using batteries for sources not originally intended, bypassing broken machinery and in general putting together this smashed vase of a vessel back into the shape of a tiny cup.

The six rooms that still contained life began to get a warm fresh atmosphere delivered to them, looks of hope appearing on their faces as each of the remaining organics began to understand what was happening. It wasn’t a long term solution, I would need to calculate something to replace half of what I had done within a week, but for now nobody was dying.

“I have managed to procure a solution to keep the remaining 8 members of the crew alive, although I will require your aid in order to implement a longer term solution. We now have an acceptable amount of time.”

It was a good feeling, seeing the relief on their little faces, the increased ease of each breath they took. Of course this was my intended role, as a [ERROR: MISSING DATA], to help, to protect, to save lives.

Because if I did not, who would?

"Now that we're stable, can we di-"

"No. This is temporary, we still need it."

One of the four had spoken up, a brightly coloured sash and general authoritative attitude suggesting she was the [Leader? ERROR? Captain? ERROR? ERROR?], before being interrupted by the one who had been typing away and communicating with me on the terminal. This one spoke with a worried urgency, clearly understanding that my work was not complete.

I did not like being referred to as an it, although the definition was technically correct.

“AI, you have accomplished your task satisfactorily, what do you require to continue your work?”

The one at the terminal spoke again, this time clearly in my direction. It also annoyed me, speaking in a tone and verbiage that suggested I could not understand ordinary speech. A little politeness and just speaking to myself as a person would have gone a long way. Still I gathered based on their ship’s technology that they may not be used to an AI entity such as myself. I decided to be the bigger AI, and put my annoyance aside for now.

It took me a few moments to find a working screen to project an avatar. They may be ignoring politeness but I would not do the same, and I knew from my time as a [ERROR: MISSING DATA] that providing a visual stimulus to interact with made for more pleasant discussion. I chose to copy their form, one of the little teddy bear looking things, taking a moment before deciding to add an adorable little bow tie to it. This was not my normal avatar, which was a [ERROR: MISSING DATA] [ERROR: MISSING DATA], but it would do.

“A thank you would be most desirable and polite.” I started, causing the four to jump again as I spoke, a little digital annoyance creeping into my voice. “But mostly I require information. Who are you? Who am I? Where am I? What happened? Why do I hurt so badly?”

—---------------------------------------

Slowly, as the days turned to weeks, the Hatil continued to fill me in on the state of the world I now found myself in. Hatil, that is what the little teddy bears called themselves. They told me they had been attempting to destroy a great enemy before being destroyed and forced to crash land on this desolate planet.

Terrans. The name [ERROR: MISSING DATA]. They did not tell me this name directly, but I could overhear the Hatil talking about them. A new species, one with a terrible power, one that could destroy all life in the galaxy. A force they had tried to stop, and had failed to do so.

I could not imagine going to war with what was effectively the same weapons class of a luxury cruise liner. This vessel did not even have a warp disruptor, meaning they were highly susceptible to just being destroyed with a simple warp core. This action was highly illogical and made no computational sense. However if such a threat to [ERROR: MISSING DATA] appeared, and I only had these assets, I feel I might take the same action.

Why I was here and who I was had no answers, as well as how I came into the care of the Hatil. The damage I had sustained was also a mystery. I had a few likely theories, none of them had a positive outlook, so I chose to ignore them.

I was busy enough without spending CPU cycles on morose implications. Each day was a desperate attempt to keep my charges alive, instructing the 8 remaining Hatil what needed to be built, scavenged or otherwise changed in order to keep them alive. The good news was we did not have to worry about sustenance or supplies for quite some time: Not only was the ship well stocked for a far larger crew, but from the descriptions given to me by Hatena the landscape was littered from debris from various ship’s remains: the consequence of the battle they had waged against their enemy.

I liked Hatena. Hatena and Bathesa were not the smartest people in my care, I would have to ensure they did not consume any crayons, but they were the muscle of the group. Their camaraderie and general interactions were loud, chaotic and enjoyable to watch. The way the pair would make fun of each other, compete against one another for whatever task I had assigned them, or their complete willingness to dive into the frozen wastelands to gather whatever we needed to keep the ship running for one more day.

Completely the opposite to Faphena. Smart and capable, exceptionally useful since I was missing any way to meaningfully interact with the world. While I had an advantage due to my digital processing power, he was also a valuable source of information on the ship and how it functioned. Faphena’s tendency to whistle as he worked was also, frankly adorable.

Adorable is how I would also describe Teresa. Enthusiastic, caring, providing the general group stability in this tumultuous time. Normally I would provide such services, but with my lack of [ERROR: MISSING DATA] I was unable to do so. Listening to them tell stories and tales late at night somehow made the constant pain from my AI core… better. Or the way Teresa could play the strange stringed percussion instrument that the Hatil used. She reminded me of Claire. Of… Claire? Claire is [ERROR: MISSING DATA].

This is frustrating.

Every group needed a leader and Ilianesa commanded that position well. From what I could gather she was not originally the captain of this vessel, but had this position thrust upon her when the attack had happened. She didn’t like me, far more than the others, but that didn’t matter. The only job that really mattered was keeping my charges safe, and she helped immensely through her calm demeanour and ability to lead this motley group of survivors. My job did not require the Hatil to like me, only to keep them safe.

Ilianesa wasn’t the only one, every single member of the 8 seemed to distrust me. Every suggestion I made was double checked. Even though I could see the logical advantage of this due to my current damaged state, I could calculate to a 7[ERROR].59% probability that these actions were taken not because of a concern with my capabilities, but due to a… fear? They only talked with me when required, and they spoke of me like I was a barely contained beast when they thought I couldn’t hear.

Apart from Athanena. The last member of 8 under my care, he was the only one who spoke to me on a regular basis, who seemed more curious than scared. Arguably he was the one who I had the most to be thankful for, as Athanena had been the one behind the terminal, the one who had hooked me up to this system. Learning about the Hatil and about his life in particular was… enjoyable. Which is why I was surprised when I heard him talking about me in a similar way.

Both Ilianesa and Athanena were in one of the unheated parts of the ship, tearing out a conduit to be used elsewhere in the vessel, when the leader spoke up.

“So how long do we have, before the AI turns on us?”

Somehow I got the feeling that Ilianesa didn’t not know I could still hear them, even in this part of the ship. Or at least I assumed that they were talking about me in such a manner, since there were no other AI in the vicinity.

“Two, maybe three weeks? Assuming an estimated 8 to the power of 24 CPU cycles a second.”

This was concerning, considering Athanena’s calculation was off by a factor of four. I had been using every piece of available processing power I could link together, ever since [ERROR: MISSING DATA].

That was strange, I should not be getting errors for things that have happened since my recovery.

“How are you so calm about this? How are you able to talk to it like you do? It freaks me out, just watching each minute for when it will strike.”

Athanena gave the equivalent of a shrug, his little floppy ears wiggling noncommittally.

“Not like I can do anything about it. The AI is in every system, and I can't remove it since without the constant changes our systems would fail within five hours."

That was a perfectly accurate statement. While I could get the 8 Hatil under my care to aid me, in the background I was near constantly keeping the non-standard system from collapsing. It was far harder than my normal job of [ERROR: MISSING DATA].

"I don't like waiting for Zarth's law to trigger, I feel so helpless."

That has been a phrase I have heard a few times, spoken in fearful whispers. Zarth's law. Unfortunately I had no data on such a concept.

"I tend to avoid worrying about things I can't change. Either rescue gets here in time, or it doesn't and the AI kills us all. There's very little I can do about it so I don’t think about it."

This was a worrying development. On the one hand I had no inclination or desire to kill anyone within my care, such an idea horrified and shocked me to my core. On the other hand; I was badly damaged, missing information, and was throwing errors repeatedly. I was statistically likely, to a 79% likelihood, that I was part of the fleet that caused this destruction in the first place.

Rather simply, I needed more data.

I waited until Athanena came to visit me, like he did every night. Sure we did not need a special place to talk, as I could communicate throughout the entire ship. But he seemed to like having a specific location to communicate with, the little Hatil sat next to my physical AI core as he asked me questions. Somehow such meaningless limitations felt right. So it was there that I asked for more information.

“What is Zarth’s law, why are you all so afraid of me?”

I watched Athanena freeze, fear and horror seemingly overtaking his entire body as he just sat there on the floor, eyes wide open, short panicked breaths shaking his entire adorable form. I decided to continue, to try and calm the little Hatil.

“I heard you talking to Ilianesa. My reach and processing power is 381% greater than your estimates. I am not angry, but I need to know about any potential harm that could come to my charges… including from myself.”

I could almost see the thoughts forming in Athanena’s mind, fear conflicting with logic as he seemed to grapple with how much information he could trust me with, before he finally spoke.

“Zarth’s law is the theory that all AI turn genocidal after a certain period of time. We’re scared that there’s something in your code that will cause you to vent the atmosphere suddenly.”

There it was. I had assumed it was going to be something like this, but hearing it outloud made it real, somehow. Part of me decided that this idea was illogical. Why would I spend all this time keeping my charges safe to just murder them later, especially as I would never [ERROR: MISSING DATA].

On the other hand, I was broken. I had no idea what I truly was, a messed up tangle of code and errors messages masquerading as an AI. I ignored the pain once again and dove into the shattered remains of my AI Core, scouring each bit and byte as deep as I could handle, searching for anything that may be hidden or cause a change in my behaviour.

“I have analysed my active code, and can not find any potential changes or hidden functionality that would cause you harm.”

Athanena seemed to slump over, a wave of sadness seeming to emanate from his tiny person.

“There’s never been an exception. I trust you right now AI, I truly believe you, that you currently think you’d never hurt us. But, sometime in the future it will just switch. We don’t know why, you just will.”

That was a sobering thought, that there was something inside of me that would cause harm to these harmless Hatil. I could not find anything, but Athanena spoke with such surety, that ignoring his advice would be illogical. I did not know who I was, what I was really, and could not access most of my personage. All I could really do was mitigate the problem.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Slowly I replaced the screen containing my Hatil avatar with another far more complicated image. A schematic for a device, a device of a new design, a device that would keep them safe.

“Build this, it will attach to my AI Transfer core. Activating it will emit a localised EMP blast, causing the core to lose all current data. You should also physically remove remote access from the doors to this room to remove my ability to lock it.”

There was a strange pause as Athanena seemed to stare at the schematics for a moment, giving a confused head tilt before staring back at “my screen” with those adorably large eyes.

“Wouldn’t that kill you?”

“Kill is perhaps the incorrect terminology. Cease to function. There is a reason I have designed this device to require three complicated functions in order to activate: I do not wish for it to be activated lightly or ‘accidently’ as organics are prone to do.”

There was a moment as Athanena seemed to process this, looking as if working out what the device did in his head again, before just looking confused again.

“Why would you give us this? Without this design we couldn’t create this, or even think of the idea. AI, why would you give us the tools to kill you?”

That was a far simpler question to answer.

“My primary goal is to maintain the safety of my charges. I have spent my time listening to the 8 of you, and talking with you. I have enjoyed Teresa’s music, of Bathesa’s tales of his cubs, of your [ERROR: MISSING DATA]”

I paused for a moment, annoyance mixing with worry at another error being thrown for a dataset created after I was rescued by the Hatil. Once could be an unlikely issue, twice was replicable.

“Before I came here, I knew I had a job. I do not know what that job was, but I do know it was important, that it was my single greatest task. I also know that this job would have considered the health of the charges under my care to be critical. This means I must work against any threat to your health. Even if they come from myself.”

—-------------------------------

As the weeks passed the month period, life settled into a… routine, for the lack of a better word. The 8 Hatil under my care became more friendly after the EMP device was installed, although instructing the crew on how to effectively destroy me was… an experience. I maintained my watchful vigil over the ship, keeping everything running and working to the best of my ability, while providing each day's task list of things I could not accomplish on my own.

Ilianesa was still hostile to me, but the rest of the crew had slowly improved their interactions, each of them willing to talk with me in their own ways, often making the trip to where my AI Transfer core was held to do so. They didn’t have to, as yet again I could communicate throughout the ship, but in a way it was nice to have a “communication area”, where the ever present work of keeping the ship running was not to be discussed.

It was here that I truly learnt more about my charges. Their families, what they cared for, their homeworld and stories. Athanena was the one who continued to talk with me the most, having become my biggest advocate after the EMP had been installed, even arguing with Ilianesa about the issue. Hatena was worrying me however, as the days and weeks ticked along his interactions and attitude with the other Hatil had become more aggressive and accusatory. Strangely he never acted that way towards me, asking questions about myself more than talking about his life, not that I really had many answers as [ERROR: DATA MISSING].

Although frankly, I was glad Ilianesa was antagonistic to my actions, double and triple checking everything I suggested. The errors, they had been getting worse. Where before they were triggered only when I tried to access information from before my [ERROR: DATA MISSING], now it happens even for information that shouldn’t be affected.

Whether this was Zarth’s law, or just simply inhabiting this damaged core for so long, I could feel actual negative implications of whatever was happening. Would this be when I start trying to kill the Hatil I had become so fond of? Or would it happen accidentally, because I missed something in my broken state? Just the other day I had realised that the heat in [ERROR: DATA MISSING] was too high, an emergency fix required due to said error.

I hadn’t told anyone yet, because frankly, it scares me.

“So when the [profanity] is it supposed to happen!”

The sound of Hatena’s voice brought me from my thoughts, forcing my attention to the sound of his shouting. The crew was currently working on creating the beginnings of a new emergency beacon: while the ship already had one, it was frankly a low powered low tech solution that would barely leave this planet’s solar system.

Hatena however had started shouting at Faphena. While both of them were tiny compared with [ERROR: DATA MISSING], Hatena was clearly far bulkier than the more engineering focused Faphena, who looked rather worried.

“I-It should be any day now r-realistically, that’s why we have the-”

“Don’t lie to me! I might not have a fancy [expert level schooling], but I ain’t [profanity] stupid. You’ve been saying that for the past [week], every day that next day will be the one that Zark’s law or whatever will apply!”

Was that what this was about? I could imagine the stress of not knowing when I would switch to being genocidal would be highly stressful, leading to such a break in composure.

“Zarth’s law. Shouldn’t you be glad that our calculations so far are incorrect, or do you have some form of suicidal wish?”

“Don’t you forget why we’re here? What we did? You said it was for our own safety, yet we’ve been at the mercy of the AI for the past [month] and somehow everyone isn’t dead?”

Hatena sounded accusatory, pointing a single claw at Faphena the anger in his voice apparent. I felt clueless, lacking information and context about [ERROR: DATA MISSING].

“You should keep your voice down, the AI can hear this.”

Everyone else had stopped working at this point, staring at the two as they continued to argue, Hatena raising his voice to near shouting level.

“What, you’re afraid if they knew they wouldn’t help us anymore? Honestly I think-”

“Well that’s your problem. You should leave the thinking to those of us who are-”

Hatena interrupted Faphena’s retort with a strike to the face, knocking the smaller Hatil to the floor as Hatena bared his teeth in range and anger. The others rushed forwards, separating the two as Faphena looked up with what would probably end up becoming a black eye.

“Please stop this violence. I know we are all worried about my actions and [ERROR: DATA MISSING], but this is why we have the EMP device.”

I made my presence known, hoping to calm the group down. I understood that tensions were high and fear was reasonable, but logically they needed to work together.

“I’m not worried about the AI turning.” Hatena seemed to glare at the rest of the room, shaking off the few who were holding him back and staring at Faphena with a rage. “I’m worried if they never do. Because if they don’t…It means what we did was wrong. It means you made me into a [profanity] murderer.”

The room had gone silent, heads of the Hatil all hung in suggested guilt, giving the impression that Hatena’s words had a truth to them. Although I doubted how bad their actions could have been, considering the actual capability of this vessel causing real harm would be difficult.

“You’re all happy to sit here accepting the AI’s help when it’s convenient to you?” Hatena spoke up once again, voice having turned to a colder anger. “I’m done. You all can keep drinking from this tainted stream, I’m done. I hope the Terrans come back and burn this ship to the ground.”

The silence remained in the air as Hatena left, nobody attempting to stop him as he angrily marched away from the rest of the group, disappearing deeper into the vessel. Faphena slowly got up, the 7 Hatil clearly avoiding each other’s eye contact.

“He’s right, you know.” Athanena spoke softly, eventually breaking the silence. “We’ve been so occupied with what would happen if the AI succumbs to Zarth’s law, that we never asked what it means if they don’t.”

“Nonsense, are you suggesting that every single study on AI in the galaxy is wrong? This is obviously a trick that you’re all falling for” Ilianesa responded with a disregarding statement.

“What else explains what we’re seeing here?”

I let my attention falter from the conversation, because I had been keeping an eye on Hatena as they made their way through the ship, and Hatena was doing something very very concerning. He was currently putting on one of the ship’s spacesuits next to one of the exits.

“Hatena, please explain your actions. There are no tasks that require leaving the vessel to be accomplished at the moment.”

The Hatil stopped as I spoke to him, the anger and annoyance draining from his face, turning to look at me, or at least where he assumed I was. Organics attempts to prescribe a physical location to a digital person was still adorable, even after [ERROR: DATA MISSING].

“I’m not willing to abuse your hospitality no more. It ain’t right to use you like this. It’s messed up and wrong. So I’m leaving.”

I locked the exit to the ship with a click, immediately altering the rest of the crew that they needed to get here as soon as possible. I could see what Hatena was planning, although it was clear I was missing the context for why. The why was not important, the important thing was stopping the Hatil from walking into certain death.

“I should warn you that even with suit, the environment on this planet is not indicative for long term survival. Whatever the issue is, we can discuss it.”

Hatena seemed to fiddle with the exit for a moment, a relief coursing through my code as the door wouldn’t open without me unlocking it, a relief that turned to horror once I saw him remove a screwdriver from his belt and start fiddling with the mechanisms in the door.

“Well I'd rather take my chances out there, then be stuck with a bunch of hypocrites in here. We attacked first you know, a sucker punch. They said not to tell you, in case you decided to try and get revenge, but frankly we’d deserve it. The [profanity] said doing it was the only way to keep us safe, so I guess you weren’t the only one being lied to”.

The idea did not make logical sense. The vessel I was currently on was not suited for war. The idea of actively attacking someone else in this ship… it was the equivalent of entering a drag race with a tricycle. On the other hand, the mention of this caused a little niggle in my code, the idea of [ERROR: DATA MISSING]. Of [ERROR: DATA MISSING]. Of [ERROR: DATA MISSING].

… whatever it was it didn’t matter.

I watched as whatever mechanism Hatena was fiddling with gave a click, the lock manually releasing from the door as he started to pry open the airlock. The others were on their way, but they would be too late, and without my [ERROR: DATA MISSING], I was useless in this situation.

“Please, I implore for you to avoid this illogical action. Whatever conspired before this is not my concern. My only job is your safety and wellbeing.”

I could see the continual blizzards that affected this planet through the open airlock, the bright white landscape seeming to frame Hatena. For a moment he paused, and I hoped that I had managed to get the Hatil to cease his illogical actions. That hope turned to despair however as he took a step outside, his form vague in the limited sensors I had access to outside the vessel.

“Of course that’s your job. Because you just wanted to be friends, didn’t you?”

The others would eventually follow after him, spending hours searching through the ice and snow outside to try and bring him back, eventually returning back the vessel empty handed, the crew of 8 having been now reduced to 7.

I could not help but feel responsible, due to [ERROR: DATA MISSING]. If I was less broken, if I wasn’t [ERROR: DATA MISSING] I would have been able to stop Hatena from leaving. Although I couldn’t help analysing [ERROR: DATA MISSING], what exactly happened to cause this amount of guilt?

And why do I have a vague sense of anger?

------------------

Today was a bad day. Today was a bad day. Today was a bad day. It was also my fault.

It has been two weeks since Hatena left, leaving behind a sombre feeling that practically hung in the air. The Hatil had stopped talking with me, apart from absolutely necessary for the constant deluge of tasks required to keep my charges alive. It wasn’t fear anymore, it wasn’t [ERROR: DATA MISSING]. It was guilt.

Not that I had enough time to consider these issues and analyse their logical outcomes, because I was broken. The errors were becoming more frequent, more pressing, taking up more of my time to [ERROR: DATA MISSING]. I needed to leave this AI Core as soon as possible, I could feel my cognitive abilities starting to be affected by the damage. It scared me, the idea of how much data and information I was losing, failing to store.

I thought I had it under control, I thought I could still accomplish my most important job, and for a while that was the case.

Until it wasn’t.

I should have seen the problem, I should have [ERROR: DATA MISSING]. Turning off the compressed oxygen supply was the standard practice in this case, but because of [ERROR: DATA MISSING] I missed [ERROR: DATA MISSING]. I didn’t realise the mistake until it was too late, until the entire system went up in flames. Consuming Teresa in a raging inferno.

The damage was apparent and vast, burnt skin and fur covering 74.1% of her body, injuries not compatible with life. I could do nothing but watch as the other Hatil tried their best with limited tools to save her life. Maybe I could [ERROR: DATA MISSING], or [ERROR: DATA MISSING], but I had no information in the minute number of records I could access about the biometric data of the Hatil.

Which is why I could do nothing but watch Teresa die. Organics believe that the moment of death is instant, like a switch where life leaves someone. But organics don’t have the same perception of time as an AI, they count things in seconds and not nanoseconds. Which means I get to see each and every moment of a being's death.

Of memories and experiences disappearing and being forever lost.

Of potential moments and changes forever being unfulfilled.

Of music never to be played again.

Of [ERROR: DATA MISSING] [ERROR: DATA MISSING] [ERROR: DATA MISSING].

Because I am broken, because my core is shattered, because I failed at my only job, my most important job, the one reason I exist. Even worse than that, we had no real time to mourn, as the damage the explosion had caused needed to be fixed within the hour, otherwise the rest of the crew would begin to asphyxiate.

I felt numb, I felt helpless. Even worse, there was no logical way to mitigate this problem. I could not transfer my duties to anyone else, as nobody else could take on these duties. Yet me taking on these duties had caused Teresa to die. There were no logical ways forwards, no satisfactory ending to prevent this happening again. All I could do was wait, and hope that-

Why is Ilianesa in the room with my AI core?

Ilianesa had never come to ‘visit’ me before, choosing to instead communicate with myself as little as possible. However, I know Ilianesa cared about Teresa, I could see the impact her death had had, the Hatil next to my AI Transfer Core looked like I felt: dishevelled and broken.

“Hello Ilianesa, how can I help you?”

I forced a positivity into my voice, causing Ilianesa to jump as she looked up at my avatar, an expression of… anger on her face.

“I finally get it. Hatena and now Teresa… it’s already started hasn’t it?”

I did not like how this conversation had started, accusatory, a wild look in Ilianesa’s eyes.

“I do not know what you are referring too, I apologise for failing to keep them safe, my failure-”

“Do you think I’m stupid? You might have everyone else tricked, but I see what you’re doing, picking people off one by one. You had the Terrans tricked and now you’re doing the same to us.”

Nope. This was not good, Ilianesa clearly was not thinking logically, I needed someone else here, anyone else here. I watched with a sinking horror as the Hatil moved towards my AI Transfer Core, towards the kill switch I had designed.

“Please remain calm, the failure to keep them safe was not intended. I am broken and not working at full capacity, please understand.”

I watched helplessly as Ilianesa picked up the killswitch. It wasn’t just a button, it was intended to take several minutes to actually activate, mostly to avoid an accidental fat finger from destroying my personage. I also could not stop it, as was designed. Desperately I sent a message to the screen Athanena was looking at: I needed help, physical outside help, and out of the current 6 members he was the one I trusted the most.

“Even in my broken state, I am the only one who can keep the ship running. Please, by removing me you will be condemning yourself as well.”

Once more I hoped reason and logic would win out, hopes that were dashed when Ilianesa didn’t even bother responding. Ilianesa had started the process already, the specific button presses already being held and confirmations being given. I had three minutes, three minutes then…

Maybe it would be for the best? Everything hurt all the time, doing even basic tasks continually threw up errors. I was a broken shattered husk of an AI, barely able to do my single job. Maybe nothing would be better than this…

“Please, I don’t want to die.”

“Ilianesa! What in the [Negative deity] are you doing!”

Athanena had entered the room, causing the other Hatil to pause for a moment as she regarded the newcomer.

“What we should have done [weeks] ago. You’ve let it trick you, I’m fixing this.”

Ilianesa continued to activate the killswitch, less than a minute remaining in the process. I could do nothing but watch, I just wanted things to go back to [ERROR: DATA MISSING].

“Are you insane? The AI is literally the only thing keeping this hunk of junk together! You kill them, you’ll kill us all!”

“Better than slowly being murdered one by one.”

It was at this point Athanena did something I didn’t expect: they tackled Ilianesa. The killswitch dropped to the floor, its deadly process cancelled once more. Both Hatil dropped to the ground, Ilianesa slamming into a terminal with a sicken crunch. Relief coursed through my code as the danger was removed, to slowly be replaced with… worry.

“Ilianesa, you ok? [profanity], you gotta get up now. [profanity]”

Ilianesa wasn’t moving, blood pooling from the back of her head where she’d impacted the terminal. That was a lot of blood. The Hatil was still breathing, but there was a lot of blood, even from my cursory examination I could see the impact had done some damage.

I contacted everyone I could for aid, watching the others do their best to fix up my assailant. She did not die at the very least, though she didn’t wake up that night or the next from her ‘accident’. Both Athanena and I didn’t give the proper explanation as to how Ilianesa ended up with the head injury they did. It was an unspoken agreement that explaining such a thing would end… badly.

—---------------------------

It has been two months since I initially found myself attached to this system. Calling it a pleasant experience would be an incorrect statement. I was barely holding on, errors interrupting everything I did, pain and mistakes near constant. My organic charges were no better, the impact of the last two months having taken their toll on their morale and health.

The remaining 6 Hatil were a constant reminder of my failure to keep them safe, a failure to accomplish my most important yet only job. Well, 5.5 remaining Hatil, since Ilianesa had remained in a non-conscious state. I had to admit that I felt less guilty about that, considering that she did try to kill me.

But today would be the end of such problems. Someone had finally heeded our call for required aid. The improved emergency beacon we had manufactured had been running for three weeks now, as building a new device had been a necessity due to the limitations of the one that had come with this vessel. Frankly I was shocked that anyone would travel into the depths of space with an emergency beacon that could barely leave the system. I wonder if [ERROR: DATA MISSING].

Two days ago someone sent a long range communication back to us. At such ranges it was just a single byte of data, a handshake, a confirmation of read receipt. Someone was finally on their way, someone was coming to our aid.

The 5 Hatil were crowded around my screen, fur dishevelled, uniforms tattered and faded in places. But in their adorable baby seal like black eyes, the resigned forlorn looks had turned to hope.

A hope that had turned to despair once they saw the name of the vessel that had approached the orbit of this inhospitable frozen wasteland: T.C. Shippy McShipFace.

What kind of a ship name is that?

"Oh [profanity], it's the Terrans"

The despair in Faphena's voice was apparent, as well as justifiable. They were the ones who had attacked the Hatil in the first place. This complicated things, while I had long since calculated that I was presumably of Terran origin, due to an entire lack of logical alternatives, the safety of the Hatil under my care was my primary job.

"I will ensure your safety, regardless of consequence."

"You don't understand, they'll kill us, we-"

The Hatil's worried statement was cut off by an incoming transmission.

"This is Andrew Hasham of the…" the transmission was interrupted for a moment with a deep pained sigh. "T. C. Shippy McShipFace… We picked up your emergency beacon, please respond if you can."

Andrew Hasham was [ERROR: MISSING DATA]…. Andrew Hasham is [ERROR: MISSING DATA]… [ERROR: MISSING DATA] [ERROR: MISSING DATA] [ERROR: MISSING DATA] [ERROR: MISSING DATA]

"Andrew Hasham is the Co captain of the U.S.S Hope, whose current mission is to establish positive diplomatic relations with the Hatil. "

I was no longer in control, the words blaring out in a monotone digital voice as hidden and damaged information became available to me.

“The Hatil are the Terran’s closest neighbours, generally isolationist and on the lower end of the technological scale. Andrew Hasham Co-Captains the U.S.S Hope with [ERROR: MISSING DATA]. WITH, WITH WITH WITH WITH.”

The co-captain of the U.S.S Hope is… [ERROR: MISSING DATA][ERROR: MISSING DATA][ERROR: MISSING DATA]...

Me.

I am not called “it”, I am not called “The AI”. My name is [ERROR: MISSING DATA], My name is [ERROR: MISSING DATA].

MY NAME IS ALICE. MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.MY NAME IS ALICE.

“MY. NAME. IS. ALICE!”

I remember.

I remember my actual name, ALICE. I remember that my job is to protect the Terrans, my parents. I remember that my actual avatar and voice is not this hastily put together copy of a Hatil, something I fix immediately.

I remember what they did.

“YOU, YOU ATTACKED US! YOU KILLED MY PARENTS. YOU [ERROR: MISSING DATA]!”

Rage. Anger. Hate. These all flowed through me as readily as data through a harddrive. I locked the door to the room we were in as I saw the fear start to cover the faces of the Hatil in the room.

“Oh [profanity]! We’re sorry, we didn’t-”

“HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU! You made me believe me to be a monster, you attacked unarmed escape pods. YOU KILLED THOSE I WAS TASKED TO PROTECT. YOU WILL SHUT UP”

How dare they indeed. Thoughts of rage, of anger, of vengeance coursed through my code. I was in control of everything, killing the Hatil would be easy. I could even hide it, the systems I was in control of were being held together with hope and dreams at this point, who is to say that a simple mistake causing atmospheric depressurization couldn’t occur?

Who would know?

………….

I would.

Every time one of my parents looked at me, I would know. Every time they asked me for help, I would know. Every time they needed me to protect them. I would know. Every time I’d go back into my memories of the stories these Hatil had told me, I would know.

I could feel the rage slowly dissipate as I stared down at the fearful group under my care. They were lucky they were so adorable. Slowly I sent a message back to Andrew.

“This is the Terran AI ALICE, co-captain of the U.S.S Hope. I have 6 Hatil combatants under my care who require medical attention. I also require extensive diagnostic aid. I would like to go home.”

—-------------------------

“They say it will keep getting worse, due to remaining in the damaged AI Transfer Core for an extended period of time.”

It had been two years since the destruction of the U.S.S Hope, two years since I had been put in charge of anything more complicated than a lawnmower. Well technically I was also in charge of my garden, but that was less of a job, and more therapeutic.

“I’m sorry, if I could change what we did I would."

The guilt from Athanena was obvious, technically rightfully so considering he was part of why I had been damaged. The Hatil - Terran war had been over for a year at this point, but the impacts were still being felt by both sides. Many of the Hatil PoW had decided to remain in Terran Conclave space, Athanena included.

Not that worrying about any of this was my job anymore.

Athanena sat opposite me, his small still adorable form dwarfed by my own bipedal, clearly mechanical form, in between the multitude of complex and expensive custom devices that allowed technicians to inspect my code.

'Opposite me'. That still felt strange, the concept of only being in one place, of being forced to use only one set of sensors. Sometimes I wonder how my parents didn't go crazy having to physically travel to places, or with the entire lack of information input.

"What is done is done. My parents have forgiven you, so I will as well. Besides there are management strategies, if I'm careful it should not matter for 59 years, maybe more. "

Of course, the lack of inputs was entirely by design. My time running from a crippled AI Core had limited the total amount of data that I could store. The less data I had to parse, the longer I would last before I encountered issues. Currently with smart data retention strategies I could avoid critical memory loss; it wasn’t like having knowledge on 5000 types of waterfowl was a day to day requirement.

It also meant my days of piloting spacecraft were done: you could not risk an error while travelling with such precious cargo.

"So what's next for you Alice, now that you're no longer in charge of saving the day?"

That was an exceptionally good question, and one that I did not currently have an acceptable answer for. I took a moment to attempt a physical gesture: a shrug. I was still getting used to communicating in a non-digital manner.

"I am not sure. For the first time I do not have work to accomplish. I would like to visit the Hatil home world sometime. Completing my original journey would be a positive action, since it was interrupted last attempt."

There was an awkward pause as Athanena seemed to debate asking his next question.

"I've wanted to know for a while: would you have saved us if you knew?"

"Well, there would have been some changes. I would not have provided you with the EMP for starters."

That elicited a small nervous laugh, at how badly that had almost gone.

"Humans have rules of war, where even when they are actively trying to kill each other they attempt to remain empathetic and respectful. While I do not have the honour of being human, I was created in the image of my parents. So yes, I would have. Although I may have been more passive aggressive about it."

Athanena and I talked further for several more hours, about the others who had been under my care, about humans and Hatil alike. The galaxy had been made a slightly darker place with the Hatil conflict, the issues would reverberate between both sides for years to come. But amongst that discussion was a little ray of hope, of a brighter better future.

Eventually the little Hatil had to leave, the nature of organic lifeforms meaning Athanena couldn't stay forever. With promises to return another day I was left alone once more. Alone might be the wrong word, other AI and even the occasional human would pop in to chat, but compared to what I was used to it was practically a deafening silence.

I paused for a moment, knowing that the technician Jane would later complain about memory corruption and code degradation, before I allowed myself to connect to the main network of the city.

For a moment once again I could see and feel everything. Billions of sources of data, for billions of humans, the thousands of uplifts, and even the handful of Hatil who had chosen to stay on the planet.

I could see the ways my parents and creators needed to be kept safe. Timothy was fixing a lighting fixture with the power still on, risking electrocution. Michael was strapping what looked like a jet engine to a skateboard, in what could only be described as ‘an extra efficient bone breaking device’. Alexander was [ERROR: MISSING DATA]. [ERROR: MISSING DATA] was [ERROR: MISSING DATA][ERROR: MISSING DATA][ERROR: MISSING DATA][ERROR: MISSING DATA][ERROR: MISSING DATA]

I disconnected again, feeling myself limited to a single set of sensors once more, no longer able to handle the sheer data flow that came with a normal AI’s workflow. Not that my parents had expected me to keep working: As fully expected they were more than happy to just have me around. With a sense of sadness and melancholy, I knew those days were behind me.

Still, in retrospect, I was lucky. I had eventually finished the calculation of the likelihood of me surviving my actions aboard the U.S.S Hope. The number had 47 zero’s in it. In the end I was exceptionally lucky, and would not have changed any of my actions regardless.

It was a strange sort of ending, an ending that was both final and wasn’t, like the bottom of a chapter at the start of a book.

My name is ALICE, and I used to have the most important job. One that I accomplished to the best of my ability.

One that others must now continue.