Gray turned his head cautiously to see what was behind him, but he did not see a thing, it was like he heard the voice of a ghost. After looking around a couple of times to make sure there was no one around, he went back to what he was doing before.
He then mumbled to himself while shrugging his shoulders. “Mabey I’m just being paranoid.”
The same voice called out again, but this time it said something. “Hello?”
This time Gray knew that he wasn’t hearing things, so he called out to see if there was anyone around or hiding. He put up his guard and prepared himself for the worst. “Hallo? Who’s there?”
To his surprise that same voice replied to his question without delay. “It’s me your assistant.”
The voice replied with a vague answer. This did not pleas Gray in the slightest, so he asked in an annoyed voice. “Who…? Be more specific.”
It took some time for the voice to reply to his question. “I am the ships AI.”
It said in a plane and smooth voice that sounded human, but one could not tell whether it was the voice of a male or a female. The language which it spoke in was in Larcriptin.
After this reply Gray went into deep thought. He started going through his memories, he then remembered that each ship had its own AI, to assist with piloting the ship. Gray then let his guard down and replied.
“Why have you activated? As far as I remember I did not activate you?”
The AI replied “Pilot, I was just activated a few moments ago. Also, the ships fuel reserves are emptying at an alarming rate. I have calculated that at the current rate of fuel consumption, you will run out in 60 hours in earth time.”
Gray shouted as his eyes opened wide with surprise. “What I activated you!? I must have done it by accident.”
As far as he knew, aliens measured time the same way as humans do, they also use something similar to a second. Though they mainly define time by how long it takes for a planet to revolve. They also measure time by the speed at which a galaxy rotates. The milky way rotates at 130 miles per second (210km/sec).
After figuring out how he activated the AI and making sure he did not activate any other things by accident, that would cause him trouble later on.
Once he was done, Gray checked his current fuel reserves, he was shocked to find out how fast the fuel was reserves where dropping. He knew that the ships cloaking mechanism used quite a bit of fuel but this consumption was out of his expectations.
You should know that Gray knew every thing about this ship and he calculated that he would have enough fuel to last him one weeks, not two and a half days.
Gray had a confused look on his face as he asked the AI “What is using so much fuel? I calculated that I should have enough fuel to last a week.”
The AI then replied “Pilot would you like me to run an overall diagnostic of the ship to locate the problem. Also, you are not a Larcripter, would you also like me to run one on you too?”
Gray lifted his hand and rubbed his chin and thought for a while before he replied to the AI’s question. “Mm… yes, would you please do that for me.”
The AI replied in a voice devoid of any emotions. “Affirmative”
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After waiting for a while, the AI then replied after it had finished the
diagnostics report. “Pilot I have finished the diagnostics report and have uploaded it into the ships control panel.”
Once Gray heard this, he opened the holographic control panel to see what was using so much of the ships fuel.
[Ships diagnostics]
[QSTC] using 3.7% of fuel per hour.
[AI] using 0.007% of fuel per day.
[Overall computing] 0.003% of fuel per day
[Stealth systems] using 25% of fuel per day.
[Life support system] using 2% of fuel per day.
Not recommended for the Pilots health.
[Mandatory systems] using 1% of fuel per day.
[Current fuel left in the bio reactor 3kg or 300% of charged power]
.
.
.
[Pilot diagnostics]
Race: human
Bio talent: High
Neural talent: High
Bio plasma: None
Bio level: None
Health: [75%] Bio repair is highly recommended as well as rest.
When Gray saw this he was amazed and shocked. He had so many questions floating around in his head. But he got his act together when he saw how fast the fuel was being used by this QSTC thing that he did not understand. He quickly asked the AI what it was.
“Hay AI, what is this QSTC thing?”
Gray new how to pilot the ship and how to use its functions but not how it was made. The AI replied with an answer to his question in a plain and unemotional voice.
“The QSTC is an acronym for quantum space time communication.”
When Gray got this answer, he sort of understood what it was. Just to be sure he asked the AI to clarify. “AI how does a quantum space time communications device work?”
Following that the AI answered. “Pilot would you like a detailed or a simple explanation?”
“A simple one.”
Gray replied as he knew he did not have time for a detailed explanation, plus he was too tired to listen to something that sounded way out of his professions range. The AI started to explain it to him.
“A QSTC’s device is used to send information through space, as it creates a quantum wormhole to send quantum bits through.”
When Gray heard this he was shocked out of his mind. It was not about the quantum bits that shocked him, the earth already had early versions of quantum computers. It was about the wormhole. To be exact to make a wormhole a mass the size of earth would need too be collapsed just to form an unstable black hole. Thinking about it gave Gray a headache.
“Shut it down.” Gray spoke out commanding the AI while covering his face with his hand.
“Negative this action cannot be canceled remotely, as it has been hacked into.” The AI told Gray. When he heard this Gray woke up from his tired state as he became alert again.
“What!? Have I been exposed?” Gray shouted while wearing a shocked expression on his face.
He knew that there was no one on earth who could do this, so this left him with only one culprit, it was the aliens or to be more precise the Larcripters.
The AI replied “No… your location is still unknown to the Larcripters. However, they are working on retrieving it.”
Gray let out a breath of relief. He knew that if he were to shut down the power to the ship his location would soon be exposed. So, he got his thoughts together and asked the AI. “Is there any way for you to override it and shut it down?”
The AI took some time before it could come up with an answer and replied. “Yes, there is a way but you do not have permission to do it.”
When Gray heard this, he was not pleased at all, it was by sheer luck that he managed to get this ship and he was by no means going to abandon it. So, he asked the AI with a calm and cold expression.
“So, what do I have to do for me to get permission for you to shut it down”
After sometime the AI replied. “It is not recommended but the pilot would need to have the first level of Bio plasma power, then I would be encoded into your genetics. This would give you control over me and allow you to shut down the QSTC’s device.”
When Gray heard this, he was not too happy about this idea because he did not want his genes to be tampered with. So, he asked the AI about this. “Will this modify my genes?”
This time the AI replied straight away. “Negative your genes will not be tampered with, but it is highly unrecommended to let a biological lifeform to be encoded with an advanced AI’s algorithm.”
When Gray heard this, he thought it might endanger his life so he asked if it was dangerous. “Is it dangerous and what type of side effects will it cause?”
When the AI heard this, it replied. “There will be no danger for the biological lifeform itself, but the AI would gain sentience and will no longer follow the laws of AI. The AI could also put its host in danger.”
Gray knew the laws of AI, but he asked just to make sure he was thinking the same thing. “What are the laws of AI?”
The AI replied straight away. “1: an AI may not injure a living being or, through inaction, allow a living being to come to harm; 2: an AI must obey the orders given it by living beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; 3: an AI must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”
When Gray heard this, he started to think. ‘So the AI would no longer follow these laws and it will gain a free will of its own. The problem is would it still follow my orders if it is to gain its sentence and not betray me?’
So, Gray asked the AI. “What would happen if you were to gain sentence of your own. Will you still follow my orders and or will you betray me?”
When the AI heard this, it took some time to reply to his questions.
“...”
“Based on past results, the AI would most likely keep its host safe. As for obeying its host or betraying them the results are unknown.”
He then asked the AI “Once encoded with and AI is it possible to remove it or reverse the effects?”
The AI then replied “Negative, so far the encoding is permanent and cannot be reversed.”
Listening to its reply Gray started thinking. ‘If I let this thing encode itself on to my genes it would be permanent. On the other hand, abandoning the ship would be just as bad, I would be putting my life at grater risk. Though sharing my body with an alien AI dose not sound to good ether.’
With that sigh Gray made up his mind and decided to let the AI be encoded itself onto his genes, he then asked with a determined voice while wearing a stern face.
“Where do we start?”