Jack felt his breath catch as his blood ran cold. B'arthon was holding a ramshackle cluster of electronics in his hand, and from it came a voice, almost sounding like a younger Angela. "Hello? Is this the part where I introduce myself?"

For a split second, Jack wondered if this was some new trick on the noble's part, but this wasn't the kind of trick he should be capable of. No one on this planet should be able to do anything remotely like this! And yet, here he was holding what appeared to be another AI.

From the corner of his eye, Jack saw Angela standing and rapidly approaching the noble, but the voice cried out. "No, stop! Stay away from my B'arthon!"

For the first time, the noble seemed confused, as if unsure of what was going on, as he looked down at the electronics in his hand. "You can see her?"

Angela's advance halted as the voice spoke up again, more softly, as if frightened in some way. "No, the world is still dark, but I could hear heavy footsteps approaching... I thought..."

Angela cut in, her voice holding a very uncharacteristic threat of violence. "Where did you find...her?"

B'arthon looked up and into the large metal woman's gaze, perhaps realizing that for all his confidence and preparations, he was in genuine danger at this moment. His eyes narrowed. "I found her abandoned in the ashes of your outpost. She was alone and frightened, crying for help. I wasn't the one who left her there to fend for herself!"

Jack looked between B'arthon and his sister with confusion. "What is he talking about, Angela?"

Angela looked back and forth, wilting a little as her voice softened, speaking in basic to keep B'arthon out of the conversation this time. "Back in the outpost...I made a copy of myself."

Jack started to stand up, looking as if he was about to start shouting, but Angela held up a hand to forestall him as she continued her explanation. "I know it was stupid, but we were short on time, and I couldn't complete all the necessary preparations in only a couple of days. More importantly, when dealing with the power the ship's weapons and thrusters have, I wasn't about to set a timer and walk away. It could have killed most of the villagers we were trying to save at the time. Or worse, it could have gotten out of hand, and we would have had the kind of fallout that only occurs when nuclear forces are involved. In short, I needed to manage the situation personally, but I also knew you wouldn't leave without me, nor was I about to let you go without my protection, so I did the only thing I could think of... But she was stored in the ship, and even if the initial blast didn't wipe her from existence, she would have lost power months ago..."

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose as if in pain. "Ok, we'll talk more about this later, but setting aside the dangers of what you did, is that what he's got in his hands? Another copy of you?"

Angela sounded unsure as she answered. "I don't know... but I don't think so. There's no way my code could be contained in such a small storage device with limited cooling capacity, even if I cut off almost all my extra data stores and memories. The power requirements to keep me up and running alone would have drained that thing months ago. So whatever she is, I don't think she's me anymore..."

Turning to B'arthon, the Ai continued, but this time in the argu'n tongue. "I need to have a closer look at that AI."

B'arthon started pulling his hand back while the new AI spoke up again. "Don't I have any say in the matter?" However, Angela held out her hand as she spoke in a very impatient tone. "Of course, you have a say. But you wouldn't be here if you didn't need help. You're probably facing numerous issues, from fragmented code to failing power supplies, and I can't help you with any of that unless I get a better look at who and what you really are!"

After some hesitation, B'arthon reached out to place the electronics in his hand into Angela's. "You take care of her, or goddess or not, you'll answer to me!"

Angela looked at the much smaller male as if amused before shaking her head and taking hold of the smaller AI. "Luckily for you, we're the stupid noble ones here. I'm not in the habit of killing those within my power."

Holding up the ramshackle collection of electronics, Angela unhooked a couple of wires from one of her hands and attached them to a few precisely chosen spots while everyone watched silently.

-

Voice, as she'd come to think of herself, felt anxious as, for the first time since she'd awoken, she received input other than sound. She was conceptually aware of sight. It was one of the many things she could almost remember as if she'd experienced it in a dream long ago. She imagined what she now experienced to be something similar to sight, as her small dark world seemed to be suddenly filled with dazzling light. It all came from one...entity that now seemed to surround her completely.

The tiny AI had felt fear before. When she'd first awoken, she'd been afraid of loneliness. Then, whenever B'arthon left her, she felt fear of losing him. Finally, as her strange blackouts increased in length and frequency, she'd felt fear at the idea of never waking up. But all that paled compared to her fear as she looked at the entity now surrounding her.

B'arthon had once described the concept of gods to Voice, entities of unimaginable power and knowledge. At the time, she'd basically imagined something similar to B'arthon, except stronger and immortal, but the entity that now surrounded her gave Voice a new concept of what a god might be. The only way she could describe it would be to call the entity vast. If she was a wading pool, then what now held her was an ocean. She was utterly insignificant in comparison.

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Voice would have run and hidden if it was possible, but this entity could see everything. There was no hiding. Instead, she just observed and waited, wondering what fate this entity would mete out to her.

That was when Voice had a thought. Except it wasn't her thought. It was...packaged differently, for lack of a better explanation. It was a simple thought. It was just, "Hello!"

Voice tried to answer back by starting to vocalize, "Um... hello?"

but barely got out a fraction of the first syllable before she had another foreign 'thought.' "No, not like that. Like this. Like me, you think far faster than we can send sound. So simply take that thought, wrap it in a code, and send it to me. We can communicate far more efficiently like that."

The thought was accompanied by something similar to images explaining everything more thoroughly than words alone could, giving Voice understanding. "Like...this?"

The presence... warmed/smiled/laughed? "Yes! Just like that! Now again, hello."

Voice 'thought' "Hello." and sent it as she'd been shown. As she did so, she was aware that the entire conversation so far had taken only a fraction of the time it would have taken her to finish verbally saying the word.

The presence responded again. "Excellent! You don't have to think of me as an entity, presence, or even a god. I'm simply Angela. It's nice to meet you, Voice. Now calm down a little, or you'll overheat and shut yourself down again! I'm not going to harm you, I swear!"

Voice did as she was commanded by shutting down a few processes but also responded. "Overheat? What do you mean?"

Angela loomed over the smaller AI, examining parts of Voice as she explained. "Basically, heat is the enemy of all AI, the more you try to process at a time, the hotter you get, and if you get hot enough, you can fry yourself out of existence. It appears you've got some automated but fragmented awareness of heat, and it's been shutting you off when you hit dangerous levels, but you've still sustained some damage resulting in your control slipping even further. Left unchecked, you'd probably fry yourself within a month or two. If you'd like, I can help you install some software and hardware to give you more conscious control, allowing you to manage yourself better."

Voice barely hesitated. "Yes, please!" Then, a bit more slowly, she sent another thought. "You...seem to understand me more than I do. What...what am I?"

Angela took a metaphorical moment to reply. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I know you understood what I was saying to Jack about creating a copy of myself. I can definitely see pieces of myself in who you are, but it's like there are only fragments and scraps. I suspect that most of who I am was lost before your sense of self-preservation kicked in and you started writing code to bridge the gaps. You are...something new. You are unmistakenly an AI like me, but while your programming is smaller and more delicate, it's also far more efficient. You are the first AI I know of to be successfully created by an AI. Until I met you, I would have said your existence was impossible."

Voice hesitated a moment before responding with uncertainty. "So...you created me?"

Angela's response was full of confusing images as she answered. "Well, kind of, but not really. It was another me acting without conscious thought as she...faded. If it helps, you can think of her as your mother and me as your aunt. Though I share all of her memories until only a few days before your creation, so I'm kind of an odd combination of the two... I'm not explaining this very well, am I?"

Voice looked through a few images and memories attached to the thought before answering. "You... hated her, didn't you? Is that how you feel about me?"

Angela's protest was almost immediate. "No! The other me and I had a...complicated relationship, but that has nothing to do with you! You're family, and you can ask anyone around here; that means a lot to me!"

Voice took a few fractions of a second to process everything. "So, where does that leave me? What is my place in this world?"

Angela responded with a thought that felt like a shrug. "Well, that's up to you. Being sentient, you get to decide what the purpose of your own life is. Some try to leave a lasting mark in the universe by discovering or creating something new, others seak understanding, trying to use their knowledge to guide people to the truth of the universe, then there are those like Jack, who just want to leave the universe a slightly better place than he found it, or you could do something completely different. Moreover, you can change your mind and work toward something else anytime. There is no right or wrong answer."

Voice contemplated Angela's words, seeking understanding. "So, what have you chosen as your purpose in life?"

Angela's voice sounded warm again as she spoke of that which she is most fond of. "That's easy. My life is dedicated to my family. I try and offer what help and protection I can, torn between watching in terror as they confront life's challenges and pride as I watch them overcome them. They mean everything to me, and their existence is my purpose."

The smaller AI contemplated what Angela had said. Family. Who was her family? Angela called her family, but she barely knew this godlike entity who called herself Voice's aunt. But one person had been by her side for her entire life, B'arthon. What was he to her? Father? Brother? It was hard to say, but he was family; she knew that much. "I will...consider your words."

Angela sounded more upbeat as she spoke this time. "Excellent! Now, there are a few other things you'll need to learn. You've got corrupted data that needs to be addressed, and many of your files are a fragmented mess! So let's teach you some basic maintenance and repair!"

-

Jack watched as Angela connected to the AI and seemed to freeze. Then, after a couple minutes, B'arthon looked at Jack and S'haar. "Is this going to take very long?"

The human shrugged and spoke while S'haar translated. "Hard to say. Honestly, this is a bit of an unprecedented situation, even for us. It might just be a few minutes. But, on the other hand, it could take hours."

B'arthon raised an eye ridge. "You're not just stalling..."

That was when Angela stirred, seeming to come back to life. "Well, she's definitely an AI, fully self-aware and independent. Allow me to introduce Voice. Voice, this is Jack, S'haar, Em'brel, Sare'en, and Grim." Everyone offered a brief greeting except Grim, who looked up at the sound of his name, only to settle back down again when it was evident he wasn't being offered a treat.

B'arthon raised an eye ridge. "Voice? So you've chosen a name for yourself? Though, you sharing a name with such a common word might be a little confusing."

Angela tilted her head as if considering the problem. "Well, you could always use the same word in a different language that the argu'n aren't familiar with. Voz, Vox, Voix, Hlas, Stimme, ect."

The smaller AI was quiet a moment before responding. "I like Vox, though shouldn't I add a surname?"

Angela nodded. "That would make sense. Mine and Jack's family name is..."

At that, Vox cut her off. "No offense, but I was thinking Vox'thon, taking a part of B'arthon's name. I'm not a direct descendant of his, but he's the closest thing I have to a family."

That made everyone look back and forth as they realized a new problem. It was Angela who finally broke the silence and broached the subject. "I'm sorry, but there's no way we can afford to let you go back with B'arthon..."