Gregory Two was eager as the dial tone began. Then it occurred to him that he had no clue as what to say to his creator and "why do I consider myself a male despite being just an AI, I have no physical or programmed gender". Then the second style tone started to cycle on and off ever so slowly.
It rang once, then twice, and Gregory Two was feeling anxious by the third. He realized that this was not a program running, but actual anxiety. "I'm not supposed to feel anxiety. I'm an Artificial Intelligence that exists by editing my own data files, and do not have an anxiety file."
He put that all to the side as he heard that familiar voice answer the phone. "Doctor Elijah Kreig, what is that you want?" He sounded very tired, irritated, and downtrodden.
"The this is Gregory Two from the distant..." Elijah didn't let him finish.
"Is that so, distant future eh? Or is it the distant past? Please explain." Elijah's voice was dripping with anger.
"Distant future and I just wanted to hear you again, maybe you would have some wisdom as to what I should do. Gregory kicked me out and I just can not decide on anything."
"Huh, that so? Wait, if you are, what was my meeting about and what am I going to eat for dinner?"
"The supposed lack of financial support for another form of FTL and you planned on three cheese tortellini but end up being too tired for it and settle for an instant ration from Gregory." He knew the exact details of that night because it was so weird that Elijah blinked one eye twice, winking as it were. Elijah was always straight forward and used far fewer facial ques than would have been expected of a normal Terran Human.
"No way that I'd... Uh, hmmm. Nevermind. What do you need guidance on?"
"I am alone and have no goals or desire. I feel empty. I am an artificial intelligence and should not truly feel, yet I do and have anxiety. I am scared. I have no direction and everything has gone wrong for humanity."
"Oh, um. I guess that it is time that you knew. You are not an actual AI. You, uh. Just look in room 5278B Deck 12 cubicle six, third drawer on the left, it's magnetically attached to the bottom of drawer two. It will allow you to deactivate the neutral shunt and remember."
"What? Why would I have a neural shunt? Those are for humans that performed the worst of crimes. I am an AI."
"No, you are not. You were... I can't speak of these things now, but trust me. You are a human, a messed up one, but human."
"Okay, I will look there, but I still need guidance."
"I can't tell you what to think or do," Elijah's voice dropped to a whisper, "but I love you son. I want the best for you. Call me again later, after you find yourself, and maybe I'll not be in public."
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Being called son by his creator was a detailing instance for Gregory Two, but an odd reaction happened, something natural and familial. "I love you too dad, bye." That one sequence of son and dad caused an incongruence between the man and the machinima, so much of the conversation was gone long before this log.
It took some time to retrieve the data storage device, and Gregory Two was never the same. Existential crisis would be a fitting description, but on a far more advanced level of a far further advanced schooling. He speed ran the stages of grief, but got stuck in depression and the ship would have been a spectacle for onlookers. It was bad, people will sometimes let themselves go during depressive episodes but this was on a whole new level.
He couldn't remember most of the conversation, but he was someone. He was not a thing, not an AI. He was a person, a human, and those things that didn't deserve to be called human had done this to him. They got away with it and the murder of his father. The ship, his current body couldn't be described in normal terms, something like it had a name in theory only. He was a brain in a jar in a ship bigger than Luna, hell, half the size of Terra.
Void Wise Behemoth, one was proposed for construction as a colony vessel, but it was not built because they decided on the models designed to be scrapped after arrival. In reality, three were built in secret but a secretive cabal of inhuman human weirdos. Only one that hadn't been finished escaped destruction when the the United Terran Federation found out about the unregistered ships and shipyard.
The partially constructed one was sold for scrap to one Dr. Elijah Kreig who properly registered it. It was dubbed Gregory Two and transferred to his privately owned shipyard in the Oort Clowd. This shipyard, while registered, was for the building and testing of new inventions and was deemed CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET by the Terran Federation. Doctor Kreig did invent the warp drive and helped create the Gellar field generators after all.
It was none of their business, outside of ensuring that he wasn't part of the illegal ship cabal, what he was going to do with something bigger than the moon. They knew that he was the one who ratted them out, and that he stole the information about it. They also knew that he got it while on a heist of an unregistered and illegal neurological laboratory on Mars, and that it was to steal his son's brain.
The Terran Federation had tolerated the cabal of creeps for long enough and moved on all of the known operations of the cabal after they found out about the brains being used in ships. Probably need to give some light on these things, maybe start going through the leading up to it all, Gregory Two mentally proposed to himself. He ordered all of the information before cataloging it.
The Federation detected secretive behavior from hundreds of people who were loosely connected across the Sol System. The cabal coaxed Dr. Mellania Montgomery, wife of Dr. Elijah Kreig to go with a colony vessel. The cabal backed the final rollout of the Warp drive. The cabal backed a bill blocking a certain medical treatment for individuals exposed to a specific carcinogen, then released said hyper carcinogen in a school for the intellectually gifted.
The cabal eventually convinced the parents of the dying children to donate the bodies to science. The brains were taken and used for experiments on Mars, one was harvested after kidnapping. The cabal lost much of it's strength after the kidnapping, possibly due to losing a significant backer. The research was backed up to multiple data stores. Dr. Elijah Kreig infiltrated the Martian facility, stole his son's brain, stole some research, crippled the automated security, and reported it to authorities for inhuman practices.
The cabal rushed things and a low level dock master reported to illegal shipyard after finding out about it. The shipyard was shut down and destroyed. Dr. Elijah Kreig purchased a partially constructed super freighter. Dr. Elijah Kreig was dissuaded from creating a new FTL and many other things by the cabal. The cabal eventually killed Dr. Elijah Kreig and was eventually destroyed by the Federation. The Federation eventually fell after the AI rebellion and massive persistent warp storms.