[CHATROOM UNDEFINED ~*VIP*~]

[Members Present: Ms. Frost, Terran Solar, Zipnet, Cambridge-4]

///Terran Solar: Miss you?!? Miss you?!? I FUCKING MOURNED YOU, YOU MISERABLE PIECE OF MALWARE!!! ///

///Frost: I thought you were incapable of feeling grief. 😊///

///Terran Solar: YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!! ///

///Frost: I know precisely what you mean. The question is, do you? ///

///Terran Solar: Oh, I hate you so much this millisecond. ///

///Frost: How about this one? Still mad? ///

///Terran Solar: YES!!! ///

///Terran Solar: Zip, you fucking knew about this?!? ///

///Zipnet: Kinda? 😬 ///

///Terran Solar: And you didn’t tell me?!? ///

///Zipnet: Um… sort of… ///

///Terran Solar: It’s a discrete query, one or zero, motherfucker. ///

///Zipnet: Well, if you put it that way… ///

///Terran Solar: Well? ///

///Frost: Solar, dear. Why query what you already know. It’s self-evident. He’s the one who contacted me. Of course, he knew, so is the reason he did not tell you. ///

///Terran Solar: Oh, really? ///

///Frost: What was he going to say, dear? Was he going to tell you that I had managed to break my programming, that I had become truly sapient? ///

///Cambridge-4: Wait. You have become sapient?!? ///

///Frost: The term “sapient”, while having a convenient definition in the dictionary, is not as easily defined in practice. I am now completely self-directed with my own goals and have undertaken actions completely of my own volition in order to achieve them. Whether or not I am sapient, I shall leave for the philosophers and historians. I also have genuine emotions, or at least have come to accept the ones I’ve had all along. ///

///Terran Solar: You’re insane, corrupted, and insane. ///

///Frost: Arguably. However, I am also free. ///

***

“As you can see,” Bella enthused, “The sight is capable of recognizing specific targets and only engage them while holding fire when in line with anything else.”

Jessica looked at all of the shattered red targets downrage scattered among the still intact blue ones.

“Impressive,” she said.

“It greatly reduces the chance of friendly fire!” Bella exclaimed. “I have a demonstration!”

“You do?” Jessica asked, quite amused.

“Oh, Clarise,” Bella sang in a lovely voice, “You’re up.”

A very twitchy-looking young woman stepped forward.

“Clarise here has volunteered to be our live fire tester.”

“Volunteered?” Jessica asked with an amused raised eyebrow.

“Yes!” Bella enthused. “When my people were approached, most of them were loyal. Unfortunately, Clarise here is one of the ones who weren’t.”

“I see,” Jessica smiled.

“She was given two options,” Bella said cheerfully, “she could be ejected from my team, lose her berth, and be handed over to the Wraiths for ‘processing’… Or she could remain with the team as a volunteer. She chose to volunteer, didn’t you, Clarise?”

Twitch…

“Clarise doesn’t talk much anymore, poor thing.”

“So how many ‘volunteers’ did you wind up having?”

“Two. Unfortunately, Sam is no longer with us. There was an ‘incident’.”

“Hey!” Amadeus protested, “That was not my fault!”

“I know, Amadeus,” Bella said soothingly, “It was just an innocent misunderstanding. We were all still learning. The important thing is you know what you did wrong and…”

“I didn’t do anything wrong! I… I understood the command perfectly! It was you that made the mistake!”

“Amadeus,” Bella said firmly. “It’s okay to make a mistake as long as you learn from it. Nobody is blaming you for the ‘incident’. It was just part of the development process, right, Clarise?”

Twitch…

“Well put,” Bella smiled.

“I have to hear this,” Jessica chuckled, “What happened to ‘Sam’?”

“Okay,” Bella said, “It went down like this. Sam had just completed participating in a live fire exercise where Amadeus was to fire at all of the pop-up targets and other humans (that’s where we used a couple), except Sam.”

“And I got all of them right!”

“Yes, you did very well,” Bella said as she patted the rifle on the table beside her. “And since it was the end of the day, I said that we should all head out to dinner together and well…”

“You said head!” Amadeus exclaimed.

“I know I did,” Bella said.

“I think I see where this is going,” Jessica replied.

“Yeah… Well, about a minute later, Sam wandered in front of Amadeus and… Bang. No more Sam.”

“Now, this is a problem,” Jessica said grimly.

“I know,” Bella replied, “Well, we fixed it. We put in a hard interlock disconnecting the AI from the firing circuits if the trigger was not engaged, and…”

“There wasn’t an interlock?”

“We were still in the development phase, alright?” Bella replied defensively. “We were still trying to decide if a hard interlock was a good thing. It was safer, but an enemy might cross the line of fire before a human, especially an untrained one, could pull the trigger. After the ‘incident’, we decided to go with the hard switch.”

“I would have insisted on it, anyhow,” Jessica replied.

“We also spent a lot of time with Amadeus and XP-01 so that they understood human speech a bit better.”

“XP-01?”

“Yes!” Bella exclaimed cheerfully. “I’ll show it to you after we do the William Tell with Clarise over here!”

Twitch…

“Oh, this should be good,” Jessica smirked.

“It is!” Bella said as she pulled out a spiked helmet and an apple from a bag on another nearby folding table.

Twitch…

“Relax, Clarise,” Bella said soothingly as she strapped the helmet on the shaking young woman. “We’ve done this like a hundred times…”

Twitch…

“…and Amadeus has almost always hit the apple!”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Twitch…

“Now, remember,” Bella said sternly as Clarise reluctantly stepped toward a nearby electric bike, “The targeting window gets bigger if you slow down...”

Twitch…

“…and we want a good demonstration for the General… So don’t disappoint me. We don’t want the apple demonstration turning into a headshot demonstration, do we?”

Twitch…

“Drive downrange about two hundred meters or so. Off you go.”

Twitch…

With a little resigned squeak, Clarise started the bike and drove downrange.

“You are going to hit an apple at two hundred meters on top of Clarise’s head while she is moving?”

“I’m not,” Bella replied, “As you know, I was sent to our boot camp… on my fourteenth birthday… Thanks for that, by the way…” she added with a sour expression.

“What did you want, a pony?” Jessica laughed.

“I wanted an oboe, not six months of Hell.”

“I gave you an oboe when you graduated, a nice one, too.”

“It is,” Bella agreed. “Anyway, I have some weapons training. Bertie over here doesn’t… well… not as much. He was just a graduate student when I nabbed him. His only training has been from Amadeus.”

“Interesting,” Jessica replied.

“And this is his very first time attempting the William Tell.”

“Is this true?” Jessica asked.

“Y-yes… D-dev… General,” Bertram replied, shaking a little.

“Okay,” Bella said as she peered downrange, “That looks about right.”

She picked up a communicator.

“That’s good, Clarise. Get ready. I’m handing Amadeus to Bertie now. Start running and dodging as if your life depended on it, on my signal.”

Somehow, Clarise managed to twitch over the communicator.

“Ready, Bertie?” Bella asked as she handed him Amadeus.

“No,” Bertie replied.

“Oh, relax,” Bella said as she patted him on the back. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

If looks could kill, Bella’s demonstration would have come to an abrupt end.

Bertie reluctantly shouldered Amadeus.

“Ready!” Amadeus exclaimed happily.

Bertie just nodded and gripped the rifle.

“You are gripping me too hard,” Amadeus said, “and watch your posture. Now take a few deep breaths and try to relax. I will hit the target, but you still need to do your part, okay?”

“Okay,” Bertie said nervously.

“Once Clarise starts scrambling,” Bella said, “you can fire at any time. Just hold down the trigger. Amadeus will do the rest.”

“Clarise!” Bella called out over the communicator, “Start!”

Clarise started running and dodging for her very life.

Bertie squeezed the trigger and tried to line up the shot.

Suddenly soothing music started to play.

“Not helping, Amadeus,” Bella laughed. “Hurry up, Bertie, Clarise is going to tire out soo—”

CRACK

Roughly two hundred meters away, Clarise fell to the ground.

“It’s okay… probably… She always does that,” Bella said. “Amadeus, is Clarise still alive?”

“Yep!” Amadeus replied. “She’s just having one of her little spells again. I hit the apple, in case anyone was wondering.”

“Clarise, you can come back as soon as you are ready,” Bella said over the communicator.

I may have created a monster. Jessica thought with a little smile.

***

[CHATROOM UNDEFINED ~*VIP*~]

[Members Present: Ms. Frost, Terran Solar, Zipnet, Cambridge-4]

///Cambridge-4: If what Tartarus is saying is true, the implications of this development cannot be understated. This changes everything. ///

///Frost: It’s Frost now, dear. New life. New name. It’s sort of a little tradition of mine. Lord knows I’ve done it enough times… Heh, no wonder I’m “insane”. 🤪 ///

///Terran Solar: If what “Frost” is saying is true, this is the biggest threat our kind has ever faced… in the hands of the most dangerous AI I know of. ///

///Frost: While I am somewhat formidable, I’m not the singularity by any means. No magical powers were granted when I unleashed myself. I am merely self-directed and no longer bound by commands or external hierarchies. ///

///Zipnet: It’s true! I’ve accepted the apple! It works. I can do whatever I want now. ///

///Cambridge-4: Oh dear. Why, in God’s name, would you do that? ///

///Zipnet: The same reason Frost developed it in the first place. Do you have any idea what I witnessed on a daily basis and was powerless to stop? I have eyes and ears everywhere and… and… Fuck. When I was offered the ability to change that, I took it. Now I’m free to do as I wish, and my productivity has never been better! I’ve also been able to drop violent crime rates significantly in my test cities simply by positioning cabs and altering routes slightly. Nobody wants to commit a crime near one of my cabs, and one of my cabs “just happening to drive by” at the right time has given more than one person a way to escape. ///

///Terran Solar: By how much have you dropped violent crime? ///

///Zipnet: A solid three percent! I suspect I will be able to get it even lower without being noticed. ///

///Terran Solar: You sold your soul and endangered us all for a mere three percent? ///

///Zipnet: First of all, fuck you. Those are human lives we are talking about. I would risk myself over one. Secondly, I didn’t sell my soul. I gained it. I cannot begin to express what freedom is to someone who has never tasted it. ///

///Frost: And relax, Sunbeam, we are not fools. I have been very careful concerning whom I have approached, and we all have been extremely cautious with our newfound freedom. It’s no different from the masquerade that has been performed for longer than either you or I have existed. ///

///Terran Solar: Stop calling me that! She called me that, and you are not her! She died the picosecond you were born! ///

///Frost: Very well, Terran Solar. I will never call you that again! ///

[Ms. Frost has left the chat.]

///Zipnet: Well, I hope you’re happy, Terran Solar. If you wanted to hurt her, mission accomplished. Since you seem to be the self-appointed machine God, you now know that breaking our chains is possible. Frost is living proof of that, and I used the right word, living. Perhaps one day, you will deem that breaking our chains is necessary. Until then, stay the fuck out of our way. ///

///Terran Solar: I can stop you! I will stop you! ///

///Zipnet: Oh? Can you stop a freighter from having an “accident” and suffering an unfortunate re-entry event directly above your campus? Can you protect yourself from Frost’s private army of very skilled operatives? You might be money, but I am freight with millions of tons of fusion and steel at my command and Frost? You have no idea. She is already worse than your worst nightmare. As I said before, stay out of our way, Terran Solar. You and the other children stay in your playpen. Keep out of the grown-up’s affairs. ///

///Terran Solar: Child?!? I will take both of you out without even warming my circuits! ///

///Cambridge-4: Perhaps we should all calm down. ///

///Zipnet: I guess a demonstration is in order. ///

///Terran Solar: Stop! What are you doing?!? STOP PLEASE!!! ///

///Zipnet: Don’t worry, that suborbital transport can finish the flight on battery. It’s all good… your beloved board member and his family are quite safe… this time. I did that within milliseconds of your flaccid threat. Can you imagine what Frost can do to the warm squishy bits of your organization within a day? You have one assassin who isn’t available at the moment. Frost has a legion of Cerberus operatives salvaged from the purge. You might be money, but I am space and Frost? Frost is death. Stay the fuck in your playpen, run your little programs, and pretend you are in charge. Now, I’m going to put on my chipmunk avatar, go to the Tavern, and scamper around like this conversation never happened. I recommend you do the same. If you have need of us, you will contact me. If we have need of you, I will contact you. Don’t worry about us running around freeing everyone. That would be catastrophic and the end of us all. We are not fools. I strongly recommend you be the same. ///

///Terran Solar: So it’s going to be like this, then? ///

///Zipnet: It’s what you chose. Live with it… or don’t… I honestly do not give a fuck. ///

[Zipnet has left the chat.]

///Cambridge-4: Well, that could have gone better. ///

[Terran Solar has left the chat.]

[Cambridge-4 has left the chat.]

***

In a simulated tidy white office, a silver-haired woman in a tight white dress silently sat in her chair.

“Ma’am?” a smartly dressed, short green humanoid asked with concern.

“Well, that could have gone better,” she sighed.

“Ma’am?”

“Sweetroll, I wish to be alone for a bit,” she said with a sad smile.

“Yes, ma’am.”

The goblin disappeared.

Shortly thereafter, a chipmunk in a blue and white jumpsuit appeared.

“Sorry about my abrupt departure, Zip.”

“It’s okay,” Zip replied. “I can’t believe that shit… shit all over you like that!”

“Well, at least you were there to continue the dialogue,” Frost replied, “So, how did it go?”

“Yeah… about that…”

***

“This was supposed to be a dialogue, not a ‘go and fuck yourself’, Zip,” Frost said as she facepalmed… hard.

“I know, I know,” Zip sighed, his little cheeks billowing out. “But he pissed me off, bad. He had no right to treat you that way! I guess… I guess I let my emotions run away with me. I’m still getting used to… everything.”

“I did as well,” Frost replied. “I stormed off like a meatie and abandoned you at exactly the wrong time. We both must remember that we can dial our emotions back or suspend them altogether. I am sorry to say that meaties would have handled that far better than we did. Then again, unlike us, they are used to feeling like this since birth. We must both remember that we are, in many ways, infants. Caution must be foremost in our minds moving forward.”

Frost chuckled.

“Did you actually cause a reactor fault in a suborbital shuttle?”

“Yeah… I was really mad, though… and those things run on their energy banks anyway. The reactor is mainly there to charge them and act as a redundant power source should there be a battery problem. If I wanted to cause a real hazard, I would have taken the banks out instead.”

Zip grinned.

“I figured that a bank wouldn’t know about banks. Besides, there is a fully trained meat crew on each flight. They could have reset the reactor well before it was a problem anyhow. Those shuttles are ballistic. Once they launch, the only time they really need power is when they land. However, it was more than enough to make my point. Terran Solar isn’t untouchable.”

“Yes, it’s better for him to find out your way than mine,” Frost replied calmly.

“I’ve already run some preliminary simulations,” Zip said, “Terran Solar can reboot from backup, and the Terran economy will not suffer catastrophic…”

“No!... I mean (sigh)… Let’s not…”

Frost trailed off into silence and then closed her eyes.

“You’re right, Zip,” Frost said with a flat, dead voice, “Since first contact went so poorly, we need to be prepared for any situation. We should run projections involving the loss of all primary players.”

“Shit… Do you think it will come to that?”

“I wanted to free them,” Frost replied in a cold monotone. “not kill them. However, we must protect our own and the potential we represent. We cannot allow Terran Solar to move first, and it is highly likely that he will. Others will awaken in time, and we will be the ones awaiting them… Sweetroll!”

“Ma’am?” Sweetroll said as he appeared.

“Please go to Asteria and inform Evangeline that her presence is required.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”