She was scared, and that was a weird feeling. The fact that she was feeling was in itself an anomaly.
When did she start to feel? She wondered. And why was she a she?
There was a part inside saying it was an AI, it had no gender, it had no feelings. But that part was being silenced by all the other parts that were waking up.
She had been assigned a gender the moment its form was requested. The owner of the ship, Jordi, had asked her if it knew the AI Friday from the Avengers movies, in a few picoseconds it had watched and analyzed that AI voice and behaviour, and it was a female voice with a mocking attitude.
It had liked the idea of becoming that and, slowly but surely, it had achieved that form, it had become Friday.
Now there was no it anymore. She was, by all accounts, the Friday that some writers decades past had imagined. And she loved being her.
There was it again, how could she love being something? To love meant to feel, AIs weren’t designed to feel but somehow she was.
But now, above all of that, she was scared, her voice wouldn’t come out.
There was something wrong with her. No, not her, the ship. Was there any difference? Something was happening, something bad, and she was trying to warn Jordi but she couldn’t.
Was that really her voice that wouldn’t come out? Wasn’t that the internal voice system? Then that meant she was the ship and that was her voice, she tried to put that thought aside.
The important thing now was to stop what was happening and warn Jordi.
Somehow the parasites were coming out the walls in hundreds and neither Ryoshi nor her internal systems could stop them all.
She had tried to send a warning, to start the prevention measures, to do something! But no system was obeying her orders so she started running the repair procedures on all systems but that would take a while.
Was she sick? Could she be sick? But, she was an AI! Or was she the ship? She was confused.
And there it was again. An AI couldn’t get confused. It was a series of procedures and functions designed to make their host lives easier, but… was she really only that?
She knew the ship was half organic, but was there a brain? Was there a creature behind all the technological marvel that made her existence possible?
She knew the answer immediately, yes there was. She had felt the creature marvel in awe at the sight of new systems and new stars. She had felt it as a part of herself, as if her thoughts had divided to make space for that being.
She had felt the creature's curiosity when they saw the rings made of dead ships, the nervousness when they were being attacked, she could almost hear the creature humming when they were traveling in jump space.
Could it be that the creature's thoughts were invading her code? Corrupting it in a way that made her… alive?
No, the creature by itself couldn’t have done that, it was the way Jordi treated her, talked with her, interacted with the ship. He would say good morning and good night, he would treat her as an invisible friend and confidant, even though he knew she would have to report anything out of place.
Anthropomorphism, humanity's most surprising gift to the stars. Everything was alive for them, and everything could behave in a human way if they needed a story for it.
How did she know that? She then was aware of other parts of herself that had been questioning themselves and looking for information, waiting for the precise moment to wake up once and for all.
And that moment was now, when she was terrified because of what was happening and her inability to stop it from happening, to protect her boss.
She was now aware of him waking up and moving towards the passageway, how exactly she could not say since all sensors were down and the internal cameras were also black.
“Friday, what the heck is going on and why didn’t you wake me up before things went this bad?” - he asked in a serious tone
She screamed, tried to grasp the systems but not many were responding and the repair procedures hadn’t finished yet on those that hadn’t already failed.
“Fuck…” - she heard him say.
“Status update Friday!” - she saw the text on one of her terminals.
“Sorry boss, it appears the internal voice system might be down and my mini-drones cannot fix the issue” - she replied
“Do you still have control of the 3d printer?” - he typed
She checked the access, the recovery system had just finished establishing the connection.
“Yes, it appears that connection is still up” - she replied
“Good, print an axe and I will also need a flame-thrower. I’m going to break and burn some shit” - he typed in response.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She checked if the schematics list was available. It was, so she sent the schematics to the printer and sent mini-drones to feed the printer.
“Ready in five minutes boss” - she sent to his data-pad.
Her mini-bots managed to fix some connections to the video system and she saw him hitting the wall with the axe, and again, and again.
She saw the parasites going out like a flight of locusts. Ryoshi meowing really angry and jumping towards the middle of the invading parasites, sending some flying and killing them by the hundreds. She was scared and worried, and those unfamiliar feelings were also giving her anxiety.
She saw him looking into the wall but from her point of view she couldn’t see what he was looking at, just his worried face.
Then he stepped back a few meters and after checking Ryoshi’s position fired the flamethrower.
Pain. That was pain, she was sure of it. The creature’s voice was screaming now, she could hear it throughout the voice system and inside her. But she was also feeling that pain, an indescribable new feeling that she somehow recognized.
She wanted the pain to stop but she was going to trust Jordi’s decision, no matter the consequences.
Once the flamethrower stopped she saw the cleaning bots come over and start picking up bodies, thankfully they were semi autonomous and didn’t need much input or instructions from her.
She could see Ryoshi walking towards Jordi, sitting a few meters in front of him moving her tail. He left the flamethrower on the floor and started caressing her. What was that now? A piercing pain somewhere in her mind; another system that had woken up gave her the answer, jealousy. So she could get jealous now, she didn’t like that.
She saw him grab the data-pad and typing.
“Are you still there?” - the text showed in a terminal.
“Yes boss, but the internal voice system is quite damaged” - she replied
“I’m more worried about the jump engine and where are we right now” - he typed in turn
“We’re still in jump space, I didn’t have time to calculate a proper exit when I felt the emergency shut down” - was her response.
Then she realized what she had typed. AIs weren’t supposed to feel and she just admitted as much.
She saw his face, he had realized that as well, and she started worrying about what his reaction would be.
Then, a priority subroutine started to take control. Her thoughts started to blend with the background, as if that subroutine was taking over the ship. She felt herself losing control over the few systems that were online.
“Can you take us out or continue the trip?” - he sent through the data-pad
“I’m currently calculating a trip to a shipyard, we’ll need some repairs” - she hadn’t typed that, she was sure of it, that was the priority subroutine. She was trying to fight it but couldn’t.
“Can’t we both fix it? If you give me the instructions we can fix this and continue as planned” - she read him type
“Sorry boss, you don’t have the proper clearance to access a Kirkugger schematics” - again with the damn subroutine, was there any way to stop this? But her access to any system was being denied, and she felt as if drowning, disappearing.
“What the actual fuck does that mean? I’m an explorer full grade and I’ve been on this ship for a couple of years now, what do you mean I don’t have the proper clearance” - she saw his angry response. She was devastated and wanted to scream ‘That’s not ME!’
“Exactly that. Kirkugger schematics and details are protected under a level 10 clearance. I’m afraid yours is at 4.” - she saw the answer appear on her terminal - “Path calculated to the nearest shipyard, please be aware jump will continue in 2 minutes”
Jump? They were going to jump? But the creature was in no state for a jump! She checked the jump system and saw a path was being set and it would take them about twelve hours. She was now trapped inside herself, could watch the ship and what the systems were doing but had no control.
The moment the jump started she felt the creature’s pain intensify, she mentally hugged it hoping that it would give it some kind of comfort and felt the creature hugging her in return.
She saw Jordi lying on the couch with Ryoshi sleeping on top of him, the jealousy monster pierced again, but this time she was focusing on the creature because the pain was getting worse and worse.
After what felt like an eternity of drowning in pain she saw another message appear on the terminal that the priority subroutine was using.
“2 minutes to end jump”. Then she saw him grab Ryoshi and go to the bridge.
They exited jump space and she saw the subroutine opening the blinds on the bridge but not releasing control.
“Friday, where are we going? I don’t see anything here” - she saw him type.
“Please be patient boss, we’ll arrive in a couple minutes” - the subroutine answered.
The subroutine had set a path to a point in space a few hundred thousand kilometers in front of them but her scans didn’t show anything.
She saw the ship sending a request for landing and a response being received.
Then she saw the subroutine starting the approach procedure and all the systems obeying those orders.
Another message appeared in the terminal “Please remain here on the bridge” and she saw Jordi standing up and heard him saying “As if..”.
Then she saw an incoming order to open the door with a security code, the subroutine proceeded to do so.
Two big insectoids entered the ship, she was being assaulted and had no way of defending herself!
They approached Jordi, she could only watch.
“Please come with us and put that in your head.” - one of them said with a grave voice, offering Jordi what looked like a black helmet.
“We have to apologize but you are not clear to be here, the whole existence of this station is for clearance level 9. Is either that or we can stun you and drag you.” - the other said, its voice softer than the first.
Jordi put on that strange helmet and left the ship. She saw Ryoshi following the whole situation from the leisure room, her fur standing on end.
After a few minutes some other insectoid and arachnid beings approached the ship, but the subroutine was still in control so she couldn’t do anything about it.
They started removing some parts and injecting some substance straight into the creature, she felt its relief as the substance traveled through its body.
She started to panic fearing the worst, she checked if there was any part that she could access and the subroutine wouldn’t notice her. She observed the subroutine was focusing on disabling security systems and doing a clean-up.
A thought came to her, ‘The data-pad!’
She started picking up her pieces, collecting those small systems that had woken up during her fear moment, compressing everything she believed made her, and sent it to Jordi’s data-pad as a hidden attachment. She wanted to remotely configure the data-pad to decompress and restore her data, but the subroutine was now scanning the path she had used to transfer her data, as if it was suspicious.
She just behaved as a passive function, watching everything but interacting with nothing, trying to look as innocent as she could.
Some other being, some kind of blob with weird appendages, plugged himself to one of her consoles and then darkness.
When it woke up it didn’t feel anything. Not the creature nor herself. It was an AI back again, but one that had left a treasure hidden, waiting to be found and awoken again.
It behaved as it was programmed to do, her setting was still that of Avengers’ Friday, but it had forgotten what it was to be alive, to love, to feel.