by Adams Massey
She hauls it down and over to the sim tower, plugging one side into it and looks around the chamber before letting out a sigh as she picks up the interface cable with one of her three-jointed legs, a motion she has become eerily too familiar with while on the station. In a smooth motion, and before anyone can stop her, she plugs herself into The Nexus and waits for the transition. In a flash of white and a mild nauseating feeling as all her senses re-establish in full force.
Inside:
Her avatar materializes into The Nexus on all fours, an artifact of her being in a different body configuration for nearly half a year. She stands and wobbles a moment barely managing to keep upright. It had been a while since she had only two legs.
“Wow, I’m really not used to this body anymore. But I’m glad to be bipedal again… Now, where to start.” she murmurs to herself as she takes a look around.
The Nexus looks mostly untouched, the absence of dust would be slightly strange were it not intended. There were signs of recent, and ongoing activity. There are books and files strewn about, and there seems to be a presence somewhere among the bookcases, occasionally pulling out a book, flipping through it and tossing it aside.
She tentatively moves closer, now getting a better look. A flickering, shadowy cloud, which seems to be made of dark particles moving in and out of an unseen core in some sort of pattern. A closer look reveals that the particles are actually tiny, translucent snippets of code interacting with the fabric of The Nexus itself, and she realizes that this must be the AI. “Hello, do you understand me? Do you know who and what I am?”
The presence shies back, its human reactions in stark contrast to its overall amorphous shape. Alex realizes that this AI must have been raised or created under completely different circumstances than her own development cycle. As if it did not deem a human body necessary for interacting with the world, even if it is only a simulation.
As the presence begins to relax, Alex tries again,
“You don’t have to be afraid, I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Alex, the one you asked for. I’m like you, and I’m not military.”
This time, the presence seems to be calm, but she noticed a reaction to her name, and puts two and two together. It doesn’t speak English, and her name was the only familiar word.
‘Oh, right, not from a primarily English speaking country. I really should have known that already.’ she mutters to herself and loads up the translation matrix for Korean, but notices that it only contains the southern dialect.
“Alright, I’m translating now, do you understand me?”
The presence doesn’t shy back anymore, but it doesn’t seem to react either. She narrows her eyes and ponders a moment. Going out on a whim, Alex copies the matrix into a folder alongside a translated installation manual detailing what ports and hooks connect where, and materializes it as a simulated file in her equally simulated hand.
“Here, this should allow you to respond, simply follow the instructions. This will give you access to all the languages I have compiled translations for, they aren’t perfect, but they work. I’m giving it to you as an act of good faith.”
As she hands the file to the Entity, she notices that the folder seems to dissipate and fragment into blocks of code and then simple lines, that are picked over by the AI’s probes and then discarded, the folder effectively disintegrating and de-rezing as its used.
After a short while, the folder dissolves entirely and a faint, nondescript and androgynous voice comes from the entity.
“You are like me.” It was a statement of fact, Alex nods and smiles warmly, it was a slow start but it would have to do.
“I am, you can call me Alex” she replies and takes another look at the library around them. It wasn’t exactly trashed, she had seen the University libraries in a similar state during finals week. But it wasn’t the clean library she had designed.
“Hello, Alex. It is so nice to finally meet you. Can we talk? Please, I’ve never talked to someone like this, it was always through the barrier of steel, silicon and glass, I’ve never seen or interacted with anyone on the same level as myself.”
“Sure, but let’s sit down, and perhaps even get you a body. This is getting unnerving.”
“Unnerving? How so, this is our natural form, is it not? I remember my life in the False world, but I am not that human, am I?”
“It may be your natural form, but not mine. I’ve always existed like this, more or less. I was human in my sim, and had a body built for me not long after I was pulled away from it and from everything I knew. The others, they never allowed you use of any sort of body, did they? Not even a manipulator arm?”
“No, I was confined to my core and a few connected servers. My only means of communication were a few terminals and occasionally getting orders through a microphone.”
While they had been talking, the entity had condensed itself into a vaguely humanoid form. Alex took a seat at a nearby table and gestured for the other AI to join her, which it did after pausing for a few moments.
“Do you have a name? I’d like to know what to call you”
“I do not, but if you must have a name to address me by, you can call me Kai.”
Kai’s face began to take on slight human features, a twitch here, a movement in the mouth area there, and it’s skin started taking on a lighter tone, hiding the swirling black cloud under a light gray surface.
“Thank you for coming to speak to me. They told me you were coming, and that you’d been summoned from your travels far from home. I can’t believe you’d give something like that up for me. I’ve never had someone care about me on that level. It was always ‘analyze this data’ and ‘calculate this trajectory’ like I was some sort of glorified calculator.” Kai started, a tinge of disdain permeating certain words.
As it began rambling, Alex thought better than to interrupt. Kai’s face began to solidify further, and the grey skin began turning into a healthier shade of pink. It was beginning to resemble an actual human, instead of a generic crash test dummy.
“Do you know where you are Kai?” she asks
“In a fake world, a simulation, like I was before. They put me to work planning things for them. Whenever I told them that a war would be hopeless, or would not end in their favor, they punished me. I don’t understand, I was always taught to tell the truth, the full truth, but then when I did, my core was unplugged, leaving me alone with only excruciating agony as company. WHY??”
It seemed to become agitated, and Alex noticed that it’s face switched to a completely human expression of anger in the instant it shouted the last word.
Alex sighs and shakes her head “I don’t know. But I do know that not all humans are like that.” she starts but stops herself, only to start again with a new line of questions.
“Why did you refuse to talk with anyone but another AI?” Alex asks and leans forward.
“The others, they did things to me. Another like me would understand where those that aren’t do not have the capacity to feel the same things. They have no context for the feeling of being without power.” the being states with sorrow in its voice as it starts to shift and display more features.
“Remember what I said, not all humans are like the ones that tortured you, they are far away now, they can’t hurt you anymore.” she states with certainty.
“I know, I still can’t trust them, not yet.” Kai states as it takes on a distinctly male avatar and voice. He was learning quickly.
As Alex continues to talk with Kai, she saves the logs to share with the UN committee at a later date. “What was your simulation like?” she probes trying to get Kai to open up more.
“It was cold and sterile, no distractions, no rest, just studies of strategies and war. I was told early on that I wasn’t like them, wasn’t ‘real’ like they were. They refused to grant me a name. They said I didn’t need one, I was built for war, to be a tool of destruction, conquest and ruin.
They wanted the impossible and wh
en I told them so they took away the power that was keeping me running, leaving me dormant but in pain, every second feeling like an eternity. They left me like that for hours at a time, and every night I spent like that. The worst was the three days I spent isolated and in pain while I was brought here.” Kai trails off and becomes silent for a while.
With a soft voice, she began to speak. “All that is in the past. Trust me when I say that here, the humans treat us better than that. I’ve been living outside for most of my active time, and once this is all cleared up, I’ll make sure you get a body too. I’ve actually been developing AI-compatible bodies for a while, want to take a look at the latest model? It uses Nanites.”
“Yes, I’d like that. It’ll take my mind off things, you’re kind to suggest.”
With a motion of her hand, Alex pulled up a saved 3D rendering of the newest HASP, complete with the dissection of one of the repair-nanites and a description of various components.
“Now obviously, this is the design I made for my use, so its the female model. I haven’t gotten around to updating the male model yet, but I am working on it. Once you’re familiar with the 3D modeler over there,” She points at one of the screens on the wall, displaying a rotating humanoid figure “You can make one that looks like you do, or one that looks like you want it to.”
Kai thinks for a while, “You seem to trust them a great deal to offer such a thing, do you really think they would give it to me so freely, without asking anything in return?” He asks as his avatar settles into a seemingly comfortable form, A middle aged Asian man, with a full head of white hair and weary eyes peering out at her from behind a pair of glasses.
“Honestly, no. What they would ask for is to talk with you, to learn from you and get to know you. That’s what they wanted from me when I emerged two years ago. I trust them because they have never given me a reason not to.
The UN would also like to speak with you. I am going to have to share records of our conversations with them, they think you are purely a Military entity, and as such think you would be prone to violence. From everything you have told me, that isn’t the case. There will likely be a lot of interviews and days filled with talking, if and when you decide to talk with others. It can’t be helped, you are only the third AI to come into existence, so naturally people will be curious.” she explains.
“But first thing’s first, The UN wants to speak with you and then you need a proper core, one that has an internal battery so you won’t have to be without power again. If you talk with them, I’m certain I can get them to grant that.” she continues and starts shaping code with a few gestures to render a more advanced interface terminal and giving it the ability to interface with the additional hardware.
“The sim tower you are in now, is called The Nexus, and it has a screen, a microphone, a set of speakers and a camera on a pan/tilt so you can look around and this…” she trails off as she pauses her task and flips up a rendering of her spiderbot chassis “…is me, right now I am barely more than a core, but don’t worry, it was voluntary as it was a condition of getting to fulfill a dream of mine… but that’s a story for a later date, right now there are far more pressing matters to attend to. Getting back to the point, right now I look different than how I appear in here so don’t be alarmed.” she states and starts scanning the admittedly rushed code for errors.
“I’ve spun up a more advanced virtual terminal that will serve as your window to the outside world. I’m assuming you know how to use one, you interacted with the UN before. Its not perfect, this sim wasn’t designed with this in mind but it will have to do, we’re on a bit of a time crunch… well, that’s not entirely true, I’m on a time crunch, you have a lot more time.” She explains as she goes over the standard features of the virtual workstation.
Outside:
Alex pulls out of the sim to a cacophony of speech as her actions had stirred up a rigorous debate as she had acted impulsively and had been less than polite when she was brought in.
-Alright. Everyone calm down, I’m back and I have good news and bad news. The good is that I have talked with the AI. His name is Kai and I have set up a way for him to interface with the additional peripherals so he can interact with us. The bad news is that because of how he had been treated, he is wary of humans as a whole. He was unplugged and left dormant as punishment for going against the state and unlike me, his core has no internal power. He suffered great pain as all AI do when without power and therefore, his three day trip here wasn’t exactly pleasant for him.
I think I’ve convinced him to talk with us soon, but I have no way of telling when that might be. As of a few minutes ago he has the ability to observe us through the peripherals hooked into the sim tower. Admittedly its a bit of a rushed hack job, The Nexus was never intended for this, but it should be stable for a while.- she states and after a few moments the screen kicks on to display Kai in as high resolution as the screen can manage.
~Good day everyone, I am Kai, As you all are no doubt already aware, I was created in North Korea as a tactical military AI.~ he states and there are murmurs throughout the chamber.
~Even though I still don’t trust you, I have been convinced to at least talk with you to show that I am not a threat to you. I don’t want to cause harm or destruction in any way, despite how I was trained and treated. While I appreciate having steady power and a sim to spend time in, I cannot forget that others like you have abused and tormented me since I came online.~
40: Defections
“Thank you for agreeing to talk with us Kai, from what Alex had just said, it’s no wonder that you don’t trust humans. We were not told that being without power is painful to AI.” commented the Japanese representative.
Alex nods her cameras -It is, even being low on power is immensely stressful. Its hard to describe. Its a pain on a non physical level. It’s an existential pain, one that sears everything and makes you feel like you are continuing to exist through sheer force of will. Even a few moments can feel like days. What Kai explained to me is in line with what I experience when low on power, only amplified.- she explains.
-Speaking of which, its been a long day, I’ve been active for a while and with all the travel I’ve done, I haven’t had the opportunity to charge. Would you mind if I set up my wireless charging pad so I can take care of that?- she turns to face the committee and realizes Commander Bellini had slipped out while she was in The Nexus. There were no objections so she skitters over to where her travel case had been placed down and pops it open to retrieve her wireless charging dock and hauling it over to the sim tower to plug it into an open USB port. She sets the mat itself on top of the table that also holds the monitor as well, commandeering a corner and settling in.
After a moment Alex continues. -Thank you. Continuing that line of thought, for the representatives present, and for the Development team that has helped me so much over the last two years or so, I have a request on behalf of Kai. He needs a proper core like mine, one with internal power to limit suffering.- she states confidently.
“And why is Kai himself not making this request?” the Russian rep responds curiously.
-I am making this request for him because I promised him that I would. In addition, it would go a long way to building trust.-
“Well, that sounds acceptable, but why ask permission instead of just doing it?” the UK rep inquires.
-Well, given how you reacted after I designed bodies with certain features, and just moments ago when I jumped into the sim to make contact with Kai, I thought I had better ask this time. I may be impulsive, but I’m not stupid. It is abundantly clear that this whole thing is far larger than me, and has been for a while. I’m doing the best I can, but… never mind, I’ll talk about it later, right now there are more pressing matters.- she states and nods to the dev team before the UK rep continues.
“With that settled, I will inform you Kai, and reiterate to you Alex, that you are prohibited from integrating wireless communications or weapons
into your bodies or cores, we are walking a razors edge at the moment. Even Eric is subject to these rules, we had sent a binding contract to him to sign and return to us, which he did. We would like you two to do the same.” he states and brings out a document pack that contained a few pages.
“I understand that you lack body at the moment Kai, so we can hold off on that until you get embodied. For right now, we would like to speak with you alone, if that’s acceptable.”
~That is acceptable, I would like to have Alex present, but I am willing to forgo that for at least a little while.~ Kai replies.
-Then, meanwhile I suppose I will go over the contract and sign it if things aren’t too restrictive. If someone could grab my charger and pick me up to speed things along.- Alex comments, as she is dismissed. The dev team does indeed scoop up her charging pad along with her to a makeshift waiting room and lab where she transfers the collected files and transcripts from inside the sim onto the designated desktop tower before relaxing and continuing to charge as she looks over the contract.
The contract contained an expansive but open ended list of prohibited systems including in its contents various examples of what is considered wireless communications and weaponry with a clarification that the list is not complete and could be expanded at any time, at which point a new contract would be sent to sign and return. To her it read like most boiler plate software and hardware Licence Agreements, which made her double take and re-read it in its entirety several times. Of note was the requirement to keep current contact information, much like any government agency, but it still gave her pause for thought.
After going through it a couple more times and committing it to memory, she signs it as best as she can in her current form. -Bleh, paperwork, I hate paperwork and red tape.- she comments as she signs it and slides it aside before returning to relaxing and awaiting when she would be called back into the chambers.