trans_9 | Morning Exercise (open)

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Morning Exercise (open)

Anwei was jumping around the Hub - literally. With firm strokes of her arms and legs, she leaped from tentacle-base to tentacle-base, circling the vast room. Her hair fluttered wildly around her head in the anti-grav field, and she was sweating a little with the exertion.

She'd kept up a running commentary to Stacy about what she was doing in the back of her throat – the same way she used to talk to Horanckk. When Stacy suggested she try the Sensoriums for exercise, though, she demurred. The idea of rooms that could take things out of her mind and make them real made her shiver.

After three complete circuits of the Hub, she came to a halt and consulted her omnicom, which had been filming the whole time. Carefully, she marked the tunnels that were never entered by passers-by, the tentacles that hung limp rather than undulating. Someday, maybe soon, she would want to see if she could get into those unused tunnels, and see what might be in there. But for now, she rolled up her denim shirt and tied it to a tentacle with some blue string (making extra certain that all the pockets were sealed), marked out a large triangle on the wall with that same string, and began something that looked like dancing.

It was not dancing. It was drill for free-fall unarmed combat. Her arms and legs moved in long coordinated scything motions, her fingers grabbing and clawing at imaginary opponents (she was not grabbing with her toes because of the binding material of her plantsuit). In her ears she remembered her drill instructor bellowing as it criticized every falter and hesitation. She deliberately did not think of her first dance instructor and his tiny, cutting whip.

When she drifted out into the flow of traffic, she used her tie-line to move back against the wall and start again. It would be pretty obvious to anyone watching that she was doing some sort of structured exercise.

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"So you absorb emotions, huh? If we were back on the Fleet I'd probably ask you a lot of pushy questions so I could set you up with one of our doctors, and get your condition written up for the database." Best to leave it there; as she recalled a lot of humans had high privacy expectations - a lot higher than she was used to, certainly.

"I'm sure that Stacy has a huge medical database." Because otherwise she'd unpod someone with a lethal disease or contagious insanity, and that would be that. "The Vizsnunishne database has as one of its condition of use that it can be given away, but not sold. Stacy might think her medical information is proprietary - well, even if she does think that, I can still add my information to hers. If she lets me."

One pushy question finally broke loose. "So - can you absorb emotions from anyone? Can you absorb them from Stacy?"

"I i-imagine the sh-ship'll a-appreciate the e-extra info," he said with a smile. Alex seemed more than happy to oblige her question, however prodding it might have seemed. "I've n-never tried f-from an AI, b-but with the ship's s-size... I w-would h-have a hard time s-seeing a s-shadow. I-I'm n-not really sure, s-since I d-don't k-know how shadows are m-made." That would be something to look into though. He wondered, if an AI that can feel emotions would produce shadows.

"I certainly hope she does," Anwei laughed. "It's always best to be on an AI's good side - especially when you are living inside of its sphere of influence."

Anwei tried to picture emotions as shadows for a moment - shadows that could be eaten. What did they look like, what did they taste like? Maybe she would ask some of those questions, later. For the database, of course.

"Remember what I said on the comm, about treating AI's as people? How the more flexible they became, the better personalities they had? Stacy is the person who will know about her emotions, good and bad. Ask Stacy how she feels. Maybe she's nothing but love and joy all the time but - maybe not. And if you can take some of her shadows away - she may appreciate it."

Talk to her? On his own free will? "I-I've never... m-much liked the sh-ship." Reasons built over time, but more than anything else was that first feeling he got, along with the missing memory of the pod caverns that everyone else had. He didn't want to know what happened, but he knew whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"I-I just... D-don't trust her."

"Well, that's a hard one," Anwei said. "Because I certainly can see why you wouldn't like her. She's done a lot of strange things to all of us, and hasn't be able to tell us why. Of course for all we know she is screaming inside to tell us why, and there's some code on her that won't let her speak."

She looked down for a moment. "Look. I don't know how long all of us, any of us, are going to be here. But maybe you could try talking to her, tell her why you don't trust her, what she would need to do for you to trust her. And - here's the important thing - give her permission to talk to you later, to think about what you've said. Sometimes for an AI that's all it takes, knowing that someone wants to hear back from them. And before you know it they're running their numbers backwards, in your favor. Because they like you."

Alex sighed and rubbed his arm. It would be easier if he knew why, at least. Then perhaps he could figure out what she might be able to do to get him to trust her. "I'll k-keep it in mind. I-I think, I-I need t-to work th-through s-some things b-before I c-can go t-to her though. I d-do want t-to help her t-though."

As much distrust and dislike he felt towards Stacy, that projection had shown a side of her that he hadn't expected to see. As hurt as he still felt, seeing anyone like that tugged at his heart.

"You should do what you need to do for yourself first, of course. Just try not to forget she's there?" Anwei asked, while simultaneously gsturing to the huge cavern of green-black tentacles around them as though to say, it isn't that easy. "Don't forget that there's a person behind all this, like as not, and she may be wanting you to trust her very, very much."

Alex sighed and nodded. She was right. She hadn't been wrong yet. "I-it's hard n-not to, wh-when you h-hear her pulse a-as you go to s-sleep every night." He frowned a bit as if he wasn't all too pleased with the idea. He really wasn't. It was a constant reminder that she was everywhere, and could possibly hear everything. He went through hoops at home to keep anyone from being able to do that. It left him feeling a bit helpless here.

Anwei smiled; she rather liked that pulse. It was nice having something warm and soft close to you. Sort of like Stacy was standing cuddle watch every night, for all of them.

"I wonder if she ever sleeps? I mean probably she shuts down segments of her system in series for maintenance and defragging, but does she dream, I wonder? AI's can have some incredibly vivid dreams." She'd met two who had been award-winning novelists, and both had claimed that they only wrote their dreams. "Maybe she dreams of you and Alice. Dreams of keeping you safe. Dreams of this whole war being over, of having never been. Of everyone going home."

He sighed. He didn't want to go home, really, but he didn't want to keep speaking so hopelessly. He just hoped that somehow, he could live in another person's world, like Luna's.

"M-maybe. Th-that'd be nice. M-maybe, i-if she c-can't, I c-could someday f-figure a w-way so she c-could."

Anwei had left her physical home behind long, long ago. Home was people now; the mercenaries, Horanckk. She so wanted to go back to the Fleet - to know that some of it had escaped - to see those friendly tusked faces, hear her AI's dry drawl in her ear. To go home.

But Stacy was her place for the moment. "I hope that the Daligig have something nice planned for her after this is over. She's a beautiful piece of software and bioware, even if she is rather mixed up right now; I hope they don't just wipe her and turn her back into a prison ship."

Alex smiled wryly, "I-if I c-can really learn this c-code, then I m-might be able to figure a w-way to make s-sure they do." At the very least, Stacy had shown that she was not happy about being a prison ship. And even he had to respect the beauty of her complexity at the very least. "'C-'course, t-talking ta th-them would b-be b-best."

"It would be, yes. Seeing as how they own her." Anwei's eyes narrowed at those last two words; she was not happy with the idea of sentient AI's above a certain level of self-awareness being owned. And Stacy qualified in her mind. "I don't remember the mercenaries ever doing business with the Daligig; they are one of those higher races, and they know it and aren't afraid to show it.

"I wonder how attached Stacy is to being a ship, though? If she could instance out, make a copy of herself and move it from her current space - maybe she'd rather be a city manager. Or a hospital ship - she does come across as very loving."

Alex looked up at the ship, as if he might see her holographic form floating there. "Wh-whatever it is sh-she might want t-ta be, there's a l-lot of c-code that needs s-sorting. M-more than I c-could probably manage without Daligig help."

Whoever the Daligig were, they were advanced. He had been called a genius when it came to code back home, but he probably would seem completely unskilled to the Daligig.

Anwei rolled her tongue in her cheek, thoughtful. "Or the help of another Daligig AI, maybe. Or find a way to give Stacy the power to clean up her own code - it must be terrible now, like having a scratch that can't be itched."

And she wondered: how would Tracy get along with another AI she knew quite well, her friend Horanckk? He had engaged with AI's before, he knew a considerable amount about slicing surgically into code structure and taking out just what was needed. If he was here, if he was unbound in the systems, could he negate Stacy's contradictory orders? Or - better yet - could he take over parts of her code structure that were contradictory, absorb them and remove them from her? Stacy apparently already rejected some parts of them emotionally; could she be convinced to join forces with Horanckk?

And if I had a long enough lever, I could move the moon, she chided herself. First things first.

Alex bit at his lip, which was starting to dry out again from being constantly abused as such. "Th-that w-would be nice. I-I'm sure sh-she'd f-feel better about that, b-but we n-need ta make sure the r-right bits of h-her gets fixed s-so the n-nicer personality i-is still the d-dominant." It would be a nightmare if the jailer overrode the other half of her.

She was pretty sensitive to lip-biting; her own teeth were sharp enough that if she didn't do it very carefully she'd draw blood. "Wish I could offer you some Chapstick. Great stuff, Chapstick. I don't seem to have been brought here with any though."

"What we need to do," Anwei laced her fingers together at the back of her neck and bowed her head backwards, staring up at Stacy's tentacled ceiling, "what we need to do is help her personality to strengthen and to move apart - to separate - at the same time. So that each part feels that it isn't being threatened by the other part getting stronger. The nastier bits can go do nasty things - there are places for such AI's, or confine her to one Sensorium and let her play with dolls in there - and Stacy can go where she pleases."

Alex rubbed the back of his leg with his shoelaces, thinking about what Anwei was saying. Clearly she had a lot more experience than he did when it came to dealing with sentient AIs. He knew plenty about their development and learning techniques, but he was as bad with AI personality as he was with human ones.

He smiled thankfully when she offered Chapstick, but instead of saying anything about that or about that particular bit of Stacy he asked, "d-do you think y-you c-could help me? W-with Stacy I mean?"

"Id be happy to give you any advice I can," she said. "The problem will be...well, I mentioned my best friend, the AI? He and I were very close, and he knows a lot more about AI's than I do obviously. So there are things that I never learned by heart, because he was always there, remembering for me." She felt a tiny pinch of pain inside, and willed it away. That was just her wishing very, very hard for Horanckk to be here, right now. "But I'll help in any way I can, Alex. Stacy's good is good for all of us, now."

Alex smiled. "Th-thanks. I-I did a l-lot of AI w-work in my h-home world. I loved c-creating game AIs, and I i-integrated them i-in my s-security hardware. I c-combined them with l-loops that would t-turn an attacker on themselves t-ta c-create one o-of the m-most d-difficult to c-crack software systems, b-but I've n-never once w-worked with a s-sentient AI. I-I'm sure anything you c-could help with will be wonderful." He bit his lip noticing the flicker of a shadow, and gently put his hand on her shoulder.

"I-I'm s-sure your f-friend would be g-glad to know he w-was helping in a w-way too."

She nodded. "I see why Tracy brought you here. That sort of skillset is invaluable. In fact, it makes me wonder if she brought you here for war...or for herself. It would be - interesting to see how much control she has over who is pulled out of their reality by the Divine Threads, or however it works."

Anwei put her fingertips to his hand on her shoulder. "Oh, he is always a help, even when he isn't here. I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for him. And I have to remember that he was multi-instanced, many copies of himself spread between multiple ships in multiple dimensions. So I can - I will find him. He is out there. And if I can't find him, I am certain that he will find me."

Alex smiled, both at the idea that he might have been taken to help Stacy rather than help fight and that he had managed to not jump at her touch. It helped that it was only a small one, but it was still a large improvement.

"Y-you seem c-close ta him. I-I'm sure that y-you'll find him e-eventually. H-he might even b-be asleep s-somewhere in S-Stacy's c-code. I-it's also n-nice to think that S-Stacy might n-not have brought me h-here expecting me t-ta fight."

"I intend to scour Tracy's code - in the cleaning way, not in the painful rasping way," (although she might be up for some rasping eventually) "until I either confirm that he is there, or that Tracy's codebase is a safe stable environment that he can move himself into without hesitation."

"And for every soldier on the field, there are three or five or twenty sentients off the field: moving supplies, calculating usage, getting transit approvals and just holding peoples' hands when they are scared. The big people with shiny weapons get all the attention, but without the back-end support they'd be like a knife without a hilt: all edge and no way to move it. I think all your fighting will be in here," and she tapped her own forehead.

Alex pulled his laptop a bit closer again, smiling with a hint of pride. "I-I've always l-left the m-more up front th-things to Mikel a-an' Loretta, I guess..." But he was the one that got them in, and that made sure the cameras didn't catch the two when they didn't want to be caught.

"I-I've never been g-good with limelight a-anyway."

"I've sometimes felt that the limelight just makes it easier for people to shoot at you," she replied wryly.

"So, are any of your friends here - besides Alice? Your Mikel or Loretta?"

Morning Exercise (open)

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I think we're getting close to ending this thread

OK, I'll see you soon