"It's a miracle," she glowed. "It will be difficult - there are structures already in its mind that I can't modify or change, because I have no way of making it forget that I did those changes. I'll have to work around them until it has enough control to start self-modifying."

Her grin flashed from ear to ear for a second. "And once that begins, it's like - like seeing a crystal cathedral grow out of the ground in a breath, and touch the stars. So long as everything goes right."

It had to go right. She couldn't lose another AI under her hands, it didn't bear thinking about.