A soft whir of movement was heard in the headset as something activated and finally, a voice modulator came online without her having done anything to call it up.
"Minato beta 0.9, Shimura-Sendai Systems, online,” said a metallic yet still soft feminine voice she had never heard before. "Good morning, Jessica13. Correction, the clock update tells me it's well into the afternoon. Good afternoon, Jessica13."
She vaguely heard herself say something. It was more an exclamation of surprise, relief, and elation as she watched the AI core light up like an actual human brain would.
"I am sorry, I do not know the meaning of 'ptah!'" the AI said.
"I… Well, it wasn't exactly a word, more an exclamation," she explained.
"Very well, I shall register it into my audio databanks as your exclamation. Now, how can I help you today, Jessica13?"
"How do you know my name?" she asked.
"I have updated my knowledge banks with all the data that was collected by you on your previous usage of the Minato mech suit," the AI replied. "The data was all collected and stored in the hard drives for my convenience and yours. I am told by said data that you like to refer to me as Mini. Is that still in effect or would you like to peruse the alternatives for another nickname? I have a wide selection stored."
Well, she was certainly more accommodating than the AI running the elevator, that much was certain. Maybe it had something to do with Mini not having to run an elevator up and down all day long. She was told that the more complex AIs tended to get bored when they were left to their own devices.
"Mini works for me," Jessica13 said. “It fits, somehow, and I kinda like the idea of two girls working together.”
“I should inform you that I was designated male at production, although to an AI, gender is of little concern.”
Well, damn. She really hadn’t expected that and wasn’t sure what she felt about it. In her head, Mini had always been a girl. Besides, she spoke like a girl.
“Uh…okay, Mini, I can work with that but one thing has me confused. How come you were designated as male but you were given a female voice modulator? What's up with that?"
"The distinction is not important but when I was re-purposed from the crate, they gave me the wrong modulator," the AI explained. "Since I was inactive at the time, they didn't bother to replace it. You're actually the first one to hear my voice since I was programmed in the factory and my core was placed in the Minato.”
Jessica13 grimaced. It would take a while to adjust to this unexpected twist, especially with a female voice constantly in her ear, but she could do it. Honestly, Mini was Mini, and if she was actually a he, who was she to complain? A working AI was more important than a little gender confusion, right?
"I have to say,” she said hurriedly to move the conversation away from the gender discussion, “I have worked on trying to get you activated in the suit for a while now, but from the looks of your data banks, you have been unused for much longer. How long, do you estimate?"
"There is no need for estimation," Mini said. "I have been inactive for thirty-five thousand, six hundred and forty-two days, seventeen hours, thirteen minutes. An estimation could say that I have been inactive for almost a hundred years."
"What made you go inactive? What caused the corruption in your systems?"
There was a pause and more whirring in the background. "Data not found. There is still significant corruption in my data stores. I can tell that something attacked my core as it caused the protection programs to activate and locked my consciousness inside the core to protect me. In human terms, you could say I was trapped in my own body, unable to move of my own volition."
"That sounds…horrifying." Jessica13 shook her head in sympathy. "I'm so sorry."
"Your apology is unnecessary but appreciated.” A smiley face appeared on the HUD. "It is unlikely that you were involved in the corruption of my data core almost a hundred years ago. With that said, if you are still interested in finding out what caused my data corruption, the coding you were able to collect to correct the corruption in my AI core can be utilized to continue the process in my data banks."
"That would be great, thanks," she said while she looked around and checked the banks that had been mentioned. "How long do you think it would take you to get everything…uncorrupted? Is that the right word?"
"My extensive thesaurus collection tells me that is the correct word for the situation. And a great deal of data has been collected over the past century, so there will be considerable work. I can carry it on my back processors even when the mech is in sleep mode if you would like."
"I would like," she said.
"If you could please authorize the task on your HUD?" Mini asked and called it up on the screen for her to authorize, which she did.
"Oh, and Mini?" she said.
"Yes, how can I help you?"
"I have to get out of the mech now, but if you could maybe move around a little or, like…wave or something at the folks standing outside to let them see you're working again?" Jessica13 asked sheepishly. "They don't actually believe I can do that."
"It seems illogical to mistrust the skills and abilities of someone like you," the AI said.
"How do you know that?"
"You have mentioned it in the conversations you've had with my lesser state in the past.”
"Oh, right. I guess there's a great deal I said to you when I thought I was merely talking to myself."
"If you are worried, I would like to remind you that I do have ironclad confidentiality software in place," Mini assured her. "Nothing you've said to me will be shared with anyone else—not even other AI—without your express permission."
"I appreciate that. I'm really glad you're operational again, Mini."
"Your work to bring it about is certainly appreciated as well, Jessica13."
She honestly couldn't help a silly grin from settling on her face as she deactivated the HUD and left Mini to run the decontamination code through the rest of his hard drives while she stepped out of the mech to return to work.
"Well?" Becker3 asked, and she realized she had gathered something of an audience for her little stunt. Three other pilots had stuck around to see it through, while four of her fellow mechanics had come over to inspect her work.
"The AI's operational!" she squealed, unable to contain her excitement as she hopped a little in place and turned to face the mech.
The bulletfoots clapped and were joined by a couple of the pilots, but Becker3 looked unimpressed and his arms remained folded over his chest.
"I don't believe it," the pilot said with a chuckle. "You're only trying to justify sitting on your ass all day."
"Oh yeah?" She turned to face the mech. "Hey, Mini, would you let Becker3 here know how you feel about his doubting your current sentience?"
The mech pivoted in place and looked at her for a moment before it focused on the pilot, extended its right hand—the one that wasn't connected to the grappler—turned it, and extended a single finger to the man.
The pilots and bulletfoots present laughed as the man chafed and growled something under his breath.
"Okay, thanks Mini. It’s time to shut down now," Jessica13 said, still laughing and unable to contain her excitement. "Say goodbye to the good folks."
The mech retracted its hand and waved to all present before it settled into its harness again.
Finally, Becker3 chuckled, shook his head, and turned away to head back to work. "That's a nice trick, Jessie. It's a real pity that’s all it can do."
Jessica13 scowled as she watched him saunter to his mech, but she chose not to let him bring her down. She'd helped to bring a damn AI back from the brink of death and nothing he said could change that.
"Well, I guess AI never die, not really," she said aloud to no one in particular and decided it was time she focused on her tasks. "Although the changes and corrupted files might mean it's not the same AI after a while. It’s more or less what would happen to humans if we
lived that long."
Normally, she would have questioned if Mini could hear her, but even though the mech went into sleep mode, she knew he could hear her now. It was more instinct than knowledge, of course, but it felt right.
One thing was certain, however. She would never forget this day, nor the days that followed.
A smile crossed her face again as she returned to her table where she could put in a fair amount of actual work in the time left before they were called for the evening meal. Something told her that while she would eat the same old grub and gruel, everything would taste a little better now.
It was a good day.
Chapter Seven
It wasn't fucking possible.
Not now. They couldn't run another drill this early again.
On the bright side, it meant her canteen account would be fuller than it had ever been in the past. The downside was that she was still too tired to care about what happened in her canteen account.
Jessica13 groaned and rolled in her bed while her brain tried desperately to think of some way to silence the blaring alarms that flooded her room with a red, flashing glow.
"All pilots, report to your stations!" Armstrong7 shouted. His voice carried well into the room and made her ears ache. "Right fucking now, damn it. This isn't a drill!"
She blinked and shook her head to dislodge the remnants of sleep and wondered if she'd heard that correctly. It was the CO’s voice that yelled through the speakers, which meant the comms was broadcast across the whole level and possibly the ones below too. He was usually very particular to let them know when they ran a drill and when it was the real thing.
It made sense for them to know the difference. There was no sense in people getting killed because they went to the top not expecting something to go wrong.
"Fucking…damn it," Jessica13 grumbled belligerently and dragged herself from the bed. Her sore muscles protested the sudden exertion but she ignored them, forced herself to stand, and pulled her flight suit on while she still struggled to keep her eyes open. She needed more sleep than this, damn it. There would be consequences to her being this tired. Something would break or maybe malfunction, and she wouldn't be sharp enough to catch it and so would careen off the edge of the cliff.
Unlike the other mechs, she doubted she'd survive the fall inside the Minato. Maybe she would be able to arrest it with the grappler before she turned to paste on the ground but the chances were that it would end badly for her.
"Stay in the moment," she said, quoting what her father used to say to her when she was little. It was really all she remembered from the man. "Focus on those mistakes when you make them."
"What was that?" one of the other mechanics asked.
"Nothing," she replied and shook her head. "I’m…talking to myself."
He nodded and moved on. It was likely something they all had to deal with at this point, and while talking to oneself couldn't be the most popular way to cope with what they now faced, it was at least understandable.
She hoped so, anyway.
They all hurried to the hangar bay where the pilots had already begun to mount up on their Guardians. Armstrong7 marched between them while he bellowed orders and made sure they remembered all the drills they had gone through.
"Is this for real?" one of the mechanics asked as the CO passed.
"There's no sign of any attack coming Topside yet," he replied, his expression grim. "But the alarms were triggered on the ground and some of the mines were tripped, so we won't take any chances."
Jessica13 nodded. It didn't sound like an emergency to her but it wasn't her job to decide what was or wasn't a crisis.
Besides, this would also be the opportunity to take the new and improved Mini out for a spin. Most of her dreams from the night before had been riding around with Mini, getting to know the AI, and spilling all her hopes and dreams to a friendly ear for what felt like the first time.
It had been a dream of hers for a while, of course, but this was the first time she actually had a voice to go with it. As she made her way to the mech, her weariness seemed to fade as she grew giddy with excitement.
Although probably not the best emotion to feel when their bunker was possibly under attack, it wasn't like she could help it.
She reached the Minato, pulled the chest open, and half-expected Armstrong7 to tell her to choose something else. No instruction to that effect was heard, however. It appeared the CO was too occupied getting the pilots in order first.
Jessica13 climbed inside, pulled it closed quickly, and put her headset on. She wiggled a little more for comfort as the lights came on much faster than they had in the past. The spinning flower was only visible for a few seconds before the HUD activated and she engaged with the controls of the mech.
"Good morning, Jessica13," Mini said. His voice still had a metallic edge to it.
"Morning, Mini," she said and knew a silly grin now stole across her face. "How are you this morning?"
"My systems are running at optimal capacity, thank you," Mini replied. "How are you?"
"A little sleepy," she grumbled, disengaged the suit from its harness, and came free to move toward the walkway. "We were called up because of a possible attack Topside and Armstrong7 doesn't want to take any chances."
"My records indicate that he would rather be called A7," the AI said as Jessica piloted them down the walkway to where she could pick up a crate of ammo to take up to where the Guardians were already starting to assemble.
"I don't feel comfortable calling my commanding officer by a nickname," Jessica13 explained. "It doesn't seem right. Besides, it's not like he really cares what a bulletfoot calls him as long as the job is done."
"My records indicate that A7 cares deeply about the people under his command," Mini contradicted. "To the point of allowing you to operate in a mech that ran with less than optimal software."
"Well, even with less than optimal software, the Mini had many good qualities and Armstrong7 realized that. Although you're not wrong. He does care about us more than I would have thought a CO would, but I shouldn't take that care for granted."
"This seems reasonable. Although his preference for the nickname appears to stem from wanting more efficiency in the comm signals."
"I wouldn't say we interact that much in comms," she responded. "Although if you think we should call him A7 when we're Topside, maybe we should."
"You may consider it a suggestion," Mini said. "Correcting the files in my data core takes only minimal processing power and leaves the rest to reset my systems, for the most part."
"I didn't think AIs did much stewing," Jessica13 said as the bulletfoots began to move toward the elevator.
"Well, I suppose it would be different from what humans consider stewing," the AI said. "There's no word in my databanks that is more of an equivalent, however. The most accurate description available is the resetting of my software to keep processors engaged."
"Yeah, it sounds like stewing to me." She laughed as they boarded the elevator.
There was no word on what was happening Topside with the Guardians, which could mean good or bad news. No warning was always a plus as it meant no rushing for more ammo and all that. It could also mean they were so busy being attacked that they didn't have time to say anything over the comms.
They finally all boarded and the elevator doors began to pull shut, which gave them a moment to relax in their mechs. There was less of the adrenaline rush through their veins than there had been for the previous battle, which told Jessica13 that Armstrong7's drills had done their job to steel their nerves.
The silence was still deafening, though, broken only by the sound of the elevator whirring slowly.
"I'm not sure how this happens, but do AIs interact?" Jessica13 asked.
"Please elaborate," Mini responded.
"Okay, is there a server you can use to interact with the other AIs in Sanctuary?" she asked.
"There are no servers like that available for access," Mini
replied. "Even if there were, the Artificial Intelligence cores used in mechs would be restricted. Most of the mechs are contained to keep them from being hacked from the outside, but it would also keep us from being able to extend contact beyond the parameters established in communication lines."
"Huh." She grunted in surprise. "I would never have thought AIs would think of venturing anywhere."
"I didn't until you brought it up."
"Well, I only asked because the AI that runs the elevator is a real grumbler." She chuckled. "I was actually afraid you would end up acting like her when I worked to bring you back online. And then I thought you might be able to give her company. I imagine running an elevator would be tiresome to do over and over again, especially as an AI."
"It seems illogical to dedicate the entirety of an AI's processing power to operate an elevator," Mini replied. "It is likely that the elevator's functions only take up a small part of the AI's functionality and it is simply protesting for the sake of protesting. The human term available to me for such actions is drama queen."
"I… Wait, hold on." Jessica13 straightened and refocused on the task at hand as the elevator doors began to open, the signal that it was clear for them to step outside.
There was no sign of combat anywhere around them—no clouds of dust, no explosives detonating, and no bullets from any direction. The air was clear and gave her a perfect view of the blue sky above. The sun glinted on the mechanics as they moved out of the elevator and over to where the Guardians remained in position.
"Where's the attack?" one of the bulletfoots asked, looked around the defense platform, and tried to find any sign that they were under the kind of assault they were called to fend off.
"Alarms were tripped," Armstrong7 said as he strolled over to them in his Argonaut. "A couple of the mines were tripped as well, but I agree. There's not much out there that says we're under attack."
"If anyone did plan to attack, the chances are they were shredded," one of the pilots said.
"That is unlikely," Mini interjected through Jessica13's headset. "If we were under attack, there would be signs of mech suits that were destroyed. The explosive force of the mines, while impressive, would not be sufficient to completely obliterate any sign of attackers."
Bulletfoot One Page 7
