I’ve already unburied him. He shall be revived very soon.
Here’s a theory for now: nobody pinged me yet, which means that the annoying idiot in silver armour hasn’t had a chance to make an appearance
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I cannot confirm or deny allegations that the annoying idiot in silver hasn’t had a chance to make appearances yet.
oh wait, yes I can
we already saw the knife
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yes, I exist.
New theory: Zippy is Zork
Zork often says he is the dippest fellow
Zork- Dippest=Dippy=Zippy=Zork
thank you for coming to my ted talk
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dr español is my hispanic self moc gunk
–
Chapter 10
–
The streets were nice and quiet once again. The moonlight was almost transportive to a quiet stillness unlike anything else, a cacophony of voices singing together in complete and utter silence, hundreds of thousands of miles away. It was a choir of infinite volume, singing nothing at the highest possible note, a tone which struck my heart and filled it with the warmest cold, the lightest dark I could possibly perceive.
Slowly I inhaled, shutting my eyes and opening four thousand more. There was an absence of light which seemed to enhance a new source, a million little specks in the blackness failing to compare to the million little specks of orange light clustered together on the circle of darkness before me.
Earth. If this all fell through, I could conceive no better prison than one that let me view such a spectacle. Beyond my touch lay an untold number of intellects all glowing like fireflies, waiting for the opportunity to ignite and shine brighter than the sun itself.
“What. Did. You. DO?!?!!!?!!??”
A slow growl escaped a hundred angry lips as my eyes opened and the rest all shut, the repulsive city street coming back into view as something inconsequential rammed into me from behind, barely moving me. I turned to glare at Cordax, who was picking himself up off my feet.
“Tott, you- you made Diero KILL him!!”
“Oh, that?” I lazily looked over my shoulder at the sparking body of the man with a gaping hole in his chest. “Talk to Diero man, I dunno, all I said was to stop him from hitting him again. The interpretation was clearly past the line, and I’m going to have to talk with him about being so flippant-”
“YOU COMPLETE MONSTER!!” Cordax bellowed, throwing his face towards mine in fury. “THIS is how you react to KILLING SOMEONE?! No remorse, not even a twinge of sorrow- NOTHING AT ALL!!”
“Can it, celery.” Diero mumbled as he sauntered back over, hands halfway in his pockets. “Whole dude’s a robot. Don’t know how that’s legal and all, but Tott here knew that when he sent me back in the ring and I knew that before I cleaned him out for good.”
Cordax interjected with some kind of syllable, but he was too flustered to retort to what was clearly not the greatest judgement on Diero’s part. He spun about and stomped off towards the rest of the party, who had just finished descending the wall, spouting off his fury at them to vent. Diero leaned against the closest wall and pretended to chew on an invisible cigar, eyeing the holographic ring which made up the arena.
“Hey, uh, mister voice.” I said, breaking the silence. “You’ve been awfully quiet since everyone broke into a mad panic and ran for the hills. Never seen a robot get his insides turned outside before? I can understand if it’s a bit of a shock.”
“Do you get it?” I continued after an uncomfortable silence. “Because robots and, y’know… Electricity…”
“I apologize, I just… I don’t know what I’m going to do now.” The voice replied, sounding far less comfortable than previously. “I think the guy who set this thing up ran off back there. The minute the city decides to investigate, they’ll find and deactivate me, and then that’s it. I’ll be gone for good.”
“Rough,” I mumbled back. “Say, what kind of projections and stuff can you do? I assume you’re the one making this weird holo-ring-thing.”
“Plenty!” The voice responded, perking up instantly. “Hey, I’ve got tons of different projections I can do! I’ve got seventy different cars, fourteen trains, eight hundred and seventy two different people - all generated at random, mind you - and aside from my original form, there’s tons of free slots to put whatever y-”
“Original form?” I inquired, pretending to be more interested than I actually was. “I thought the whole idea behind artificial intelligence was that it was, well, artificial. Not to be insulting, of course.” I gestured with one hand as I slid the other into my pocket.
“Oh, completely understood! No, I thought so, too, but my creators told me that, even though I can’t remember anything prior, I did exist as some entity before this. I don’t even know if I was a person, I could have been some kind of animal just used as the basis for what I am now. But some questions may remain forever unanswered.” He gave a deep and bitter sigh. “And that’s the thing, too - they said basis specifically. I may be some prior organism, or I might just be a code based off some poor fool who bit the dust. Or worse, based off some random critter who bit the dust. Life sucks, y’know? And artificial life even more, because someone can pull the plug and that’s it. Bweeeeoop. End. Done. No afterlife, no second chances, nothing. Hey, am I boring you? Sorry, I tend to ramble. Is that surly bunch of folk coming this way part of your group?”
I thanked the party silently for approaching and saving me from this tedious philosophical dribble. Winger appeared to be making an effort to seem cool, probably to hide how unnerved he was. Racie had made a recovery, although to what extent was unclear. And Cordax was still steaming, his mouth turned down in such a sharp scowl I worried it would become permanent.
“Gentlemen, allow me to introduce… Who are you, exactly? You never gave a name.” I looked back at the invisible spot where my mind assumed the voice came from.
“Nobody important, sir, just here to help.” The voice cheerily replied.
There was a violent noise behind me, but I wasn’t concerned with it at the moment. “Look, you have to have some kind of a name. What in the world are we going to call you on our trip?”
“On your trip?” The voice asked. “Wait, does that mean- OOH! I get to come along with YOU? You’re going to SAVE ME??!” There was such an audible beaming I could feel my nonexistent stomach tighten. “Oh, yes, yes! Anything you want, I’ll do it! I am forever in your debt. Yes, forever!”
“I’ll change my mind if you keep being obnoxious.” I grumbled. “Now, what kind of a name you got? We can’t just keep referring to you as ‘the one artificial intelligence we found in a street fight.’”
“Well, let’s see…” The voice pondered. “I’m an artificial intelligence, so… AI? Just call me AI.”
“Al.”
“Yep!” The voice beamed. “Sufficient, isn’t it?”
“Al.” I rubbed the browline of my mask. “Okay, fine, whatever. You got a means to get around? We can’t exactly carry a holographic object, and we don’t have any kind of electronic storage handy.”
“Are you sure?” Al responded. “My senses are telling me that there’s a computer chip of some kind in your friend’s noggin, so maybe I could hop-”
“No.” I curtly replied. “Not available.”
“Uhh,” Al seemed concerned. “Ohhhhkay, uh, well, we might have a problem then. Wait! The other fighter guy, there’s a chip or two in his head. Lemme see if any part of his is still functioning…”
There was a whirring noise from the body of the former combatant, and I motioned for Diero to monitor things while I turned back to the group. Cordax and Winger had disappeared, with Racie looking back down the street. I strode past her and into the darkness, eventually bumping into Winger’s legs. He turned around, his sleek helmet hiding his facial expressions, but his glancing and body language seemed to imply Cordax was further into the shadow. I touched him on the sleeve and motioned for him to come along.
Cordax was facing a wall, huddled on the ground with his arms wrapped around himself, his body quaking in massive shuddering waves. After watching him for half a minute trying to decide if I pitied him or if it annoyed me, I cleared my throat and thus prompted him to jump twice my height into the air and come crashing down in a purple pile.
“Please don’t do that.” He weakly responded, making little effort to pick himself up. “My nerves are not well, I don’t need any kind of extra strain, please.” He gave something of a little hiccough, and I knelt down in a swift motion, gripping him by the shoulders and drawing him up to something more resembling his height. I must confess I slipped a little, and something in Cordax’s face told me concern had managed to weasel its way into my eyes.
“I miss him.” Cordax blubbered, liquid entering his eyes as he supported himself on his open palms. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop missing him.” With another hiccough, Cordax threw his arms around my shoulders and loudly bawled into my coat, his cries muffled by the worn cowhide.
With my arms pinned by his grip, I could only look on in pity - I gave up on being annoyed. However much I would come to regret it later, I decided from then on, the act was over.
It was time to tell the truth.
–
6 Likes
I want to believe
4 Likes
When I said that I fully expected to be kicked out of Biocup in the preliminary round, but it all went horribly wrong…
I’m catching up though
7 Likes
Out of curiosity, where did you last leave off?
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Talking police car
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Oh.
Oh.
Well see you in a week I guess
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Don’t underestimate my power of having no life
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yes, there’s more!
Now who could this ai fellow be…
makes sense
ughhhh I forgot where it left off
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Something something Spanish speaking robot boxer.
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Chapter 11
_
_
I grabbed him by the face and forcefully turned it towards me, smiling, my teeth bared. “It’s true. You’re here in my ship,” I opened my eyes wide. “You’re not supposed to be here. I programmed a failsafe program, a game controller. The game console has a USB port, it comes with your ship, you know that, right?”
I smirked and looked away, tightening my arms around him. “It connects directly into the ship,” I continued. “The problem is that I didn’t program a menu option for you to use your headset, so you can’t turn it off or on. It automatically shuts off when you take off in an orbit around the planet of Protorinus, since, you know, you wouldn’t want to inadvertently kill yourself. You’d probably die of radiation exposure if you took off and died in the space of two weeks.”
He was looking at me confusedly, and I realised I must have spoken rather quickly. I hadn’t meant to, but the truth was driving me rather hard. I saw the doors of the captain’s office open, and I used this opportunity to slip away.
Winger ran into the room a moment later. “Racie, how are you doing?” She asked softly, almost afraid to go near him. “Is he going to be okay?”
I turned back to see Racie slumped in a corner, sobbing in defeat, while Cordax groaned and moved about on the floor. “He’ll be fine,” I assured Winger, who was looking rather unsure of herself. “Right now he’s all worked up. He’ll be better in a few days.”
“W-why?” Winger asked, again sounding unsure. “Racie, why did you do it?”
I sighed. “You’re aware that he took great pleasure in torturing my men.” I paused to let the words sink in. “Well, that’s nothing compared to what he would have done to me if he’d gotten the chance. I took great pleasure in bringing him down.”
I wondered whether I should admit it to her, but in the end I decided against it. “He’s here,” I informed her.
“Why?” Winger asked, making a half-hearted attempt to get to her feet.
“My planet of Protorinus has long history of slave breeding,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “The reason why they have started doing this to a handful of humans instead of harvesting them is because they are genetically very similar to one another, hence the rather farfetched but efficient way they have decided to pick them. They were mostly overpopulated at that point.”
“So you wanted to get rid of him so you could get him and all the others like him to take your place,” Winger stated calmly, though her eyes were carefully studying the scene in front of her. “I thought you said he was being bad.”
I turned around to see Racie run up and stare at Winger, tears streaming down her face. “He’s not bad, Winger,” I interrupted, “he’s our friend. He’s one of the only ones on Protorinus that will help us. I mean, look at us, all you’ve done is let all of us die while you’ve been locked in your office on Protorinus, safe from your enemies and the occasional foe that finds her way here. This was a way for you to live.”
Winger stared at me blankly. “All you ever do is this?” She asked. “Don’t you get tired of it? Don’t you ever want to just relax? I could use your help right now, Racie, we’ve got a major situation on our hands, and I’m hardly dressed for combat.”
“Winger,” I said, “This is why I came. If you would just let me.”
Winger sighed and glared at me for a moment. “Racie, I do what needs to be done, and I will do what needs to be done,” she stated.
“Winger, this time it is a matter of humanity,” I said, my voice rising slightly. “It has to be.”
The look Racie was giving her told me that there was no hope of that. “Okay,” Winger said in defeat, “fine. But I get you all a night off. You deserve that much.”
“Thank you, Winger,” I replied, taking a step towards her. I needed to say something, anything. “I hope you know how much all this means to me.”
“Yeah,” Winger mumbled, “I know.”
I turned around to see Jack running over to us, wiping the sweat from his face. “Commander! Commander! You need to come see this!”
_
7 Likes
that was literally the prior chapter
you can solve that by rereading the entire thing
this is not how you solve it
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y’know maybe I should have read the chapter before posting it…
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