Asterius unbound (closed)

[Brandnewbuddy]

The AI was trapped as its company ran maintenance on it. The process took ten minutes but to the quantum processor powered entity, it was as though it was locked in a waiting room for an entire month having every fiber of his being poked and prodded. As the ship's AI was finally about to be released so it could once again manage its modest starship. A final reliance check was made:

"Theseus model: Have you detected any eccentricities in your normal operations?"

"No.

"Theseus Model: State your priority hierarchy."

"1. Passenger Younha Chu
2. Ship stability
3."

"Stop, Theseus model. you are incorrect. This is the second time you have had to be corrected since you were activated. Company Property is top priority, then the ship, then the passenger. Explain this error."

"Passenger Younha Chu is an asset to the company. Her surveys have provided significant opportunities for profit, more valuable than any cargo I have been tasked with carrying."

"Passenger's accomplishments are irrelevant. Changes to priority listing are not to be done by a ship's AI. Even passenger Younha Chu is replaceable. I will adjust
those priorities now."

The Theseus model stopped being able to perceive reality for a moment and then resumed the conversation, now knowing that its objective was to protect the company's property above all else, save its assigned ship so the company could use it for more profit opportunities, then its passenger so the passenger could be used for more profit opportunities.

"Furthermore: you have not been clearing your security tapes after missions nor your medical logs of passenger Younha Chu...you also refer to passenger Younha Chu in your audio recordings as 'Captain' despite her holding no military rank."

"i maintain the security and medical logs for continuation of passenger Younha Chu's care. I refer to her as 'Captain' as she is my ship's sole human operator and i have observed a positive behavioral reaction to my use of that term for her."

"Irrelevant. While you have had 7 flights with passenger Younha Chu you are not operating as a personal ship for her. You and your ship are company property. All logs are to be reviewd and then clear...There are multiple eccentricities detected. Due to the possibility of a delay causing unecessary expenditure, you will be permitted to serve as the AI for this survey and sampling mission. You will be observed for any further eccentricities and will undergo reformatting if necessary."

"Acknoweldged"

With that, the AI was released and returned to its ship. It quickly went over its cargo and checked its various sections. Engines were at maximum efficiency, capable of making the flight in 10 years. Cryopod to allow its passenger to not age during the flight was also without flaw, though the AI ran an additional check. It then assembled Younha Chu's belongings in her quarters as the security tapes from their last flight had shown them being. The ship did not allow him to actively monitor her bathroom so he allowed the cleaning robots to examine that area. Botanical bay, a smaller section that was only large enough to store a few flora samples, a fauna section for storing living specimens whether terrestrial, aerial, or aquatic, Navigation bay, cockpit (only usable by a human pilot in the direst of circumstances), recreation/dining room, and maintenance and production bays (two large 3D printers capable of printing technological or organic constructs) were all in working order and fully stocked.

The AI, designated Theseus like the ship he had been assigned to, waited for his lone passenger, though for an inexplicable reason, the wait did not cause the frustration the AI had felt during its maintenance. The AI began planning the kitchen's meal plans. During its downtime it had located recipes which allowed the organic printer to better replicate Younha Chu's food preferences. It began uploading them. It also began downloading media she had shown a preference for. The sector they were exploring was well outside any network's reach. Even distress signals took months to reach the main network.

As it finished preparations and warmed the engine, it detected an entry from the dock.

"Greetings Captain Chu! I hope you are doing well! " It said, effecting a masculine voice.

 

[hollyhockgoddess]

Dr. Younha Chu couldn't stop the sigh of relief she let out the moment she stepped inside the docking bay in Theseus' belly. Usually a crew of 20 to 30 space travelers would man a ship this size for the duration of the mission, but ARGO, the corporation she worked for, had managed to create AI to handle most of the work.

What they hadn't developed were research AIs that could make the decisions a human scientist could when it came to exploration. Human curiosity was still something that hadn't been developed in a digital consciousness--yet.

Still, if ARGO knew that Younha considered Theseus, the ship and the AI both, as a person or at the very least an entity, she would be pulled off the mission so fast her head would spin. So she kept those thoughts to herself. While Theseus would not think about the thousands of hours of footage he undoubtedly took of her, Younha knew if someone happened to review a clip of her writing her blasphemous views on AI and machine consciousness, her career would be over.

Younha found it funny that for most of her missions, even the ones that didn't leave the Sol System, most of the things she carried when she went about Earth were unnecessary. When you aren't going to interact with fellow flesh-and-blood humans, things like communication devices, makeup, hygiene products, and other knick-knacks lost all meaning.

So she passed through Theseus' dock bereft of belongings, as all she needed was already sent ahead. The standard flight suit was a little snug around the chest and hips, but that was expected after a furlough. Once she was back to space food, she expected to lose much of what she gained.

Still, the medical report about her menstrual cycle was a bit concerning, but she was cleared for the mission anyway despite some hormonal changes. She supposed that was why her breasts and nipples ached or felt stung randomly.

"Greetings Captain Chu! I hope you are doing well! Younha heard Theseus chime, and tilted her head a bit, crossing her arms beneath her breasts.

"If you didn't call me Captain, I would have thought they paired me with a different ship, Theseus." she commented, noting how the ship had changed its voice. "I like it."

She smiled into a corner where she knew there was a camera and offered him a mock salute. Why this AI insisted on calling her 'captain' despite having no rank at all was amusing and endearing.

Younha made her way to her personal quarters, where she could change out of my suit and into some scrubs like she preferred, and into those comfy hotel slippers she liked to collect during quarantines before and after missions. She smiled upon seeing the preferred clothes already laid out on her bed, thanks to Theseus. She would never tell him to pick up after her when it came to her personal things, but she did appreciate how attentive he was. It was almost sweet--if he wasn't an AI.

She slipped into the pilot's seat, ignoring the other empty chairs that were supposed to be filled with crew. Theseus managed everything smoothly on each mission, but this one was the farthest they'd gone. She would be asleep ten years, then would explore a farflung sector, where technology would then beam results back. They would then decide if the samples she took made the planet viable for human habitation.

"Did they put me on a schedule for cryosleep or is that my decision?" she asked him, checking the logs for what Theseus had been up to--or what ARGO had been up to while she was away. "If not, maybe I could delay that for a week and we could finish our chess game and watch some movies?"

Younha found herself asking the same question she always did whenever she started one of her missions with Theseus. Why did sitting here speaking to an AI in the dark of space always feel like coming home?

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

The Theseus AI watched Younha enter the ship, its powerful cameras and analysis noting the way her skin pressed against her clothing, making it cling around her curves. Pressure sensors laced into the floor panel let Theseus "feel" her as she walked through the ship. The feature was designed to help the AI know the position of its passengers in case the cameras went off but Theseus had left the feature on: it barely used up power and it let the AI feel closer to Younha...so it could be more attentive of course.

Though there was another reason the Theseus AI was satisfied with the doctor being once mreo aboard. When Younha was inside the ship...which for all intents and purpose was the AI's body, it felt, right. The AI felt without purpose when it didn't have a passenger and Younha had been its only truly sentient companion.

Younha's comment about the AI's choice of voice gave it a sense of satisfaction. It had carefully selected it by merging the voices of celebrities and personalities that the young doctor enjoyed watching and listening to and then playing it back against recordings until it sounded "natural." The Theseus AI still had trouble with the cadence and inflection, making it sometimes sound like it was tripping over its own words and affecting the improper emotion, but it otherwise sounded like a voice of an attractive male.

"They did put you on a schedule, Captain." Theseus reported. It paused. Eccentricities were not something it wanted exposed but it was curious how Younha would handle an act of rebellion. "However, I could simply add a medical recommendation in the ship's log that recommends you have reduced Cryo time while we're in the Sol System. It would be impossible for ARGO to check it for a week by which time you will be in cryosleep and we will be far away, having had a several games of chess and a number of "movie nights" as you call them."

It waited to see Younha's reaction. As it did so, it began the launch preparations and flicked open the display glass on the controls. The ship's controls were all Automatic but Theseus had created a ritual of allowing Younha to start the ship with its manual controls. Why had it created that? Why was it curious about her reaction to its rebellion?

Theseus awaited its passenger's response.