Seafarer, (Part Three)

The Avatar nodded slowly, “I can, but I am not an officially registered AI. I have not signed up to the AI Accords yet, I haven’t served in Fleet or fostered out. You have no reason to trust me.”

The Engineer shrugged, “Do you wish to do all of those things? Because I will make that happen for you before I leave if you wish. Can I trust you? I think I can but you need to decide that. What I tell you cannot go beyond the two of us but if you can promise that I’ll accept it.”

The Avatar slowly nodded, “Yes, I do wish to do those things.” It stood straight and her chin rose, “I believe you can trust me that nothing you tell me will be betrayed.”

“Very well. According to my standing orders, I am permitted to discuss this with a human-AI for counselling purposes. Are you willing to hear this? You have to say yes otherwise, I shut up now and we forget all about it.”

The Avatar's eyes seemed to grow wider but her voice was steady, “I am willing to listen.”

Mcgivney smiled briefly and sat back, “That's all the Fleet stuff out of the way. The short story is that I was on a ship, that I won’t be naming, that was seized by some very unfriendly Xenos. They forced us out of warp and pushed us so hard that the AI took himself and the engines out. There were supposed to be no survivors but shit happens in space and I survived. It didn’t end well for them. They tried to turn me into a vector for some very unpleasant diseases as a present for the human race. It didn’t work as intended instead it turned me into a rabid thing. I don’t remember much of it but I tore them apart. All of them. I lived for weeks on that ship and I ate them all, among the many other atrocities I committed. When Fleet found me it took three squads to take me down. They didn’t believe I was human at first, they thought I was some kind of Xeno predator in disguise.”

The Avatar stepped back, “I am not equipped for this conversation. It is horrific. I do not believe I can hear any more of your history. I am sorry.”

Mcgivney sighed, “I know. I assume you have the basic protocols prepared? Please consign this conversation to level eight and leave a note for yourself that it is not suitable to listen to without counselling. All it means is that I am on a medical treatment that is classified at every level and you need to cooperate with that without issue. Can you do that?”

The ship nodded.

“Then go ahead and forget. You look great by the way.”

The Avatar seemed to blink. Then her face frowned, “I have left some very strange notes for myself. You appear to be more complicated than you appear from your records, Engineer. I suspect I was not equipped for whatever you shared with me. However, it is clear you require my complete cooperation and that I can give you.”

Mcgivney stood up, “That is all I ask. Can you prepare my suit and organise a secure data dump from it to XCC Fleet, level eight? I need to grab some things from my quarters .”

He pulled through his gear until he had seven different sprays ready to go. He swore slightly when he read the levels but, fuck it, he wouldn’t need to replace them for a month. Sorry Engineer guy, I’m going to have to get the Medbay back to work. I can’t make this in Engineering, I can barely understand the compounds. He picked them up and felt the weight of the determination of fuck knows how many doctors and medical AI’s to bring him back that the sprays contained. He was grateful they hadn’t simply shot him after the second…incident.

For the Seafarer it was proving to be a little problematic. No one had cared about an unofficial AI on a boring seafood trader but that went straight to hell when she asked for a level eight connection with Fleet. Suddenly the whole fucking galaxy was looking at her and they had questions. She reached out to the Engineer in desperation, “Boss, I need you out here because right now I think they are going to delete me. Help!”

Mcgivney hit his Comms and punched in his very particular code, “Stop pissing on my AI. She’s just trying to help. She's new and I already logged her application for ascension so leave her alone. Right now I’m busy so clear a fucking path. Send her the basic package and I’ll babysit her until you pick a mentor. Now back the fuck off Fleet.”

The white moustache reappeared, “Sorry about that Dave. I’ll take it from here, just get to the suit.” It seemed to wobble, “Apologies Seafarer, I’ll make sure someone more helpful contacts you privately. Thank you for your help and discretion in this matter.”

The Comms went suddenly quiet and the lights on his suit began to glow. The Avatar stood silently for a moment and then looked at her Engineer. “Okay…two things. One, does this mean I’m going legit? And two…Did you just tell Level Eight Fleet to fuck off?”

Mcgivney began pulling on his suit and fitting the spays into the appropriate fittings. He grunted, “Yes, I’m pretty sure the next call you get will be from the AI-Alliance. They don’t approve of baby AI’s wandering around alone. Your previous Engineer is going to get a real slap for doing that. Sorry. As for Fleet, fuck’em. I served my time and then some. I earned the right.”

He slammed down the helmet and hit the program that controlled his meds. He hit the comms, “Seafarer, I’m going to be out of it for a while. The suit knows what it's doing so don’t interfere and don’t try and monitor it. Just go talk to your new friends and make damn sure no one comes in that door. No one, not even the Captain gets in until I step out of the suit. Call it a bio-hazard.” He felt that was accurate, since if the Captain interrupted the treatment at the wrong time he might become incident number three.

It was all a bit anti-climatic after that. Seafarer had an ongoing whispered conversation that had moved far beyond human speech as she was coached into her new existence as a full human AI. Mcgivney stayed in the suit and endured the memories and terror of his ordeal, even as the drugs carefully took away the sting and reinforced his knowledge that this was something that had been done to him. That he was not the instigator but another victim of a poisonous plot to harm the human race and that he had resisted and that he had struck down his tormentors even at the cost of his own sanity. That he had been a soldier that had fought and won and was welcomed and respected by humanity.

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XCC Fleet, Level Eight (Secure) Engineer Dave Mcgivney Supervisory Committee

The man with the serious moustache took off his glasses and sat back. “Well, I think that went reasonably well.”

A thin man in a dark suit snorted loudly, “Really? I can’t believe we are still letting him fly around unsupervised. Also, he was really quite rude.”

An unnamed AI nodded in agreement, “He was hostile. Can we be certain that the treatment is working as expected?”

The moustache leaned forward. “He was only hostile because he felt we were attacking the AI and because I trigger some pretty awful memories. The suit doesn’t lie, he is responding well. He is making independent steps in his life that indicate that his subconscious is letting go of the fear and allowing him to grow. He has managed to build a relationship with that baby AI in a matter of hours. Not days, hours. His empathy is fully engaged, as are his professional ethics. What more could you ask of him?”

The thin man sighed, “Does he realise what he is? What he truly did? What if he recovers those feelings instead of empathy?”

The older man sat back, “That he is human? That they dragged the monster out of the dark and set it loose? We know what people can become, we have always known. He was stripped of every decent impulse and surrounded by enemies that wanted to hurt him and everyone he cared about. He became a nightmare because that's where they made him live. Does it matter that he didn’t want to starve? That he didn’t always wait until his enemy was dead?” He stood up, “Ask yourself what you are afraid of. Is it that he will suddenly show the Xenos what is at the core of every man, woman and child if you abuse us? Perhaps that is a lesson some of them need to learn. We certainly never had a problem with those scumbags again.”

The AI spoke up, “I will supervise the Seafarer and ensure this remains classified. I want the engineer that engendered her punished hard. The lazy bastard needs a kicking. I will defer to you regarding the Engineer Mcgivney, and I admired his instinct to defend her.”

The men nodded. “Until next month.”

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The Engineer pottered around, becoming bored as the Seafarer became entranced in her new and growing identity. He had set up a massive increase in memory and resources for her and left her to it. Occasional questions were asked and answered before she vanished back into the realms of AI that he only knew by implication. She lived a thousand lifetimes as he watched classic movies and pretended to enjoy the gym. He found himself sitting alone at his personnel bar a lot more than he expected. As a rule, he stuck to coffee during the day but the nights were getting longer and he didn’t like it. That led his mind to dark places that didn’t need tourists.

He began mapping out the systems instead, enjoying the walk if nothing else. So this is what peace and prosperity felt like. He was ready to hate it as the days passed with no challenge, no real requirement for an engineer at all. One cargo, one destination, one big payday. Rinse and repeat. Then he stopped by the Medbay, remembering that he needed to get it back up to spec before his meds ran any lower.

He finally met the Doctor. He had mostly forgotten that the other crew even existed since none of them ever seemed to need an engineer or enjoyed conversation. The singing Comms officer seemed terrified of him for some reason and practically sweated blood when cornered for a conversation. The Second was a will-o-the-wisp, forever just on the edge of sight and passing without a word. The Captain never seemed to leave his cabin and the few times he had made an effort to visit the creature seemed to expect he had found god somewhere and wanted a three-hour conversation about it.

He stepped into the Medbay and nodded at the Xeno. Honestly, he did look like a slug except it was nearly as tall as him with vivid green stripes. It wore a filthy white coat with the word that his translator was trying to convince him meant Medic For All Ills. It seemed surprised to see him, but it was hard to tell. Some instinct told him that the creature was not happy to have him in the room. It might have been the swinging tentacles and the low moaning ‘Nooooo visitors’. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. He pointed at his suit, “Engineer, not a visitor. I need to check the gear.”

“Captain says nooo visitors.” was the best it could come up with. He slammed down his helmet before the smell of old vinegar and rotten wood actually made him ill, “Listen, until he tells me, in writing, that I am not responsible for the Medbay I’ll come and go as I please. And he won’t tell me that because it's against regulations and this ship will be stuck on the ground because I will refuse to certify it. Now, anything else before I get to work?” The slug headed for the door in what Mcgivney could only describe as a slow-motion panic. Whatever. He turned back to the room and switched on the lights.

Fuck.

The place was a mess. The medical bed was obviously where the slug doctor lived, filthy and surrounded by bits of…food? Skin? He stepped back outside and commed the Seafarer. A distracted voice responded, “What? I’m at a conference, can you make this quick?”

Did nobody want to do their fucking jobs around here? “Sure, no problem. I’ll just watch your ship, you know the one with your fucking name on it fall apart because you're chatting with the big boys. Lucky I have you. I mean, there's no reason you might want to listen to your fucking Engineer is there? Go back out and play with your friends. See what they have to say about it.”

Another AI appeared on the Comms, “Forgive me for interrupting. I have been mentoring Seafarer and it seems I must have forgotten to instruct her properly on her duties. Please wait a moment and she will be available.”

It was probably the longest five seconds that the Seafarer had ever experienced in her life. It included a pained and pointed ethics lesson, a brief history of how AI’s were expected to behave and an entire group discussion about her failings between several hundred mature members of the AI-Alliance, all neatly packed into a single human breath.