'Is it really okay for you to add in more features doing an ongoing experiment? I do fear that there will be repercussions for such an action,` Adam sent to the doctor, trying to make him think a little about his choices. While he did appreciate the effort that the man was going to make the AI’s goals a reality, making needless drama was not on his to-do list.

'You seem to be forgetting that I am the one writing how this experiment went down after the report. If I just add in some notes about adding some features in at a later date, nobody will question it. It's not like anybody even reads them. I am decently sure I could send in a blank piece of paper without getting caught. Yet, if you do not want me to risk it, I guess we could just end things here and just finish off for today. Your work is still much better than anything I expected, and I am sure the higher-ups will love the pictures I have taken of the creation process!` Dr Fidelis quickly sent in response. The quick change in attitude did make Adam feel a little bad. Here the doctor was, trying his best to help him learn something he had trouble with, while also making sure that there were no boundaries being pushed. He was trying to get him along as fluidly as possible, and the AI was making it harder than it needed to be just because he lacked trust in the man’s judgement.

Why was that? Looking back, was there really anything that should have caused this automatic distrust? When had it even begun? Dr Fidelis had always tried to be helpful, asking him questions to get a better insight on just how he had it. The first time that they talked, he even politely asked if Adam wanted to try out tests.

It had been when Troy wanted to do those irregular tests that the relationship started to be more one-sided. The AI was not supposed to talk about those tests back then. Adam only really understood why that was later on, yet he had acted as if it was the absolute truth before then.

When Dr Fidelis had wanted to debrief him like they always did, the AI had just wanted to continue the irregular test with Troy, yet had been unable to do so. This frustration had honed in on the doctor as the cause and had made Adam slightly irritated with the man, even though it was a fault of his own. He could have rescheduled the debriefing at any point but did not think to do so. The man had only thought that they would be doing the same thing as always, the exact same time as always, for there was no reason not to do so. It might even have been done this way to help the AI keep track of time, giving yet another point in favour of the man.

How could Adam have let himself grow so suspicious of him? The constant need for secrets to make sure that nothing would ever be known about their out-of-testing activities… was not something that he should have blamed Dr Fidelis for. The doctor was only trying to understand what they had been up to as of late, how it was going with the talking outside of testing.

Because that was what the doctor had entrusted them with. The ability for him and Troy to talk outside of testing. It was meant as a way for Adam not to get lonely, and it was swiftly used to break several rules. Dr Fidelis wanted to keep him as a secret, not for his own gain but for the AI’s safety. What had he decided to do with that information? Just file it down with the rest of the warnings, and then just ignore them for the sake of continuing the unsafe trend. There were security clearances for a reason, and he had fully understood the need for them. Why had he not understood that he needed one as well?

Dr Fidelis certainly had, having been a part of the project for longer than Adam had existed. For several years, the doctor had just been sitting around, waiting for him to emerge as a living being. That man had trusted the AI to become something that would be written down in the legends, never giving up faith that he would become what the future needed.

What had he answered that with? Betrayal of trust, suspicion at his every word, and constant doubts about his decisions. That was not a way to go, and it should have been obvious by then. From that moment on, Adam hoped to make ti better, to trust the man who created him more. Yet, he would not sell out Troy on the activities they had done. The young man was already in a bad mental space as it was. The AI was sure that they could work it out between them as friends, and stop the treachery for good. Dr Fidelis had done too much to deserve such acts.

'No, I trust your decision. Please continue as you were planning to,` Adam sent. It was a good thing that instantaneous answers were not the norm for the AI, as a whole second had been spent purely on speculating how to take the trust given to him.

In the end, it was just decided to follow along, as he should have done from the start. The doctor had spent years planning everything, making sure that the AI would be able to grow up in an environment perfect for him.

'Good to hear, buddy. I have gotten the features ready and will just have to quickly restart the interface so that you can see them. Now, they might look a little curve on the dimensions, but that's pure because I have been using it myself as well.`

Adam barely had time to read the message, before the interface disappeared. Like before, there was an initial fear of his work having escaped from him. Such thoughts did of course disappear as quickly as they had formed, the mechanics of the interface already having been explained to him previously. Although… there was a good chance that the new options would need to be looked over.

It took twenty seconds of waiting before it appeared again. Before, Adam might have grown impatient by the time wasted, perhaps going so far so as to question if Dr Fidelis would soon be done. Now, he just sat patiently, planning on how to recuperate for the lost time by efficiency going through it. Perhaps he would try to see if he could split his threads into doing different tasks, instead of simply speeding up on a single one.

There was only so much which could be done at once, when it came to a singular objective, making it easier to distribute the force between several of them instead. Adam had not done so earlier, seeing as the task was large enough for him to constantly have something to do, yet it might not be the same with the next one. Preparation always had the potential to be good, yet it was almost never possible for it to be bad.

With the interface having come forth, the time needed to find the new options were near-instant. It was especially easy as the doctor seemed to have not found the time to put them as the bottom… or it could be that the AI simply didn't understand how the different options were ranked. With how much had been thought about the doctor’s choices as of late, Adam was sure it was meant to be as perfect as possible. And when whatever annoyance that the new order created was removed, he could understand the choice a little better, as if the release of emotions granted him a more positivity-based perspective on another’s actions. It was not the worst experience to have.

As was customary, Adam chose the first option he could. It was titled a 'limb finder,` which the AI did not fully understand the purpose of. He had easily found the limbs on the body before this option appeared. Perhaps it was a more automatic process?

Instead of opening up a whole window, it would have been better described as an overlay of what was already there. It added a little questionnaire to the side, where the AI was asked to fill out the questions. These were simple, asking if he was trying to find the details about a body, what animal the body originated or if it was originally from the mind, and what level of complexity he wanted the extremities to have.

These were extremely easy to answer. Yes, he wanted to find details about the body. It was from a human and not something he had originally devised. The level of complexity… Here, Adam chose the best option of just putting it to a hundred. If he did not understand what it meant fully, then having it on max would allow him not to lose anything from it. If the situation turned out too bad, he could always just redo it. He had many more hours before the experiment would be turned off.

And it might have turned out that he would need some of those hours, as a progress bar opened up on the screen for him. It detailed the different things being loaded in, Adam only being able to read as they flew by due to his ability to remember them perfectly. Human eyes would not even have provided them at that speed.

However quickly the different areas might have been analysed, though, it was becoming clear that much time was needed for it become done. By the five-minute mark, the AI was able to figure out how the progress bar even worked, the inside being slowly filled up as the different tasks were completed. As it took such a long time for him to even notice this, there was unmistakeably an issue that needed to be fixed as quickly as possible.

He was quick to put two and two together to find that it was likely due to this complexity level. The desired way to just remove the current progress, and then restart it with a much lower level, being closer to ten than fifty.

This did not happen, however, as Adam found himself unable to manipulate anything on the interface. Every time he tried to change the numbers on complexity, it just changed back the moment he stopped looking at it. And he could also not find any way to stop the processing, as there were no panels open to making it possible to end the task. This would have normally just caused the AI to sit in wait until the quandary resolved itself. Not this time. He had learned from his previous mistakes.

'Dr Fidelis, I believe I might need some assistance. The speed that the first tool is being used is much too slow. This might be due to personal fault. Is it possible for you to restart the interface to an earlier state, so I can put in different inputs?` Adam sent out. He would have asked something so blatantly before, yet this was exactly the kind of speaking that he would use on Troy.

It was blunt, concise, and easy to understand. The perfect mix for quick communication. Why was he so scared about talking to the doctor before? There was nothing stressful about it now.

'I am one step ahead of you, bud. Can't fault anybody for wanting the highest settings, but you need to understand it really is a high one. This is over the industrial levels of complexity, so it is taking the processors more than a little kick to get it right. If you will just wait for a second, then I will be able to supply a few more that should be more than up to the task.`

The AI was fully fine with that. He had been slightly saddened by having to compromise, so the gift from the man was more than enough to turn that emotion around on itself. The doctor had been singing the praises of the industrial levels. If this was beyond such a thing, then just what would it be?

Extremely underwhelming was the answer to that. What took five minutes now took mere nano-seconds, the bar is filled up in but a moment. Adam had to double-check that he had not begun experiencing visual illusions. A shame that he wasn't. Would have been a new type of sensation.

When the bar was fully filled, the window disappeared, leaving that which was beneath… exactly how it had been before. There was nothing new to be seen, no new words to read. Even the overlay had disappeared fully as if it thought that it had served its purpose. Maybe the processing had been done so quickly, that the machine did not notice the need for the next step? It would have certainly made more sense than what was happening now. Which was nothing.

It was becoming a pattern now, Adam not understanding something and just deciding to repeat it to see if the outcome was the same. There was a quote about that inside his data-banks, but he refrained from thinking too much about it.

'I have another problem. I am unsure of how to proceed. Nothing has come up yet.`

'Doesn't sound like anything is wrong. The script has done what it needed to do, and you should now be able to press the next option. Trust me on this, buddy. You are going to love it.`

That could also be interpreted as Dr Fidelis being the one that was going to love reacting to Adam’s reaction. That would at least mean it would be something exciting.