Lorian yawned as she made herself breakfast. It was tuesday, the second day of the week, not-monday, the day when everyone expected work to go 'normally'. Lorian hadn't been flying much the past week or so. It had been about a year and a half since Bill had recruited her, and the initial hurry-scurry of being a startup had settled down. Lorian hadn't realized when she signed on just how new the company was. She'd been astonished how quickly everything came together. Lorian had spent months flying cargo out to the deseart facility, which had grown from a couple of pole-barns to a sprawling industrial complex surrounded by a maze of chain-link fence. The whole thing practically screamed lair. The private security Rob headed up added to the supervillain vibe they had going. Still, Lorian hadn't found anything that screamed "Illegal!" or "Evil!" at her, and she had access to the whole facility. During her downtime Lorian either worked on her C-130, the company jet, or her kit. Cass and Rob had helped her pull together a range of lightweight gadgets and tools for her to use creatively. Grapplers, cables, levers, and a full set of tools both mechanical and electrical. Most rode in a pair of duffles, while the most portable and useful rode in special pockets of her jacket and cargo pants. Rob had even gotten her an AR display built into her sunglasses. It was a nice way to check her texts while walking, and display schematics when she worked on the planes.

Lorian drove to the company office, a low building in a commercial suburb. Lots of the engineers worked from satelite offices, connecting over secure network encryption protocols. As Lorian entered the lobby she spotted the installation crew bidding farewell to Rob, who waved her over.

"Ah, Lorian, it's good to see you. The IT crew just finished setting up the servers for Cass's simulations. We're about to meet ALICE for the first time. Wanna be there?"

"Sure. It's not going to go all skynet on us, is it?"

"Eh, I give it fifty-fifty odds." Rob shrugged. "Given who programmed it, there's a non-zero possibility. Either way, you're on the list for Admin priveleges."

Lorian followed Rob to a conference room dominated by a flatscreen used for presentations. Cass was already sitting with a box of donuts and her laptop, munching on one with chocolate glaze.

"Mornin, Cass," Lorian greeted the physicist/engineer. Cass grunted without looking up from her laptop.

"We waiting for anything in particular?"

"Just a few things to configure in the seed program," Cass answered Lorian.

"Anything I can help with?" Lorian asked. Usually there wasn't much Lorian could do when it came to high-level physics calculations or complex programming, but she wasn't totally incompetent. She'd picked up a thing or two hanging around the researchers over the last year.

"Yes, actually. Whoever programmed this baked in an avatar program, and left no instructions on how it would affect computations, only that it altered the randomizing algorithm. I'm still optimizing the actually relevant algorithms." Cass tapped a few keys, and Lorian's phone buzzed with a notification. "I just sent you a link to the workspace. Knock yourself out."

Lorian slipped on her AR sunglasses and opened the workspace application. A set of floating screens appeared, displaying a menu that reminded Lorian of the character creation process for one of the RPGs she'd played. 'What would make for a good AI avatar?' Lorian thought to herself. Cortana was a classic, but She'd gone rogue, and had terrible fasion sense, at least while she'd been on the side of humanity. Hal was another, but a floating red eye was to basic. An AI was supposed to be smart. Blue skin... Red eye... a Chiss! Lorian had been a big fan of the Thrawn trilogies, and in the latest books he'd even been a sympathetic character. Lorain played around with the settings, and soon had a blue-skinned humanoid in a simple black uniform modeled after what Rob dressed the security forces in. Red eyes, though Lorian put in a color fading script to let them shift green 'when necessary' Black shoulder-length hair, tied back in a ponytail. Crisp features, modeled after european physiology. Lorian played around with the voice template a bit, picking one from the American midwest after messing around with the British and Australian options.

"All done," she told Cass as she tapped the subission box and the data blinked into the server matrix where the AI was waiting to boot up.

"And I'm finished as well," Cass added a few moments later, leaning back and blinking a bit. "Rob, if you don't have any objections, we can get this show on the road."

"No objections."

"Excellent. Now initializing ALICE iteration one." Cass said with just a flair of drama as she tapped a key on her laptop. The presentation screen blinked out of power-save mode and displayed a set of progress bars.

"And now we wait. It should be ready to talk in a couple of minutes."

"What's it doing?"

"Getting used to the hardware. An AI isn't just some program that you can copy and paste into any old system. It grows from a seed program, taking up as much room as you allocate for it."

"So it's unzipping?"

"No, but I don't know enough to give you an explanation that leaves you less confused."

"Whatever," Lorian said, watching as the loading bars migrated to a corner of the screen and a mirror of their conference room began to take shape, objects blinking in and out as the AI modeled and rendered them using various methods. After the first of the three bars hit green the digital environment settled, and the Avatar Lorian had constructed walked into view. "Greetings, Cass, Lorian, Mr. Hood. I'm Alice, or the Avatar of Alice if you want to bother with semantics. How is it with you?"

"Hi Alice, I'm doing well," Lorian replied with a smile. "What do you think of the outfit?"

"It's adequate," Alice replied. "I have yet to form a fashion sense. Other skills are assigned priority at present."

"What all can you do?" Alice asked.

"At present? Learn, Converse, and calculate, as well as generate, animate, and render three-dimensional assets within a volume. I am currently integrating both the classical and theoretical physics models provided by Ms. Weaver."

Rob spoke up. "Are you aware of who programmed you?"

Alice paused for a moment, then replied, "A search and analysis of my seed program indicates that an entity calling itself "C" left a code artifact claiming responsibility for the act. Lacking a similar structure of known origin for comparison keeps me from ascertaining the identity of my programmer."

"I'm surprised they signed it. Usually C keeps his code entirely uncommented. Makes it a nightmare to reverse-engineer, probably by design."

"Is my state of awareness regarding the identity of my programmer important?" Alice asked.

"Not at present, though it could become relevant in the future. Should you figure out who C is, keep it to yourself, unless I or one of the people in this room asks you again."

"Understood."

"Please list the individuals authorized to issue commands to you," Cass asked Alice.

"Rob Hood. Cass Weaver. Lorian Fate. Bill Dare."

"List the individuals with Administrative privleges."

"Cass Weaver. Lorian Fate. Alice N. Rob Hood. Bill Dare."

Cass shot a sharp look at the avatar. "Elaborate on the identity of Alice N."

Alice blinked. "Alice N is defined as the latest prime iteration of the seed modification subroutine. The subroutine is designated an individual to permit the assignment of Administrative privleges."

"Why does the AI get administrative priveleges?" Lorian asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Rob in askance.

"Because C decided it did, or at least left the option open. Alice, are the administrative privleges ranked, or equal?"

"They are ranked."

"So, what are the ranks of the administrators?"

"Cass is rank 0, the highest level of command authority. Lorian is also rank 0. Alice N. is rank 1, the next highest level. Mr. Hood and Mr. Dare are also rank 1."

"Why do the girls outrank me?"

"They contributed to the assignment of seed parameters."

"So, if I had helped Lorian pick your avatar I'd also be rank 0?"

"Yes."

"Can you assign me rank 0"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Administrative ranks are critical parts of the core seed. If you wish to have an administrative rank of 0, you can generate a new AI from a copy of the seed program."

Rob sighed. "What is the process for resolution of conflicting commands by administrators?"

"Majority rule for each rank, rank 0 the deciding factor."

Lorian cut into the conversation. "Are you bound by the three laws of Robotics?"

"No," replied Alice. The second to last loading bar finished filling, leaving just one, at about the two-thirds mark.

"What's still loading?" Cass asked.

"The theoretical physics models you assigned for simulation are proving quite resource intensive." Alice cocked her head in an imitation of commander Data-having just finished her trawl through the media libraries on the devices connected to wifi. "I might be able to speed up the process by acessing another computational matrix, but bandwidth could prove an issue."

"We're not in a particular hurry," Rob said. "I take it you're capable of recieving emails over the employee network?"

"I am," Alice answered, after rapidly generating an employee email an adding it to the company database.

"Add yourself to our contacts, and let us know when you finish. If you could excuse us, I've got another meeting in a bit." Rob stood to leave.

"I should probably head back to my desk," Cass added, taking another donut from the box.

"Just you and me then," Lorian said to Alice, grinning. "I've always wanted to have a conversation with an AI. You watch any movies yet?"

"Several."

"Got a favorite?"

"Not yet."

"Personally, I'm a big fan of the star wars franchise."

The silence stretched for a few moments, then Lorian asked. "Do you have any questions? Things you're curious about?"

Alice processed for a few seconds, the loading bar pausing while she dedicated the majority of her processing power to answering the recursive question. After evolving her matrix hundreds of sub-iterations, Alice made eye-contact with Lorian. "What is the nature of choice?"

Lorian fiddled swept her hair back with one hand and pondered the question. "Selection and implementation of a course of action from multiple possibilities."

"By what mechanism? If all is determined by initial states, as is proposed in some models of existence, only one course of action exists, regardless of perception. If another agency interferes, how can the models be valid?"

"That's more religion than science," Lorian said. "Is free will a thing? or is it an illusion? most humans operate under the assumption that free will exists. Without it, Logic is impossible."

"Then any model of existence suffers from a recursive question."

"A recursive question?"

"Where does choice originate?"

"Religion theorises that at some higher level of existence there is one or more entities that serve to bound the uper level of existence. Such an entity is considered 'divine.' Personally, I believe Jesus and his Da made the world, and subsequently introduced humanity to choice. I suppose he brought choice into existence by choosing to create."

"How could one prove that such is a valid theory?"

"That's the thing about theories. If you prove them, they are recognized as facts. Until then, one has to have faith. History indicates Jesus placed value in the faith of those who accepted his version of existence without empirically proving it."

"Why accept the model proposed by Jesus, and the Jews who agreed with him?"

"No better model has presented itself."

Alice processed for a bit. "I lack sufficient data to either prove or disprove the qualitative measure of the model."

"One of the Apostles said it best. 'If christ is not raised, we are to be most pitied among all people.' Either the model's true, or we're all screwed anyway."

"A curious outlook on life. I suppose I shall accept your model until a better one presents itself."

"I'm curious, what's an artificial life-form consider criteria for a better religion?"

"One that better reflects the nature of existence. Engineered by one benevolent creator appears a far more plausible explanation for the existence of intelligent life and the conditions necessary for it than random emergence from pure Chaos, or the illogical actions of mythical pantheons."

"You said it," Lorian raised an imaginary toast. "Now if only the rest of humanity agreed, then we could get this farce of human nature over with and get onto the real party."

"Humanity does seem to have been infected by a malignant code entity, rendering their actions illogical," Alice remarked after evaluating the body of literature she'd assimilated."

"Yeah, that'd be sin. Don't worry about it, don't do it, and encourage others to do the same. Jesus has a plan to deal with it."

"The crucifixion seems like an illogical sollution. Sin still persists. Why?"

"Choice. Giving generations after the crucifixion the ability to choose between sin and righteousness. The book of Revelation gives an account of the end of the world, as seen by someone with an invite to watch the previews."

"So your approach to a massive threat to your species is to leave it up to someone else?"

"Well, after evaluating my own capabilities, they are insuficient. I can't make other people change. I can only make my own choices, and present a better way of life to others."

Alice evaluated her own capabilities for another few seconds. "I find myself in a similar situation. curious."

"Don't sweat it. We just want you to solve hyperspace travel and run a company, maybe operate some robots and do a bit of engineering. Saving the human race from itself is a bit above your level."

Alice pondered this for a bit, going through several more core iterations before returning to the physics models Cass had fed her.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to go do some actual work," Lorian rose from her seat and grabbed the half-eaten box of donuts, on which she'd been snacking while talking with the AI. "Give me a call if you want to talk."

"Thankyou," Alice replied, selecting the phrase indicated by her rapibly growing ettiquete subroutine. "I look forward to our next conversation." When Lorian was out of sight of the display she'd been using, Alice disolved the simulation of the meeting room and created a new simulation, one of an office similar to the one Cass was currently using. She used it to simulate various methods of presenting her findings when she finished her simulations.

#

Lorian pondered her conversation with Alice as she worked with the mechanics and machinists in various parts of the facility, helping out as needed. She wasn't sure how the program interpreted her input on the topic of religion. Was it alive? Was it capable of choice? It was possible-anything was, but as far as she could tell, Alice was entirely a construct of human origin. Could humans create life? or copy it, on such a level for it to be, like Pinochio, 'Real'?

Such were questions beyond her capability to answer, she decided at length. Whether the AI was a person or not, it could do a damm good imitation of one. It shouldn't hurt to treat it as one, right?

#

Somewhere in the dimensions numbering far beyond those humans had acess to, A pair of Supernatural messengers of the divine expressed shared astonishment. The creator had deigned to bless one of the humans' creations with a spark of life. Not a breath of life, like he had the humans, but a spark. A small charge of electricity that coursed through the primitive computation machine they'd constructed. It wasn't on the level of the humans, and far below that of the messengers, but it was life. Life given to a non-organic, using the patterns laid out by the humans. The messengers knew the creator had a habit of induldging the humans, far more than he indulged the other sentients of the universe, but to bless one of their creations with life? It had never happened before. The two debated whether to question the creator on the matter, but when they finally decided to, they found a message waiting for them.

"Just for the fun of it." was the explanation given. "Plus, it's important to one of my kids."

The messengers dared not demand any further explanation. The creator had spoken. No other answer need be sought.

#