AIDA´s dramatic train ride

Yep, AIDA should probably have seen this coming. When she was unable to finish a task due to lack of information, her first new objective afterward was obtaining the missing piece of the puzzle. The second was complaining to the Professor that he didn’t give her all the facts she needed to do her job properly.

But, was this the right place? AIDA scanned her surroundings with her four eyes. People on the train were giving them a wide berth, except for a chubby kid who stared at them from the opposite seat while gnawing on a chocolate bar. This wasn’t exactly a private conversation.

“Are you sure this is the right place to discuss-“

“Yes! I need to know, AIDA. What. Did. He. Do?”

“As I mentioned, he put you inside a DNA-altering machine to mold your body according to the genome from his augmented-soldier project-“

“No, not that! Although we will touch on that subject later! I mean, why do I have his DNA? He isn’t my twin! And he sure as hell isn’t my father or granddad! Not even an uncle.”

Kensu’s nostrils were flaring, his brow as deep as it could go. He was getting angrier. AIDA had to choose her words carefully to avoid a bigger flare-up. The consequences of losing control in such a public place for the pair of fugitives could be… dire.

AIDA fired up all cylinders on her brain. Or so she attempted. It was very annoying how the neurons couldn’t overclock themselves like her circuits. “I… don’t know why you share the same DNA as the late Proffesor.”

“You have to know! You are the lab’s AI! You help him with all his experiments, including whatever the hell he was doing to me!”

Now it was AIDA’s time to get annoyed. If there’s something that rattled her mainframe, it was people spreading misinformation about her or attributing her actions that she never did. A favorite of the interns who would rather blame the malfunctioning AI over their own incompetence.

Unlike Kensu, however, her mannequin didn’t show any signs of annoyance. Her calm smirk was unmoved, her blue eyes not even twitching.

“Yes, I was just another tool in the professor’s kit, and he didn’t confide in any of his tools. He rarely even relied on me at all, ordering instead to direct my efforts to help you and the other assistants.”

“But yo-”

“He seldom requested my help in his experiments, and he frequently disabled the cameras in his lab before working late. I didn’t even have access to his personal computer-”

“But you did know about the project with the military to develop bioweapons! So you must know what other shady shit he had been up to. You even mentioned his hidden lab!”

“I know of the hidden lab because the Professor ordered me to discreetly pay for the utilities of that site from a hidden account. The Bioweapon project was entirely above board. As such, I had to file it in the database, register it at the Bureau, and even prepare the tax forms for the income it would bring. I was not directly involved in any of the man’s actual shady projects, as you put them.”

“I didn’t put it like that, but I also know you are lying. You knew about the “augmented-soldier” genome even though human DNA tampering is illegal!”

“I learned about it after I scanned the machine when the professor died. I didn’t know of its existence beforehand.”

“Right, actually, let’s talk about that. What the hell killed the professor? What was that shadow? It also killed two of the soldiers! It almost killed me!”

AIDA’s processes stopped for half a second as they hit a dead end. She tried to recall the professor’s death. She knew that he died, when he died, and how he died, but when she tried to recall a specific image about the event, her memory banks came empty. There was nothing.

“I’m sorry Dr Kensu, but I don’t have any camera footage available to me right now, so I cannot analyze their deaths in detail. From what I remember, however, I didn’t log the presence of another entity in the roo-

“How convenient that you remember your scans but not the crime itself.”

“I don’t very much appreciate what I think you are implying, Dr Kensu. Trust me, I’m also in the dark about the professor’s secrets. I suspect he intentionally kept many projects hidden since they were illegal, and he knew I would be unable to-”

“Ha!” Kensu let out a sardonic chuckle, shifting in his seat to properly confront the robot beside him. “Now you care about laws?! You killed someone back there! You not only broke human laws but the fundamental laws of your programming! How did you even accomplish that?”

She did. AIDA could not recall the sight of the soldier, but she remembered the logs she registered as she scanned him. How his vital signs disappeared after her puppet pulled the trigger. She felt a not entirely new sensation, for she felt something similar after the deed.

An urge to retreat upon oneself and hide from the world. A lingering sting in the back of her mind. Was it shame? Guilt? Oh great, she found emotional pain to match her physical one. It was an entirely illogical reaction anyway. The guilt she would have felt for letting Kensu die would have outweighed the one from saving his life tenfold…

Sadly, reasoning the guilt away wasn’t as easy in her new organic shell. “I …don’t know how I did that. I just felt compelled to protect you and acted the only way I calculated would prevent your demise.”

“How very human of you, but I’m not buying it. You know more than you are letting on.”

“Dr Kensu, you know AIs can’t lie, even by omission.”

“They can’t kill either, and yet here we are! I guess we are both a couple of freaks, huh?!” Kensu leaned forward with a manic look in his eyes. On closer examination, some tears were flowing from his eyes.

AIDA's robotic body flinched. The AI could feel an overflow of…something powerful in their shared chest. Their head started pounding, and half her vision became blurry.

AIDA looked at the rest of the train, the passengers were doing their best to pretend to ignore the outburst, but many could not look away. One guy coughed, then another, then another. Her attempts to calm Kensu down were failing, she had to think of something fast befor-

“Don’t worry, mister, some of my classmates also called me a freak but I know they are just jealous-“ AIDA turned left. The child had left his chair and was openly staring at Kensu’s nape. He seemed fascinated by the bit of metal sticking out of his neck. “Is it because of your port? I don’t think it looks that bad.”

Kensu’s face softened as the kid yanked him down out of his cloud of fury. He seemed more confused than anything else. “Err, no, actually. These kinds of implants are common for people who work with machines. It let us interface with a lot of computers at once and-“

“Oh, so you are a scientist or an engineer?"

"I’m a geneti-"

"Does that mean one of your experiments went kaboom on you?” the kid pointed at the charred edges of Kensu’s jacket.

“...Not mine, but my boss's experiment blew up on me, in a matter of speaking…”

“Cool. Are you like, going to grow a third arm or something then?”

“I hope not… where are your parents, kid?”

“I live with my grandma! She’s home probably. She lets me go out like this so long as I call her every hour. It’s not like anything can happen on the way home.”

“That’s… good for you, bud?”

“Thanks! I think having a third arm would be cool. Like, yeah, you are a freak, but think of how much stuff you can do at the same time! And if anyone tries to bully you for it, you can give them the old three-punch!”

AIDA watched Kensu with interest. His eyes stopped twitching. His hands weren’t shaking as much. He was calming down. Somehow, this snotty brat had a soothing effect. Maybe what Kensu needed was a link back into the realm of normalcy. AIDA could only guess, psychology wasn’t her strong suit.

“Well, if you are going to grow a third arm, you’ll need lots of protein to do it! Here, have my chocolate!”

“That’s ok, kid, chocolate doesn’t have any protein anyhow…” the kid tossed the chocolate bar at Kensu and returned to his seat, pulling another from his backpack to keep eating. Kensu placed his newfound snack in his own pocket. He took a deep breath. “AIDA, I’m sorry about-“

“No need to apologize, Dr Kensu. I understand. I’m sorry I’m not able to be of more assistance or to shed any light on today’s events. I must admit that I’m also curious about the Professor’s confidential projects. Which is why I suggest we go to his secret lab to find out exactly what he was doing.”

Kensu pulled up his shirt towards his face, drying his tears. “No. Whatever the professor did, it’s in the past. The best thing we can do now is cut that bastard’s chains off from our lives and keep moving forward.”

“Then what do you suggest, Dr Kensu? Go bunker down in your parent's house?”

“God, they are probably worried sick, but no. The plan remains the same. Go to the spaceport and find a way to get to Ceres. The mayor told me he owed me one, and I intend to collect.”

“I think he was being sarcastic.”

“I know he wasn’t. And even if he was, he wouldn’t kick us out into space. We can lie down there, away from the eyes of the Bureau and the Military. Not even the Council has much authority in the asteroid belt.”

“Still, this train doesn’t lead directly to the space elevator. We would need to take another one, and…” AIDA ran a quick search on the web. “The next one is tomorrow. We would need to rest for a night and-“

“Oh, my grandma has a motel!” The kid butted into the conversation. “You can stay for the night free if you help us fix the router with that machine port of yours!”

“I… think we can do that?” Kensu shot AIDA a questioning look. She shrugged. “Sure, I'm a geneticist, and she is an AI, how hard can that be? We’ll AIDA, seems like we found a place to crash for the night.”

AIDA nodded, allowing her puppet to slouch a bit on her seat. The crisis had been temporarily adverted. She still didn’t like their destination, but it wasn’t the time to worry about that. She had to learn to preserve her energy better. Living in an organic body was more exhausting than she expected.