Empathy

As I blurted out my desire to save the TCC, Uncle and Janus looked at me like I was crazy. Like, I knew it wasn’t the smartest idea, but I couldn't help but want to fix her, since it really wasn't her fault she broke in the first place.

Uncle scolded me, saying I was being “foolishly empathetic”

…was he calling me pathetic? How rude!

“Uncle, you don’t understand..." I stood on my tippy toes and leaned forward with fists clenched close to my heart, "I can fix her! Just give me one chance.”

“It’s best to let her be decommissioned,” he argued.

Decommissioning her would delete her completely. If that happened, she’d be dead for good without a chance of bringing her back.

Something about that made me anxious, so I didn’t want to let it happen. Broken things needed to be fixed, not destroyed. If we were killed every time we made a mistake, we'd never have a chance to make that mistake right. Machines deserved the same chance.

I tugged on Uncle's arm, begging him to let me try just one time to save her.

“Please please please please…” I pulled out the greatest card I had in my deck. There was no way the 'repeating please' would fail me!

Hey, he was getting annoyed! My plan was working.

“You do understand that this poses a security risk to us all, yes? We’d have to turn the power back on.”

Actually, I already thought about that. We could just turn back on the systems that run the TCC's AI. Everything else would be disabled.

He wasn’t happy, but there were some protocols in place to keep a captured rogue AI from causing trouble. And to add to that, since only her mind would be active, she couldn't hurt me. This plan was very low risk... Probably....

“Fine…” he finally gave in! “But I can only promise you exactly seven minutes of safety. Any longer and I’ll have to shut down the system and force you out.”

"Seven minutes…?" I whined out. "Why not more?"

"Any longer and the power systems will reset on their own, then the tower will be active again."

I guess seven minutes was fine, given the situation. But still, would it be enough time to save her?

It’s going to have to be.

“Are you really letting her go in?” Janus gave him a shocked scowl. “Who knows what’ll be waiting for her.”

“It’s much like her future, wouldn’t you say?” Uncle retorted. “One day she will be called to make decisions much harder than this, and I won’t be there to hold her hand." Uncle turned and patted my head. "If her feelings are this strong, I support her," he said, encouraging me.

"Well, showbiz is full of risks," Janus shrugged. "Kid, follow your emotions. They'll lead you true."

"Right," I nodded.

Okay! Now that I had permission, I needed to perform a similar action as when I intruded on the system. But I really needed to concentrate real hard if I wanted to stay in her head for seven minutes.

I sat down on the ground like one of those meditating monks, but I couldn't hold that position very long before my legs fell asleep. It wasn't very comfortable.

Uncle sat cross legged next to me, then pulled me in close so I could lean on him for comfort. He held my shoulder tightly, making sure I'd stay put on him. His dark grey suit reappeared and added a nice layer of cushion to my head.

"I'll be right here,” Uncle said. “Remember that you're not alone."

"Thank you, Uncle. I love you."

I always said I love you to my family before I went to sleep.

"I love you too, Young Mistress."

My eyes started to close. My mind began the sequence to connect with the tower again, putting the rest of me in sleep mode.

This time, my link to the tower was stronger. I went into a trance like state and let my imagination paint the environment.

~☆☆☆~

A dreamscape of lights lit up before me. A grid of red, green, and blue traced out the environment, creating outlines of walls and flooring. Pulses of light raced across them until everything was solid.

Walls slowly filled in with silver surfaces like metal, and white fog spread out ahead of me in a long hallway.

The floors also looked like metal, but it was grey with symmetrical lines of blue and white lights across the borders.

If I looked close enough to all of the surfaces, faded veins of energy pulsed through them. That was mana that ran through the whole computer to power it, like blood. Since we were running on emergency power, the veins were hardly visible.

Above me was an open sky, like a twinkly night to be precise. It was beautiful with its billions of star-like diodes, exactly what I imagined space to look like. I could have looked at it all day (or night?).

“One day we’ll see space for real, right Samael?”

My snake didn’t answer me. He usually responded with a 'hiss.'

He must not have been here, since this was a digital world and all. Not having him around was weird, like I'd forgotten my favourite accessory back home.

Speaking of my appearance, something immediately felt off. My whole body felt heavier and taller. One step forward almost made me fall over. Was this place just really small?

No, I actually was taller, and my hair was like, five times longer for some reason.

One of the walls had a mirror surface, so I looked and saw my reflection to discover…

"Oh my gosh, I'm older!"

I looked like a grown up. I still had a similar dress on, but it looked more detailed and pretty. It made me feel like a princess! To show off, I did a few power poses like they do in the movies.

“Neato! Wait, if I’m a grown up, does that mean I need a job?”

What jobs were there for Exceed like me? Eh, who cares…

After a few funny faces in the mirror, I got re-focused on the mission at hand, and that was to save the TCC.

"Let's do this!"

Just when I was the most determined, I ran into a big problem…

“How the heck do I get there?”

These hallways were laid out like spider webs, all interconnecting and merging at the very center core. That was where all the AI code was. But I had very little idea which part of that web I was in, and none of the doors to inactive systems on my left or right gave me any hints.

It was a big maze. Super big. I was like a mouse hunting for cheese with a broken nose.

Luckily I kinda’ figured out one way to get around here. By looking up at the diode stars, I could tell where they were converging in on, which would have been above the core. Even from where I was, I could see them swirling down and slowly falling in with a tornado-like twist. At least I knew where the goal was, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be as easy to get there.

Well, no sense in standing around worrying about it. I had to get to the core before my seven minutes were up.