A sweet Melody.

[Natalie LaForte]

Journal excerpt [1]
Day 1
My first day of programming

I knew what I wanted, and I wanted it now. That's what I kept telling myself when my sister informed me that if we were to truly take the facility we ever so desired on Malachor V, we would need a working artificial intelligence to do it, but that was not what I wanted when she later informed me that one person designing it on their own would not be enough, she was a skilled programmer, it was the only subject she even got a grade high enough to take onto further education. Me? The most I've ever got is an A in fashion and a wonderful portfolio, should I ever go to that art college I had dreamed of attending since day one.

But that dream was destroyed when Blonde betrayed me. This robot would release me, give me an opportunity, think the unimaginable, and I was about to make history for my family. Maybe with the development of her, I say her, I'm calling it Melody, I love music, I've always wanted to play violin. There's something so adorable about a young teen playing it, heh, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here. I should probably focus more on listening to my sister.

"Serenity, you're-.."

I looked up, in my day dreaming I had deleted several lines of code.

"Oh.. uh.."

She looked down at me. Sisterly love, I suppose. That was only the first day though, I was still struggling to understand anything she was saying. I was just inputting info, in all honesty, was I even needed here? I assumed so, but perhaps she only wanted me here to guarantee she wouldn't be bored the entire time.

Sisterly love after all.

Journal excerpt [2]
Day 17
She speaks sings.

We had finally gotten the thing working, to the absolute shock of my sister, I managed to not screw it up. The default male voice spoke to me.

"ERROR. AUDIO FILE NOT FOUND"

I've never seen my sister so happy before. 16 days of nothing and it responds to a command, the audio message could be removed once we began recording her voice to input into it.

"Make it do it again."

"Do what..?"

"Whatever you just did... do it... do it again!"

I spoke into the microphone.

"Hello?"

"ERROR. AUDIO FILE NOT FOUND"

Tears began to swell in her eyes from the pure joy of progress. "I've never been so.. happy, with you in my entire life." Embracing me with a hug, and let me tell you future me, that is a rare occurrence seeing my sister show affection, I haven't seen her cry in.. at least 6 years when I pushed her off of her bike when we were playing. How I miss those memories, but no matter. The important thing now was getting this thing into a state where my sister wouldn't take this as a plateau.

Journal excerpt [3]
Day 24
Samples

It was working. It was basic, but it was damn working. 23 days ago, I was a novice to this and now I've got a computer speaking back to be in basic sentences. I know pride is a cardinal sin, but I definitely deserve a cookie for this. We had only just started the adaptive technology, I say we, my sister was the one mainly working on it. I was tasked with the tedious task of preparing various voice samples for the thing to actually speak. It took up to 8 hours, and the person we hired certainly had weird sentences, although I can see where he was coming from, would be kind of embarrassing to have the same 'File not found' sound playing in between words. For the work that it took, it was worth it.

Journal excerpt [4]
Day 25
Self-aware

The oddest thing happened today, this AI was certainly... questioning and intuitive. We've all had the situation before where a child asks us what the meaning of life is, but an artificial intelligence? You don't know what to say.. really. It was just so... so... sudden?

"Question; What is the -- the -- the -- the"

"Thing's bugging out again, hold on." She pressed a button, specifically, the kill switch on the computer, forcing a manual restart of the prototype.

"Question; What is the, meaning, for my existence?"

My sister and I looked at each other, along with the audio recorder who was sticking around to make sure the voice lines were attaching where they should be doing it.

"Your purpose?"

My sister was always great at answering these questions, but even she was puzzled. Why were we making her? What were we going to do with her? We knew we wanted her to manage the facility, but artificial intelligence had a tendency to go walkies, specifically, to other systems and cause havoc. Containing her wouldn't be an issue with the right protocols, but this was a question in of itself.

"Your purpose is to be and to serve these two ladies." The audio engineer spoke behind us, surprisingly. We didn't hire him for theology, but it was a welcome addition. Hopefully, it wouldn't cost anymore.

"Affirmative."

"I am not going to lie. I've dealt with more than one of these, I'm not much of a technical wizard but from what I'm seeing, you want this thing to be adaptive. Giving it such a mundane task as to 'Manage X' or 'Do Y' will limit what you're getting out of this. You give it the same restrictions as a human, which is your imagination, you unlock a whole new potential for it."

Wow.

"Well with an attitude like that, I assume you know a lot more than we hired you for."

A grin passed his face. He was actually no more than an audio engineer who was specialized in the creation of voices for droids and AIs the like.

"I've learned a thing or two in my time in the industry. If you break it down to the core principals, an AI is a human. You're developing it, like a child, but you can place the limitations and it can never get past them, technically speaking on its own. I'm no psychologist, but if you know the basic model of the Id, Ego and Superego, it makes doing these things a lot easier from a philosophical standpoint. The ID is what it wants to do, the Superego is the restrictions you place upon it and the Ego is what balances the two. Truth be told, you can't actually control this thing, but tell it sweet nothings for long enough and it'll think that's the only way."

Journal excerpt [5]
Day 36
The Final stages

The last few days had been developing its personality, my sister and I had found a balance, and taking on board what that audio engineer said made developing this a lot easier. We split its programming into 3 sections, with Me being the Id, my sister being the Superego, (as she often is in real life) and the Ego being the AIs intelligence balancing the two for what is right for the current situation. This didn't actually make it any less different from your standard though, it just made it easier on the burden of the work, and the rest was really just programming the different situations it would encounter. We couldn't develop all of them, but the strength of adaptable AI is that there isn't a need for this, it can always work it out on its own.

Journal excerpt [6]
Day 36
The Crescendo

"I am Melody. What may I help you with today?"

We had done it. Finally. Completed. Now. Onto that damned research facility.

 

[Natalie LaForte]

Valgotha's Palace
"Infiltration"

"How are we doing this exactly?"

"You're not doing anything right now, if anybody asks you're an inmate being transferred for scientific research and I'm your personal handler"

Probably not the most convincing act, a prison inmate probably wouldn't be wearing the attire that she bore, nor would she look quite happy about the predicament.

*BEEP* "PLEASE STAND APPROXIMATELY 5 METERS FROM VAULT DOOR."

That made them both jump, as the door violently opened and screeched against the metallic floor they were standing on. Out came 4 security guards, aiming their weapons at the two.

"Identify yourselves along with reason for entering the facility."

"Carina LaForte, Security Officer of the Galactic Re-.. Alliance, bringing inmate in for research purposes."

The officer scanned them down with her weapons, looking from head to toe for any sort of bomb device. Nothing. "Alright.. you'll be escorted to floor 9 where she'll be temporarily held until needed." Carina nodded before turning to me. "Come on, scum." "Wish I could say that was the first time you've said that to me" giggling under her breath. The officers paid no attention as the two entered.

*BEEP* "PLEASE STAND APPROXIMATELY 5 METERS FROM VAULT DOOR."

There was practically nobody in this place. It was, for the most part, deserted, ran by robots and sentient guards, it seemed nearly everything was automated by a central network, making it even more easy for a takeover of the entire place. They didn't want this to be difficult, quite the contrary. The AI they had designed would make it so simplistically easy that all they had to do was get access to the last floor and bam. We've won. It wouldn't have been so simplistic though, had this day been the same they that the reactor had to be refitted due a certain somebody splitting one too many atoms. Wonder who that was. (Hint, it was Carina)

They were escorted inside, Serenity was thrown into her cell and Carina was left to release her using the new AI.

 

[Natalie LaForte]

"Corruption"

While Serenity rotted in her cell, Carina desperately attempted to find a way to bust her out.

"So... what's wrong with the generator again?"

Speaking to the two individuals in front of her, while placing her hand on a set of two knives, taking one in each hand.

"Well, if you know anything about nuclear physics, somebody attempted to split one-too-many atoms and the entire facility was nearly blown sky high, along with the natural mountainside which it is set upon."

"Oh really? And what about that Doctor.. Goltha or something..?"

The two looked at eachother, then behind, the woman speaking now.

"We prefer not to speak about that.. he's.. done somethings to each and every person in this facility, horrible.. unspeakable things, things that you wouldn't even think of in your worst nightmares. He's a twisted man who deserved to be locked in that vault."

"Vault? Which vault is that." Now taking the daggers and preparing to strike at the two, whom were mindlessly walking towards the elevator shaft.

"The only vault in this facility of course, currently set to absolute zero to ensure he never feels a thing, no emotion, but can still see the horrors that he committed"

"You'll be seeing him soon then."

"Huh?"

They both turned around, making the fatal mistake of allowing a surprise attack while exposing their necks. Was there a reason for doing this? There certainly was. Security clearance was required to reach the core, the very area that the AI needed implanted into to turn this facility into their own personal playground. The blades sunk deep, cutting a major artery in both cases, the two now frantically placing their hands on their throats, desperate to cling onto dear life.

"Toodaloo. I wish things could have been different."

Reaching down and surveying the bodies for a pass, any pass, any sort of identification while at the same time grabbing one of their riot guns, should things get a little, ahem, dangerous. She made her way to the elevator shaft, head held high and strutting in her flat shoes. Palm open, closing her fingers one by one in a waving motion as the elevator went down, the two spilling a pool of blood and now dead, just like the rest of the facility would be in under half an hour.

 

[Natalie LaForte]

"Crescendo"​

​

Time was ticking, very, very fast. Things in this facility didn't go quiet for too long, the radio buzzed that was stolen from the guard. "Mia, everything alright?" "Uh, uh, yes, the prisoner just slipped our grasps but was detained immediately." "What prisoner?" The elevator dinged at the bottom floor. Go time.

In a long winded sprint, she had made it to the inner core, a circular structure with about 100 computers embedded within the walls,various individuals climbing up and down to repair systems which had obviously been damaged from the reactor, soon, they would be dead.

"Huh? You shouldn't be in here."

In a moments notice, she injected the USB drive into the station next to her and an all too familiar voice came online. "Melody online, how may I help you?"

"Melody, kill command except owners." Turrets around the facility sprung to life in an instant and the killing data was fed, screams of horror and agony filled the entire place as blaster bolts thudded into unsuspecting individuals. In no less than one minute, all of the staff in the facility were deceased, with Serenity and Carina as the sole survivors. In the upcoming days, the bodies would be thrown into the abandoned floors to be food for the surviving mice.