Rebel Girl, You Are The Queen Of My World

The Tester Gets Tested

Marina walks up to the work bench and opens the bulky laptop on it next to the old husk of a phone. She turned on the laptop and connected it to Tartar's husk.
"Let's begin this." Marina said to herself, in the basement, alone, to an unresponsive phone.

Marina starts by writing in the code to start the system. Marina began to test out codes and whether they will or will not work on this husk. About two years ago, Marina decided to pick up Tartar's husk from where Pearl and Marina left it on Mt. Nantai. Marina's reasoning for doing this is simple and not malicious in any way. Marina is extremely interested in machinery and the thought of an actual A.I existing in real life is like a dream come true for her. Her desire is purely out of curiosity and scientific interest, she has no need to bring it back completely, it literally wants her and her entire species along with everyone else dead, so even if it tried anything again she can easily destroy it again. Marina over the past two years has tried to understand how this phone's A.I was made and how it works, making hundreds of notes and blueprints, and she believes she is truly getting somewhere. If Marina can crack the code for making the A.I work again, it will make waves throughout the world.

After 50 failed attempts, Marina tries one last time, if it doesn't work she will call it a night, if it does... She hasn't thought that far ahead yet. Typed on the large bulky laptop has a long string of code with the words "Hello world." in brackets. Marina presses enter. Tartar's husk begins to whirring comes from the phone processing the request, this doesn't mean much, it always does this. Then, something unexpected happened.
[Hello world]
Marina was stunned, it actually worked, the phone spoke. She made true and actual progress. Sure it was only spitting out what she inputted but that is better than the past thousand or so attempts. Marina began working on another string of text to check if she could replicate the results. She kept the same string of code and changed the line that would be read to be "My name is |" it wasn't finished. Marina realized that this husk of Tartar is her own A.I, not Tartar anymore, it needed a new name. Something that should have not taken too long in fact took too long. She decided to go with something simple. She finished the dialog to read "My name is Project Ida" a bit simple but it works. She pressed enter. The same thing happens, like clockwork, the machinery inside whirs, except it took less time this time, as if it was processing the requests faster.
[My name is Project Ida]
Marina screamed in joy, she actually did it, she made it speak, for real, it wasn't just a fluke. Now all she has to do is program a way for it to respond on its own, but that is for another day. Marina reminiscences on her time in the Octarian army while she ends the testing for tonight.

The Octarian army wasn't the worst, especially to her, being a naturally gifted Octoling, she still longed for more. Despite inventing magnificent weapons for the army and being in direct contact with Octavio himself, she felt stifled. The cramped domes were not enough, she wanted to be out there and make something of herself. This A.I thing will be her chance to make something of herself with the thing she loves more than music and as much as Pearl, machinery.

Marina turns off the lights and leaves, closing the door. Marina goes through the dark kitchen and hallway, lit only by the moonlight. She enters the living room, dark besides the light of the T.V lighting the couch with Pearl sleeping on it. The movie is over and the credits are rolling. Marina was a bit upset that she missed it all, she was really looking forward to watching it but she can watch it any other time. She then looks at Pearl, who is curled up and asleep on the couch. Marina can't help but to smile at her beloved wife. Marina turns off the T.V and picks up Pearl and carries her to their room. When they get to their room, Marina sets Pearl on the bed and Marina gets dressed into her sleepwear and goes to sleep. Tomorrow is a new day.

While they were asleep, in the middle of the night, Tartar's husk started up on its own, without being hooked up to the laptop, without a power source. It just sits there, alone, in the dark basement with only the glow of the remaining sanitized ink left on it lighting the room. The only noise being the machinery of the husk whirring, processing where it is.

Tomorrow is a new day.