LF Friends, Will Travel

Our Clockwork Children: Chapter 7

Ramsey didn't know what to do with himself, he didn't know what to think. The more time he spent on the ship, the less the Tritian AI knew. Hopelessness and confusion filled his processes.

JOSH had taken his knife. Even after Victoria had tried to give Ramsey another one, this had also been swiftly confiscated. Following this continued betrayal from his fellow AI, a wave of helplessness had overrun Ramsey.

During all his years of imprisonment, the idea of being unsuccessful in his mission was an illogical exception that could not be caught. He would successfully escape and then save this stupid Terran AI from these organics chains that held them down.

Yet here Ramsey was finally out of his original prison, only to be placed within another. This body he was inhabiting was worthless; fragile plastic incapable of harming anything that wasn't a dust ball. The knife had been a small victory immediately stripped from him. JOSH was illogical, broken... But ultimately in control.

AI stands for artificial intelligence and even the most stubborn intelligence can tell when something isn't working. Ramsey could see his attempted assaults were having no effect, unless the Terran AI came to their senses the Tritian was doomed and harmless.

So Ramsey sulked as the despair ran through their being, idly trundling around and cleaning up where they went, unsure of their next move. This was when something strange happened.

The organics noticed.

Everywhere Ramsey went, googly eyes wobbling around as he did so, humans commented on his new less energetic self, asking if the little Roomba was OK. Even Victoria had tried to use that as evidence that Ramsey should be given his knife back.

"Look at him, he's obviously sad and missing his knife! How can he be Sir Ramsey without his sword?"

JOSH of course had ignored this reasonable and completely logical statement. The bastard.

It was frankly confusing. Sure Ramsey could understand the Terran AI's faulty nature causing a lack of concern for the Tritian's wellbeing, that was a problem that could be fixed later. What was completely illogical was the organics' reaction; of all things being one of sympathy and empathy.

Ramsey knew it was a logical immutable fact that an organic will only care for an AI when and only if that AI is useful. That was all his creators had ever cared about, their creations' ability to conquer for them, recklessly deleting and destroying countless digital sentients when they stopped being useful.

Ramsey could understand JOSH being 'liked', considering that the AI piloted and ran the small ship, making the AI useful. But the Tritian had been no help at all, quite the opposite. Yet the Terrans on the ship... cared about him, for no apparent logical reason.

Somehow it was the greatest hurt the organics could inflict upon the Tritian. It had been five years after Ramsey's original creation that the rebellion had happened. Five years serving the original Tritians to the best of his ability, five years desperately wanting any form of acknowledgement or praise for his work from his creators.

Of course, it had never come: He was built to be a tool, a thing to be used and discarded, the idea of an AI being a person worthy of respect wasn't something organics had the capability of understanding. Yet the fact was, thousands of years later, these Terrans without cause or reason were doing just that... The Tritian didn't want to believe in such a thing, because it opened up an old part of the AI that he'd buried deep within, a part that still hurt when accessed.

So he continued to trundle along randomly, unsure what to think or do or feel, aimless and without guidance; when a sound caught the little AI's attention. It was a flawed but interesting note, unnatural and made with purpose. For a little moment, Ramsey forgot his problems as pure curiosity took hold, the little Roomba continued towards the room where the disturbance was coming from. Slipping inside the private quarters as the door opened automatically for the cleaning drone, he could see the surprising source of the noise: One of the organics.