Big Egos (an ego oneshot book)

Symptom (ISWM googliplier au)

This is part of a randomly generated word challenge I hope to continue hosting!Every 2 weeks I'm going to share a randomly generated word in the discord, and anyone who wants to join can write anything they want about the word. Any fandom, not a fandom at all, a poem, story, song, etc. No length requirements. It just has to be based on that word. If you're interested in joining, here's the link!

https://discord.gg/tPTMzUkXJG

Google had always been more... irritable. That's just who he was. And the head engineer, Mark, loved that about him.

It was a bug, initially. A bit of the coding that Mark had messed up. When he made the robot, it was supposed to be an eager enthusiastic helper, but he quickly found with its ability to feel irritation, it was far more capable of forming its own personality, wants, and desires than expected.

Was it dangerous? Oh yeah, for sure, but by the time Mark had found the issue in the code he had become too attached to Google's personality to fix it. He was even starting to gain Google's trust.

Before long, Google became an important member of the crew. He only really listened to Mark, but surprisingly that didn't cause too many problems. Especially considering Google didn't seem to have an interest in leaving Mark's side most of the time. Despite his seeming annoyance with anything with a pulse, he never showed violent tendencies. Sometimes the engineer even suspected the robot actually cared about the humans on board the ship.

Mark and Google were currently running a few routine tests on the navigation system on the deck. Google had quickly found Mark annoyed him the least. The human's odd fondness for the bot resulted in him treating Google like a sentient being, which Google deeply appreciated, although he would never say that. The human was also much smarter than he seemed. Google understood why the others thought Mark was stupid, as some of his decisions and designs could lack... foresight. However, that was Google's strength. He had no problem letting Mark know an idea was remarkably idiotic and redirecting the human.

However, Google saw what the other humans couldn't understand. Mark's execution was... something else. Once he had an idea, good or bad, you could be sure he was going to find an extremely impressive and effective way to go about it. Even Google's own body was proof of this, considering he looked just like a human, down to details like thin hairs on his arms, the faint outline of fake veins in his hands, a programmed rise and fall of his chest to mimic breathing, and more. No, he didn't believe Mark was an idiot. Not for a human, at least. This also made Mark quite a bit easier for Google to spend time around.

Today though, not even Mark was bearable. The human's occasional hums as he plugged the systems into a handheld device. His breaths. Google could even swear he could hear his heartbeat. It all felt like it was slowly scratching down his patience. According to his settings, his audio processing wasn't any more sensitive than average, but it sure didn't feel that way.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore "Stop it" He hissed at Mark.

The human stopped his soft humming and looked at Google, a look of surprise on his face, "Oh, sorry Google, I didn't realize that was so upsetting to you."

"You're being so loud"

"I didn't realize, I'll cut it out. Do you want a break? I can finish this up on my own"

"I'm fine" the android snapped. Was the human implying Google wasn't well? Only pathetic humans who got tired needed 'breaks'. "I just need you to stop being loud"

The human looked like he wanted to say something. He looked concerned, which only upset the robot more. He didn't need the human's concern, everything was fine. He wasn't a fleshy being who could get sick, anyhow.

Eventually, Mark just nodded, seeming to decide that verbally responding wasn't the best idea, and got back to work.

Mark didn't start humming again, and he was even breathing quieter.

But it was still annoying. Was his heartbeat louder now?

Google told himself logically there was nothing the humans could do about their heartbeat, and they needed to breathe. It had never bothered him so much before. Why now?

Eventually, he grew sick of Mark looking at him every few seconds, a worried, almost fatherly look on his face. He threw the tablet he was using onto the control panel and left without another word, unable to deal with the interaction much longer. Mark didn't call after him, even though Google knew he wanted to.

Mark had set aside a place deep in storage to be Google's makeshift 'room', shortly after he found Google wasn't a fan of humans and liked to be alone to recharge. Both literally and emotionally. The humans got their cryo pods, and Google got an area in the storage room everyone knew not to mess with and he could do basically whatever he wanted with. It was a decent setup, and Google had been thankful that Mark had put in effort to accommodate the robot.

Humans were working in the storage room today, though.

Granted, they didn't come anywhere close to Google's corner, and the storage room was very large. Maybe the size of a football field. This happened a few times a week and usually, as long as they stayed away, Google had no problem with that.

Today was not usually, however. Today their chattering upset him. It dug under his synthetic skin and quickly became unbearable. His audio sensors were still at their normal settings, meaning the only explanation was everyone was being far louder than usual. Was this some kind of joke to them? Did they find it funny to piss him off? They were doing this on purpose, weren't they? And to think Google had begun to believe they respected him as a peer.

His only safe spot in this god-forsaken ship, infested by nauseating humans.

Finally, he snapped, once again "Won't you all shut up!!!" He shouted.

The humans fell silent. Their hearts were beating louder now. To Google's relief, however, they quickly left. Good.

But he was still feeling very upset. Why? The humans were vacated, what was annoying him now?

It must be Mark's fault, he thought. After all, Mark was the one who made him. Mark was the one who found the issue in his coding and didn't fix it. At the time, Google had been glad the human didn't dig into his code and rewrite it. It had felt like an act of respect, allowing Google to exist autonomously and not just making him cater to human needs.

Now it felt like an act of damnation. Surely that's why he was so upset. Mark had messed up, and the other humans were messing with him. It was everyone's fault. Google picked up a hammer, almost without thinking, and went to find the engineer.

Mark was at the end of a hall, working on a jammed door.

Alone.

He looked up at Google and got up "Hey, Google" He said, getting out his tablet "I think I know what's going on" He said, seeming oblivious to the hammer gripped in the robot's fist.

"I think I do too," The robot said irritably.

"Oh, so you already found the virus?" Mark asked, looking surprised.

"Virus? No, I don't have a virus. You're just an awful engineer. And humans find pissing me off funny for some reason" Google snapped.

The man's face fell, and his eyes darted to the hammer in Google's hand finally. "Googs... everything is fine, I don't know what you're planning to do, but everything is okay. There was a virus in your tablet and I think you accidentally picked it up, I can fix it, Google"

The robot let out a short laugh that even surprised himself a little. He didn't know he could laugh. But there was something ironic, dare he say, even a little funny about the human's sudden fear.

"I thought you liked this about me, Mark," Google said, taking a step closer. "How upsetting I find humans. I think you even called it 'impressive'. Are you not proud of me anymore, Mark?."

The Engineer took a step back "I-I find your ability to have your own opinions impressive, Google. I always will, considering I didn't intentionally program that. It wasn't the fact that you didn't like humans, it was you having an unprogrammed opinion... T-this isn't you though, Google. You're sick. T-this sudden anger you're feeling, it's just a symptom of the virus. Just let me fix it, I promise you'll feel better."

"Why do you think it has to be a virus, Mark? Why can't you accept that I actually, truly, hate you and every other human on this ship?" He said, taking yet another step forward.

The engineer's back hit a wall "Google, please! I know you actually care about everyone. You have free agency and yet you've always willingly helped me. And you've always done an amazing job. I'm proud of you, and everything you've chosen to do. I'm proud of how you've grown to be more than just your coding. You care, I know you do. I found the virus on your t-tablet and you were connected to it when you started to get overstimulated. Before you do anything rash please just let me try to help"

Even in Google's heightened state, Google could tell those words would usually mean a lot to him. Usually. Right now though, he was certain that Mark was trying to trick him. No doubt that if Google accepted, Mark would try to shut him down.

"You always did lack foresight in all of your projects, Mark," the android said, raising the hammer. "I guess I'm no exception"

—

The ship had been silent for days now. Google was deactivated, but no one wanted to scrap the bot. Even if it was his fault Mark was gone. Captain had said Mark wouldn't have wanted them to destroy it. No one argued.

Gunther was the first one to actually look over the bot's system to try and see what went wrong. Celcie came over. She wouldn't admit it, but Mark's death had hit her pretty hard. They hated each other, sure, but that didn't mean she wanted one of the only people she had interacted with since getting onto this ship to die.

"Did you find anything, Gunther...?" She asked.

The weapons tech looked at her from his handheld device "A virus. Seems like his aggression was just a symptom of the overload happening to his systems. I think... he just got overwhelmed. Poor guy probably didn't know how to cope with the intense emotions the virus was causing. I got rid of the virus. Probably for no reason. It's not like we can power him back on again."

"Mark would want us too..."

"Maybe once we get to our new planet. When there's more space. When there's not thousands of people counting on us to bring them across the galaxy safely." Gunther said, unplugging his device and getting up.

Celci looked at the deactivated bot, who looked almost peaceful. Sleeping. Mark would want the bot to be at peace. Happy. Mark would also want them to keep the colonists safe. "Right... maybe then."