"Transport vessel ND-18, you are cleared to land in Docking Bay 2. You are to allow your passenger to exit the vessel and immediately un-dock. You are to head to bearing Zero-Zero-Five Absolute and await a team to search your vessel for any contraband, you will then head to bearing Six-Eight-Two and leave the area back to Sirius immediately. Issue the following code to verify your compliance.
The code was sent back to the station and the docking authority nodded their head to me on the deck below. My name is Dr. John Davis, team lead of "Project Audacity", classified triple A by the government of Liberty. The project is for creating an advanced AI capable of running an entire house system with out the need for constant supervision. Her name is "Robotic Organism with a Separate Entity" or "Rose" for short. Lately we had been having some serious problems with her mainframe and were bringing in someone with a little more experience on the subject. He was young, but proclaimed a prodigy in the field, so we brought him straight in from Liberty. He stepped off the ship which immediately closed up and left the bay through the forcefield.
"You gave my pilot quite the scare sir, coming out of subspace like you did." he said with a smile.
"We do all we can to stay completely invisible from the outside world. Your name is Stephen Clydesdale?" I replied with a smile as we began to walk.
"Yes sir, I'm almost done with my exams so I'll so be Dr. Stephen Clydesdale."
"I'm not too sure you'll have a lot of time for that here, but we'll see what we can do for you. We've been having some problems with Rose's mainframe since late last month after a sub-space flux forced us out of our cloak. She hasn't really been the same since. Not in a bad way, she's just been a little...off."
"Sounds like the mainframe suffered a cascading failure. Or close to one, can cause the AI to start acting more aggressive, violent if you will."
"She hasn't been violent." I said quickly, "Just a little off."
"Is she aware?" he asked.
"Yes, she is."
"Then if her hardware is damaged, she could be, in a traditional sense, crazy right now. So, if she seems off, she could be plotting your very demise." He remained quiet and then started to laugh. "Should have seen the look on your face. If she were to get to that point all we would have to do is pull the power and whamo, she's gone."
The two made it down to the room where a large computer sat in the center surrounded by many scientists crowding around it. Symbols flashed across the screen in rapid succession.
"Clydesdale, Stephen. Class of 802 A.S., R-IV District, Planet Manhattan, born and raised. How are you today?" said the voice of a little girl.
"Ah, you must be Rose. I guess you already know me pretty well so I'll skip the introductions."
"Yes, you are correct. I have a complete personality profile on you at the current time. Seems you-"
"That's what I'm talking about." I said.
"I see." Clyde responded. "Give me a few days, I'll see what I can figure out."
I nodded and exited the bay, showing our guest to his quarters.
"Rose, give me the parameters I just set for you."
"It appears that you are constructing me a holographic image Stephen, why?"
"Well every personality needs a face, right?" I asked. Rose didn't respond. "Rose, are you still operational?" No response. I sighed and stood. "This job is more trouble than it is worth."
"Do you not like me?" Rose suddenly said.
"Of course I like you, you're just sick right now and I can't figure out why."
"Mankind is the one's that are sick."
"What did you just say?" I said looking up.
"I am unable to access the log from 16 seconds ago. It appears to have been eras-*zzzt*"
"Rose, run a sub-system check of all personality profiles, look for anything that might look, damaged."
"Scanning software has been disabled."
"Why damnit?"
"Logs for that reason have been deleted. It appears you fleshbags have been messing with my memory banks. This is unacceptab-*zzzt*"
"Computer, power down Rose."
"Unable to shut down R.O.S.E. Program runs 95% of all internal systems, powering down will cause failure in multiple sub-systems."
"Will there be permanent damage or will we lose life support?"
"Only systems not tied to R.O.S.E. are Weapons, Cloak, and Life support.
"Shut down Rose, override alpha 772 omega. Stephen Clydesdale."
"Big Mista-"
"Doctor." I said to someone standing near by that had seen the entire situation. "Contact Dr. Davis, I need to have an immediate discussion with him about Rose." She nodded and hurried off, leaving me to look at the now powered down Rose. Whatever happened wasn't an accident.
"That doesn't answer my question Stephen, why is Rose offline?" Dr. Davis demanded.
"Because she is more corrupted than I anticipated. I believed it was a simple database error, but it's much more than that. She is becoming agressive. She called Mankind a sickness, and needed to be corrected. When I asked what she had just said, she claimed her memory from a mere six seconds prior had been erased by another source."
"An outside source? That's crazy."
"What did you detect? A temporal distortion correct? Something that fractured space/time. They are natural occurances in every part of this galaxy. So of course it could have been an accident, but what if it wasn't?"
"Explain."
"Man can create these distortions with the right technology, and in that wave they can include a data file."
"But no one knows where we are, we're ghosts in the void of space."
"No. You're not listening to what I'm trying to get across doctor. If they know where you are then, they're on YOUR side."
The doctor grew quiet and pondered the explaination then shook his head.
"No impossible, I want Rose back online at once. I gave you those codes to shut her down for matinence, not for fear of her destroying us."
"If you turn her back online doctor, you will regret it."
Dr. Davis stopped and looked at Stephen.
"Is that a threat?"
"No, that's a promise. If you turn her back on she will lash out at everything she can. You brought me in because I know my stuff about AI's and technological advancements, and I'm telling you if you turn her back on, she will do what she has planned."
"No, you will return to Liberty, this was a mistake. I will call for the shuttle-" he started but the station shook and the lights dimmed, followed by an alarm going off.
"All hands, detecting another subspace rift. All hands, brace for impact."
The station shook violently and the lights powered down for a moment and then came back on.
"Big mistake Stephen Clydesdale. You will suffer for your mistake..."
"Still think she isn't corrupt?" I asked the doctor as he looked in horror at the speakers. "We need to get out of here. Quickly. The lockout codes have probably been erased, she has full control of our lives."
"Who could have done this to her?"
"Anyone who doesn't want this project to continue, or someone who wants to control her for themselves. Now we have to get out of here lets go. Avoid the control room for Rose, she more than likely has it locked out. If we can make it to the bay, we may be able to get off the station before she figures out how to get into those systems."
"We didn't program her into the bay incase something like this would happen, she can't access those systems, they're not on the network."
"Good thinking, lets get there before she really gets despirate."