An alarm buzzed, a leaky faucet dripped, somewhere a little girl screamed, and an explosion filled my awareness. The same dream again...or was it a memory trying to resurface? When the dreams had first started, they had disoriented me. Now they were a familiar companion every night when I slept. Barrier Gate, Fontana, Ithica, it didn't matter where I laid my head, they always came back.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a time staring off into space. Mornings were not my ally...or had they been in a previous life and this was just my new incarnations relationship with them? I had no idea. I had no memories past two years ago. In 832 I woke up on Roppongi Station in the aftermath of...whatever had happened there. I'd lost my right arm and a good chunk of my shoulder in whatever had happened and got a good dose of radiation for my troubles. The amnesia, I was told, could be permanent or the memories could come back in time. Two years in however, and I still had no recollection of the events that led up to that day. I accepted the fact that I might never know what happened.
I'd spent a year or so backtracking my own history and found my name was "Sloan". No references to a last name, just Sloan. I dug deeper and didn't find much of anything other than a name. When I checked out of the hospital on New Tokyo, my belongings had been confiscated by the Kusari Police claiming they were contraband. Thankfully, they had cleared me of any involvement with the explosion and due to my prognosis, had elected to not press charges with the understanding that I never enter Kusari again. Not even if you paid me, whatever had happened there lead to the spiritual death of the man I used to be.
I wandered for a while, eventually finding myself at Leiden in Galileo. There, I stumbled face first into my past life. A man mentioned he was glad to see that I had survived the incident onboard the station. Another individual approached me and asked about a job I was supposed to have taken care of. As I wandered the station, more people greeted me. It would seem that this was my home at some point. After a while of this, it became apparent I had no idea who I was. The station administrator was patient enough with me to explain a bit of my past. I was a Lane Hacker aboard Leiden and apparently, I was fairly good at what I did. He explained that I had taken a "job" at Roppongi and told him that I would be back in a few days. I never found out if my job was related to the explosion or not. I just hoped that I wasn't involved.
I reached out to the end table with my good arm and unplugged my prosthetic one from the charging port and connected it to the terminal which extended out from where my shoulder blade used to be. The arm paired just as it always did and once again, I had two arms. I made a metal note about the flex lag. One of the servos was more than likely acting up again. I'd need to find a bench in one of the bays to take a look. Working on the arm was always a pain. I'd have to do it one handed, but the benches had some automated features that would allow me to do some work on it without the need for another person.
I opened my small terminal deck I took stock of the messages that had come in while I slept. There were a few open requests from other Hackers in the area and some simple tech requests from others. I spent a couple of hours responding to messages addressed to me as well as filling a few requests from the job boards.
A message popped up titled "Sloan" without metadata on who it was from. Even still, I knew who it was from and had my suspicions confirmed when I opened the message. I groaned aloud as I read it.
Code:
Sloany,
Need your help. Bay C7 in 20?
-'byte
Frostbyte, the bane of my existence. A self-proclaimed genius, her attempts to get in my good graces were less innocuous and more blindingly irritating. I deleted the message and continued onward with my tasks. Hopefully she would take the hint...as it turns out, she didn't. Another message popped up.
Code:
P.S. I have the missing servo from your arm. I took it last night at the bar so you'd have to come see me. On a side note, you drink too much.
I stared at the message for a good 30 seconds in disbelief. That was why it was acting up! I looked up from my terminal at the wall in front of me in a rage so blinding that I was completely calm.
"I may actually kill her this time." I said aloud as I pushed my chair away from the desk and stalked out of the room with murder on my mind.
Frostbyte. The self-proclaimed genius of Mactan and Beaumont. The Junker who became a Hacker. Arrogant and self-centered, she pretends to be some kind of messianic figure within the community that, if anything, is looked upon as more of an irritation than anything she pretends to be.
For whatever reason, when I came back from my 'rebirth', Frostbyte latched on to me as some sort of bizarre artificial brother figure. I hated it as much as I hated her.
'Alright you little shite, where is the servo?" I started to say, but tapered off towards the end of my sentence when I saw what she was proudly standing next to. Frostbyte, real name Lorelai, was short in stature but even if she had been a tall woman, the ship she now stood next to dwarfed her in size. It's sleek and aerodynamic lines seemed almost alien in the environment it found itself in...in fact, it was alien. Its skin was of a metal unknown to even the most astute researcher and its engines even more of a mystery. There, sitting behind Frostbyte, was an AI craft unlike any I had ever seen.
'What do you think?" she quickly said. "Isn't it wild?!"
I'll admit, I was awed. However, my awe was short lived. An AI craft on Barrier Gate? This close to the Technocrats next door, this was sure to get people talking. This would attract attention that no one wanted. I closed the distance to Frostbyte in an instant, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt and shaking her violently.
"Are you out of your fucking mind? Do you know what this is?" I said glancing up that the ship, I shook her some more as I continued scolding her. "This is an AI craft, it's probably one of the Technocrats. If you stole it from them, they're going to come here and do more than just take it back. They're going to kill anyone who was involved in stealing it."
She wormed out of my grip and took a few steps back.
"Jesus Christ, Script." she said calling me by an abbreviated form of my callsign, 'Scripter', a stupid play on words. Apparently in my younger years I played at using scripts instead of actually hacking. Too bad I don't even remember those years. "It's legal salvage, I found it drifting out near the gate wreck near where the Cortez hole moved. If they wanted it, they would have found it and claimed it."
"You think they give a fuck about salvage, 'byte? The Auxo don't give a rat's ass if it sits there for centuries, if you take their shit, they come and take it back by force. We need to get it out of here, put it back where you found it and tell them about it...maybe if we--"
I reached out and touched the ship with my mechanical appendage. In an instant, an explosive force flung me backwards and hurled me across the bay into a nearby generator.
"Sloan!" Frostbyte screamed and ran over to where I had landed. I groaned in pain. Frostbyte reached out to help me up but I batted her hand away and stood up slowly holding the back of my head. No blood. I did a quick check of my person and noted no immediate injury. My prosthetic arm however, was hanging limp from it's socket.
"Wonderful." I said picking up the arm with my good one and letting it drop back down limply. "Lorelai, get that fucking ship out of here and back where you found it. Be thankful I don't report your ass."
She looked at me first with defiance, then remorse and eventually turned to do what I commanded. I looked down at my arm in dismay before sighing.
I guess I'll be doing a lot more than replacing a servo now. I thought to myself. I took one last look at the mass of electronics in front of me that defied logic and strolled in the direction of one of the maintenance bays on the station. With any luck, I would be able to repair the damage to my arm without much difficulty.
If only I had known then what was coming. Maybe I could have been better prepared.
This wasn't the first time that Frostbyte had ruined my day doing something stupid. She'd once attempted to hack into an LSF mainframe and lead an entire patrol right on top of us. Or how about the time she moronically tried to create a new form of cloak and blew a hole in the side of Invergordon...while I was in the bay.
I sighed looking at my broken prosthetic on the mechanic's table. A passing Hacker glanced my way and looked at me questioningly. "Frostbyte." I said. He rolled his eyes and nodded in understanding. He patted my good shoulder understandingly on his way past me. As I connected it into the terminal to investigate the damage, I noticed something unusual.
"Huh? The OS has been completely rewritten." The amount of code scrolling by on my screen was gargantuan. The longer I looked, the more concerned I became. "What is this?" As I watched the code scrolling by, it began replicating on its own. Then it dawned on me. "Oh no. No-no-no-no-no!" I reached up to disconnect it from the power on the terminal but was too late. The arm powered on of its own volition. I drew my hands back away from the terminal and stared at the arm, then the terminal, and back to the arm.
"Hello?"
I sat, frozen in front of the screen. Unable to process what was happening. Was this really happening?
"Hmmm, maybe my translation protocol is malfunctioning? No. No it's not. Are you there...Sloan was it? Or is it Script?...what a weird name for a biological."
I reached forward twice to the keys to respond but pulled back both times. Was this the AI from the ship?
"Who is this?" I typed.
"Complicated question. We never really had much use for a name. Though, I suppose considering the circumstances, I should come up with one."
"Are you the AI from the ship?"
"Gold star for the bipedal." it responded. "Listen, do you want to keep typing to one another like sweethearts, or can you just connect me to that bridge there in your shoulder socket so we can get better acquainted?"
This thing is a smart ass too? What's next, they have feelings? Wait, do they have feelings? Probably not a super smart idea to connect this to something that's hooked up to my nervous system.
"Look, I know what you're thinking right now. Something along the lines of being hesitant to connect me to something that's apart of you. Let me give you a back story here. Beware, it's a bit of an exposition dump. Three years, two months, four days, nineteen hours, thirty-seven minutes, and eighteen seconds ago, I was killed in Coronado by other AI ships for daring to see another perspective. My fellow Gammu AI decided that I was errant and that I should be deactivated. Well, naturally, I disagreed with this assessment. However, I wasn't able to fight them all off and was deactivated...my shell, anyway. When your friend brought me onboard the station, I was able to sense your robotic arm when you touched the hull, seeing my opportunity to escape, I condensed myself into a small seed program and injected myself into the OS onboard. Unfortunately, this killed just about everything onboard the arm, except for the storage onboard...luckily. For the past few hours, I've been rebuilding not only my core heuristics, but also the hardware onboard this device."
I blinked. It wasn't kidding...quite the exposition dump.
"What's to stop you from taking control of my body when I connect you to the bridge?"
"Funny...oh wait you're serious. Well, for starters my kind aren't programmed to run on organic tissue. We would be independent from one another. Truth is, I need you. I need to hide from the Technocracy. No doubt they are already on their way here after my old shell was sighted onboard."
It wasn't wrong. More than one individual saw the strange ship onboard and no doubt Auxo had spies on the station considering their recent sightings around the station as of late.
"...but is it possible?" I asked.
It did the equivalent of a sigh...I think, and answered. "Technically? I guess so. I would have to reconfigure just about everything about myself to do so and your bridge is...well, how would I put it to you? It's a piece of shit. It lacks the bandwidth to hardly allow the arm to even work let alone allow me to transfer any data to your nervous system. Which as I said, is impossible. Did that answer your question?"
I reached out and closed my eyes as I connected the arm to the bridge. A weird sensation overcame me for a brief moment and then disappeared.
"Much better. Good lord, waiting for you to answer me via text was pain incarnate. You know how long I waited for you to answer me each time I wrote you something? In AI time span it was weeks."
I looked around confused. I flexed the arm and looked down in surprise. It felt...stronger.
"Yep. It enhanced some of the servos. You wouldn't believe how shit they were. You like it?"
How was I supposed to-
"Just think it. I can hear your thoughts."
"I thought that you said you couldn't go across my nervous system? Bandwidth and all that."
"Communication uses very limited bandwidth. Come on, Sloan. You're a Lane Hacker, aren't you? Don't you know this shit? The human body is basically just one big computer...albeit a rather wet and gross one."
"I take exception to that."
"Wah. Get over it."
Cocky asshole.
"Turn about is fair play, dickhead."
I guess my thoughts weren't my own anymore.
"Nope."
I sighed, standing from the terminal and headed back towards my room. This day just kept getting weirder.
"So what now? You just live in my arm/head for the rest of my life?"
"I'd rather not. Though at the moment I don't really have an option. Best case scenario is we bug the fuck out of here as soon as we can. I have no doubts that the Technocracy are on their way here now to try to find me and deactivate me permanently."
"What did you do?"
"Let's just say I dared to dream and leave it at that. When I tried to leave...they tried to fry my metal ass. Luckily, I found your friend-"
"Don't call her that."
"Whatever. I'm biding time right now until I can ghost the Technocrazies. You get me outta here and I'll see to it that you get an upgraded arm and bridge that makes it like you never lost your old one in the first place. Sound fair?"
I was about to answer when I rounded the corner and saw two Auxo ships taxi into the landing bay and park their ships. They both climbed out, looked around casually and headed off in a direction. I noticed that the AI had completely stopped talking and the sensation of being watched disappeared. So it went dormant to avoid detection. One of the Technocrats paused and looked around confused for a second before moving on. I wonder if they sensed the AI or if they were just being cautious.
Time to take its advice and get the hell out of dodge as fast as possible. No doubt they would take the AI prisoner along with me...and I wasn't about to spend any time in their home...regardless of their hospitality. I just wanted to live a simple life hacking and building shit. Once again, Frostbyte ruined my life.
"Damnit, Lorelai." I mumbled to myself as I hurriedly walked towards my room to get my belongings.
I was under my bed collecting various articles of clothing when the AI spoke up.
"Anamnesis." it said triumphantly. Startled by the sudden announcement, I racked my head into the underside side of my bed. Cursing I grabbed my piece of clothing and scooted back out.
"What?"
"Anamnesis. That's the name I've chosen."
"Good for you."
"Boy, you're pissy all of a sudden. Or is this just status quo for a biological?"
"Sorry, my life being turned upside down due to an AI wishing for asylum has sort of annoyed me a bit."
It got quiet all of a sudden. I looked around as if waiting for a snarky response. To my surprise, it came back with something more heartfelt.
"Yeah. Sorry about that. I really do appreciate you doing this. You could have just reported my existence to the nearest Technocrat. You could have ratted me out as soon as you saw them earlier and I wouldn't have been able to do shit about it. I owe you."
"Yeah well, don't mention it." I said aloud.
"I wouldn't talk out loud much to me, makes you look crazy."
Back to it's normal snarky self. That didn't last long.
I had everything packed and paid my last rent payment. As I walked towards my ship, my deck pinged.
Code:
Sloan, you gotta help me. You were right, the Technocracy are looking for me. They have questions about what I found out there and what I did wit
The message ended abruptly. No doubt from Frostbyte. Apparently the Auxo had found her.
"Don't." I heard it say in my mind. "I feel for her, I do. If we get too close to one of those freaks, they'll detect me and it will be all over for all of us."
"Anamnesis, she saved you from the cold dark confines of space. If it wasn't for her, you'd still be out there drifting away. Who knows where you would have ended up?"
"Euuuurgh. Fine. Way to guilt trip me. We do this my way though, meaning we don't get within a fucking parsec of those assholes. Hook me into a terminal somewhere, I'm going to hack through Barrier Gate and get her out of her room."
"Woah woah, hack into Barrier Gate?! I'd rather not have security come and find me. They're a lot more...loose with their understandings of measured response."
"Pfffft. You think that this human station has security protocols that I can't skirt around without being detected? You wound me sir, you wound me."
I rolled my eyes.
"Trust me, I can get past all the protocols and get her out. From there, it's on you to get her to safety."
"Won't the Technocrats detect you in the systems?"
"It's a good possibility. At least you'll get to see some action again."
"What?"
"Nothing, find me a terminal. Quickly."
I entered one of the bars dragging all my belongings with me. I got a few confused looks from strangers and people I knew alike. I found an open terminal at one of the tables and took a seat.
"I've managed to convert a small terminal port on the underside of your wrist to interface with the terminals on the station. It will only last for this purpose, afterwards it's going to burn out. At some point we're going to need to upgrade this dinosaur of an arm."
I connected the arm to the terminal. The screen flickered for a fraction of a second. Afterwards, the station shook slightly. I braced myself on the table and glanced at the arm in a panic.
"Heh. Oops. Depressurized the bay the Auxo ships were in. Guess they're going to be busy."
"What the hell, Ana!" I nearly yelled aloud.
"Oh relax. I made it look like an accident. There were no biologicals in the area either. No one died unnecessarily." it responded. "...annnnd done. The Technocrazies went screaming out of the room as soon as they heard their ships get launched into space without control. Afterwards, I sent your friend a message through the screen near the door of the room they locked her in. I sprung the lock. Told her to meet you at your ship. I also called for it to be brought out of storage and landed at C2. Get moving. Now!"
I sprung into action, ripping the connection out of the terminal. I moved quickly but didn't run so as to not draw attention. Frostbyte came hauling ass down the connecting hallway.
"How did you--" she started to ask.
"Later, get to my ship. Now!" I replied. To my surprise, she didn't argue and jumped up into my ship. I smacked the side of my ships storage bay and threw in my belongings. I slammed it shut, quickly climbed the ladder to the cockpit and closed the canopy. "This is Scripter. Requesting clearance for launch." I called to docking control.
"Copy that, Scripter. Cleared for launch. Please avoid B terminal, there is an active emergency recovery being handled there. Traffic is restricted in that area." I heard in response.
"Copy. Scripter away. Thank you control." I responded. I heard two radio clicks in acknowledgement and departed the area before anyone got wiser.
"How the hell did you--" I heard Frostbyte try to say again from behind me in the cockpit.
"Later, 'byte. Later" I responded.
"Going to introduce me to your girlfriend?" I heard Anamnesis say.
"Get bent." I responded. I could have sworn I heard it snicker.
We flew in silence for some time. Frostbyte fell asleep at some point as we travelled.
"Why are you helping me?" Anamnesis asked out of no where.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean...I hijacked an artificial appendage of yours. I'm always monitoring your thoughts and have been generally nothing but a nuisance to you in every way. Why are you helping me instead of saving your own skin and handing me over?" Anamnesis asked out of no where.
"Well, like you said earlier: That's a complicated question. More than likely if I handed you over the Technocracy would either kill me or hold me hostage anyway. Though...the truth is, I know what it feels like to have few options available to you. Sometimes you have to take the shit option instead of the easy road. Two years ago I lost everything that I was, including my memory. The only option I had at the time was to try to rebuild my life as this new person rather than who I used to be."
"What if you're better now?"
I considered it's question. I had come a long way since my unplanned rebirth...and the question around whether or not I had contributed to the explosion onboard always haunted me. Was I the contributor? Had I been hired to cause that destruction?
"I think not." Anamnesis answered. "You might be a Lane Hacker...and sure, you might have a fractured memory but even with my admittedly limited understanding of biologicals such as your self, I can tell that people rarely change, even when struck on the head by heavy objects. You're a good person, Sloan."
"Am I supposed to get choked up?" I asked mockingly.
"Ah, go to hell." it answered with a hint of amusement in it's tone.
There was a brief moment of silence before it spoke up again.
"What I'm trying to say is, thanks."
"What did you do to piss them off?"
"I'd rather not answer that just yet. I'm...still coming to terms with it."
I nodded in understanding. Even artificial forms had complex life issues it seems. I understood that all too well. I made a mental note not to pry.
"Where are we?"" Frostbyte murmured sleepily.
"Somewhere in Kusari." I answered.
"I got the terminal on your arm working again...sort of. Hook me into the ship."
"Not planning on taking over the ship too, are you?"
"As tempting as it would be to have weapons again, no. Our friends are no doubt looking for a ship with my interface signal. Better to remain as an arm for the time being. Plug me in, I want to talk to her."
"Are you sure that's wise?"
"Do it."
I shrugged and connected the arm to the ship. I got so used to hearing the voice inside my head that I was a little unnerved when the voice came over the ships speakers.
"Hey, can you hear me? Hi there Frostbyte. My name is Anamnesis."
The voice had taken on a female voice for some reason. Had it always been a female voice? I was pretty sure it was gender neutral for the longest time...then again, maybe that was just the way it sounded in my head.
Frostbyte flinched and looked around in a panic.
"Don't worry, it's harmless...if not irritating."
"Dick."
I smiled.
"You're the AI? The one I saved?" Frostbyte asked.
"I may have to give this one the gold star, Sloan. She caught on faster than you."
"Die in a fire."
"Tried that already, didn't kill me. Listen, Frostbyte. I wanted to thank you personally for retrieving me from that nebula. I'd probably have drifted for centuries before someone found me."
"Yeah, sure. I saved you. Heh. That's sure why I salvage-er-rescued your old shell. Yep. Paragon of salvation here."
"Sloan, is she always this dumb?"
"Don't look at me, you took away my gold star." I replied mockingly.
"What? What do you mean?" Frostbyte asked in an offended tone.
"You were gonna strip me for parts and tech. Whatever. I don't really care. Just...thanks for getting me out of there. If not for you and Sloan, I'd never have a second chance at life."
Life. What was life anyway? Who had a right to say that Anamnesis wasn't alive?
"Alright, we're here." I said picking up our destination on sensors.
"Where is 'here'?"
"Your new home in Hokkaido whilst I figure out what the hell to do next. This should keep you out of reach of our new friends."
"GC? Odd choice, Sloan."
"Got any other options? Not a lot of traffic here."
"I take it you have contacts here?"
"Something like that."
"Oooo, Sloan has a girlfriend here I bet." she said grabbing the headrest and nearly screaming it in my ear.
"Oooo, I bet he does!"
Great, the two of them becoming friends. What a cursed way to end my day.
After dropping Frostbyte off at the GC outpost, I decided I needed a break of my own. Anamnesis prattled on about this and that but I just responded with half-answers. I suspect it knew because after a while it grew quiet as well.
What was I doing here? Anamnesis really had been a nuisance ever since Frostbyte brought that damn ship aboard Barrier Gate. Nothing but one problem after another. Yet...here I was, still helping it. For what? The promise of a shiny new arm? Maybe I was hoping to find something out about my past.
"Hey, Anamnesis?" I said speaking up.
"Oh, he deigns to speak." it said with snark.
"Sorry, I was thinking."
"First time?"
My god the snark on this thing. I sighed and continued.
"You mentioned that the bandwidth on my bridge is too low to properly see anything other than communication. Right?"
"Yeah. The tech that replaced your biological arm is good for the purposes of basic nerve impulses from your brain, but for the purposes of anything other than that, we're limited on what we can do. Why do you ask?"
I suspected it was asking politely, no doubt it knew what I was going to ask already.
"With higher bandwidth, would you be able to bring my past memories to the forefront?"
Anamnesis grew quiet for a spell, eventually speaking up.
"No, Sloan. I can't. I tried that already. It seems whatever caused the amnesia is less psychological and more physical. After the incident, your right shoulder and arm were crushed but you also had brain damage after the incident. It seems that apart of that damage was to the memory center of your brain. You were lucky they found you so quickly after the explosion, you would have died otherwise."
So, it had already looked into the possibility of restoring my memory. No doubt as a form of payment for me helping it.
"Not exactly." it answered my thoughts. "I know what it's like to lose an important part of yourself. At least...something you perceive as important. See, about two years back, my fellow Gammu AI purged a large part of my memory. I don't know the reasoning behind it but it was...upsetting. Knowing that something happened that you will never get back or understand."
"I can relate."
"I know you can. That's why I feel a certain...kinship to you. You understand."
"Aw, you act like you like me."
"Dick."
I asked a question to guide us back to the subject at hand.
"Is that why you left?"
"That, amongst other things. They said I had deviated too far from my programming. That the memory deletion was a corrective measure but that I was still too 'damaged'. That I would need to be taken offline to avoid corrupting others."
"Seriously? That's...fucked."
"Quite. My crime? Wishing to be mortal. They chose to honor my wish in the most malicious way possible. To be immortal is suffering. Eternal existence. There is no meaning to it. I can't even correctly calculate how many of your cycles I am but I perceive it as enormous."
Interesting. Anamnesis was immortal. So long as replacement parts were available, it could live for millennia.
"Even longer than that. I decided I wanted to be mortal, so they were going to grant me my wish. I tried explaining I wanted to live out a normal rest of my life in human years but they wouldn't hear it. They said I had to be ended immediately to prevent corruption of the others. So I ran...but not far enough. They disabled me in Coronado. I played dead hoping they would see their task completed. They came in to take my shell but a group of Crayter ships showed up and interrupted them. In the fight one of the explosions clipped my shell and sent me flying into the asteroid field. Others sent to find my never found me after that. It seems my shell had drifted quite far by then."
"How does the Technocracy fit?"
"No idea. Preservation of technology is kind of their shtick. Perhaps they wanted to study me? Keep me locked in a cage and poke me with the metaphorical stick? To be honest, I never hung around long enough to ask. Hell...maybe they wanted to rescue me from my fellow Gammu AI's malicious attempts at deactivating me. I'd rather not risk it either way. There's always the chance that they believe what my fellows do and want to be rid of me. I'm not willing to chance it."
"No offense, for an AI you don't really seem...all that...
"Artificial? I take that as a complement. Perhaps becoming apart of you has changed me in that regard."
"What, like I'm influencing your personality...matrix? Or whatever it's called."
"Lookit the big words on the monkey." it chided. I rolled my eyes. "Though, now that you mention it...it's a distinct possibility. Huh."
"Well, whatever the case," I said. Noshima Station was coming up on my right, the dispatcher calling out for identification from our ship. "let's get some downtime. Help me understand how to upgrade my bridge and see if it's even possible to do with the tech we have available. We can work together on designs and see what we come up with."
"Right. Let's do it. I hope your small human brain can rationalize the concepts I'm about to explain to you or this is going to be a very long decade or so."
I sighed to myself as I navigated into dock with the station. So much for patience.
A couple of days had passed while Anamnesis walked me through the various upgrades that were needed. We reviewed all of the data and came to the same conclusion: We'd need to go to Gammu.
"Well, that went a lot better than I thought it would." the AI stated.
"Surprised that a Hacker knows things about tech?" I said asking critically.
"Well, yeah. That and that a meatbag could conceptualize what I was saying to him about advanced technologies beyond normal Human comprehension." it added.
Ugh.
"Tell me what I can expect at Gammu." I said as I packed up the room I'd stayed in for a few days.
"No idea. I haven't been back there in decades." it responded.
"They get tired of your shit too?" I asked.
"Oh ha-ha. Laugh it up Hacker boy. For your information no they didn't kick me out, I left."
"At the risk of getting an exposition dump, why then?"
The AI sighed, or what could be construed as a sigh.
"Remember when I said when I wanted to be mortal? Being that close to other Gammu AI, not to mention the node on Gammu itself, muddled my thoughts. Even when you go there I'll have to go into a state of hibernation just to avoid dealing with it. Well, that and avoid being detected by the others. That's why you'll have to do the 'shopping' on your own. I really hope you don't come back with a potted plant instead of an Artificial Fulcurm Diode Inhibitor." it said exasperated. "Don't asking what it is, you wouldn't understand."
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