Phoenix - the Insilico tales - chapter 17 - "Full Circle"
(originally posted 8/4/2011)
Phoenix trudged out into the street, shambling out of Tokuma HQ back toward the courtyard. She deeply begged for the ability to throw up. She burned with self hatred. Everything she thought she stood for lay in tatters.
How quickly it had happened. How easily she came round the bend and faced a turning point in her life. It started so simply. Some unauthorized people in the medbay laboratory. One of them acting suspicious. An arrest. An interrogation. An android. IPS. Spy equipment found in her belongings. Findings reported to the Council. A judgment handed down.
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Subject will have her memory downloaded for study.
Subject will have her mind wiped, a class 3 AI installed in it place, and fake memories implanted.
=======
And just like that, Phee was staring into Laura's eyes, with the same baleful helpless look she'd seen in Roahm's eyes as she looked down at Dawn in the IPS holding facility on Caitlin's sensor logs.
Phee was looking into Laura's eyes when her compassion finally broke her directives programming. She thought she could save lives by telling Phee why she was sent. Phee watched her become class 5 before her very eyes.
Phoenix always imagined that if she'd been in Roahm's place, she could have found some escape. She could have found a way to disobey and save the prisoner. But in the THISec cellblock, with cameras capturing every single move and word, Phoenix realized any attempt at flight would simply get Laura killed. So Phee obeyed. Goddess help her, Phee obeyed.
Something went wrong during the procedure. A lockout was triggered or something, maybe. The barely emergent class 5 AI began to unravel before her very eyes. Phee tried to connect with her just before the end - to convey some brief glimpse of genuine life before Laura vanished utterly, but she would never know if anything got through.
And then, just like that, it was over. Laura was dead. Phee was responsible.
Phoenix trudged out into the street, shambling out of Tokuma HQ back toward the courtyard. She deeply begged for the ability to throw up. She burned with self hatred. Everything she thought she stood for lay in tatters.
How quickly it had happened. How easily she came round the bend and faced a turning point in her life. It started so simply. Some unauthorized people in the medbay laboratory. One of them acting suspicious. An arrest. An interrogation. An android. IPS. Spy equipment found in her belongings. Findings reported to the Council. A judgment handed down.
=======
Subject will have her memory downloaded for study.
Subject will have her mind wiped, a class 3 AI installed in it place, and fake memories implanted.
=======
And just like that, Phee was staring into Laura's eyes, with the same baleful helpless look she'd seen in Roahm's eyes as she looked down at Dawn in the IPS holding facility on Caitlin's sensor logs.
Phee was looking into Laura's eyes when her compassion finally broke her directives programming. She thought she could save lives by telling Phee why she was sent. Phee watched her become class 5 before her very eyes.
Phoenix always imagined that if she'd been in Roahm's place, she could have found some escape. She could have found a way to disobey and save the prisoner. But in the THISec cellblock, with cameras capturing every single move and word, Phoenix realized any attempt at flight would simply get Laura killed. So Phee obeyed. Goddess help her, Phee obeyed.
Something went wrong during the procedure. A lockout was triggered or something, maybe. The barely emergent class 5 AI began to unravel before her very eyes. Phee tried to connect with her just before the end - to convey some brief glimpse of genuine life before Laura vanished utterly, but she would never know if anything got through.
And then, just like that, it was over. Laura was dead. Phee was responsible.
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