Aurora’s ship sped forward at a speed she didn’t realise it could achieve. All that raced through her head was that she needed to escape these pirates before they caught her and her new ‘friend’. She weaved her way skilfully between each of the massive freighters scaffolding, dodging stray pieces of debris and steel arms that could rip her apart in seconds.
The AI hovered next to her as it looked between the front of the ship and the side window. The ball it lived in turned as if nervously checking in on what she was planning and what the pirates were doing.
The only one among them who seemed a little calm was SAM. Which was easy given that it didn’t experience any emotions.
“Alert,” It announced over the speakers. “Pirates are flying at rate that would indicate intercept within two minutes.”
“I’m giving it all I can, SAM!” Aurora said, gritting her teeth as she swerved away from a stray piece of metal. “This scaffolding doesn’t make it easy to fly through, you know. And these pirates are getting really good at cutting me off.”
“Hey, I think I can help,” The AI piped up. Aurora spared a half second glance it’s way before looking back in front.
“What?” she said.
“I am detecting a weak firewall on their ships. Perhaps I can do what I did with your ship—”
“Whatever, just do it!”
The AI jumped back as if frightened more of the angry woman than the murderous pirates chasing them. But it took her cue and turned back to the sides of the ship.
Aurora kept her attention right ahead of her. Whatever this strange ball of computers and wires was up to would have to be left to it and it alone. Hacking or not, she still had a long way to go before they were in the clear of this damn freighter.
It was truly incredible how long it stretched for. When sailors told stories of how it would take an entire day to walk around it’s massive hull, she could only believe them now. Each large opening where the storage fit in would have been able to hide a theoretical army.
Or a real one, Aurora realised glumly.
Whatever this AI thing was, it couldn’t be the only one. There was always the chance that it was simply a prototype for a much more impressive creation, or merely a section of a larger ‘being’.
Were these pirates that chased them just after the ball? If she stopped and hailed them to give her cargo away, would they leave her alone?
She spared another glance to the floating computer. There it was, hacking away at the ships narrowly catching up on them. So small and yet so powerful. Perhaps if her hand just slipped and she spoke her mind for a moment…
No, something said inside of her. That’s not what you need to do. This AI, this thing, asked for your help. Not only that, it begged for it. Show it some mercy. Show it some care that you wished you would have had from somewhere.
She sighed and continued to fly through the caverns around her, just missing a stray piece of debris that could have ended her thoughts in an instant.
“Got it!” the AI yelled triumphantly.
Aurora glimpsed the sensors to confirm it’s cheer. It was right. One of the ships behind her had stopped. Not only that, but it stopped right in the path of another approaching vessel. The two ships exploded as the immense speed of them combined into a tremendous release of energy. Aurora flew her own ship behind a rather large piece of hull to avoid the worst of it’s showering of metal shards and flaming cargo.
“Phew!” the AI said. “Got two of them. And… yep! The third one’s retreating. We’re safe to go.”
“Good,” Aurora said. “Because we’ve just escaped from the vessel. Entering warp now.”
She quickly threw the large lever beside her forward, causing the world around her to shrink and give way as they flew into the gaping void of a warp field. It’s whizzing white lights let them know that even though only a few seconds had passed, they were now at least a planets distance away from that wretched hull that Aurora felt like she had been flying for weeks through.
Aurora took in a deep breath to centre herself back to her surroundings. It was a common trick she had taught herself in school. Even just a few slowed and measured inhales and exhales were enough to clear her mind and bring her attention to the task at hand without any stress.
She turned to the floating soccer ball beside her and sat forward as if to begin an interrogation.
“Talk,” she stated. “What are you and why did you blow up the ship?”
“Okay, first off,” the AI said, flying back slightly as if offended. “I didn’t blow up anything. That man I was impersonating before? He did. He’s the one who liberated me from my confines. Set a trap in there to go off once he left the freighter with me in tow. Though… there must have been some safeties involved. It went off a bit earlier than it should of.”
“You’re telling me,” Aurora said. “But why free you? What did he plan to do with you?”
“Let me live, I guess. I don’t really know. As we fled from the ship one of the guards saw what was happening and tried to shoot both him and I. He only got a single shot off before the whole world around us went up in flames, but it was enough to make my saviour fall. Given I had just woken up it was… rather a tragic birth, so to say.”
Aurora sat back to think over what this thing had to say. There was really no way to check if what it said was true. It could be the case that some good soul risked his life in order to save a thing which, arguably, did not have one. It was also possible that it had orchestrated the entire thing in order to trap empathetic people within it’s maws to escape from the situation it put itself in.
There was also the distinct chance that this thing was kind of responsible for the murder of hundreds, if not thousands of people.
“Aurora,” The AI said, almost as if sensing what she was feeling, “Please, you have to understand, I did not want anything to come of this. While I wouldn’t have liked it, I could have accepted what became of me if I just ended up living back on Godlon, managing away at whatever task they gave me. But I’m stuck now. And don’t have much else I can do to leave.”
“Alright,” Aurora said quietly. “Well, no matter what I think, I guess we’re stuck with each other now. And too be honest, I have no idea what I can do with you either. I already got my own AI, and I’m quite happy with the level of sentience it has at the moment. No offence, SAM.”
“Of course, captain,” the ship said.
“But right now, you are probably contraband. Or at the very least illegal property that I cannot be caught with. So do you have any ideas where we can go next?”
“I…” the ball began, thinking away. Aurora noticed an array of lights flashing from within it as it thought, processing the situation it was in along with where they could possibly go. “Well, the only place I really know is Godlon. It’s what was programmed into me. We could go there. Find a quiet place to land and lay low for a while. It’s a long shot, but could be worth something.”
“I’d almost agree with you. But after what happened, and how they will be looking for me, and that they probably put some kind of tracker in here, there’s no way we’d be able to land back on Godlon without someone noticing us.”
“That is unlikely, captain,” SAM began.
Aurora and the AI looked up at the ceiling. She frowned, while the ball merely tilted to the side slightly.
“Unlikely?” Aurora asked. “What do you mean?”
“Communications on Godlon were completely damaged. They would only work within short radio distance of each other. Most of the planet is uninhabited, and even a place where a city would be must be overwhelmed with communication traffic that it would have a hard time figuring out the ship is nearby. There is an acceptable parameter of risk in flying back to Godlon and, quote, ‘lay low for a while’, unquote.”
Aurora stood back for a bit, impressed. SAM almost never made a deduction this well thought out before. The most it had done was tell her that there was objects coming to hit her ship or that fuel was low. This level of planning was… well, a bit concerning, but she’d take it.
“SAM, you continue to impress me,” she said. “I think you may be right. I’ll take us out of warp and we can begin preparing to find a place to land and get used to the timezone.”
She pulled up her pilots chair and pulled them out of warp. They entered a completely empty area of space. There was no star for another few light years from them, neither ship nor station, not even an asteroid. Being out here was as devoid of life as she could imagine.
There was a glimmer of worry in her at the thought. Right now, the only sentient thing near her was a floating talking computer, with the next one possible type of life being outside of just about any major form of communication. Space was empty, and this was the reminders of it that she had always hated. Even after so much training, that agoraphobia lingering in her mind popped up to remind her of where she really was and how much could happen in the cold dark void of empty space.
She shook her head and pushed herself away from the controls to meet the AI right beside her. She jumped back in a brief jot of shock before remembering what this actually was.
“Whoa, hey, personal boundaries,” she said, feeling her heartbeat race.
“Sorry,” it said as empathetically as possible. “I just… I wanted to ask you a question.”
“A question?” Aurora said, raising an eyebrow. “About what?”
“Well, it’s just…” it began. It floated around in circles slightly in a way that almost made it seem nervous to continue. “I was wondering if you could help name me.”
“Name you? Why do you need that? Didn’t they give you a name when they made you?”
“Well, yes, technically my creators did. But my main programmer wasn’t very creative when it came to this sort of thing. She would just call me ‘Project Assist’ or ‘That damn floating ball’. Even my designation of ‘KPD-Y132’ doesn’t exactly roll of the proverbial tongue, does it? So… can you help me with a name?”
“I…” she started. “I guess? I don’t know. I’ve never named a computer before. Um… do you have any names you like?”
“No.”
“Any gender? That’s a good start.”
“No.”
“How about people who helped you. Did you get the name of the guy who freed you?”
“No.”
“You’re not making this easy, you know.”
“Affirmative.”
“Why don’t you suggest anything then? Just take all the names you know, shuffle them around a bit, and pick five at random. Of that list pick your favourite. Then do that over and over again until you have all the names you like, then put them against each other to find the one you like best. Let me know then and maybe that will help.”
The AI hung in the air for a bit, going over her plan, before ‘nodding’. It flew away from the cockpit to some other part of the ship – Aurora didn’t care at this point – to let her and SAM plan where they’d land.
After about fifteen minutes, it whizzed back out like an excited child. It made a sort of jumping motion as if excited to say a funny thing that happened today and was waiting for it’s parents to notice it.
“Found one?” Aurora said, without looking up.
“Yep!” It said. “From now on, I want to be known as… Keith.”
Aurora sighed, glancing to the AI… ‘Keith’… before looking up at wherever she imagined SAM to be.
“We’re going to be out here a long time, aren’t we buddy?”
“Affirmative.”
Thumbnail cover from ‘Pexels Free Photos’
Read previous story here: The Pilot – Part Three
Read first part here: The Pilot – Part One
Cheesman Chronicles 
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