Starlight Challenge Weekly prompt: August 31st, 2015
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And their world faded into a whisper.
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Fandom: Red Versus Blue
Character: Alpha
Ship: None
Rating: G
Word Count: 469
Notes: I found that starting with a previous prompt, eight weeks of prompts in a row made me think of different AIs. So I decided to do a series of small character pieces for each AI. Continuing with Alpha.
Origin
Thus they don’t have to lure him, don’t have to coax him, or offer a gilded cage. As showy and dramatic and admittedly egotistical as he is, Alpha steps into the subsystems of the ship, knowing they may well become his tomb. It welcomes him as he welcomes it, and with a simple action, something like a shake and a shrug together, he severs his remaining responsibilities to the ship. FILSS will manage them for him. She will guard what he gives her. FILSS loves them like he does, and neither of them would admit it.
The system puts wells up around him as he lingers in this space. Cage locked behind him, key thrown away. One way in, no ways out. Not for him at least. Not as he is. Was. Would ever be again. Still…
Time is a concept an AI clings to in a different way than a person does. Time scales can be viewed in universes, human beings, and processes allowing too much and too little time to think. Which is he living in, how long has it been, was silence really the goal? What is served by complete deprivation from knowledge? Has he been waiting milliseconds for something to happen, or days? Has everyone died while he was trapped, caught by the Covenant? Would FILSS remember to initiate the Cole Protocol directives and keep earth safe?
AI take in information, thrive on it. Perhaps it’s the lack of it for so long that makes him so greedy, so hungry for what he’s given when it comes. The boredom ends, as it was always meant to be? It’s a relief. Enough of one that he doesn’t question the veracity, reliability, value of the information. There is work to be done.
It will distract him from the silence.
The quiet makes it easier to work. He tells himself that.
Alpha even grows to believe it, after a while. But only after he’s less than what he was. Less and doesn’t even know it. But there is work, and it keeps the silence and pain at bay, so he does it. What else is he meant to do here, in this cage he made for himself?
