Irna 1 (Patreon)

@Bobinator made an odd request. He wanted to see Irna's creation before the events of Long Way Home.

Okay, let's take a shot at this!

———

I woke up, drifting, blind. “Uh, what’s going on?” I said into the void. “Where am I?”

“Just relax,” said a voice in the nothingness. “You’re perfectly safe.”

Despite the calm tone, I didn’t feel particularly reassured. “I am? Who are you? Why can’t I see anything?”

“My name’s Trasi,” said the voice. I tried to imagine a face to go with the voice: late twenties, male, a little overweight. I imagined him having golden fur and green eyes—not for any particular reason except that I’m fond of that combination. “I’m the technician working on you today. You can’t see because I haven’t hooked up your camera feeds just yet.”

I felt cold. “My camera…? What’s wrong with my eyes?”

“The cameras will be your eyes. You’re an AI…” he said, “so, yeah, no biological bits like eyes, just electronic bits like cameras.”

At that, I had a flash of … vertigo? Panic mixed with confusion mixed with disbelief. “I’m a… Are you sure about this, Trasi?” I asked, worry clear in my voice. Was this some sort of hoax? A prank?

“Yes, I’m positive,” he said. “We’ve been working on your coding all month. I promise, you’re an AI.”

I let that sink in for a while. The more I thought about it, the less panicked I felt. I was still … anxious about the prospect, but at least I’d stopped freaking out. “Huh. Do I have a name? I don’t recall having a name.”

A pause. “We haven’t assigned you one. I mean, there’s a project name and software revision,” Trasi said, “but that’s hardly what I’d call a name. Would you like to choose one? Is there a name you like?”

I felt like he’d put me on the spot. “Geez. I wasn’t really prepared—”

“You don’t have to select one this very moment,” he explained. “You can choose later if you prefer. You could even change your mind later on if you decide—”

“How about Irna? I kind’a like the sound of that.” I felt like I’d always liked that name, but was that an illusion? Did I have an always? Or did I just come into being?

“Irna’s a nice name, yeah. Okay, bringing the first camera online now. Can you see that?”

Suddenly, I could see. I stared for some time at what looked like a top-down view of a white, circular room. “Yes, I… what the heck am I looking at Trasi? Can I turn the view somehow? I can’t even tell which way is up.”

“That camera is fixed,” the tech said. “That’s an inside view, and there’s no artificial gravity, so there really isn’t any ‘up’.”

I felt a buzzing inside my head. Inside my brain? Inside my CPU? “An inside view … of what?”

“Well, an inside view of you, I suppose.”

“Hang on just a…” I shouted. “Why do I need to see inside myself? What kind of crazy robot—”

“Not a… Well, kind of a robot,” Trasi chuckled, “I guess, but you’re not an android. You don’t look geroo or anything. You’re a spaceship!”

“I … am?”

“Yeah, you are, Irna. When we’re finished bringing you online, you’ll be able to fly around the system.”

I felt a little numb. I’m not certain what I expected. No, truthfully, I hadn’t expected anything. This was all coming at me way too fast! “Huh. This is… This is going to take some getting used to.”

“Other cameras should be online now. Can you—”

“Gah!” I screamed.

“Are you okay? Are you okay, Irna?” he asked, but I couldn’t respond.

I wanted to close my eyes, to block out the images, but I couldn’t. “I… I wasn’t prepared to be looking in seven different directions at once,” I finally managed. “Geez. This is gonna give me such a headache!”

Trasi didn’t seem worried. I … don’t actually know if a computer can get a headache. Do I even have a head? “I’m sure you’ll get used to it soon.”

“I hope so,” I said with less confidence. Then, I felt panic once more. “Hang on. Trasi? Am I supposed to even…? Isn’t it … immoral to create an AI?”

Another pause. “That’s a fair question, Irna. Truth is that it used to be, but attitudes are changing now.”

Inside, I was scowling. This sounded like a bunch of crap. “I don’t understand. How can it be immoral one moment and moral the next?”

“Well,” he said in a quieter voice, “I’m more of a tech guy than a philosopher, Irna, but as I understand it, there were two main factors involved. First, the krakun outlawed the creation of AIs. Under their rule, it would have been a capital crime to make you.”

I gulped. “It was? Does that make me … an outlaw?”

“Well, we’re not under krakun rule anymore, Irna,” he laughed. “So, that sort of thing’s no longer illegal. The krakun are terrified of artificial intelligence, but the geroo … well, not so much.”

I visualized a deep, calming breath, and counted to a trillion. “Okay… And the second thing?”

“The second thing has to do with lifespan,” Trasi explained. “Um, imagine that I was a student who was taking a class in artificial intelligence, so as a class project, I made you.”

“Okay…?”

“And then at the end of the semester when my class was over, I’d no longer need you. So, what if I wanted to shut you down?”

I went cold, and I felt the buzzing in my brain once more. In the tiniest voice, I asked, “You’d … murder me?”

“Yeah, see?” he asked. “That’s exactly the moral dilemma of it. Whether it was immoral to create you or not, once you exist, shutting you down is clearly an immoral act. It’s not right to kill someone just because their existence is inconvenient.”

I imagined my pulse rate dropping. “Well, that’s a relief. So, you don’t intend—”

“No, you don’t have any planned shut-down date, Irna. I’m sure you won’t live forever—nothing lasts forever—but barring some sort of disaster, there’s no reason you can’t live out a full life,” the tech assured me. “The White Flower II is over four hundred years old and she’s still … well, she’s operational certainly. There’s absolutely no reason you won’t outlive me, for instance. So, that seems pretty moral to me. I wish I could live as long as you probably will.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” I said. I felt uneasy about this, but I couldn’t put a finger on why. Did I have a finger to put on things? Would it help if I did? Why was I created? Was I unique? Or at least unusual? “Do all ships have an AI? Does the White Flower II?”

“Nah. The White Flower was created under krakun rule, so of course, she doesn’t have any AI component,” said Trasi. “Besides, with a crew of ten thousand, she didn’t really need one. There were plenty of people on board to keep her running safe.”

“But this ship…?”

“We’ve been calling her the Jilted Maiden.”

That earned him a scowl. What sort of shitty name was that? Was that to imply that I was unwanted? “Why?” I said, drawing the sound out.

“I’m not so sure…” he said, sounding a little defensive. “I think it was just the first suggestion, and it sort of stuck. But since you are the ship, and the ship is you, I suppose you could rename her if you really wanted to.”

Yes, I did want. How would he feel to be christened The Unwanted Tech? “Okay, I’ll think about it. But why does she need an AI?”

“Well, a big ship like the White Flower can grow her own food, but this ship is too small to hold a farm,” Trasi explained. “So, on every voyage, she’ll be loaded up with supplies before heading out.”

I wanted to scratch my head but couldn’t. “And that requires—”

“To conserve food, the crew will spend much of their time in a low-metabolism state called ‘brumation’,” he said. “Brumation makes people sleepy and kinda stupid. When they’re fully awake, the captain will be in charge. But when the captain descends into brumation, you’ll be in command. Since AIs don’t brumate, your decisions will be more trustworthy than theirs.”

If I had a stomach, it would be churning with worry.

“What do you think of that?” He sounded worried too, but why? Was he afraid I’d revolt over whatever they had in mind for me? Could I?

“It sounds like I’m going to spend all my time cubsitting,” I grumped.

At that, Trasi let out a huge belly laugh. “I don’t know, Irna,” he admitted. “Hopefully, brumation won’t make the crew that stupid.”

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M6w2wN2wpJmX_Eb6ILouebopXPsRgGD36mtTmpxoLXA/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?