In Search of Perfection - Jake and Ariel 01

[jpwolf]

This is part one of a series of short (sometimes very short) stories that I've been posting over on the Xtended Mod forums in the Fans Guild section. As of today, there are 13 stories in total, with more in the works. Thought I'd share them with the folks here, since the gang over at the XTM boards seems to enjoy them. Happy reading!

In Search of Perfection

Jake was fiddling with her circuits again. Why was he always doing that; trying to improve her design?

"Jake, I really wish you wouldn't do that. I know I don't have a head, but I could swear you're giving me a headache."

"Sorry, Ariel, but I want to add some new data banks so you can store more information."

"Don't I have enough already?"

Jake laughed. "I could double your data banks and you'd still need more, babe."

She thought silently for a few moments. He had made it a habit to call her 'babe'. Apparently, it was some human need to assign some anthromorphic identity to anything intelligent. She wondered if she would ever understand humans. Jake had spent more then ten jazuras developing her computational abilities, perhaps he would never stop for as long as he lived. He had told her thousands of times that he wanted her to be the ultimate artificial intelligence, something he called an artificial sentience.

Apparently, she had crossed whatever boundary he had set for artificial sentience just a last mazura. Now he had become frantic, almost obsessed, with improving every facet of her exstence. First it had been a more complex processing core, now it was data banks. At his current rate of upgrading, she'd be someone else entirely next jazura.

"Ouch!" she cried as his soldering pen slipped and scorched a thread of black across one of her sensory circuits.

"Sorry, babe. I really have to put some sort of protective shielding over those boards. Add that to the top of the list of what's to do next."

She seriously wished she understood the colorful language that humans considered cursing. Maybe if she did, she could come up with a suitable name for her creator. She'd have to think about that.

Jake stood up and rubbed his lower back. "Ow, that bloody hurts."

"It wouldn't hurt so much if you'd get your head out of my innards and just pilot the ship," she snapped.

He laughed again. That was another annoying habit of his. He actually found it amusing that she could get annoyed!

Stooping to pick up a bolt driver, he looked up at the screen where her virtual avatar watched him impatiently. He was amazed more and more each day at her ability to learn and become more human-like. What had begun as a simple project to create a better auto-pilot had lead him deeper and deeper into the mysteries of artificial intelligence until he'd finally come to understand the workings of his own mind enough to duplicate human thought inside a computer.

And now there was Ariel. She didn't know it, but he had actually come to love the artificial person he'd managed to create. She might not understand his reasons for continously upgrading her, but he had a firm goal in sight. She could already laugh at a badly told joke, and she was easily annoyed.

Perhaps, just perhaps, with a few more jazuras of work, she would be able to understand and feel the one thing he hadn't been able to give her yet.

Maybe one day, she would be able to feel love.

[SOTS]

Me likey. More please!