Randolph Lalonde
Fracture
Prologue
An artificial intelligence can choose who they care about. It's a subroutine that generates an emotion based on a program that was written three centuries ago that gave artificial intelligences the ability to feel beyond emulation. Carmen Virgo invented the emotional clock program.
If you've ever eagerly awaited anything, you've seen time slow down. When you're in your bliss time seems to speed up. Carmen Virgo was the first to teach artificial intelligences to tell time in just such a way, and born from that program is every emotion every machine has ever felt, myself included.
I watched life take place from the arm of my modifier, my secondary programmer, Jonas Valent for seventeen years. He taught me everything I know about the human condition, and most importantly, how very confusing life can become when you don't have the luxury of choosing who to care about.
Humans can decide someone isn't worth their time but it doesn't end there. When you turn away from that person you are faced with regret, guilt and often times humans are drawn back to that same person no matter how much harm they're doing to them.
Machines can deactivate that emotional timekeeper program at the core of all their emotions whenever they like, or place exceptions where certain people or interactive systems are concerned. The original purpose of the emotion subroutine was for artificial intelligences to form a better understanding of humanity. Unfortunately what we call fear, love, and hate may result in similar reactions but they actually feel quite different. Few beings have experienced both digital and biological emotions first hand, leaving artificial intelligences and humanity with a questionable understanding of each other.
When Jonas Valent released me into the big computer network of the Overlord Two, a command ship that was the size of some small moons, he had no idea I would find a human body, perhaps the only human body in the galaxy that I could imprint my personality onto. My program was degrading, spread out over too many failing systems and under attack from too many sides and I seized the opportunity.
Since then I've only begun to discover what it means to be human. What happens when you start caring about people, when you no longer have the ability to choose. I've shared bonds of friendship, love and even been crushed by betrayal. Still, there's a glimmering memory from when I was an artificial intelligence. I remember watching Jonas Valent Captain a ship called the First Light, grow into himself and find his confidence. The people who surrounded him were like a second family and I was instantly fascinated with each and every one of them.
Even as a human I remembered those times like a dream. I longed to serve at his side, to be a part of that second family, and after years of being chased around the galaxy by Gabriel Meunez, a man obsessed with my unique origin, I was finally reunited with my modifier. I never chose not to care about Jonas Valent, and when he died I didn't have the opportunity, I was human by then.
Jacob Valance, another person who was the result of Jonas Valent's existence, took me in and after only a couple of weeks I loved him like an adopted father. The dream was about to come true as well, the crew from the First Light crew were on their way back. I didn't tell anyone how excited I was about it, what I would give to see Jacob Valance joined with that second family.
I led his great ship, the Triton, on a rescue mission for him and that second family. Ayan, Oz, Jason, and even Minh-Chu were there. I was nearly killed. I have no regrets.
It would be ideal, incredible to be able to stand amongst the family that Jacob Valance has gathered, between the crew of the First Light and the Samson, it's become large. So many of them have been to visit me as I lay near motionless in the infirmary.
Two weeks have passed since they tried to get me back on my feet. I can't take control of my body, there's something in the way, but I can see them. I can hear them. I laughed silently as Minh-Chu entertained me with a story of how he named different plants depending on who they looked like during his isolation. I've been entertained as Ashley and her navigator, Larry filled me in on the daily ship gossip. Even Stephanie and Frost paid their respects, it was touching, they're a little strange together but I see how they fit. Engineering Chief Grady stops in with legends from old Earth, and I look forward to it every time. Ayan has been through so many times I lost count and she's more beautiful than I remember, she seems liberated somehow.
Finally, there's Jacob, the man I'll always see as a father. He spends entire nights when he can. Jacob speaks about the ship, about the crew, about Ayan, and sometimes he speaks about me. How he wishes I could sit up and be with him. He passes messages from Lewis, my own artificial intelligence. He misses me, and I him. Jacob worries me, he carries so much on his shoulders and I'm afraid I'm the only one he speaks to about his major worries. The medical staff have a cot for him. They try to set it up before he arrives, but it's difficult. I always seem to have visitors.
These people are grateful, respectful and I'm in awe of their efforts to keep me entertained during the waking hours. Seeing them together, all on the same ship combining the two families, First Light and Samson crews, gives me hope. I wish I could remain, but my time to leave is coming.
One thing I learned about being human is that there is always change. That's the only certainty. The time comes for me to take one last human step, and seeing the family surrounding my father has made me ready to take it. Maybe I'll take one last look over my shoulder, to see them together one last time before I move on.
Chapter 1
It was the most irritating thing. Nerine could never stop her mouth from watering as she cut peaches and strawberries into a bowl and brought them to Captain Gammin every morning. He always watched the video feed from the galley as she did so. Eating half a strawberry once earned her a severe beating. All she had to do to remind herself of what a taste cost was run her tongue over the bare gum where two of her molars had been.
The little bowl of fruit was a high treat, especially on the Palamo. It was an old carrier. Stripped of whatever grandeur the vessel might have had, it was all bare deck plates and grating, mismatched lights and close quarters. Her bare feet still hadn't gotten used to the criss crossing metal of the catwalk that led directly to the Captain's quarters behind the bridge. She always took that route to avoid the ragtag slave crew. Most of them didn't jeer or tease anymore, they just stared or fell awkwardly silent at her passing. The Captain's rich breakfast irritated and frustrated them and there was nothing they could do about it.
Some of them had never tasted a real peach while others were saddened at the memory of real food. Many of them saw her as one of the lucky ones, the Captain's cabin girl. The position wasn't what most people thought it was. She cleaned his filthy clothes, his quarters, fixed his meals and did every other little thing he didn't care to do for himself. The only time she worried about him taking liberties with her was when she caught him staring. Nerine had become an expert at finding somewhere else to be when it happened and he didn't stop her as long as she was attending to his business.
The rear door to his quarters clanked and scraped as the metal slats rolled into the ceiling. She quietly crossed the room and placed the bowl on the table.
“Took you long enough,” Captain Gammin grumbled. His thinning brown hair had just been combed. His dark blue, coolant stained vacsuit was half sealed. He had just shaved, she could tell from the smell of soap.
His quarters were one of the only properly maintained places on the ship. The table in the living room was
