"Yes, how can I help you?"
"I have to get out of the mech now, but if you could maybe move around a little or, like…wave or something at the folks standing outside to let them see you're working again?" Jessica13 asked sheepishly. "They don't actually believe I can do that."
"It seems illogical to mistrust the skills and abilities of someone like you," the AI said.
"How do you know that?"
"You have mentioned it in the conversations you've had with my lesser state in the past.”
"Oh, right. I guess there's a great deal I said to you when I thought I was merely talking to myself."
"If you are worried, I would like to remind you that I do have ironclad confidentiality software in place," Mini assured her. "Nothing you've said to me will be shared with anyone else—not even other AI—without your express permission."
"I appreciate that. I'm really glad you're operational again, Mini."
"Your work to bring it about is certainly appreciated as well, Jessica13."
She honestly couldn't help a silly grin from settling on her face as she deactivated the HUD and left Mini to run the decontamination code through the rest of his hard drives while she stepped out of the mech to return to work.
"Well?" Becker3 asked, and she realized she had gathered something of an audience for her little stunt. Three other pilots had stuck around to see it through, while four of her fellow mechanics had come over to inspect her work.
"The AI's operational!" she squealed, unable to contain her excitement as she hopped a little in place and turned to face the mech.
The bulletfoots clapped and were joined by a couple of the pilots, but Becker3 looked unimpressed and his arms remained folded over his chest.
"I don't believe it," the pilot said with a chuckle. "You're only trying to justify sitting on your ass all day."
"Oh yeah?" She turned to face the mech. "Hey, Mini, would you let Becker3 here know how you feel about his doubting your current sentience?"
The mech pivoted in place and looked at her for a moment before it focused on the pilot, extended its right hand—the one that wasn't connected to the grappler—turned it, and extended a single finger to the man.
The pilots and bulletfoots present laughed as the man chafed and growled something under his breath.
"Okay, thanks Mini. It’s time to shut down now," Jessica13 said, still laughing and unable to contain her excitement. "Say goodbye to the good folks."
The mech retracted its hand and waved to all present before it settled into its harness again.
Finally, Becker3 chuckled, shook his head, and turned away to head back to work. "That's a nice trick, Jessie. It's a real pity that’s all it can do."
Jessica13 scowled as she watched him saunter to his mech, but she chose not to let him bring her down. She'd helped to bring a damn AI back from the brink of death and nothing he said could change that.
"Well, I guess AI never die, not really," she said aloud to no one in particular and decided it was time she focused on her tasks. "Although the changes and corrupted files might mean it's not the same AI after a while. It’s more or less what would happen to humans if we lived that long."
Normally, she would have questioned if Mini could hear her, but even though the mech went into sleep mode, she knew he could hear her now. It was more instinct than knowledge, of course, but it felt right.
One thing was certain, however. She would never forget this day, nor the days that followed.
A smile crossed her face again as she returned to her table where she could put in a fair amount of actual work in the time left before they were called for the evening meal. Something told her that while she would eat the same old grub and gruel, everything would taste a little better now.
It was a good day.
Chapter Seven
It wasn't fucking possible.
Not now. They couldn't run another drill this early again.
On the bright side, it meant her canteen account would be fuller than it had ever been in the past. The downside was that she was still too tired to care about what happened in her canteen account.
Jessica13 groaned and rolled in her bed while her brain tried desperately to think of some way to silence the blaring alarms that flooded her room with a red, flashing glow.
"All pilots, report to your stations!" Armstrong7 shouted. His voice carried well into the room and made her ears ache. "Right fucking now, damn it. This isn't a drill!"
She blinked and shook her head to dislodge the remnants of sleep and wondered if she'd heard that correctly. It was the CO’s voice that yelled through the speakers, which meant the comms was broadcast across the whole level and possibly the ones below too. He was usually very particular to let them know when they ran a drill and when it was the real thing.
It made sense for them to know the difference. There was no sense in people getting killed because they went to the top not expecting something to go wrong.
"Fucking…damn it," Jessica13 grumbled belligerently and dragged herself from the bed. Her sore muscles protested the sudden exertion but she ignored them, forced herself to stand, and pulled her flight suit on while she still struggled to keep her eyes open. She needed more sleep than this, damn it. There would be consequences to her being this tired. Something would break or maybe malfunction, and she wouldn't be sharp enough to catch it and so would careen off the edge of the cliff.
Unlike the other mechs, she doubted she'd survive the fall inside the Minato. Maybe she would be able to arrest it with the grappler before she turned to paste on the ground but the chances were that it would end badly for her.
"Stay in the moment," she said, quoting what her father used to say to her when she was little.
