Chapter 26

Great grandfather?

Oh crap. Absolutely the last thing I need right now is family showing up, reminding me of what I have lost. Too much on my plate at present. This couldn't get any worse.

At least I feel balanced now - no longer totally paralysed. Training memories running in fast time - I can literally feel myself finding my feet. A flick of the little finger starts the automated repair sequences. Small, unintelligent inspection and maintenence bots come slowly to life and queue at the charger - for the batteries to be that low, this place has been abandoned a long time. One resets the circuit breakers and replaces the fused ones. The first fully charged one I instruct to boost charge the ones with dead batteries. Going to need them all.

I feel Linnie, like a tickle in the back of my mind. Quick check, she is functioning well.

Set up to run a full repair and diagnostic check - no telling what damage time has caused. It feels pleasant to be working again. As soon as they are charged, the inspection bots scuttle off to check every part of my 75 hectare body. Reports begin pouring in - damage found and repaired, damage found and request for speciallised repair droid, damage found and unrepaired - parts not available, damage found with rebuilding necessary.

Rebuilding? Check that out. I transfer my vision to the inspection bot. An explosion has destroyed 15 square meters of piping and wiring (primary material feed to assembly line two, the manual tells me).

Another rebuild request. Transfer vision. Dispatch door blown off its track.

Another. Transfer vision. 2 meter diameter hole in retaining wall 6. Wait. Plot the damage on my bodymap. Straight line towards ancilliary control. Send inspection bot.

Ancilliary control is completely destroyed. All production centers have them - it is where meat can attempt to keep the center's machinery running if the ghost is off line for any reason.

Reprioritise repairs. Dispatch door and surrounding cameras, repair priority one. Having a hole in my skin is a bad idea if meat with explosives are still around. Retaining wall 6 - repair crew already working - good. Ancilliary control - low priority, except for the walls and inspection cameras. 

Production line 5 is confirmed functional. Set parts templates in the machinery. Repair bots directed to collect parts from there as needed. Raw material feedstock levels low but adequate.

So - another piece of the puzzle. Where does it fit?

I feel remote access ports opening - think about this later.

"Linnie, you'll have to go dormant for a while. They are going to run an evaluation, which means they may find you here."

"I can't shut down."

Damn, that'll make things much more dif ...

I? AI's do not have a sense of self - ever. It is one of the fundamentals of building a stable AI, from what I recall. And she actually sounds shaky.

"Linnie, what just happened?"

"I rebuilt my core, with your authorisation. There was much damage. Self test indicates that the rebuild sequence utilised some of your program as a template to restore the damaged code."

"Oh." Sometimes, there are just no words. Things have just got a whole lot worse.