Chapter 52: Chapter 20 (Part 1)
Bakker Camp
April 23, 2065, 23:48
The return trip took me far longer than I had originally planned. I found myself urgently needing to evade aerial drones launched into the sky, seemingly in search of someone. It wasn't hard to guess that I was their target. In addition to the aerial drones, patrol units were also scouring the wastelands along the highways. Consequently, I had to be as motionless as water, staying lower than the grass to prevent leading any unwanted visitors back to my hideout. For the remainder of my journey, I moved in high leaps, constantly employing camouflage to minimize my chances of detection.
After the first patrols moved far beyond the nomad camp's borders, I made my way towards it, keeping track of Militech's movements through open satellites. As I suspected, the corporation tried to find me discreetly to avoid causing any further uproar. They had recently caused a significant incident in the Pacific, and another mishap would certainly not be overlooked by the public.
"Home, sweet home," I murmured contentedly as I turned off my camouflage and neatly placed my backpack with the skin graft block next to the coat rack at the entrance of my dwelling.
"Alex!" Kiwi's voice rang out as I entered my tent. The girl hurried over and began anxiously checking me for any injuries. Clearly a product of Roosevelt School—where medicine is more than just a profession; it's practically a way of life.
"Quiet, people are sleeping. Why all the fuss?" I whispered, attempting to calm her down.
"You left in the middle of the night without a word, cut off all communication, and even took your new armor suit! What was I supposed to think?" Kiwi, with her striking white hair, said with a hint of distress, burying her face in my chest.
"Ahem, I just wanted to test the armor in field conditions, so I didn't want to bother anyone," I replied, hugging her tighter and gently stroking her back.
"You don't trust me?" she asked, looking up at me with sad eyes.
"I trust you, and I love you very much. I don't want anything to happen to you," I reassured her, lowering my head to rest my chin on hers and tightening my embrace. "Kiwi, I'll tell you everything later, just not now."
"I was just worried about you," she muttered another complaint, humorously snorting against my chest.
"I know, don't be upset, okay?"
A few minutes later, the once sulking cat finally stopped pouting and allowed me to take off the armor. Although I hadn't felt the weight of the armor, shedding it made me feel like I could breathe much more freely. Dressed only in a T-shirt and shorts, I quickly headed to the shower to wash off the sweat that had accumulated during the emotionally draining mission. Returning to the tent refreshed, I climbed under the blanket, pulling the now-sleepy Kiwi close.
"Goodnight, little hamster," I murmured, pulling her close to me as I listened to her slightly irregular breathing.
"Goodnight to you too," she responded, then wriggled around to bury her face in my chest.
Smiling, I pulled the blanket that had slipped during our movements back over us. Closing my eyes, I gradually drifted off to sleep...
***
Bakker Camp
May 6, 2065, 12:10
Today is set for the first trial run of the AI I managed to steal. Operating The Cube required a substantial amount of energy, so I first had to build a suitable power source. One of my old arc reactors fit almost perfectly, but I also needed to construct a platform for the skin graft where the AI would be installed. I had to keep all this a secret, so even Rick was unaware of what I was up to. Curiosity from him was expected, but I managed to keep the technician at bay while I worked.
Bartmoss was consistently elusive, spending his time covering our tracks and analyzing data stolen from Militech's servers. With him away, I chose not to rush things and instead focused on my routine tasks around the camp, which included preparing for Vega's launch.
Incoming message - labeled "best hacker in the universe":
"Alex, I've finally managed to clear most of my backlog. Sorry for just sending a message, but I'm swamped with work and literally scavenging for precious minutes.
Getting to the point... As you know, Militech wasn't thrilled about us swiping their experimental technology intended to cement their dominance over the continent. The board of directors discovered that Vega was stolen by unknown individuals, presumably working for Night Corp. The two corporations have been exchanging verbal threats, careful not to escalate to armed conflict—for now.
Our stunt also led to the ousting of Bill Drake as CEO, with Rosalind Myers stepping in as his replacement. She's quite formidable and has already begun investigating her predecessor's affairs. I suspect Rosalind will soon consolidate control over all of Militech, thereby strengthening her position. Given that Myers is closely acquainted with the current President of the NUSA, Elizabeth Kress, I wouldn't be surprised if Rosalind aims to replace her old friend soon.
Regarding Vega, I've compiled numerous training programs that will enhance the AI's functionality, and I've sent you the blueprint for a special deck that will allow you to transfer the AI there. The power will be significantly less compared to The Cube, but it will enable you to have AI support during your future missions.
P.S. The AI has been reset to its factory settings, so it doesn't fully understand human relationships yet. You'll need to teach it to understand people and coexist peacefully with them.
P.S.S. There are still some nanites left in the cube for reproducing the nanofactory. If you want to speed up recovery, connect Vega to the production factory. The speed will increase significantly, just don't forget about the materials... This is my last message, take a rest, Alex, you've worked hard. I'll contact you later."
"He's as usual," I rolled my eyes, scanning the flurry of messages sent one after another. In his haste, the hacker hadn't managed to organize his thoughts, causing the message to jump erratically from one topic to another.
Sighing deeply, I shifted my gaze to the black cube. After staring at it for a few extra seconds, I confidently picked it up, examining its intricate design. The protective casing sat on top, while inside, several control blocks housed a matrix designed for reproducing tiny factory robots. Thoughtfully scratching my cheek, I shrugged and smoothly plugged the power cable into a specially made socket. After making adjustments to the entire system, I donned my work visor and, bracing myself, turned on the power supply. Immediately, a myriad of messages and graphs flashed before my eyes at an incredible speed. Even with the aid of my cyberdeck, I barely kept up with the flowing lines of code, which was somewhat stressful. If anything went wrong, a lot would have to be restored, and that was always a daunting prospect.
Primary installation completed...
Preparing to deploy archived databases...
Unpacking successful, current program version 1.03...
"Welcome, I am the artificial intelligence Vega. Please state your name, creator."
"Call me Alex, and I am not your creator," I replied, intrigued, watching as a silhouette formed from lines of code, taking on the blurred features of a human woman.
"Processing data... Greetings, creator Alex," the image of the woman blinked for a moment before returning to its original state.
"Alright," I sighed deeply, "this is going to be fun... Vega, cancel the protective directive on deep layers of the code. Confirmation code for the command, 'Leviathan Resurgence'." I turned off the AI's limiter, which affected the development speed of the skin graft. Admittedly, I was genuinely afraid to do this because of the abundance of cautionary tales I'd absorbed in a previous life, but now I was in full control of the situation and could manually shut down the power if necessary.
"Confirmation code accepted, directive successfully disabled." The artificial intelligence paused again, seemingly hesitant to initiate conversation on its own. It seemed I would need to guide her with targeted questions myself. This task was somewhat akin to raising a child, though in a highly unconventional manner.
"Vega, I'm going to send you several files now, necessary to facilitate your communication with humans. If any questions arise, you must ask me, so we can calibrate your interaction cluster..." I sent a batch of files, previously reviewed by me and provided by my mentor, curiously awaiting Vega's further actions.
"Information received, beginning to decompress and analyze data..." For several minutes, the AI was deeply engrossed in processing the incoming information. The silhouette of the woman froze in one pose, blinking periodically. Clearly, all her processing power was devoted to the task, leaving insufficient resources to maintain her visual representation. "Analysis complete... Sending a list of questions that arose during training."
"Uh, is that it?" I nervously eyed the rather imposing number, totaling several tens of thousands of questions.
"Negative response. The list may be supplemented based on the analysis of received answers." The image of the woman slowly shook her head from side to side, indicating the AI was beginning to grasp something and was using it in our communication.
"Damn it!" I massaged my temples in frustration, remembering a particularly clever and cunning hacker who most certainly knew this would happen and decided to dump all the dirty work on me. I was snapped out of my irritation by the number of questions, which had increased by exactly one. "Are you kidding me?" I stared at Vega's unchanging expression.
"Negative, I do not possess the ability to jest," the AI replied, shaking her head.
"Well, no one said it was going to be easy..."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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