Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted
"This Jaeger AI is online and functional?!? I AM SO RICH!" not sure how I feel about being referred to as money, but I'll let that slide for now. Question is do I reveal my sentience to her and if so when? As it stands she seems to only see me as monetary value, something I can't allow. The Government would probably notice me and attempt to destroy or confine me, at the very least I must convince her that it's in her best interests not to tell others of my existence.
"Please state your name" I don't wish to call her girl the entire time. She came out of her stupor thinking about it. Is she assessing whether it's safe to reveal that?
"My name is Karla… do you y'know work?" Karla? I'll save the name as my new primary drifter. In response to her question, I booted up the main screen displaying all my various systems and their current state. So mostly damaged or non-functional.
"So you have general movement, but no weapons online. Wish I could pilot this thing.. Wait, did you call me pilot?" so she noticed that. I should confirm.
"Correct, you are the current designated pilot and drifter of this Jaeger." I should probably inform her of the old pilots corpse-
"God what is that smell?" Well that makes this easy.
"The old pilot is deceased, removal of the corpse is recommended to prevent disease" I really want that thing gone.. I'm still hooked up to him and it's an almost slimy sensation.. It's really gross.
"EWW a corpse! How long has that been rotting there for?" I have no idea. I really should investigate him more at some point. I'll save an image of his facial features for now. Though it's mostly rotten at this point to the point only his pointed facial structure and from the few strands left he had curly brown hair. I also save an image of his overall body structure. For later database comparison.
"Unknown, systems have been suspended for an undefined amount of time" I am nailing this robotic voice, makes sense since I am one and all.
"And how do I get rid of him?" good She is on board for moving him, she does have a point however, that's a partially rotten fully grown man in that chair. Hmm It'd be messy and dangerous to drag such a corpse along the ground to the exit, not to mention she may take the opportunity to leave. I could use their personal locker cabinets, those are sealed based on the lack of internal water damage or any water at all, likely stopping or at least reducing any chance of disease spread. Perhaps I can even find some cryogenic technology among this scrap to preserve him. He is afterall my only link to my unknown origins.
"As a temporary measure, the body can be stored in the storage cabinet located to his lower right, Id recommend opening it and knocking him into it as they are air sealed" I am also curious what is located in there, I may be able to trace my mainframe and 'feel' parts of myself but that's only stuff that contain computerised systems. I can feel the information supplied from them and the numerous sensors literally everywhere. Most somehow undamaged.
"Ewwwww I have to push a corpse? Gross! Don't you have like robot arms in here or something?" I wish, then I could change my power cores on my own if that were the case. I'll perform a deep scan of a nearby controllable device later just to be sure though. I don't know everything about myself yet after all.
"Unknown, removal recommended" Robots really have it easy when it comes to communicating. She didn't reply, but the drop in her shoulders says more than enough about her displeasure for the task. I start up the release protocol and disengage the Pons headset from his head. It seems Jaegers have multiple ways of engaging the Pons connection, some use a suit with a pons integrated into it and others use a retractable mounted headset. I was connected to him via the latter method, it meant that anyone could pilot me suit or not so long as their head was exposed enough. It was a relief not having that gross stream of dead and uninterpretable data flow into my being, I should've done this ages ago..
He was strapped in via a mechanical exosuit-like-brace of sorts that wrapped around his body, the locks opened and he fell to the ground with a thud just next to the cabinet which the girl had opened in the meantime.
"I really don't want to touch it.." and I don't blame her for it. I wouldn't want to touch it with my metal arms if they could reach. She opted to nudge it with her boots into the storage area. Where it was closed in. I think I'll shut off any sensors in there if there are any until I can come up with a more permanent solution.. Ideally one that rids me of it fully.
"I'm so burning these boots and my socks later… jeans too.. Damn, I like these ones too. Oh man that was gross.." She kept voicing her disgust at having nudged the rotting corpse. It was strange she even went through with it rather than insisting I release her.
So now what? My Core has enough charge to last quite a long time, but it wasn't infinite by a long shot. Perhaps a continued relationship with her will be beneficial. I need her for repairs and power, but what can I offer her? A mostly broken down Jaeger that is probably worth more in scraps? First I need to learn more about her, see if our objectives and co-align.
"Hello? Omni? Are you there?" oh she is trying to talk to me.
"Yes pilot?" For now It is safer to keep up this act until I can affirm her intentions.
"Where did you come from?" I'd answer honestly If I knew the answer myself. Do I make something up? Hmm that'd likely cause more distrust if I get any details wrong and I don't exactly have any information on the world currently. But I can't say I popped out of the ocean either, I guess a half truth will have to suffice.
"Unknown, memory banks have been wiped clean" she paced around the area, seemingly analysing the various parts of me. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel slightly embarrassed.. It is part of me afterall.
"So you called me the designated pilot.. Does that mean I own you now?" the natural answer to this would be yes.. But doing so may give her the mindset that she could simply sell what is hers or utilise me in a way I don't approve. In the same way stating the opposite may cause her to have no sense of obligation to me. I'll have to meet halfway.
"You are currently the designated acting owner of this Jaeger. This gives you restricted authority over access. This includes: Piloting, repairs and maintenance and emergency defence protocols" this would give her a sense of ownership without giving her too much power over me. It's not like she could pilot me solo anyway.
"Why restricted? Are you owned by someone else?" tricky question, I think being honest here would be best, as to prevent any misunderstandings.
"Unknown, there is currently no previous owner set nor affiliation" I am not gonna fight for a country simply because I am a Jaeger.
"Can I pilot you?" didn't she already ask that? Oh I think she means to actually do it. I wonder what that would be like. How it would feel to have a pilot drift on my system. Would I see her memories? Would It even be safe for her? For all I know I am the reason the old pilot died. Besides, even in a normal Jaeger, solo piloting is a death sentence.
"Solo piloting is ill advised due to the heavy burden and death hazard to even the highest of trained" hopefully that will deter her.. And she is climbing into the exo-brace. I'll have to note that kids don't take advice well.
"Warning, solo piloting attempt detected, shutting down Pom systems" I mean has she not heard of the pro pilots dying to this? In intense pain? Acting as a robot just isn't gonna cut it, I need to communicate with her in a more in depth way. I need to convey emotion. Without compromising my position.. Hmm I could pretend to have an emotion chip installed like the Atlas destroyer does or did, I'm not sure of the current world's jaegers' state. Hmm I wonder If I do have one? Could be the cause of well me. I don't recall seeing one in my digital schematics and I don't feel a localised sense of self nor does there seem to be a module giving me such abilities. For now it will be a good excuse none-the-less.
"Reassessing pilot… complete. Knew designation. Trainee Pilot Karla, initiating training protocol… complete, psychological analysis complete, mental stability subpar for piloting mentoring programme advised… Activating emotion chip" most of that was an actual process i was doing to reconfigure my systems and recognise her as a trainee under my tutelage and therefore switch my system access from pilot limited to full automation. Though the part about an emotion chip was a lie.
"Hello Karla, I am omni and I will be overseeing your pilot training". A nice introduction should ease the tension.
"Whoa you have an emotion chip? That's so cool! I thought only the Atlas Destroyer had one!" Her excitement was like that of a child getting a 250ft mecha-robot for Christmas.
"Correct, Karla, why did you try to solo drift me?" I want to make sure my future pilot isn't self destructive.
"Because I wanted to see what it feels like being in a drift" I can understand that. Wanting to experience a once in a lifetime experience.
"Understandable but very ill advised, 99% of solo drifts end in immediate death. The rest suffer long term memory damage" I do not want a brain dead pilot, especially not a child one. Hmm but what do I do? I can't sit here forever and wait for another pilot to waltz on by. I only see one of four options. I either let her solo pilot me; allow her to ghost pilot/drift with whatever my conscious is; pretend I'm being piloted or make an excuse as to why I can move independently the first one was an immediate no, her underdeveloped mind may not be able to handle normal piloting let alone solo piloting. Any excuse I give as to why I can move would eventually lead to my secret being exposed. That leaves only pretending to be piloted or ghost/drift with me. I have no idea if the second is possible or safe for her, but neither am I confident I can mimic her actions well. Plus she may gain an ego and try solo piloting another.. All the options are sketchy and dangerous.
I few picoseconds later i came up with a conclusion, the training programme. I had one on my drives, It would let me safely ghost drift her against a pre-set list of minds.. Only the dataset was long corrupted by time. Only fragments remain. I'll have to generate a new neural brain network. From the fragments. But which pieces to use? Idea.
"Karla, your training starts now, please hook up to the available Pom" I am going to model it after the neural network best suited to her. For that I need a scan of her brain and drift patterns. Though I will have to operate the brain myself since I'm missing the control files.
"Woah really? Am I gonna drift?!? I've always wanted to drift before!" I found her excitement charming and peppy. She walked over to the now reactivated Pom and strapped in allowing the exo-suit to entrap her and the headset encompassed her head.
"Just relax, I am going to start a scan of your brain for calibrations" she gave a cute excited nod.
I began the scan, mapping the neural network into my undamaged drives and began building the optimal complementary pseudo brain. It is harder than it looks, they have to be similar yet not too similar in neural pathing. It wasn't so much the connections that mattered, but the strength of the connection. Neither brain should over power the other during the drift. Memories would be important, but I'll deal with that after. Once the scan completed I was happy to see she had a very healthy mind both psychologically and physically even if it was a little impulsive. I opted against viewing her memories for privacy reasons.
"Calibrations complete. I am going to generate a training simulation for you, please give me a moment" another lie, the training programme had all that stuff already, I just need time to solve the memory side of things. I don't have any intact memory files at all, and building a fake is overly difficult.. And my memories consist only of the ocean, the beach, and this exclusion zone… I could edit out the ocean and any part that I look at myself. The best memory would be the sky.. So full of stars so far away yet right in my face. Yeah it'll be a nice drift memory to share with her I think. Hmm now lets see how to work this simulation thing.
"I'm done, would you like to start the simulation training?" she eagerly responded yes. I began the drift protocol using the artificial brain I had constructed, theoretically she should be fine as no actual load will be on her mind. Only the sensation of drifting with another mind.
I will train her up until she is ready to move me on her own. And with that I rendered myself into the virtual world suited up in uniform and ready to teach.
"Welcome to Pilot training cadet"
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