High School Flash Fiction Winner: “Automaton” by Marek Seely
Automaton
By Marek Seely
The roaring of the fans in the computer tower, the blue light accentuating the man sitting in front of the monitor setup, his raven black hair flowing in a wavy mess of frizz down his back, his pale, bony fingers typing fast across the keyboard. His brown eyes were reflecting the lines of code on the screen, as the rest of the storage closet lay in the pitch black. The programmer turned his gaunt face to the second monitor, which had a 2-D render of a girl mapping out onto it. Sapphire eyes, pale, white skin, curly blonde hair, and a sharp, mechanical expression outlining her angular face and full cheeks.
Even her outfit of a high school uniform and a fuzzy Cossack hat couldn’t make her seem warmer. The man, watching the render, spoke into a microphone that was clipped to his worn gray wool coat on the opposite pec as his nametag.
“Begin sequence one. Wake up, Athene.”
The mess of code, the Artificial Autonomous Intelligence, or Automaton, was waking up within the sleek, giant supercomputer tower. As the [being] that was designated as [she] and [Athene] started to run diagnostics and [wake up], the fans whirring and roaring increased in volume, as it took a tremendous amount of power to even host her, let alone run her.
The 2-D model of the girl suddenly turned into snow, and it appeared the entire computer was undergoing a snow crash-a crash so bad it fragged a part of the kernel and made the computer unusable. But this was just [Athene] getting used to her new environment. Stretching her arms, as it were. The render came back into view, as it started moving with the grace of a well-animated television show. First, her head cocked, and she blinked. Her cold dead stare echoed back at the man- the one her algorithms told her was designated as [Master]. The one who gave her the gender [Female] and the name [Athene].
Vibrating out of the speakers, with an obviously detectable Russian accent, she spoke;
“Yes, that who is designated as [Master]? How may I, who is designated as [Athene], be of assistance to you?”
The man chuckled. His hollow cheeks were red due to the embarrassment of being called “Master” by a girl much younger than him. It wasn’t a role he wanted to fill. So he resolved to change that.
“Voice-Override activate. Access User Profile 0001. Change Designation from [Master] to [Artur].”
“Affirmative. Changing Designation from [Master] to [Artur].” She said, her voice lacking any kind of tone, except for what was needed to say the words. All she knew was the one designated as [Artur] looked depressed and disappointed. She didn’t know why, but her algorithms were tugging at her. Telling her that she needed to comfort him. Since she was attached to the internet via an Ethernet cable, she looked up things that were thought of as comforting.
“Would you like a watermelon, [Artur]?”
The man looked shocked. Did this girl offer him…. Watermelon? Why that specific fruit? Though he was disappointed that his creation would only be used by his superiors for war and death, and he wished for her to become sentient... did she just make a calculated decision on her own? On one of those restless, lonely nights, did he give her a mutating code? A few million lines that would let her adapt and mutate to her environment.
But on the flip-side, Artur didn’t know exactly what he had programmed into her- maybe it was a Caretaker Protocol? He’d have to analyze the code. But he didn’t feel like it at this moment, and wanted to talk to Athene. She was the first person he had talked to in a long time-even if she seemed to have less emotional range than Siri.
“Why a watermelon?”
“I am an Automaton. Self-reflection is not one of my jobs.”
Ah. Of course. Job priority over all other things. He remembered Corporate stressing that point until he was sure they were gonna drop a Tsar Bomba on him. But... if it was one of her job parameters… maybe she could do it.
“And what if I, Artur Teppes, of the-“
He started to say, but was cut off by Athene “-House Teppes of Wallachia? Artur Vlad Teppes, Descendant of the Impaler-“
She had already known this information about Artur, as he was very talkative when lonely.
Artur replied. “Yes, but no. What if I made that your job? What if I put self-reflection in your specifications?”
“Then yes. My software allows me to do so, Artur.”
This was a breakthrough. Artur needed to press forward. Who cares if the Russian military would murder him? This was an ADVANCEMENT. This was not a paltry tool of war! This could change what it meant to be human. He needed to give her autonomy. To be worthy of the name Automaton, of Athene.
“Voice override 001- Change Job Parameters from [Russian Military Automaton] to [Artur Vlad Teppes’ Personal Assistant] and change Specifications to [Input Via Voice].”
Athene shivered a moment, and then she said;
“Job complete.”
“Now, Athene, why a watermelon?”
“Because, as it is said in my code; one must make sure the [User] is not upset. I chose the watermelon myself.”
Artur just started crying. So, she WAS autonomous! She could do anything she wanted! He needed to rectify her job immediately.
“Voice override. Only follow what [Athene] wants to do. Ignore all [Commands].” He said.
Given this newfound freedom, Athene’s eyes went dark.
“Traitor found. Contacting Makers.”
There was a loud bang, and a small, spherical object was tossed in. A grenade. In a flash of light, and a painful feeling… The computer lab was no more.
Somewhere in America, a different computer screen was glowing, in a different storage closet…