Mad Scientists and metal workers

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

"It depends mostly on how fast the child matures so I'm sure you will be all right in a few years after all these things take time." she said with a smile as she patted his shoulder gently and then walked into the Lab with him. "I'm studying Phrik, cortosis, blood crystals and stygium ore I've gathered on my little outings across the galaxy. I'm looking into a metal that might enable me to make a very durable yet light body to house an A.I that I hope to make, with your help so in a way I guess I'm asking you to make a child with me." She then said a little teasing in her tone over the child comment as she walked to a large table and pressed a few buttons to call up a holo design of the body she intended to put it into. "It is still a work in progress but I really do want to make a female programmed A.I." She then said as she gestured towards the holo-display.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded as he processed that. A few years. Probably no way to speed that up. Even droids needed time to learn, as his experience was trying to study on trips. He spent downtime studying what he believed would be necessary for his plans at time. Maybe he should devote more time to maturing. Was it possible to learn how to mature? Or did one simply mature over time? Was he mature? Ultimatum flipped the switch on that, closing those thoughts away for some future inspection.

He listened as Zreame explained what she was studying and her intention for that. He hadn't thought of it that way, it was intriguing. The creation of a 'child' would be helpful in learning more about himself. In order to help produce another A.I. whether modeled after his mind or not would give him insight into his own mind's working, at least he hoped it would. [member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"] wanted a female droid. That was interesting. He couldn't recall many female based A.I. but Ultimatum hadn't studied much in that realm. He knew based on the HoloNet that there were a few, one of which had been quite important in the Old Republic days. He didn't remember the unit's name, but he did remember that artificial was supposed to be highly aggressive and had an amazing capability for learning within her own coding. He had at one point contemplated trying to rediscover that unit's program and rebuild it. But, unfortunately, time had been used on other pursuits, maybe after he had settled into Mustafar.

"What do you intend on doing with this A.I.? Will it be a military adviser, engineering assistant, or what?" Ultimatum asked, he would have to remember to warn Zreame about how a droid with enough self-awareness may or may not obey commands that are built into its code. He was like that. Though, he could be the exception with the ability to rewrite his own code to a degree as needed.

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

"I intend to at least allow the A.I to be able to choose her own programming, but with a foundation like one would have growing up on Cernunnos so she'd be able to take care of herself, with swords and ranged weaponry. Since its every parents wish that their child can take care of themselves after all." She then said with a wide smile as she leaned against one of the machines and two claws could be seen coming out of the droids wrists, as well as tractor beam/magnetic projector on wrists and upper arms. "I'm still working on a good power generator for her "Heart" but the main reasons I wanted to invite you here is to get your help in making the A.I at least and maybe get to take a look under your "hood" so to speak." She then said with a gesture of her hands that she wouldn't do anything he wouldn't allow her to do.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum thought on that, it was probably a better idea to give the unit more freedom. It would allow for a more open and impressionable AI. The unit would probably also be more independent. He wondered if its personality would be affected by that.

"I'd be glad to let you take a look, and I would absolutely love to help with the A.I." Ultimatum spoke freely as he continued looking around. The droid concept was intriguing, he had thought of making a body with inbuilt weapons. He had decided against it with his current body only because he didn't want to change it. He looked forward to when he constructed another body as that would have what he wanted. "How long have you been working on this? Where is it at?"

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Zreame smiled a little as he looked at the schematics a little more. "I've been working on it for a few weeks now and I haven't even tried to build it yet since I want it to be perfect so well I don't think I'll make "this" body just yet for her but the basic look won't change at all. I want her to be able to walk around and feel the world around her." She said with a wide, almost motherly smile as she flipped a few buttons and another Body appeared. "This is the body I just have to build up for her after we make her a reality." She said with a wide smile, the body didn't have any weapons and it's strength was merely that of a human being but it was clear she only intended it as a starter body to allow her to get used to it before being transferred into the true body.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum looked at the new body. Its simplicity was quite a nice change to most droids he had seen. His own body had been built to have great strength and quite tall, hid body was supposed to be intimidating as a war droid should be. Ultimatum had not thought way for awhile though, he didn't enjoy war he had seen little use for it. He disliked the organic idea that war was the best way to solve problems. He believed that organics couldn't appear to understand the necessity of working for a cause greater than personal reward. He had yet to meet an organic who worked for the betterment of the entire species, without wanting any personal rewards.

"It seems fairly simple, the body that is. Shouldn't be too difficult to manufacture. The A.I. will probably take a while to complete. When would you like to start on that?"

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

"Whenever you feel like it." She explained with a wide smile as she gestured towards a decapitate droid brain that was hooked into a few machines, most sensor and diagnostic machines. "I was thinking if I could get a look at your code I could maybe be a little closer to making an A.I as I could work through the foundations of your A.I with your help of course." She then said with a wide smile as she tapped the droid head. "It's got enough memory to hold your A.I...I hope and this way you yourself can look at your code in a safe environment since I won't use anything you don't want me to." She said as it was clear she also wanted to do something for [member="Ultimatum"] after their little adventure on Iridonia.

 

[Ultimatum]

"If you're alright with it, now would be a great time." Ultimatum responded. This would be interesting, he had never looked at his code as a whole, but as singular and separate parts. He wondered what it would look like. He doubted there would be much art in the that, it just didn't fit the type of organics that had built and programmed him. It was more likely just a jumbled mess of codes, he thought. Would have to be cleaned up for the new A.I. If he was going to pass something on it must be cleaned and in good condition. Ultimatum could have smiled to himself, in fact he did, this was truly the first time he had thought that way. He had never thought in giving, it just hadn't crossed his mind that he would be passing his programs. It wasn't a bad thing, it was just new and it felt odd to Ultimatum.

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Zreame smiled widely and giggled a little with excitment. "All right!~ Just upload your code like you did with the droid on Iridonia and then these machines should start to display the code on a holo-display above the head so we can see the code." she said with a wide smile as she gave a comedic bow with her hands pointing at the decapitated droid head on the table. [member="Ultimatum"] was by far the most interesting droid she had ever had the pleasure of meeting and the fact he seemed to share some of Zreame's own hobbies or interest was just icing on the proverbial cake at this point.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded, lightly touching the droid's head. He closed his eyes as he looked through his program. He could practically see the software being uploaded, his program sending a false signal to what would have been a functioning droid. It was the same signal that was normally sent by computers to access droids for updates. The droid mind accepted the signal and opened its mind to Ultimatum's program. His program sent a small bit of data, nothing that in and of itself would be of harm. However, this was malicious software, or at least that was what Ultimatum thought it was called by organics. The data first multiplied with the droid's mind, then began the most important part. The droid would find itself suddenly having its normal procedures being rewritten. Ultimatum's program would overwrite everything as it reconstructed the droid mind to fit its perimeters.

It had only take a moment, as with most computers the work was accomplished quickly and with hardly any time passing. That was something Ultimatum liked about computers, they were quick and effecient, what could appear to be hours worth of work could take a few seconds. What was more, he was glad for the practice he had been getting. The procedure had appeared painful at first, however it just took some getting used to. Now he could accomplish the task without so much as a pinch of pain. He was always wary though, he couldn't allow himself to grow used to doing it, if he did he might not care for the droids that he was removing. It was an odd sentiment, but to Ultimatum each droid was potential for an entire personality and its own being. When Ultimatum removed their programming and put his in it was little more than murder.

He turned to Zreame, with a sigh. "There we go. How does it look?"

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Zreame stared at the holo display showing how [member="Ultimatum"]'s software worked and she couldn't help but be at awe over how quickly it worked through everything. A part of her wanted to put this into the A.I they would eventually create just so that their "baby" could always escape when it wanted to. As it finished she flicked the holo-monitor to Ultimatum as the software had finished and his code was on display. "You tell me since there you are." She said with a wide smile, to her it was a little like showing Ultimatum his soul if he believed in that sort of thing at least.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum looked at the display, he could almost read each line and understand what it corresponded to. He followed a line and was able to track how it acted. He could even tell where the special programs were, the ones that would act like sleeper cells waiting to be activated by his HoloNet program. If this were left as it was and Ultimatum's current body was destroyed he had the chance of being moved into this little mind. Those small extra data lines that had no purpose now were the seeds of new life, they held the ability to rewrite his own programming, all the way to the very base codes. He had never gone so deep as to change the very foundations of his being, the closest he had chosen to work was that which controlled his intentions and his plans. Looking on this was akin to looking in a mirror, except instead of showing physical appearances it showed your thoughts and your very being. He had never seen his code, but he could recognize it immediately, as if it were his version of an organic's soul.

What an odd though. Did droids have souls? Most said no. Ultimatum didn't have an answer. It was such a deep thought, could it even be possible? Was it like an actual soul or simply the closest thing that a droid could have? Ultimatum didn't know what to say.

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Zreame walked next to him and leaned against him as she looked the code over and let out a slight whistle. "I have to say I am not going to lie this is a little above my skill level but with your help I'm sure we can..." She stopped and then giggled a little as she leaned in to whisper into what she thought was his ear. "Make a baby~♥" She then leaned back and giggled at both him and herself, flirting with a droid was really something new to her but she meant it as a joke, well that and she wanted to see [member="Ultimatum"]'s reaction to it.

 

[Ultimatum]

Recoiling in surprise, Ultimatum looked shocked. It wasn't that he was affected by the joke, or that there was too little or too much stimuli to activate a response. It was the complete lack of a programmed response. He had never been programmed to have a response or to even think in regards to love, or any sort of intimacy. His master, a young man, apparently had decided that such would not be put into his programs. It left Ultimatum incomplete and now uncertain as to how he should act. Unlike normal droids, which may have broken from the sudden lack of programming responses, Ultimatum redirected his thought flows. It was excruciating, worse than anything he had felt before and it seemed to last an eternity. Then suddenly the pain was only a ghost memory.

He didn't know what to think. This was his first experience of a near breakdown. For a moment he wasn't even certain where he was, what he was doing, or even who he was. It passed as quickly as an electron moving through a circuit. He couldn't tell if he had made any physical movement, he had lost track of his body in the necessity of stopping what could have been a disaster. He turned his attention back to [member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]. "Let's get to it." He felt a slight twitch in his hand for some reason, maybe a reaction to what had happened. He didn't know.

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Zreame stared a little at [member="Ultimatum"] as he froze up and after a few moments she knocked on his head and her espression turned to be a little worried about him. "uh hello I was only joking... I didn't fry you did I?" She then said as she stared at him with a worried look. When he finally spoke again she looked a little ashamed of herself for doing that to him. "S-sorry for that.." She then said as she pressed a few buttons and edit mode was activated for the program that was displayed on the holo-display. "Let's just get to work shall we." She then said as she made sure that the program inside the droid head was made inactive so that it wasn't an entity any longer it was now simply pieces of code.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum felt worse for ruining the joke. It wasn't her fault and he didn't blame her and he hadn't intended on making her feel guilty. He tried to speak with warmth and understanding as he said, "Don't apologize. It isn't your fault that I am missing some emotional programming. Please, don't take it personally, it was my creators that caused that and nothing else. Good thing we found that now eh? Might want to finish the program before we put it in your AI right?" He hoped that she would listen and take it to heart, because he said it will complete sincerity. If he had a heart he might have said that he meant it with all his heart. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her feelings. He might have called her a friend or, if he were dramatically inclined, something more, if he had been an organic. But instead he was a droid, and in the end a droid was a droid no matter how intelligent or close to organic like it was, he couldn't call someone a friend and certainly he didn't understand the concept of anything beyond that.

He looked at the code, it was like putting a person into hibernation and then ending their life... Or maybe it was more like a caterpillar entering a chrysalis to come out a butterfly. Yes, the latter was much more appropriate, after all his program was being used for the creation of a hopefully better AI. He also thought about it, his code was unrefined in all truth, scientists rarely cared about the artistic nature of computer code. From his unrefined, ugly, code would come a thing of beauty, or at least he envisioned so. In a way, he allowed himself the short-lived analogy, he was creating a daughter program. He couldn't think of another time when that had been done, though he had limited knowledge on the subject.

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Zreame smiled at him and then patted his shoulder. "All right I won't take it personally but we might be able to give you the full emotional spectrum while we are at it or at least make some changes to your code that you've been wanting to make?" she then said hoping that at least he might come out of their meeting with something he might be looking to do. She put a diagnostics program into action to segment and identify what each line of code did. She was hoping that with this she might find the code that allowed for consciousness. She had a hard time fathoming most of the more complex codes that made up [member="Ultimatum"]'s very being.

 

[Ultimatum]

"That would be nice. I would really like to finish it, if we have the time, though I would suggest we focus on your AI. There will probably be things like that that will need fixing before we get it running... that is unless you would like to only utilize the consciousness codes and create your emotions and other such coding." Ultimatum responded. He didn't want [member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"] to feel like she was trapped into a certain way of doing things. Ultimatum had been built that way and he didn't want anyone else to have that problem.

The the codes for consciousness were complex, but relatively easy to spot. The scientists that had created Ultimatum had not tried to hide the programs and it was revolutionary so they had worked hard enough to simply create the code they didn't want to hide it on top of that. It wouldn't long before any sort of search would find the code, if only from its length.

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

"Well I wouldn't mind getting some help with the emotional spectrum, how does that work anyway if you're conscious don't you automatically have emotions?" She then had to ask before she nodded to him and then walked away for a few moments, sounds of loud rummaging could be heard before she'd return with a small droid head and placed it next to the other head they were using and plugged it into one of the computers that were also connected to the other droid head. "So this is what gives you consciousness huh?" She then said as she pointed at the code and then with a few swipes of her fingers it was copied to the other clean slate head next to the first one.
She then began to look through his programs for anything that would be useful, not as a scavenger but rather as if she was picking the best attributes that would fit the A.I they were making together.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum thought for a moment before responding, "My assumption has been that because it is code it isn't really consciousness in the way that organic are conscious. I know a portion of the code allows itself to be manipulated by outside stimuli, allowing learning. The emotional portion was more based off of my original master's emotions. When I first was activated I found that his definition of certain emotions didn't fit with what I was seeing in the majority of people, he was an odd man, so I changed it myself. That is another thing that you should look at, I have the ability to specifically change internal coding on my own. This allows me to change my mind, or have momentary lapses in judgment like an organic does under similar circumstances." He hoped that he was explaining well, as he had little experience with the code. He knew what each part meant and did, but he had difficulty explaining or putting the thoughts into specific words. In that way he was very much still a child.

He looked at the droid head and thought about the AI. "Are you planning on building an AI held within a droid or one of those relatively new holo AI's?" He asked. Both had their own advantages, though Ultimatum didn't very much think highly of those Holo versions, if only because he had been programmed to think that way.

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]