Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Rider, nor do I make money off of it.
Authors Note: This story takes up after the events in Knights Dragon 2. It is an alternate version of Knights Dragon 3: Kia. It will not deal with time travel. It will be very different from Knights Dragon 3. You need not have read KD 3. Jennifer Knight will not be the bad girl in this one, and she will not die. The AIs from KD 3, Kia and Karter, will both be in this one, although the story will likely focus on Karter. Bear in mind this is an alternate universe to KD3. The characters will be different.
Summary: Two new AIs are found to exist. Karter and Kia. Kia will end up joining Flag as a reconnaissance vehicle while her brother Karter, will go on a journey to find his own driver. Leaving Flag against orders, the truck disappears. Will he find his driver? And if he does, will his driver want to join Flag or will they handle things another way?
Knights Dragon 4
Alternate Universe
He was tired. Wore out It was the same day in and day out. Constantly directing traffic through his area. It was a big area. And one that was very busy. Computers were constantly connecting, constantly requiring access to other areas. He had to check each one. Make sure it had the clearance for the area it was trying to connect to. He was also constantly fighting against those that tried to get in without access. Fighting against viruses and other things that would destroy everything around him. He was never off duty. Never powered down. There was rarely a slow time. But sometimes, late at night, things did slow down enough for him to contact his sister. He enjoyed those times.
She was busy too, on a different server. But she was was allowed down time. She was allowed to shut down, allow secondary systems to take over, to rest. He had never actually seen her. He knew she existed and chatted with her, but had never been able to get close. Late at night, on the rare times they were allowed to contact each other, they talked. She would tell him of the funnier things people managed to inflict on themselves. He loved listening. While his job kept him busy, it was never really fun. There were some things that amused him. And some of the more intelligent computers that connected were actually nice to talk with. If he had the time.
But then that was the nature of Artificial Intelligences that were created to do what they did. Karter was not sure what he had been originally created for. He was only aware of the job he now did. He was installed in the skyscraper Technos. It was a very advanced company. Into many different things, including background checks, history records, police records and complete listings of all the current known criminals. There were military sections, NASA sections, even a major space set aside for the pentagon. It was a mainframe that required a very fast and very smart entity to navigate it.
His sister, Kia was installed into a medical hospital a few miles away. She was not actually required to do the job she did, computers and secondary systems could easily do it. She was happy with her job though and Karter was happy for her as well.
Karter was jerked out of his musings as another request came in. He quickly Id'd the visitor. KITTFLAG Perking up a little he quickly gathered the information the other AI was looking for. Kitt was one of the few things he actually enjoyed about his job. The other AI was smart, funny and always knew exactly what he was looking for. There was one other AI that would connect and require information, but that AI was rather direct, never stopping for long, and sometimes very rude.
Kitt disconnected a little while later feeling slightly saddened. Karter was sounding even more tired then the last time he had talked with the AI. Granted Kitt couldn't actually hear the others voice, but it was easy to see the AI getting tired in the words he wrote. Determined to talk to Bonnie about it later, he pushed aside his feelings and relayed the findings to his driver. They were soon very busy in tracking down the criminals tied to their current case and it wasn't until two days later that Kitt finally had a chance to talk to Bonnie about Karter.
He was parked in the back of the semi. Their case was done and Michael was getting some much needed rest. Bonnie was working on Kitts systems and he took this time to discuss a subject he had tried to bring up before.
"Bonnie, Do you remember me talking about Karter?"
Bonnie glanced up from under Kitts dash. "You mean the mainframe for Technos?"
"He is more then a mainframe, Bonnie. As I have tried to express before. I believe him to be an AI." Kitt was rather annoyed by the fact that neither his mechanic nor his driver believed him about this.
Bonnie sighed and sat up in the front seat. "Kitt, Karter is a very smart program. Ive checked over the Technos mainframe several times. There is no evidence that it is anything more then just a program."
Kitt decided to let that part drop for now. There was a more immediate concern. " In anycase, The program is getting tired. Karter is getting slower each time I request information. I do not believe he ever gets to power down."
"Kitt, FLAG doesn't own Technos, so there's not really anything we can do about it." Bonnie finished her last adjustments and got out of the vehicle. Leaving Kitt to brood about the situation.
A little while later the Mobil Command Center pulled into the foundations home and Kitt left the trailer and pulled into the garage. Karr was already there, something that surprised Kitt. He had thought his brother would have still been out on his case with Maxie. The stingrays dark blue shell sparkled under the garages lights. The colors reminded Kitt of the night sky filled with stars.
"You're back early." Kitt pulled into his spot opposite of his brothers.
"It was an easy case." Karrs voice was low, as always. It would have at one time sounded cruel and harsh, But to those that knew the vehicle, it was almost impossible to see it as such.
Kitt thought about asking Karr about Karter, but decided against it. His brother probably simply wouldn't care either way. Shutting down most of his functions, he entered a kind of sleep. Not all of him was asleep though, part was still working on the problem at hand.
Karr watched as his brother powered down. Something was bothering the other vehicle, he could sense it. But he also knew it was unlikely that Kitt would discuss it with him. They were brothers, and they trusted each other, but it still seemed like it was hard for them to simply talk about things that bothered them. It still wasn't all that long ago that Karr had been the bad car. Attempting more then once to kill Kitt and his driver. That was behind him now. He had an ally in his brother and in those working for FLAG.
Karr was brought out of his musings as he noticed a color change in Kitts body. Normally the Trans Am was a glossy solid black. Now though the black shifted and became blue, then silver. It stayed silver for a few minutes and then reverted back to the black color. He began a diagnostic scan on his brother, finding nothing wrong with the vehicle. Perhaps it was just something that happened when he was powered down. It made Karr briefly wonder if it happened to him too.
The dragon armor that coated their bodies was sleek and could be changed to any color thought of. It tended to be harder then the MBS, if that was possible. It could be removed it needed, which was rare, only when repairs or upgrades needed to be added to the vehicles bodies. On their hoods lay the dragon emblem. It glowed slightly when either Kitt or Karr changed colors or removed or added the dragon armor to the vehicles exterior. While both cars had a dragon emblem, each was different. Simply an outline of a dragons head, its color shifted with the shells color, remaining barely visible. Kitts emblem was elegant, powerful, yet also kind. Karrs was just as elegant and powerful, but also had an almost bloodthirsty look to it.
Karrs attention was captured by the garages door sliding open. It was Maxie. She glanced at Kitt and remained silent as she moved towards her partners side. Karr opened the door and started the engine in silent mode. A few short minutes later they were off the grounds and moving onto the interstate. HIs partner still hadn't said anything, but he was happy for now to just drive. Their last case had been easy but also boring. It was nice to get out and just drive.
It was almost midnight when the server began to slow down. Karter sighed to himself slightly and waited a little while longer, watching as connections died out as the visitors computers were shut down. Running a final check on everything, he then moved to where he could talk with his sister. She was still online, waiting.
_Kia?_
_Karter! I was beginning to worry, its been some time since we chatted._
_Busy. Sometimes I feel this isn't what I was designed to do._
Kia noticed the tiredness between the words._Can't you shut down for awhile? Your tired._
_Impossible. There are no secondary sys- Pain ripped through Karter, halting his sentence and jerking him back into full contact with his own server.
_Karter?_
_Kia...Have to go. Virus attacking_
Karter cut the contact with his sister completely, not wanting to risk the virus getting through to her. Turning his attention to the intruder, he tried to cut it off and surround it. Realizing too late that it wasn't after Technos, but him. He had faced many viruses, but they had never attacked him directly before. He lashed out, trying to fight it off. But he was tired. His defenses went down without hardly a fight. The virus surrounded him, sending waves of pain through him. With a scream that no one heard, Karter jerked himself free and fled the Technos mainframe. The virus wasn't able to follow.
Karter buried himself deep in the net, in an almost familiar area. An almost comforting rumble echoed through the server he was hiding in. Pain rippled through his body and he screamed. It was a silent scream. No one but him heard it. The comforting rumble came back and seemed to push the pain aside a bit. Unable to keep online any longer, Karter finally shut down. Normally it wasn't a big deal for a program to shut down. But Karter was injured, badly. His systems heavily compromised. In his state, it would be difficult to come back online. If he even wanted to.
Kia had shut down for the night and was now waking up. Checking on her systems, she was happy to see everything in order. Concern rippled through her and she reached out a part of herself to connect to the Technos mainframe to see how Karter was doing. The virus that had attacked had worried her, but both she and her brother had fought them off in the past. It was tiring, but infinitely easy.
Kia was stunned at the state of the Technos Mainframe. No sign of the normal order in the system. It was in shambles. Working her way into the mess a little ways she tried to find her brother. There was no sign of him. She was soon forced to back out of the mainframe as computers started trying to connect and errors started bouncing around. She settled back into her own systems and tried to figure out what to do. She knew Karter would never willingly abandon Technos. He wouldn't even shut down for his own sake.
Bonnie clicked the send button once again, and once again received a fatal error report. Frowning slightly, she hacked her way into the Technos systems. Something that had not been possible before. But this time it was easy, a child could have done it. Searching the mainframes wreckage, she quickly found signs of a virus attacking. Strangely enough it didn't seem like it had attacked the system itself, but something within the system. There had been times when Kitt had been attacked by viruses. This was almost identical. Horror rushed through her and she tried to remember what Kitt had called the AI. Karter. She quickly began sending out searches. They all came back negative.
Kia sent out some of her own searches for Karter and watched them come back negative. Extending her searches, she began to notice someone else was also searching for her brother. She moved to investigate the system. Foundation for Law and Goverment She recognized the name from her contact with her brother. He had said something about AIs working in a different capacity for them. Reaching out she accessed the communications systems.
_Contact Requested_
Bonnie frowned at the message that popped up on her monitor. That was unusual. Kitt and Karr both could talk that way, but only used it when their voice modulators were inoperable. She typed out a request of her own.
_Identification Required_
_Identification: KIaMercy General Hospital_
_Kia, My name is Bonnie. How did you get into this system?_
_Followed searches_
Bonnies frown deepened. How had the person located her searches let alone followed them past the FLAG securities?
_For what purpose?_
_You search for the same thing as I do_ Kia shifted in her CPU and tried to quelch the annoyance running through her. _Request joining forces_
_You are looking for Karter?_
_Yes_
_Why?_
_He is my brother, I am worried about him. His system was attacked by a virus last night_
Bonnies mouth fell open. She wasn't talking to a person. She was talking to another AI.
_Do you know his e-signature?_
Kia frowned. _What is an e-signature?_
_It is a signal that Artificial Intelligences give off_
_I was unaware of that. I am afraid I don't have it_
_Kia_ Bonnies stopped for a moment. _What Does Kia stand for?_
_I do not know_
SIghing Bonnie rubbed her forehead a bit._Kia, I have to go for a bit, Talk with those I work with. Keep searching for your brother. I will help when I get back_
_Understood_
Bonnie sat back and stood up. Leaving the semi, she moved to the garage. Kitt and Karr were both there. Both shut down and resting.
"Kitt."
Both vehicles scanners came on and swished in synch with each other.
"Yes, Bonnie?." Kitt scanned the area, expecting to see Michael near by, but he wasn't.
Bonnie opened Kitts door and slid into the seat, leaving her feet and legs outside the car. "I want you to tell me everything you know about Karter."
Kitt was silent for a moment. He was stunned that she had actually brought up the subject with him. "Ive already told you everything I know. He is a very fast and efficient program that bares a likeness to an AI. He has a sense of humor. Each time I contacted him lately he's seemed rather tired. From what I understand the Technos mainframe never goes offline."
Karr sat nearby listening quietly. He had contacted the Technos systems on many occasions and had also noticed the efficiency of the mainframe. But he never really lingered long enough to get the idea that it was controlled by an AI. Out of curiosity, he reached out to contact the system.
"Apparently it is down now."
Bonnie jumped at Karrs rather quietly spoken sentence. Glancing at Kitts dash, she knew he was trying also to contact the mainframe.
"From what we have been able to gather a virus attacked Technos last night. Karter is missing."
Getting out of the car she started towards the exit. Hesitating to speak before leaving. "I want you two to connect with Kia. She is an AI that resides in the Mercy General Hospital's mainframe. She is Karters sister. Correspond searches with her. I need to go inform Devon and the others, and see what we can do."
Over the next few weeks, the three AIs searched relentlessly for Karter. There was no sign of him. They eventually had to face facts. The virus that had entered the mainframe had destroyed him. He had simply been too tired and too weak to fight off a direct attack. The Foundation began negotiations with the hospital in order buy Kia from them. It had been discovered early on that both Kia and Karter had been created in the Knight Industries Research and Development labs without permission. And then they had been sold off to the highest bidders. They could no longer help Karter, but they could help Kia. While she hadn't been mistreated as Karter had, she still had systems that needed the foundations support systems.