False Memory
Summary: There was always possibility that the Alpha would not take to the false memories, it was Agent Florida's job to make sure that didn't happen.
Characters: Florida, Church
Agent Florida was a people person, not a technology person. He was a wild card, a stealth agent, good at testing others and reading body language. He was not good with AI theory or the laws of robotics.
So he was unable to tell if the Alpha AI was lying to him or not.
Florida was told that the beginning moments of the Alpha's awakening were vital to this operation going smoothly. That if the Alpha showed any signs of being aware it was an AI, it had to be memory wiped.
If you asked him, he would say everything went swimmingly at first. The Alpha AI believed it had a human name, took the Director's name as the Counselor thought it would. The memories it told him were a bit nonsensical, but if the Alpha believed them and not the truth, then it was not a problem.
Everything was going to plan.
Sort of.
There were a few things the Alpha did that concerned him, things that ticked the boxes saying a someone was hiding something or lying. But the thing is Butch Flowers, isn't a technology guy, he doesn't know if the Alpha's flinching movements whenever the Captain moved too fast, or staring when he thought he wasn't looking, were because it knew what was going on and that the blue Captain was agent Florida, or it was because there was some subconscious programming it couldn't stop from running that caused it to do these things.
There were a lot of unknowns in this situation.
Agent Florida, not knowing what else to do, gently tests the Alpha's fake memories only days after it awoke, despite not knowing what signs of lying or deceit he was looking for.
"Good morning there champ!" He greeted the AI in the morning. Strangely, Private Church had awakened earlier then Florida today.
The Alpha looked back at him over his glasses, glaring with bright green eyes and a scowl over his cup of hot coffee.
Not a morning person then, despite willingly getting up earlier then the Captain himself. The AI even had time to make a pot of coffee before Flowers had awoken.
This early in the day, Flowers had not even put his armor on. Expecting no one to be awake and he could eat breakfast alone.
"You're awake awfully early. Must be easy waking up to this warm weather instead of the windy cold." Flowers comments.
"Yeah... whatever." Church responds.
Despite this being the first time Private Church has ever seen Flowers face, he seems to recognize him, or it just might be his familiar voice he recognized. There weren't exactly a lot of people in this base.
Church doesn't make mention of Flowers long braided unregulation hair, nor does his attention stick to his unmasked face. Instead, the Captain can see the way his eyes look to his hands and scan over his body, searching for something.
His eyes look untrusting and unsure yet they are unwavering from his form.
Nonchalantly, Flowers walks past Church and glances into the cup of coffee he made himself while moving to the coffee pot, then proceeds to pour himself one.
Florida knows the Director took his coffee black with sugar. Based on the small white flecks on the counter top, Alpha has done the same. Although, he doesn't know how Jimmy had liked his coffee. He doesn't even know if this is a subconscious thing or if it's even worth analyzing.
There's a lot of things that may or may not indicate deceit. It's hard to discern the answer with this many variables.
He must be more specific.
"You ever attend college?" He asks because he knows for a fact Jimmy did not and the Director did; Florida wants to know if the Alpha says 'yes' if he will say he went for the same subject.
"What? Kinda." Church responds rudely. "Took a few classes, never graduated, what's it matter to you?"
Aggressive, was the word that come to mind when thinking of how to define the Alpha's behavior. He was always highly aggressive and rude from the moment it woke up. The Director was always high strung but he didn't think an AI would be, even if it was made from him.
If it acted like this in the UNSC it would probably be decommissioned. But Florida has never known the AI when it knew it was an AI, so he doesn't know if this is normal for it, or if it's a side effect in believing it's human. Surely an AI with this personality would be too distasteful to be put to use in a military setting. To Agent Florida however, he was perfectly fine with dealing with a rude AI as long as it did it's job. It made things interesting.
"I know a bunch of folks who did the same thing. Glad you ended up here." Flowers responds.
"Whatever."
Strange. Florida was getting to like this fiery, feisty personality the Alpha adopted. He was like a rawer more untamed version of the Director.
A lot of the Alpha AI is just the Director in purest form.
Although Church looks a lot like the Director his hair is messy and uncombed unlike the perfectly neat hair the Director had. His expression betrays so much he was thinking of, unlike the Directors trained static expression. It's quite the improvement. Florida really did do an excellent job in picking out Jimmy for permanent implantation. He should congratulate himself on a job well done.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Alpha asks with a curled lip, noticing Flowers starring.
Unused to not having a helmet on, Florida's tendency to stare was visible. He had forgotten Church could see his face.
"Ugh, what are you two making so much noise for?" Tucker spoke walking into the kitchen while rubbing at his eyes.
"Just taking Private." Flowers responded.
Unfortunate that Tucker would join the two of them. He would have to halt his questions for now.
"Why do you get to have long hair? Basic made me chop my dreads off." Tucker questions.
"Well, I'm a Captain, Private Tucker." He fails to elaborate further on that statement.
Church ignores them both, looking into his hot coffee as they converse.
"... I guess that makes sense."
And that was why he loved Simulation troopers. They were often too stupid to question things.
But the Alpha. It was capable of connecting dots and complex problem solving.
Even though Florida believed the Alpha knew it's true nature, he couldn't risk giving it a lot of information, just in case he was wrong.
"Well men, let's eat breakfast then start some target practice."
"Ugh, I knew I shoulda' stayed in bed."
For an AI, Private Chruch has terrible aim.
"God your such garbage, how did you even get into the army." Tucker says noting said terrible aim.
"Shut up." Church responds before firing off another round and missing the target by a few feet. "I haven't had practice in a while, that's all."
"Yeah, I bet you've been missing a lot of targets."
"What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?"
"You know."
"Whatever."
Tucker's aim is better. It would be worrying if he was on red team. But, because he was on blue team it didn't really matter if Tucker could hit his intended target, his gun wouldn't be aimed at the AI if there ever was a battle.
"Well, Private Church I'm sure with a bit of practice we'll get you into shape." Flowers says, putting a hand on the AI's shoulder and moving to step next to him. "Try aiming like this."
Tucker turns to look at them and somehow gives them both a questioning look, despite wearing full body armor.
Captain Flowers takes Church's hand and guides it into aiming properly.
At the last moment before pulling the trigger, Flowers feels the AI's hand jerk slightly setting the properly aimed shot off.
Interesting. Florida wonders if this is a fault in the AI's programming that disallows it from directly hitting human shaped targets, from hitting what it perceives as life, rather then its inability to calculate and properly aim.
"Hmmm, that's strange. Well, I'm sure we'll get right eventually." Florida says before removing his hand from Church's.
He doubts it. If it has anything to do with the law of robotics, there is nothing that can be done. Flowers could try to subconscious let the AI try and perceive the targets as carbonated rather then human shaped cardboard, but he would rather not test his luck.
"Thanks... Captain." Church akwardly responds.
Two days later Captain Flowers send the two privates out on a scouting mission.
Of course Flowers isn't going to actually send them alone on the mission to the canyon's high points. He wouldn't risk the Alpha like that, even if the Red team is made up of the completely incompetent.
During this little mission, Florida overhears a conversation and listens with interest.
"Dude why is the Captain all up in your shit all the time?" Tucker so ever so elegantly puts it.
"I don't know, he's weird man. Don't piss him off."
"Why, you know some dirt from before I got here?" Tucker questions with interest. "Because if you do, you gotta lay that thick shit on me."
"Yeah you can put it that way. Just don't get in his goddam way or question him."
"Dude. That is not what laying it on me means."
"I can't get into it Tucker."
"What, come on! Like I gonna know. Please dude, this is literally the only interesting thing happening in this canyon right now."
"Ugh, fucking fine." Church give in rather easily. Interesting to not that the AI swears a lot more when the Captain isn't around. It must be his version of respect. "Flowers... doesn't have your best interest in mind."
For a moment there is silence.
Then Tucker answers.
"... is... is that it. Dude. That is, not an explanation."
"Alright, fucking alright- he's a Freelancer, he's here to watch me, specifically, keep me out of the wrong hands."
It was at this point in time that Agent Florida knew the AI was fully aware. But Florida had no sinking feeling of dread at this revelation. Only curiosity.
"Wow that is kinda creepy." Tucker says. Then immediately follows it up with. "Can't believe I'm the only one not getting some action in our base then. No wonder, he's literally up your ass."
"Man. Your head is so fucking far into the goddam gutter. Do you even understand a fucking fraction of what I just fucking told you."
"Not really idiot."
Silently Agent Florida made it back to base without being detected. He had a lot to think about how to proceed with this development.
Should he inform the Director, or should he confront the Alpha itself about this?
If he had known this immediately when he AI had awoken, he would have reset the entire mission. But now Agent Florida was rather fond of the AI's personality.
It was also of interest to note that the AI had not tried to escape the canyon as the Counselor predicted it would.
"Good morning there Alpha," Florida casually greats the next morning. "How's your delightful day passing by?"
"Just as-" The AI's processor seems to catch up to what Florida said a second too late, his eyebrows raising as he stuttered. then he tried to play the action off, "-just as wonderful as any other day in this, this canyon."
"So..." Agent Florida trials off as he walks closer to him. "Have you always known?"
Church takes a few moments to answer, looking down before deciding to speak.
"You not gonna tell me what I'm apparently supposed to have known?"
But Florida catches the twitch in his upper lip that he had come to recognize as a sign of the Alpha's lying.
"Nope!" Florida says cheerfully, then leans forward as he says. "I think you know what I'm referring to seeing as you respond to the name Alpha without a second thought."
Church, suddenly pulls his firearm from his waist and shots at the Freelancer, the shot misses, despite Florida's standing stationary directly in front of him.
In response, Agent Florida grabs Church's extended forearm, twisting it backward and forcing him drop the gun, disarming him in one elegant move, then the Freelancer turns that gun on the AI himself with a smile.
"Ah ah ah. Private. I have only one objective for this mission and I'm not exactly a person who fails. I'd hate to be a disappointment."
Eyes wide and mouth slightly open, Church looks terrified. It's a good look on the Director's lookalike face.
"The hell are you gonna do with me?" He asks, eyes moving from the gun trained on him to Florida's unmasked grinning face.
"I'm surprised you haven't left this canyon by now." The Freelancer doesn't answer the AI's question.
"Not like I have anywhere to go." Church looks towards the ground. "No where is safe for me."
"Well the objective is to keep you nice and secure. I'm assuming that you don't want to be decommissioned, destroyed by the UNSC, memory wiped, or captured by the Meta, so how about this. We keep all of this between ourselves. I feel like we're both on the same page here."
"Yeah, we're on the same page."
"Well, pleased we're peachy now!" Florida clicks the safety on and holds the gun out the the AI. "How are you enjoying playing human, Alpha."
