As the cab arrived at her house for the second time that night, she thanked Mr. Jung and dashed inside, watching as he drove off again. Looking around, everything seemed as she had left it, though she suddenly realized she was still going to be out of milk and eggs. Grumbling to herself, she walked through each room, flipping on the lights and investigating to ensure she didn't have any unwanted houseguests or missing property. After a thorough examination of the grounds, she couldn't find any sign that anyone had been there, so she headed down to the basement where she had a small laboratory setup. The door to the basement was locked, and a set of industrial doors lay beyond that, requiring her biometrics to open the lock.
"Maichl?" she called out, simultaneously picking up a clipboard and walking over to her main computer terminal.
"Yes, mistress?" A gentle, but masculine voice called back to her, its owner walking towards her with his own clipboard, covered in notes.
"Two unknown entities captured me and another young lady a few hours ago. We were freed, but they have my cell phone and keys. I need to get the locks changed as soon as possible. Please begin manufacturing model EM-7 locks for all of the outer doors." She instructed as she accessed various programs on the computer. The screen flashed with a program that greatly resembled her phone, as she told it to update the contents of her phone backup files, and then fry the phone itself so her captors wouldn't be able to use it.
"Right away." Maichl answered calmly, walking back towards a corner of the lab where a large prototyping machine sat, along with a more refined version for the final models.
Hana got up and made a few notes on her clipboard's notepad as she walked over to a large cabinet and pulled out a few small boxes from it. Inspecting them quickly, she walked towards a small machine and inserted each of the boxes into the appropriate slots before walking back towards the computer. The phone program was still up, so she instructed it to copy over the updated information to a new phone, the parts of which had been loaded into the appropriate machine. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a list of the other kids' numbers so she could input those manually.
Minimizing the program, she left it to its work as she scribbled more notes on her tablet and walked over to another machine, where she sat in a strangely-shaped chair and positioned herself accordingly. A soft green light emitted from the device for a few moments before dimming, indicating that she could stand up again. Small beeps were heard as several digital projections appeared above a small table nearby.
"Same as usual. Good news, I suppose." She murmured, telling the device to save the results and close them.
"Maichl, has there been any progress on the beta model yet?" she asked, walking towards a large chamber in the wall, covered by protective barriers.
"Minimal. There was an unforeseen issue with two of the prototypes earlier, so I haven't had time to continue working on it." He responded, his voice even.
"Nothing drastic, I hope?" she countered, worried that something may have gone wrong.
"No. The prototyping compound needed adjustment, as the last two items created from it cracked in several places, and had to be scrapped. I've added the appropriate corrective materials to the mix, and have not observed any more problems." He assured her.
"Ah. It must have been too heavy for that compound to hold up. Thanks for fixing it." Her relief was evident as she relaxed, smiling a little to herself. Pressing a few buttons on a panel to her left, the chamber barriers slid away, allowing the chamber itself to come forward. Pressing another button, she stood back as it turned and tilted, eventually coming to rest on its back, a table forming from the wall behind it. Opening the chamber revealed a cybernetic skeletal structure of a feminine persuasion, immobile and inactive.
"Eventually I'll finish you, Fai." She muttered to herself as she pulled out various tools to start tweaking little gizmos and circuits throughout the structure. Every now and then, she would stop to scribble down a note on her tablet before picking up a tool and going back to work on it.
"The transfer has been completed." Sounded out from the computer console in a soft feminine voice; typical of a talking computer to sound like that.
"Maichl, how far along are the locks?" Hana asked as she set down her tools and walked towards the machine she'd put the small boxes into earlier.
"Approximately 58%. They should be completed by morning."
Pulling the assembled phone from the machine, Hana inspected it visually, then began checking through the data stored on it to make sure it was correct. "Alright. Would you mind installing them as soon as they're ready? I don't want to put it off too long, just in case."
"Of course." His calm voice acknowledged. "I'll have the keys prepared for you by the time you wake up." He added.
"Oh yeah. Thanks, I would have forgotten that part." She joked. Even geniuses could be forgetful. She tucked the new phone into her pocket and went back to work on the skeletal creation on the table.
"Maichl?"
"Yes mistress?"
"When I finish Fai, are you going to like her more than me?" she asked seriously.
"My programming doesn't have such parameters." He reminded her.
"Would you like me to update your program?" she offered, still tinkering.
"If you wish. I am currently operating at 99.6% accuracy and 73% capacity. All other statistics are remaining constant."
Looking up at him, she pondered her options. "If I updated you, we could probably fix at least .2% of your accuracy, and I could give you a bigger storage chip. Though that secondary personality program is almost finished, too."
"The decision is yours, mistress." He acknowledged.
"I love you to death, but sometimes I wish you had emotions." She admitted dejectedly.
"The secondary personality program will have emotions." He reminded her.
"Yeah, but that's different. You're the primary personality, so you'll still be the same. I just wish you would smile or laugh or something sometimes."
"I could run a randomization algorithm to-"
"No, no… that's not what I mean. I want to give you emotions. Real, working emotions." She enthused.
"What purpose would they serve?"
She sighed. "Mostly they would make me feel a little less lonely here at home. You're here, but you don't act like a person would, so it just feels like another machine is talking to me. There's no warmth, or affection, or anything like that." She complained, setting her tools down to walk over to her assistant.
"I produce 34% heat waste during normal operation." He stated.
"Not that kind of warmth. It's an expression. Emotional warmth, like love or friendship." She corrected.
"Is that not the reason you created the secondary personality programs?"
"Yes, but even Fai's primary personality will have emotions. They'll just be different from the secondary. When I designed you, I hadn't yet discovered how to enable emotions, or I definitely would have added them. Now that I know how, I really want to see them in action, but more than that, I want you to finally be able to react to things that happen around you, instead of just always being calm and collected and… well… bored."
"There is no need for me to react with emotion to the events around me. It would not improve my function or response."
She huffed irritably. "Maichl, I made you to be my assistant and my friend. You can't be a friend if you don't have any feelings."
"Would that not impede my ability to monitor the lab?"
"I don't know... I guess. Maybe." She muttered.
"Then would it not be more prudent to simply create another cybernetic body to house the secondary program and any other emotional personality programs?"
"I really hate when you're right sometimes." She whined. "I just… you're my favorite. You always will be. To me, you should always have the best traits."
"I have the traits you programmed me with, which are more than sufficient for my duties here. I have no need of any others."
"I know." She grumbled and leaned against him, hugging him loosely and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I just wish you cared when I did that."
"I recognize it as a sign of affection, and understand that it is a good thing. As much as I am able, I appreciate the gesture."
She smiled a little and giggled, standing in front of him. "Maichl?"
"Yes, mistress?"
"Would you mind if I gave you an optional set of emotions? You could turn them on or off as needed, and you'd be the only personality program loaded into your database."
"It would not bother me." He acknowledged, his voice calm as always.
"Thanks." She smiled, heading back towards the unfinished structure from before.
Many hours later, Hana put the tools away and ran a diagnostic on Fai. She smiled to herself as the results came back higher than those in the past. "Finally, some decent progress. I might have her finished by next month, if I'm diligent." She cheered to herself, pressing buttons on the chamber to close it and re-insert it into the wall.
"Oh, Maichl, re-prioritize the GPS tracker project to level 2. If something like this evening happens again, I want to be prepared."
"Yes mistress."
She walked back to the computer, reading over some of her notes and adding things here and there before sitting back down at the terminal. The phone program had auto-closed once it had finished, so she opened up a set of files she'd been working on for Maichl's secondary personality program, and extracted specific parts into a new file. Luckily the emotional part of the programming had been finished for some time, she just needed to tweak some of the details of the personality itself before it would be complete. Going over the separated code for errors, she didn't see any obvious ones, and decided to have the computer go ahead and test it.
"Once the computer finishes running the test loops, if it comes out successful, you can download the file to your O sector. If you run into any problems, just disable it until I can fix it." She instructed Maichl.
"I'll do that."
"The headmaster asked me to stay home for a few days, so I'll be up a little late tomorrow, probably. Let me know if anything goes wrong with the prototypes or the installation of the locks, or whatever. You know the drill." She added, walking towards the door.
"I do."
Smiling, she put her clipboard back in its place and bid her assistant goodnight before leaving the lab and going up to her room. She opened a window and stood there for a few minutes, trying to sense those two men from before, but she couldn't. Again. Closing the window, she changed into her nightclothes and laid down.