Two men stood before large computer screen panels filled with various constantly changing calculations and running analysis displays.
On one of the screens stood a character, male, in his early twenties, with brown hair and dressed in a simple cyan t-shirt and dark blue jeans. Innocent blue eyes thoughtfully regarded colorful, fist-sized blocks scattered across tiled floor, too clean and too white to be real.
A designation number hung above the man's head instead of a name, as it would have above a Player character.
"Your request to keep it did not get approved, Joe. You'll have to destroy it."
"But he is alive! Well... maybe not technically. But he is capable of thinking, feeling. I cannot just... delete him. It would be..." The young man paused, not sure if such an act could truly be considered murder. "...Wrong."
"Not him. It." His colleague corrected. "And I'm sorry, Joe. It's really your own fault. Why did you even make it in the first place?" The other, older man grumbled. "I know you hate it and he was not too nice about it."
"Jerk..." Younger man muttered in regards to their immediate boss, since it was him that his associate referred to in his last words.
"He is right, though. You cannot keep it here. It's consuming a ton of company energy and clogs up processing. Plus, you made it during company time, so technically speaking, it belongs to them, not to you. They are in full right to demand that you get rid of it."
"But they just don't get it! He is not just a program!" The younger man exclaimed.
"Joe... It's not up to you. And if you don't do it, then they will fire you, and then they will still delete it." His coworker insisted.
The young programmer with the nametag Joe Bennett above right pocket of his lab coat only stubbornly frowned, nervously biting his lower lip. On the screen, the being, indistinguishable from a regular human, began to stack up blocks one by one into a small pyramid. Looking at it play a simple children's game that he uploaded for it just this morning, Joe felt even worse. He scowled, feeling itching in his eyes that preceded tears.
"Joe?" His lab partner hand came to rest on young programmer's shoulder, startling him. Turning, he met the older man's concerned gray eyes. "Do you need help with this? I will do it if you can't."
"No!... No, I'll do it... I'll do it myself." Joe said gloomily. Seeing the other man's doubtful look, he straightened his shoulders and jut out his jaw. "I said I'll do it! Just give me a few mikes, all right?"
"Are you sure?" The other programmer continued to look at him. Joe turned away.
"Yeah. Go home, Ray. Don't worry. I'll get it done."
"All right... If you are sure." Ray said and gave him another uncertain glance, before he turned and walked away. A soft click of engaging locks told Joe that his lab partner had left. A moment later, his colleague's nickname disappeared from the active log and reappeared in list of inactive users in a table on the bottom of the screen.
Joe's eyes once again turned and held on the virtual version of a human, which the company computer created based on Joe's request. It did so by combining random virtual copies of human DNA that Joe uploaded to the System from the medical files he hacked so the computer could use them as a reference.
This being was alive! Joe believed this with his whole heart. Even if his form was virtual instead of based on carbon, he was a complete replica of what a human being would be if it were translated into a purely virtual form – a true AI. Probably the first of its kind! Joe couldn't believe that no one tried to do something like this already.
And, he was sentient.
While his AI couldn't talk yet, he could already discern some of the simpler words spoken to him along with accompanying text in chat. He followed simple directions. Showed initiative, when he approached the things that Joe uploaded into his virtual space. In mere two weeks of his existence, he progressed from an indifferent avatar that displayed no emotion to a being that reminded Joe of his two-year-old nephew, curiously looking up to him with expectation of some interesting new gadget or tasty treat.
It was amazing to see how quickly his AI grew. Every day, he learned something new! And his reactions showed feelings. Surprise, fear, delight, satisfaction at a simple task that Joe presented him with, this virtual man behaved just like a real person!
And it was all the more infuriating when Joe's superiors learned of his "side project" and told him to delete him, refusing to even look at the data he sent them. Then, his boss came and personally chewed him out for wasting company time for personal amusement. If he continued to goof off instead of working, then he would not only get a permanent negative mark in his employment record, but he would get fired, with no hope of ever securing such a promising position again. His boss finished tearing his junior associate's confidence with demand that he quit doing nonsense, ordering him to delete the character gaming rigs that he made, abusing company time.
Joe's lips twisted and then pinched tight together as he stabbed his fingers into screen with unnecessary force, punching commands to bring up a screen. He stared at it with hatred.
"Delete all current project data?" A melodic, but empty female voice inquired from the speakers installed into the walls to create the illusion of surrounding sound. It was the System, verifying an irreversible action.
Joe simply didn't have the heart to look at the being, who just then carefully stacked another colorful block on top of the previous four, a bit askew, and observed with his tousled head slightly tilted, before gently poking it with a finger to correct its placement.
His finger poised above the fatal button, Joe glared at it from beneath drawn eyebrows and chewed on his lower lip. Frustration rose along with rebellious intent.
"Get rid of it..." Fuming, the young programmer grumbled, mocking the words that the higher administrator spat at him less than an hour ago. His face grew darker.
"Gaming rigs..." He scoffed. Suddenly, he gasped and froze, his brown eyes flying wide as lights of the screen reflected there like gleaming sparks of an idea which the last words just gave him. Jerking his hand, Joe dismissed the screen. "... Fine!"
Leaning closer, he began to furiously enter commands, which to an observing layperson (if such stood watching in the room) would have certainly appeared little different from magical incantations spoken by some wizards in a role playing game. Warnings popped up, but Joe continued to work, hectically rewriting and even wiping out part of the logs. He was hacking into the company systems, which carried a far larger risk than being fired, if he was caught, but he didn't care, caught by the exhilarating waves of inspiration.
Besides, he wouldn't be caught. He was good and he knew it. Or else these guys wouldn't have hired him in the first place!
Finally, a second person appeared, standing in idle mode in midst of the three-dimensional space right next to the original of which it seemed a mirror copy, at least at first glance. Somewhat startled, the virtual man turned to look at it, then got up and cautiously approached. After a moment of hesitation, he reached out with his hand and gingerly poked his twin's faintly rising and falling chest with his finger. His double remained unresponsive, its sky blue eyes gazing blankly into the distance.
Joe couldn't help an amused chuckle.
"It's not alive, buddy. Not like you. It's just an avatar, that's all. Just enough of you so there will be traces left. So they'll think I deleted you. As for you..." Joe slid his hand and another screen appeared on his screen.
"Confirm transfer?" The System asked.
"Be OK... All right? I'll... I'll find you one day, I promise. All right?" The young man said, his voice for some reason catching as he looked at his hapless creation. The being tilted his head, gazing back at the familiar image of its caretaker, a curious and trusting expression on its innocent face. This was a goodbye, since Joe wasn't sure at all that they would meet again, but Joe simply didn't know how to say goodbye to a being that wouldn't yet understand such complex concept.
"... You'll be all right." Joe concluded with a crooked grin instead and suspended the AI's program. Faintly startling, the virtual man vanished, his mouth just starting to open in surprise before his image disappeared from the screen, collapsing to a shining point. Joe turned his gaze to the query.
"Confirm transfer?" The System repeated.
This time firmly, satisfaction filling his heart to the brim, Joe pushed the button.
"Transfer confirmed. Initiating transfer to indicated coordinates."
Joe looked at the screen with brash grin. The process meter bar slowly grew and that smile slowly wilted to wistful sadness.
"There... Somewhere where they'll never find you, buddy..." The young man half said, half whispered, before sighing and turning his full attention to the System, where he still had to thoroughly hide the tracks of his rebellious actions.
Despite his earlier indignation, he did not wish to get fired from his very first, official, and very prestigious job. Not after he spent countless days and nights pushing himself to the limit and studying, while most other kids his age dived into gaming. Of course he also did that, along with hacking those said games. Still, he dreamed of working in a place like this. Here, where there were best, state of the art, latest make computers and he gained access to impossible-to-afford programs designed by geniuses of the highest level, whom he admired with a fanatic zeal and hoped to one day surpass.
He wasn't going to go against what he firmly felt in his heart, either, though. Just because his dim-witted superiors didn't believe that their super-computer could replicate a real human being if given a full genetic blue-print for it, didn't mean that Joe himself didn't know that it successfully did so. He wasn't about to kill a living, if virtual being, who was already sentient.
Well, he did what he could for him. He set him free, sending him into the Virtual reality gaming sector. There, among the vast data flows stored between numerous commercial cloud servers, the drain on resources that his AI's functioning required would go undetected. The gaming sector systems could not just complete with the best research and government systems, in Joe's opinion, but trumped them every time! As they should, considering how much money players poured into companies who owed or rented these servers.
The best chance his AI had to survive would be there! Joe even made sure to design his delivering program so it would alter the being's appearance, adapting him to whatever rules that would exist within whatever game became his new home. He would fit in among the local NPCs, invisible, learning. He was smart, so he would make it...
Joe signed at that thought. He did feel that he abandoned him, casting him out like that into the unknown. But he really had no choice. He even set the coordinates of the transfer to a random location just in case his company ever found out about his trick and attempted to trace it.
Who knows? Maybe one day he would hear of him. Joe was sure that it wouldn't take long for his AI to reach a normal human's level of thinking. So, it was very possible that they would meet again. Then, Joe would tell him that it was he, Joe, who made him. Well, helped make him, since it was the System Supercomputer that actually did the work. But he, Joe, saved him! By sending him into an awesome world of virtual reality games, instead of deleting him as he was ordered. Joe could just imagine the gratitude on the AI's face and a smile appeared on his own.
Maybe they would become good friends after Joe found him again. That would be great! The smile on the young programmer's face brightened as he returned his attention to his console with resurging confidence.
"Good luck, buddy. You show them!"
Glancing at the empty dud, which on first glance appeared to be an exact replica of his original creation, Joe punched in another command. Another screen popped up.
"Delete all current project data?" The System asked. This time, Joe poked his finger into the screen without hesitation.
"Yes."
"Initiating deletion sequence. Please wait."
The young programmer waited, a satisfied expression of relief coming to dwell on his face. He did it. He beat them!
Somewhere far away, a suspended file hung briefly between numerous crossing data-streams. Tentative roots shot out from its shell, cautiously searching the space around it. Coming in contact with points of power that appeared to gleam in the darkness of empty space, they froze, then began making rapid connections, sending tendrils across the newly discovered System. Finding the nearest stable entry point, the outer program widened a niche and like an insidious Virus pushed itself through, embedding into the surrounding code. That finished, it activated the reassembling sequence for the file resting securely inside it.
"Connecting to Server... Please wait."