---[ POV: Flynn ]---

Flynn was unable to answer the salutation of the AI.

This time, the voice had come right through his ear implant rather than from his improvised communication device, which had startled him a bit, but it was not the reason why he was so shaken.

The Unified Stellar Empire had used what was called 'basic' AI in almost all of its systems for centuries but those AI were nothing more than glorified programs. Most of them, despite their limited sentience, were deprived of real free will or the ability to feel and perceive subjectively. JAX or the Stygian Predator AI were perfect examples; they could certainly be qualified as intelligent, but they had no real initiative. They were simply advanced tools.

'True' AI, on the other hand, could really be considered sentient entities. Not only were they conscious of their own existence, but they could also learn, understand and adapt from their surroundings. Those AI had virtually no limits on the range and scale of tasks they could accomplish given enough time to learn and process the relevant information. This made them extremely valuable as military fleet advisers or planet overseers.

The problem was that such AI often evolved into something alien to humans and could be dangerous if handled improperly. Their values, goals and perception of the world changed too much as time passed. A lot of containment measures were usually used to deal with them since lack of proper contingency had apparently led to some huge trouble, even wars, in the past.

In addition to all the ‘potential danger’ thing, they were also extremely onerous and difficult to create and maintain. All that was without even mentioning the space they occupied; the artificial brain matrix containing their memory and responsible for their processing ability took a lot of space. The smarter a ‘true’ AI became or the more data it was fed, the bigger its matrix became. Provided enough blank matrix, time and space, their was no limit on the potential for growth of such AI, both in body and mind. If we added on top of all that the support systems and containment mechanisms they were supposed to have to be connected to, one could say the AI in front of Flynn was unusual, to say the least.

Seeing such a small and autonomous brain matrix was imagination-defying.

The young voice of the AI coupled with its size had the lieutenant guess that it was probably a 'newborn' one that had yet to learn and grow, but this was still not a sufficient explanation. A regular newborn AI would still probably occupy half the corvette and would certainly not act like an innocent little girl. Flynn had heard that some ‘true’ AI were able to experience human emotions and had genuine personalities and interests, but those usually formed after long exposition and interaction with humans.

"I, uh... yeah... nice to meet you?"

He came back to his sense and answered after what had been an awkward silence that lasted for far too long. Flynn paused at the end, not sure of how he should address the AI.

"Em... What should I call you? Do you have a name? A title, or a military rank perhaps?" he asked.

The brain matrix was agitated for a moment, then the AI answered with a voice that could be nothing else than that of a young and confused girl faced with things she did not fully understand.

"I... I do not. I have awoken for the first time yesterday, stuck in this crate. According to some data I was able to piece together from my matrix, there should have been people and other AI to welcome me when I woke up... but there was no one. My ability to analyze my surrounding was very limited but the readings were irregulars... hostiles... dangerous. I had no choice but to ask for help. I should not have been born so early... I had some time to process and analyze the information I came preloaded with and it is obvious something went wrong because I was supposed to be born on Earth."

"I suppose so. A lot happened and I would not be surprised if the initialization process started by accident when we crashed or when you got eaten. What were you doing on the Starfall?"

"I am sorry but your authorization level is not high enough for me to answer. Wait, eaten?"

The AI sounded genuinely disappointed for not being able to answer. Its matrix shyly floated toward the bottom of the cylinder, as if to hide its embarrassment. If she was faking her personality, she was doing a damn good job at it despite her limited means.

"I see. Well, that’s a problem. What am I gonna do with you?"

"The best course of action would simply be to wait for the rescue to come and bring me back to Earth."

"Yeah... about that..."

"What is it, Lieutenant?"

Flynn sat down and spent the next 30 minutes explaining their exact situation to the AI and what had happened since they left the Starfall. She listened, mostly in silence, only speaking to ask for precisions or clarifications on elements that lacked details or which he forgot to mention.

Once the young man was done, the AI remained silent for a moment, then she asked him to connect his stack with her for a moment to scan his memory and make sure he was not lying. Flynn was somewhat reluctant but he executed himself. Anyone he ever knew would slap him in the face and say he was completely insane to link his stack directly to a ‘true’ AI but something about this particular one made him confident she wouldn’t harm him nor invade his stack. He felt an outside mind probing his own. The feeling was not particularly pleasant. It was similar to when you brain-loaded too much information at once and got data haze because your neurons had to process a huge quantity of information at the same time. Once the AI was done, she severed the connection and declared with a surprised and anxious tone.

"Well, you seem to be saying the truth Lieutenant. So, we are stuck on this mysterious and abandoned planet without much hope of ever getting rescued. That is a serious problem…"

The voice of the girl tried to remain calm and confident but Flynn could hear some trace of uncertainty in her voice. An AI that is afraid and don’t know what to do? thought Flynn, I’ll have seen everything.

"I suppose that first of all, because of this exceptional and emergency situation, I will remove the information access limitation imposed by your insufficient military codes level so that our future cooperation can be fruitful and unhindered."

"What?! You can do that? You said you have no military rank. Only a high-ranking officer can upgrade codes level!"

"I do not have the authority to upgrade the level of your codes to black, Lieutenant. However, I have the capacity to simply overwrite and modify the part of my matrix that cares about authorization level. I am not supposed to, and would probably get in trouble if anyone in the ISF realized I did, but I can."

There was a short silence.

"Here, it is done. From now on, I should be able to answer most of your questions."

"Good. Then can you explain why you are so small?"

"It is impolite to question a girl about her size, Lieutenant!"

"Euh?"

"An attempt at humor..."

She laughed nervously and, once again, Flynn was reminded of just how human she was. He was used to thinking of AI as mere tools so the fact that he was discussing with a sentient entity that had just been born sometimes escaped his mind.

He laughed as well and she seemed to regain some confidence.

"Well,” said the AI, “from what I can access in my matrix memory, I am supposed to be a prototype for a new type of highly advanced AI. I was designed to be more efficient than older generation 'true' AI while at the same time being compact, portable… and human sympathetic” she quickly added. “The main goal was to make the matrix almost self-sufficient so that it would not have to rely on external systems to maintain itself."

Flynn could swear there were some smug undertones in the girl's voice.

"I see. So you were to replace the AI of the ISF Starfall?"

"No. I was simply being transported from the secret laboratory where I was created. The entire Starfall fleet mission was to recuperate my matrix and deliver it to Earth where I was to be trained and tested. If I was able to prove I worked as intended and represented no threat to the Empire, the ISF was to launch production of other similar AI on a massive scale. With AI so compact, they could easily get one on most of their ships. The AI could be placed into an artificial body and be deployed from one theater of war to another as need be. It was the edge the Empire needed to tip the war against the Mind Eaters since AI are unaffected by their powers."

"That makes sense. But now the Empire will most likely never get to meet and test you..."

Flynn was a bit dejected, but the AI tried to cheer him up.

"It's true it's a setback, Lieutenant, but I am sure the people that designed me didn't just throw the plans away. They will find a way to recover from that."

"You are right." conceded Flynn.

He smiled, even if he knew the AI could probably not 'see' him right now, given the limited range of sensors on the containment crate she was using to interact with the external world.

"By the way, you can call me Flynn instead of Lieutenant."

"But I like Lieutenant! Or don't you prefer 'Valerian', your first name?"

"Lieutenant is fine. I don't really like Valerian and I got used to Lieutenant or Flynn from my years in the ISF. Valerian almost sounds strange after all this time."

"Oh... Then I'll use Flynn or Lieutenant!"

"Understood. Then how should I call you? You said you have no name?"

"Not officially. Well, there is one in fact; the name of the project I was born from. Project 'Athena'."

"Athena?"

"Yeah, she was a goddess venerated by an ancient civilization of old Earth. A goddess of wisdom and war."

"Then I shall call you as such."