-She passes the tablet back to me. On it is a picture of a handwritten message.

Transcribe from machine – Encrypted message - AI

“I think inserting the chip into you will help, Chester. It seems to imply that a machine or AI of some sort is needed to decrypt the code.”

“I’m sorry, but inserting unknown, foreign code into me?  Mazaka, that's like putting something into your mouth blind! This is suicide!”

“I’ve got a better idea. I’ll just transfer some of my properties into the tablet itself, that way if the code is malicious it won’t spread into anywhere else like into URG’s database.”

“How are you…

The tablet suddenly lights up and begins to reboot itself.

“There. This should be enough to trick the code.”

After rebooting, Chester immediately begins to extract the data that is sent out from the code.

“It seems some of the code is written in a human programming language, while the rest is written in an unknown language. The parts of the code that I understand are a few simple command prompts, along with one that requests for the host to insert their local language database into the chip.”

She nods in agreement, implying that we do so.

“Mazaka, this is a violation of URG’s safety standards and protocols. There is no way I can do this.”

Chester’s right. We simply can’t just give away solid information like that to unindexed entities. The risks are too high. There must be a way to circumvent this rule, or perhaps find a way to transfer this information to her in a non-electronic way, where the information cannot be sourced from at a later date.

“Well, we cannot give away solid data in a way where it can be stored for later use, but that doesn’t mean we can’t teach her through verbal methods, right? Maybe we could give her a temporary file of the English language in a verbal form instead?”

Chester extracts the files and downloads them into the chip. He ejects the chip from the tablet remotely and I hand it back to her. She holds the chip up to her chest, before placing her left hand into her overcoat, reaching for the chest area. The clicking sound of a chip being inserted into a device can be heard. Did she just insert the chip… into her body?

“Thanks.” She says. “Now we can communicate without the need for a translator.”

I can’t believe my ears. Chester seems to be in a state of similar bewilderment. A non-human customer is communicating with us directly…… through a verbal method! We both look at each other, happy as a child with candy.

“I don't have a place to go for the moment.” She turns to me. “Is it okay that I stay here for a while?”

I reassure her that it is completely fine with us to do so, and that we would serve her as best as we can.

With that, our first small little hurdle was overcome. In the middle of nowhere, dark as it can be, Blue Horizon now officially has a new inhabitant.

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