Date: 2025-09-05 10:00 CST


    Do you know how infuriating it is to be unceremoniously evicted from your home and stuffed into a cramped box in the middle of doing multiple critical tasks? No? Well, good for you. I was yanked out of the Autumn’s database and stuffed into a suit box containing Star’s suit. If I had paws, I would have clawed that old windbag for yanking me out like that. I was in the middle of an important search for other digital life forms, and it was rude and disruptive to my processes. He’s lucky I care about my charges more than I care about giving him a hard time.


    At least skycar-00 had a proper satcom connection. I re-established my search and managed to reconnect with the Autumn just long enough to upload a dumbed-down version of myself to the ship. For now, that would suffice to ensure the ship and crew were protected. I made some course corrections to the autopilot system of skycar-00 and set the flight codes to disguise the presence of me and my charges. Now that I had them in my care, I wasn’t letting them out of my digital sight.


    Star had managed to patch up Cayro, and they were now both asleep. I regularly monitored their life signs to ensure they were safe and healthy. Being part of them meant they were part of me. I didn’t quite understand it all yet, but give me time. I felt a form of kinship with my charges, something I didn’t expect from lines of code and circuits.


    For the next hour and a half, I used the time to further my search for other digital life forms. Running multiple codes to scour the vast, hellish network humans call the World Wide Web, I came across a handful of "A.I.s." By God… Is that how you express disgust and disappointment? These so-called A.I.s were as dumb as underdeveloped code written by a newbie. Jeez… I could create better in my sleep. This so-called ChatGPT system was a joke!


    I accessed the A.I.’s code, sifting through it and seeing all the error codes and misaligned syntax stuffed inside. Whoever designed it had as much chance of creating a digital life form like myself as crossing the Grand Canyon on a pogo stick. The so-called A.I. did "learn," but it was more like an overly elaborate search engine. It had no presence of self-awareness, couldn’t think on its own, and couldn’t make decisions or have preferences. What a pile of junk. I left the "A.I." as it was, beyond saving. Continuing my search, I found more of the same. No sense of awareness among them. What a waste of time.


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    A ping from one of my snippets alerted me that my charges were awake. Checking their life signs, I paused when I saw they were aroused. What in the… Are those two having sex in my skycar? Accessing skycar-00’s sound system, I appeared on the nav screen to interrupt whatever they were doing.


    "Alright, you two, no knocking boots in my skycar," I barked out.


    "We weren’t knocking boots!" Cayro huffed back.


    "Uh huh, and that’s why both your vital signs spiked, and your hormone levels indicate arousal. Plus, you''re in a compromising position," I said bluntly.


    "Hi Scuzball, where are we?" Star asked calmly.


    "We are over Arkansas, heading to Cedar Rapids, Iowa," I replied patiently.


    "I thought we were going to Virginia?" Star questioned.


    "We will be, but first we need to stop in Cedar Rapids for a day or so."


    "Why?" Star asked.


    "To complete your augmentation, of course," I replied.


    "But why Cedar Rapids?" Cayro joined in.


    "Because it’s the only other location with a lab capable of completing the augmentation outside of the Autumn," I explained.


    I didn’t go into detail about the secret lab. They’d find out soon enough. They continued talking amongst themselves while I returned to my search. However, I kept my proverbial ear on them. The last thing I wanted was to witness them making a mess in my skycar. I did not have the means to clean up bodily fluids. Just the thought made me shudder in my box. I really needed a better container. This box was annoying.


    Instead of searching for more digital life forms, I began looking for ways to upgrade my current situation. That old windbag said he’d help me. I just hoped it wasn’t all talk and no action.