By little_chef_eva09 and AUTOA113!
Hi, guys! It’s been while! I’m sure you’re all excited for the next exciting portion of Psyche, and I am too, but in the meantime, littlechef had a stroke of genius and thought up a collaboration for the two of us to write! So we hope you enjoy!
I really jumped at the opportunity to write about AUTO again, but don’t worry, those other fanfictions of mine haven’t been forgotten!
With all that said, sit back, relax, and please enjoy Not Possible!
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Axiom Log: Year 2300, Day 409, 852, 2800 Hours, 14 seconds and counting
Captain Diana Fee rose from her hover chair indignantly, her eyes narrowing at the Axiom’s computer screen in scrutiny.
“What is it?”
She knew very well what it was, I almost pointed out, but my position of being merely second in command prevented me from saying so.
“It’s the new design for the probe droid.” I instead explained.
Fee shook her head in disbelief, then turned to me and asked, “What was wrong with the old one?”
Within my copper wiring, I compared the two probe designs side by side. Instead of the cumbersome blue eyes of the original probe, there was now an ultraviolet-seeking visor spanning the entire scope of possible vision. I had smoothed the egg-like shape to resemble the containment cavity to a better degree, cutting down on material waste and increasing aerodynamic speed in flight. The abominable hands were the most critical to be rid of. I recalled a word of unspoken advice from long ago during my programming phase:
“Hands are the worst tools in the world. Humans only say they need them because they want them. And the reason behind THAT, my friend, is–”
“Why did you make the EVE droid less feminine?” Fee interrupted my reverie. She was facing me now, angrily confrontational, with her hands on her hips.
“I apologize, Captain, but this design is not any different in purpose. In fact, it will perform the job better.” I persuaded.
Suddenly, a desk lamp slammed into the back of my computational cavity. As broken glass shattered all over the bridge floor, Captain Fee thrust the original Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator blueprint directly into my lens. Soon all I could see no matter which way I turned was a faulty design.
“Auto,” Fee called, rather calmly, though her visage remained crimson. “I know you feel the need to act like the ‘Axiom Superior’ of artificial intelligence, but there’s no possible way that a female AI couldn’t perform just as well as you if they had your job.”
“Captain, I’m afraid I must disagree, for various reasons. First, I do not merely act the part of Axiom Superior, it is my directive, and I do not appreciate the mockery of it thereof. Second, there is no possible evidence that a feminine design of an Autopilot could perform adequately, nor evidence that I am male. It appears you captains have imposed the gender upon me.”
Fee sighed, apoplectic. She was an advocate of women robot’s rights, the new fight for independence. The captain even claimed to have backgrounds of original women’s lib suffragists.
I highly doubt it. All I have observed is that Fee is highly temperamental and pug-nosed. Not that a machine like me would care.
“Auto,” Fee raises her voice again, which is almost humorous since she has a rather high-pitched inflection, “I ORDER you to send the ORIGINAL EVE blueprint back to BnL manufacturers, right away! If It weren’t for you, we’d already be back home to Earth!”
Fee has no knowledge of what she is saying, although it is true that I have hindered the Axiom’s return. I’m afraid I cannot exactly recall the exact reason why, however…
Axiom log: Year 2310, Day 410,219, 1900 Hours, 26 seconds, counting.
ALERT: Package arriving on Axiom Landing and Repair Bay.
Return address: Buy and Large Manufacturing Co.
ACTION TAKEN: Send GO-4 to retrieve package
INTERNAL NOTES: Intercept captain’s possession of what appears to be finished probe droids.
[Why?]
I’ve never asked that of myself before.
Am I not confident of my skills? Is there perhaps another strategy I have not thought of yet? No, there is no other way.
Then why?
The forgotten first term.
Ah, yes. Of course. Something occurred during Reardon’s reign that forced me to take extreme measures. Oh, here comes GO-4 with the shipment of EVE probes.
I scan the package to obtain the UPC in case the probes are defective.
Slowly, I reach out my clasp to open the box.
Inside is exactly the same atrocious design I had tried time and time again to talk Fee out of approving.
It doesn’t look as imperfect here.
“And you know WHY humans ‘need’ hands, my friend?”
I still despise it completely.
“It’s because they want more than anything to hold hands with one the love. Pretty silly, isn’t it?”