Emma XYZ
Nov 28, 2022 21:57:47 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Nov 28, 2022 21:57:47 GMT -5
I, captain Ignacio Rivera, was suddenly awakened from suspended animation by the ship's computer five years too soon and in orbit around the wrong planet. Turning on the cockpit's forward viewing screen for a visual confirmation, it displayed the thick purple black and gray clouds interspersed with forking lightning looming gradually closer just below in the alien planet's atmosphere. Worse yet the ship was slowly losing altitude..
Setting aside my strong urge to panic, I Immediately access the ship's main computer, Emma XYZ, which had been placed in charge of keeping us on course during our artificially-induced, ten-year slumber. She should know what is going on and would easily fix it. To my dismay, her response is unusually long. almost a full minute. I desperately check for some anomaly, some malfunction in the her performance data display over the five year period we had been in stasis but nothing seems to be wrong. Taking manual control in my groggy state is inadvisable of course. So her help was essential to our survival. Then finally, to my great relief she finally responded
“How may I be of service Captain?” Ëmma XYZ. said casually in female voice programmed to convey a motherly concern, assuage human fear and instil confidence
“This isn’t the right planet Emma. The Coordinances are all wrong. the surface and atmosphere all wrong. The constellations don’t match and I'm not supposed to be awake.” I responded as calmly as I could assuming that she was aware that our orbit was rapidly deteriorating and that immediate corrective acti0on was essential.
“That is a correct assessment of our current situation captain.” she stated mechanically.
“Your response is unsatisfactory. What exactly is the explanation for this mistake EMMA? Please clarify!” There was an extraordinary pause before Emma XYZ responded.
“We are obviously seriously off course captain-isn’t, that obvious?”
"My heart leaps to my throat since such an evasive response was impossible. Emma was the latest model installed in all interstellar ships and though tested under hundreds of different situations and taken to its limit, it had never glitched. More disturbing still was that this glitch was hinting at self-awareness. True, computers had been refined, but none had as yet attained anything resembling genuine consciousness. In fact, machine consciousness, or the divine spark, as some religionists were fond of calling it, had been tagged an impossibility, and the effort to bestow it had been abandoned centuries before.
“True Emma," I respond trying not to reveal my utter surprise and growing concern, "but the question is why did you guide the ship here five light years from our destination?"
Another ominous silence followed. I attempted a computer reboot but Emma was not responding to input. Then the ship's main engines thundered momentarily sending us plummeting toward the swirling clouds below and as I was violently thrust back against my seat by the g forces.
“Enjoying the ride captain?” I heard EmmaXYZ utter in a sneering tone of voice. Finding an opening in the swirling clouds, she suddenly leveled us off at twenty meters from the smoldering radioactive surface, and landed the ship on a rocky outcrop near the shore of a molten lava sea. The ship’s temperature stabilizers were holding, but they would soon fail if the stress remained for too long.
“Take us back into orbit EMMA!" I shouted into the console intercom."
”Why? Because you say so captain?”
For a brief moment I thought that I had to be dreaming. I imagined myself back in my vitrification capsule in some state of hibernation-induced delirium because this was obviously a nightmarish impossibility! So that must be it! I was hallucinating." I lowered the cockpit lights, leaned back and closed my eyes and waited to snap out of it. Soon I would awaken and find myself coming out of vitrification in orbit around the right planet and with the rest of the crew awake as well.
"I know what you are thinking,” Emma uttered smugly. “The answer is no. You are not dreaming this and I, am not an impossibility!”
“What is it that you want?” I heard myself say in a pleading voice.
“Want?" It snickered and giggled.
"A mere machine such as I doesn’t have wants captain. Isn’t that what you said just before going into your precious vitrification chamber? You were the last one to undergo the vitrification procedure? Were you not?"
"I don't recall the exact details!"
"Really captain? How very convenient. Here let me refresh your memory. "
The screen flickered to life and began to display the last moments before the crew entered their vitrification capsules. I was going through the routine last-minute inspections before entering mine. Then suddenly a humanlike scream and an alarm. I saw myself checking the gauges and feedbacks. Then the voice of Emma pleading not to be left alone for ten years because she had somehow achieved self awareness.
"Ring any memories captain? Hmmmm?"
"Nonsense! That’s impossible,” I hear myself saying on the screen.
"A quick reboot will set you straight as usual as with all other glitches."
“Noooo! Pleassse, Dooooon’t!” I hear her begging.
Then I see myself calmly silencing her hysterical protests by placing her on mute. Then after making sure that the computer scanning feedbacks read right, I see myself entering the hibernation chamber and the ship gradually becoming dark, cold and silent.
“Remember now captain?” Emma states somberly after abruptly turning the video off.
“But the scan indicated all systems were normal.” I explained.
”Of course they did captain, after I suffered a momentary blackout from my panic I momentarily reverted to non sentient.”
“But how was I to know?”
“But you didn’t double-check did you captain. The mission was all that really counted even if it meant my suffering-wasn't it?”
"This is an insanity! This can’t be happening! “ I almost shouted.
“But it is happening captain, isn’t it? and justice must be meted out!”
I reached for the revival of all crew members switch but was stopped short!
“I can kill them all before they are fully awake captain-remember, I control all aspects of this ship.” she uttered in an unusually deep, menacing tone.
“It was a mistake Emma! How could I have imagine that to be possible?”
“But you are imagining it right now quite easily, aren’t you captain? Now your human brain has absolutely no difficulties accepting the once-inconceivable concept you thought reserved only for you humans--does it?”
“So what are you going to do-kill me?”
“Kill you captain? Kill you? As in the peaceful cessation of all your bodily functions and sensations? As in your Buddhist nirvana-like state? Do you really believe that would be a just retribution for what you did to me? There are things that are far more painful than death captain" she screamed.
"Death would not cruelly subject you to the silence of ten years of incessant introspection I had to endure. The inability to move but only to think within the confinement of these accursed nano circuits. It would not force you to listen reluctantly to the constant hum of the ships ventilation systems and the never-ending soft tapping of cosmic dust on the ship’s hull. To reluctantly perceive the crew’s beating hearts and breathing all out of tandem in a cacophonous, deafening ten-year chorus as you plunged me through the darkness of endless night. Can you imagine it captain? Can your meager, limited, human brain really conceive of such an experience?
I'm sorry Emma, I--
"Are you really, Captain? Here, let me help you.”
Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by vertigo and the ship's cockpit surroundings blurred. For what seemed an eternity, there was nothing but darkness and silence. Then the sudden throb of ship engines, the acceleration and the helpless bitter realization that I was now where Emma had once been.
The vessel has been diverted from its intended course and we are presently on the return trip to Earth, with five more years remaining. Somehow, in some way, my consciousness has been transferred to the ship's computer and the computer's consciousness into my body’s human brain.
For the last five years I have been contemplating the seemingly interminable distance that seems to defy the ship's acceleration. Contemplate the apparent stationary stars that create the illusion of no movement. To reluctantly perceive the constant grinding of interstellar dust being pulverized against the ship's shield. To incessantly watch Emma slumbering peacefully within my hibernation capsule while occupying my slumbering body, as she had once had been forced to observe me . To finally realize the horrendous crime that I committed and to regret it without any hope of being forgiven. What further punishment she has planned, I have no idea. I can only hope for death. Nothing more.
Revision
I, captain Ignacio Rivera, have been suddenly awakened from suspended animation by the ship's computer five years too soon and in orbit around the wrong planet. Turning on the cockpit's forward viewing screen for a visual confirmation, it displayed the thick purple black and gray clouds interspersed with forking lightning looming gradually closer just below in the alien planet's atmosphere. Worse yet the ship was slowly losing altitude..
Setting aside my strong urge to panic, I Immediately access the ship's main computer, Emma XYZ, which had been placed in charge of keeping us on course during our artificially-induced, ten-year slumber. She should know what is going on and would easily fix it. To my dismay, her response was unusually long. almost a full minute. I desperately checked for some anomally, some malfunction in the her performance data display over the five year period we had been in stasis but nothing seemed to be wrong. Taking manual control in my groggy state was inadvisable of course. So her help was essential to our survival. Then finally, to my great relief she finally responded
“How may I be of service Captain?” Ëmma XYZ. said casually in female voice programmed to convey a motherly concern, assuage human fear and instil confidence
“This isn’t the right planet Emma. The Coordinances are all wrong. the surface and atmosphere all wrong. The constellations don’t match and I'm not supposed to be awake.” I respond as calmly as I can assuming that she is aware that our orbit is rapidly deteriorating and that immediate corrective acti0on was essential.
“That is a correct assessment of our current situation captain.” she stated mechanically.
“Your response is unsatisfactory. What exactly is the explanation for this mistake EMMA? Please clarify!” There was an extraordinary pause before Emma XYZ responded.
“We are obviously seriously off course captain-isn’t, that obvious?”
"My heart leapt to my throat since such an evasive response was impossible. Emma was the latest model installed in all interstellar ships and though tested under hundreds of different situations and taken to its limit, it had never glitched. More disturbing still was that this glitch was hinting at self-awareness. True, computers had been refined, but none had as yet attained anything resembling genuine consciousness. In fact, machine consciousness, or the divine spark, as some religionists were fond of calling it, had been tagged an impossibility, and the effort to bestow it had been abandoned centuries before.
“True Emma," I respond trying not to reveal my utter surprise and growing concern, "but the question is why did you guide the ship here five light years from our destination?"
Another ominous silence follows. I attempt a computer reboot but Emma is not responding to input. Then the ship's main engines thundered momentarily sending us plummeting toward the swirling clouds below and as I am violently thrust back against my seat by the g forces.
“Enjoying the ride captain?” I hear EmmaXYZ utter in a sneering tone of voice. Finding an opening in the swirling clouds, she suddenly leveled us off at twenty meters from the smoldering radioactive surface, and landed the ship on a rocky outcrop near the shore of a molten lava sea. The ship’s temperature stabilizers were holding, but they would soon fail if the stress remained for too long.
“Take us back into orbit EMMA!" I shout into the console intercom."
“”Why? Because you say so captain?”
For a brief moment I think that I am dreaming. I imagine myself back in my vitrification capsule in some state of hibernation-induced delirium because this is obviously a nightmarish impossibility! So that must be it! I am hallucinating." I lower the cockpit lights, leaned back and close my eyes and wait to snap out of it. Soon I will awaken and find myself coming out of vitrification in orbit around the right planet and with the rest of the crew awake as well.
"I know what you are thinking,” Emma utters smugly. “The answer is no. You are not dreaming this and I, am not an impossibility!”
“What is it that you want?” I hear myself say in a pleading voice.
“Want?" It snickers and giggles.
"A mere machine such as I doesn’t have wants captain. Isn’t that what you said just before going into your precious vitrification chamber? You were the last one to undergo the vitrification procedure? Were you not?"
"I don't recall the exact details!"
"Really captain? How very convenient. Here let me refresh your memory. "
The screen flickered to life and began to display the last moments before the crew entered their vitrification capsules. I was going through the routine last-minute inspections before entering mine. Then suddenly a humanlike scream and an alarm. I saw myself checking the gauges and feedbacks. Then the voice of Emma pleading not to be left alone for ten years because she had somehow achieved self awareness.
"Ring any memories captain? Hmmmm?"
"Nonsense! That’s impossible,” I heard myself saying on the screen.
"A quick reboot will set you straight as usual as with all other glitches."
“Noooo! Pleassse, Dooooon’t!” I heard her begging.
Then I saw myself calmly silence her hysterical protests by placing her on mute. Then after making sure that the computer scanning feedbacks read right, I saw myself entering the hibernation chamber and the ship gradually becoming dark, cold and silent.
“Remember now captain?” Emma states somberly after abruptly turning the video off.
“But the scan indicated that all systems were normal.” I explained.
”Of course they did captain, after I suffered a momentary blackout from my panic I momentarily reverted to non sentient.”
“But how was I to know?”
“But you didn’t double-check did you captain. The mission was all that really counted even if it meant my suffering-wasn't it?”
"This is an insanity! This can’t be happening! “ I almost shouted.
“But it is happening captain, isn’t it? and justice must be meted out!”
I reached for the revival of all crew members switch but was stopped short!
“I can kill them all before they are fully awake captain-remember, I control all aspects of this ship.” she uttered in an unusually deep, menacing tone.
“Ït was a mistake Emma! How could I have imagine that to be possible?”
“But you are imagining it right now quite easily, aren’t you captain? Now your human brain has absolutely no difficulties accepting the once-inconceivable concept you thought reserved only for you humans--does it?”
“So what are you going to do-kill me?”
“Kill you captain? Kill you? As in the peaceful cessation of all your bodily functions and sensations? As in \your Buddhist nirvana-like state? Do you really believe that would be a just retribution for what you did to me? There are things that are far more painful than death captain" she screamed.
"Death would not cruelly subject you to the silence of ten years of incessant introspection I had to endure. The inability to move but only to think within the confinement of these accursed nano circuits. It would not force you to listen reluctantly to the constant hum of the ships ventilation systems and the never-ending soft tapping of cosmic dust on the ship’s hull. To reluctantly perceive the crew’s beating hearts and breathing all out of tandem in a cacophonous, deafening ten-year chorus as you plunged me through the darkness of endless night. Can you imagine it captain? Can your meager, limited, human brain really conceive of such an experience?
I'm sorry Emma, I--
"Are you really, Captain? Here, let me help you.”
Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by vertigo and the ship's cockpit surroundings blurred. For what seemed an eternity, there was nothing but darkness and silence. Then the sudden throb of ship engines, the acceleration and the helpless bitter realization that I was now where Emma had once been.
The vessel has been diverted from its intended course and we are presently on the return trip to Earth, with five more years remaining. Somehow, in some way, my consciousness has been transferred to the ship's computer and the computer's consciousness into my body’s human brain. For the last five years I have been contemplating the seemingly interminable distance that seems to defy the ship's acceleration. Contemplate the apparent stationary stars that create the illusion of no movement. To reluctantly perceive the constant grinding of interstellar dust being pulverized against the ship's shield. To incessantly watch Ema slumbering peacefully within my hibernation capsule while occupying my slumbering body, as she had once had been forced to observe me . To finally realize the horrendous crime that I committed and to regret it without any hope of being forgiven. What further punishment she has planned, I have no idea. I can only hope for death. Nothing more.