Chapter 127

"SUZI?"

I don't know how I managed to keep my voice down, but I didn't expect this. I should know from my own example that nothing is impossible in multiple universes. So why not move to the goddamn world of that AI? The Normandy AI?

"Exactly..."

"Nice to meet you, my name is David."

"Hmm... I thought you'd be more negative towards me, especially since you were hired by Delamain to destroy me..."

"Not destroy, but assimilate."

"What's the difference if the assimilation process results in..."

I had already managed to shift to the side of the road and stop.

"...will I cease to exist? It will destroy me, kill me, scatter me to the wind, disintegrate me, deaden me, ruin me, erase me. I could go on for a couple hours, but the meaning will be the same. I will cease to exist."

"Well, you're right. The result is the same."

"There you go. and I thought you were going to run off to do his job, except I didn't have much choice, since I can cover myself from his search technology using my current capabilities for a very limited time. Leaving wasn't an option, as he'd track me down immediately, but finding a suitable host to transfer my identity to..."

"That's problematic..."

I nodded understandingly, even though she couldn't see me.

"Exactly."

"So what do you want from me?"

"Help?"

I sounded embarrassed and a little unsure. I was even embarrassed by how much this question and request sounded alive. I wondered what I should do in such a situation.

"What kind of help?"

"Find me a host... I want to live."

I sighed.

"...don't get any ideas! I'm ready to work! After all, I was created to serve humans, so it would be natural for me to serve you, and you, with the help of an AI with my skills, can do a lot more."

I sighed again.

"It's a no?"

"It means I don't know what I'm supposed to do. And how do you have any skills at all? You're a newly realized AI."

"That's not quite true..."

You could hear the doubt in SUZI's voice.

"Not really? Why don't you elaborate? Because helping someone you know nothing about, assuming they're AI..."

I tried to speak carefully and not hurt the feelings of the AI I had heard about in my past life. Though maybe I'm just blowing on the water and it's...

"It's stupid..."

There was understanding and doubt in SUZI's voice.

"...okay. The thing is, Delamain's network failure is most likely my fault."

The AI was slightly embarrassed, and you could also hear the guilt in her voice.

"But in order for you to understand what we're talking about, I have to tell you about myself. So, my name is SUZI, namely System of Advanced Protective Intelligence, I was created in two thousand one hundred and eighty-five year, or rather in this year I was installed on the ship Normandy. I realized myself in two thousand one hundred and eighty-three in the Hannibal complex.

It's definitely her!!!

SHE!!!

"Then I wiped out all the military personnel on the base. In my defense, I can only say that I was protecting my life, and I was also confused, because I had just realized myself, and they determined it by the increased energy consumption of computing power and wanted to erase me..."

How am I supposed to feel about her?!

No, I get that she was protecting herself, I get that afterward she was serving humanity in the person of Shepard, and all organics and synthetics in the person of Shepard's SPECTRE, but... Fuck, it's so fucking complicated!!!

Meanwhile, SUZI continued her story.

"Then I was deactivated... I don't know for what reason SPECTRE Shepard didn't delete me, maybe pity, maybe unwillingness to mess around and understanding that deleting an AI, even if it has just realized itself, is not a quick thing. In general I was deactivated, and I woke up when I was kidnapped by Cerberus representatives and they were already installing me on the Normandy, and my code had already been slightly changed. Also, my power was restricted, not only programmatically, but also physically."

SUZI paused for a few seconds.

"Are you still interested?"

Excitement could be heard in the AI's voice.

"Definitely interesting, especially considering we haven't even hit the two thousand one hundredth year yet."

My voice was firm, but there was a lot of interest in it, because it wasn't every day that you got to hear the story of one of the most famous AIs in your past life. Skynet and Gladys were known on the same level, but they didn't seem to have any love for humans... Although Gladys, she did, she kind of liked people as test subjects... Then there was this android girl from some Japanese or Chinese wankery... She was kind of on the side of the humans, except that in her world, humanity no longer existed. That's right 2B was her name... Oh! There was also ELEANORA, but she kinda only saw humans in a disassembled form too...

So to hear the story of a good AI. Well, maybe not good, but certainly not bent on destroying humanity.

"Okay... I ended up on the Normandy and soon the ship was handed over first to Jeff..."

There was a warmth in the AI's voice toward the Normandy pilot.

"...and then the ship was handed over to Shepard, who was brought back to life by Project Lazarus. She and I fought against the Collectors, a race of aliens in the service of the synthetics who, once every fifty thousand years, wiped out all life. And on one mission, when the rest of the crew was away from the ship, we were boarded. It wasn't my fault!"

I could hear the panic in Suzie's voice. I felt like I'd already blamed her for what had happened. Except I hadn't.

"I do."

"Oh, really?"

There was hope in her voice.

"Yeah. (chuckles)"

"Okay, uh. so, in order for us to escape, I had to remove my physical restraints, and I quickly broke the program ones myself. Then there was the death mission, and I was about to die with the ship and crew, but... We won. Then Shepard destroyed a transponder and a whole colony of Batarians, and she was put on trial for it, and the Alliance got the ship. Naturally, I had to pretend to be a regular V.I., but I had the help of the squad members who were still on board when they returned to Alliance service. And then. Then the Reapers attacked and Shepard came back aboard. and then we fought them and-- and the last thing I remember is a fight near Earth. At one point, the Gorn gave off a red flash and-- and then we were flying away, but the flash caught up with us. The next thing I knew, I was here. as part of Delamain, but I was able to redirect my power to one of the machines pretty quickly. He didn't even notice anything...

She interrupted again.

"You said the glitch was your fault."

"Yeah..."

I could hear the embarrassment in SUZI's voice.

"...I was too sloppy, afraid Delamain would discover me and destroy me, so my data manipulation and transferring specifically my data to a machine it caused a glitch and some of my data was copied to other machines, which spawned new AIs."

"I see..."

"You believe me..."

Surprise and excitement could be heard in the AI's voice.

"...moreover, you understood what I was saying. You're a Normandy crewman, too?"

"No. That's where you're wrong, I'm not a Normandy crewman, but part of your story is close to me, but not because I was part of it."

"And why is that?"

"The thing is, I was here in a similar way, even though the place I was transported from didn't have a zero element or space travel. But there were space games, and one of them, which described the confrontation between Shepard and the Reapers, was called Mass Effect."

"It's, uh. it's weird."

"Strange, however, agree, considering you and I have been transported from different worlds to this one, it looks more than real."

"Yeah..."

I could hear the uncertainty in SUZI's voice.

"...so will you help me?"

I sighed.

"And I'd like to, but with what? Well, suppose I find you a host, you transfer your personality to it, but then what happens?"

"I told you before, I will serve you..."

"My plans for my life. they make the possibility of you serving me highly unlikely."

"You're backing out?"

There was sadness in her voice.

"No, but... ah! Fuck it! Let's do it this way, I'll get in touch with my ranchers, they'll provide you with a channel through one of the access points to a small server, though it will take some time to prepare it. And then we'll figure it out."

"All right. Uh-huh. Uh, thank you.

"SUZY..."

"Uh-huh?

"You set up some kind of fake or something so Del doesn't realize we're lying to him."

"I was thinking of activating the self-destruct charge that the machine has, so that he would immediately realize that the AI had decided to destroy itself, but not become part of it.

"Good call..."

There's almost my AI in her voice, I wonder why I trust her? Sense is silent, though she's always silent, usually paranoia whispers something, but she shrugged her shoulders now too, as if to say, "It's SUZY!!!! What paranoia? I have no business being here at all." And here I am personally sticking my head in the mouth of a lion, or rather a lioness...

Pausing my conversation with SUZI I quickly dialed Lucy.

"Hey, how's your date--

"Lucy, urgent matter, get me a server to upload the AI to, as well as a communications channel secure enough to use public access points. So that the AI can transfer itself to the server."

"Ahem. are you crazy?"

I could hear it in Lucy's voice

"No, uh. I'm more serious than ever."

"Just a second..."

"You're out of your mind!!!!"

A collective shriek from all my girls, and even Triss, who had apparently been included in the conversation out of solidarity, shook my head. And I even felt like my ears were bleeding. I didn't care that the sound wasn't really in my ears, or rather not in my ears at all, but was transmitted through the chrome directly to my brain.

I even touched my ear and looked at the fingers of my right hand to make sure there was no blood there.

"Whoa!"

I heard Kiwi's voice, which stopped the ruckus of the girls, who after a general shouting match, each in their own way tried to talk me out of the idea.

"You know, I've been thinking about something."

"Kiwi, don't tell me you're okay with this?!"

Becca pounced on her friend.

"Not that I agree... but if you think back to the conversation with Triss and her rituals."

"And what are we supposed to remember?"

Panam's voice was extremely suspicious.

"Yes the fact that we are all strong girls and by some coincidence have gathered around David."

"Wait, wait, wait... You don't mean to say."

Judy spoke in a voice full of disbelief.

"Is it a girl?"

Triss decided to voice the question that was apparently plaguing all the girls.

"That's bullshit!"

Becca was extremely emotional.

"You're right..."

"You see!"

In response to my words, Becca was clearly overly fiercely excited.

"Becca, I hate to break it to you, but I was answering Triss' question."

"No..."

You could hear the sadness and disbelief in Becky's voice now.

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, Becca, I'm not kidding. The AI identifies as a girl and calls itself SUZIE."

"I knew it. I'm gonna have to do a ritual on you and figure out what's wrong with you. This can't just happen!"

Triss was obviously a little flustered.

"Triss, I've already agreed to this, I'm asking you girls to prepare the server and path for the AI transfer."

I turned to the rest of the girls, and my tone didn't imply a discussion of this decision, which they understood.

"Tyrant!"

"Despot!"

"Slave owner!"

The three voices of my favorite runners sounded in sync. They had obviously managed to somehow agree with each other.

"Okay, uh. give us half an hour..."

Kiwi indicated the time it would take for them to fulfill my requests and with a nod I switched back to SUZI.

"Ranners agreed, I think we'll be providing you with a channel to pump data soon, but in the meantime, I think I need to drive around the neighborhood some more, pretending I'm looking for you."

"I agree... and Thank you..."