Jeb woke with a mild headache, which was normal after hibernation, at least per Jeebz. Rubbing his eyes, the glass chamber rose away from the bed and melted into the ceiling above him. He rolled out of bed and looked around. “Jeebz, status.”
We are one day away.
Nodding, he returned to the privy and relieved himself, the responsibilities of having a biologic for a body. Afterward, he ate, starting with a small meal and sipping water. Too much could overload his system after hibernation, and he could be bedridden for the rest of the trip.
“Status of the prisoner?” he asked.
The prisoner is sleeping. Jeb headed to check on him.
Again, in his cross-legged position. It looked as though he hadn’t moved. Though it was obvious he had been eating, there were some crumbs on the ground next to an empty plate.
“How are you holding up?” Jeb asked through the intercom.
The criminal opened his eyes, looking at Jeb. “Besides being a prisoner? I’m alive, I guess.” Sarcasm.
No one but slaves typically had Sacs. They were the manual labor where machinery couldn’t work. Or for the people who just seemed unable to run a Doll, who then turned into slaves, just by being in a Sac. All prisoners were in Sacs.
“We're about a day away from the PP.” Jeb stopped and thought for a moment. “I'm gonna get you one last meal. I’ve always thought that one last meal was the least the Core could do.”
The man nodded his head and thanked him for it.
About thirty minutes later, Jeb had a plate full of food in one hand and a blaster in the other. “Go ahead and go to the back wall while I open this door.” The criminal complied, and Jeb gave the order to Jeebz to open the door, against the suggestion that he was breaking protocol. What are you going to do? Report me? An electronic Tssk came through in his ear. But it still made his heart rate go up.
Jeb placed the plate on the bed, keeping an eye on the prisoner, who then said something stunning.
“And that’s freedom.” The criminal was smiling slightly. Jeb didn't know what the guy was talking about. After a few seconds, the criminal decided to elaborate. “You coming in, against standing orders. You did something because you, for some reason, felt it right, even though it was against the rules.” Stopping and thinking for a second, he went on. “You have an altered AI, don't you?”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Jeb stepped back to the door, closed it, and went to the cockpit. It's one thing to have a thought that meant something. Quite another to have the meaning have a sensation in a body you were inhabiting.
Jeebz, what part of the nervous system is that sensation?
That is the Vagus Nerve, if you are referring to the nervous stomach sensation. I see cortisol increase in your system. A light pause from Jeebz and then a mischievous tone came through in his ear, "feeling guilty?
"No." Jeb announced loudly to the air. "My body must be malfunctioning." It was true, he hadn't felt anxious in, quite literally several millenia. That's interesting.
What is interesting? Jeebz queried.
I haven't had any chemical emotions in a Sac since... He was trying to focus, to find when he'd last had a Sac and this type of sensation. His head was still hurting.
Since when? Prodded Jeebz. But Jeb couldn't answer it. Well, when you get an answer, I'll record it. Until then, you better scrub the recorders.
"Shit." He hadn’t considered all the implications of what he had done. He just did it. But more so, the man knew about Jeebz. His head was still hurting, so he laid back down on the bed. Headache, he thought to Jeebz. A few seconds later, an injection came from the bed into his arm, a saline and potassium shot with extra salt.
Remember, salt helps your body absorb water. Headaches can come from dehydration and swelling. Jeebz was lecturing again.
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Within twenty minutes, the headache was gone, which pissed him off even more.
Jeb took a sonic shower in the privy, a shower that used sound waves and pulsing EM fields to rid the body of foreign entities, including germs that were not indigenous to his DNA makeup.
Putting back on his clothes, which also went through the sonic shower, he couldn't help but think about what the man said. It kept going through his head. How did he know about Jeebz? Did he know he was breaking the law letting him have some decent food? Of course not, no one knew. Jeebz would have told him if there were recorders on the ship that were out of his control, right?
He found himself back at the door to the prisoner’s cell, staring at the man, who again was back in his folded position. He pushed the stomach sensations to the back of his mind.
“Are you some kind of alien hacker?” referring to a person who has the ability to control others’ AIs.
“No.” He was calmly looking at Jeb.
“Then how did you know?”
He once again got up and stretched, and that’s when it hit Jeb. This man wasn’t afraid of anything. Not even a PP. Not even the memory loss that was to come. This man owned the room and the ship for that matter, even though he was a prisoner.
The criminal went over and sat down on the bed, picking up his lunch and finished eating it. “Well, when you are free, you tend to think outside the box.” Finishing his hot food, he set the plate down on the floor and continued. “Do you know that maybe one percent of the population even knows that the AI can be altered to not report them? That maybe only fifty percent of that one percent even have an inkling that they might want that?”
The criminal casually walked about the room. No, he's strolling around his apartment. He glanced at Jeb a few times.
Jeb was clearly confused. What was he trying to say? That Jeb, too, was a criminal? Sure, he edited his A.I. But that was so he could specialize training, so he didn't have to learn knitting or some other lame skill. He wasn’t trying to be malicious. He just wanted to not be bored.
And that’s when two things struck him. The second being an explosion on the left side of the ship, knocking the first one out of his mind.
