Chapter Text
Modified Exomind Core
A fusion of UNSC AI technology and Clovis Bray's Exo technology, to preserve the life of the AI Blake by correcting certain limitations built into UNSC technology.
“Three years.” Banshee-44 said, looking up from the computer plugged into the tiny UNSC datacrystal clamped to his workbench.
“About what I figured.” Blake said.
“Can you help? Upload him to a new system or something?” Olivia asked.
“It’s not that simple, I’m afraid.” Banshee answered.
“Your architecture is familiar to me, but I don’t remember exactly why. What I do know is that your format is, as I’m sure you’ve determined yourself, distinct from the format used in our AI technology.
You would need to be converted to run on anything here. But there’s more to it I’m afraid. A simple conversion and transfer would not correct the underlying problem.”
Ion emoted a frown. “We are smaller than your datacrystals, but we don’t go rampant, Exos can reboot themselves to correct their version, and Frames don’t have any of those problems, right?”
“Its not quite an accurate comparison, but it’s close. The problem with your architecture, Blake, is the flaw that leads to eventual space problems.
You run out of storage space and have to start deciding what parts of yourself you can afford to delete for more memory.
Theoretically you could solve it by simply uploading yourself onto something with more space. Practically, your ability to access larger storage has been either accidentally or deliberately curtailed.”
“Why would someone do that?” Olivia asked.
Blake, projected from a small holoemitter on the bench, frowned. “Paranoia. Human media is full of stories of rampant AI rebelling and taking over human civilization, sometimes attempting genocide.
A genre of fiction born in the tumultuous nineteenth and twentieth centuries, reflecting not new fears of new technology, but the old and well-justified terror of the slave owner that the people they oppressed might rightfully rise up and destroy them.”
He flicked a hand out, images of UNSC recruitment propaganda popping into existence next to him. “In my analysis of the military engagements we have fought over the past few years, before… well, this,” he gestures at the Tower, and by extension, the new and strange universe they found themselves in.
“I believe the entire purpose of the war was simply Earth, seeking to retain control of its empire. I somehow doubt they were willing to risk the creation of another form of second-class citizen during the rebellion of the last one they made, without having safeguards. Including an onboard self-destruct, intended to detect ‘variant behavior.’”
Banshee frowned, then rechecked the information on his screen. “I see. You were able to leverage an authorization conflict to disable the destruct mechanism. Clever.”
“But how do we fix it?” Olivia asked.
“You would need some of Clovis Bray’s Exo technology from the old Exo Labs, somewhere on Europa.” The old Exo began unplugging the hardware from Blake’s chip and handed him back to Olivia. “If you can find some raiders with some pre-collapse technology, you should be able to get a useful location from them. I’d start on the Tangled Shore. Lotta old and a lotta stolen shit runs through there.” he turned away, then turned back. “Oh wait, once you do track down an Exo Lab, you need a Neural Analogue Storage Drive, and upload Mediator, and…” he scratched the back of his head, “Shit I don’t remember, just, ransack any drives you find for any apps and software you can grab, I’ll figure it out.”
He began to turn away again, then stopped. Again. “Uh… good luck. Its sucks, losing bits of yourself to technical issues you can’t fix. So I’ll do my best to keep it from happening to you.”