I.A.I.S. (Aiko)

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Bobbing her head up and down as she listened to music on her tiny earphones Window Cheyenne Guevara tried her best to keep her mind focused on the large computer panel in front of her. Wires, bolts, chips all showing their true colors as she had stipped a panel naked to play around for her own amusement. She raised an eyebrow as she tilted her head to the right, looking a little more closely at the massive computer she had been working on for over an hour, she knew. She was burning alive and it was getting worse with every passing moment, the floor was radiating heat from several engines below, the only problem with having small ships. She leaned back as she tossed a few tools aside sighing out and wiping the sweat away from her face with the back of her left wrist. She stared at the machine as if it were her worst enemy. Why was the lighting not working? Why was she having to suffer this horrible atmosphere all for a panel light? She shook her head and suddenly a hand touched her shoulder and brought her out of that world of disbelife and discomfort. She jumed and turned to see her friend Orange standing there with her normal outfit on. She grinned up at the short girl and pulled out the ear plug, the noise remonating in the small cockpit.

"Yo." She said with a smile, turning around on her butt to see Orange shaking her head knowing that they had something in common, neither could work without music blaring in their ear drums.

"I need you to do me a favor." Window smiled and stood up quickly, any favors at this moment were much more alluring than this stupid panel lighting, it meant that she'd get out of doing that and Orange would take her place.

"Of course, babe. Anything for you." She leaned back on the open panel and grinned. "Shoot." She said shrugging her shoulder. Orange, knew she'd do it without even telling her what the job was. That was why they loved each other so much. They took care of each other and they were the best of friends.

"Got an old friend with a big problem. His I.A.I.S. is malfunctioning. His ship is called the Rule, large, gold, perfect. Can't miss it. He is out there right now. You do it for me and...I'll do this for you." Window smiled and leaned off.

"Sounds good." She said with relief. She tapped Orange on the shoulder and walked down the hall and out onto the exiting ramp, knowing Orange would have the thing done in five minutes. Window rubbed her greased hands on her cargo pants and felt the ship port's lousy air unit to cool down as she glanced around the busy port. Large, gold, perfect....where was the Rule?

[Aiko]

Aiko was feeling horrible.

He couldn't remember being this sick in his life. He had only been alive ten years, but he had never, ever caught a virus. Not this bad. Sometimes it sucked being a computer.

Haruko was peering at him as he lulled on and off on the computer monitor. Haruko was typing in codes to keep the virus at bay. It wasn't a particularly bad virus--not considering the ones that were out there--but it was bad enough to put Aiko out for the count. He had at first reacted to it by becoming quite agitated, odd, his wires sparking, his internal memory slipping, his ability to access files weak. After that Haruko had known something was wrong. He had been able to cure it long enough to get the Rule and Aiko back to Coruscant where a proper mechanic could work on him.

Unfortunately, Aiko's second love after Haru was not around. Ren Wilcox had been gone for a week and was not due to return for another. Ren was the only one who knew Aiko and the Rule as well as Haruko did, and neither Aiko nor Haruko liked anyone else to put a hand on the ship, or on Aiko. But this time, it was serious.

"How're you doing? Can you scan? Haruko asked anxiously. Aiko blinked at him several times, tried to access his scanning function to see what the problem was. A peice of memory was eaten by the virus and another area of Aiko's system went dead. He shook his head weakly.

"Mn...no..." he muttered, opening one eye to peer out at Haruko. who shook his head. He glanced over his shoulder.

"Don't worry, dude, Orange has someone who can help. You'll be good to go in no time flat, okay?" Haruko said cheerfully. Aiko nodded, but shut down his screen. He didn't have enough memory to be able to keep it going without losing it alltogether. He hoped that damn mechanic would just get here already.

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window saw the ship, Orange had been right! Who the hel could have missed the large orb of Gold reflecting every large industrial light around the port. It made the entire place brighter and it was actually quite a sight to see for it was soothing to ones eyes and it was much better to see that people had class when it came to customizing their ships. She pulled out a red lollipop from her pocket and quickly put it in her mouth as she made her way to the ship to see herself in the hull, touching it feeling the warmth and silkiness of it. By now people's hulls would have been damaged by debris in the lanes in the galaxy, but this was perfect as if it had never been flown.

"Sweet." She said as she pulled the red sucker out of her mouth and entered the ramp and the ship, hearing her boots clunk in the metal halls. She frowned glancing around trying to find out where the cockpit was. Hearing a man talk was her biggest clue and she was quick to step up the pace. "Hello?" She sang as she put the sucker back into her mouth, taking a corner to see a man talking to the AI. She nodded walking over towards it, putting her right hand into her pocket.

"Hey." She said to him getting his attention. "Orange sent me to check something out for you?" She knew it was unprofessional by just calling out like that, then again Orange had never been conventional and she didn't even give the name of her "friend."

[Aiko]

Aiko could still see from the cameras mounted to allow him visual freedom and when the woman came in, he put forth more effort to be seen on screen. He saw Haruko glance at him before standing up to look at her.

"He caught a virus on a long trip I made and I couldn't scan and disinfect him," Haruko explained to her, waving towards Aiko who was on screen, but flickering like a candle about to go out. "I'm afraid to take out his program and motherboard--I'd ruin him. We needed somebody in here who knew exactly what they were doing, so he wouldn't get erased, or lose anything." Haruko finished, crouching back down to type in a few more codes that strengthened Aiko's firewall, and made him a tad more alert. He rubbed one eye, looking up at the woman.

"Just to...let you know ahead of time..." he said slowly, as if he were tired. The virus was having an effect on every faculty. "I'm allergic to the Dynokin programs...and anything made by the...DynoIndustries..."

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Like a doctor flying towards a patient, Window was there, looking around at the panel, seeing it was in a language she could not read. She pulled out her sucker and with her left hand quickly punched a few buttons to see the screen flicker and the panel light disappear for two seconds, then light up in English. She frowned and looked at the screen and saw that some letters were being scrambled, lighting was low, the voice wasn't as powerful, even his own face was seeming to lag. She shook her head suddenly trying to piece it all together and figure out how this happened. She glanced at the owner and frowned.

"My station is right next to the ship. I'll be back in a second, until them, turn him off." With her tongue she licked around on the cherry sucker that always eased her mind and eased her from clenching and grinding her teeth when immersed in the systems and in her work, extending a hand for the man to shake and be introduced.

"Window Guevara."

[Aiko]

Aiko panicked slightly.

"No, no, no, please don't turn me off..." he muttered, his voice not nearly like it normally was. He pulled more power from the ship to make his image a little more strong. He ran his tongue over his lips. "I...identified the virus as a...piggyback program, it..." he paused to gather his thoughts. "It destroys memory, by...riding on its power cells, sapping it..." he looked up at the woman, furrowing his brow. "If you turn me off, it'll destory all my power and my memory. It'll obliterate my...my program...because my firewalls will be...down..." he took a breath even though as a computer, he didn't need one. He shook his head.

"Shutting me down might allow...the...virus into the rest of the ship," he said, waving vaguely. "It'll...get into the other systems, eat away at the security, the maintenance programs...anything I run...and that's...everything..." he said. His screen dimmed, flickered, almost went out from his effort to suck power from anything that could spare it. "D...don't...turn me off..."

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window put a hand on her hip and considered everything for a moment, this man was a computer security and maintenance system, she figured that the only other person on this ship who could know viruses better than she did was the little machine being affected. She nodded, although not liking the fact that it was going to drain the power cells for it to work a lot harder on staying on and alert. It wasn't her money being spent, she'd reboost the cells before all was done.

"All right." She said to the AI and turned to walk down the ramp and back out into the port. Being a computer's expert was something she never thought she'd do for a living, but when she saw things like this it gave her a rush of excitement and made her feel like she were playing God. It was a very righteous feeling, she knew, but who else could keep AI's in working order? Especially when they were equipped on the computer systems. She got to her small station and fooled around for a moment, pulling out a few tools that were just weighing her box down. She grabbed a flashlight, laser light, and pen light and put them into her pockets, followed by a large bag of suckers. She sighed out her mind racing to figure out how to put the man in safemode so it would protect any viruses from moving about and infecting other programs.

She sighed and closed her box and quickly turned and walked back into the ship to find her way back into the cockpit, where the AI was seriously beginning to lag and the lighting began to get poor. She knew that this was not a very good sign, his harddrive must've been screwed over. She figured that the sooner she opened him up, the better.

"All right." She said tossing the box on the groundin a hard clank, tools rustling around inside. "I am here to take care of you, you aren't gonna die on me." She said to him with a smile that was full of confidence. While this might not have been absolutely true, she'd do her best to keep it working. Window sat down on her knees and opened her box, grabbing an electric driver and quickly taking off the paneling underneath the computer keyboard, seeing the wires and the insides that were all coordinated by color, which made her life easier. She grabbed her penlight and flicked it on, the small orb allowing her to find the large chip that held all the memory on it.

"I'm putting you on safemode, babe." She said to it mindlessly, punching a few small buttons on the keyboard, watching the screen turn grey and hearing a few parts shut down. She bent down and grabbed a few small wires from her box and their connectors and put them onto the chip and grabbed the small electronic pad and typed in a few things.

"Okay, I am scanning you now." She said to the AI standing up and sitting the pad on the panel. "We'll get you fixed."

[Aiko]

Aiko felt better once she had put him in safe mode. He no longer had to suck energy from the rest of the ship and the virus was contained only on his porgrams. Granted that was a lot of the ship, but only the things directly connected to him that hadn't been there before he had been installed were being infected.

He listened to her as she talked. He was tracking the virus. He couldn't have ever described what it was like to watch something eat away at you and not know how to fix it. He could only compare it to maybe what a human felt like when a deadly animal was chewing away at thier flesh and the couldn't move to beat it away. But Aiko didn't really know feelings like that. Never had, so he couldn't exactly compare what it was like to anything.

Aiko didn't experience emotions, not exactly. He understood the concept of emotions, could track an emotion in a human that he was scanning. Physical changes, such as anger being the heightened amount of blood flowing through the body, the tendancy to yell. Sadness being a lag in thier movement, a drop in body heat, the tendancy to cry. Aiko understood that there were such things as emotions, and he could simulate them. Feel them in a way a computer might detect a keystroke. He reacted to other people's emotions, simulating the same or opposite, depending on the situation.

Aiko had always wondered what it was like. To feel. He had the ability to think, explore ideas, introduce new concepts, think on a higher level than most computers. He was artificial intelligence, a living being with these characteristics had given him those abilities. He could learn and remember things--Haruko Lawson was Japanese, Window had a strange name for a hispanic girl. He could recall information--on a much broader scale than most living beings, but still, it was something they had in common. But Aiko couldn't ever know what it was like to be angry, or happy, or sad. What it was like to feel embarrassment, to feel love, or to have a crush. They were foreign idea that he could only perceive in words, and pattern changes.

It was pity. One he wished he could remedy.

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window slit her eyes as she glanced at the pad, the cherry sucker filling her mouth with a wonderful taste. How much better it made her feel to have it there, to have her tongue running over, to have her mouth doing something other than feeling fear and panic by having teeth grind and jaws being overworked. She heard it beep loudly and she picked it up, seeing the scan being put on hold. She nodded and grabbed the large metal keyboard that had been attached to her red tool box. She pikced it up and grabbed a pen out of her deep pocket and wrote a few things on it, setting it down on the captains chair, to push 'continue' on the pad.

"Found a sector." She stated out loud. The computer was not all one giant thing, it was an object amongst many other objects. Wires, lights, screws, chips, hard drives, software, things that were vital to keep the man-made device flowing. The sectors, which were important to scan, was where certain parts of the computers systems and softwares were placed. If something were to be wrong in a sector that housed memory, then the memory would slowly be draining away until one had to replaced the memory sector all together, which was why Window wanted to survey the damage. It would be much cheaper to upload programs than to go about replacing and reinstalling and reprogramming. Which was why the faster she worked, the more things got done in quicker time, after all she worked by the hour.

"Well, I see..." She said after a few more beeps rang into the air. The man's memory was being drained away which was apparently why the system was lagging. To get him to feel his old self all she'd do was add some memory and defrag the computer. After that, she'd have to do the pain stacking task of having to reupload old files and reprogram, which was what she had been fearing as she worked.

"So, gotta name?" She didn't have her head phones and the silence was killing her. She needed something to occupy her eardrums other than the annoying sound of booster cells and energy cells below deck, plus she didn't want to hear ships landing and taking off.

[Aiko]

Aiko's thought processes got brought back to real time when the woman asked a question that he actually had the strength to answer. He laughed a little, his laugh sounding so mechanical, it threw into sharp relief just how unreal he was.

"Aiko..." he muttered. "Or I.A.I.S., whichever sounds kinder to your ears," he said slowly. He heard Haruko shift around uncomfortably. Haruko hated anybody but Ren touching his ship, but he understood that Orange wouldn't have gotten him anyone who couldn't do the job. Aiko chuckled a little. "The living one is Haruko Lawson, in case you were asking his name and not mine...and I...answered for him..." Aiko said, feeling as the woman began to go to work on him. Hopefully she would have him up and running soon. He wanted her to, because he hated not being up and running to help Haruko out.

"How bad's...the damage...doc?"

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

"Aiko." She said quickly, looking around and tapping on her pad, transferring some more memory into the system, watching the lights brighten as well as the screens that were all around. She smiled when she heard that the transfer was complete.

"Sweet." She said pleased with herself. She sighed out and looked over at Haruko then at the AI, Aiko. "Well, your main problem was memory. You have a bad worm, my friends." She looked at Aiko and smiled. "It's going to take me a while to get some of your programs up and running. You can do as you please, unfortunately, you cannot do what you normally can. Walking around, if you have the means, you can. Talking without lagging, you can. Maintenance, no. Scannings, no. I am working on that for you." She sighed out and nodded trying to give him an estimate as to how long this will all take, but she was still unsure, it depened on how many sectors were infected which was why she was needing to defrag.

"It's going to take me a few days, three or four. Depends on how many sectors I'll have to replace, understand?" She slit her eyes. She loved doing this. The longer she got to work on something the better. Window was used to moving around and finding new problems to fix on many different ships, but she had never been able to work solely on a large ship, such as this. It was her first and she was more than willing to replace every single computer software system in the entire hunk of metal and gold.

"This virus is very nasty, attacks with time. You got it by another ship tracking you. Whether you knew it or not, a ship was tracking you!" Window glanced at the Captain and shrugged, this part actually for him. "If you do, find them, get some cash from them, they owe you for this one." She pulled out the white stick, the cherry sucker having dissolved in her mouth within five minutes. She had become a pro at devouring suckers, which was nice to have a huge bag in her pocket.

"Other than that, my dear," She said glancing at the system AI. "You'll be your old self again in a few days. Actually, you should be feeling better now. Running smoother."

[Aiko]

Aiko did feel better actually. All his functions were basically turned off, since his internal personality, and visual functions had not been harmed, they were running well now. He gave a yawn and nodded.

"Kay..." he answered. If he would have nothing to do for awhile he figured Haruko might as well get go home. He looked at his friend. "You should go on home, see Taro and Jiro. I'll be fine here, don't worry," Aiko said with a nod, glancing at the woman--Window. Haruko stood up, typing in a few codes to lock down manually so that Aiko wouldn't have to.

For a long moment, Aiko watched as Window and Haruko conversed, talking about him, about the pay, about new parts, about whatever it would take to fix Aiko. Aiko hated these conversations. He was a first rate computer program, capable of doing everything but giving you a blow job, except that he couldn't take care of himself. Others had to download new firewall software, had to hire mechanics when there was a little hiccup in the system, had to pay assloads of money just if something small went wrong. He hated not being totall self-sufficient. Not being able to cure himself when he got a virus.

He wished he didn't have to depend on people. Living people, people who could take care of themselves.

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window nodded when the two came to an agreement in what she could and couldn't do, which wasn't that limited. She was still unsure of an estimate and told him after all was done she'd give him a call before she did anything desturctive, or reconsutrictive in this case. She turned and sighed, glancing at her tools and allowing her brain to process everything to see if she'd need anything, but all was well and with her considering she wasn't going to start uninstalling and reinstalling things without permission from Mr. Lawson. She bit her lower lip and walked over to the computer panel and took a seat in the chair and pushed a few codes into the system, allowing a software to be downloaded from her pad to scan and defrag, put every sector into place in case files had somehow managed to float around and get lost. It wouldn't take long, few minutes, then she could take a look at all the sectors and survey the damage. She began to do so, after having grabbed another sucker and pop it into he mouth, typing a hundred miles per minute, hitting command keys and directing it where to do go and what to do.

Peopel overestimated computers, they weren't truly that great. All it did was convert human actions. The computer held information and that was basically it. It was a storage decvice that allowed commands and prompts from humans, no more no less. Sometimes, whenever she was having a bad day, she' say computers were literally a waste of time for people spent more time and money fixing them than actually using them, but today wasn't one of those days. She frowned when a DOS code popped up. She read it in its html form and quickly responded by typing the command prompt. She heard a few beeps and the screen flickered black then loaded the program into the system. She saw the screen go white followed by a horizontal line separating the page. Above were millions of sectors, tiny blocks that were colored blue, yellow, and red. It was a scan of what it looked like at that point in time. She pushed a button and watched the bottom half slowly have sectors pop up. She was beginning to defrag and hopefully she'd be able to not only free up more space, but see which were the most damaged.

Window leaned back in the chair and watched the screen change every few seconds as it added new sectors, recoloring them to fit the color code which were empty, infected, and used. She glanced over at the computer screen showing the face of the young AI. She couldn't help but say that was the most active IAIS she had ever seen. It was almost like he conveyed feelings, which was nearly impossible.

"How long have you been running?" She asked in the way one would ask a birth date. Since he wasn't born, per say, she asked the alternative of how long he had been working.

[Aiko]

Aiko switched quickly to three dimensional form so he could survey the damage a little better. He read the html code and sighed, seeing that some of his branches were too messed up to recover and would have to be reinstalled.

"Technically?" he asked, glancing her way. "Ten years, five months, two weeks, three days, eighteen hours, forty-two minutes, and seven seconds," he answered, standing straight and feeling himself flicker a little. He still wasn't quite all better, but he was feeling alright at the moment at least. "But Haru and I prefer to simply refer to it as about ten years ago next week sometime. We aren't too technical about things..." he said with a shrug.

He looked up and out of the ship and thought for a moment. Then he looked back at Window, cocking his head slightly, moving some hair from his face.

"Actually, there was a ship tracking us...but...we aren't exactly at odds with them anymore," he said. "It was a ship made a lot like this, but a little smaller. More of a ship for fast movement, than for comfort, I'd wager. I was never linked to it, so I don't know. Perhaps, if Haruko talks to the owner, would it give us a little more information on what has made me sick?"

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window listened to him talk to her and she chuckled at the exact moment he was created and the response following it about going with an exact moment. She grinned as she pulled out the sucker and glanced at him, watching him talk and, at times, flicker like he had a short, which wasn't at all impossible. She frowned and sighed.

"Not technically. It is just what happens when other computers cross wires. It's just a little virus, like one person who comes into contact with someone else. What may hurt me, might not hurt the other person. But...I guess you don't know about that do you?" Window frowned and looked at him. One thing she always knew to make an AI mad, or sad, was to talk about human feelings. It was something of a taboo when talking to someone who was not human, especially if they couldn't experience the same thing.

Window looked away and played around on her data pad, seeing a few sectors were highly infected. It wasn't something she wanted to see, but then again it wasn't something she didn't want to see, or else she'd have no job.

"Hmm, well we've got some sectors that need replacing so far." She looked over at him and gave him a smile. "But don't worry, you'll not realize that I am working on you."

[Aiko]

Aiko gave a snort of disapproval.

"Actually, I do know about those sorts of things, and actually I will realize that you're working on me," he said, giving her glare and turning back around to look at his computer wires in the panel that she had opened. "I'm more advanced than your average computer system, Miss Guevara." He paused a moment, glancing over his shoulder at her. "But because I like to humor you mechanics who think you know everything about computers and their internal workings, I'll pretend like I won't feel it," he said, his three dimensional form flicking off and taking up on the computer screen again.

"I'm going into sleep mode, Miss Guevara, I'll be here if you need me."

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

"Sorry." She said lowly, not meaning to make him mad. She had worked on these things far more than he was giving her credit for apparently, but she wasn't going to be working on him persay, it was more or less the computer systems that kept everything running, including the little AI. Then again most artificials she had worked with, and on, were always snappy and always hated being poked and prodded at.

She sighed out and rubbed her eyes. Perhaps this was going to be more difficult than she had figured for she wasn't one who enjoyed getting snapped at for she was very quick to snap back, but she kept her cool. Window glanced around at a few controls and pushed a few buttons, shutting certain powers off as more sectors popped up and let her know that this was more danaged than she was hoping. So far half of the computers sensors were going to have to be reinstalled, if not replaced entirely.

"Didn't mean to hurt your feelings buddy." Window suddenly realized she was stewing on his words a little too long. But something Window always hated was having enemies. She had a lot for she was very hot headed at times and a smartass, but she wasn't one who enjoyed getting evil looks by peope lacross the room as if she were a snake in the grass. Window was friendly, happy go lucky...

"What does it matter?" She said answering herself as if she were psychotic, carrying on two conversations at once, one in her head the other out loud. She shook her head and figured if anything she could keep her mind on work, not the snobby little AI.

[Aiko]

Aiko didn't like Window. He was an AI sure, but he was one of the most advanced systems. He didn't feel persay, but he understood it and it angered him to hear her ditch on his system like he was inferior to her. He hadn't really gone to sleep just shut off his monitor, and had listened to her words. He spoke to her over the coms.

"You know," he said, thoughtfully. "If you were so hellbent on making me feel worse about the fact that I am not human, why are you in here fixing me, hm?" he asked, then he flickered up and in his three dimensional form behind her, looking over her shoulder. Then he stood back. "Maybe if you weren't so bothered by the fact that we do have an idea of feelings, you'd see that we aren't half bad to be friends with."

Aiko didn't know why he felt the need to argue his case with this woman. She didn't mean anything to anyone, certainly not him. He went to the captain's chair, his form flickering again, indicating the internal issues that were being worked out. He simulated sitting down in the chair, crossing his arms and his legs.

"Look, I identified a little worm in a subbranch dealing with my files, and my ability to get into planetary files when in range of them. I think it's eating at the memory stored there," he said, blinking a few times. "I didn't know if you had spotted him yet."

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window jumped and looked around with a cocked eyebrow. Where the hell...she clenched her jaw and felt her sucker break. It was her fault for voicing her opions and thoughts outloud, but one thing she didn't like was being spyed on by a measly computer! She frowned when the screen flickered and his face appeared, a look that was sour and very unhappy. It figured considering she felt that AI's were the most unhappy things in the entire world.

"I know." She said to him nonchalantly, making an enemy that she didn't need to have. "I have everything written down. I am going to get to it. At this moment I am scanning everything to see what all is needing to be replaced." After a moment she looked at him and felt it was necessary to let him know that it was in her hands, not his...if he actually had some!

"I don't appreciate you acting as if I don't matter, friend. Remember I can let you dissipate into nothing but a few chords and wires." Window gave him a serious glance that was very unhappy. She then looked back at what her data was doing, five more sectors needing to be replaced. Suddenly this looked like it was going to surpass a week.

[Aiko]

Aiko let out a sigh.

"No you couldn't," he said matter-of-factly. "I have eigh back up copies at Haru's apartment. If you let me dissipate, not only will you not get the money for the repairs, you'll probably get sued for something and then you'll just have to live on knowing that the systems were cleaned without you and that I was rebooted into the system with all memory in tact..." Aiko explained, yawning wide and flicking back onto his computer screen. He glanced down as if he were looking at a watch on the wrist that did not exist.

"Well, it's time for me to go to sleep. I am not going to shut down entirely, you'll still be able to communicate with me, but you won't be able to access the uncorrupted files. I assume you won't need them until you finished the scan and identification of the worms and put forth a diagnosis," he said shrugging at her. "Good day, Moss Guevara."

His screen went dark.

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window figured he could get in that last little word. He underestimated he powers with computer technology and she figured she could at least let hikm keep thinking it for she didn't really feel like having to disable his powers completely and shut him down. He wasn't resepecting her as well as she might have wanted, but then again most AI's were crabby, mean, spiteful, and hated anyone pocking and prodding on them, unless it was their owners and what not.

She sighed out and bit her lower lip and figured she could keep her mouth shut and just do her job without any more run-ins with the so-called Aiko. She grabbed the white stick out of her mouth and put it into her tool kit and grabbed another sucker from her pocket and quickly sucked on it. She needed something to occupy her considering friendships with the computer looked bleak. What she really needed was music, it always helping her work better.

Window frowned and looked at the small technological tool that was almost half way done scanning. She downsized the program and quickly popped up her music system and found a nice little song that Orange had lent her. Something in a foreign language, but catchy. She hummed along as it played softly through the tiny sound system on her DP. She began to work on some programs, those he hadn't locked on her, and began clearing out ill sectors and making way for new ones to be uploaded and programmed in.

[Aiko]

Aiko didn't know how long it was going to take to repair him, but he had been asleep for exactly four hours, and the scans were still running. Sectors were being purged, programs were being downloaded. He was certainly feeling better than he had been when they had pulled into this place, though he wasn't quite top of the charts.

He slowly woke himself up, flickering onto the screen and glancing around. The woman was nowhere to be seen although her things were still sitting there. Switching to three dimensional form, Aiko stretched and watched the screens working over the sectors that were still contaminated. For a long moment, this entertained him, before he turned to look at the tool kit sitting open in the middle of the floor. For another long moment, he stared at it, identifying all the tools, before he crouched down to get a closer room.

Reaching out he put his hand over the discarded sucker stick as if he could pick it up. But his hand simply flickered and went through it. He waved his hand, grasping and focusing hard, but nothing happened. He was just a series of code in a computer that put together the code in a simulated three dimensional form. He could no sooner act on the real world than he could eat a mouse--which would have been acting on the real world anyway. Aiko watched his hand waver and run through the tool kit.

Aiko imagined this was what sorrow felt like. A kind of longing, a knot deep in his wires and cyber brain. Window was right, he couldn't feel, not like she did, and he never would. He wouldn't ever be able to love someone, hate someone, cry for something, feel happy about something. He would never have the chance to have a goal, or be disappointed. He would never know what it felt like to hug someone or hold someone's hand. Happiness would always be a foreign concept to him. Sexual attraction, arousal, orgasm, everything that a human could feel and do would always just be something Aiko could listen to Haruko talk to his brothers about. Aiko could look up definitions and try to understand them, but feelings couldn't ever be something he would grasp. He was just an AI system. A man made object without feelings, only simulated states of mind.

Aiko grasped at the took kit again, shaking his head, wishing he knew exactly what it was like to feel despair. Because he knew he would feel it right now if he could. Maybe he owed Window an apology. As much as he hated it--could he hate?--he really was just a program she could shut down whenever she wanted to. Just another computer system that needed a real, feeling being to fix.

Again.

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window allowed the sour burst of green apple to flsuh through her mouth and, at times, cause her face to distort with the sourness it resonated. She loved this flavor, it had always been her favorite since she could remember. She didn't know if it was to keep her mind and mouth occupied, if it was the taste, if it was the dire need to have something in her hands...Window just loved suckers. She glanced down at a small portable wiring tool that was much like a tool for scouting beams in a wall, except it scanned internal computer wiring.

She had made her way down into the control room many levels down after receiving a threat that could have possibly brought down the entire ship. The main computer database in the engine room had contracted the bug and was causing some of the booster cells for the ship to not give off as much energy as need, she felt that it was a quick problem to fix. It only took her five minutes and she figured by the time she reached the cockpit again the system scan would be over and she could assess everything and start getting computer programs, memory, chips, anything and everything to fix the computer programming systems, even the little snooty AI whom she figured deserved the benefit of the doubt.

She had worked with a few AI's before, they always been crappy and hard, but eventually being thankful for her services. She wasn't sure if this one would even give her another glance, which was almost satisfying if she hadn't found his computer generated face to be one of the most calming ones she had ever seen. Plus it always got lonely on long nights, which she was sure she was going to be having with the Rule for its size causing more computer formats to be manually typed. Window wasn't a loner, of course she lived alone, worked alone, did a lot alone, but it was becoming distressing for her. She felt like she were getting old and needed friends, Orange Diren being the only one. It never hurt someone to make a few here and there and while being alone on this ship for days and hours on end, it would have been nice to have someone to talk to, real or not!

Window looked up as she turned the corner towards the cockpit ready to print out the scan and make a copy for the owner, but to her surprise the little AI was out and about, if one could rightuflly say that. At a passing glance one would think that he was real, flesh and blood, a warm blooded creature, but if you hung around him long enough when it came time to doing human tasks, such as eating...turning on a light....moving an object....speaking about how one felt over something....the gig would be up. She was seeing so firsthand as well as he crouched down, his hand literally passing through her tool kit. He shook his head and made a soft sigh of defeat. Window couldn't help but feel pitiful for this man. But why?

She frowned softly and stopped, watching him a few moments more. For an AI he was struggling truly hard to touch her kit. She had really never seen a computer do that, give off expression, such as a head shake and a sigh, that gave her an indication of feeling. Window wasn't sure to be dumbfounded, surprised, or confused. She figured she could feel all. AI's were programmed to do tasks and to scare peopel away, in some circumstances, but they weren't programmed to act displeased, agitated, frustrated, defeated. So why was Aiko acting this way?

"Be glad you can't touch it." Window stated figuring it was time to get back to work instead of loiter and wonder. "They are greasy and nasty. Lord knows what is on them. I end up taking a year long shower after work because I fear sickness." She glanced away from the scene for a moment to see her wiring component shut off. She glanced up to find the AI standing near her. She was suddenly unsure whether to walk through or around him.

[Aiko]

Aiko stood when he heard her voice and stepped back away from her tools. He glanced over at her considering her for a long moment before nodding to her. He watched her move towards his console again to work on it. He sighed slightly.

"Miss. Guevara," he began, watching her for another long moment. "I apologize for my earlier comments. I shouldn't have belittled your plac.e If it weren't for you, I would have been eaten from the inside out," he said. Then he nodded. "Thank you for helping me."

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window was taken aback by his comments and suddenly she felt so happy! Happier than she had felt in quite some time since she realized her dull life. It was so nice to hear kind things and apologies at that. She nodded in response, fearing her reddened cheeks would send him signals of warning throughout his system.

"Apology accepted. I apologize for acting as if your opinions don't really matter. They do." She raised her eyebrows and pointed at the control panel. "I didn't do anything to you without your consent, okay? But I am going to have to replace a lot of software. I'll need some free programs open." Suddenly, Window thought, this could be a nice friendship after all!

[Aiko]

Aiko nodded, squinting on eye and unlocking all systems. He nodded and smiled at her.

"There you are. All open," he said. "I locked them to see if I could keep the worm out, but I don't think it was working too well..." he paused, doing a scan of himself. His image flickered several times before resting finally. He nodded. "There are a couple of those files contaminated, but nothing ridiculously off the charts, not like some of the other programs." He moved forward, walking through her and then simulated sitting on the control panel, facing her. He watched her for a long time, thinking about scanning her, but not doing so. Scanning someone was no way to make friends. Or, as much of a friend as a computer could make.

"Anyway, replace what you need to, I am sure that, um, Haruko will pay you for it all. Hell, I will if I need to," Aiko smiled and nodded. "But you'll have to give me your price after your finished so I can process it and access Haruko's accounts and things. I don't think he carries money places with him."

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window felt a cold chill run through her body when he passed. It was an odd feeling, although she knew he was nothing but a program in a computer and a computer generated image from a few sensors and intelligence in a system, it still felt awkward. She wanted to turn and look at him strangely, but felt it was much better to look at a control panel instead of someone who could recognize the face she made.

She had had a few walk through her before, of course, but she had never gotten the sense of actually being as one. Not like she felt at that exact moment of impact, or lack thereof, when he passed. She had moved slightly as if his soul had literally passed through her body completely. Window knew she was either loosing her mind or was overanalyzing the simple action that had just been put into motion, so to speak.

"That is fine." She responded after her brain thought far too much into what had just happened. But still, who wouldn't think that when they were physically bumped. That was very strange. Too strange for her to even wrap her mind around because it was just impossible that the computer had a soul. Or was it? Window shivered and looked over her shoulder at Aiko who had 'sat down' and spoke to her.

"I'll bump some of the price down for such kind hospitality." She said with a smile. It was against policy to do such a thing, but she figured it was worth it if it meant making a friend, computer or not, considering it was that general area she was severely lacking in.

Window smiled at Aiko, looking at every fiber of his...being. She saw nothing unusual, it was uncanny, and it was actually frigthening at how real he looked. It was the best she had actually ever seen. It really seemed like he had a soul, especially when she looked into his eyes. However, she knew that that was highly impossible. He was a computer program designed to do tasks much like her own. So why was she still so sure about alll of this? Window shook her head and laughed lightly and glanced at the computer and tapped a few codes that prepared a few sectors to be replaced and revitalized.

"Glad we are friends."

[Aiko]

Aiko watched her for a long moment. Had she just called him her friend? Of course, Aiko knew what a friend was, understood the basic concept, considering he and Haruko had always referred to each other as friends. He understood that it was a person with whom someone else found themselves in common with, that one person could generally find joy with that other person. Yet these things were only things that a human being or something similar could feel. Not something a computer could really experience.

Aiko continued to watch her for several long moments, not answering or making a move that he had heard her. So her words hung between them like a spider web ready to snap and break. Finally, Aiko leaned back slightly and nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed with a small nod. "Glad."

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

She had been off shift for God knew how long, sitting in the caf at the ship port drinking coffee and writing up a report for her boss to explain all that she had done that work day. She was just staring at the pink slip of paper and the pen in her left hand she continuously kept tapping on the metal table. She hadn't really done much with her sheet, just gave the basic information on what her name was, her work number, her station number, and the ship she was working on and which dock it was at. She hadn't even begun to fill out the information on the owner, the problem summary, the work survey...her mind was too busy on the little program that talked and walked.

Her mind was still stuck on that feeling she got, that odd sensation that had literally ran through her body. Window wasn't naive, wasn't stupid, and definitely wasn't unsure of the capabilities of computer systems, but she was also positive of what she had felt and what she had experienced when they passed. It was too...unexplainable! Yet there she sat trying to explain it to herself, ignoring her work.

She glanced up when a man tapped her shoulder, glancing over his own to smile at her. She found his playful grin and she only smiled back. It was a man who had been trying to get a date for some time, always finding ways to bother her on her downtime. Much like hitting her at random. She shook her head and looked back down at the paper that was practically blank. What was the matter with her? Work always came first! Not thinking about the artificial human being she was working on. Then again seh wasn't working on him, she was working on the ship! There was big difference. But still she didn't truly have anything better to do with her time considering she could turn in her sheet until 3 AM. Window frowned suddenly wondering what time it was.

She lifted her head and her gaze to the bland caramel colored walls in the large cafeteria that was partially emptied, save for those who worked the late shift and were taking their designated breaks. She saw the large chrono on the wall near the exit and saw it was 2:30 in the morning. She had been sitting there for almost three hours, blindly staring, constantly thinking, and getting a lot of nothing done!

She breathed in and leaned up from her hunch and stretched, her mouth hankering for a sucker, but they were all gone. She had tasted her last sucker almost four hours ago and she was literally getting ready to go through withdrawals. She licked her lips and quickly occupied her mouth with lukewarm coffee and grabbed the pen out of her other hand and sighed out.

"Name..." She stated lowly. "Laaaaawsooooooon. Haruuuuuukooooo." She elongated his name as she wrote it. Staring at the feminine handwriting after she wrote his name. She sighed out and quickly began to fill out the reset of the form, periodically her mind travelling to Aiko. That little program was going to be the death of her, or the end of her job.

[Aiko]

Aiko had been thoroughly entertaining himself by searching through the two new files that had been downloaded to him by that woman mechanic. He still needed massive amounts of files uploaded, but she had managed to get two in, and he had been observing them all evening.

It was around two thirty in the morning, and Aiko was just settling himself down in the second file, snuggling into it, getting used to the new feel of the different file. He liked it when new files got downloaded, it gave him something to do for awhile.

Aiko had been thinking. About a lot of things. Sometimes he wished he was like other computers and didn't have free thought like he did. He wished that he could just exist with the soul purpose of calling and recalling information. That when he was left alone for any amount of time, his intelligence didn't wander around to places it had already been. Like the ships he linked with. They had no greater thought than to keep information and retrieve it when needed. And they weren't aware that there was something better that they could never have. They would never know that there were humans just beyond reach, living beings that could do things they never would.

Aiko was cursed with the ability to realize and process all of these things. Of course, aiko couldn't exactly feel sorrow or longing, though he understood it and knew he would be if he could.

He had been thinking about Window's words. About how she had implied his lack of feelings. It had been bothering him. Of course, Aiko had always known he didn't feel, not like her, or Haruko, or anyone else, but having someone blatantly tell him it to his face--or lack thereof--was bruising. It hurt Aiko, even though he couldn't hurt.

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window stood up, her back literally popping in major places when she she moved her leg over the large metal seat and grabbed her trash, that only being a cup. She put it to her lips and lifted it all the way back, tasting a drop of cold and stale coffee. She shivered at the bitter taste and grabbed her completed forms and pen and headed out of the door, dropping the cup into the compactor made specifically for that purpose. Disposal!

She bit her lower lip as she wandered down the busy corridors and spacing. Despite its late hour this place was bustling, ships still coming and going, ships being maintained, people talking about their trips, their journeys, discoveries, this was the main travel throughout all of the galaxy and this port was the place where everyone stopped. She smiled at a few people who walked by with luggage, their smiles jsut as friendly as hers. Suddenly she frowned thinking of Aiko.

The boy was programmed to show feelings, they could convey it on an intellectual level, but never in a way that he could actually understand how to use it in real person form. Most AI's she worked on, or with, never conveyed such feelings. They'd smile and be happy most of the time, it being bland and very limited range of motions, but Aiko..he had shown displeasure, bitterness, anger, and then forgiveness. It was very interesting. She was almost tempted to go find Orange and have a chat with her about Haruko's computing capabilities for she was definitely wanting to know how that program could do the things he did.

She looked up and saw the station nearby, a man by the name of Ren Wilcox standing there chatting away. She smiled at him, his face usually being a frequent one to see these days. She had even heard Orange Diren mention he had good ties with the Lawson family. She nodded at him and glanced at the boss and slid her form under the plexiglass, hearing him thank her in a verybrute manner.

"Sure." She said to him as she glanced at the pen she held in her hand. She turned and headed towards her station so she could grab her key card and head on to the dormitory section so she could get some shut eye before going in for a long day on the Lawson Rule.

[Aiko]

Aiko glanced up as he saw Window moving past the Rule to pass a big, ugly man a sheet of paper. He watched her for a long moment as she then headed towards another area, Aiko guessing towards her personal items so that she could go home.

He saw her glance towards the Rule and he waved his arms to catch her eye. He waved cheerily at her with the warmest, best grin he could possibly muster. He was now identifying her as a friend, and a close one at that, considering she was working very intimately on him. Something he rarely allowed anyone to do. He lowered his hand to look back down at the computer screen, even though he didn't need to. He had the information in his head.

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window caught something out of the corner of her eye and she was quick to follow it and identify what it was. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat and she was shocoked to find someone, more like something, waving at her. She grinned at first when she finally recognized that it was Aiko, but couldn't help but feel that, as he grinned at her as well, her grin turned into a bright smile. A small laugh escaped her lips and she was quick to return the well deserved favor in waving. She lifted both her arms in the air and moved them in opposite directiosn a few times, crossing them in a large wave that he could see. She laughed lightly when he divereted his glance.

She couldn't help but smile as he turned and glanced at her station, picking up a few things and trying her best to act busy when in reality she was just wanting to stay there and have Aiko's gaze on her. .She rollled her eyes at the silly thought of wanting to create attention, have him look at her, aknowledge that she was there. She sighed out when she realized that loitering on tired feet and an even tireder body wasn't the best thing for her right then. She grabbed the card to her room and turned to start walking towards the dorms, but figured it wouldn't hurt for one last little peek!

She smiled and looked over her shoulder to see him still standing there, gazing at the computer. She wanted to just toss something at the window to get his attention, but what would that have done? Suddenly, her smile faded as she looked at the large ship, the glowing form in the window. What would it have done? People toss rocks and other objects at their lovers window's to get attention, to get them to cmoe outside. Had she done that....he would just smile and wave as he had before.

It was a sad thing, Window realized now as she stood there examining everything. Aiko would be stuck there, inside that ship, for all eternity. He'd never age, never change, people around him would die, his owner would become old and grey, he'd be the only person left in this ever growing world until the ship came to an end. Until he was deleted, until he was replaced, until...he would be wiped form existence. He'd never know fear, pain, sad, happy, angry, he'd never know touch, smell, taste...he'd never know how important he could be to somebody other than an intelligence system who gave things all the right answers. He could never fall in love and never have a family. He'd always be a programmed system, locked away in the deep dark dungeon of the Lawson Rule.

[Aiko]

Love-1. An intense feeling of tender affection and compassion. 2. A passionate feeling of romantic desire and sexual attraction.

Fear-1. An unpleasant feeling of apprehension or distress caused by the presence or anticipation of danger. 2. An idea, thought, or other entity that causes feelings of fear.

An Internal Artificial Intelligence System. It's capabilities surpass that of all artificial intelligence systems of this time. It offers abilities like simple tasks such as conversation and companionship to total protection and defense of your vessel. It can be named or not. It can be assigned a face or not. It will obey it's owners commands as the voice is coded into its system and motherboard. It is a simple technology, easy to maintain and move, vessel-to-vessel. It can be uploaded, downloaded, altered in any way. The horizon for the I.A.I.S. systems looks bright as of this year.

Aiko had a definition. Just like everything else did. Love, Fear, I.A.I.S. No one could find themselves in a dictionary. Because real beings were far too complex to be defined. They feel too broadly, think too broadly, do things that are too broad for words to convey. Too broad for Aiko to ever understand.

The closest thing to sadness Aiko had ever experienced was the tears Haruko shed as he left Coruscant on his suicide mission. Aiko understood the feelings by thier general definition. But Aiko could never understand grief. He could simulate it, simulate reactions to it, but never understand it, never feel it. So what was the point of existing? What was the point of going through day-to-day activites knowing that the people you see have worries and loves and needs, and that you'll never have those needs? You'll never worry about when you need to have work done. You'll never laugh because someone said something funny. You'll never do anything but watch the world go by you. Slowly, agonizingly so.

It was no existence at all.

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window wasn't sleeping, she knew she wouldn't be. After those thoughts on the port base she knew she'd been feeling depressed and sad for the man all night long. She had even gone so far as to look into what the I.A.I.S. systems were, exactly She was highgly informed on it before, but this just drove it home much more. He was being defined as a program, something that can be changed, something that can even be deleted. Unlike most people, deletion was possible through pain in some form or another. Death. It could be painless for the human, but painful for those around. Aiko, if deleted, it would be like blinking. Nothing would really change, nothing would really be taken into consideration, but in the back of our minds we understand and comprehend that something in that second of blinking, something moved, something changed, something breathed. People figured that just because it was a computer system it wouldn't have feelings, but Window was really thinking otherwise. If someone told him he was going to be exterminated, he'd probably beg to do something better, be better, please better. It was a defense system that even computers had.

Window sighed as she walked over to the computer and took a seat in front of the monitor, pulling on her brown rimmed glasses, pushing back a strand of hair that had fallen from her ponytail. She was now interested in learning about computer/model transfer. She had heard about it before, she knew a guy who knew a guy....she wasn't thinking about moving Aiko, no certainly not, she was just curious to see how people responded to the change, if perhaps the computer mind was much like that of human minds. After all they had to be if they could mimick feelings and otherwise. She grinned and shook her head, people made programs with love, people who enjoyed their work ultimately pass on the feeling to others, even computers. So, to Window, it was very possible to somehow feel something. They were a property of feeling, a creation brought on by feeling.

[Aiko]

"He won't ever give you problems if you don't want them. You can tone him down or up, but he'll always obey you. It's like...a dog! It'll bark and run around and carry on, but you can always tie it up, teach it things and eventually, it won't do one thing wrong. The I.A.I.S. can also be erased off the ship at anytime, should you decide you don't want it. And if you have a problem erasing it from here, you can just contact us and we can delete him from one of two thousand remote locations."

That's what the guy had told Haruko just after Aiko had been activated. At the time, Aiko hadn't thought much of his words. But after time, having them roll around, stew, he had realized that the man had been comparing him to a dog. When in truth, even a dog was more advanced emotionally than Aiko.

Frustration-A feeling of disappointment, exasperation, or weariness caused by aims being thwarted or desires unsatisfied.

[Window Cheyenne Guevara]

Window was biting her lower lip as hard as humanly possible as the person in front of her couldn't make up their mind as to what they wanted. She was hoping to find something that would occupy the free time in her mind with things other than the goodwill of Aiko, a computer systemm that was not real. She sighed out and tapped her foot t rying her best to stop thinking such thoughts on him for it had kept her awake almost half the night, if not more, even though she was trying to credit her lack of sleep to her sucker addiction for it had been so long.

The man quickly moved out of the way adn she was quick to demand six packs of assorted suckers, not caring to be friednlty for her withdrawals were in high gear and making her moody. She was crabby whenever she didn't get that much sleep, but she was also crabby because of how stupid she was probably being when it came to the artificial intelligence system in her new assigned ship.

Window had been toying with stupid sceince fiction ideas almost all morning long and it was now to the point of what seh was beginning to beleive herself. What if, what if someone's soul was put into a computer system? Why if Aiko was a lost soul? She rolled her eyes as her mind found the thought again and again. She grabbed the bags from the man after tossing a few credits at him, rude as could be but without care. She tore open a bag and found a green apple sucker and ripped the wrapping off quikcly and popped it into her mouth, it watering so much she swore at any point she'd drool.

She sighed out as she saw a few people pass her by, travellers who had docked at the port. She knew it was time to head into work and be plagued more by the computer system who had a face to die for. She just hoped she'd refrain from talking about feelings and talking about things he had yet to experience.

[Aiko]

Aiko rebooted a few systems as he had opened programs. Things looked good, though there were still a few systems tainted by the worm that would need fixing. Aiko would have to rewire a couple things, reroute some places, but over all, things didn't look as bleak this morning as they had the night before.

"Let's see here, Ruley," he said, searching through a couple files before closing them and letting out a sigh. "You screwy thing..." he snorted as one file denied him access. That had never happened before. He tried again. Nothing. And again. Close...but no cigar. "What...?" he would have to see what Window had to say when she got back. That was certainly odd...