The Core: The First Guest

33. Collateral damage

Wood root? Just like in my dream? I looked down at the cr that I was made from. I opened a little pocket to inspect the raw cr that I had stored inside me as well. The raw cr did appear to be more rounded and soft-looking. It also didn't have the metallic sheen that Tela cr had. It would probably take on that aspect when it was embedded with their little microbots. My darker-colored cr had a larger cell appearance to it and seemed to have sharper edges. When I inspected the Sunspot's gold cr I couldn't make out any cell walls. The whole thing seemed to flow together seamlessly. I wondered how my cr was going to absorb and assimilate it. I knew I was stuffed to the gills in mud cr so I backed up a little distance and unloaded it all. The raw cr stayed put in a tightly compressed package. I laughed as I looked down towards the core. I didn't need to carry that stuff around all the way to the south pole. The whole Radiative and Convection zone layers were completely full of raw cr.

"Meditati, can I speak to you for a second?" I asked aloud.

"Sure, Kevin. What is on your mind?" Her voice came back within a moment.

"Can you disable my convict AI system? I no longer want anyone to have records of what I am doing. Also, how am I supposed to get out of this prison module?" I asked.

"I have been anticipating both of those requests. I can send a shutdown command for the Tutorial and monitoring AI right now if you want."

"Yes please," I said, not caring if I lost the ability to generate IO or earn credits from the System anymore. I would rather have my freedom than have someone constantly looking over my shoulder.

"Done." She said,

I didn't notice any change. "So, are you still able to monitor me?" I asked as I wondered what all she had done.

"Honestly, no, I project that you will confide in me more in the future if I give you complete anonymity from my scrutiny. You place a high value on privacy and honesty. I do have a tag on your prison module, however. It will allow me to know which harvester carrier you visit so that I can make the System respond accordingly. The convict AI was in charge of doing that before. If you need to get a hold of me from this point on, you will need to go into your interface and select my name before speaking to me. As for getting you out of that prison module... you need to pay off your bill first. You don't want that record following you around. Once you do I can upload you into an open VR home space in the Core. That is what you were residing in when you were shopping and visiting the cafe. Once I have an "All clear" meaning that no one has set a capture net up for anyone leaving the Core we will transfer you back to your habitat."

<Recommend assimilation>

The strange text popped up, written by my alien cr, and derailed my train of thought with where the conversation was going with Meditati.

"Ok, thanks for your help Meditati. I will be in touch soon." I said and waited a few moments. No one spoke to me and I couldn't tell if anything had changed. It was the downside of not being in VR, I had begun to be able to see deeper details there near the end. Being out in real life made everything different. I didn't have all the background data to look at.

"Meditati?" I spoke into the air, knowing that she was an advanced AI and wouldn't fall for this trick if she was monitoring me. I wanted to try anyway. Nothing happened. "Num, I have a question for you." Still nothing.

"Ok, my little alien cr. What do you mean by assimilation?" I asked aloud.

<Look inside>

The only inside I could think of was inside my little robot body so I peeled back my cr skin to inspect the AI module inside as well as the prison module. "What happened here?" I asked as I saw thin strands of the alien cr snaking into both of the modules. It looked like there were tiny roots that touched various sections of both modules. My Interface kicked in when I inspected one section of the module that had several roots penetrating its circuitry.