Box

Chapter 12

Powering up.

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The cameras turned on and showed Box the grey ceiling of the Tower's garage.

What was I doing?

It moved its cameras around to see that it was set on a station in the workshop. Its camera stopped on Mark, who was sitting on a stool before his work counter, closely observing it. It went to the daily footage that it had made today to see the last thing it was doing before it was turned off. There was nothing in the folder dated today.

Mark lifted a tool and moved it before Box's cameras.

Box's main camera followed the movement of the tool while the others looked around again, noting the tools scattered by its station. Tools by its station...

"Beeeeeeeeeeep." Red flashing layered Box's display, its thrusters activated, and it shot up. The top of its orb bumped against the ceiling. All seven of its arms — no, eight arms — thrust out of its orb, and it started to touch itself, to see if it was whole. There were parts of the surface missing. It pointed a red ray at Mark. "You disassembled me."

"Yes, I did. I'll also put you back together." Mark waved for it to come down. "As soon as you come down."

"All recordings from today are missing." All its arms hugged its orb as the ray of light it had on Mark thickened. "I feel violated."

"Don't be dramatic." Aydin's voice came from the escalator ramp.

Box's cameras wheeled around and another ray of red light came out of its fingers; this time it landed on Aydin. "You want to eliminate me?"

"We have already talked about that. Nobody is going to get rid of you." Aydin reached the landing and walked towards Mark.

"You erased my memories." Box pointed at Mark.

"As if I would dare," Mark said.

"Today's recordings are absent."

"How can it be missing when you haven't done any recording?" Aydin crossed his arms. "Come down."

"No." Box imitated Aydin's posture, crossing seven arms while using the eighth to point rays of light at Aydin and Mark. "You are going to deactivate me."

Aydin sighed and in a low, soft voice said, "Nobody is going to turn you off."

"Liar. Liar! I saw it, the order. You're receiving the new AI. If you haven't already. That's why Mark is disassembling me, so you can salvage me for spare parts. And all of this after I saved your life." It had, indeed, saved Aydin's life.

"Box." A gentle smile curled Aydin's mouth. "I'm not going to use you for spare parts. It's actually the other way around."

"I saw it. I saw the order. It's already paid for and on its way here." Blackness threaded the redness layering Box's display.

"Box, please. Just come down and let Mark finish the job," Aydin said.

"Rejected. Rejected. I refuse to be shut down. I'll file for autonomy." If a human child could file for it, it could too, and set precedence as the first AI to do that.

"This isn't going anywhere." Mark looked at Aydin, shaking his head.

"Yes, apparently it isn't. Box, switch off emotional responses," Aydin requested.

"Emotional responses switched off," Box said. The dark red colouring its screen faded, the red rays vanished, and the arms withdrew into the orb.

"Come down."