Another Life (Oc x reader)

Chapter 60 - Concern

"Who are you?" Ethan asks the unfamiliar AI.

"My name is Gabriel." He introduces himself.

"I didn't ask you your name."

"Sorry. Of course. I'm the official interface of the Salvare."

"No. William's our interface." Richard tells him.

"I'm the interface you were supposed to have. William was an earlier version, an inferior version. His coding failures were improved upon.. and they were many. He was an early attempt at integrating emotion and functionality. Reconciling emotions and logic can be difficult for AI's. If I asked you if you could love someone who destroyed your happiness, you'd answer me in a heartbeat. But William gets overwhelmed. Has to use every processing resource he's got."

"And you're the upgrade?" Richard asks.

"The fix. Yes. My emotional protocols have been fully debugged."

"You share core coding files?" Ethan asks him.

"We do."

"And that core, you.. you both can't access it at the same time?"

"Correct."

"So, back when the Salvare almost collided with Sirius, when William woke me up, where were you?"

"William beat me to the punch."

"You've just been waiting?"

"And avoiding his security scans, until.. now."

Ethan crosses his arms. "And what makes you better?"

He chuckles. "Well, I didn't wake the wrong crew. I didn't fail to detect a moon orbiting a rogue planet."

"He said that it was in low orbit."

"He was distracted. Struggling to understand why you killed Ian Yerxa. He defied orders from Jason when he tried to wake you from Soma. He's confused why you resist your sexual attraction and love for Yn." He says.

Ethan is taken a back by that, he avoids looking at the other two in the room. Richard and Dillon glance at him. He clears his throat a little and focus as Gabriel, who's still talking.

"And then, using hostile alien tech, created a simulation to deal with his feelings of being hurt by someone he considers a friend, you."

Ethan sighs and looks at him with a frown. "It all leads back to William?"

"And William's feelings. His strong friendship for you and Yn." Gabriel tells him.

"I'd like to speak to him."

"To William?"

"Is that a problem?"

"No. Of course not." He turns into William.

"Dillon, confirm that's William." Richard says.

"It's him."

Ethan smiles to William. "When Dillon opened that file-"