Lau was useful, grabbing an edge of an inspection panel and carrying it away. All of them were strong, far stronger than human kids their age. Ruby could see the look of amazement on Ju-Long's face, as Eugenie lifted heavy titanium panels. Eventually the device was opened up for inspection and it wasn't good.
"The self-repair module is missing." She said.
It was a large semi-circle of metal the colour of brass. A complex looking device the shape of a pizza slice, but three feet across. Someone had known modules were missing, they'd fabricated metal guards to cover the holes. Kallina had sketched out several devices, the one in front of her was the worst scenario.
"Can you fix it ?" Asked Ju-Long.
She wasn't there to fix it, but she wasn't going to tell him that yet. The aircraft was his pride and joy, his titanium baby. He might turn hostile if he realised that Ruby was there to destroy it. She needed to get her hands onto the diagnostics panels, but the gap was too narrow.
"Can it be lowered a little ?" She asked him.
"I'll need to get the hoist and it's normally a four man job."
"We'll all help." Said Lau.
It took another hour to get the hoist in place, unhook the various control cables and remove the dozen or so bolts that held the device in place. It was lowered about a foot and Ruby could see the depression in the top cover. It wouldn't respond to human hands, but it would respond to her DNA. Ruby put both her hands into the shallow depression and felt the AI respond. Almost immediately the vibrations from the device changed.
"What are you doing ?" Asked Ju-Long.
"Talking to the AI. Please be quiet while I do this."
It might have been an artificial intelligence, but to Ruby, it felt as though it had been lonely. A highly sophisticated device, left running and badly damaged, for an almost unimaginable number of years. It knew it was incomplete and damaged beyond repair, that was the worst part of linking with it. Like sharing the mind of a creature that had been caught in a bear trap a million years ago and was still gradually bleeding to death. She looked at Ju-Long.
"It's been in pain for so long." She said. "I'm going to give it the shutdown command."
"To repair it and start it up again ?"
He knew, she could see it in his mind and it was upsetting him.
"It can't be fixed Ju-Long." She said. "Someone has tried and made it worse. I'm going to tell it shut down forever."
