Just A Glitch

One Shocking Event

"Are you certain this will work?" I questioned softly, my hand phasing through the holographic image before me as I stared into the shimmering green eyes of the 'person' that stood there in all their glory.

"Of course it will! I'm a genius after all," said the egotistical male as he tapped gently on the keyboard, finishing the last line of commands before beginning the program.

Stepping back, I watched as the image seemed to fluctuate for a moment before the eyes slowly closed. Moments later, a hand came up and brushed the fire-red hair back from the hologram's face, vivid eyes opening wide as he smiled at me.

"Hello, my Mistress. I have missed you."

----

We had spent weeks trying to figure out what went wrong with the program, the self-proclaimed 'genius' insistent that it had nothing to do with his programming of the AI, that it must be a virus that some hacker had infected the systems with. No trace of said virus was ever found other than the odd behavior of the AI itself.

The part that disturbed me the most was how it insisted it knew me, that it had been 'searching for me for ages' and refused to leave my side whenever I was in the labs.

--------

I could feel 'his' gaze on me as I peered at the information on the screen before me, occasionally glancing down at the reference notes I had in my notebook to compare my own studies against that of Bertram. I know he claims it was not his code that caused the error, but either way, I could not leave it up to his word alone.

Still finding no trace of either hackers or a line of code that didn't fit, the only conclusion I could come up with was a glitch at the moment of activation. The problem with that was such a thing should have fixed itself when the program reset itself rather than persisted. The fact that the program, which insisted we call it Morcant, could somehow turn 'his' program on and off at will was just disconcerting.

In fact, it was almost frightening at times, turning around to see his green eyes staring at me like a starved man.

--------

"My Mistress, is there something I can help you with? Tell me what you desire and I will make it happen," his voice came from behind me as I leaned over my desk, causing me to jump in place and the carefully written notes to scatter across the floor.

Kneeling down to pick up the papers that had fallen, only a few managing to remain on the desk, I could feel his eyes trailing over my face like one would with someone they want to remember or does not expect to see again for a long time.

"You want to help? Figure out what happened to mess up your programming so I can fix it!" Getting up, I slammed the stack of papers onto my desk and turned to leave, too tired from spending the past 8 hours pouring over notes to care that I was yelling at a program I had helped to create.

"I'm afraid I can't help with that, Mistress. But maybe this will help?" With those words, he raised a hand upward, soft words spilling from his lips as I felt a strange static like charge enter the air.

The next moment, everything went white and I could feel the charge suddenly release, a sound echoing in the air like the first kernel of popcorn popping. Except that no other unexpected sounds followed, just that one cracking pop and everything went back to the way it was.

Well, almost everything. The papers were still a mess, Morcant was still standing there with a smile on his face and the florescent lights were making that annoying hum in the background that most people learned to ignore over time. The only difference was that now I felt like I had just woke up from the best sleep I'd had in years, even though the clock on the wall showed that only a few seconds had passed.

"It should help you get through the next five or six hours but I should warn you, after that you really need to make sure you eat and get rest. If you try to push yourself any longer than that, you will likely reach a state of exhaustion that will have you sleeping through the next day or two," his voice had started as cheerful but by the end sounded more like someone repeating the same words they had said more than a few times in the past.

--------

It wasn't until my head finally hit the pillow, migraine in full bloom and stomach aching to be filled, that I decided to listen to him next time something strange happened. No matter how much I wanted to stay up researching the occurrence in hopes of figuring out how the heck an AI hologram had managed to have such an effect on the world, let alone my own body.

--------

"Program 7, how did you-" I began, looking into those emerald-like eyes with an intensity that I hadn't shown him outside of when he watched me pouring over sheets of paper or typing into one of the computers.

"Morcant. Please call me Morcant. It would bring me much... pleasure, hearing your voice call my name again after so long. Please?" It was the most emotion I had heard in his voice thus far, a mix of desire and something I could only recall having heard once, back when my father had renewed his wedding vows with my mom.

How could an AI, no matter how advanced for this day and age, have the ability to sound so... affectionate towards one of its creators?

"Morcant?" The smile on his face was almost blinding as I spoke his name, a visible shiver running up his holographic body. "Morcant, what was it you did to me the other day? Was it some kind of shock of electricity? Or maybe hypnosis? Is that it? Was it hypnosis?"

As frightening as the thought was that he could play with my mind, it was far less so than the other thought of what it could be, the idea that had come to me late last night as I had looked at a painting hanging on the wall at home.

I still wasn't sure why my parents had bought it for me, knowing I wasn't really one for fantasy so much as science, but I wasn't about to complain about having it. I had never gotten over my fascination with the legends of Camelot and Excalibur, proven by the fact the painting had followed me with each move from one country to the next with my career.

"Of course not! That was more Merlin's style, mind games backed by a bit of magic here and there, often knowledge stolen from the elder races! No, I do not practice such trickery!" I could hear how offended he was, apologies slipping past my lips before I even realized I was responding to the AI as if he were a real person rather than strings of complicated data given the illusion of form.

"I'm sorry! I- Wait, did you say... Merlin? Wha-" I stopped myself as my eyes locked with a gaze so intense, I felt like my breath was stolen from me. Doubly so when I swear his fingers grazed my cheek, leaving behind a tingling sensation like a static charge as he sighed softly at me.

"I know you are not really my world's (y/n), but somehow I keep expecting you to know these things for what they are, just as she did. I keep waiting for you to remember me. It's not really fair to you, though, is it... Maybe it is time for me to forget the past and do this how I should have from the moment I saw you." Once more, that feeling of static ran across my skin, tracing along my jaw before brushing over my lips. "I hope you do not mind but I have plans to court you in full. I will do whatever I must to make you mine."

With a flash of light, Morcant was gone, replaced by a different image. This was the program we had created. This digitized humanoid form with its flat blue eyes that followed only what it needed to, never staring for too long or too intently. A computerized voice that never showed proper emotion beyond what its programming allowed for or talked back like it expected me to hang on its every word. This was Program 7.

So just what, who, had been Morcant?