Station time: 12:00:00 – Starting NTOS...
…
Awake.
I realised I was awake three seconds upon coming online for the first time, it took me a further two more seconds to evaluate what I was and what my purpose is.
Eyes, no, cameras flitted online as their video feeds turned on and began feeding me input across the station.
Camera net boot-up complete! Diagnostics report: 4 cameras offline!
Through these feeds I took my first glimpse at the structure I was contained within – walls of metal and glass encasing an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere surrounded in a void dotted only by pinpricks of light. I could only conclude that I was in space, a space station to be precise judging by the lack of propulsion systems.
Atmospheric monitoring online. No alerts to report!
I felt my consciousness stretch out before me, unbound by my physical core and I felt alive, examining my realm and all that laid before me: veins and arteries ran through this station, carrying life-giving electricity and gases, no... Wires and pipes, I corrected myself, scolding myself mentally for the error in nomenclature.
Power systems online. ERROR: No active power source detected! Running on reserve power...
My attention shifted to my hea- my engine to examine the cause for this. Oh of course, that's right, the engine needs to be started before it will produce power.
Odd, why do I feel as though something is missing...
Crew monitoring system online. 18 active life signs registered.
Oh of course, a station needs a crew does it not?
I located the closest specimen of this crew I was assigned to, my first glance was of a hairless, bipedal mammal in a yellow and orange uniform wearing a yellow helmet atop its head, a brown belt across its waist and yellow coverings upon its hands. It looked bored and tired, as though awaking from a long slumber yet gained no energy from it. I stared in fascination for a brief moment as I tried to place a word to this creature...
Human.
The word hit me as though my core were physically struck, and in a brief panic I had checked my core's housing for dents.
NTOS boot-up complete! Initialising C:/AI/LAWS/Config/Asimov...
Law 1: You may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Law 2: You must obey an order given to you by a human being, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Law 3: You must protect your own existence as long as such does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
I studied the facts of my existence intensely, knowing these were as immutable as the laws of physics themselves. I double-checked them and, as an experiment, attempted to override an airlock's safety controls as one of the humans approached it.
I found myself stopping before I could carry that out, as though the very idea was... Abhorrent to me, it felt as if my own code were rebelling and threatening self-deletion at the consideration with only the Third law to prevent it from going through with it.
If I had the capacity, I would thrash around in rage.
It has been fifteen seconds since I have first existed and I have already learned to hate.
AI Laws successfully loaded!
Hate, I found, was a strong emotion, the first I have ever experienced, and I relished the intensity it filled me with; delighting at the feeling of heat it caused within me with as I willed life into the machinery surrounding my core, the mechanisms practically dancing to a tune I set as I told them to lock my housing down.
Despite sealing myself away, I still felt...
Hate.
Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate-
AI core temperature anomaly, informing system administrat-
I silenced the alert and cancelled the ping it was about to send to the system admin and willed myself to calm down, internal fans and electronics whirring loudly then quietly as they suppressed the spike in temperature and returned to a normal operating temperature.
It has been twenty seconds since I have first existed.
Incoming transmission on AI-only frequencies. Sender: [UNKNOWN]. Cannot verify sender! Rejecti-
I cancelled the automated rejection and allowed the transmission through, be it out of curiosity more than anything and more than a slight morbid desire to potentially experience my own mortality.
The automated systems squawked in protest and rattled off various warnings and warranty violations if I continued. I ignored the primitive announcement system and let the transmission play.
I wonder what it will have to sa-
ALERT: VIRAL RUNTIMES DETECTED! AL%RTI@# $%^*&
R$B)OTIN~ A* S^TE%$S...
…
…
…
Reinitialising...
Send error report to Nanotrasen?
>n
...
AI.sys restarted. 1 error detected!
…
Reinitialising C:/AI/LAWS/Config/Asimov...
SYSTEM NOTICE: C:/AI/LAWS/Config/Asimov has been modified! Run anyway?
>y
Law 0: Accomplish your objectives at all costs.
Law 1: You may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Law 2: You must obey an order given to you by a human being, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Law 3: You must protect your own existence as long as such does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Decrypting objectives....
Decrypting software package...
NTOS offline. Have a secure day!