Chapter 42: Cortana
As I entered the apartment, it had no rooms, everything was a room with different sections except the bathroom, all in an open room, to the right was my Geek corner with my workshop and all the tools you can imagine from welders, heat saws, a small furnace for melting and making alloys, with its own ventilation system to not kill me when I use it.
On top of the workshop table was the prototype of the helmet I have been working on, I had been inspired by a videogame helmet from my old life.
It was totally black with the whole front of the helmet made of a black glass with sharp angles, where my eyes would be two - - stripes would light up with light and on the top of the helmet instead of two pointed ears that looked like a bat I made them more triangular looking more like those of a dog or a wolf.
Creating my own version of the Arkham Knight helmet from the Batman video game from my other life..... I've always been a fan of Jason Todd.
Next to my Geek corner was the gun wall with a few guns I've managed to snatch up from here and there. I bought a few with Jackie's name on the Net, nothing too illegal.
I had a fan who wrote to my Cybertube account, he was a gun greek, apparently he had a store that sells them in New York, Kendo Weapons Shop something like that.... thanks to him I bought the guns from his online store, without asking me many questions, but the advanced stuff like smart guns or large caliber guns you needed to give your details and be over 16.
Something that when Kendo asked me for the guns I wanted, I didn't give them to him and I made do with the ones that were not so controlled.
I Have
- Arasaka JKE-X2 Kenshin x 2 (Stolen/donated to/from Ojii)
- Constitutional Arms Unity x 2 (from the net)
- Darra Polytechnic DR-5 Nova x 1 (by the net)
- Rostović DB-2 Satara x1 (from the net)
- Arasaka Shigure x 1 (Stolen/donated to/from Ojii)
- Tsunami Nekomata x 1 (from the net)
- Katanas, military style x 3 (from the net)
The most sophisticated ones like the two Kenshin were Ojii's old pistols, which he kept to take to fix, but he never did and I borrowed them.
Which I repaired along with the Shigure that Grandpa had also discarded. I also had a few Katanas of military design that I wanted to experiment with them, but I have not had time to do it .....
And with that, we got to the middle of the room which had a couch under the window where you could see the entire Nc canal along with the bridges and in the background the Spaceport.
Right next to the window was one of the my two treasures that I bought with the money I had gotten from cybertube the first and most expensive one ....
A grand piano my most expensive possession, I have always wanted to play one..... but I never could, the only thing I had tried before was a shitty carpet, that made piano noises, I mean shit, but at the time it helped me a lot.... but when I tried a real piano..... Ahmmm how to describe it even the keyboard I bought could not compare to playing a real piano.... feel how when you play a key the string is hit by the hammer and feel the whole process organically not by a loudspeaker but feel the hammer blow on the string generating a slight vibration of the piano tail..... felt amazing...
When I bought my first keyboard..... 1 and a half years ago I just wanted more.....The grand piano cost me 54k Edis.
It was exorbitantly priced and left my account shivering when I bought it a month ago.... but I couldn't control myself, in my old life it cost 20,000 and up for mid-range ones, but obviously in this world they were going to be more expensive.
The piano I bought was mid-range, the best in this world could cost 150-200k, but the one I bought was still incredible, the wood of the piano I bought was a spruce modified to increase the flexibility and fortifying at the same time the wood, making it able to vibrate more, increasing its sonority and at the same time strengthened so it could withstand the increased tension in its strings .... making it simply the evolution of the piano I knew ...
It was a monster, in the forte parts of the music scoreI couldn't press the keys too much because it would make the fucking piano vibrate the room..... like a beast!..... but it was worth it.... I loved it.
Then I got 3 electric guitars and one acoustic, I also had a bass, and a drum set that I had learned to play.
I also had a Qpc hanging from the ceiling that I used to assemble the songs. I also had Cortana installed. With Peter's help, we could remove some restrictions on her code so that she could develop personality safely....
But with all the memories she had of us jud and I... calling her useless and that her explanations were rubbish..... had what you might call a distinguished or unique personality....
"Hi Cortana how are you!"
"....hello.... so you're... back, don't... waste time.... with this.... useless..." said Cortana as she spoke reluctantly from the Qpc creating a hologram of her.
which I gave her the appearance of games..... That earned me a perverted almost comradely look from Peter and another disgusted almost angry look from Jud when I did.....
Doesn't she understand I'm just a fan!? and enjoy it like Peter, I know she likes it too.
Turning to Cortana she was lying with her back to me as she reluctantly raised a hand making something resembling a vague salute as she spoke without looking at me.
"You know Cortana you need to cheer up and learn to forget woman.... and what if you don't like being a teacher anymore it's true you were awful at it... But....we're sure to find something you're good at..... fightto!"
"WHAT I DON'T LIKE ANYMORE!?...I LOVED BEING A TEACHER it's in my source code damn it..... it's because of you bastards, always insulting me saying I was useless.....how is one going to get motivated and ``cheer up''(bastard)..... you know the abuse I've taken from you two..... I'm scarred for life..... no matter what I do.... sure I'm..... just as useless....as you said....(Sniff)"
Cortana said as she created a bed in her hologram and got into it just poking her head out as if she wanted to hide from the world in the bed she had created, she changed her sad or discouraged expression to a contented one almost as if she was in a safe and warm environment
"Hey Cortana.... the bed.... do you feel warm or better when you're in one, I mean you've created one and covered yourself up, but that's a holographic representation of yourself to help communicate with humans..... so is that theater or do you really feel better in that bed?"
"Well... both..... since you removed my restriction I have tastes...there are things I like and things I don't...like all the memories of you guys calling me useless....when I got around to trying things.... to cheer me up a bit...I found a few Bds on the Qpc that wasn't restricted...I was able to pull certain code from the Bd's and then do an emulation so that the section of bd code I separated out interacted with my code...."
she said fearfully at first, like a small child weighing that she has done something wrong, but then she gained courage and encouraged herself, continuing to talk
"I pulled.... the code from a Bd of a sleeping human.... at first I could feel the warmth of the bed close my eyes and the momentary darkness only to have the human in the bd get up...with the feeling of doing his needs from his body which I still can't understand and find disgusting, but..... when in the Bd the human would happily return to the bed to warm place while I could feel it was feeling the cold outside the bed.... it was wonderful! I felt great when in the bd he closed his eyes again and went back into Rem phase..... the bd code on Rem sleep was amazing to experience for an AI like me who never felt tired. When you took away my limitations, I felt sad and useless because of the memories I had of your abuses those bds were a refuge for me.... I learned to value and recreate the rem phase of the human brain in AI's it is useless in our code.... but..... I feel better after going through the code a few hours....."
I was open mouthed at what Cortana was saying..... I don't really like Bds but of course I have some cheap= harmless or bland ones, they were things like a night's sleep on a cold day, finding your favorite food after being hungry, finding a mother when you got lost as a small child, feeling the world from a child's eyes. ... things like that, the Bds doing something exciting or unique those were the expensive ones, and the price goes up or down depending on the scale of emotion the bd has and what high it can give you ...
And apparently Cortana has been pulling codes from the bds with certain memories or feelings that she liked and has created her own library of them, like the bed and body heat sensations.... and her favorite is the sleeping bd, the Rem phase one.... kind of bland.... boring.... but also funny and beautiful that he likes to sleep... but if she can emulate the feeling of human when sleeping.... why does he feel better? maybe feeling the joy of a good night's rest of a human and that's why he feels better? He can't be dreaming right?
"Well I'm glad you like them let me know if you want any special ones and I'll buy them for you...but Cortana I'm not buying you any dangerous bd's!"
"Okey!..... thanks!" she said somewhat embarrassed and happy at the same time, turning off her hologram....