Foundation of All

Sean returned to the survival courses with Brenda as he settled fully back into a more normal routine. He was still a beginner but he was definitely transitioning into things beyond the basics by now after a few quick refreshers after his long absence.

Lira was spent in the workshop and didn’t really have a project that she really wanted to work on next after finishing her sixth and final hoverbike. She had just puttered around nervously for a few weeks before Sean finally realized the problem and called her over.

Sean looked up as Lira next walked him again before returning to coding a digital puzzle for V4 to solve. The robot was still progressing nicely and its intelligence had really grown from when it had first been activated. It defied all the design notes on what it should do, and Sean had built V5 and V6 just to see if he had changed something while building them. But V5 and V6 were the exact same with only minor changes due to human error and they matched the specifications to perfection.

Actually their designs were substandard considering how useless they were in comparison to their much more intelligent brother V4. Sean had given up on those two and these days spent most of his time in the workshop building more simulations and tests for V4 to take. Lira spent her breaks between working on her own projects to sit and talk at V4. The robot didn’t usually say much in response, but it appeared to pay attention while she narrated what she was working on as well as rambling about whatever topic came to her mind at the moment.

Speaking of which, Sean called her over as she paced past him again. She walked over and quickly glanced at the screen in front of Sean for a moment before sitting down, “Yeah, Sean? What do you need?”

“If you don’t have a new project, you don’t have to putter around here just because of me,” Sean said, “You can still drop by to help with testing V4 or to talk to it occasionally. If you have something you’d rather be doing that’s fine, don’t feel stuck here just because I’m so invested in these things…”

Sean gestured to the room and all the machines around them.

Lira huffed and sat down, leaning back with her hands gripping the bench behind her as she let out a long breath.

“That obvious?” Lira said, “I don’t know, I’m not feeling inspired right now for a new project. But we met here, almost all our time as a couple has been in this shop. What if we drift away from each other if we’re no longer doing the same things? I just worry even if I know it is silly.”

“That’s not silly,” Sean said, “But you shouldn’t stay here just for me. What about your art? You said you enjoyed that, why don’t you do it again? We’re not joined at the hip, just because you’re my girlfriend doesn’t mean we have to like the same things all the time. We can still go on dates and spend time together either way. We just have to plan it out rather than having a ‘date’ here.”

Lira hesitated and kicked her legs in the air slightly as she considered Sean’s words, “And you really don’t mind if I go do another hobby without you? I feel like I’d hardly be seeing you if I did that.”

“Well, there’s an easy solution to that,” Sean said with a grin, “Just visit me here more often! V4 will miss you if you’re gone for too long, you know. And maybe I could be your artistic assistant sometimes. Clean up the stone chips or hold the… other end of the chisel? Swing the hammer?”

Lira giggled and Sean gave up,

“I actually don’t know anything about how I could help,” he admitted, “But you get what I’m saying. Hopefully we’re not together only because I happened to be nearby at the time.”

“No,” Lira said, “You’re right. I don’t know why I was worrying so much. Thanks, Sean.”

She stood and came forward and leaned down to give him a kiss on the cheek from where he sat.

“I’m feeling much better,” she said after she drew back and stood again, “Maybe you’re right. I should try to get back into my craft. Especially with Roger still trying to get us a viewing of a piece by the founders. Eeeeeiiiii! I’ll get started now, feel free to interrupt me if I get carried away and spend too long with my art.”

She squealed in anticipation just talking about visiting the art of the Founders. Sean wondered how Roger had managed to land squarely on what appeared to be her greatest dream within their first conversation. Lira had been talking about it with intense anticipation ever since Roger had announced he had officially filed the request with the Immortal Council. It was unknown how long before they would get a response, but with all the volunteers to go that Roger had rustled up, the man seemed confident that it wouldn’t take too long.

With anyone else Sean would think it was a coincidence, that Roger had managed to discover Lira’s greatest dream by accident, but with Roger… well, who knows. That man was a master at social engineering when he got in the mood. When he really dedicated his mind to something it was truly terrifying. It was only his laid back attitude that saved the rest of them from his tyranny, Sean mused as Lira walked away with a new bounce in her step.

“Here’s the next test V4,” Sean said, “I’ve coded a randomized maze for you to solve. As you go along it will get harder and harder. A series of enemies will be blocking your way and you must use the associated character abilities with specified limits to defeat them.”

Yes, Sean had built a computer game just for V4. Most games he had found were weirdly complex even for the simplest games. He needed to have a game complex enough mentally, but also with very simple inputs so V4 would be able to not be confused by it. Also V4 was extremely slow while it was learning to play, so anything requiring timing or rhythm was automatically out. V4 would just fail it over and over and never end up getting anywhere near fast enough to press the buttons like a human would.

“Confirmed. Solving the game, Sean,” V4 said as it sat down at the computer and began to explore the options and play through the various levels. Each maze took longer and longer to master until it became stuck on the eleventh out of twenty of the escalating difficulty levels.

“V4, stop. That’s enough for now,” Sean said after another thirty minutes of no more progress from V4 on the game. The blue lights on V4s eyes flickered for a moment before it stood,

“Confirmed, Sean,” it said.

“Great job today,” Sean said, “Let’s go back for charging again.”

V4 walked over to the custom wireless charging station set in the wall that Sean had built after getting tired of having to plug the standard power cable into and out of V4 whenever it needed to be recharged. V4 walked over and walked backwards until it was standing with its back to the station. It clicked and its eyes flickered for a second to show it had connected.

Sean turned away to start packing up the materials he had left out while working.

“Sean, where is User Lira at the moment?” V4 suddenly said. Sean paused mid motion and slowly turned towards V4.

“What?” he asked dumbly.

“Is User Lira fully functional? Her processing unit seemed to be malfunctioning these last few weeks, causing her to display abnormal behaviors such as pacing, muttering to herself, and low productivity. When User Sean returned in this most recent activation he was not accompanied by User Lira. Is she in need of repair?”

“I… uh, no?” Sean said hesitantly, “No.” he said more firmly, “Lira is fine, V4. She’s just taking some time off from the workshop. She’ll still come back every once in a while to help with your tests.”

V4 stood there for a few seconds, its face pointed towards Sean.

“Understood,” V4 said before the room went silent again.

Then after a few seconds of its glowing blue eyes fixed on Sean, V4’s head pointed forward and its eyes powered off. Sean eyed V4 for a second and slowly picked up the holopad on the nearby table. He tapped a few times, always keeping one eye on V4 as he did so. He let out a sigh of relief as he saw the reading on the display. V4 had fully shut down, and couldn’t reactivate until Sean manually chose to do so. He couldn’t let it activate again until he got to the bottom of what was happening.

“Sean!” he looked up from V4s cognitive scan that he had been intently looking at as he heard Lira’s voice at the entrance. He had been analyzing the scan for what felt like forever, but no matter how much he looked he couldn’t find what exactly could cause V4s sudden awareness and strange conversation with him. But it was undeniable that the cognitive software was far more complicated and disordered than it had any right to be.

Sean felt confusion as he saw the annoyance on the approaching Lira’s face, mixed with her body and shoulders that were filled with the nervous tension that she always got whenever she was feeling insecure about herself.

“Are you okay?” Sean quickly asked as Lira grew closer, “What happened?”

“It’s what didn’t happen that I’m angry about,” Lira said, “We were supposed to meet and have that date at that fancy restaurant days ago! You were the one talking it up six months ago and setting it all up for us. I went there and sat and ate alone like an idiot, but you never even bothered to show up at all! I’ve never felt so humiliated in my whole life!”

Sean’s eyes widened and he swiped away V4’s cognitive scan and found the date. Oh shit, she was right… After V4’s sudden display of self-awareness he had forgotten to set himself a reminder and had set his messages on silent while he was in the shop so they wouldn’t disturb him. His heart sank as he checked the app and saw how many messages from Lira he had received while she was still in the restaurant.

“I thought you said me pursuing my art wouldn’t change anything!” Lira said, “Was that a lie? We’ve hardly seen each other in more than passing for months already! And only when I dropped by the workshop to check up on you rather than the other away around.”

Sean raised his hands defensively, “No Lira, for the restaurant it was an accident, I just forgot to set a reminder… I’ve just been working hard on something recently. Sorry if I forgot to visit you more often.”

“You forgot? You’ve never forgotten to be on time for any of our other dates over the years. Or to come visit me. What… Why…”

She seemed overcome with emotion and looked away.

“Wait, Lira,” He said, “Just let me explain. V4 was talking to me, just look at its cognitive scans, they’re amazing…”

Sean pulled them up and held the holopad out to her, but she ignored it.

“You… We’re going somewhere right now,” She demanded, “Drop whatever you’re working on. You’re making this up to me, we’ll do something together. And you’ll never even be late let alone miss something entirely like that again. And set two reminders next time!”

Sean hesitated for a moment before withdrawing the holopad and putting it back on the table behind him. The mystery of V4 could wait until later.

“Understood, Lira,” he said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you like that. I got so absorbed in the work I sort of shut everything out I think. We’ll do something. Whatever you want, I’ll follow your lead.”

Lira stayed standing there looking like the wind had been taken out of her sails after Sean’s easy agreement. He stood and grabbed her hand with his and her expression softened. After a seconds pause, she lightly shoved him with her free hand.

“You big obsessive idiot,” she said softly, “You know how that made me feel? I can’t believe you did that to me.”

“Sorry,” Sean said again not wanting to say anything wrong and make things worse for himself.

Lira appeared to think for a few seconds before nodding to herself. “Splatter painting,” she declared, “That’s what we’re going to do. From now on we’re going to do some artsy things together. That way we’ll be more even from now on.”

Sean nodded, “Sounds great,” he said. And it did, he was interested in her work despite how negligent it seems he had been recently.

They went and it was surprisingly fun. They only ended up getting a little paint on each other by the end. Lira still hadn’t totally forgiven Sean for forgetting about the restaurant even with all his excuses, but they were making progress at least. Sean realized by the end of the splatter painting class that she probably had been looking forward to eating there after how much Sean had talked up the time he had gone there with Roger.

Well, hopefully a few more art classes together would fix things. And Sean was setting three reminders next time. He didn’t even want to know what would happen if he was even a second late next time after he had firmly promised Lira that he wouldn’t be late again in the future.