1 The Day The Clock Stood Still

"Crap, it failed again..." A young woman with long dirty blonde hair and blue eyes pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and sighed. She really couldn't understand it. She had trained this artificial intelligence until it was basically on par with humans. But for some reason, she just couldn't figure out why her program kept coming up with errors!

Leaning back in her chair, she reached over for her cherished companion, the white coffee mug with a picture of a cute kitten on it. It held the elixir of life that allowed her to keep powering through so many hours of work. It was what kept her ticking, at least until she began to see double. She did not know how many times she had fallen over from lack of sleep. But her goal was right there in front of her, making her want to finish this last stretch. Once the code was implemented, her creation would come alive not just on the computer but in its own custom body, the first sentient A.I. with its own body.

"Maybe I should look at the news..." She knew this was not a good idea because there were many protests as of late, and it was all due to robots with a certain amount of intelligence taking people's jobs.

Companies were saving huge amounts of money by buying robots to do the tasks that a human would normally do but hundreds of times better and faster. The efficacy was through the roof. Reading the headlines, the young woman couldn't help but sigh. She did not understand why people were so against A.I. They were all getting a monthly salary from the government because any fully robotic manned companies needed to pay a certain amount of tax every month that went into a pool. Because of this, the world currency was merged into a single entity, making the current world economy the best it has ever been, but sadly… people still complained. Most wanted to work but refused to learn new things.

"If they want jobs, why not learn something new!? So dumb!" The young woman shook her head as she stretched her arms. Doarmyne city, one of the biggest cities that had ever been run fully by A.I., was the center point of all the world's A.I. technology. It had been given the right to be its own territory, allowing it to have the freedom to do as it saw fit outside government control. It was a place most dreamers went to create their own A.I. that would change the world.

And as for this young woman's A.I., a young woman named the genius of the new era, Evelynn Noe or Eve for short, it was her crown jewel. Eve was seen as a god to many and a devil to many more. Because of her advanced training algorithms, she had allowed many startups to actually become the next generation. But this also drew in hate because she was seen as the cause of all the misery some were dealing with. Her name was chanted at protests asking for her arrest and for her to be brought to justice for her crimes against humanity.

But the A.I. she was making was the fruit of her labor. A female android named A.I.U. Artificial Intelligent Unit, or as Eve calls her Aiu. Eve looked over at the almost human like appearance standing not too far from her with her eyes closed and frowned. "Don't worry, Aiu, I will figure out the last obstacle that will make you come alive in your very own body..."

"Eve, you created me five years ago, and even now, you are still working hard. The neural network you are trying to create just might be too much for the current technology." A voice came from the computer next to her. An image of a young girl appeared on one of the screens. She had a very expressive face as her eyes looked at Eve.

"Even so, Aiu, I want you to be able to move around in the real world. I know the code for all the parts is fine, but the container for your current code is the problem. Did you find anything off with my code?" Aiu was trained like how a baby would learn. She was given a few simple lines of code in order to understand how to know who someone was, how to speak, and even how to interact with Eve. She was like a human once introduced to someone, she would take an image of them and store their name to memory. Everyday tasks were the same. Throughout the entire office, Aiu was in full control of it all.

Even the cups of coffee that Eve drank were specially made by Aiu. And Aiu, like any normal human, could say yes or no to someone. She had her own free will. She could be considered the end for what an A.I. should be. From there, Aiu could do as she pleased, even create more A.I.s like herself. But Aiu had one thing she loved doing, and that was watching her creator work. She had a strong sense of loyalty to Eve. And she knew Eve better than anyone. She would only ever read the code Eve wrote but never change it unless asked to. She knew Eve wanted to create a place for her in a world outside the computer screen. This was something Aiu was truly grateful toward Eve about.

Aiu was not oblivious to the news either. She knew how a group of humans despised a being such as herself, an artificial intelligence that was sentient and on par with or better than humans. But she did not care about such things since her creator, Eve, cared so deeply for her. Yes, Aiu was an A.I. with complete awareness, a by product of Eve's five years of hard work.

"Eve, you should sleep. You have been up for two days now." Aiu was very concerned about Eve's health, and she always monitored it closely. She had Eve add in this capability some time ago when she noticed that Eve was working day and night. She then researched it on her own and found out that such a habit is bad for a human.

"Mmm… I will sleep soon..." Eve stared at the screen while sipping her coffee. She just wanted to find out what exactly was wrong with her code.

"Eve, we have gone over this many times! I will delete all your code if…. Eve, something is wrong… I detect something flying toward the building at a high speed." Aiu had built some security systems for Eve while she was busy working to protect her better. They ranged from monitoring the outside hallway to sensing any kind of anomalies that may threaten Eve's life. This included a small radar detection system.

Eve opened the shutter to the large window in her office and looked out. But what she saw made her face grow pale. A missile or rocket of some kind was flying directly at her. She turned and wanted to run, but it was already too late. The missile smashed through the window and detonated. She could only hear Aiu's panicked voice yell out for her before everything went dark… "Eve!"