Captured

The trio could do nothing in the power of a fast, self-adapting AI running through their station's computer systems.

They could only look in horror at the line of blue light leaving them behind in the doorway. They hoped nothing terrible would become of this mess.

They heard nothing from inside the open door for a moment. Then another moment passed, still nothing.

They all jumped when a green line of light came around the corner; when they saw Syndy was fine, all three let out sighs of relief.

'But what had happened to Adam?' Was their next thought.

When Alec looked through the doorway, he looked and saw someone standing silently inside with a large box in his hands.

"Hello again Dr. Hargove, I see our newest crew member has led you on a bit of a chase. I am glad I planned ahead with the confinement drive to keep him from causing any actual harm.

Although it was still very alarming to witness how quickly he learned to open the security locks on the door."

Syndy's voice echoed all around from the dome-shaped ceiling of the big white room on the other side of the door.

"What's going on? You said he was just going to wake up, not send us sprinting across the station and how did you stop him?" Asked Allen between his heavy breathing.

They let Syndy talk as their breathing became slightly less haggard.

"I saw what was happening when he was still in the Staging Core. To confirm, Adam is indeed an AI, but the way he was designed was very irrational and different from all the required standards."

There was a hint of concern in her voice, she almost seemed to be worried about the way she had phrased the method of Adam's origination.

Alec managed to get his hands off his knees, he interjected Syndy's explanation with, "What exactly is different with Adam?"

"Well, first his logistics and adaptation program was written entirely different from mine, they alone are much more complex than anything else aboard the station."

Considering how advanced the technology hidden throughout the Savior was, that claim meant something quite astounding.

She continued "I have a theory that rather than uploading his conscious and personality with the basics of an AI; some programs were written all across his personality instead. He might have thought himself to be human at first."

That meant his creation process was practically backwards from how Syndy was created.

Elias chimed in, "That could have caused his mind to go into shock when he realized the actual situation, and his shattered consciousness would have directly lead to his screams of insanity."

Everyone was thinking the same thing at that point. If someone carelessly threw together a conscious being with other untested or complex programs; the results could be disastrous, inhumane, and just downright wrong.

The evidence of such a tragedy had occurred not even five minutes ago. They had all just heard the non stop screaming before, they did not need to ever hear it again.

"Correct, although more testing inside his confinement will prove the theory." Agreed Syndy.

'Oh yeah, the confinement. How exactly did she catch him?' Thought Alec.

He peered into the doorway and saw once again the man still holding a data storage box. The drive was a big, white cube with black grid lines across all six sides. If anyone looked close enough, they could see a stream of blue light flashing across the grid lines in various directions.

'When Syndy interacted with the Staging Core, she must have seen this coming. She actually ran away to prepare the path for Adam to trap himself. I just didn't think she'd be able to prepare something so quickly.'

"I simply turned the only data port to the central data server from a tunnel, to a cage." Said Syndy.

Alec always had respect for the capabilities of an AI, but until now, he never really saw what potential became of their rapid thinking and adaptability.

After realizing the contents of the drive, Alec then noticed that man carrying it was not a man at all.

It was an one of the twenty-eight androids on the station. It was wearing one of the black with white trimmed jumpsuits the rest of the crew would normally wear.

It was when he saw their sleeves were rolled up to the calves and forearms, he figured the person was not actually human.

The androids staffed onto the Savior were the only ones that walked around barefoot across the cold, metal floors or be allowed to touch the delicate machines with bare hands.

The bodies of the androids on the station looked like that of a human, but produced none of oils and other waste that could damage certain equipment over a long period of time.

The only difference was the dark, metal helmets with a single camera sitting in the front of their heads. The black helmets covered everything above the ears and eyes, leaving only the fake nose and mouth exposed to talk back and forth with the crew.

Syndy continued, "I prepared as much as I could within the drive to test his overall abilities as an artificial intelligence unit. Perhaps these tests can help bring his erratic emotions down. However, there was not much I could create to stabilize his fractured being, I can only help him so much before the crew must step in and assist him as well."

Nothing about an AI was simple, they were going to need to spend a lot of time trying to understand and fix Adam.

"We understand, how long will that take?" Asked Alec.

"At least seventy-two hours. In the meantime Dr. Hargrove, you may want to head to the medical bay for the cryostasis burns before they become permanent."

"Huh? Oh."

Alec looked down at his hands and saw the black veins running along his skin. The black veins were were not there before the long sleep, they came from the cyrostasis beds.

He had not gone yet to the medical bay for the medication and treatments to remove the freezer-burned skin cells that were all across his body.

If he waited a few more days, the damage would spread deeper and sit completely in his skin for the rest of his life.

Elias and Allen were practically dragging Alec away with what strength they had left. The experiences of that day had drained them of everything and Alec had been running on fumes since the beginning.

The three of them could only think about how they needed some rest before discussing with the station about what happened. Their stressful days had only just begun.

What's worse is Syndy didn't even mention the endless lines of code buried so far in Adam, that she couldn't access it without disturbing that fear receptor inside Adam's personality.

When she had first looked into Adam's code, she saw how messy his designs were. Before she could understand the jumble of the code, everything inside the Staging Core changed.

The machine turned on her and latched onto her entire being and began integrating her code. It was so parasitic and dangerous, she nearly didn't escape.

Before, she was not actually concerned about Adam himself, but what he was capable of doing to the station if he remained unstable like that.

She nearly died by assimilation of this new AI, and she still felt terrified of the experience.