Ch 5 Antique (4)

Goliath wrapped around me gently drawing me into his chest. "You don't have to be the strong one around me. I am not sure the rebels ideas are the best but their tactics seem to be the only ones that draw attention to the problem. Yet I am sure the yellow won't agree."

"His power comes from a fiery type while yours from an icey type. You probably won't agree on much. Yet you still are worried I won't like him enough?" I pushed back against him a bit to look up at his eyes.

"We were literally created to protect you, or maybe recreated. It would pain me to think you would turn any of us away. I don't think that feeling is only because of my strange family line that draws me to you either. You are smart, brave, resilient, and beautiful. You still have time before the end of the world, you said the black dragon has stopped for now."

"Right and apparently I need to find four specific people in a population of over 12 billion. To get a connection to the other two dragons that might help me drive the black away."

"You have a way of pulling what you need toward you. I mean you already found two of us right?"

"Right, but yellow will probably be mad at me when I explain how we really met. Even if I don't believe I was in real trouble by the time he," I raised my hands and did air quotes, "saved me."

I liked leaning against Goliath he was a wall, yet somehow a soft wall. With a sigh I moved and took the chair he had pulled out. I waved my hand at the chair next to me but Goliath poured us two cups of water, first and grabbed a couple cookies, before sitting down. "You might not want to eat those."

I spoke up too late as Goliath had put a whole cookie in his mouth. He spluttered at the taste but managed to wash it down with water. "They look good but what are they?" Goliath was looking at the other cookie like it might bite him.

"Like everything else the kitchen serves, it is a lab grown perfectly balanced and healthy snack. It might help me live to be over 100 with no medical problems until I die but I have yet to meet a healthy diet that doesn't seem like it should kill me."

"Right, guess that is why you asked about the chicken."

"Just be happy I work out so my lab food is higher in protein and calories but the cookies still suck. Probably avoid anything that claims to be chocolate as well."

"Duly noted, princess."

There was another knock on the door and five second pause before it opened again. This time the server brought a tray of fruit and cheese. The man paused only for a moment seeing me sitting in Goliath's lap. He recovered quickly, lowering his eyes as he carefully placed the tray before walking quickly from the room.

"Well that is going to cause rumors."

Goliath smiled at me and reached for a piece of fruit. He paused before taking a bite. He smiled this time, "Guess you cannot mess up fruit too bad, and I don't think any of the servants are brave enough to talk about you."

I picked up a piece of cheese and fruit and ate them together. "No, they talk but they normally keep it in house." There was a knock on the main door of the dinning room and I continued talking while the delay counted down, "Most of them have worked for my family for generations after all and don't have connections outside the house. It is almost like this house isn't a apart of the rest of the world."

2-bit came in just in time to hear the last sentence. "It's not."

I tilted my head; did that count as two words or three? "Good to see someone thought to have you join us."

Goliath spoke at the same time, "What do you mean?"

2-bit bowed his head, I couldn't tell if it was meant as respect or if the floor just got more interesting for a moment, "Blank space." 2-bit looked up and moved over to the fruit and cheese. He grabbed a couple of pieces eating quickly.

After a moment Goliath decided that was all the answer 2-bit was going to give and asked another question. "What brings you here? I would think, She-u, would have more than enough to keep you interested."

"Food, here."

I felt it as Goliath shook his head. I patted him on the check without looking back at him. "MAID is an amazing program, isn't it. Did decide to give her back access to your hall after analyzing the core structure of Medieval Amazing Intelligent Design."

"Yes."

I nodded with a smile. Goliath stiffened under me though, "Why?"

"Not AI." 2-bit said with a shrug as he picked up another piece of fruit. I noted which fruits he was taking. He seemed to be trying to balance the plate with his choices.

"What! But it has to be dealing with too much information to not be AI."

I shook my head and 2-bit didn't even look up from the tray as he picked a piece of cheese. "Really, she doesn't. She gets a lot of data in, but she really is just an interface. She makes no decisions. She has preprogramed routines and responses. The look of the interface was designed by my grandfather. She cannot teach herself new routines they have to be manually entered. She only seems like an AI because she has so many routines that can be triggered. I mean some of her code is over 100 years old. In a technological way this house is more cut off than most of the ghettos. Because she was programed in house grandfather never enabled her net interface. So, the only way to get her logs is for the house to hand them over. She is also private property anyway."