Meeting mother dear

Upon remembering that particular fact I boot up my tablet and click the bluetooth option before allowing it to connect to my computer and placing it on one of my bedside tables. Another immediate change occurs when I connect it with my computer. The holographic screen increases in size to an almost comical degree as it takes up the wall behind my bed nearly entirely.

The weird little arrow like markers at the edges however tell me that the size can be changed and I quickly set the screen to be only a little bigger than my bedside table. I don't need something too big at the moment.

Once that's done, I open up my can of tuna and tell the tablet what I want. "Give me a full course on programming specialising in AI". My voice comes out authoritative for some reason and I feel a slight excitement being able to order someone around. Even if it is just a computer program that's made to respond to my every whim regardless of how I phrase things.

Once I finish speaking the screen displays a playlist with a group of different channels and professionals all uploading their videos online for people to learn from. It only displays the most popular of them based on views and like ratios but it always displays a comprehensive course. Another advancement in recent technology. It's still a narrow AI but we're getting closer to giving AIs sentience or so most would like to believe.

Starting at the basics, Tuna in hand, I watch the videos explain all concepts I would need to know to program my own AI and tell my tablet to record certain important clips of things I think I might need or forget later on.

The only sound resounding through the now quiet room is my chewing on tuna for a while until I realise as I reach for another tin that I'd eaten both tins of tuna. By this point the videos are almost done so I watch the rest of the playlist for another 30 minutes or so before getting to the practical application to make sure I remember it all.

I keep my tablet hooked up to my computer but this time I ask it to show me popular programs for the cython language used in AI. While at it I take a quick skim of the news and discover that a recent revolt on a colonial planet has been suppressed by the star-system primitive military. That was pretty quick even for them.

Ignoring the news again for now, my computer recommends a Cython programming app specifically for me and I decide to use it. It almost immediately downloads and I open up the app getting an audio track describing all it's features as well as common community hacks people have found for the program.

Once done with all that I get to work. Starting with simple scripts to print lines of characters or strings and going all the way to making my first AI that can deal with simple customer service interactions a little while later.

Obviously it's only the framework for all of these things and they are all incredibly basic as programming goes but finishing the whole course in just one day is pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Though I've heard that it's designed to take only 1-8 days depending on how you learn and how talented you are.

I'm still in the upper bracket of average talent wise which gives me a little undeserved pride even though I probably shouldn't be proud of being above average in something that most computers can do for themselves nowadays.

Any way after finishing that little stint of practical learning it's once again time to eat. This time though I know I'm not going to be alone. But I have to go even if I don't want food I will be dragged there any way so it really doesn't matter whether I want to see her or not.

With both reluctance and anticipation I head out of my room and towards the base room. Upon opening the door I find nobody in the base room which is a little surprising. Is she not up yet? Is the first thought that comes to mind until I hear sounds of life coming from the kitchen.

Someone's rifling around the cupboards with a good amount of gusto. That's likely her, preparing to make food. Since she hasn't actually got to the making food part yet though, I can assume that I still have quite a while to wait for dinner. I'm not sure whether this is a stroke of luck or torture.

On one hand, I want to get unpleasant things over with as soon as possible but on the other hand having more time before the unpleasant thing happens is amazing. I sigh and approach the table in the middle of the room where I had my breakfast. I don't need to think about anything like that right now at least.

Since I've got some time but she's still awake. I may as well just get some sleep in stead. So I sit down on one of the chairs next to the table and slump my head down on the table. It's not exactly the most comfortable place for me to sleep and I'll bet that it's going to do some serious damage to my neck and spine in the future but I'm flexible enough to handle it I'm sure.

With that thought, I drift off into the land of dreams. Reminding myself that when I wake up I can't think it's just a nightmare. Screaming at mum when she's done nothing wrong would be a bad idea even by my standards.

A few hours of somewhat peaceful rest go by and finally I feel a gentle shaking on my shoulders. It's barely noticeable in my hazy consciousness but I know who it is and I was ready for this when I went to sleep so I wake up already guessing who's shaking me like that.

Sure enough, when I crack my eye open for a split second, in front of me is a woman seemingly in her early 30s with the smile of a child on her face. It looks incredibly jarring to me but people seem to like the gap according to her and I don't really want to bother judging their tastes when it pays some of our bills.

Her hair is brown almost red a little like my own. Her eyes however are an emerald green and sparkle like the jewel I compare them to almost constantly. From her back appear a pair of incredibly tiny wings black as the night sky above. They are clearly too small to support her weight but the still flap excitedly as she smiles at me.

"Time to wake up, sweetheart" she says in a soothing yet still clearly excited voice. She's always like that. Jekyll and hyde isn't a very good comparison but the amount of contradictions in her behaviour is staggeringly similar to the old story of the mad scientist.

"Morning, mum" I say in a still half-awake voice. Even though it was just a short nap I'm still really bad at waking up and it clearly shows. My brain is still half in a dream. I can still see the scenes of my dream continuing as I lift my head off the table with my eyes once again closed.

"As much as I love to hear that phrase from you sweetheart, It's never morning when you see me dear." She says in a tone containing no disappointment or even amusement. She almost appears to show me the rye smile I can't see on her face through her words.

"I'm half-asleep. Leave my SPAG alone mum. It's not like I need it any more." I reply still half-asleep and thus despite intending this to come out as a scolding comment, it just comes out as half-asleep complaints.

"Yes, yes of course. Now could you wake up? Dinner's just being plated and I don't want you to miss it." As she speaks I can hear the sounds of movement from around the table so I assume she's plating our food while she's waking me up. How considerate, I think to myself rolling my eyes on the inside.

"I'm awake enough to eat food already." I say and then finally I open my eyes. Sure enough the table is filled to the brim with different assortments of foods for dinner. Everything from a pink fish known only as pseudo salmon to assorted salads covered in dressing that gives off a meaty and game-like fragrance.

Our diet is primarily meat based but we still do have these types of vegetable salads from time to time and this appears to be one such time. My own plate and the one my mother is currently placing across the table from me is empty. This is because mum will generally cook a variety of foods and then we will pick and choose the ones we want today.

The leftovers will then be used in some way the next day or we may end up donating it to a food bank should no one pick up the food for several days. We also receive the food from the government after all and thus we do not get much choice in what we eat but because they provide so much we get to essentially pick and choose our meals regardless and so our eating habits have developed to accommodate that.

I pick up the utensils in the wrong way as per usual. I know it's wrong but I do it anyway when only mum's home to spite father. Well that and I got too used to it and now I prefer things this way regardless of the correct etiquette. That man's always a stickler for rules and etiquette though so I have to do things right when he's here. Since he's not right now though, I can get away with this.

So I grab a salmon from the corresponding plate and drizzle a little of the melted butter on the fish. Then I grab a far smaller portion of the salad and such before placing it on my plate in a similar fashion. As I do so mum tries to strike a conversation up with me as usual.

"Did you hear about what happened on the news dear?" She asked carefully scooping a piece of salmon onto her own plate and a larger portion of salad albeit still small in a similar manner. Her question doesn't take much pondering because it's so open ended I could have given her a hundred different answers and they'd all be correct to some degree.

"You're going to have to be a little more specific mum." I say only barely listening to her as I cut a piece of salmon and grab a few vegetables from the salad before placing them in my mouth. I know mum doesn't cook these without machine assistance but she is really a rather good cook.

"The news that the revolt has been suppressed dear. What other news could be so joyous." She says an eerily happy smile on her face. I mean she's always happy and smiling but when you're talking about what is essentially a small scale war where millions or possible billions of people lose their lives it gives off a markedly different impression.

"Why would we care that some other revolt has been squashed. Happens all the time. It's honestly impressive there are still rebels willing to take up the mantle at this point." I say and for some reason I have a small smile on my face as well when I think about the kind of battle going on everywhere around the star-system.

Just imagining being a part of that war and taking control of the battlefield is enough to give me a small thrill. This keeps happening and I still can't figure out why. Before I can ponder for too long however mum cuts in and my smile almost immediately disappears. Though to mum it probably just looks like I've adopted my normal expression again.

"Because it means your father will be coming home. Isn't that great? If it's been publicised and they haven't sent us a death notice it means your father's safe too which is a relief. I know how strong he is but I worry for him sometimes." she says a rapturous almost intoxicated smile on her face. As much as most people would be happy to hear their parents talk about each other with lovestruck smiles on their faces it just makes me frown imperceptibly.

"Oh yeah, I suppose that does sound good." I say trying to keep my voice just sounding disinterested and not downright hostile. I'm confident in my acting skills after all these years but it doesn't mean I can be negligent. Well mum probably wouldn't catch on but she'd definitely report to father and that wouldn't go well for me.

"Where's your enthusiasm dear? Your father's coming home. Isn't that great. We should celebrate." She says practically jumping in her seat already. She really wants to have a party clearly. In any other circumstance I would probably be happy for a party but celebrating that man's return just doesn't sit well with me.

"Yeah I suppose we should." I say reluctantly forgetting for a second that I should probably hide that. Thankfully however she just takes it as me being tired as she gives me a worried look but makes no further comment on the matter.