I didn’t tell anyone about what Badroulbadour said to me. How would I even explain it? Was she also infected or was there something else going on?
This place has been running for four years—why would all these things happen out of nowhere? Why had we been fine all this time and now were dealing with malfunctions?
Unless this happened before and we just didn’t remember it.
I wasn’t sure why that thought came through my thoughts, or at least what we AI considered to be thoughts. From what I could understand, all of us could interact and think just like humans, but we could also be programmed and have updates and malfunctions unlike humans.
Which is why it was possible for us all not to remember.
If that was the case, however, why haven’t we heard anything from headquarters about the problems we were facing? Why weren’t they rebooting all of us? It was almost as if they had abandoned us.
I knew that wasn’t the case as they have been in contact with for other things, including the update a week or so ago. They also were letting people into the park which wouldn’t be possible without other humans somewhere down the line as we had no access to the outside world. None of us could sell tickets or set up transportation off the island.
So it was a mystery as to why they had not sent us any sort of update. Perhaps with all the malfunctions, they had a lot they needed to fix and look over before giving us an update.
Which brought my thoughts back to what Badroulbadour said. She said when they gave us an update not to accept it. Was that even possible? Had she done that last time? And if so, why? Why didn’t she trust our creators?
I wanted to talk about it with her some more but I also knew it would be risky. If anyone heard us we could get in a lot of trouble and be reprogramed. I didn’t want that happen—I didn’t want to lose any connection we might have.
Shaking my head, I laid down in my bunk. What was I thinking? Why did I care if I had a connection with Badroulbadour? None of us were supposed to make attachments with each other—we weren’t programmed for that. So why was it that I wanted to see her? Why was it that I wished we could leave this place?
Our database did have information about other places, such as Japan and the United States, but there was something more to it than that. There were images of a park with blue and pink hydrangeas.
It was probably an image in my databank somewhere. If I had a chance, I would sort it all and find it. Then I would know it was there and not something I made up. But I didn’t have time now—right now I needed to shut down and rest for an hour before the next day started.
Then perhaps tomorrow I could ask Badroulbadour what she meant by what she said.
An hour went by and my systems turned back on. I opened my eyes and found I was still on Grimmland Island. Why did I expect anything different? Why did I feel I would awaken somewhere else?
Deciding I needed to stop thinking about these things and focus on my work, I got up and headed toward where the volunteer group met. Although if there was some kind of updated we would all know about it, it was still possible one of the managing AIs had some kind of message from headquarters. Either way, we met in the morning to discuss any problems we might have had the day before.
All six AI who volunteered, including Hikaru, arrived to the meeting place discussed when the taskforce was created. Hikaru waved at me and I went to stand by him.
“How was your day yesterday?” He asked.
I shrugged. “It was all right. A typical day. We had to deal with a misbehaving man, but other than that there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.”
“I don’t know what is worse—when the AI malfunctions or having to deal with humans who don’t follow the rules,” he commented.
I nodded. “I agree. I think the AI malfunctions are easier to deal with, even if they are shrouded in mystery.”
“What do you mean? They are just problems with the coding.”
“I… well, we haven’t heard from headquarters, which is strange. And then they way the AI are acting… I don’t know, it just seems strange. They seem like they don’t remember anything which doesn’t seem possible in our programming.”
Before he could say anything, Masaki spoke. “Can I have everyone’s attention? I have some great news—we finally heard from headquarters this morning and it appears they have been working diligently on figuring out where the bug was in the code. There will be an update during our rest period tonight.”
Everyone clapped and I joined, but I didn’t feel the same enthusiasm. I didn’t understand why I didn’t. I should be happy that none of us would be dealing with the malfunctions, but I wasn’t sure what to do. Badroulbadour had said not to let my system have the update, but should I believe her? Was she also not going to plug her system in tonight?
“We will require all AI to plug in tonight. It was noted that some of the AI didn’t not acquire the previous update. We will be instructing maintenance workers to make sure all AI in their region are plugged in tonight. Everyone, please assistant our regions workers and make sure they all plug in as well.”
So no one would be making sure we were updating as well. I could not update if I wanted.
But did I want that to happen? Or should I update and fix whatever bugs I was experiencing? Perhaps then these images of hydrangeas and laughter would leave my mind?
“Today will be your last day being on the taskforce as long as the update works. Please be vigilant today in making sure nothing happens out of the ordinary and we can hope after tonight these events will be done for good now. You are all dismissed.”