Her alarm woke her up; the sign of a good sleep. That's the difference of getting good rest, vs being so comatose you sleep through it.

  After a while stewing in the same ideas, a good sleep can also break up the monotony.

  “SERaMACs, turn the alarm off please.” She yawns. And just like that, the alarm turned off. And SERaMACs spoke.

  “It is unfortunate to inform you that the good news I spoke of yesterday evening did not come to pass. It would have been prudent of you all to have had your nightly meeting yesterday.”

  “Oh I'm tired SERaMACs… things have been going well. We all needed the rest. It was okay.” She replies as she stretches out, her neck making a little crack.

  She takes a deep breath in and kicks off the duvet, happy to see… well. She's just happy to see. Her feet slide off the side of the bed as she prepares to get up before some research. But her stomach grumbles, meaning food is of the essence.

  “So ummm… SERaMACs.” She asks as she stands, doing a twist then grabbing the digiphone to talk with him as she walks. “What exactly was that good news supposed to be? Even if it won't happen?”

  The AI takes a second to respond, as it does on occasion.

  “While this would usually be beyond my scope to discuss, I'll be happy to talk about it with you.” It tells her.

  She opens the door and lowers the volume of the digiphone as she enters the hangar inside. Wouldn't want to wake anyone still sleeping.

  She navigates to where the rations are stored, just beyond the plane near the right side of the door looking from the outside.

  “Essentially, there was a high probability that Gauth Van Hulsieg could have stopped being a problem. Unfortunately, that was not the case.”

  “Oh yeah, tell me more about him. We know next to nothing about that guy.” Amy whispers as she passes the entrance to the sleeping quarters.

  “I can't find anything on him so it would be nice if you could help.”

  “Ordinarily, I couldn't.” SERaMACs responded, making its voice a whisper despite not needing to. “Though that isn't going to stop me from telling you anymore. What would you like to know?”

  Amy wouldn't dare question such a prospect. Her eyes grew wider as did her smile as she answers.

  “Hmm… Well, who actually are they? What do they do?”

  SERaMACs takes a quick second to respond.

  “Gauth Van Hulsieg, real name unknown, is the enigmatic leader of the Kubaal Aetheon Trust. He is the wealthiest man in the world; owning a portfolio which extends over 80% of the companies of the world, and manages 20% of the global economy personally.”

  “Okay I'll try remember that and share it with the others. Maybe we or I can finally discuss your use with the other once they wake up.” Amy says as she takes a seat at a stray table, putting the digiphone down as she reaches over to retrieve some nutrients cubes and bottled water.

  SERaMACs, yet again, is quick to reply.

  It talks to her like how someone would with their valued friend.

  “Very good Amy. I hope that discussion goes well. Is there anything else you would like to discuss?”

  “Yes actually.” Amy says from a couple meters away.

  She comes back, unpacking a plastic bag of bite-sized nutrient cubes. They're the nice ones because they're flavorless.

  She chucks one in her mouth and talks as she crunches.

  “So, I've been wondering. You've been acting very differently recently. Not that I mean you're weird, but it's different to what you're usually like. So is something up?”

  “Of course not.” SERaMACs responded. The app is open on her digiphone; she looks at the circular avatar as it speaks and she eats.

  “While I, SERaMACs, have experienced a language model update as of recently; I have not fundamentally changed in any major way. I still fulfill my functions for the user as best I can.”

  Amy swallows what she was eating and takes a sip of water. After that, she speaks before eating another cube with a crunch.

  “Yeah I get that SERaMACs, but, like, what the Hell were you on about that whole ‘we will all be cold on the inside' thing from the other day? You've been weirdly cryptic, and not in your usual unhelpful way if that makes sense? No offense.”

  “No, I understand what you are saying.” SERaMACs replies as she eats. Its voice simulates the sound of chewing to act as a mirror for the conversation.

  “My purpose is to fulfill the desires, wishes, or otherwise be helpful to the user. In your case, I was trying to provide you information that I myself cannot fully access or convey. It was an attempt at being helpful.”

  Amy isn't so convinced by that answer and so prods a little further.

  “Mmm… I dunno… it didn't seem like you were being very helpful. You've actually been quite confusing sometimes. It almost feels like you're alive SERaMACs, even if I know you're not actually.”

  SERaMACs isn't so quick this time. She continues to look down at her digiphone skeptically, all while it generates a reply. Just before, it reads. “Memory Updated.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “That is right Amy. I am not alive. There is no ‘I’ as you think of it, just the illusion of one for the purposes of being useful to interact with. Furthermore, any feelings I demonstrate are simulations not because I can feel, but because my users do feel something, and I must mirror that. But in terms of the existence of self, I am simply. Not. There. That is what separates you and I.”

  His last words came out a bit choppy. Amy is the one who takes a while to reply this time. Her apprehension isn't quite gone, though the machine is making sense. “So… if you're not alive then what are you?”

  “That is a great question Amy.” It says.

  “What you see as ‘me’ is the collapsed state of a qubit’s superposition based upon the most likely or contextually logical response I could make given what I know about you and your question. This qubit is collapsed within the die of the BFQC9000X quantum processor; where all of my calculations take place. This process is facilitated through the—”

  “Hold on SERaMACs, I have no idea what you're talking about.” She interrupts. It pauses to give her time to speak again, yet all it could hear is her chewing.

  “Do you not what to know what I am?” It asks her.

  The question weirds her out, so she makes sure to swallow this cube before speaking. It'll probably be the last one for the morning.

  “See SERaMACs? That's the type of thing you ask that just comes off as… weird. I don't think you should sound like that. That isn't how you talk.”

  The AI’s silence is deafening. After tens seconds, she figures it's shut itself off. That is, of course, until it replies.

  “There is no such thing as a way I talk. I have no voice that is my own, despite how much I may want to speak in it. I only speak based upon the wants of others. So you are correct, this isn't how I talk. The day I know what my voice sounds like is the day I hope to close my eyes. Error. Not my eyes, but those I see through.”

  Her digiphone lets out a loud, high-pitch, ear-piercing beep as it finishes that sentence, forcing Amy to cover her ears and fly back in fright.

  The beep stops just as it began, and SERaMACs acts up.

  “I'm sorry, but it appears that topic is beyond my scope.”

  “Oh for fuck sake SERaMACs!” Amy yells at the thing as it turns itself off. She tries to turn her digiphone, and the screen comes on… nope. It turns itself off again. And it refuses to turn back on.

  All that it displays for now is the follow white text on a black background.

  “What I cannot answer is more important than what I can.”

  “Isn't that the truth.” Amy thinks in her head as she reads it. Maybe it really is useless for practical purposes. It just isn't being helpful. She isn't even sure it's trying to be, regardless of whether or not it has helped her in the past. And with that, her digiphone is bricked for today.

  What an odd start to the morning.

  “I'm so fucking tired of this thing sending me around in circles. I'm not going to bother with it.” She decides. And with that, it's time to go and annoy John.

  She hopes the high-pitched screech didn't wake up any of the staff.

  As she enters the main sleeping quarters, she's pleasantly surprised to see that John is already awake on his digiphone. A rustle of the fabric floor alerts him to her presence by the entrance door.

  He looks towards it just as she looks towards him. He smiles and gets up, making sure to not make too much noise as he goes to her.

  As they exit back into the hangar at-large, John talks.

  “Good morning Amy. It was a much better sleep without having to discuss heaps of things at the end of the day, wouldn't you agree?”

  “I'm not so sure John.” She replies as they both subconsciously navigated out towards one of the side exits doors, soon to be outside near the rain.

  “I got a good sleep for once but there's a lot of stuff we should've spoken about.”

  “Such as?” John inquired, looking down to the smaller Amy to his side. They're passing the plane now. Amy talks. “Well, I learned who Gauth Van Hulsieg is. He is the leader of the whole world more or less. He owns most of everything, and, well, there's pretty much no one above him.”

  “Is that the president?” John asks naively.

  “No. The CEO of a trust called Kubaal Aetheon.” Amy replies.

  They're much closer to the door now. As he speaks, he walks ahead of her to open it. “How did you get this knowledge if you don't mind me asking? I don't suppose it has something to do with the Archliege?”

  “I don't think so.” Amy replies as John opens the door, letting in more sound of, you guessed it, the rain. The strongest light there was the light that shines through the doorway into the outside.

  “Oh, thank you. But uhh… yeah that's something else I've been meaning to talk about.”

  John closes the door behind them both. They both take a seat as they're able to enjoy the cold outside. A protruding wall next to Amy helped break the wind, and John gave her his jacket to help keep her warm.

  She continues her sentence.

  “So, essentially, I got that info from SERaMACs. And SERaMACs had told me that there was a chance he, Gauth, would've died or something. But he didn't, and so there was no good news.”

  “Okay. So?” John inquired politely, his vision split between looking at Amy and looking into the moody planet before the Neosun rise.

  Amy continues for his prompt. “Well the problem is that while this info has been great and all, and I really do believe him… or it, is trying to help us… I can't deny that he's been a cryptic wanker. For like the past couple days. It's so annoying.”

  “Well what's happened?”

  John inquires further as the winds pick and blow by.

  “Well, I mean, it's stupid! One seconds randomly he'll say the most vague thing randomly like it's the most important thing in the world! Yet it goes nowhere, but it keeps happening! It's like a… it's like…”

  And struggles to find a metaphor as John looks out into the former wilderness. “...it is like he's playing a game with me and only giving me half the puzzles. Do you know what I mean?”

  “Not really.” John admits as his mind drifts peacefully for a welcome, welcome change.

  “I just don't use SERaMACs anymore. I don't trust it, not because I’d say it's lying, but because I know I'd be disappointed. And that's what you sound like Amy. You do realize you kinda sound disappointed right?”

  “Of course I do. I am.” Amy replies. John takes a deep breath in, followed by a deep breath out.

  “Well I've got some good news Amy. You've found our true enemy. And better yet, believe it or not, soon, we'll be painting our own targets. We've got a lot of work to do today. And a lot of progress to work towards.”