Forums » General Roleplay » Sands of Time (1x1)

Bill raised an eyebrow as the two AIs began to argue. "Used to be a simpler time before cars could talk and tell you what their problems were..." he muttered more to himself than anyone present.

Chris scowled as he chipped away at the superglue; at least it had dried and crusted over, and wasn't recent.

"Um, Chris, is that crystal thing in CD's engine supposed to be, uh, draining fluid?" Bill asked suddenly.

The two continued to bicker until CD's core cracked more under stress, a perfect line nearly breaking it in half. CD's systems shuddered violently, and the white liquid started to spew out violently. ''Gyaaah! My core!'' CD yelped, ''The powering fluid is starting to leak! If it all goes out I'm not going to be able to stay on!'' She exclaimed, systems shuddering even more, stalling violently and spaaraticaly.

54 snorts. ''See? CD shouldn't be worth fixing up at this rate.'' She muttered to herself, rolling her eyes. As Chris chipped away at the glue, the gearshaft slowly started to slide into neutral with ease. 54 seemed more intact than her 'sister', it so seemed.

(Mechanics nightmare? )

(Haha, something like that. )

"Chris!" Bill yelled as Chris looked up with a start. "It's leaking everywhere. Can you fix it?"

Chris scowled and withdrew from where he'd been sitting in 54's passenger seat. "Take care of the superglue, I'll figure out...maybe the welder's kit?"

He peered into CD's engine as Bill managed to grab a bucket in hopes of catching the dripping fluid. "CD you should shut down so you don't crack it some more--I'll fix it as much as I can."

CD winces and powers down, falling deathly silent as the leaking slowed to a constant dripping of the odd substance. A whitish watery liquid with electricity inside. It seemed to a mix of water and a mysterious compound. One needed to allow the engine block to accept the cores commands without getting any troubles. CD's whole body seemed to be built around that process, to a fault in a failed test of the perfect AI. An AI that couldn't quite understand a purpose of not breaking down every minute. So she remained silent, nothing sounding but the warning beep of the badly cracked core, an emergency signal that few could understand.

Chris glanced at 54. "Alright, I need some advice, 54. Your AI crystal is intact, right? Any idea on how to repair something like this? Is it even possible?"

54 sighs. ''There is a way to repair it, but thats only a fact because...My core is a shard of CD's.'' She replied hesitantly.

Chris' jaw dropped. "So then, if you have part of CD's AI crystal...you're actually part of her. I wonder, if we combined the two crystals, if you would merge into one personality--or keep the two distinctive ones. Not that I'll do that; I just need to know if there's a way of solidifying the liquid goop and if we can fit it back into the crystal?"

Bill just blinked; he was damn good at fixing mechanical issues on cars--but AI engineering was beyond his skill.

''There is a way, but it'd require my core getting cold enough to chill the goop down. Once you got it cool enough to get back into the core, you'd need several 9x4 electrical plastic seaers to cover the cracks until their sealed. But CD's core has a fault. It's seperate from her own control, and it hates being touched.''

Chris began looking for supplies. "Well, Clutch was bad enough in the beginning; I imagine I can wheedle my way through its aversion to being touched."

He rubbed his hands together. "How long does it take for your core to cool down?"

''Usually around 8 minutes when the engine block loses heat. CD was built to try to be perfect, but as you can see perfection has it's...Ah..Flaws, perse.'' She inquired, shifting gears around as her engine beans to cool, and starting to chill the small shard a bit.

"Thank you, 54. I'll be sure to tell CD that you've helped us out."

Bill, meanwhile got the rest of the equipment they would need. "Hopefully this should work; good news though is that the superglue is gone, so 54's gearshift should work good as new."

54 hmm's and moves the gearshift into drive, then into neutral, then to revrese then back into neutral. ''Yep!'' She hissed lightly, snorting. Her core was soon cold, as she shivered as her system waver. ''Ok, it's cool now. Brr...''

With careful hands, and of course wearing gloves, Chris maneuvered CD's core and dropped it into the liquid goop. All of this he put next to the cold core of 54. He hoped it would work.

"Alright," he said, being careful that the entire thing wouldn't fuse together with 54's shard. "I think that's it."

The two cores react violently enough to seal the crack completly on CD's core. 54's core was pretty small, and it was easily visible to see it was the same crystal CD had, just crudely removed and rewired. ''I think they thought they could remake CD again by her core..But CD's core is so vastly difficult to change that it ended up becoming another AI, which is me..'' She thought, drifting off a bit, but flinching and coming back to her senses. ''Hmph..''

Chris jumped at the reaction of the two cores and then he gingerly removed CD's from 54.

"Well the thing about AIs is that even if they copy or clone the same information, each one will learn at its own pace and draw different information from each scenario. It's one of the reasons why I tweak Clutch as much as I do...although granted his core is a manufactured computer chip and not precisely a crystal as you and CD have. So while you might have originated from CD's AI crystal, you won't necessarily have her personality; though you may share similar information."

He sighed and looked down at the crystal in his hand. "I guess I've learned more than I give myself credit for."

''Eh, CD tries to live up to what she built for. But in a world where AIs are not welcome, she has little to go by and little to learn by. While she is indeed a poor AI currently, she was one tough cookie to befriend back in wartimes. Ordering us around as her creator had specified, she was a car with several decorations. At this rate she's only a hull of a former war vet. Her memory must have been more damaged than thought, if she doesn't remember anything at all....'' 54 rambled on.

CD's core was a pure shiny white crystal object that seemed almost like a polished diamond in may ways. Smooth on the outside with no signs of any computer chips. Within this odd crystal was, in essence, CD.

Chris twisted the crystal to get a better look at it; knowing that even in spite of its size it still wasn't whole. It was impressive given the resources it must have taken to make such a thing.

"Or maybe her memory is tied with your shard of her crystal?" Chris commented, turning back to CD's engine. He began to rewire it back to the engine.

"You seem to know things she doesn't, and if you're part of her AI core, then that would make the most sense. Although," he finished wiring the crystal back in, "for that matter, what's with the liquid? Usually current in it's electric form is good enough--unless it has to be in some sort of solution that would speed up the transference of signals...." he mused more to himself, a silly grin playing over his face as he delved into the inner workings of AIs and their mechanics.

''It is a water-based liquid that allows CD's core to easily control the systemics of the car she is within. Without it, the core woulld have trouble processing the specific orders for each system the liquid runs through. The core was made to be easily removed if the situation called for it to be ecavtuated. But if the liquid inside is removed, the core will barely work until it shuts down forever. In essence, it's her life-fluid.'' 54 replied.

''I guess so, but I'm younger than CD and we do not get along well. I'm only helping because I have to.'' She grumbled. ''Just be warmed that the police are looking for me and CD still.''

Bill chuckled as he listened, though it was Chris who grinned and supplied the joke: "I suppose that's one way to go hydro-electric."

"As for the police...meh. We should be able to handle them. We've got permits and stuff that normal garages don't. But back to this life-fluid. You have it too, right? Is it just a matter of adding water to the system? Because that'd be easy enough."

54 scoffs. ''I run on my own. My core filters the air and such to run. It does hold the life-fluid, but too little to be relyed on too much..'' She replied, as a police car pulls up outside, sirens on. 54 scowls, flinching.