Wayne Gray

I see an apple. No, I see a pile of them. Because our little tree is loaded down, and the table currently has a basket full of the little freckled things. But yes... I had a friend once who had the same experience as you. This was in high-school, and we didn't have the words for it. So we thought he was just a little different, and that was that. He was also one of the smartest people I knew. To the degree that his parents had him tested, and he was somewhere north of 140 IQ. He just processed the world differently. You do as well. And differences are what make the world interesting.

Most winners are the male bears. But... once, a female won. The reason given was hilarious. "She had not mated, so she was cubless. She could concentrate on job number one, and that was getting fat. And boy, did she pull that off. She had a single-girl summer, living her best life."

Glad you’re curious! Aster does seem to like chatting with Wendell, and Wendell didn’t have to tell Standon that Naren had returned. So… it seems both AIs want their people to keep interacting. It may be something as simple as wanting to have a friend close by. We’ll see. And while Naren wasn’t abused as a kid, he grew up in a strange situation. Different guardians. Always knowing he had nobody. Always looking for a way to be on his own. That really would do something to a kid. Thanks for reading and commenting. I appreciate it!

It did go very well. Vacumine had a hand in that, too. These guys had been making it work without the program, but it sure didn't hurt anything. And yes. Aster told Wendell they were heading back to port as soon as they hit Occator's network. Which... is a little funny. It's almost like Aster wants Naren to keep interacting with Standon. And then Aster was nice and warm as the guys socialized after screwing around. What's that little AI up to? Thanks for reading and commenting. More to come. 🤖

I think it's the vodka you should be asking.

Naren is different from most in a few ways. He integrated with Aster very young. These AIs grow more and more useful as integration goes on. But they also become more capable of predicting behavior, mistakes, and desires before their host becomes conscious of them. Makes for some interesting thought experiments there. And he was a ward of a corporation. That doesn't mean he "lived" in the corporate headquarters. But, rather, corporate employees literally raised him, and that was a part of their duties. Corporations are paid by government to do this until a kid is... you guessed it... thirteen. At that point, the kid either becomes emancipated, or they go into government foster care until they're an adult (sixteen in my future). Since government doesn't want that cost, they offer incentives to corporations for getting kids emancipated. And they offer incentives to the kids to want that. Adult Naren knows he was shoved out the door because nobody wanted the responsibility for him. Yeah, it was state sponsored, but... still. That does something to a guy.

People mature quickly when they can get any question answered within seconds. And when they have a logical, steady companion in their own mind. I tried to imagine what that would do to a kid, and I think it'd do a lot. We'll see more of the effect that long-time integration has had on Naren soon.

We'll have to see how things go with Naren and Standon. Both men are on Ceres to try and make their own way. Will their paths line up enough to become something more than handy fuck-buddies? I guess we'll find out. Sex with the captain... that could be a fun scene.

Yeah. Even though emancipation can happen as early as thirteen, it's not typical. Corps bend all kinds of rules in my future. Money, power, etc, all serve to make that possible. But they're not all powerful. And they curry favor from governments by getting people off-world. The Earth is crowded, so there are all kinds of incentives to get folks off the planet. One of those, is free hardware and an AI companion installed on it - along with upgrades to both hardware and software every year you stay off planet. In fact, everyone intending to travel anyplace other than Mars must have an AI installed. They're ubiquitous in space. It's how people interact with their surroundings and do things. Standon and Naren are a fun pair of guys, I think. Pretty different people, but both on Ceres. Both taking a risk. I like their willingness to leap into the void... as it were. Now, why would Aster be warm? Well... there's something going on there. What, we don't know. And that's just delightful, isn't it? haha. Thanks for reading and commenting. More to come.

Confidence, and a rather nice payday. Both are pretty nice. We'll see how Naren's luck hold down the line, though. Thanks for reading and for the comment, Chris.

That clever little AI is thinking about something... or talking about something. Or both. Naren was emancipated at 13 years old, and shortly after Aster and hardware were installed. That was twenty years ago, so Naren is 33 now. I don't really spell it out, but people are in better shape related to age-related issues, than we are at similar ages. They have regular gene therapy that undoes many of the problems we run into with aging. It's just an injection people get annually, and they stay younger longer. Not immortal by any means, but Naren looks like a guy in his mid-20s. Standon is a similar age, though he has had Wendell for less time. He got Wendell around 18, same as most others who choose to go off-world in this version of the future. And yes. Aster and Wendell do seem chatty. Thanks for reading and commenting, Dave. More to come.

Hey, maybe Aster is the top in the Wendell/Aster pairing. You never know. LOL Your vodka fueled questions are absolutely important. Thank you for asking them. Yeah, Naren has seemingly found a little place where he fits. And he fits well enough that the man in charge has hired him on for another month. Then there's Standon. Naren likes the guy. He's attracted to him, sure, but... he can find that pretty easily and is not above paying for it. So... we'll have to see how that shakes out. Thanks for the entertainment.

Yeah. I have to use Grammarly. Commas, man. Commas. Urgh. But yes, I reject lots of wording suggestions. And some of it's not even right, and it'll correct itself after you accept it. LOL

Indeed. Naren had a very successful trip out on his first try. That has to do something to a guy's sense of self-worth. As an aside, a "Bar" is equal to about ten US dollars. So they had a truly substantial haul. Yes, it's split seven ways (Del, as captain gets a full share while everyone else gets a half), but still. It was a lot of cash. And now Naren has almost $60,000 in the bank for about nine days of work. These guys are doing risky work, and they're paid very well for it. But there are also runs when they end up with busts. So Del spends money and they all spend time on something that didn't pan out. And that's why Naren was so relieved when his program helped Miri pick their target and it turned out to be lucrative. Standon and Naren are a fun dynamic. Maybe we'll see more of that. Thanks for reading and commenting. I appreciate it!

I don't understand the point of doing that. Like... why bother? Any words of encouragement or appreciation would be hollow to me if I'd done that because it'd not belong to me.

I get why - it's very different for me. And... I literally have AI characters in a story on a site where people are "writing" with AI and passing it off as their own work. So... yeah. A little weird. But I'm glad you're giving it a shot. I like how the characters (human and not) interact, so I hope people enjoy this one. Thanks for reading and commenting. More to come next week.

I do find it a little funny that I'm writing one of the most creative things I've done and it heavily involves AI characters. you did this as well. I've used AI to fact check something I've written (Curing Humanity - the brain stuff). But now that I know more about it, I realize it doesn't fact check itself, really. It will list references for the information cited, then get the information wrong. So... I'm not sure there's a point. And AI writing is just weird. Nifty is particularly bad right now. It's the same story with different characters and settings. But it's the same story... We can do something AI can't. We can cook without a recipe. So, yes. People want to read what we write because it's new. It's fresh. The people who find AI writing interesting may do so for a while. But eventually, it'll feel like running along a very small track. "Wait. Haven't I see this before?" That didn't take long for me, but I'm a weirdo who notices patterns. Others will catch up. Or they won't. And our writing will be enjoyed by a smaller slice of the readership. But it'll be ours. Someone with a soul produced this work. And there's no faking that.

Thanks, tim. Yeah, I like the different interactions possible with the AIs and their humans. It’s essentially double the fun. 😀 you’re not wrong about Aster. It is indeed a little smug and uses literal replies as a way to needle Naren. But it also won’t let Naren wallow in worry when it doesn’t make sense. Kinda like a friend who keeps asking questions highlighting how goofy we’re being. Theres more coming for everybody. I hope you keep enjoying it.

Chapter 2: Hey Sailor The next morning, I hustled through the mostly empty corridors with my bag slung over my shoulder. Anxiety fluttered in my belly. "I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing," I mumbled as I approached Dock Fourteen. "Why the hell did they say yes?" Your qualifications and capabilities align with the crew’s desired specifications, which is why you were chosen. I frowned. "What qualities and capabilities? I don't have any! Well, other than a prospecting program I

When I first read this, it instantly conjured a story I read decades ago in school. “The Lottery.” A tale of doing things because those things have always been done. This ended better. Nicely done, tim. 🙂

Great to have you along for the ride on this one. Thanks for reading and commenting. I think this is a fun story. It was certainly fun creating it, and those relationships you mentioned.

Glad you enjoy Sci-Fi. This should be up your alley. Oh, there's always a story. And we'll get to see Vacumine in action soon, along with the whole crew. Each has their own part to play, along with their AI companions. More to come next week. And thanks for the read and the comment!

Thanks, Chris! I like this one, and I hope you do, too. More to come soon.

Oh, just wait, Dave. Hehe. Thanks for reading and for the comment. I'm curious how you'll feel as the story goes on.

Yes. Exactly. We've got the humans, but we've also got their AIs. AIs can talk to each other, their person, or they can "echo" other people over any network they have in common. With little networks like Rockhopper's, this can turn into a bit of a public forum with no real rules or protocol. So all of the AIs use it to talk to each other and to all of the humans in the network. With a network like Occator One, with tens of thousands of AIs, there are necessary permissions AIs have to gain to talk to anyone other than their own person or previously approved AIs. It's how Aster could continue chatting with Wendell. But you'll notice Wendell never spoke directly to Naren. That's because no one had set up that permission for them over Occator's network. It probably seems semantic, but I have it in my head how it works. And I'm a geek for rules governing systems. That helped me write this a lot. LOL Thanks for reading and for the comment. More is coming.