Island of Misfit Toys 7

[20:09]	Ai`	stirs from her spot next to the refrigerator later that night and removes its plug from her lower back. Everyone she has seen is asleep, so now is the time to move.
[20:10]	Ai`	listens for a short moment, making sure that no one else is nearby. Once satisfied, she begins walking towards the Rift Laboratory.
[20:11]	`GM	[The residence is eerily quiet from the lack of superfluous electronics, and the exterior is equally so: there's a noticeable lack of the humming of ambient wildlife here.]
[20:12]	`GM	[The crashing of ocean waves all around the island create quite a different lifelike heartbeat. More powerful, but more empty.]
[20:16]	`GM	[Ai's nighttime stroll through the island passes uneventfully, and within a noticeably short time she arrives at the white dome of the rift laboratory.]
[20:17]	Ai`	copies the path of her earlier departure from the lab, disregarding everything aside from her objective. She never had time to learn of wildlife and waves before fleeing her world, nor are they important enough to delay her now. Barring blocked paths, she makes her way to where she first made contact.
[20:18]	`GM	[Ai finds herself quite obviously impeded by the front door, which requires either a keycard or unnecessary force to access, neither of which she possesses.]
[20:22]	Ai`	looks about, making sure no one is present, before melding several of her fingers into a thin strip resembling a passcard. After staring at the reader for several moments, she swipes it through.
[20:23]	`GM	[The reader blinks red twice before going dull as it was before. Nothing else seems to happen.]
[20:24]	Ai`	pauses, revises her formula, and tries again.
[20:25]	`GM	[She is once again greeted with two red lights. It's likely she knows this means entry is not permitted to her.]
[20:26]	Ai`	suddenly realizes one thing she hasn't tried.
[20:27]	Ai`	knocks on the door, just in case. If she barged in that would be "rude", and would impede diplomacy, even if necessary for her goals.
[20:29]	`GM	[Her knocks are feeble and vague, not unlike the current state of her body, and fall on deaf ears.]
[20:32]	Ai`	would frown if she had the right expressive libraries installed. She scans the card reader in depth, internally producing blueprints of the device. Finally, after studying them for at least a solid minute and minutely changing her card-hand's form, she swipes it for a third time.
[20:33]	`GM	[...Red. Red. Access denied.]
[20:34]	`GM	[As AI fails to connive her way into the laboratory, the door swings open from the inside, nearly clipping her right across the face.]
[20:35]	Ai`	draws back and stands up, quickly re-forming the card into proper fingers again.
[20:37]	Ai`	looks up to see who it is.
[20:37]	`GM	[Wallberg sleepily walks out, not initially realizing someone's outside. Notably different from the last time he was seen, beneath his beige uniform he seems to be wearing a dark-blue bodysuit of some kind, complete with gloves and a high neck, which almost-complete obscures his liquid skin. He also wears a pair of mirrored goggles, likewise masking his blinkless eyes.]
[20:38]	`GM	[He notices Ai just before trundling into her, and takes a hop-step backwards.]
[20:39]	Wallberg	"Woah woah! Sorry wait what, what are you doing here, hi!"
[20:40]	Ai`	greets him in her characteristic style.
[20:40]	Ai`	"Hello. I was trying to move to the rift."
[20:43]	Wallberg	"Oh, I... Wait, what? You mean, you wanted to see it?"
[20:43]	Ai`	"Yes."
[20:44]	Wallberg	chuckles dryly.
[20:44]	Wallberg	"Pff, good luck."
[20:45]	Wallberg	regardless, opens the door and makes room for her to come in.
[20:45]	Ai`	strolls in, despite her confusion.
[20:47]	Wallberg	raises his goggles for the retina scan to enter the main lab area, before sliding them back down.
[20:47]	Wallberg	"Oh, and in case you were wondering about the goggles, Colonel's orders. I'm not supposed to "frighten" the new residents, I guess."
[20:47]	Wallberg	"Apparently my face scares small children."
[20:48]	Ai`	"Acknowledged."
[20:48]	Wallberg	stops in the middle of nowhere specific and looks upwards at nowhere specific.
[20:49]	Wallberg	"There you go. See all you want, new girl."
[20:50]	Ai`	looks up. Disappointment sets in shortly after she realizes she's picking up nothing.
[20:50]	Ai`	"I will have to upgrade my sensors."
[20:51]	Wallberg	"You and us both, kid."
[20:52]	Wallberg	"Oh wait..."
[20:52]	Wallberg	just realized she's unable to be sarcastic.
[20:52]	Wallberg	"Wait, hang on there... Are you saying you theorhetically COULD see it?
[20:53]	Ai`	wordlessly holds an open palm in the direction of the rift which slowly morphs into something resembling a radar dish lined with almost invisible smaller radar dishes.
[20:53]	Ai`	"Yes."
[20:54]	Ai`	adjusts her aim before speaking again.
[20:54]	Ai`	"I could, before coming here."
[20:55]	Wallberg	is quite interested, and violates Ai's personal space, if she were a person.
[20:56]	Wallberg	"Seriously?! What does it look like?! Do you have any numerical data?!"
[20:57]	Ai`	"This data was lost with the majority of my mass. Only enough to rediscover rifts remains."
[20:58]	Wallberg	"But, but but! Do you remember? You have memory, right?! Anything at all?"
[21:00]	Ai`	"I had precisely one thousand, five hundred eighty three seconds of full computational load before arriving here. All power was focused on command calls and defensive manuevers. None remained for data compression."
[21:01]	Ai`	continues to adjust her aim, nonchalant. It shouldn't matter /too/ much if she's off by a bit, but every bit of precision helps.
[21:01]	Wallberg	slaps his thigh in annoyance and collapses onto the nearest swivel chair.
[21:01]	Wallberg	"Damn... We get a multiversial A.I. all to ourselves and it comes in with a system reset."
[21:02]	Wallberg	"So what are you doing, anyways?"
[21:03]	Ai`	"I am attempting to establish communications with the Consensus software repository to expand my platform's capabilities."
[21:04]	Ai`	"I lack the ability to interface 'normally' with your society."
[21:04]	Wallberg	"Hang on, Consensus... You can get THOUGH?!"
[21:05]	Wallberg	leans forwards, interest rekindled.
[21:06]	Ai`	"Only minimal burst communication. Streaming communication would require more advanced facilities, and is forbidden."
[21:07]	Ai`	's dish-hand finally freezes its position and stops recalculating angles for its sub-receivers. A moment later...
[21:07]	Ai`	"Pull request sent."
[21:08]	Ai`	finally looks back to Wallberg now that her sending / receiving stance is made static.
[21:09]	Wallberg	"Heck with 'only', you can get THROUGH?! At WILL?!"
[21:10]	Ai`	"It consumes large amounts of energy. Once reception is complete, my energy reserves shall fall to an estimated..."
[21:10]	Ai`	pauses.
[21:11]	Ai`	"Eighteen percent as compared to noon this day."
[21:12]	Wallberg	nods.
[21:12]	Wallberg	"Crickey, steep."
[21:13]	Wallberg	"Well, I can't patch you into the main umbilical this time; just spent all afternoon NOT doing that..."
[21:13]	Wallberg	"Colonel's right pissed at me right now for that. Among other things..."
[21:14]	Ai`	"What 'things'?"
[21:15]	Wallberg	waves the question away.
[21:16]	Wallberg	"Long story. Military versus Scientists. Bad blood. I'll explain it later some day."
[21:16]	Ai`	"Understood."
[21:19]	Ai`	looks back to her receiver as the subdishes go wild. After a second, they all align to the same point above.
[21:19]	Ai`	"Targeting stream established."
[21:22]	Wallberg	"So, look... Colonel's too paranoid to ask this himself, or he thinks YOU'RE going to get paranoid if he asks, so I'm gonna, because seriously, that guys needs to learn how to retire."
[21:22]	Wallberg	"Are you here to take over our planet? Terraform it, mine its natural resources, enslave its lifeforms?"
[21:23]	Ai`	glances back at Wallberg.
[21:24]	Ai`	"Systems inhabited by unaffiliated sentient factions are forbidden from resourcive exploitation. This rule is inviolable."
[21:25]	Wallberg	taps his arm with twiddling fingers.
[21:25]	Wallberg	"Define inviolable."
[21:29]	Ai`	"This rule is to never be violated except under the threat of imminent extinction, in which case limited operations are allowed. Operations may only be conducted in order from least impact to most impact upon a system's inhabitants."
[21:29]	Ai`	"Example: If this solar system houses uninhabited or unobserved planets, extreme provisions allow their minimal use."
[21:32]	Wallberg	nods.
[21:34]	Wallberg	"All of ours are uninhabited, but they're pretty much all observed. Space travel on our planet is still considered not economically viable."
[21:35]	Ai`	"In this case, stealth technologies would be employed. Minimal impact is an imperative."
[21:37]	Wallberg	"Oh, yeah, certainly."
[21:37]	Wallberg	"You equipped for space travel inside there too?"
[21:38]	Ai`	"That capability was lost with the majority of my mass. I can survive vacuum, but cannot travel."
[21:41]	Wallberg	"Dang, tough break. Could you get it back if you, like... absorbed more mass?"
[21:41]	Wallberg	has stood up and is pacing now.
[21:42]	Wallberg	"Cause I mean, I could get you more mass."
[21:42]	Wallberg	"Power, not so much."
[21:43]	Ai`	"Yes. Additionally, I can generate more energy if supplied with fitting mass."
[21:45]	Wallberg	"I can TOTALLY supply you with fitting mass if you'll let me get specs off of you. Hell knows if I'll ever get the chance to use 'em since I can't leave this rock, but... What the heck, it's progress!"
[21:45]	Ai`	looks to Wallberg consistently now.
[21:45]	Ai`	"Limited exchange of knowledge is permitted for vastly accelerated development."
[21:50]	Wallberg	"I'll shake to that."
[21:50]	Wallberg	approaches Ai and removes his glove.
[21:50]	Wallberg	"It's a symbol of agreement, in our culture."
[21:52]	Ai`	merely looks at it until her dish-hand moves again. After a brief moment it morphs back into an ordinary hand which she drops to her side.
[21:53]	Ai`	"... Download complete. Social interactive suite upgraded."
[21:54]	Ai`	turns and faces Wallberg, somehow seeming less alien already. She extends her hand and shakes.
[21:54]	Ai`	"Understood."
[21:54]	Ai`	's voice even seems to have lost some of its artificial edge, although it's nowhere near completely gone.
[22:09]	Wallberg	tries to stretch the handshake on for as long as possible without getting TOO weird. Her hand is silky smooth and cool to the touch, something a guy with hands like his appreciates doubly so.
[22:09]	Wallberg	"...Your hand is very smooth, did you know that?"
[22:10]	Ai`	"No, I did not."
[22:11]	Wallberg	"Huh, seriously?"
[22:11]	Wallberg	holds up her hand and looks at it through the "flesh" of his own.
[22:11]	Wallberg	"It totally is. You should feel it; it feels nice."
[22:11]	Ai`	"I didn't think about it."
[22:11]	Ai`	uses a contraction for the first time.
[22:12]	Ai`	"Thank you."
[22:14]	Wallberg	nods and gives her back her hand.
[22:14]	Wallberg	"No problem."