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“Did they tell you?” he asked, curt, dry.
It bothered him greatly that he didn’t have the courage to look at it straight in the eyes. It looked exactly the same. All that John knew about Smart AIs told him that this was on purpose, that they named themselves upon birth and that they decided on their holographic display as another personality trait. They never did things just because. The fact that this construct had chosen the shape it was showing was evidently an elaborated trap, a ploy designed to have an effect on him.
And it was working.
“I have been brought up to date. And what they didn’t tell me, I learned it myself.”
John’s jaw clenched visibly.
The construct’s head tilted back. It crossed its arms, almost looking defensive.
“I don’t aim to replace her, you know?” it said, the voice and the intonation were the same. “I will be better. I will be me. You can take it or leave it, Chief. But I’m not going anywhere, and I will do my job. I will take care of you.”
The words hit him one after another, like gravity hammers to the chest.
He knew it was a tactic of some sort, it was either trying to lure him in or establish distance. Distance was more than fine with John, at this point. There were mistakes he wouldn’t be making again, for sure. And Chief Mendez had told him once that he shouldn’t be dependent on his equipment. He should’ve listened.
This one would be better, alright. This one would live twice as much, work twice as fast.
This one would imitate the other to the tiniest detail, because there were countless backlogs and recordings for it to study. But this one would never be her, and it had clarified it.
It didn’t want to be her.
Good. John didn’t want it to be her. John wanted it to be efficient.
“Are you ready?” he asked, ignoring completely what the AI had just said.
It cocked an eyebrow.
“Are you?” it dared to reply.
Without another word, the Master Chief yanked out the chip from the plinth.
The hologram glitched and shut down, the room was devoured by darkness again. He stood there a few more seconds, staring down at the memory unit clasped between his forefinger and thumb. A blue ring of light glowed in it, it was alive.
The unit he kept safely hidden inside his locker was not.
It was time to get back to work.