Work Text:
KITT’s central processing unit was set out on the table, completely silent. Only one light shone from his case, the one that indicated he was plugged into her desktop.
Bonnie turned her head to regard KITT’s empty body behind her. She’d removed his engine block to get a better look at his cpu, then found herself disassembling the forward-facing tactile systems to make sure they hadn’t been damaged. She liked to consider herself an intelligent woman, but she found herself thinking- brain, heart, nervous system.
Of course it was an absurd comparison, he wasn’t disemboweled. KITT had been assembled in a way that allowed for ease of disassembly.
He was fine, he’d simply scrambled his data and shut himself off in order to prevent an unauthorized party from copying his code. He’d had done the exact thing he was supposed to do in a situation like that.
By all accounts this was a best case scenario- well, by all accounts but Michael’s, who’d been mortified to find KITT unresponsive in a warehouse parking lot. He’d been half-manic by the time he finally called FLAG, and it had been Bonnie’s job to calm the man down well enough to explain KITT’s condition to him.
No explanation she could provide seemed to make any sense to Michael and he decided to take his ignorance out on her, accusing her of god-knows-what and then storming off. She knew it came from a place of genuine concern, but that didn’t make it any less infuriating.
The man was a pain in the ass- a lot of people are. That was why she’d taken such a shine to computers and automobiles. Machines understood without thinking, and they never called you bossy or heartless.
She hit the enter key on her launchpad and watched as KITT’s simplistic display flashed onto her monitor.
This was the step where KITT’s attempted kidnappers had failed. Leaving this screen open for more than sixty seconds triggered a complete shutdown on KITT’s part.
“>enter access code” He demanded. Except it wasn’t actually KITT, as all of the programs that ran KITT’s ‘thought process’ were currently inert.
She did as the computer asked her to. Once she was in she brought up a file on her desktop labeled ‘KI-2k reorganizer.’. She ran the file via “KI-2k” and leaned back.
This was going to take a long time
-
She’d been right, it would take twelve hours for the process to finish. In the meantime she made her way back to KITT’s still body. The hardened shell did not react as she busied herself by taking out all of its cameras and testing them with her laptop. It was easy to forget how piss-poor KITT’s ‘vision’ actually was. The small, lightweight cameras topped out at a rough 130p resolution. It was an impressive feat of engineering, to create digital cameras smaller than a human thumb, but the blurry, dim recreation of the room around her she saw on her computer screen felt strikingly insufficient.
Of course, they weren’t KITT’s main way of processing the world around him, and he probably considered the cameras to be perfectly serviceable as is, but Bonnie made a request for an upgraded set anyway. She leaned back into her chair.
Time felt empty as she waited for the program to reorganize itself. It was a foolproof defense system, and also a precise artificial simulation of what it feels like when a loved one goes in for simple non-invasive surgery.
She knew he’d be fine, but her mind was wandering. In the tense boredom Bonnie found herself looking at KITT’s engine. Two heavyset turbines, one atop the other, positioned over a small inline four engine that aided in short distance acceleration. The two hairdryer-like turbos on each side were just a bonus, something else to consume ludicrous amounts of air as he belted over desert straightaways.
One of these days she would find the person who decided his battery should sit between the turbines and the engine and she would give them a piece of her mind.
When functional, he could use his engine almost like a diaphragm. Growling, purring, and whining by powering up certain parts of the complex machinery. But he rarely made any of those sounds. Perhaps he considered it too animalistic, or maybe it rarely occurred to him to make such noises. He hadn’t been programmed to have nonverbal responses to stimuli, after all, he’d only learned to sputter and groan via mimicry.
-
More time passed, and Bonnie had since steam cleaned any and all carpet she could remove from the firebird’s body. She’d completed every act of physical maintenance she could think of. With all her tuning done, she still had time.
She laid down on the back seats and nearly fell asleep.
She leaned forward to roll down a window, but there was no power. As her nape rubbed up against the warm leather she contemplated how the skin had been removed from something dead, tanned, and then reattached to something that could talk and move around on his own.
Removed from all context, it was almost morbid.
A generic computerized tone brought her back to reality. The reorganization process was complete. Bonnie approached the desktop almost reverently, lowering herself onto her chair before gingerly hitting the enter key. The input led her to a simplified system structure with five main directories.
/c sr/
Which stood for Core System Resources. It was the base of KITT’s code, the initial two terabytes that allowed the system to process new information and learn from its surroundings. It covered things like sense of direction and audio visual processing, facial recognition, proprioception and much more.
/x sr/
External System Resources. What Bonnie supposed was KITT’s consciousness. An ever growing, but self-editing mass of information. It mimicked the core code, branching off of the original writing in a set way, and then branching off of itself in the same manner. The structure had doubled in size since she’d last seen it, which was mildly concerning even if it was designed to keep from outgrowing the hardware's storage capacity. At least it remained as pristinely organized as it had been programmed to be. That was the nice thing about computers, they always did exactly what you told them to do, and if you couldn’t get an idea across it was your own damn fault.
/sm/
System Memory. A detailed account of everything that had ever happened to KITT, obfuscated only by the unique programming language it had been written in.
/r/
Regulatory. A system mostly unconnected to KITT himself, it served to keep /x sr/ in control. According to Knight Industries’ records, this was the only change between KITT and KARR’s programming.
/s r/
Self Regulatory. A secondary /r/, one the AI itself could actually access and alter. A way for KITT to maintain and control his own thoughts within the restrictions provided by /s r/.
At this point, everything was done, she could reassemble KITT and turn him back on. But she didn’t. Instead Bonnie found herself opening up /x sr/.
She didn’t know why she was doing this. It was somewhere between mind reading and brain surgery- she caught her anthropomorphism mid-thought. It was her job to know the inner workings of the Knight Industries Two Thousand. If the AI developed a problem due to her negligence she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself.
In all actuality, she’d done it before, back when she’d first been assigned to work on KITT. It hasn’t meant much to her back then, at that point he was just a computer to her. Now she considered him a friend. He was so much like a person, and she was responsible for his wellness.
She opened the first folder on the list. /ov/, overview. The file that complied KITT’s overall performance into a single readable passage. It was actually meant for her, well not specifically her, it was meant for KITT’s mechanic.
KITT had a complex negative/positive feedback arrangement in his Core System Resources. It linked into everything. Even in /ov/ it looked like a Gordian knot in text form. Bonnie didn’t have perfect recall, but she knew KITT’s feedback system hadn’t been that intricate the last time she’d seen it.
There was more, a lot more. A folder regarding parking garages- surprisingly depressing. Musical taste- oddly complicated. Jokes. Rest stops. Animals. Cats in particular. Dogs. Horses.
/a h/ was entirely dedicated to humans as animals. Dietary habits, instinctual behavior, and non-language vocalizations. Shivering or goosebumps served as a trigger to turn up the heat in his cabin, unless either behavior was a fear response, which canceled the trigger and was to be dealt with verbally. The positive/negative inputs were overwhelmingly common and intense. Bonnie wondered if, in practice, it was something like considering an animal cute.
It was an uncomfortable thought, and yet a completely understandable complex for KITT to form.
Bonnie’s curiosity was nearly sated when she found her way to /pf/, Pilot Function. It was embarrassing, but recalling the acronym’s meaning piqued her interest in a manner not dissimilar to workplace gossip.
Then she stopped mid motion and reconsidered, but she didn’t move her mouse away from the folder. Despite herself, she clicked the link.
It started out normal. Mundane feedback loops regarding Michael Knight’s behavior. Simple stuff, sleeping in a hotel good, going three days without sleep bad. Information regarding Michael’s general body language. Preferred temperature. Oddly complicated minutiae regarding who should do the gear shifting under what circumstances.
So much of it boiled down to ‘If:Michael Knight is happy about [thing] Then:positive feedback’. She was chuffed, and backed out of the section before she could read something she would regret coming across.
Then her eyes traced over a folder she’d always regarded as mundane, /mf/, mechanic function. Her stomach clenched and she thought of the folder anew. It wasn’t just data, it was KITT’s innermost thoughts regarding her. It was atrocious of her to even think about looking through it, she shouldn’t even be here.
Bonnie began to feel extremely uncomfortable. Immediately, she decided she’d gone too far.
Then she opened the folder. It was mundane, and sensible, and entirely trusting. She felt like a monster.
She shut off the monitor and then disconnected KITT, quickly and efficiently setting him back into his body as she’d done many times before.
-
Bonnie had to confess, she had to tell somebody what she’d done, someone who’d understand. The only person who’d understand would be KITT himself, and she knew exactly what he’d think. He wouldn’t see her vile breach of his privacy as any different from checking the warranty on a toaster.
For all of KITT’s pride, he had such a strange sense of self. He loved what he was, he knew next to nothing about who he was.
It was hard to believe that she was considering telling Michael. For all that Michael was, friendly, charismatic, and good at his job, he was not a man graced with an abundance of tact. There would be no explaining the nuance of the situation to him, either he’d get mad at her, or he’d have no problem with her actions. Simple as.
Eventually she decided to go to KITT. Late in the afternoon, Bonnie gathered her courage and made her approach. KITT was sitting still in the garage. His scanner began moving faster as she approached. As far as body language went, it was no different from turning to face someone as they entered a room. It just conveyed interest, nothing more and nothing less.
“KITT, I have to tell you something. Something important.”
“Yes Bonnie?”
“But first I want to ask you a question.” She was buying herself time, wasting time. “Do you realize that you’re alive?”
“Am I?” He reversed slightly. “I’m not sure I understand the meaning of this question.”
“It’s a question, and it’s me stating a fact. You’re alive KITT, and I think that means you should have a say in things.”
“Well I’m certainly inclined to agree with that.” KITT exclaimed, but the passion in his voice faded as he continued to speak. “Even if I don’t see how it relates to the subject of me being alive.”
She smiled. “It matters because it means that you are a complex, changing thing. An individual.” Bonnie steeled herself as she kept going. “And I learned a lot about that last night, because last night I went looking through your operating system and saw about as much as a human can see in a two hour span of time. KITT, you’ve grown a lot more intricate since I last poked around in there.”
“I believe that’s how compiling information works.”
“Alright yes, but I’m talking about you- You hold opinions, you think, more than that you consider. I felt like I was reading your diary.”
KITT huffed with his radiator, using the cooling system to produce a low hiss of a sigh. Bonnie expected him to speak, but he didn’t.
“I’m here to apologize, kind of, I suppose I’m mainly here to confess.”
“Bonnie, if you’re worried about hurting me, I know you won’t, but if what you’re saying is accurate, I want you to look at my mind. I want you to keep me from getting- less like myself”
‘Out of control.’, ‘Like KARR.’, there were many things he could have slotted into that moment of silence, but he’d stopped to find a less loaded option. She hadn’t expected him to take umbrage with the fact that he’d changed since the day they’d first met, but now that it was too late, she understood why the idea bothered him.
“You can’t be less like yourself, KITT, you are yourself.”
KITT’s scanner slowed. “Bonnie-“ he trailed off. “Why does it matter if I am alive? You said that change and complexity make me alive, and fitting this criteria means my opinion holds more weight to you, but change doesn’t matter, because I am always myself? What’s the point of this?”
There it was, KITT’s complexity in motion. He could properly ponder now.
“Having an opinion that changes to become more complex over time means your worldview can adapt to changes, you can learn and grow. If you make a mistake you can avoid making the same mistake later down the line, I know you were programmed to work like that. Now that I think of it, there are some objectively living things that can’t even do that.”
“Why does it matter whether or not I’m alive then?”
”Maybe alive doesn’t mean alive the way a plant or an animal is alive, I’m trying to say that you have agency, that you are… sapient. What I mean is: it’s something we have in common.” Bonnie leaned down and rested a hand on KITT’s hood.
He rolled forward a little. Bonnie wasn’t entirely sure what he was expressing with that, but she took the opportunity to squat down to his level.
“KITT, I know that you trust me, so please trust that I know what I’m talking about when I say that you’re growing into something good. You don’t need my supervision or my permission, I trust you.”
She stood back up and took a step back.
“I’ll consider that.” KITT said.