"What?!" asked Genma, concerned that Ranma might have broken something.
"The A.I. core set has expanded and is developing. The A.I. is 85% stable, now 87%?" Doctor Takeda punched a button. "Gentlemen. We have signal!"
"It's too early for that!" Another labcoated individual ran in, though this guy looked more like he'd be at home playing American style football as opposed to working with computers.
In seconds Genma found himself being crowded away from monitors. "Well, I'll just take my son and go..."
He wasn't ready for the flare of battleauras from all these scholarly types.
"I don't know how he's doing it, but A.M.I. is currently at 97% stable!" Doctor Takeda's eyes were wild.
"We gotta go?" Ranma asked as he prepared to get up.
"No!" Doctor Takeda quickly got herself into the doorway to bar it. "A.M.I. is almost there. Please stay a little longer."
Seeing his father wasn't objecting, Ranma went back to playing with Ami.
"Second signal detected! Beginning to look for stimulus. Segment two developing!" The linebacker type looked ready to faint.
"Signal is orange," said another.
"Who's 'Ami'?" Genma asked.
"Artificial Matrixed Intelligence, one of our attempts to build an Artificial Intelligence librarian and research aid," said Doctor Takeda.
"How is he doing it?!" demanded a fourth labcoated individual.
"Ami wanted someone to talk to, Minako wants to play a game," said Ranma from his chair, returning to his play. "Sure, Minako-chan. Got any martial arts games?"
"Interfacing! Minako and Ami are communicating directly now," said the linebacker, following that by fainting.
Genma had no clue what was going on but SOMETHING was clearly going on. The air was almost charged with excitement. "Martial arts games?"
"Minako asked Ami what 'martial arts' are," explained Ranma absently. "Ami is talking about all sorts of martial arts but they're talking so fast I can't follow it."
"Data encryption and compression - Ami is developing new techniques and subprograms so quickly..." Doctor Takeda began to look a little woozy herself.
"We have four requests for access to the other kernals? Should we bring units 3-9 online?" A nerdish looking one had spoken, but the whole contingent had turned to a guy in a business suit that Genma hadn't noticed before.
Genma wondered if it was a stealth technique.
The suit wearer pursed his lips and seemed to consider before nodding.
The various techs and doctors immediately began running around, hooking cables up and switching units on.
A.M.I. had been intended as an indexing/library program.
M.I.N.A.-ko had been a programming tool.
U.S.A.G.I. would have been a program developed for the American space agency NASA, particularly for directing their unmanned exploration vehicles.
Rei was named for one of the tenets of bushido as was Makoto. Both were intended as interface programs. Rei contained a firewall. Makoto an anti-virus.
Hotaru was a doomsday protocol.
Haruka had been a half-finished driving sim one of the techs had built after hours.
Michiru was Doctor Takeda's own project, thinking that music and art were possibly ways to approach the AI goal.
Setsuna had been a synchronization program.
The interfaced, came together as a gestalt, then seperated again.
Where's Ranma?
That message popping up on a monitor confused some of the techs at first. As it repeated, Doctor Takeda thought to look towards the chair the child had been in. Genma was missing too.
"Bring up the security cameras," suggested the nerd.
While the various techs and doctors looked for Ranma, someone else was accessing the visual data and feeding it directly to her sisters.
There on a monitor, an exit opened. A portly man was determined to be dragging a young child away, cuffing the boy roughly for not cooperating.
The techs and doctors startled as all the monitors showed that scene and the one following. Where the boy had apparently said something, causing the father to smack him down with enough force to knock the boy down and a few feet away.
"We're getting instabilities," said Doctor Takeda. "Some sort of reaction across the board."
Meanwhile the images on the screen began to loop.
"We have database searches occurring at ultra high speeds," said the nerd. "We may have to shut down before..."
"What the heck is this? Chip and board designs?" Another tech pointed at a stack of printouts being kicked out of the printer.
"Don't shut anything down," said the business suited fellow.
Within the AI Net:
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(Posted Sun, 15 Feb 2004 12:51)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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