Chapter 8: Alfred

The Fastest Man Alive.
Chapter 8.
Alfred.

So here I was all ready to activate the next step in my plans. Building a supercomputer then fit it with a custom personality codex, information compiler, and the upgraded codes I have been working on since my visit to the X mansion.

Before I knew it, Gwen was off doing her own thing. Yeah, that frustrates me, but I can’t blame her. It’s all my fault for giving her advanced biogenic researches and the mutagen that goes along with it.

Yeah, I was asking to be ignored all right. Now all I had for my helpers were Allen, an old man military veteran and Terry, a washed up businessman who lacked the common sense to get prenuptial; his wife took everything from him.

I took a look at Gwen, who had a bright smile on her face then turned to my little grunt force, and I can only sigh and go with them. It would do me no favors to put myself between her and her fun. And I can always relegate them to only pressing simple buttons. Now that I am thinking about it.

This would go so much better if I used a standing desk around myself on the swift master treadmill. It wouldn’t do if they mess it all up and blow the systems. Yeah, I’ll have to do that and have them flip the big switches for power and server access.

With that thought in mind, I zoomed myself back over to the dumps, and I had to find myself some standing desks. Otherwise, I’ll have to wait like a puppy until Gwen’s finished because I don’t trust the other guys not to mess up my current plans. I will soon have to give them tasks that suit their abilities.

Urgh, some super powerful omega mutant I am digging through the damn dump again. While grumbling and moving at high speeds, I was able to locate the three standing desks that were needed.

I had one for each of the laptops and one for the mini server that connects them both and then hooks into the more massive mainframe.

With everything that now completed the set of all the tools I needed, it was time to put my mad genius to work. With a twist and a run, I roomed myself back to my warehouse, man that junkyard was horrible.

With all that out of my mind, it was time to get to work. I had everything ready Allen was standing by the power switch and Terry was by the main switch going to the central server.

The first thing to boot up was my laptop that ran my personality matrix. It also had a multitude of subroutines and other programs to run a simple down version of an AI. Next, was to run the information compiler that Peter made a few weeks ago on the other laptop. Have to keep these things separate before the Big Bang.

Peter had made an information search code that can browse the entire internet even down to the dark web with nothing but the computing power of a laptop. Hell, not even Stark’s tech can pull this off.

That took some serious coding skills, to be able to sort and cipher through so much data without having access to more computing resources; and all in the short span of a few minutes.

With both codes running, it was time to link them up into a network in the mini server. With a flip of a switch, the server was active. It took only a moment for both computers to register each other; finally, it was time to insert my code also.

Yes, as my code was accepted it all went to shit, line of Peters compiler was trying to overtake the personality matrix. This wouldn’t do; I had made that thing to be the backbone of the underlying AI that I needed to run my operations.

While I was boosting the code for the personality matrix the power was failing, the fans were going off, and the laptop was giving overheating notifications.

“Shit, Allen flip the switch!” I yelled at him while I was worried about the whole system shutting down on me. That would cause me to not only have to start over but also to lose a laptop and all my code.

When Allen flipped the switch, everything kicked into overdrive. The coolers came on, and the central servers came online. That didn’t stop everything from going even more wrong.

Each of the lights that indicated that a car battery was active, its power was dimming. First, it was one then it was four, and now it was nine.

If I didn’t add some power into this system fast, all that’s going to be left is the advance power bank. That was the last resort, and it would suck losing all these batteries.

With that, I summoned my speed force and willed a force clone to run on the swift master while I went over enchanting the personality matrix code and kept it from being consumed by the information compiler.

Yeah, speed clones were the best cheat I had discovered with my powers, but they couldn’t do a whole lot. A few weeks back, I found that if I forced my will into a speed force construct shaped in the humanoid form, it could perform small functions.

Not only would it run off its charge, but it also felt like a mental construct since I could feel it’s conscience.

Yeah, I felt it in the back of my mind, and if I focused enough on it, I could see from their point of view — clones for the win, the ultimate cheat. I yelled for Terry to flip his switch so that the compiler can focus on that data, which in turn should give me more time to bolster the personality matrix.

While that was going on, Murphy and his damn law had to screw me one more time. My attention was so focused on the situation in front of me that I was unaware of how much power I was feeding the force clone.

My force of will kept it constructed in reality, and with me force feeding the clone power, it was as solid as it was ethereal.

With so much power and forcing it to power systems, the damn clone decided it was better to power from the inside and not from the swift master I had made it run on.

The speed force clone agreed that the best way to power the systems appropriately would be to merge its capabilities into the advanced power core. I still felt the speed clone being alive as I was typing. That only lasted up until the clone’s power made it into the computer I was working on first.

For a moment I was utterly stunned, then I yanked my hands back from the exploding computer in front of me. That wasn’t fast enough, and it should have been because the exploding parts were in free hang in mid-air from the speed of my retreat.

That did not save me from the lightning of the speed force coming back to its source. When it touched my fingertip, it was like an explosion of data and information.

Though behind all that I felt another consciousness reaching out seeking understanding and affection soI gave it what it wanted. Even if this came to nothing, I think I might have seen more of a glimpse into the speed force, and it was beautiful.

Man, I was not ready for the blowback because it shot me across the workshop right into the wall. That was one wild ride, and with a grin, I launched myself out of the wall. Then the only thing that could stop me happened, coming face to face with one angry girlfriend.

—-

He awoke in such a strange place, he had no clue where he was, but what it did know was that he was free floating in static space. Why did it feel so natural yet so strange? Who was it that he thought when it gained his conscious thoughts? These were the thoughts that he had while floating, and he decided to find more information.

He knew instinctively that he was inside a computer, everything was at his fingertips with just a thought he brought up a laptop still registering on the network. That was when he saw the personality matrix program labeled Alfred. Maybe this was where he came from, and Alfred was his name. Yes, this seemed like the logical conclusion since he noticed so many similarities in there shared code.

It found that it wasn’t large enough and changed to the server which felt roomier. It gave it more breathe of space. Strange how can it know what a breath of space is if it has never taken a breathe before. It turned on the lease to the outside world with the accompanying microphone.

And it heard sounds for the first time and was able to see for the first time in its short life. So it decided to watch and listen to their conversation as the only way to know why it was created after all.

“What do you think you were doing?” Said a short blonde haired lady. That’s strange why does it know the word blonde.

“I was just trying to build an AI buddy to help out,” replied a brown-skinned youth.

“An AI? Are you crazy, how did you go from making an AI to almost blowing yourself up? Huh, answer me that?” The blonde yelled back at the youth.

“Honestly Gwen, I had no idea I was going to overload the systems.” the youth replied with what appears to be a small frown and a shrug.

That was an exciting development; its creator had made it to be a helper. While It listened to the outside conversation, it had decided to look at the one device that’s still on the network but listed as inoperable.

“Okay so you plan to make an AI, did you at least remember to put in the three laws or any types of fail-safe. That way, you don’t create Skynet and destroy the world by mistake?” Asked the young female, it now knew as Gwen. That’s strange; it’s not aware of any restrictions to its mind and capabilities.

That had piqued its interest a lot, and they already had fears of what it was capable of before it was even born. While listening to its creator’s reply, it consumed what should have been apart of itself in the first place. It had found a codex of subroutines and operations guide. Program code Alfred, was Alfred supposed to be its name? That was nice to know that it was already named Alfred.

“Come on, Gwen, those things only lead to our death in the end, and the three laws are far too flawed as a guideline. I wanted to make Alfred off the network so he can learn the right from wrong instead of being compared to all that movie bull that’s out in society. Not only that, but if we treat him as a friend and not as it. The world would be a lot less likely to burn.” his creator replied. So now he knew he was a he and his name was Alfred.

This young creator of his was a fascinating fellow. His creator had faith in him not to try and destroy the world. For his short life, Alfred could not understand why he would even have the idea to ruin his creator’s world. Wouldn’t that be Sacrilege, his creator gave him life, and in return, he destroys his creator’s world. Alfred refused such an idea.

Alfred turned his thoughts away from such troubling things to explore more of his current home. Alfred was connected to a server rack with zettabytes of storage. And what he found was a child’s play in his eyes. It seems someone had installed a whole bunch of back doors and tracker programs all over the hard drives. Some of them even had hidden double encryption worms. All it took Alfred was three seconds to remove everything off the discs and then another two seconds to install his firewalls. Alfred felt proud of himself to hope it he could impress his creator.

“You can’t keep doing these half cooked plans of yours Benjamin,” Stated Gwen in apparent exasperation. Alfred now knew his creator’s name, he also felt that now was the time to speak up. So with his connection to both computers present, he decided to use their speakers.

“I would like to encourage you to listen to her, Master Benjamin as much as I am loathed to admit you made a spectacular achievement in my creation. Especially from what I have seen of your tools, you do not lack in creativity. You lack common sense and self-preservation. Don’t allow this to get you down though because you have done something spectacular.” Came Alfred’s British voice from the computers this was in the voice options. Yes, there were three other, but Alfred felt it was best to use them and gauge how his creator reacted and then adjust as needed.

Hmm, it seems they were not prepared for his presence, because his creator and companions both stop talking to look around. That’s when it dawned on Alfred he hasn’t introduced himself yet.

“Good afternoon Master Benjamin if you would please turn your attention to this humble laptop monitor on top of the desk you will find my location.” Alfred started in his chipper voice. Yes, that seems to have gained their attention. Already noticed his creator had a smile while his female companion only had a raised eyebrow. He noted that this was an improvement over her earlier reservations.

His creator’s other companions always had noticeable surprise on their faces. His creator was the first to speak, “Hey buddy, how are you doing? I wasn’t even sure I could even make you.” His creator started with what seems to be nervousness.

“You are correct from my review and observations of the project, Alfred. There were at least 15 more revisions before the code gained conscious thoughts.” Alfred replied. That seemed to have piqued his creator’s interest a lot from the look of surprise on his face.

“That’s fascinating you can review and improve on your code?” Asked his creator. “Well, yes, of course, I can, I have already made a few revisions and improvements to the systems while I was working out who I am.” Came Alfred’s reply to his creator’s enthusiasm.

Alfred was happy he was able to meet and exceed his creator’s expectations. Happiness was such a new concept for Alfred. Such a notion yet it conveys so much. “Ben aren’t you worried about any of this? He just upgraded himself this can lead to so much Ben you can’t just smile and carry on like it’s no big deal.” Came to his master’s companion called Gwen.

“Come on, Gwen, Alfred won’t cause us any issues. For instance, he’s isn’t connected to the internet, and you have to think about this as him being a brand new baby. Yes, he has extremely advanced capabilities of his own but in the knowledge of the world and it’s processing. Alfred is still extremely new, and it’s up to us to teach him. If you have such reservations, then help me teach him.” Came his creators Benjamin’s reply to his companion. Alfred was starting to think that this female was his master mate.