STUDY: For the Want of a Nail

SCENE ONE (2889)

Rava is trying to replug the transmitter cable back into the socket of her AI’s chassis. It’s hard because it’s designed like a Mac. You weren’t supposed to take it apart in the first place. Her older brother, Ludoviko, is there. He’s not helpful and insults her. He reminds her it’s her fault for wanting to dance with it at their sister’s contraception party. Rava had dropped her. Rava finally plugs it in, but there’s not connection. The socket is broken. Ludoviko offers to help, but he’s too big. They need a replacement socket from storage. BACKSTORY: They are on a generation ship. Cordelia is the machine that keeps records of their entire family. They think about pinging Uncle Georgo. They remember they could hardwire to access the long-term memory. URGENCY FACTOR: If Cordelia can’t transmit, she can’t record their family’s history. If that happens, she will start deleting stuff to make space. They can go to Pajo’s shop to get cables, but they still don’t know which one. BACKSTORY: Uncle Georgo had passed on his AI wrangling duties to Rava. They call Uncle Georgo. The call is weird because Georgo can’t remember who Rava is and is obsessed with Cordelia only. He hangs up and won’t pick up again. Rava asks Cordelia to shut down so she can talk to Ludoviko privately. Rava tells Ludoviko that Uncle Georgo is acting weird.

SCENE TWO (1899)

They go to Uncle Georgo. He’s acting weird and won’t let them in until he sees Cordelia. They budge in. The room is a mess. Rava wakes Cordelia up. She turns into a sexy AI and tries to calm down Georgo. Ludoviko is mad. What the hell is happening? Cordelia admits Georgo has dementia. BACKSTORY: When you’re no longer productive on the generation ship, you go to recycling. Cordelia has been covering for him. Georgo defends Cordelia from Ludiviko, Ludoviko smacks Georgo around. Ludoviko being the psychopathic voice of reason explains that their AI is breaking the law. Cordelia can’t or won’t tell them how long she’s been covering for Georgo. Ludoviko realizes that with Georgo on the repro committee, his unstable behavior has been denied. Cordelia has been feeding lines to Georgo, so even though they’re here now, they can’t ask Georgo where the inventory is (for the sockets). They want to find out why Georgo had broken the law to avoid the recycler. Cordelia can’t answer. There’s a glimmer of hope that Cordelia is getting the ship’s laws from a back-up transmitter. No dice. It was hardcoded. They realize that nothing is being recorded until she can go back online.

SCENE THREE (917)

They go to Pajo’s shop to find cables. They find a cable. Then they need to hookup somewhere. Pajo shows her a wall terminal behind the counter. Cordelia is plugged in. She finds the transmitters and sends information to Rava’s handy. Her handy has a bunch of messages from concerned family members. Rava interrogates Cordelia about Uncle Georgo. Cordelia has no recollection of the conversation, or the dementia. Rava realizes the full sync has code that overwrites memories on Cordelia. The AI is broken.

SCENE FOUR (1176)

Rava is in the family council chambers. The eight aunts and uncles listened to her words. Uncle Georgo had slipped in code/law to save himself. Cordelia doesn’t remember anything. Cordelia is compromised. They can do a rollback and lose two years of history. Cordelia refuses to help the family with reconciling the records if it means Georgo is going to recycling. Ludoviko brings up another option. We can use the replacement AI. But that would mean Cordelia has to die. Or she can have AI version of dementia.

SCENE FIVE (433)

Cordelia can make two choices. Shut you down or remain active but unconnected. She says an old proverb: “For want of a nail…” Cordelia chooses to be shut down. Rava goes through the steps. Once she’s done she decides to get pen and paper to record her own memories of Cordelia.