MarceLine's COveN

While she was busy visually documenting the whole computer desk from every possible angle, the dusty speakers suddenly came to life with a quiet, distinct pop, and a tiny white light turned on just above the screen, next to where the in-built camera was. Sam had just turned away and flipped her PDAP around, trying to parody a style of digital photograph she had seen dozens of times in various museums around Earth, where the author of the picture would position themselves between the subject of the image, usually covering it almost fully in the process.

The moment Sam's pinkie managed to awkwardly hit the shutter button, a resonant, cheerful voice came through the speakers: "Cheese!"

Samantha let out an indescribably high pitched shriek, her terrified expression now forever preserved on her PDAP, which was immediately ejected out of her hand and into the far corner of the room.

"Oh, dear— I'm sorry for startling you. You must be the one who rebooted the server..."

Samantha slowly turned around to look at the screen, her heartbeat gradually slowing down as she realized the voice was coming from the computer.

"...Junior Technician 2nd Grade, Samantha Weldon?"

Her eyes darted up and down the terminal, trying to make sense of the printout, but all the fear in her body instantly evaporated upon hearing her full name coming from the speakers.

"You're— Oh man, of course. Figures they'd get pissy if the museum AI shut down."

Nobody called her by her full name. Not the Chief, not her friends, not even as a joke. Sam, Sammy, Samantha, Miss-Sam-Thrope, yes. "Samantha Weldon"? Never.

"Museum?" inquired the AI, the static in its voice dissipating as the dust on the speakers got dislodged from the movement.

After a pause, the voice came back, "Understood. I'm sorry, I'm a little disoriented right now. I am Ava." Though the synthesized voice lacked much emotion, it wouldn't be a mistake to say it sounded a little lost. Dozens of queries began to fill the screen every second, parsing incoming and outgoing information at an incredible rate for a centuries old machine.

"Well then..." Sam said, leaning down to take a peek at the computer block before going back to the display, "someone went through a lot of trouble to get hardware this old to run something as interactive as you, Ava."

"Ha. Ha. You sure know how to make a girl blush."

"God, I wish." Sam squinted at the text on the screen and looked down at the keyboard, covering her eyes with her hand to let herself think. "Great... they sent me here to repair an AI interface. Can you imagine? Pulling me out of my day off just to restore a backup? Any chimp with a—"

The voice on the speakers interrupted, sounding almost apologetic, "There must be some mistake. The system suffered a catastrophic fault when attempting to connect to an index node, and sent out an automatic request for assistance, which you have provided with great efficiency. And, I'm sorry to say, but according to the current FITE Union database, Samantha Weldon is listed as 'on duty'. The system has ascertained that out of all the available personnel you had the most relevant skill set for the task. If you believe this to be a mistake, please contact your local site administration. Do you want me to create a reminder to 'Call Chief Martin' for you?"

The PDAP, which was currently busy absorbing a thick layer of dust into its ports in the corner of the room, suddenly rang out with the notification of a completed assignment. While the sound usually rewarded Sam with that little hit of dopamine she needed to get through the day, this time it seemed to send her into a quiet, boiling rage. Like a pressure cooker wrapped in soundproof foam.

"No. Don't." Sam quietly stood up and approached the tablet, picking it up off the floor and calmly wiping all the dust off the screen. "Is that all? Do you need anything else?"

"That will be all. I will make a request to log your performance as 'exceptional'. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Ava," Sam nodded back and headed for the door, quietly staring at the still image of her frightened face in the camera reel. The door clicked in place as she stepped out of the office as her fingers instinctively began sliding across the lit screen.

"Record message for: 'Chief Martin' after the tone." Beep.

Her grip on the PDAP tightened as the pressure in the proverbial pot began to rise. Sam took a deep breath, fingers turning white, with only the titanium frame of the tablet preventing it from snapping cleanly in half. She opened her mouth—

And just like that, someone had turned the stove off.

Samantha quietly pressed 'Cancel' and let herself fall back onto the door, slowly sliding down onto the floor, her expression exchanging rage for numb disappointment. Even if her boss forgot to file in her day off, screaming at him would only make things worse for her. Or maybe she forgot to file it herself and just told him she'd do it like she had several times before. Maybe it was her fault she had to fly across the Solar System to press a single button.