Box

Chapter 2

It again glanced at Aydin, who was still talking with his brother and who was now in plank position. Yes, its handler had integrity. It was the word Box had looked up when it first heard Aydin mumbling it a year before, the same year he quit his job as a detective. He told his father that the job didn't offer him enough challenge and that the pay was too low since he wanted to get his apartment, which didn't match up with Aydin muttering about integrity. That's why Box had 'Purpose behind Aydin's relocation to the Border Police' in its Notebook, under the 'Things that I don't know' tab.

Aydin finished his conversation with the promise to talk with their mother and went to Box. He patted it. "Are you sulking?"

"No." Box played the warehouse footage.

"Liar."

"An AI is incapable of lying."

"An AI can't sulk either, yet here you are, gazing at the wall because I raised my voice." Aydin patted him again, chuckling.

Box emitted a small beep.

"Box, as much as I enjoy watching you antagonise my brother, you need to let it go. Damien didn't mean any harm. He only wanted to show you off to his friends, something he had written in the apology that you refused to accept."

Box emitted a higher beep that sounded like a cry. "He placed me in a bag." It had happened just a week after Box got its personality chip and was still getting acquainted with all the new sensations and colours when it found itself trapped inside a blackness that clung to its orb and was moving. Box didn't know what it was and dark grey layered its cameras and with that its inner display while a cold sensation overloaded its sensors. The memory of it started to play over the warehouse footage. The noise of the street sounds loud —

Powering up.

No errors detected.

Loading...

The cameras turned on and showed Box the view of a wall. What activity was I engaged in?

The media player opened.

Box closed it.

"Run diagnostic, please," Aydin requested. "And show it to me."

"Initiating diagnostic procedure," Box said. "Power-on self-test completed without detecting any errors."

The notification of the diagnostic report appeared in the upper right corner of its display. It opened the report and via a finger that it pushed out of its orb projected it on the wall to Aydin.

"It's your space issues again. It looks like your personality is getting too big for you."

"I possess the capability to expand in size." The finger withdrew back into Box. It started to unfold parts of its shell from the inside and push them out. They thinned and connected until it was as big as a basketball, the biggest it could get. Now there were empty spaces just under the surface of its orb that could serve as drawers, which in the past Aydin's brother had liked to use as his personal secret storage.

Aydin chuckled. "That's not what I meant."

"No?" Box went to the general database and put 'Too big personality' into the search bar. It got eighteen million hits. It chose one randomly and read it. A red laser light shot out of its orb at Aydin. "I do not exhibit behaviour considered bothersome."

"I never said you were. But sometimes you can be a little overwhelming. Not that I would change anything about it. I like you just the way you are." Aydin's fingers followed the curve of the orb as he stroked it. "But the thing is, your personality is evolving, and it's taking too much disk space. You'll need to stop recording everything and delete some of your memories."