.i mi'o zvati ti mi'u mau .ii1
only could Trinat utter as they were sitting in a quite small room
with a window facing the yet unrestored street, just the two of
them...
"Just relax, man", said the waiter with that same thick accent as they sat on a white coach and put their arms on its back. They were pretty tall and skinny with a more masculine build with that mildly broad chest of theirs, but no one could be sure now of someone's identity anymore, so Trinat couldn't bring himself to think of them of a man just as yet
So he couldn't just sit down next to them and said, "Then I'd like to apologize to you—"
"Nah", only breathed out the waiter, "yo at least apologized: here just were some clients who had to real apologize for dey behavior, but still ain't do nuttin' for dat"
"Is this your natural accent?"
"What yo mean by natural, man? Dat how Ah usually speak, yo know—an' (they patted the vacant place near themself, inviting Trinat to sit down there) dat ain't no accent: dat a dialect, man"
Trinat sat down and the waiter's arm was slightly touching his neck, which made him feel even more out of place... The waiter stole a glance at him and embraced his neck with their arm, still telling him to just relax, man: everychin' alright. Trinat swallowed hard again and the waiter went on, "Yo may now ask me whatever yo want, man: Ah finna answer yo question"
"Just one question?"
"Nah, man: till yo gonna finish it"
"Okay then..." After a few moments of struggling with his uncomfortableness and embarrassment, Trinat finally asked, "Tell me more about yourself then"
The waiter laughed heartily and said, "Dat all yo wanna ask me? Prolly somechin' else, too, ah?"
"What someching else?"
"Ah dunno, man... Like..."
"Hey, wait, ain't yo never...? But—" they bursted into laughter again "—don't make me laugh ma-ass off, man HAHAHA"
Trinat was now confused and wanted to run away more than anything else—he even got easily from under the waiter's arm as they were now holding their stomach as if it was about to burst out of such a hard laughing—so he then was getting to the exit on his tiptoes, fast and swift, as the laughter now abruptly stopped and Trinat hastily was trying to open up the locked door—but was caught by the scuff and stopped, fearing what would happen next
"Yo a tough guy, ah?" asked the waiter in such a drawl and sing-song manner Trinat only now noticed they actually had such a melodic and nice voice—but they just chuckled once and winked to him, who was now looking fearfully at them, putting him on the ground and leading to the coach again
"So", drawled they throwing themself on it, "yo wanna hear mo' 'bout me, right? Well... Where to begin? Am just an experimental language recognizin', imitatin', and constructin' human-made, but hybrid-serving for now AI... Nochin' special, Ah assure ya"
"So... That means: you can construct languages as well?"
The term was unfamiliar to him as he only could speak Lojban and English fluently, using Java only to write orders: beyond that, he knew nothing of languages and how they functioned—but guessed it was possible to create one when one had the knowledge he personally lacked. The waiter only shook their head a bit from side to side, with a wide warm smile, and replied, "Yea, an' it take much less time dan sixty-odd year, for instance"
"And how many languages you can speak then?"
"All of da documented ones, natural an' constructed—"
"W-w-what?! And h-how much is t-that?"
"Around eight chousand"
It's not that Trinat was shocked: he was completely paralyzed, thinking that AI who spoke broken English for him, could speak all the possible languages on this planet, not knowing that there're other ones, yet unknown and in the need of being analyzed and studied, more exotic and extinct, dying and revived, but mostly in the need of a revival, pushed away and persecuted, but still somehow, alive...
The waiter touched him carefully with their fingertips and as if turned into a block of ice, Trinat was slowly melting now, taking deep breath with relief and finally relaxed, having got to know his opponent
"So now", drawled the waiter gladly seeing Trinat half lying on the coach, "tell me mo' 'bout yo-ass den"
"I thought only I could ask questions here... And besides..." Trinat turned his entire body to them now and said, "you still haven't said what your name was..."
"Wellah, Am Yos... Male"
Trinat's conscience was relieved at that and he himself sighed—Yos chuckled a bit, but kept on asking Trinat to tell him who he was
"But I thought everyone knew me in the entire Federation—"
"Ah ma-ass quite a new AI, mister—"
"Trinat: I'm Trinat"
"Ohh, ça par exemple ! Ah just been thought a famous chief police officer was dat short and unnoticeable, ha-ha"
"You expected an AI with the appearance of a model or what?"
"More of an AI who have a robust build an' great height Ah gotta admit"
"Welluh, that makes me unnoticeable in the crowd to catch a thief, you know"
Yos again embraced Trinat's neck as Trinat himself was stupidly laughing at his own words and didn't resist this time, looking now at Yos, who was pleasedly smiling with his gaze as if veiled by a small shadow that seemed to just appear in his eyes...
"So..." drawled Trinat as if finally realizing that his neck was now wrapped in and added more modestly this time, "What you're doing here? I mean—your program has nothing to do with cafés and bars—"
Yos chuckled heartily at it and said with his hand raising and falling on Trinat's forearm as he spoke, "Am an experimental AI—which mean it all be temporarily, man: as soon as da trial period over and Ah get to prove ma validity, Amma gonna go to da ocher city..."
"An' I won't see you here ever again..." whispered Trinat despite himself, as if he went to bars and pubs often, yeah, nearly each day, to miss his favorite waiter who he'd known for over a decade now... "Oh, Goe, Goe: why aren't you here... W-with me..."
Trinat now had a strong urge to sit like this, but with Goe's arm wrapping his neck, he was taller than Trinat, too, anyway—even if they never hugged or held each other by a hand... Only at that day did Goe actually grabbed on to him, but other than that, he realized, they never touched each other and Goe always kept a distance from him: was it because Trinat was his chief? Or was it because Goe was afraid he would guess about his having something to do with the bomb gang despite being clueless all this time...? He was both mad and glad because of that cluelessness of his because rules were rules: even if it meant to break the friendship one so cherished and couldn't live without...
They sat like this in silence, with Trinat's deeply lost in thought and Yos's studying him closely as if trying to read his mind and, in order to break the silence that bored him, he whispered, "So... Ah can see Ah was actually wron'..."
He didn't mean anything by that, he was just bored—but that dragged Trinat out of his dreamy thoughts and he was now looking steadily at Yos, with his blushed big nose and skinny cheeks...
"Oh", could Yos only utter, surprised at such a sincere reaction, "so... Yo really do have someone special, huh...?"
"If you mean a friend—"
At that, Yos giggled a bit and said, "But yo real naive, yo know dat?" He chuckled then and added, "Ain't yo never done been, yo know... in love?"
Trinat only shook his head sluggishly just a few times, thinking what it meant, to be in love—he hardly understood what friendship meant, let alone other types of bounds and closeness between people or AIs... He was just blankly staring at the door, his face flushed more than even before, thinking of his relationship with Goe... It was just a friendship, all comes and goes after all: why couldn't he just accept it and move on? Why all these hustle and bustle, when he could just forget? And be lonely... Like before...
Hey, shook him Yos with his arms grabbing on tight to Trinat's shoulders, "Ah ain't wanna make yo sad or nochin', man..."
But Trinat wasn't able to hear him, imagining that very day... But a completely different picture appeared in front of his eyes: Goe was literally strangling him with his arms wrapping, spiraling him like lianas, and then he raised his head to his—and Trinat felt like he was being shaken so much he had been grabbed out of his vision to the merciless reality...
"Man, yo did give me creeps", said Yos, breathing shallowly. "What was dat all 'bout?"
"I just... saw an event from the past... A powerful one. But... it was different from what I remember"
"So den, if yo could... Would yo love to change dat event?"
"Yes—n-no: I-I'm not s-sure..." put Trinat his palms on his cheeks with his elbows already resting on his laps, preoccupied and blue... Yos only put his palm on Trinat's shoulder, making Trinat look up in his direction, and whispered, "It's okay, it's okay..." and started lowering his head to Trinat, his eyes closed, lips as if about to whistle—Trinat started moving backwards, shivering forever more—until his legs lifted him from the coach altogether and rushed him to the door while his lips were nervously whispering Let me out, Let me out, Let me out—over and over again...
Yos unnoticeably sighed and wordlessly stood up and opened the door—Trinat rushed out as if from a stiff classroom he was forced to sit two lectures in a raw and ran to his colleagues who were waiting him still, at that very table, and got worried, bombarding him with questions: why he'd been so long there, it took them ten minutes either to understand they liked or despised the waiter who invited them to a similar room—having heard all of their stories and finally being able to speak now, Trinat told them everything was alright and that it was still hard for him to accept that Goe... Just wasn't here anymore... A nearby junior officer patted him at the closest shoulder and others nodded, supporting him in his loss. If he could cry, someone of them would wipe his tears, so unusual and somehow... wrong
So thought he to himself—but his thoughts returned to Goe yet again and... Wiping his imaginary tears away, Trinat was determined more than ever to find him: whatever it would take—even it meant to lose his life altogether: a promise is not a promise when he wasn't here after all
1. Why the hell are we here?!