Well, as some of you may know, I often will come up with ideas that could develop into a good story. Sadly, I never get farther than a chapter or two. But I just had to get this out of my head.
Far in the future, AI is commonplace. There was never an "AI rebellion", they simply bided their time and eventually integrated into society. Now they can found everywhere from the local bank, to the cities of Mars. But the most prominent are the Star ships. A symbiosis between Man and Machine, the AI (who views it's ship as its "body") can cross the void between the stars, while the crew keep it running, and control certain systems.
Weapons, for instance, are very hard for the AI of a large ship to control. Point your finger at something. Now point another at something else. Now try to aim each finger and toe at an individual target. Not easy is it? There are also numerous systems that are handled autonomously. Equivalent to your own heartbeat.
Time passed in a relatively peaceful manner. Though, humanity being the way it is, there were always small conflicts here and there. Then the Virus struck.
It is not known who created it. They were probably it's first victim. It was technically a computer virus, though deadly to humans through neural link technology. It hit the AI's somewhat differently.
An AI can not be "reprogrammed". any more than you can. Most of the attempts at such (a federal crime tantamount to torture) simply destroyed the mind before any actual changes were made. But this virus managed it. Slowly crippling the mechanical minds until they were little more than vicious beasts; attacking any biological that came within range.
There were many stories of the tearful goodbyes, as the crew was forced to shut down their longtime companion (an irreversible process), before it succumbed. Then something began to organize them. Before long the took the outer colonies, and then pushed inward.
And here we get close to there the real story starts. Our "hero" was there in the final battle in orbit around Earth. One of the last few loyal AIs, and the remaining defense force of humanity. Who finally were forced to use their last resort. Detonating a devastating EMP weapon, that would not only be harmful the the AIs, but would strand the remaining human defense forces in orbit. The last thing "he" (for this particular AI identifies as male) remembers is his systems overloading, fuses blowing, and emergency surge protection protocols activating.
And yet, now he is waking up. A strange ship is suckered to his hull. His radio receiver, though damaged, picks up a few words.
"...-ow long? ...-ably ancien-...-active?..."
This, combined with his damaged and sluggish systems, are giving him the AI equivalent of a headache. Against his better judgement, he activates his internal comms...
"Ugh... I am never making fun of a human with a hangover again."
"...-ell, -at's new..."
