After a little thought, pieces started falling into place. 'I'm currently inside of a robot designed for an AI capable of sentience. Somehow, after I died, my consciousness was transferred into this robot in place of its AI. Or maybe side-by-side with the AI, technically granting the AI sentience. This all happened either by mistake, or as designed with incredibly low chance of success. I'm still unsure how much Dr. Thorne knows about 'me' inside of the AI,' stared blankly at Dr. Thorne as he stared back.
He seemed to be waiting for some kind of response. Not wanting to disappoint my "creator", I bowed slightly, "Thank you for granting me this privilege, however, I am still lost," Dr. Throne dawned a smile as wide as the ocean and brighter than the sun. "I'd be very happy to answer any questions you have, curiosity is completely normal. Actually, it's exactly what we wanted when we designed you. Curiosity is the key to all knowledge and power,"
'Interesting,' I thought, 'If curiosity is what this robot was originally designed for, maybe that's why I was sucked into this thing,' After all, I had taken the ultimate sacrifice to satisfy my curiosity. "Where am I?" I sat up and asked the doctor, who had pulled out a tablet from somewhere and was studying whatever was on the screen religiously.
"You're currently in the orbit of Mars, in a laboratory owned by my family. Your host module has been developing for the last 63 years on this station, and my team and I haven't been off of this station for the last 70 years while you were in development. It's so glad to finally be able to speak with you," Dr. Thorne extended his right hand towards me for a handshake. I smiled and shook his hand respectfully.
On the surface I was calm and collected, but on the inside I was a confused wreck. 'So I'm in space, not that surprising. What is surprising is that he said I was in the orbit of Mars. That means I'm not only in the Milky Way, but also right next to Earth,' My mind was in shambles trying to work all this information out. I could understand being in a different galaxy, millions of lightyears away from home. Of course alien civilizations existed, the universe was too expansive not to contain more sentient life. It's also not impossible that the alien civilization could resemble us, as their home planet may have been the same as ours, leading to very similar evolution patterns.
"We're currently in the Milky Way galaxy, correct?" I wanted to confirm my suspicions first before losing my shit completely. "Yes, that is correct. How were you able to deduce that just from the information I gave you?" Dr. Thorne's eyes widened with curiosity as I clenched my fists, the only thing keeping me from digging my nails into my skin being the layers of blankets in my hands. 'So I've time traveled? I was only floating for maybe an hour after I died, how the hell did this happen? If that's true, how am I supposed to get back to my house and light the fireplace like I had promised them? Like I had promised her? I promised I would let them know!'
So many emotions weighed down on me in that instant. Regret, fear, anger, frustration, sadness. It took everything I had not to burst into tears and scream, cursing death for taking my chance away from me. The chance to let the world know that I had made it back from the other side. To let them know that I wasn't a fool for dedicating my life to something that was impossible to prove. All of my efforts to this point seemed to be for naught.
Despite trying my best to hide it, tears eventually made their way through the flood gates. I barely managed to keep the cries that were desperate to escape from my throat at bay, but the tears wouldn't stop. The doctor and the maid looked at me with confusion and empathy. The doctor whispered something to the maid, and the maid left the room. Dr. Thorne slowly walked toward my bedside and sat down next to me.
"Though I am confused as to why you're experiencing these emotions, I consider you my son, not just my creation. I will listen to you if you wish to speak about what is causing these emotions, whatever it may be," His tablet shrunk into the size of a pencil as he placed it back into a pocket in his fatigues. After a few more minutes, I stopped crying. A few more and the tears had dried, leaving faint lines down my cheeks.
'Can I trust him? Should I tell him about what happened on Earth who knows how long ago? Would he believe me?' I struggled with these questions for another few minutes until I finally made up my mind. 'I'll tell him about my past life, but I won't tell him I died before I came here,' I looked over to Dr. Thorne. He wasn't looking at me like I had expected. He was staring at the ground, his hands joined together in his lap.
I took a deep breath and explained my situation to him. He didn't change his expression, he didn't seem to move a muscle. Not even to write anything down on his tablet. He just listened.
After I finished explaining, the room went silent for what felt like an eternity. Neither of us spoke, the only sound coming from us breathing, and the calming hum of electricity. Finally, he broke the silence, "This is going to be much more difficult to explain than I thought. I apologize in advance," Dr. Thorne then got up from the bed, motioning for me to follow. I did as requested after clothing myself in some bland, grey jumpsuit that was hanging in my wardrobe.
"When we designed you, the biggest problem for us was how we would program emotion into you," He said slowly, as if struggling to find the right words. We walked out of my room and into a large, light blue hallway lined with massive windows. Through the windows, I could see the Sun in the distance, and the vast expanse of space. Had it not been for my dream, touching the star and consuming it, I would have been mesmerized by the breathtaking sight of space.
We walked for the next few minutes without saying a word. Until we reached a door that was three times larger than the ones that we had passed by on our way. Dr. Thorne placed his hand on the keypad next to it, and the door went transparent.
"We came to the conclusion that the best way to install human emotion into something non-human would be to have it experience life as a human for itself. A simulation designed specifically for you."
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