The Airship

The peaceful night that had welcomed the crew back from their voyage deep under the ocean has long passed away, the morning sun now shines brilliantly over the Airship, which was now back in the air, it's jet thrusters blazing a bright orange through the newly lit up sky. Inside of the ship, all was calm, Corry was laying in his bed, which was stationed in the control room. Noland was walking through the halls, making sure all of the systems were functioning as they should. Chris was stretching in the training room, getting ready to work out a bit. Last, but not least, Pool was laying in the bed that she had in her brand new room, still fast asleep. Noland walks into the Airship's reactor chamber, checking to make sure there are no leaks or anything when suddenly a voice speaks to him.

"Are you in need of assistance, Young Master Noland?" A robotic female voice asks.

Noland jumps about 8 feet into the air from shock and looks around frantically, trying to discern where the mysterious voice came from.

"W-Who's there!? Who are you!?" Noland shouts, quickly drawing his pistol and aiming into the room.

A computer screen slowly descends from the ceiling, it had a blue interface across it. Seeing the monitor, Noland slowly lowers his weapon in confusion.

"Wha...?" Noland manages to get out.

"I am your Mobile Aerial Paradise Interface, I know that is a mouthful, so Young Master Corry has advised that you may call me MAPI for short." The automated voice explains.

"Wait, slow down- Corry knew about you and he didn't say anything about you to us?" Noland asks, still trying to comprehend the whole situation.

"It would seem that way, Young Master Noland." MAPI responds cordially.

"I- You- Ok, for one, please don't refer to me all fancy like that, just call me Noland." Noland asks exasperatingly. 

"I do apologize, but it is in my programming to refer to you all as such. I am merely an AI that is designed to help you with your needs as biological life forms." MAPI says.

Noland backs away slowly, trying to seem inconspicuous.

"Right... Well uhhh, I'm gonna go talk to Corry real quick... See you I guess-" Noland states, clearly not wanting to engage anymore.

"I hope you are satisfied, Young Master Noland." MAPI calls out as Noland leaves the room.

Meanwhile, Pool begins to wake up in her bed. She sits up and stretches, before going to hop off of her bed, forgetting that she wasn't underwater anymore. She face plants into the cold metal floor, lying still for a moment before looking up.

"Ow... That hurt..." Pool groans, trying to get up.

She eventually manages to get to her feet, wobbling around a bit before walking.

"Being a human is a lot harder than I expected it to be... It's very strange trying to use these legs..." Pool sighs, stumbling down the hall.

Back to Noland, he was currently going up the elevator to the control bay. When the elevator arrives at his destination, he steps out into the room and turns his head towards Corry. Once Corry eventually notices that Noland had entered the room, he sits up in bed, smiling.

"Yo Noland, what can I do for you?" Corry says happily.

"You didn't tell me there was some kind of strange AI assistant in this ship! It scared me half to death!" Noland exclaims.

Corry tilts his head, seemingly trying to think about what Noland was talking about before remembering.

"Oh yeah, MAPI! Yeah, sorry, I thought you would find her on your own, I honestly wasn't expecting it to take this long for you to meet her!" Corry chuckles.

"Right then- Uhhh, well, is there any way you can make the thing less... Monotonous? I can't take being referred to as "Young Master" again, it feels so formal and I really don't like it. Can you also give it free will so that it isn't just popping up out of nowhere with random offers and stuff? I feel like that's gonna get annoying really quick-" Noland explains to Corry.

"Uhhhh.... No, sorry, I can't-" Corry admits, smiling nervously.

Noland just stares at Corry for a bit, his eyebrows twitching.

"What do you mean you can't?" Noland asks.

"Well, I didn't make MAPI! She came with the ship, I just made it so she'd recognize us, I don't know how to actually alter an AI!" Corry says, still with the same oblivious smile on his face.

Noland sighs before walking back towards the elevator.

"Fine then, I'll do it myself." Noland states.

"Wait what-" Corry questions, but Noland had already begun his descent back to the main levels.

Back in the lower levels, Pool was meandering through the halls, sniffing her way around.

"Where did Corry say the kitchen was again? I'm quite hungry..." Pool whines to herself.

She eventually makes a turn into a doorway to her left. Upon opening the door, she's greeted with a training dummy hurtling straight toward her. Pool squeals and ducks down, the dummy flying right over her head and smacking into the wall right behind her. Chris runs up to Pool from the inside of the room, which was definitely not the kitchen.

"Are you ok? You're not hurt, are you?" Chris asks worriedly.

Pool looks up at Chris and nods, grinning lightly.

"Yes, I'm just fine..." She assures Chris.

"Alright... Just making sure, I was training pretty heavily, I wasn't expecting to send the dummy flying, so that's my bad." Chris says nervously, scratching the back of his head.

"You're perfectly ok Chris, I'm not harmed whatsoever." Pool states.

"So, did you need anything?" Chris asks, crossing his arms and grinning.

"Umm... Yes, you see, I'm trying to locate the kitchen... I haven't eaten anything since last morning and I'm quite hungry." Pool explains.

"Oh, well, you're gonna wanna-" Chris begins.

"Allow me to help." MAPI's voice echoes, cutting off Chris as the monitor drops down from the ceiling.

Chris yelps and quickly backs away, looking at the monitor. Pool on the other hand was scared right off of her feet, smacking into the floor again.

"I apologize if I scared you. I am your Mobile Aerial Paradise Interface, but you may call me MAPI." The AI explains.

"M-MAPI-??" Chris stammers.

The monitor turns towards Chris, scanning him.

"You are... Young Master Chris." MAPI states.

"How do you know my...?" Chris wonders lightly.

The monitor then turns to Pool, who was still paralyzed on the floor, looking up at the sentient piece of tech.

"I do not have you registered in my databases, what is your name?" MAPI asks.

"M-My... Name is Pool..." Pool stutters, clearly shocked.

"Registering you as Young Miss Pool." MAPI exclaims.

"What are you?" Chris asks, walking closer.

"As I explained, I am your Mobile Aerial Paradise Interface. I am designed to make sure your commands are heeded, I am a virtual assistant. Young Miss Pool said that she was in need of directions to the kitchen, correct?" MAPI explains before looking at Pool.

"Yes... That's right..." Pool says quietly.

The monitor freezes for a bit, clunking sounds come from it before a small piece of paper is printed out from a slot at the bottom.

"Here is a map of the ship that you may refer to whenever you wish, Young Miss Pool." MAPI offers.

Pool gulps, staggering back up to her feet and taking the map.

"O-Oh, umm... Thank you, MAPI." Pool says nervously, smiling gently.

"I am pleased that I was able to help you, Young Miss Pool." MAPI says.

The monitor rises back up inside of the ceiling.

Chris and Pool look at each other, both of them somewhat processing the situation. Chris shrugs his shoulders and walks up to Pool again.

"Here... You probably don't know much about the kind of food we eat here on the surface. I'll make breakfast for you." Chris says, smiling.

"O-Oh, no, you really don't have to, it's ok-!" Pool says, a nervous smile on her face.

"Hey, it's the least I can do, you're new here." Chris says reassuringly.

Pool stammers lightly for a bit before finally managing to make out words.

"O-Ok... Well U-Um... If that's w-what you want... You're too kind..." Pool says softly.

Chris smiles and begins walking out into the hall, Pool following behind him. Over in the lab, Noland was working on something, a frame that looked like the nervous system of a living creature. Noland had connected a computer chip to the metal frame and was typing in some programming a large computer setup. 

"This should make that thing a bit less... Annoying. I won't have to worry about it being so fancy all the time. I think I'm actually doing MAPI a favor here..." Noland mumbles under his breath as he works.

Back over in the kitchen, Pool walks in and sits down at the dining table. Chris walks in with her, walking past the table and over to the cooking area. He puts on a white apron and pulls a spatula out from a drawer, twirling it in his fingers.

"I have a feeling you'd like something sweet... I have a bit of a sweet tooth myself, so I know exactly what to make you." Chris chuckles, walking over to a cupboard to check it's contents.

"Something sweet... Alright, I wouldn't mind that." Pool says softly.

Chris reaches into the cupboard and pulls out a box of pancake mix.

"Ah, here we are!" He exclaims.

Chris pulls a large bowl out from under the counter and tears open the box of pancake mix, dumping it's powdery contents into the bowl. He then walks to the fridge and and pulls out a jug of milk and a carton of eggs, walking back over the bowl. He eyeballs the amount of milk that he pours into the bowl before screwing the cap back onto the jug. He reaches for two eggs and cracks them over the surface of the counter, opening them over the bowl. He throws away the shells and puts the eggs and milk back into the fridge. Once that was finished, he takes a whisk and begins mixing all of the ingredients together. Pool watches in anticipation as he fluidly goes about his cooking. Once the contents of the bowl were thick and gooey, he pulls a pan out from the same spot he got the bowl from and sets it on the stove. He turns the stove all the way up and grabs some oil, pouring it onto the pan. Once the oil began to sizzle that signified that it was ready to have pancakes cook on top of it. Chris pours the gooey pancake onto the pan in two spots, making two big puddles of goop. He throws the bowl into the sink and waits for a bit. Pool smells the air as the cakes cook, a wide smile forming on her face.

"It smells wonderful Chris." Pool says cheerfully.

"Just wait until you taste it, heh!" Chris reminds.

Back in the lab, Noland overlooks his creation and smiles.

"I think I may have just outdone myself." Noland remarks.

TO BE CONTINUED!