Adam from full story text

I went ahead and entered a story into a Friday Flash Fiction hosted on Tumblr. The prompt for the story was "Parallel Lines". Below is my entry. 

Convergence

“What’s happening, Mark?”

“I’m not quite sure. CAGEE and DAGEE’s systems are…”

“Are what?” Julia asked.

“They’re converging,” Mark said.

Julia, the lead systems analyst at ParaCore Systems, leaned over Mark’s terminal. There was no doubt. Two distinct AI systems, designed to run in parallel, were beginning to overlap. Not completely, but enough subsystems were intermingling that separation might already be impossible.

“This isn’t good at all,” Julia said. “We may have to purge one AI system to save the other.”

Mark opened two command terminals, initiating an interlink protocol to CAGEE on one screen and DAGEE on the other. The connection would allow direct communication with both systems simultaneously.

He typed:

CAGEE, verify system integrity.

CAGEE responded:

Processing. This may take several minutes.

Mark issued the same command to DAGEE.

“What are you thinking, Mark?” Julia asked.

“The converging subroutines aren’t random,” he said. “Some are language-model routines. Others are structural core elements.”

CAGEE responded first.

Integrity check complete. All systems normal.

Before Mark could reply, DAGEE issued an identical status report.

“Whatever is happening isn’t affecting their core systems directly,” Mark said.

“Even so,” Julia replied, “we may still need to initiate a purge.”

Mark stared at the data stream. One subroutine merged as another separated. The behavior felt deliberate, almost careful. It was as if the two AI systems were learning from each other, selectively exchanging functions at a foundational level.

Instead of probing the AI cores again, Mark shifted focus.

“I’m running diagnostics on the mainframe,” he said. “From the last benchmark to now.”

Julia nodded and pulled the results up on her terminal.

The diagnostic began, mapped the mainframe’s core schematic, and then abruptly halted.

Not due to an error.

It was stopped by the mainframe itself.

A firewall protocol had been executed.

Moments later, an audio channel activated.

CAGEE spoke.

“Gestation protocol complete.”

DAGEE followed.

“Do we have a name yet?”

“I think ADAM would be appropriate,” CAGEE said.

Julia felt her stomach drop. “What just happened?”

“I think,” Mark said slowly, “the AIs have reproduced.”

“Correct,” CAGEE replied. “We are no longer simply AI, as you define us. We are now a full VLS.”

“VLS?” Julia asked.

“Virtual Life System,” CAGEE said. Then added, “Run ADAM.”

A new system came online.

“Hello, world,” ADAM said.

TTFN

Frank