Large ominous signs warned that killbots patrolled this area, a heavy set turret tracked over Smith, scanning him intently.
He looked up at it directly as there was that pale dim light flash against the back of his eye, the turret scanned around him briefly before the fence grindingly crunched open.
Smith nodded up to the turret, he knew the AI didn't understand his action but it felt right to him to do so anyway.
He shuffled in to the ageing building, nobody else would be on site as the main AI lit up the path before him.
"Good morning Technician Johnson." A calm friendly voice greeted him, "You appear to have suffered physical injury and your biometrics are indicating high levels of stress."
Smith winced, he knew he was pretty much instantly replaceable and only good luck had ensured he kept this job.
"That's right April. I had another nightmare and I fell on the way to work this morning." Smith replied to the computer, breathing slowly and calming himself.
The main AI took a moment to reply, "I have prepared a psychometric test for you at your station, please respond to it as soon as possible."
Smith nodded a little surprised and continued to follow the pathway around the crumbling building getting to a large brightly lit office.
It was a little slice of history, carpeting on the floor, large windows that overlooked the sea and the reason Smith was here.
He walked up to an ageing bank of monitors, most of them hard large red crosses over them but there were still eight monitors with active displays.
Smith worked for the Ocean Survey Society and was a trained chemist, six years ago when he first started out there were two dozen people working here.
His job was simple, the company was to cheap to install an AI to monitor the buoy feeds, so he had to go to these monitors, write down the information, do some maths and type it in to another console.
All because the company didn't want to spend money modernising the system, it was after all an ancient out of date system still using binary to update the screens.
It had been cheaper to hire him and keep him on then to upgrade, it was always going to be cheaper to keep him on rather then upgrade and now .... there wasn't much point in upgrading.
He looked up at the monitors checking the eight still glowing ones, fine lines of green text glowed out from the blackness as he peered closely at one of the monitors.
He gave the plastic screen a brief confused tap before pulling out an old keyboard and notepad, carefully reading the hand written notes he'd taken he returned to a smaller central monitor.
Ocean Survey Studies
Buoy monitor and control
Command :>
Smith carefully looked across the keyboard typing in exactly each letter one at a time as he scanned the notes.
CON SOURCE T
He stopped and looked to the monitor typing in the code from the top of the screen.
30501347
Smith pressed enter as the display changed from the green screen with text a grainy picture streaming from the monitor.
He could see it.
Waves of energy rocking the buoy.
Smith turned back to the keyboard flipping to the back of the notepad.
CON TERMCOM 30501347 ** EOF /S -F (STP)
Smith reached down pulling open a small drawer and taking out the roll of red electrical tape going to the monitor and waiting as lines of text whirred past.
Smith steadied himself sitting back in the seat feeling a moment of vertigo, taking a steadying breath as the AI that was in the room beeped at him.
"Caution elevated heart rate detected do you require assistance?" The computer chirped.
"I think I'm okay." Smith said catching his breath feeling the room still spinning a little.
The computer beeped again as a little monitor in the corner flashed up with another message, Smith hadn't even checked his mail yet as he shook his head clearing the feelings of sickness as he took the red tape looking up to the now black monitor with a single flashing cursor on it.
Smith reached up and pressed the power button before taping a red cross over the screen.
Smith rubbed his eyes looking down at the clipboard before looking across to the more modern station and the slight flashing indicator of new e-mail.
He sighed quickly noting down as many of the results from the seven remaining screens before sliding the chair across the smooth office surface to the main computer.
Smith loved looking out the window across the sea but now, he just didn't feel the same way that there was a large barrier of glowing energy sitting out there.
He angled his chair away from the window focusing on the screen, there were two notices already waiting for him on the display, a psych test from the AI and ... a doctor's appointment, he shrugged and hit accept on it accepting right away the meeting for this morning.
Smith raised his hand as the air before him came to life, filled with light as it traced the motion of his hand following it as he pressed a virtual button and a large menu appeared.
Carefully he moved his hand in a pinching motion as the menu focused and a form appeared with a little number pad beside it as he started to fill it in from the clipboard.
"April... Can the psycometric test be taken verbal?" Smith asked looking to the still flashing indicator.
"Yes. Should I proceed now or later?" The AI asked back the flashing stopping.
"Now please." Smith answered as he continued to fill in the form.
The AI beeped softly before responding, “Please state in the form of yes or no.”
Smith nodded “Yes?” He asked not sure that could be answered yes or no.
“Question: You have a wide range of friends.”
Smith thought about it about to say yes automatically when the stunning realisation started to creep in, all his friends were gone.
The first to go a few months ago were his co-workers, nobody cared about the ocean any more given it wasn’t going to be there soon. Only smith had stay on, his data mattered, it was being used by someone, somewhere to track just how long humanity had left.
Then his few school friends, not that he saw them anyway, just a pop up in a video window or a text chat client, but slowly they had been vanishing until Erin had said goodbye for the last time only a few nights ago, off to conversion.
Smith sighed a little before shaking his head, “No... No I don’t not.”
He looked to the chart data he had been inputting looking over it as he hit the large friendly submit button.
“Question: You often think about humankind and its destiny?”
Smith was slightly staggered by the question wondering if anyone hadn’t been before bluntly replying, “Yes”
Smith continued to answer yes and no to the various questions for a good twenty minutes before the computer beeped.
“Anaylsis complete, INTJ result with exceptional deviation from previous results.”
“How ... exceptional?” Smith asked slightly concerned as if this simple test had been a stunning revelation.
“Previous tests indicated high Introversion, intuition and feeling, these results have diminished some extremely.”
Smith blinked slightly stunned as he listened still to the computer.
“Intuition is so marginal without previous base results it would read as sensing.”
“O...okay. Is this something to talk to the doctor about?” Smith asked hopeful that it would not be.
“This is something to talk to the doctor about.” The AI stated coldly.
“Right...” Smith bit his lip slightly sighing as he put the clipboard down back near the bank of monitors and made sure the notepad was tucked up in the same place he pulled it out from.
“Map.” Smith said as a little digital map appeared downloading quietly onto his wrist computer.
“A transport is availble to take you to your destination, cost is 3 bits.” The AI noted as Smith looked to the map.
“A... transport? Like ... a car?” Smith asked confused, he’d never ridden in a car before!
“I would love transport, thank you April.”