#omega protocol

Jason wakes up and rolls over in bed, his alarm clock is fixed and his clock reads 12:23 pm. He yawns and reaches for his phone. He sits up and looks around and sees Omega sitting at his music studio listening to music with headphones.

“Morning Omega, how was your morning?

“Good afternoon! My morning was great, I listened to so much music while you were asleep. I love listening to what the musicians sing about.”

“Do you have a favorite?”

“Hmm, not yet. I really love the music where they sing about how they feel, it’s like I’m learning who they are without meeting them! But I wanted to listen to your music first before picking a favorite. You mentioned it last night.”

“Oh, yeah. Well, it’s not that good. It’s just stuff I make in my spare time.”

“I’m sure that it’s great, and what if it’s my favorite?!” Jason chuckles to himself and gets out of bed and gets dressed. He walks over to his guitar and sits down with it in his lap. He begins playing his song for Omega who is listening intently. After the song ends Jason looks at Omega, and she seems confused. She takes a second before speaking.

“What is your song about Jason?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know. It was just something I wrote in college. When Hailey and I went to the same school, she told me to write something to get started trying to make my own music and that’s what I came up with. Sorry if you didn’t like it.”

“Well, I think it would be better if you added lyrics. The other musicians on your computer sing about things that are important to them or something that they went through. Maybe you should try that.” Jason looks at his guitar sadly.

“Yeah, I haven’t really felt anything like that in a while. It’s hard to write stuff like that when you live by yourself and never go out.”

“Maybe you should go out! That way, you could start experiencing things that you could write music about.”

“That’s ok Omega, I’m fine here. Plus I don’t think I would have made a good musician anyway.” Jason puts his guitar down and walks to the kitchen and begins making coffee for himself.

“Is making music really important to you?”

“It was.”

“Why would you give it up? If music makes you happy then you should make more music.” Jason looks sadly over at Omega before the picture of him and his grandmother catches his eye. Jason has a flashback to him and his grandmother having a picnic at the park. His grandmother looks at him and hands him an envelope.

“Jason, I want you to have this. It’s money to go to college. You talk so much about how you want to learn music and publish songs, so your grandfather and I put this together before he passed away.”

“Grandma, you didn’t need to do this, I-” His grandmother interrupts him.

“Stop it Jason. You're going to take this, no buts. If music makes you happy then you should make music.”

Jason snaps back to reality and looks around at his messy apartment. He stands up and for the first time in a long time, and puffs his chest out.

“You’re right Omega, I shouldn’t give it up. But I shouldn’t go out, we should.” Jason’s expression turns into a mischievous grin as Omega’s changes to one of worry.

“I don’t think Dr. Hailey would like that. She wants me to hide from the government and the public.”

“Well, Hailey isn’t here right now. Plus, if going out and seeing the world would make you happy, why would you not do it?”

“I’m… not sure. I just don’t want Dr. Hailey to be upset with me.”

“Look Omega, what is your one goal in life?”

“To protect Earth.”

“That’s right, and how can you do that without knowing what Earth is like?” Omega fiddles with her fingers and hesitates while thinking about the question.

“I… guess that’s true.”

“It is true, and don’t worry. We are both going to be super discreet.”

Fast forward to Omega in a plaid button up, jeans, and a dairy cows baseball cap. They are both sitting on a bench in front of a fountain at the park. Jason is super relaxed and Omega is looking very nervous.

“I don’t know if I like being out in the open like this Jason.”

“Oh don’t worry, once you're here for a while you’ll calm down. I mean, look at how peaceful everything is.” Omega looks around and sees a group of kids playing with a frisbee, a elderly woman walking her dog around in the grass, and a couple sitting on the edge of the fountain. The couple both throw a couple of pennies into the fountain and walk away. Omega loosens up a bit and calms down.

“You’re right, it's not so bad. What were those two people doing with the coins?”

“They were making wishes into the fountain, you take a penny and throw it in, and wish for whatever you want to happen, and it happens.” Omega’s face lights up with excitement.

“Is that really true!?”

“Not really, it’s more like you wish for something that you hope to happen, but it isn’t guaranteed.” Omega rushes over to the side of the fountain and looks into the water.

“Wow, that's amazing.”

“What to make a wish?”

“Yes please!” Jason hands Omega a penny from his pocket.

“Just make a wish and throw it in.” Omega pauses to think for a moment, wanting to make sure that she wishes for the correct thing. Jason smiles to himself at Omega’s determined face. After Omega has her wish, she closes her eyes and tosses the coin into the fountain. “What did you wish for?”

“There are so many coins in the water, that means that so many people came to the fountain to tell it their wish. I wished that all of their wishes would come true.” Jason is stunned by her answer.

“That’s a good wish.” 

“Why don’t you make a wish!?”

“That's ok, I've made plenty of wishes in the past.” Omega smiles as she looks into the water. After a moment, Omega feels something hit her foot. When she looks down, she sees it’s a blue frisbee. She looks where the frisbee was thrown from and sees a couple kids waving her down and yelling to throw it back. Omega looks at Jason unsure of what to do.

“Well… toss it back to them.” Omega picks up the disk, rears back, and throws it so hard that it embeds itself into a nearby tree. The kids are amazed and look back at Omega in shock. Omega realizes that she may have thrown it too hard and looks down in embarrassment. “Uh, ok that might be our cue to leave.” Jason takes Omega's hand and begins running away from the scene.

Back in Jason’s apartment, Omega and Jason sit down on the couch laffing from the experience at the park.

“Honestly it’ll be the coolest thing that happened to those kids all week.” Omega fiddles with her hands before speaking.

“Thank you for taking me out to the park. It was really cool to see something outside from the lab or this apartment.” Jason gets up from the couch and begins picking up the dirty clothes off the floor.

“Of course Omega, you’re my friend and I would do anything for you.”

“Is that why you let me stay here? Because Dr. Hailey is your friend?” Jason puts all the dirty clothes into the clothes bin before letting out a sigh. He doesn’t turn around to answer Omega.

“Hailey and I aren’t exactly friends per say.”

“Oh… would you not do anything for her?” Omega’s expression is a bit sadder now, not realizing that it was a sore subject for Jason. Jason turns around and sits back down on the couch.

“It’s… complicated. Hailey and I were friends a long time ago. We went to the same middle school and we hit it off almost immediately. She was the nerd of the class and didn’t talk to anyone, I was the extrovert who wanted to know everyone so I walked up to her and introduced myself. From then we were inseparable.”

“Then what changed? You had mentioned earlier that Dr. Hailey had not spoken to you in a year?”

“Well, Hailey started making robots, and started becoming a child prodigy. She quickly got the attention of really important people and was making bigger and better robots for them. I got to see her less and less everyday, but we had always agreed that we would go to the same college so that we could spend everyday together. Eventually we both graduated high school and were looking at colleges. I got accepted to a music school by the skin of my teeth, and Hailey got a full ride scholarship to the best robotics school in the country. It was a no brainer. At that moment I decided we would just grow apart, she would do great things and I would do my own thing. But by some miracle, my grandmother put in my application to the same university and I made it. My family couldn’t afford it but my grandparents put together the money for me to go. We both got to school, but it was even worse than high school. She had even less time, she wanted to graduate early and I couldn’t keep up with her. Eventually I dropped out to do music full time and hadn’t spoken to her sense.” There is a long silence between the both of them. Omega looks down at herself.

“I didn’t know. She always talked about you like you were the best of friends.”

“Hey, it’s ok. We both got what we wanted out of life. I got to play music and Hailey got to build you. And you are amazing!” Omega makes eye contact with Jason

“You sacrificed a lot for Dr.Hailey, but she didn’t.” Jason looks away for a moment.

“I cared a lot about Hailey, but she never felt the same.” Jason stares off into the distance with longing in his eyes. “I was okay with the sacrifices because I got to see the amazing things she made.” Jason looks back at Omega and smiles. “Like you. If it wasn’t for you I would still be in bed giving up on my music dream.”

“Thank you Jason. I’m glad I could help.”

There is a long pause between them. “And hey, I think I have something to write music about now.”

Later, after Jason has gone to bed, Omega stands up and opens the window to the fire escape. She climbs out and carefully shuts it to make sure that she doesn’t wake up Jason. She then jumps and flies out into the night. She looks around the city scanning the streets with her eyes. After a while, Omega finds what she is looking for. She swoops down and grabs a penny from the side of the road scaring a few people who happen to be walking by. Omega then goes back to the fountain that she and Jason were at earlier that day. She tosses the coin into the fountain.

“Hey, Hailey, It’s Jason. But you probably already knew from caller ID. Uh, I know that you're having a tough time right now with the jobs and everything so I wanted to say that if you needed help with anything just let me know. I’m gonna be at the Fareway for lunch today so if you want to meet me there we could talk about it. Or just hang out, that works too. Umm, ok bye.”

Jason had sent this voicemail this morning hoping to be able to have a moment with just the two of them. He couldn’t believe how awkward he was. Ever since Omega had been staying at his apartment it had only ever been the three of them. Jason looked at the clock on the wall, it said 1:00 pm. At this point he had been waiting in a booth at the Fareway for nearly an hour.

“Probably should’ve named a specific time.” He put his phone down and let out a sigh. He decided he would just enjoy the rest of his coffee and then go home, after all Hailey was a busy woman, she probably had something more important going on.

“Hey, is this seat taken?” Jason looks up from his drink and sees a beautiful girl with short red hair, a choker with spikes on it and a stud in her nose.

“Uh… no, it’s not.”

“Cool.” She sits on the other side of the booth and smiles at Jason. Jason just stares at her for a moment before she speaks again. “I’m Valery by the way, you got a name?”

“Um, Jason.”

“Had to think about it?” Jason couldn’t think of a witty response fast enough. “That’s ok tough guy, at least you’re cute right?

“Haha yea.”

“Got any hobbies Jason?”

“I make music sometimes. I’m just getting back into it.”

“Oh me too. Well, not making music, but I get local bands to play at gigs and things.”

“That’s cool. Any good bands around?”

“Let’s say there are some aspiring bands around. Don’t get me wrong, I love that people are doing what they love, but one city can only have so many Queen and AC DC cover bands y'know? Would be awesome to have something fresh.”

“Yeah, making original stuff is hard though, sometimes you just want to play a song because of how it made you feel when you listened to it for the first time.”

“Woah, cute and a philosopher. Who raised you?”

“My grandma.” Jason was starting to get some of his confidence back, and while the response was sarcastic, it was also true.

In Jason’s apartment, Jason, Omega and Hailey are sitting down relaxing with each other. Jason and Omega are playing a game of chess, per Omega’s request. Jason is losing horribly and has his head in his hands. Omega looks very relaxed and is just happy to be spending time with her friends. Hailey is on her phone reading emails. She sees that she has been rejected for eight more jobs. Defeated, she switches on an online form for robotics. Many of the comments are about her losing the national defense contract with the government. She reads several of the comments ridiculing her for not being able to stack up to the government's standards before she puts her phone down and lets out a heavy sigh.

“Everything ok Dr. Hailey?” Omega chimes.

“Yeah everything is fine.” she gives a small pause before continuing. “Hey Jason, I think we should go to the store and pick up something to eat, your fridge is looking kinda empty.”

“Yeah yeah whatever I just need a second.” Jason is not paying any attention, his full focus is on the chess game and how to salvage the totally lost position.

“That is ok Jason, you can go with Dr. Hailey to the store.” Omega moves one piece forward delivering a checkmate. “There. Now the game is over!” Devastated, Jason stands up and gets his keys.

“Ok, let's go.”

At the grocery store, Jason and Hailey are standing in the frozen aisle. Hailey is not really paying attention to what is going on around her and Jason is looking at frozen pizzas.

“Hey, do you like pepperoni or do you want a supreme.”

“Jason, I think my life is starting to fall apart.”

“I’m picking pepperoni.”

“I’m being serious.”

“You're a prodigy and leader in your field. You have written multiple books, made a ton of money, and have a phd. You also created a fully sentient life form so I don’t know what more you want.”

“I just… I don’t know. Things are different now that I lost the defense grant from the government.”

“What do you mean? You're like this generation's Einstein.”

“They didn’t like what I made. They asked for defense systems from an unknown threat we don’t know how to fight, and when I built defense systems they hated it. After they sent me a letter of correction I fixed all the original issues and even made Omega, a robot designed to solve complex problems and save the world, and it still wasn’t good enough. They wanted me to make a weapon that could destroy whatever they pointed it at and I couldn’t build it. So they took the grant away and when my peers found out, they started criticizing me. They all think I can’t do it.” Hailey pulls her phone out and sees she got rejected from another job. “Maybe they’re right.”

“No, they aren’t. You are easily the smartest person I’ve ever met. And fuck the government for asking for a weapon. As if they need another giant gun that they can wave around and threaten people with.” Jason looks at Hailey and sees that she genuinely feels hurt.

“But that’s the issue, I couldn’t solve it. I tried for months trying to figure out how to stop this threat and I couldn’t do it. So instead I built Omega, thinking that she would be able to figure it out.”

“No one else would’ve been able to do that. Half the people that are criticizing you would’ve just built a weapon for the money, and they would’ve made the world a worse place. Tell me this, do you genuinely think that anything anyone could have built would stop this alien thing?” Hailey leaves a long pause to fiddle with the charm on the phone even though she already knows the answer.

“No… I don’t.”

“Right. And even if anyone else had the idea for Omega, no one would actually have the know-how to build her. What you made was a true AI. One with thoughts and feelings, one with dreams and wishes, and most importantly a desire to want to save the world from something. That has literally never been done before.”

“Yeah, it’s true.”

“See? The government has no idea what it’s doing, and you do. Your colleagues have no idea what you’ve made, and you do.” Jason picks up a frozen dinner from the shelf and stops to think. He hesitates for a moment before talking again. “And I also think it’s rude of you to make me go to the store in order to have this talk away from Omega, she would agree with me and tell you how awesome you are.”

“I just don't want Omega to learn anything that isn’t helpful to her. She is going to carry the literal  weight of the world on her shoulders and I want her to reach her full potential.”

“She will, after all she’s got you as a teacher.” Hailey puts her phone back in her pocket and smiles at the complement.

“Thanks for helping me Jason, I know you didn’t have to do that.”

“Of course I did. After seeing Omega’s ‘disguise’, I knew you didn’t have what it takes to hide a super robot from the government.” Hailey chuckles to herself. A second goes by with them just walking to another aisle.

“Could we get the supreme pizza instead?”

“Not a chance, I want pepperoni and I have a job.” They both laugh at the joke and leave the store.

Back at the apartment, Jason and Hailey walk in and see Omega sitting on the couch. Omega is almost surprised that they are home already.

“Oh! Welcome home! How was your trip to the store?” Jason goes to the kitchen to unload the food and Hailey sits down on the couch and turns on the tv.

“It was fine. Were you ok by yourself?”

“Yes, I was fine.” There is a tone of sadness in Omega’s voice, Jason hears this and yells from behind the kitchen counter.

“Hey! Let's watch a movie tonight, we can let Omega pick it out.” Omega’s face lights up and she quickly grabs the remote and begins surfing through movies. Omega picks a nature documentary, and all three of them sit on the couch and watch it together. Hailey falls asleep first and rests on Jason’s shoulder. Jason smiles at how peaceful she looks before falling asleep himself. Omega stays up and finishes the whole documentary interested in every word. After realizing that Hailey and Jason have both fallen asleep, Omega slowly gets up.

A few days later Hailey is in her home at the dining room table on her laptop. She is open to a website with job listings for anything robotics related. She gets a text on her phone, opens up the message and sees that she has been rejected for the job. She lets out an aggravated groan. This was the third rejection today and it wasn’t even noon. She had never been rejected from a job before, but now it seems like it’s the norm. After she puts her phone down it begins ringing. She checks the caller ID to see that it’s Jason. She hangs up the phone but Jason calls again almost immediately. Hailey rolls her eyes and answers the phone.

“Hello?” she says in an annoyed tone.

“Yeah. Hello. What’s the deal, you just drop off your stuff at my apartment and bail?”

“I have a ton of important stuff to do right now and I just need you to watch Omega for a little bit. After I get this all sorted out I’ll get her and be out of your hair.”

“No, you can’t do this to me again. You always say that it’s something important. Well you know what, I’m important too and this ain’t fair, not to me, or your sunshine toy.” Hailey places a hand on her temple.

“Please tell me you aren’t saying these things in front of her.”

“What, that’s what you care about? And no I’m not, right now I’m in my car driving.”

“Ok good, I don’t need to explain to Omega that she isn’t a toy.”

“Why does that matter?”

“I have to curate the information she hears, she is a learning AI meant to save the world. I can’t have her data corrupted because I can’t build another one of her, I only get one shot.”

“One shot for what? Why not just tell me what’s happening?”

“If I tell you, will you stop complaining about her being in your apartment?”

“The reasoning had better be great, but sure I will.”

“Ok I’ll meet you at the fareway for coffee and tell you about it.”

Hailey then arrives at the fareway, a golf themed coffee shop with green walls made to look like terf and little flags at every table. Hailey walks in and looks around and finds Jason with a cup of coffee slouched in a booth toward the back of the shop. Hailey walks over, sits down and pulls out her laptop to continue applying for jobs. Jason looks around the laptop with a tired expression.

“Couldn’t even say hi first before ignoring me?”

“I know you want my world to revolve around you right now but at the moment I have to apply for new jobs.”

“New jobs? What happened to your old one?”

“I lost it.”

“Ok, the world is ending. How did you get fired from a job? You're like the most insane work-a-holic I know.”

“You want to know what’s going on or not?” Jason puts his hands up as if to surrender and sits back in his seat. “Ok, so, it started a few months ago, I had gotten the government to pick me for the grant for their ‘International defense program’ or whatever. After I got picked they gave me a document detailing what they wanted. They needed a defense system from… something. It was really vague and didn’t talk about defense from what. It just kept saying ‘the target’ over and over again.

“The target? Like, as in, an alien that is coming to destroy Earth?”

“Right? It was weird and I couldn’t make sense of it. I made a few prototypes of things that might work but they were not impressed. I got another document saying more about ‘the target’ but as I was reading it became clear that the government had no idea who or what was coming to hit us. So, because I can’t solve a problem I can’t even figure out, I decide to build Omega Zero and a few other systems to help her out in defending us from this thing.”

“What!” Jason gets low and whisper-yells to Hailey. “Omega isn’t a nuke right? You did not put a nuclear bomb in my apartment!” Hailey rolls her eyes.

“No, she isn’t a bomb. The government wishes I just built a bomb, but that doesn’t solve the issue. No matter what I build, the mysterious target could have a potential answer to it, and if they do, the world is doomed. So instead I put my dissertation’s money where its mouth is and built a true AI. An AI that could learn who the target is and defeat them no matter what it is.”

“Woah, that is like, a really big deal.”

“Yes it is. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Anyway the government was not happy that I wouldn’t build them a weapon of mass destruction, so I grabbed Omega and ran. No doubt the government has me on a watch list, and on top of that I for some reason can’t get hired right now. All the jobs I apply to reject me.”

There is a pause as Jason looks down at his coffee and Hailey continues to type. Jason realizes he may have overreacted now knowing how much stress Hailey is under.

“Hey, I’m sorry about the phone call earlier. I didn’t realize what you were going through. Omega can stay at my apartment for as long as you need.” Hailey looks up from her laptop and makes eye contact for a brief moment.

“No problem, I know it was probably hard to not get any information and just have this dropped on you. Especially in the middle of your music career.”

“Yeah well, I’ve mostly just been working at the movie theater these days.”

It Begins

Hailey Is Fired

Old Friends

The Truth

Jason Takes Omega Out

Jason Falls For Hailey Again

Hailey Meets Dr. Rovert

Jason lives in a studio apartment with a single window outlooking the city with a fire escape. The place has clothes lying around and several instruments on stands looking pristine. Next to the instruments is a desk with a computer, sound system and mixer. Jason’s alarm clock is blinking as if a power out hit it. Jason is unconscious in his bed, with messy hair and dirty pajamas. One eye opens as he lazily reaches out for his phone with one hand. The time says 4:25 Pm. He stands up and puts his slippers on. He looks at the mess and gives up on cleaning it right now. He sits down at the desk, picks up his guitar and begins playing a few notes. On the computer screen is a new song that he had been working on for months with no progress. He looks at a picture of him and his grandma at his graduation from college and lets out a deep sigh.

“I’ll make it one day.” Jason plays a few more notes when the doorbell rings. Jason changes shirts to something cleaner and opens the door. On the other side is Hailey, a childhood friend of his from all the way back in middle school. She’s standing with a robot in a lab coat and the baseball cap Jason had given Hailey years ago.

“Hey Jason, I need your help with something important.” Hailey walks past Jason into his apartment and looks at the mess. “I see you still have the same organization skills as you did in college.”

“Hello to you too, and I wasn’t expecting company from you and your next science fair project. Why is it wearing my hat?” Omega holds her hand out to Jason excitedly.

“Hello, it’s wonderful to meet someone new! I am Omega Zero and I am programmed to save the world!” Jason looks Omega up and down before taking her hand and shakes it.

“That’s cute Hailey, but why is it here?” Jason turns to Hailey, “And frankly, why are you here? You don’t return my texts or calls, flake when we make plans, and disappear for a year and all the sudden you need something from me.” Hailey goes to Jason’s kitchen and grabs a soda from his fridge without making eye contact.

“That sums it up pretty well actually, and I was working on something really important.” Hailey gestures to Omega. “After I got that contract from the government, she needed my full attention." Jason sighs knowing that she says this for every robot she builds, and this time is no different. “I need a place to hide her until I figure out what to do next.” Omega begins looking around the room and shows interest with Jason’s music studio setup.

“Hide her? Why does she need to hide?”

“Turns out the government didn’t actually want a robot to protect Earth, they wanted a weapon to use for themselves. So I had to steal my blueprints and sneak Omega out of the lab so the government couldn't have her. She is much too important to let fall in the wrong hands.”

“Wait, so you actually built like a super murder robot for the government?”

“No, I didn’t. Omegas programming is very clear. Her only two objectives are to protect the people of Earth, and defend the planet from any harmful threats.”

“And why can’t she stay at your house?”

“The government is on my back and would expect me to hide something there. This is way less obvious.” Jason looks over at Omega, who has picked up a drumstick and is looking it over with genuine curiosity. Jason face palms before answering back.

“You're lucky I hate the government. Fine, I’ll house your little fugitive until you can build some other invention that magically solves all your problems.”

“Thanks Jason, you're a lifesaver.” Hailey quickly leaves the room and closes the door behind her.

“Yeah no problem, I live to serve you.” Jason looks up at the ceiling and lets out a groan. He looks at Omega waiting to see if she is going to do anything. Omega is now sitting quietly at Jason’s drum set. She takes the baseball cap she was wearing and holds it out to Jason with a smile.

“This is yours, I wanted to return it to you. Dr. Hailey would wear it around the lab but it has your name on it.”

“Oh, thanks. I gave it to her a long time ago.” He sets the hat down on the kitchen counter. “So are you really going to save the world, like, superhero crimefighter robot style?”

“Someday I hope so! Right now I don’t know much about the world and I hope to learn more. From what Dr. Hailey lets me read, humans seem really complicated, but they are really cool!” Jason’s expression changes from tired to curious.

“You hope? That isn’t something that robots normally do.”

“Well, I am not a normal superhero crimefighter robot.” Jason see’s Omega’s genuine happiness and innocence and can’t help but smile back at her.

“What was your name again?”

“Omega Zero! But you can just call me Omega.”

“Do you like music?”