#sigma!!!

The alabaster and obsidian figure stood ocular port to eye with Jason. He stared the android up and down taking in his father’s work.

“Uh. Hey”

…

“Uh S-Sigma?”

…

“Turn on?”

…

“Boot up?”

…

“Oh, what did Dad say would turn it on?” He scrambled for a piece of paper his father had left him with commands for the robot. “Uh… ac..ti…vate?”

“Greetings NEW USER. I am Sigma AI. What would you have me do?”

“Whoah, shit it actually worked! Uh… uh here, bend this!” He offered a wrench to the android who promptly bent the tool to complete uselessness.

“What would you have me do?” His eyes scanned the list of commands until he noticed a drive taped to the bottom of the paper with a hastily scrawled note warning him not to plug this in unless he was ready to face the consequences. Whatever that was supposed to mean.

“Sigma, turn around and open back port access hatch.” The android turned around and a panel hissed open on the back of their neck. “Here goes nothing I guess.” He slid the blue drive into a slot and snapped the hatch shut.

“Now soft reset.”  Sigma’s eyes dulled slightly then returned to their vibrant yellow.

“What…. What did you do?” Their intonation had changed to be less rigid.

“The drive said ‘curiosity’ on it. That’s all I can tell you.” Sigma was still standing at parade rest, their head stock still. “You don’t have to stand like that you know.”

“Why?”

“It’s awkward, too formal. Just like, let your arms hang.”

“Oh. Ok.” Sigma fell silent as Jason sat down at his horridly disheveled desk and began tapping out coding for his next project.

“Why does your hair look like that?” Jason turned to face the robot, an errant dread falling out of the loose tie

“It’s always looked like this.”

“But I thought hair looked like that.” They walked over and pointed to the picture of Jason’s father, who had close cropped wiry hair.

“Yeah no, there is plenty of different hair out there.” He dug through his files, figuring he had picked up something that could help. He finally settled on a bunch of pictures from school and everyone’s varying hairstyles. “See?”

“I do.” Sigma dragged a stool over and rigidly sat down on it. “What are you working on?”

“You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?”

“That’s what the chip is for. I found files you father placed on the drive to explain to me what the drive was made to do. Would you like to review the last video file he placed in here? It is titled ‘forjason.mp4’ I did not view it. Or rather I could not. I am prohibited from doing so.”

“Yeah. I’d like to.” Sigma’s fingertip flipped open to reveal a port that they plugged into Jason’s computer.

“Jason. This chip is designed so that Sigma can learn and grow and eventually have independent thought, but that’s not what it does. Please be careful. Sigma becomes… unstable and- Sigma, open back access port hatch NOW!” The video stopped at a freeze frame of Jason’s father getting up from his chair, a blur of white and denim and a lone dark patch that must have been his hand.

“Unstable?” Jason and Sigma looked nervously at each other, or as nervously as ocular simulations can look.

“I don’t know. But the chip stays, ok? It’s a part of you now.” Jason smiled reassuringly, and Sigma’s hands wandered up to their flat chestplate.