Box

Chapter 3

Box hovered by the basketball court where Aydin and Mark were playing basketball with Jasmin's two colleagues. Aydin's team was leading three to one. Linda, Lee, Jacob, and Jasmin, who had come with his officers to drop off the Helper for Linda to examine, sat on the bench under Box, chatting and cheering every time their team scored a point while Box analysed Aydin's moves to present the analysis to him later.

"He's taking real good care of himself and it shows," Linda said to Lee, eyeing a bare-chested Aydin who had managed to shoot the ball through the hoop.

"His body is a temple," Box said.

"Yeah, he says that a lot," Linda said.

"Yeah, he does. He's also always trying to persuade us to take better care of ourselves." Jacob said.

Linda added, "He works out daily and insists on never eating processed food, forgetting that he can only do that because he has Box to maintain his indoor garden and cook for him. But the rest of us are not lucky enough to own an AI like Box and Box refuses to cook for us. I'm too lazy to cook for myself; I usually grab whatever is on the menu at the Tower kitchen."

"Couldn't you, as this team's computer engineering specialist, persuade Box to change its mind?" Lee asked.

"We had an incident, and since that, it doesn't allow me to get close to it," Linda told her.

Box could remember that incident quite clearly, as if it had happened yesterday, thanks to the footage it had stored in its folder. "You're the individuals responsible for selecting the Tower's menu during your weekly meetings. However, your dialogue implies a sense of compulsion to consume the spaghetti, mac and cheese, pizza, and burgers that you select for the menu. Consider selecting healthier meal options for the upcoming week."

"But those carbs are just so good." Jacob grinned.

A small beep sounded, and a notification flashed on Box's display, informing it of a low battery and that it was going into the battery save mode, telling it to either cease its operations or plug in. When it didn't close the programs, it started to lose altitude, since it didn't have enough energy for the operation of its anti-gravity system. It opened a hole at the top of its orb and pushed an arm out. Folded triangles covered with solar cells fanned out into a flower. Its descent stopped.

"How long had Aydin had Box?" Lee asked.

Linda shrugged. "A few years, probably. I know he already had it when he came here a year ago."

"Oh, so he has been here for a year." Lee's gaze went to the court, and then it was back on Linda. "How long have you been here?"

"Three years."

"Is that so? How did you end up here?" Lee asked. "I mean, you told me that you were in traffic control before and Border Police sounds like a demotion."

Box aimed one of its side cameras at Lee. Since she had arrived two weeks ago, she had been asking questions, even more than a newbie normally would. And on Friday, three days ago, at eleven PM, when she should have been in the Tower, Box had spotted her through Aydin's office window, sneaking around the warehouse. It had shown the recording to Aydin, who hadn't put any weight to that, telling Box that she might be just getting acquainted with her surroundings. He reminded Box that the drug trafficking had started before Lee joined the team. He also told Box that he expected it to finish its comparisons of the warehouse recordings by the end of the week, ignoring the fact that because of its space issues, Box couldn't compare more than four videos at once, and those only if all his other operations and programs were closed. Since Aydin was aware of its problems, his deadline could have something to do with an opened Repository site, Box saw the other day. It was displaying a sale of used AIs type Zeta latest edition, which he had closed as soon as he saw Box connected with his eGlass. Was Aydin thinking of replacing it? And if so, was the comparison project a test, which, if it failed, would mean its termination?