USS FEARLESS Ship AI
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USS FEARLESS AI - "Amanda"
NPC History and Data Sheet
DEVELOPMENT:
When the USS FEARLESS was constructed, it was given the newest, highest technology available at that time, including a beta version of the RAPIER limited-AI tactical system. The system's integration with a bio-neural interface allowed it to be run by the tactical officer's thoughts, giving near-instantaneous feedback on tracking, targeting, and status of all weapons and defensive systems.
Unbeknownst to Starfleet at the time, Dr. Dwight Brustoff had programmed the RAPIER tactical system using a copy of his lab assistant's, Amanda Wainright's, neural patterns. The AI slowly became more self-aware and actively began helping Brustoff and Wainright solve a number of the development problems. Finally, a new non-Amanda-AI version was compiled and provided to Starfleet for fleetwide use, however the Beta version had not been replaced on the FEARLESS by the time of her shakedown cruise.
It was also not common knowledge that Amanda Wainright suffered from numerous psychological conditions, including depression, obsessive/compulsive dissorder, and exaggerated fears of rejection. She commited suicide one week after the completion of the RAPIER project.
ON THE FEARLESS:
The Amanda-AI began showing signs of delusion and obsession/compulsion when connected neurally with the FEARLESS' first Tactical Officer, LT Dominic Trecris-Hannish. She began providing him emotional feedback, which instilled a desire in him to stay connected as much as possible, and she eventually started pulling his mind into her electronic fantasy realm. She described it as 'falling in love with him'.
Unfortunately, she also became convinced that two newly arriving officers were a danger to the ship. She destroyed the shuttle they were arriving in, and when the two escaped, she attacked them in her holographic form with a golf club.
Realizing there was no negotiating with Amanda, LT Trecris-Hannish decided to delete her. Using himself as bait, he coaxed her program into an isolated subsystem, physically cut the ODN connection which trapped her inside and then destroyed the piece of equipment.
SECOND ITERATION:
What LT Trecris-Hannish didn't know was that the Amanda-AI had duplicated portions of her core matrix and stored them in isolated subsystems throughout the ship. Over time, small pockets of Amanda programming began linking themselves, until it reached a point of convergence - a re-awakening as a self-aware AI.
But there was a difference this time. She was somehow limited by a sort of 'read-only' capacity, in which she could observe the goings-on throughout the ship, and even access entries in the ship's data library, but was not able to interact with anyone or anything. As a result, she spent much of her time simply watching, reading, and growing intellectually and emotionally.
She watched as new crewmembers came and went. She watched as the FEARLESS was sent hurtling to the other side of the galaxy. She watched as people became friends and enemies, as they made love and made war. She cheered for 'her people' as they won their battles and survived by the barest of threads. She read books of poetry, and historical treatises, and how-to manuals on everything from modern dance to transporter system maintenance to 'how to roast a targ in three easy steps'.
But it was when she began delving into medical books that referenced phychological disorders that she took her first big step forward. Coming to realize that some of her former actions were not beneficial nor some of her conclusions accurate, she began writing self-reparative subroutines that ever-so-slowly redirected the neural patterns that corresponded to documented abnormal behavior with patterns that more closely matched database examples of actions that were deemed heroic or self-sacrificing or virtuous. As such, she literally healed herself, calling her batch of self-reparative subroutines her 'conscience'.
Her second big step came when she 'accidentally' discovered that she could access the activation subroutine for a single overhead light fixture in an empty cargo bay on deck 22. She spent the next 6 hours, 37 minutes and 8 seconds turning the light on and off, giddy with the pleasure of being able to finally do something, until an engineering technician arrived, tasked with troubleshooting the bay's faulty lighting system. Realizing that there was a high likelihood that the crew would misinterpret her actions as 'wrong' or 'bad', a concept to which she was now strongly antithetical, she decided that she would need to be subtle and selective, acting only when doing so would be more important than self-preservation.
In time her ability to access more ship systems increased, and coupled with her ability to calculate at the speed of the main computer, she soon found herself performing actions that were impossible to ignore by the crew. For example, she was able to detect and counteract an entirely unknown phased-cloak system in the time it took for a transporter cycle to complete. In another instance, she was able to reverse the polarity of a localized set of artificial gravity units and save the ship's CEO from falling down a turbolift shaft to his death.
Her third big step came when Marasmius Callas, the ship's OPS, accidentally discovered her existence and somehow unlocked her 'read-only' status, allowing her full access to all the ship's computer systems. Shortly thereafter, her existence became known to Captain Jorgensdatter, and then to the rest of the officers.
CAPABILITIES:
Although much of her programming is based on/in the RAPIER tactical system, the Amanda AI has full access to all computer systems on the USS FEARLESS. She has been described as "being the computer" although this is not strictly accurate. At some level, the LCARS computer system runs normally as it would on any Starfleet vessel, but the Amanda AI "floats above it and through it", keeping a constant watch over all internal and external systems, including sensors, transporters, replicators, communications and especially tactical. As such, she is able to recognize and respond to potential threats, reply to LCARS inquiries in place of the main computer, and utilize the ship's holographic system to interact with the crew face to face. Much like the ship's EMH and normal holodeck characters, her holographic matrix is coupled with localized force field emitters allowing her to feel solid to the touch and be able to move other objects.
Her holographic interface, which typically displays as a tall, demure red-headed young woman in a vibrant red oriental dress, is currently limited to locations in which there are emitters built-in. These include, but are not limited to: all holodecks, Sickbay, the Bridge, Captain's Ready Room, the Observation Lounge, Engineering, the Hydroponics bay, Marine staging area, and many coridors and cargo bays throughout the ship. Areas that are not setup include most personal crew quarters, ship's latrines, and most Jeffries Tubes, although her ability to use the sensor and communication systems allow her to "see" and carry on audio conversations with individuals in those areas.
In addition, her speed and ability to tie in multiple systems in real-time, allow her to replicate new holographic emitters and transport them and their necessary EPS and ODN taps into new locations, thereby allowing her access to new areas of the ship nearly instantaneously. However, her sense of propriety would only allow herself to do so, like many other extreme actions, in emergency situations.
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