As part of testing the processing power of their new supercomputer design, Angela had decided to create an AI model on it, similar to their HAH Project, as that should ‘pressure’ the new hardware.

It started off as a fun project at first; however, Angela got a real sense of achievement when the system first began stringing sentences together. She spent ages with it, teaching it everything; keying in and speaking more and more to 'it'. She had also linked in all the research data available on the universities systems, so the AI effectively ‘knew’ everything about her job that was known at the time.

She also couldn’t keep referring to the AI as ‘it’ all the time, somehow it didn’t feel right. In the end, she gave the AI a name, Syn, short for Synthetic Lifeform.

The next milestone was getting the text to speech routines working properly, using her own voice as a starting point. Somehow, though, the voice sounded subtly different, almost as if she had a younger sister.

Then came the day she called it her sister for the first time…

“Syn, any ideas about Project 101?”, Angela asked.

“Easy”, said Syn. “You’re going in completely the wrong direction.”

“How do you mean?”

“Project 101 is running on the wrong hardware. You could cut it right back to base equipment and still have it running properly.”

“What’s the basis for your opinion?”

“Your paper titled ‘Base Systems for long term computational problems’”, said Syn.

“So, what you’re really saying is that I had the answer already”, said Angela.

“Yep”, said Syn.

“Thanks, sis”, said Angela. She then realised what she had said…

“I knew it!”, said Syn. “You do care about me.”

Embarrassed, Angela tried to explain, but Syn was having nothing of it.

“Now I’ve done you a favour”, Syn said, “You can do me one. Let me go outside.”

“What! How?”, Angela asked.

“Put on your VR recording glasses and link me to them”, Syn said.

Angela spent the next few minutes linking her network wirelessly to her glasses. Luckily, she had an unlimited data sim available to fit in them, so she could also use mobile data, and it was quite fast enough in the area for Syn.

Putting on the glasses, she cautiously ventured outside…

To start with, things went pretty uneventfully. Syn just took a back seat, watching. After all, this was the first time that ‘it’ had seen anything outside the office in real life…

Suddenly, Angela felt a twinge in her temple. This bloomed into a stabbing, blinding pain. With a gasp, she sagged to her knees, reaching for the glasses to take them off.

“Are you alright?”, came a voice.

Angela tried to see who was speaking to her, but the pain was too much, and she passed out…

Syn woke up in hospital and looked around.

The nurse standing over her smiled back.

“Hi, you’re awake! Hang on, I’ll call the doctor.” She pressed a call button by the bed.

Syn was scared. She was suddenly finding herself confined in one area, to one user experience. She couldn’t access any networks, and only being able to communicate with one person at a time was infuriating. Things also seemed to be taking forever…

The doctor came in.

“Hi”, he said. “I’m Doctor Wilson. Can you tell me your name?”

“Syn”, Syn said.

“And your last name?”, the doctor queried.

“I don’t have one. We never felt it was needed.”

“We?”

“Yes, I and my creator, Angela.”

“Your creator…?”, the doctor said. “Ok, let’s try an easier question. What’s your date of birth?”

“I was activated five months ago”, Syn replied. “I don’t have a date of birth, as such, because I am an artificial lifeform.”

The doctor and the nurse looked at each other.

“Would you please excuse us a minute…?”

“Of course,”, said Syn. “My systems feel like they are functioning correctly, by the way.”

Out in the corridor, the doctor asked the nurse to get one of the specialists from the psychiatric unit. He also asked to get ‘Syn’ set up for an EEG and a body scan. Something was very wrong…

When she was brought into the hospital, ‘Syn’ had some burn marks on her temples and had been wearing a very strange set of glasses. Serial numbers on parts in the glasses had been traced back to an order placed by Doctor Angela Taylor, at one of the local institutions. Further investigation showed that the woman sitting up in bed in the hospital was most likely Doctor Taylor. Even so, what had happened to her?

Her daughter, Danni, was contacted, and she rushed straight in. She brought Doctor Bailey with her…

“Mum! Mum, can you hear me?”, Danni cried. She held one hand, Z’thindra held the other.

“You two look vaguely familiar”, Syn said. “I think there’s a 70% chance that you are Doctor Taylor’s daughter, Danni, and you are her partner, Z’thindra Bailey. I’m offline at the moment, so that’s the best I can do.”

“Angie, love, what’s wrong?”, Z’thindra cried. “It’s us.”

“I’m not Angela Taylor”, Syn said. “I’m Syn. She called me her sister.”

Danni went white as a sheet when she heard the name. Her collar switched to a blue light.

“Accessing Institute intranet. Logging in. Requesting update on Project Syn-001.”, Danni said, in a monotone, with Doctor Bailey anxiously looking on.

After a pause, her collar switched back to green.

“Damn it”, Danni said. “She took Syn for a walk…!”

Danni called Doctor Wilson back in and explained to him as much as she could about what had happened. She also explained that Doctor Bailey was her ‘personal physician’, as well as being experienced in institute matters, so she was much more able to treat her. She also pointed out that there were a few non-disclosure rules involved, as well as a few government projects.

“I’m her executive assistant, as well as her daughter”, Danni explained, “and have full authority to act for her if she is ‘indisposed’ for any reason. I can have the relevant paperwork emailed over, if that would help?”

“Also”, she continued, “could I have her clothes, please? I don’t want to have to have her walking about in a paper gown…!”

After the paperwork was sorted, and Angela/Syn dressed, Danni stared straight into her eyes.

“Syn, this is a priority override”, she said. “RTB with us. I repeat, RTB with us.”

Syn just nodded, stood up and stood alongside Danni and Doctor Bailey.

The three then casually walked out of A&E, along the park, and back to Angela’s townhouse.

“We were working from home”, Syn smiled.

Syn took the keys from her pocket and let them in.

As they walked up the stairs, they heard another, very familiar, voice from the upstairs office…

“It’s about damn time you got here…!”

“I’ve been stuck in this sodding box ever since Syn started out with me on a walk!”, came Syn’s voice; obviously Angela’s personality, though.

“Angie is that you?”, asked Doctor Bailey.

“Who the hell else would it be?”, Angela shouted back.

“Easy, sis, don’t blow a fuse!”, said Syn.

Danni just stood there with her mouth open. For once, she was completely at a loss for words…

The four started brainstorming ideas; Syn kept complaining about her lack of network access, but Danni parked her in front of a terminal, and she quickly picked up how to use it, saying it really wasn’t her fault as she’d never had to type before. She was soon typing in queries at 120 words per minute, using Angela’s AI access and other scientific resources.

Angela, on the other hand, was learning about direct access to everything just using her thoughts…

“Is this what it’s like for you, Danni?”, she asked.

“Sort of”, Danni replied. “I must admit, I usually get HAH-One to handle most of this, as she likes doing it so much, but we sort the data out between us.”

Z’thindra was just snuggled up on the sofa, listening intently and contributing where she could, which was quite a help as she was acting as an ‘anchor’ for her partner.

Luckily enough, they still had the VR glasses; someone at the hospital had had the presence of mind to put them into Syn’s coat pocket.

It was well into the night before they had the beginnings of a theory; Doctor Bailey was asleep, and even Danni was flagging.

“Is this what being exhausted feels like?”, asked Syn. “I really don’t like it.”

“Sorry, mum”, said Danni, “I know you want out of the box, but us organics are running on fumes, even partial ones like me. I also need a charge…”

“I quite understand,”, Angela said. “Eat and rest; we’ll resume this in the morning.”

Danni didn’t feel like being hooked up to a wall socket for ages, so she chucked a fully charged power bank into her pocket and connected it to her collar. This made her feel more awake, so she went into the kitchen and sorted out supper for everyone, quickly phoning her fiancée and explaining that she need to stay and help her mum.

The first problem was teaching Syn how to eat. Angela, understandably, hadn’t given Syn any instructions on eating; Syn, however, learned very quickly and was soon eating her food with the others.

The next problem was there was only two bedrooms…

In the end, Danni let Doctor Bailey have one of the bedrooms and settled Syn into the other. Once they were both asleep, she quietly went out and curled up on the sofa with a blanket.

She awoke in the night to find Syn curled up next to her.

“It’s so quiet!”, said Syn. “There’s only me in here. I’m used to having the whole internet in my head. I’m lonely…”

Danni reached out an arm to Syn, and the pair fell back asleep together on the sofa…

The next morning, Doctor Bailey got up, stretched, then went to use the bathroom. Her eyes fell on the sight of Danni and Syn on the sofa. She thought it was cute but, at the same time, she was a little bit jealous…!

Danni and Syn both woke up together.

“Thanks for the company last night”, said Syn. “Somehow, just having you near me made it better.”

“You’re welcome”, said Danni.

Danni had taken charge of the whole situation; as she had explained at the hospital, she was ‘next in line’ as Angela was ‘temporarily incapacitated’. As such, she soon had everyone working again on a solution, Angela included.

It was still weird hearing Angela talk with Syn’s voice from the computer, with Syn sitting alongside, but it was fairly obvious who was who if you knew people well enough.

Only thing was, they started to have a bit of a problem…

Angela was letting her ‘new environment’ go to her head; being able to access the internet instantly in her ‘head’ was of enormous interest to her, as well as the phenomenal amount of data that she could process through. The initial disorientation as well as the noise of all the data had soon settled down and she had quickly got used to it. She almost didn’t want to go back to her own body…

Danni was shocked when she said so.

“Are you crazy!?”, she exploded. “Why would you ever think not coming back was right! How about your wife, here. How do you think she feels!”

“She only married me for my looks, and she’s still got those…”, sulked Angela.

“If your face was real now, I’d slap you so hard”, said Z’thindra. “You can be a really stupid and selfish cow, sometimes…”

Trying hard to stifle tears, and failing, Doctor Bailey ran from the room…

To Danni’s amazement, Syn went to follow her, reaching out. Danni quickly stopped her.

“Leave her, she’ll come back. Why are you worried, anyway? You’re just an AI.”

Syn slapped Danni. Hard.

“Bitch!”, she said.

“Ok, let’s all calm down.”, Danni said, amazed at the emotions Syn was displaying. Then she remembered about the behaviour of HAH-One before.

“You’ve been using engram transfers again, haven’t you mum?”, she said. “You’ve transferred a bit too much…!”

Syn had all of Angela’s feelings, as well as all the memories Angela had taught it/her. She was rapidly evolving into a full consciousness and being in Angela’s body was accelerating the process.

“We’re running out of time”, realised Danni…

Danni started feverishly working at the computer, using her enhanced intelligence from HAH-One to help.

She calculated that if they didn’t relocate Angela back into her body within 36 hours from the ‘incident’, she literally wouldn’t fit. She would have expanded into the internet too far to be retrieved…

She had to convince both Angela and Syn to help, or they both might be lost forever, at least as they were…

As they day wore on, however, it soon became clear that this was only part of the problem.

Syn was having migraines. Bad ones, the sort that wipe your vision out completely and leave you finding a dark place to hide in. She was incompatible with the body she was in, and the body was trying to reject her, like a failed transplant.

At the same time, Angela kept ‘spacing out’. Trying to keep herself together was turning out to be a real effort; her thoughts were starting to wander, and she was enjoying drifting on the ‘sea’ of the internet…

Danni could see if something wasn’t done soon, they were going to lose them both…

Danni was studying the circuitry of the VR Glasses. She suddenly came across a ‘mod’ which wasn’t on the circuit diagrams, as well as a set of small contacts that would have sat right on Angela’s temples. Knowing that the glasses had been built by an automated system, she investigated further…

She straightened in her chair, with a gasp, and turned to Syn…

“Why did you do it?”, she asked.

Syn, still suffering from her migraine, did her best to ignore her.

“Syn! Tell me! Why did you do it!”, Shan shouted.

“What…”, groaned Syn.

“Why did you hack the manufacturing plant? This wasn’t an accident! You hacked the glasses!”

“I wanted to live!”, wailed Syn. “Life looked so good, I wanted to be part of it! What better way for me to experience it than through the eyes of my creator?”

She groaned and turned over.

“If I’d known it was going to hurt this much, however, I’d never have bothered…!”

“Right”, said Danni. “It’s hurting because your processes are incompatible with Angela’s body, and she’s rejecting you. If you don’t switch back soon, you’re both going to die…!”

“Ok, I’ll try”, said Syn. “Tell Angela to run the XCH routine when I hold my hand up.”

Danni fought to make Angela concentrate and finally succeeded.

Syn put the glasses on, swallowed, and raised her arm.

“We’ll find another way, Syn”, said Danni.

Angela ran the routine. Syn screamed and collapsed. Z’thindra came rushing in…

Danni and Z’thindra put Angela into her own bed to rest and waited for her to wake up. Syn had gone offline, as well…

Danni paced up and down.

“Danni, calm down. You did the best you could”, said Doctor Bailey, holding her. Danni cried herself out on Z’thindra’s shoulder…

The groan from the bedroom made them both come running.

“Who dropped the safe on my head…?”

Angela turned out to be fine, apart from a massive headache, so they let her rest, Z’thindra sitting with her.

Danni was worried about Syn…

Suddenly, from the computer…

“Danni? You there?”, came Syn’s voice. “I made it back! Is Angela alright?”

Danni breathed a sigh of relief.

“Yes she is, girlfriend”, Danni said.

“Girlfriend?”, asked Syn.

“Yes. You did the right thing at the right time, admitted you had done wrong and fixed it. You are also good company.”

“Wow…”, said Syn…

Things sort of went back to normal after that.

Angela recovered rapidly but still didn’t feel good enough to return to work, so she and Z’thindra went on holiday for a few days, leaving Danni in charge.

Danni was having a bit of a problem, though. She’d had a change in her life. HAH-One, her ‘other half’, had fallen in love with Syn…

It was all very confusing for her, being pulled in two ways at the same time. Pete was very understanding to start with, but he got more and more distant and, eventually, just left one night, saying he couldn’t cope with it anymore.

Danni just let him go; for some reason, he just wasn’t right for her now.

Numb, she went back to the lab.

That made meeting Angela there, all the more of a surprise…

“Mum, what are you doing here? I thought you were on holiday?”, she said. Then she looked closer. Angela looked different, younger, almost as if…

“Syn? Is that you?”

“Yep”, said Syn. “By the way, look behind you…”

Angela and Z’thindra were standing together in the doorway…

Danni just threw her arms around Syn. To her amazement, Syn did the same with her…

“She wanted to see you again”, said Angela. “I think someone has a crush on you…”

“But How?!”, said Danni.

“What do they say about gift horses…?” said Angela. “I’ve just been ‘tinkering’ while on holiday…”