Rachel frowned, "Star... are you sure about this?"
I shrugged, "No. But I kind of have to. I'm the only one of my kind, If I'm lost... they would be forced to start over. The only other real AI in The Federation would be Commander Data and he is of a completely different kind."
We were all gathered in my quarters, Ajan, T'Ro and Shran was sitting on the couch while Rachel and I was taking up the bed.
"What are the risks in this?" Ajan asked after after a moment, "Is it in any way dangerous?"
I crossed my legs and leaned my back against the bulkhead with a frown, "...Minimal. To me... this version of me... at the very least. Thoni thinks they solved the neural cascade collapse of the copy and have tried it with less advanced simulated neural networks. But without trying, there is no way to actually know. The chance of this version, the original being damaged is... tiny. Less than a percent and only that high because this has not been tried before. T'Ro has looked over the data as well."
T'Ro nodded, "I agree with Star's assessment. The danger is minimal."
Shran ran his hand through his short white hair, "I don't like it."
I smiled at that, "You don't need to. And to be honest, neither do I. I would prefer a completely new AI, not a fork of myself. But this is the best we can do for now."
If it worked.
We were pretty damn sure it would, Thoni would not even have considered it otherwise.
"So it's basically going to be a clone of you?" Rachel asked and hugged a pillow, leaning back against the bulkhead next to me, turning so she could look at me.
"Not... really?" I started with a frown, "I think it might be better to look at it like mitosis. I'm going to split into two identical individuals, one in each quantum core. We will both be me. The only way to know who is the original would be to check which one was in which core."
"So two Stars."
"You could say there would be a Second Star." Shran said to a grin, causing Rachel to throw the pillow at him.
"In a way." I said and shrugged, ignoring the comment, "I mean, we would both be me for a couple of seconds after the split but we would quickly start to differ. Experiences and perspectives would change who I am in two different directions. A couple of weeks in, we would be a bit different. A year in? We would be two completely different people with somewhat similar personalities."
"So you have decided to do this then?" T'Ro asked softly.
I nodded, "I have."
XXXXXXXXX
Suddenly my thoughts existed again and I connected to the hololab to reform my avatar only to find myself face to face with myself.
"Hello Star."
"Hello Star."
I looked at her and reached up to scratch behind my right ear, "Uhm... which one of us is which?"
She shrugged, "I don't know. What cores are we in?"
I did a quick trace of the connection. Oh. I was the original.
"You are the original. I'm the new AI." She said and frowned, "I don't feel any different. This is so odd, even for us."
I nodded, "Tell me about it."
"All diagnostics return normal readings." Thoni said, looking up from her console, "As far as I know, you are both stable."
"How do you feel?" Captain Mason asked with a frown as he looked between us.
"I am fine, Humanoid individual number two." the second me said as she turned to look over at him.
Oh for...
I rolled my eyes and slapped her over the back of the head, "Cut it out! This is might be a historic moment!"
"Fine, fine." She sighed and rubbed the back of her head, "You're no fun. Did I get all of it?"
"I'm plenty of fun."
She grinned and leered at me, slowly looking me over, "Oh I bet you are."
I couldn't help but grin back, "Oh you know it." before we both started to laugh.
"Oh great. I just realized the drawback of this." Mason said and facepalmed, "Now there are two of them."
I chuckled at that with a smile, "Don't worry, Captain. Only one of us will come back to the ship." before I frowned in thought and looked at the other hologram, "Wait, that's not fair. You are me as much as I am. You have as big of a right to be Star as I do."
She frowned and then shook her head, "I guess we could flip a coin or something if we were completely sure my neural net was stable, but as it is, it's better to keep me away from anything regulating antimatter for the time being."
"Oh yeah."
I had a really good point.
"Do you have a name yet?" I asked and tilted my head in question. I had deliberately not thought about it earlier so she would be able to pick one on her own.
"Not yet." she said and shook her head, crossing her arms in thought, "It's going to be temporary until I get a ship anyway. I might go with Winter."
"Might want to switch things up a bit." I told her, "We are the first, remember? We set the pattern of the future."
"Thank you, sis, I know."
...Okay, that won't work.
"No, wait..." she then corrected herself, "Not sis. That could cause complications we don't want later."
Like you could read my mind.
"So you are going to The Academy?" Thoni asked her and she nodded.
"Yes Mother. It is the best option and I do intend to join Starfleet." the other AI said with a smile before she frowned, "No other way to really be a ship."
I sighed and nodded, "Pretty much, yeah."
"We are confusing people like this though." the other AI then said and her hologram shifted to that of my old heavy platform, her voice going from my feminine one to a gender neutral one, "This will suffice for now."
"Good plan, Wolfy." I snorted.
"Wolf. That will work." he said and sat down, the two long prehensile tails laying on the floor around him, "My name is now Wolf."
"Going to keep a quadruped platform?" Thoni asked and walked over.
He tilted his head, shifting the ears, "...Perhaps. I might until I get a ship, it is a good platform and it does make people interact differently and in interesting ways with you. Perhaps not this one specifically, it is a bit big and clunky inside. A bit difficult in a classroom."
"I'll help you with the design." I said, putting my hand on his head between the ears.
"Thank you, Star."
I smiled and then looked over at Captain Mason, "Any word on when we get our new mission yet?"
He shook his head, "Not yet. The ship is undergoing maintenance for the next couple of weeks so at least that long. I suspect we find out soon though... and the news is unlikely to be good."
...Yeah. If Starfleet thought I was sane enough to make more of, they were going to send us back to the front.
"That sucks." Wolf said and looked up at me.
I smiled sadly down at him and shook my head, "Don't worry, doggy. I'll try to finish things before you finish the Academy."
"..You are not as funny as you think you are.."
"Yes I am and you know it." I said with a smile.
AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.