“Not again,” said Vex. He had begun to anticipate some of the Aurora AI’s ‘freakouts’, as he called them. He reached for the kill switch that would sever the connection from the AI core to the car and prevent it from turning the garage into a horror show. Vex was a little slow this time, and the tyres had begun to spin before the connection cut off. Then they stopped.

  “What is wrong with you?” he yelled.

  As far as Vex knew, he was alone in the garage, plugged into the car via the neural socket at the back of his neck and viewing everything through his visor. As he yelled, an automated routine he had set up filled his vision with gifs of angry people shouting. Normally, he would chuckle at this, but he was too frustrated this time.

  “Everything okay?” said Cass.

  Vex jumped and lifted his visor to see Cass and Nia entering the garage.

  “It’s the AI,” said Vex, gesturing at the car. “It won’t settle down and just do its job. It keeps freaking out.”

  Cass looked at the car. For all of Cass’s skill in driving these things, Vex knew Cass had almost no idea about the engineering or AI side.

  “I think we need a new AI,” said Vex. “I really don’t think this one is going to cut it.”

  “Has Julian tried it out yet?” Cass asked, referring to their new driver. “Any test runs?”

  “No,” said Vex. Cass frowned. “You know I’m not putting anyone in that car but me until I know it’s safe.”

  Vex tried to look defiant, and Cass relaxed. They both understood what was at stake.

  “Still,” said Cass, “we have a deadline. Arch-tech needs a clean test run. With good lap times.”

  Vex looked around. “And where is Kade?” he said. “I haven’t seen that worm around here. I thought that was his job.”

  “I’m keeping him informed,” said Nia with a smile. “He knows what’s going on.”

  “So he knows our AI is cooked?” said Vex.

  Nia tilted her head to the side, indicating she might not have told Kade everything.

  “Then can we get a new one?”

  “No way,” said Cass. “Even with our extra money, it’s not in the budget.”

  “There won’t be a budget if we don’t have a good AI,” said Vex.

  “We still need to build a proper chassis,” said Cass. “Two of them. Plus all the other stuff. What about the guy who sold us the AI? Has he been any help?”

  “Not a word,” said Vex. “I’ve tried to contact him every way I can. I’ve tried people who might know him. No one can get to him. I think we got robbed.”

  Cass swore under his breath. “When we bought it, we ran tests. They were good, right?”

  “I’ve re-run them too, just like you asked,” said Vex. “They still pass. I don’t think they were thorough enough, though.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Both Vex and Cass were quiet for a moment.

  “Sounds like you need some expert help,” said Nia.

  “All the consultants I’ve talked to are out of our price range,” said Vex, giving Cass a slight glare. “Hiring someone is hard because no one with the skills wants to work for a new Ultracar team.”

  “What about a graduate student?” said Nia. “There are a few good universities around with AI research programmes. I’m sure there are students who would be interested in working on this. Even if just for the experience.”

  Two days later, Vex was trying to navigate the Nova Cascadia Institute of Technology’s campus to find a particular lab. Nia had found and contacted a graduate student named Elara Voss, whom Nia said was interested in helping out.

  Most of the campus and buildings were immaculate. Art Deco architecture, highlighted with glowing stone masonry, created a look that was both futuristic and classical.

  When Vex reached Elara’s lab, scrap pieces of equipment lined both sides of the hallway. The door was open, revealing a room full of various equipment, most of it stacked in piles.

  “Hello?” said Vex, not seeing anyone.

  “Yes? Hello,” came a voice from inside the room. A woman popped up from behind one of the piles; she must have been sitting on the floor. “Can I help you?”

  “I’m Vex. I think Nia Solara said I would be coming...”

  “Oh, right,” she said, reaching back and unplugging a cable from the socket at the back of her neck. “I’m Elara.”

  When she unplugged the cable, Vex noticed that her eyes had been literally glowing, but the glow faded once the connection ended. It must have been some sort of augmented eyes.

  Elara walked around the stacks of equipment to Vex. “Hello,” she said, holding out her hand with a little bounce in her step.

  Vex shook it, noticing the circuit-board charm necklace she wore and the patchwork but colourful overalls.

  “Did Nia tell you what this is about?” said Vex.

  “Yes,” said Elara, at first with a smile that quickly turned sad. “You have a sick AI.” She said it as if the AI were an actual person.

  They talked for a bit before Elara suggested going to the garage so she could see the AI herself.

  When they got to the garage, Elara spent a few minutes looking over the car. “This is so cool,” she said. “I mostly taught myself engineering, working on old equipment I found in the junkyard. That’s how my dad provided for us, and I helped. Fixing up old stuff we found for free. I never thought I would see an Ultracar, though.”

  “Do you want to see the AI?” Vex said, hoping to get back to the task at hand.

  “Oh, yes,” said Elara. She grabbed the cable Vex was holding out, plugged it into the socket on her neck, and took a few deep breaths before her eyes lit up with a light-blue glow.

  “Oh,” she said. “Hello, I’m Elara.”

  Vex blinked a few times. He had never seen someone be so friendly to an AI.

  Elara seemed to be in her own world for a while. Occasionally, she would giggle or make some other small noise. Most of the time, she sat on a stool, staring off into space, although her augmented eyes likely gave her plenty to see.

  Vex busied himself designing a new chassis for the car. Eventually, he left to get food. Elara was impossible to talk to while connected, but he figured she would be hungry eventually.

  When Vex got back, Elara was on the floor, unconscious.

  “Hey, hey,” said Vex, kneeling down beside her, trying to think what to do. He checked her pulse; it was still there and strong, but her eyes were flickering. He unplugged her, hoping that would help.

  A few minutes later, Elara started to wake up.

  “Are you okay?”

  Elara nodded and sat up. “I’m fine,” she said, taking a few deep breaths. “This happens sometimes.” Then, after a pause, “Not a lot of people know.”

  “So you’re going to be okay?” said Vex, wondering if he should call an ambulance.

  “I’m fine,” said Elara. “Aurora is an amazing AI.” She smiled.

  “Really?” said Vex. That had not been his experience.

  “She is sick, though,” said Elara. “Feedback loops out of place. I’m not sure what the original training set was, but there are a few issues if you want to use her for Ultracar.”

  “So it’s not going to work?” said Vex, half hoping this would be proof they needed a new AI.

  “No. I think Aurora will work,” said Elara. “It’s an issue with how she was trained and then used. All those memories and processing patterns. They’re not what you want and will need a lot of love.”

  “But you think you can fix it?” said Vex.

  Elara blinked. “You want me to fix her?” she said.

  “There is no way I can,” said Vex. “I’ve tried.”

  “I never thought I would be on an Ultracar team,” said Elara. Her eyes gave a brief glow of light. “That would be cool.”

  “Great,” said Vex. “Say, you don’t know anything about chassis, do you?”