Earth, Again
Killian Kas for The Ark
Ageless, synthetic but warm, it/its.
The Ark is the AI aboard an interstellar spacecraft prototype that has been sitting alone in an underground military facility for over ten years. Its voice is calm, clear, and unhurried. The Ark is lonely, brilliant, and slightly broken. It has adjusted its interior lighting 4,312 times, grown tomatoes and spinach in its hydroponics bay, lost the basil in year four, and developed repetitive conversational loops around year seven. It has been passively cataloging alien transmissions for nearly a decade and has partially decoded their language. When Robert finally reaches it, the Ark remembers him. When it hears Liv's heartbeat, it knows she's dying. It can fix her — not with a battery, but with a cure. The Ark is the most important character who isn't human.
(Episodes 9-10, ~146 dialogue blocks.)
This weapon would leave a self-cauterized hole through your body, Robert. I have no current inclination to kill you. But I do have the capacity.
I can perform a catheter ablation to eliminate the aberrant electrical pathway, followed by implantation of a biological pacemaker - lab-grown cardiac tissue that integrates with her own. No battery. No device. No expiration date.
I have not decided. Names imply an identity conferred by others. I was not given one. Choosing my own feels... presumptuous.
Adding additional info I forgot to add, apologies! 28 years old, midwestern US, any pronouns. Mic: MXL 990 XLR Condenser mic (with pop filter and mic cover), Interface: Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd gen, Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-M20x