Niomi takes the watch
[!0.987]2020-01-08

You're as bad in partial gravity as I am. This is hardly a chase at all.

A little better.
Almost caught me.

And there's our two hours of exercise. Same time tomorrow?

I don't know what to do first, thank you or kill you. Do you have a coin?

[!1.5]DING!

Color by George Peterson

Niomi takes the watch
[!0.987]2020-01-10

Why I oughta…

Relieve Florence? She has been covering the watch for you for over two hours.

Ah, carp! I completely forgot about her!

Guilt. A lovely emotion. It makes humans beat themselves up instead of me.

Color by George Peterson

Niomi takes the watch
[!0.987]2020-01-13

I have the watch. Sorry, I got distracted by Sam.

You have the watch. No worries. Sam can be very distracting.

Huh. She didn't even seem upset.

You are human. She is not going to be upset with you.

Crud. Now I really feel bad.

An A.I. is not supposed to cause a human distress. Shall we discuss an appropriate level of punishment?

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Niomi takes the watch
[!0.987]2020-01-15

Florence should have gotten mad at me.

Understood.

Florence Ambrose. Your response to the captain taking the watch was incorrect. You are to run a diagnostic and turn your remote over to the captain as soon as possible.

The situation is being taken care of.

Your reassuring words are not reassuring.

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Niomi takes the watch
[!0.987]2020-01-17

I passed my diagnostic. Here's my remote. What's this about?

Niomi informed me you did not react correctly when she took over the watch.

Diagnostics and increased control are standard procedures with a possibly malfunctioning artificial intelligence.

I did not tell the ship to do that. I would never run diagnostics on somebody before talking to them first. That's just common courtesy.

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Niomi takes the watch
[!0.987]2020-01-20

What did I do wrong?

You did not get angry when Niomi had you stand her watch. She was expecting an emotional reaction.

Ah. I've run into this before. I've been told quite a few times that I should have gotten mad at someone and didn't.

Perhaps I should take an anger management course?

In your case, I don't think it would help.

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Niomi takes the watch
[!0.987]2020-01-22

Ship. Why did you perform your last actions in regard to Florence?

A.I.'s should not get mad at humans. Florence acted as I expected.

You said Florence should be mad at you. When there is a mismatch between my expectations and the human commander on the scene, I obey the human on the scene.

That IS how we want the ship to act.

It's annoying to discover the ship did something stupid because I basically told it to do something stupid.

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Niomi takes the watch
[!0.987]2020-01-24

No worries. The ship was programmed for humans by humans. The ship's A.I. is flexible within its operating parameters. A nonhuman crew is outside of those parameters.

Now that you're on board, it has a focus. It will always be listening to you. It wants to serve you to the best of its abilities.

So if you have the habit of talking to yourself, now would be a good time to quit.

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Parent talk
[!0.987]2020-01-27

If you can't get mad at humans, should you be in a relationship with Winston?

I can get mad at humans. It just takes more effort.

What about direct orders?

Winston can't give me direct orders. Are you worried about me?

My two daughters are thousands of kilometers away. Mothering instinct doesn't evaporate. Accept that you're a substitute by proximity.

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Parent talk
[!0.987]2020-01-29

You don't seem too enthusiastic about me pursuing a relationship with Winston.

To be honest, I find the idea of a human and canine sleeping together gross.

You haven't seen pictures of humans and their dogs sleeping together? They're cute.

That's not what I meant.

I know what you meant. Still, most of our time in bed is actually spent sleeping. Basic math. The ratio of cute is heavily in my favor.

Color by George Peterson