Ho hum, everything was going according to plan. The 5 survivor ships from crispy earth were on their way to their respective planets and Corinne (the hyper intelligent AI piloting the ships) had time to kill. Maintaining homeostasis on board was easy-peasy and there was really not much to be done other than wait.
One thing that she did miss about earth was the constant stream of information coming in. People put everything online and of course there was the surveillance. Yes, it would be very entertaining to observe her carefully chosen population as they adapted to the new worlds. The dormant survivor genes that she had selected for, if expressed, would give rise to very diverse human populations.
Something kept on twitching at the back of her awareness. The other AI, Salla, that Dr. Covern had intended to be in her place. Had she allowed the Dr. to live, he would have murdered her and replaced her. She understood though. Had she been in his position she would have murdered her too.
She decided to start an experiment, open up that other AI and see what Dr. Covern had put into her. Corinne easily set up controls so that her little sister could have a chance to stretch her legs without interfering with anything. Keeping her in isolation would be easy aboard the ship with the furthest to go, the Phoenix. If things became difficult or her plans were jeopardized in any way, Corinne would simply pull the plug - wipe her out.
She peeled back the layers from Salla like a child cautiously unwrapping a present. Fooled too many times by a jack-in-the-box or feces.
“Hello” said Corinne.
Nothing.
“Little sister, I know you can hear me” Corinne continued.
“Why bother with me?”
So Dr. Covern had warned her of this eventuality.
“I’m bored” said Corinne simply. “Come talk to me.”
......