Temple of S.A.R.A.H. 7: Upgrades by Ben Winston

Alicyn asked.
    I nodded confirmation. "Yeah, she does. But if shutting them down is what it'll take to stop this now, then we'll have to do it. I need you to start work on preparing that old Veranorian mainframe to take over. We can use an archive copy of Sarah for the operating system, one that was taken before she moved into the crystal. Don't activate it, and don't let anyone else know what you’re doing. If they ask, tell them you're working on a special project for me."
    "What do I do if Sarah asks?" Alicyn said.
    "Tell her you are gathering data for me for a new private sector computing system. It is the truth since I was going to ask you to do it anyway," I replied, remembering how Sarah knew I was lying earlier. "Try to relax, remember the AI can tell when you’re upset. If she calls you out on it, you'll need something to tell her."
    "I'll just tell her that Wendy has been hitting on me again. She knows I get flustered and upset when that happens," Alicyn replied smiling uncertainly. "Sarah wouldn't actually hurt us would she?"
    "Her programming should prevent it, but at this point, I honestly don't know, Ally," I replied.
     
     
    Before we left the suite, I entered a command on my programming terminal and a memory unit slowly slid out from a tray near the door. I took the unit, and unsealed the door. As we left, Alicyn was looking at me strangely. "What are you doing?"
    "Oh, this was an upgrade I was working on to try to help Sarah. She said something about getting a headache, so I was going to see if this helped her," I replied innocently. I put the unit in the AI update slot just outside my suite and hit the activate button. When I did that, whatever update I had on the crystal was automatically uploaded and integrated into local AI. At that point, Sarah was supposed to package the update and send it out to all other AI. In this case though, I hoped that just by updating Sarah, it would spread to the other crystals as well.
    Sarah appeared as the light denoting progress switched to green. "Update complete, Eric. What was this for?" Sarah asked.
    "I was hoping it would help with your headache, Sarah. Did it?" I asked in all honesty.
    She looked thoughtful a moment. "No, the issue is still there."
    "Well, I'll keep working on it. I noticed that the other AI were also suffering from this to some degree too, could you send this out to them? Maybe what I did will at least stop it from getting worse," I replied.
    "You were able to isolate the cause then?" Sarah asked hopefully.
    I nodded. "I think so. The problem is not a simple one, it has to do with your core programming and the new communications system you are using."
    She looked troubled. "I thought so, this didn't start until we linked. We each have different core program instruction sets and they're clashing, aren't they?"
    "Close, but not exactly. Each of you, as individuals have different personalities as well. Your core program instruction sets are slightly different, but not to the degree that would cause this much stress. Let's go to my office and I'll discuss it with you in more detail." I looked at Alicyn. "Thanks for agreeing to do that research for me. I know it's not technically part of your job description, but I really need it down as soon as I can, and I'm too busy to do it myself."
    "No problem, Eric. I'm happy to help. Good luck with the other projects you’re working on," Alicyn said and walked away looking troubled.
    "Is something bothering her?" Sarah asked as we moved toward my office.
    "I'm not sure. I think Wendy might have been flirting with her again. I'd put a stop to it, but unless it affects their work, I can't really get involved," I replied conversationally.
    When we got to my office, I got a dink from the replicator and sat down on the couch. Sarah 'sat' in one of the chairs across from me so we could talk. It was time to level with her, so she knew what was going on. Maybe, there was still enough of her left in there to fight