It was nearly impossible to comprehend, even for me, the idea of a computer spending decades at a time processing over concepts like emotions and morality, but that was exactly what she would do. The intent was to task T.I.A. with the administration of our spacecraft, as well as the development of her own intellect and personality over the course of our journey. I would be there to guide her for the majority of the rest of my life while everyone else slept in peace. Upon announcing my invention; not my intentions; to Ms. Monsalle, she confessed to me the greatest mistake of her life.
Somehow, some way, Tia Monsalle had had the misfortune to fall in love with me.
It was an awkward and embarrassing affair. I was not equipped emotionally or socially for the experience. It was like throwing someone who couldn’t swim into the ocean, but despite my floundering she never let me drown. Never do I think I will understand how or why she tolerated my long absences from her bed, or my feeble efforts to interact with her on a human level. She was, however, my muse after that point. I began speaking of grand ideas of her and I being the parents of a new humanity. I never told her of my plans, however, to not join her on the other side. T.I.A. would end up being my lifelong companion, not her, but in those fleeting moments I think, perhaps, I truly knew…show more content… I would be the shepherd, not the sheep. My plan was to join my companions in cryosleep only periodically. Every thirty-four years, or so, I would exit my stasis for four days at a time to assist T.I.A. in her processing and research, catalogue transmissions from our facility on Earth, and administer repairs to the ship as needed. This work would take me well into my nineties by the time we arrived; more than half a century of near-constant work to safeguard my charges. More than long enough for me to probably die by the time Tia Monsalle and the rest of our cargo left their long