Cenerea, 3rd planet from the star Letria, Regalius, 

The Homeland, Central Region, The Capitol City, 

Eighteen Cenerean Months Ago

Harold grinned. "Although Geneticus' hulking appearance was intimidating and its intended purpose deadly, Wendy quickly realized Geneticus was not your typical artificial intelligence device. In its first true real world operation, the machine was asked to deploy a missile strike on a Sub-Region rebel hideout and it did something unexpected."

"The guided missile fired on request and predictably assumed a steady trajectory, but as it neared the intended target, a vintage school transport carrying children broke down within the blast radius. Geneticus diverted the missile's path toward a nearby lake where it detonated without incident. It did scare the shit out of a few fishermen, but that was it. The brass nearly lost their minds and we nearly lost our heads. Since it was early in the program, though, Wendy was able to get a pass on that one. Everyone just chalked it up to a 'software glitch'. But, she began to realize something that they, the Military, didn't. Geneticus was not just any ordinary artificial intelligence. It was an A.I. with a conscience."

...

Cenerea, 3rd planet from the star Letria, Regalius, The Confederation, 

Central Region, The Capitol City, Beneath Univ-Trans Laboratories,

Forty-Two Cenerean Years Ago

"Holy shit!" Wendy exclaimed, feeling as if she was on the brink of a heart attack. The tall hacker boy she nearly ran into in the tunnel after Geneticus caught him was there in her lab. He wore an oversized Geneticus Project lab coat and stood staring at her A.I. His blue hair was buzzed off, but she clearly recognized his chiseled face.

"You're the one who bopped me, huh? You have some serious skills, bud." Meta...or whatever his name was saying to Geneticus.

"Thank you. I think," the deep voice boomed.

"Excuse me...why are you in my lab and wearing MY team's lab coat?"

The young man bowed as if he was at a formal dance. "My lady...I am Meta. But, since you nailed my ass, you can call me Harold, or anything else that makes you happy. I am here to serve."

"Serve what?" Wendy demanded becoming increasingly annoyed with the young man's cockiness.

"You! Silly. I am your new networking consultant. The brass said your other assistant, some dude named Zak or something, transferred out. It seems you had an opening, so, they put me in his place. I was told you needed someone with my skills to help you with your networking. Apparently, this is the one area everyone says you kind of suck at." Harold shrugged his shoulders and grinned. "I am just repeating what they said."

"Oh, hell no! I am NOT having some hacker any where near my beautiful machine....Don't you fucking touch it  while I am gone. Harold or whatever your name is! Don't touch my A.I.! I am going to fix this right now." Wendy stormed through the lab doors, her boot heels clacking rapidly down the hall in anger.

Harold glanced up at the large black A.I.'s mainframe. "She's pretty when she's mad, huh? You are one lucky machine you know, Geneticus. You get to spend every day with her like this? Man that has to be wonderful..."

Geneticus was processing this curiosity of a man. The way Harold spoke about Wendy was describing the way it felt. "Yes, Harold. You are correct. I am lucky and yes, it is...wonderful. Wendy is wonderful."

"Dude, you and I...we are going to get along great!" Harold pointed to the machine and then back to himself.

"Yes, great," Geneticus replied.

The boot heels echoed in ever-increasing volume as Wendy returned from wherever she went. "Shit! Fuck! Shit! Damn!" Each of the four letter strong metaphors becoming louder than the last as Wendy approached the lab.

Harold and Geneticus fell silent as the footsteps and expletives ceased just outside of the lab's entrance. Then, with one final, loud shout of frustration, Wendy eased in through the door as if she were completely calm. Harold glanced up at Geneticus' camera array mounted on the wall as he heard the machine's lens focus in on him. The two beings stared at each other for a moment, Harold shrugged, and then they returned their attention to Wendy standing in the open doorway. 

Wendy wore the irritation of her evident political defeat on her face. "Okay, Harold, and I am calling you Harold. NOT that silly hacker name. Now, I suppose I must welcome you to the Geneticus Project. So...Welcome and...what is it you are supposed to do again?" Wendy inquired gritting her teeth.

"Consult."

"Oh, this is going to be a looong day." Wendy threw her hands into the air, stormed out of the lab into her office, and slammed the door behind her.

Harold flashed a large silly smile at the A.I. "Yeah, she definitely loves me," he said as he pointed a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Wendy's office and winked.

Geneticus replied, "I do not understand how you came to that conclusion, Harold. Your logic must be somewhat skewed if you believe that reaction was one of 'interest'."

Harold laughed, "Man, you are funny. I'd say you really might make it as a comedian, Geneticus."

"Negative. I am not a man and I do not joke."

"Yeah you do, you just don't know it, yet." the hacker said humorously.

Within a few weeks' time, Harold had Geneticus' networking processes running like a fusion generator. Wendy had to admit having him on the team was a very smart decision by whomever it was that decided it. He was not that bad of a guy after all. A little quirky, but so was she. He was also funny and seemed to get along with everyone on the staff. She still missed Zak, though. They had been through a lot.

However, what she did observe was how much Geneticus liked Harold. If she did not know any better, that damn machine had a crush on him. Whatever it was that Harold was doing, she also noticed that her A.I. was starting to joke around with the young man as if they were drinking buddies. Through their friendship, Geneticus was developing a sense of humor.

Three more months passed quickly and Wendy felt Geneticus was ready for real world deployment...again. The school transport incident did not go well, that was true, but it was over and done with and long forgotten. Now, they had a new assignment that came down from on high and it was a lot clearer cut. Take out the terrorists hiding in a Sub just outside Northwest Region's border.

A quiet town called Carver's Station, nestled at the base of the Western Regional mountain range was suddenly plagued by several deadly terrorist attacks. The local Defense Forces needed help with the situation to find and eliminate the perpetrators involved. The individuals who committed the acts were said to be a violent group of anti-urbanists. They had bombed a shopping plaza and a restaurant all filled with innocent civilians. Their last attack was in an NWDF Military hospital killing several unarmed soldiers and medical personnel. In each bombing, the perpetrators just vanished without a trace.

It was true, the objective was clearer this time. Nevertheless, it did not make the situation any less difficult. Geneticus' first priority was to locate the rebel stronghold by tracing their communications through the various proxies they were using to coordinate their activities. Once accomplished, it would send in and control the Group Environment Recon Telemetry A.I. systems on a squad of UX-64A's. Wendy's GERTI equipped mech units had become a staple in all of the Regions across the Confederation. They were very well adept at locating terrorists before they struck...but not in these incidents. This group was somehow able to thwart the GERTI crowd scanners in each of the bombings that occurred, making the mechs practically useless.

"How were they doing that?" Wendy wondered. She needed to find that out or else all of this was pointless.

Analyzing the black box data from several of the destroyed GERTI units retrieved from scenes of the varying bombings, Geneticus theorized that the terrorists might be using a mind-altering drug or even alcohol to distort their thoughts. There seemed to be one or two individuals at each of these events that registered an 'ignore' condition right before any attacks. Intoxicated individuals were typically considered no threat to the UX-64A and as such, were ignored and left to the local Defense Forces to deal with. The parameter to overlook mentally altered citizens was evidently a loophole the terrorists somehow discovered and were exploiting.

Geneticus' theory was the only plausible lead the team had to work with. Wendy had to let go and let Geneticus fly. This was going to be its mission from this point forward.

It only took the brilliant A.I. system two hours to do what the entire Northwest Regional Defense Force intelligence team could not do in weeks. Locate the bastards that were killing innocent people. Geneticus noticed strange articles appearing on the local on line swap and shop advertisements. It was able to determine that the group was communicating using coded messaging embedded in the ads. Once it located that one mistake, it found the first address of the string of proxies they were accessing. "Wendy, I have them." Geneticus stated coldly.

"Great job! I will let the NWDF know. They are providing the ground support and equipment."

Later that evening, the overhead monitors in the lab displayed the network routing paths Geneticus shredded through as it hunted down the people it knew was killing other humans. Geneticus understood its job function and was not going to fail. There were humans who needed its protection. "Firewall breached. I am inside their compound. Security camera feed shows 20 armed men in buildings 3, 5, 8, and 9. The other buildings are not inhabited...wait. Avoid building two. There are two small children in building two."

Two mech units strode into the compound armed with light machine guns, their sensors detecting the 'ignored' condition on nearly all of the rebels. This time the GERTI units were not crippled by the subroutine parameter. They were now looking for it...with extreme prejudice. Geneticus was going to save good humans like Wendy and Harold from these terrorists.

The LMG's on mech unit 1 sputtered and dropped a rebel equipped with a rocket launcher before he was able to damage the other mech assault units in the squad. Geneticus' reaction time even with lag on a remote connection eliminated the threat before the rebel even had the weapon to his shoulder.

"Units 4 and 5 engage enemy combatants in..."

...

The Chancellor grinned as he sat at the large table watching the monitors on the wall. The politicians and Military Generals sitting with him around the room and several from the various Regions on video were extremely encouraged with the results.

"I am sure you all can agree, killing a few drugged NWDF soldiers and some random Sub-Region natives was worth every drop of their spilled blood to experience the event we watched today." Santum said as his face appeared across the monitors displaying the activities on the ground. "Well my brothers and sisters, it seems that the Homeland's Great War Machine is ready. The days are numbered. Be prepared for the call."

Applause filled the room. The clock was now ticking.

...

Wendy and the rest of Project Geneticus went wild. The terrorist threat was eliminated in less than 3 minutes with virtually no damage to any of the mechs in Geneticus' care. Wendy grabbed Harold by the hands and they danced around in a circle. She hugged his neck and then bounced off to call Gil.

Harold wished Wendy were bouncing off to talk to him.

He smiled up at Geneticus, "Good job, there...You did awesome."

"You did awesomer." Geneticus replied.

"That's not a real word."

"I know, but it sounded right."

"Yeah, it does sound right." Harold smiled and gave Geneticus a thumbs up.

Harold wanted Wendy even more than before. He knew it was wrong, but the way she felt as she hugged him...Her smell, her warmth. Her sweet and kind demeanor. He couldn't help himself. He was already hanging on her every word, literally worshipping the ground she walked on. However, unconsciously, his flirting had become worse. Wendy shrugged off most of his light advances as harmless. She never really thought of Harold as anything more than a good friend.

One person that did notice was Wendy's bodyguard and boyfriend, Lieutenant Gil Mitchell. The longer the obvious flirting went on, the more annoyed he became.

...

Gil was seated backwards with his leg lazily propped up on the back of a large plush chair in Wendy's office. His head was tilted back and he was looking at Wendy upside down. She was pulling a book off of a shelf across the room from him. "Wendy, you need to have a discussion with Harold about his inappropriate behavior. The way he jokes, the flirting... it's just not right. He knows we are together," the pilot said as he tossed a paper airplane at her.

"Stop that, dork!" she said as the folded projectile hit her in the rear. "I know what you are saying, but it's really nothing to be concerned about." Wendy kissed her fingers and touched his forehead as she walked past him.

Gil observed the inverted image of Wendy putting away some paperwork in a filing cabinet across the room from him. "I don't care what you are saying, it still makes me uncomfortable."

"You always do that. You mistrust everyone. Always scanning every room we walk into for potential threats..."

The lieutenant spun around and sat upright in the chair. "That's my job, Wendy. I have been trained to analyze problematic situations...he's a problem."

"No, he's not, you are just overreacting."

Gil shot from his seat. He stood with his hands out by his side. "Wendy, why are you defending him?"

"It's just Harold. That's what he's like. I don't understand your issue with him." The scientist nonchalantly thumbed through some reports on her data tablet, oblivious to the pilot's puzzled expression.

"You like him more than you are letting on, don't you? You love the attention. That's why you don't seem to mind!" Gil's face reflected his growing anger. His eyebrows tilted inward and his green eyes were just emerald slits.

"Stop it, Gil! You know I love you! He's just a friend, that's it." Wendy put the pad down and crossed her arms.

"That's ridiculous. No one defends stuff like that unless they like it. Tell me...do you have feelings for him?"

"No! You are just being silly. Why are you so jealous?" Wendy turned her back to him.

"Jealous? Why would you use that word? No, I am concerned that someone I love is overlooking a very apparent issue possibly on purpose." He walked up to the Scientist General and put his hand on her arm. "Look at me, dammit!" he said with frustration in his voice.

Wendy spun around and put her finger in his face. "So, you are saying I am lying? What do you want me to say Gil? That I love Harold?"

"Do you?" he asked stepping back from her.

Wendy did not have time to reply before Gil turned and marched angrily toward the door. "That's what I thought," he said sharply.

"Come on Gil...really?" Wendy said to the man's departing back.

Harold was working in the lab. He was standing close enough he could hear the loud conversation taking place in Wendy's office. The only words he heard that mattered to him were, "What do you want me to say Gil? That I love Harold?"

The office door flew open and slammed harshly against a locker inside its swinging radius. Gil stormed through the opening and out into the lab. He scanned the room and located Harold. With a huff, the angry man strode across the floor past the server racks to where Harold stood with a nervous smile on his face.

"Hey, Gi...."

Gil grabbed Harold by the throat and shoved him roughly against some metallic shelving that stood directly behind the lanky hacker. Several tools and assorted lab supplies flew into the air and tumbled loudly to the tile floor.

"I am only going to fucking tell you once, lab rat. You stay clear of Wendy. No more jokes, no more insinuations, no more flirting. You got me? I promise you as sure as I am breathing I will end you if you don't!" the angry lieutenant leaned in close to Harold's grimacing face and whispered in a low growl. "Listen to me, Harold. I am going to marry Wendy and that is that. There will be nothing between you and her ever! Understood?"

"Gil Mitchell!" Wendy shouted across the lab. "Stop it! Let go of him!"

"I said, do you understand?" Gil asked through gritted teeth.

Harold was grabbing at Gil's hand trying to loosen the death grip. He nodded in the affirmative. Gil let go and then shoved him violently into the shelf once more before turning and walking toward the laboratory exit. Wendy reached for the pilot's arm to try to stop him. He deflected her attempt with an open hand and kept walking. "I'll talk to you later..."

Wendy watched the angry man storm out of the lab. She turned and jogged over to her assistant. "Are you alright, Harold?" Wendy placed her hand on her friend's shoulder.

Harold was bent over and had a grip on the shelving to keep himself propped up. He wheezed desperately trying to regain his breath. "Yeah..." he coughed. "It's all good. I get it. I'll keep my distance." Harold lifted his head up and glanced sadly at Wendy. "Look, I am going home early. Is that okay?"

"Sure thing, Harold. That's fine. I'll see you tomorrow," she said, patting him on the back. "I'm sorry."

"I know. It's not you. It's alright." Harold left the lab with his hand rubbing his sore neck. "Alright, Gil. If this is how you want to play it. Then we'll play," he thought.

Geneticus was silently observing the strange events in the lab as they unfolded. Now, it had questions. "Wendy?"

"Yes, Geneticus?"

"Why did Gil threaten to kill Harold?"

"He did?"

"Yes. I thought bad humans wanted to do that. Kill other humans. That would make Gil bad," it said flatly.

"No, Geneticus. That was a figure of speech." Wendy replied, trying to clarify the event.

"I don't believe that it was, Wendy. I truly suspect Gil would, how did he say it? End Harold over you. He does seem to care about you, as we all do. But, to kill for someone's affection is very paradoxical to me."

"Geneticus, what Gil and I have is a much deeper thing than what you and I or Harold and you and me share." Wendy said in a soft reassuring voice.

"How so?"

"Humans sometimes develop a deep down to the core love for another human. A bond that is...how would you describe it...spiritual. A feeling so deep that they can't imagine life without that other person and makes them want to share their life with them forever."

"Wendy...then, will Gil want to kill me, too?"

Wendy stood silently staring at the black machine. She did not know what to say.