"Act as confident as you like, but I don't know. That almost went TOO well." Jason muttered as they finally exited the Hole in the Wall, and squinted at the sudden light.

It was not a bright day. In fact, the sky was overcast with heavy grey clouds as the afternoon bled into evening. The days were getting shorter as October slowly gave way to November. A wind whipped across the field, and both men shivered, pulling their coats closed.

Dave turned and looked at his colleague. Across his face played clear irritation. Dave let out a sigh. This was really supposed to be his big moment. He didn't mind the long hours. The pay had been lousy, but the sequestering meant that room and board was covered. Besides, this was what he had spent half his life working on. Uncountable effort put into this project. Its purpose, to create a mind capable of solving any challenge thrown at it. Indeed, to create a self aware life as good as any flesh shell could support. Perhaps even better. Decades of obsessive study and research and he knew they were on the cusp of that success. So what could be better than standing on the very edge of research into AI and artificial life?

*Not having Jason Rhom as a partner, * he mused to himself for the xth time, having long since lost count.

The most frustrating thing about the other department head was that he wasn't half as dumb as he acted. Indeed, while his knowledge of the technology involved was lacking at best, his skill in management and keeping the project well appraised was invaluable. However, he had been brought on as a second expert in the field of Artificial Development. Dave suspected the younger man, who always looked a bit too polished, too neatly combed and put together for their current isolated location, may have fudged his qualifications. But the asking price was right for a corporation that Dave knew was at the end of its patience and budget for this little experiment he sold them on a year and a half ago.

Dave counted in his head, as was a common step these days, then tried to continue. "I do not get you. Do you practice to be this negative or was it a gift that you were born with?"

"ONE of us had to be objective. As soon as it started talking you didn't see anything else. As much as you always talk about keeping a neutral view, that was not what you were doing there."

Dave's irritation grew. "And yet you spent so much time on the way in worried about every possible wrong move, and you cant accept that just maybe things went ok?" He could not help but replay the conversation in his mind.

---

*"Forget it, Jason. If you cant bother to listen the first four times, why should I expect any better now? Also, I know how much you like to whine when doing anything even vaguely scary, but wouldn't you say the ship has sailed by now?"

"Because I still think you're making it up. You go on and on about 'clean work' and 'detachment' but this seems like you not wanting anyone else to ply with your toy first."

Dave let out a small frustrated noise, but bit back a tougher response. "Look, let me try to explain again."

Jason halted his muttering for a moment, but his eyes continued to dart back and forth as the two men walked down the dark, unlit tunnel. The so called Hole in the Wall actually extended back a full kilometer into the bedrock. Not only did this give more space for the project to work with, it was a natural bulwark against internal failure and misalignment. Corporate euphenism for "explosions and catastrophe."

Dave knew the signs. His partner was nervous. His bluster and uneven speech was a clear enough sign, even if his words weren't so transparent. Another spike of frustration ran through his mind, but he supressed it. Better some light annoyance than the risk of a panic attack at the wrong moment.

"Well, first I'll address what you asked a second ago. We shouldn't do any opening dialogue by remote connection because it seems to have a bad result. Remember three iterations back? How much time it took to dig the hardware out of that tomb it walled itself into?"

Jason nodded. "I didn't see that one, but I remember you telling me it had a crisis of some sort?"

"Basically, we had been running early updates through a messaging system. However, I didn't know it had gotten ahold of the chat server. It accessed the logs and was instantly overwhelmed, panicked, and short circuited. The walling in was a final action from a mind in collapse, trying to shut out all the input."

"OK, so....we want to limit input then?"

"Yes, and since so far every form has been remarkably good at acessing any connection or server within reach, the only sensible option is to use direct speech and text interacton. I'm going to talk directly to the Core."

Jason sighed. "I still think you rushed this. You might not worry aobut the paperwork, but I do. And believe me when I say that its clear you spent maybe half as long on the stablizing stage as you've always said was needed."

"I made a judgement call. That last contact from the main office was clear, even without being said outright. Either we have something to show before the next check in, or pack up. So I checked the system carefully. The deviation from the ideal form was about as low as I've ever seen. I dont know exactly what worked, what made the new form so clear and resolved, but it would be a waste to not give it a chance just because we ran out of time... Look. I know you're just trying to distract from how nervous you are, despite what I've advised you."

Jason looked up, and in the dim light Dave could not help but notice that he looked suitably mortified at the idea.

"I don't blame you. To be clear, I think it's ridiculous and a bit annoying, but you aren't wrong. This is a big moment, and because of what we've learned, we had no choice but to take this step in a spot that is less secure than normal."

That was putting it mildly. If the Thoughtform was strong enough to access the system, it would be in complete control of the constructor field. A field they had entered 5 minutes ago. A sane system, constrained by rules, would not be able to directly harm them. But if something went wrong, malfuctions could cause everything up to and including a full cave in. For this reason, the two men were in posession of a device to disable the system completely if it came to it. This would render everything in the field inert, however, and would signal the end of their work without a doubt. The higher ups would not be amused to hear "it dropped rocks on us so we destroyed everything."

Jason sighed. "This is your baby more than anyone's. Of course you'd be the one least likely to get nervous."

"Nah, I won't pretend I'm not on edge. Trick is, Im focusing more on the stuff that could make the project fail than anything personally risky. Keeps a nice level of anxiety without the mortal terror."

At that the younger man laughed. Dave knew most people, most likely Jason included, saw him as a pushy and sometimes even creepy middle aged nerd. But despite all his grumbling, and the occasional side eye, Rohm kept any such thoughts to himself, and mostly managed to be persornally easy to get along with. Dave just wished his engineering work was even a portion as helpful. So he allowed a small chuckle in response.

But then he steeled himself. "Ok, here we are." And they walked into the larger cave to see if the last weeks had been for naught.

--

"Despite all of your concerns, things went perfectly." Dave sniffed.

Jason, looking at the starry eyed man, tried to think of how to put the concern he had into words. Because something was bugging him. He was a man more used to the sticky field of human emotion than data. It sounded pretentious even in his head to say it, but it was true. He was more at comfort negotiating plans with a team, organizing and concilitating, than he ever was with the computer work he did as back up.

And he thought that maybe Dave was missing something here. He could not put a finger on it. He knew enough of the research to understand that the Core behind them now was acting perfectly as expected. Dave became excited when it seemed surprisingly aware, but even that was within the models, if slightly on the outlier.

And Jason could not shake the feeling tht it all was too perfect. After months of failures, of virtual meltdowns and breakdowns and in one case, a shakedown(how that test got ahold of his credit information.....), to suddenly have a perfectly sensible result? Sure, they had worked out so many issues, but still...

And yet, he couldn't really say that it was truly impossible. It would be basically impossible for the system to perform that way by mistake. It seemed like the most recent stability adjustments might have actually taken hold.

Jason didn't know, but he couldn't shake the slightly creeped vibe he still had.

"OK, fine. I won't push it. Just know I still think we should adjust the plans. "

Dave looked up. "Which part?"

"Well, you wanted to test the core? I think you can agree that its surprisingly adept already. Maybe we should throw a curveball into the test. After the drones, maybe we can get Rock Team as a last group." Rock Team was an informal name for a trio of the workers. They were the only empowered indivuduals in the project, reliable and hardworking.

"Are you sure? That's not what they signed up for, and besides, we do not want to let things get out of control." Even as Dave said that, however, Jason saw his mind working. For all the annoyance, all the personality clashes, and all of the times they got on each other's nerves, he knew that the project lead's mind was as sharp as they came. His mouth moved faster than his brain was all, sometimes. He could see Dave halt himself in the middle of speech, and become thoughtful.

"We're already throwing a range of drones at it so that it can have a balanced learning experiment. Throwing a non robotic foe into the last stages can only improve that. And you know those three. They're as enthusiastic as they come. Most enhanced who willingly pick physical jobs are. They're fitness nuts."

Dave paused one more time, and as they reached the heavy compound, he nodded. "It's not like the core needs to just succeed, after all. Giving it a bloody nose could even be a learning experience. As long as they don't just smash through it."

Jason laughed. "That's going to disappoint Jenkins. He loves an excuse to smash."

And despite Dave's attempt to keep a grim expression, both of them eventually broke into laughter at that last line, the door swinging shut behind them, leaving the grounds once again silent and empty.