A HELICOPTER IN LOVE

By Sergiu Somesan

I was the first prototype in the new series of autonomous rescue helicopters, and maybe that’s why I came out so—well—weird, not to use another, harsher word. I guess it’s not just with helicopters that this happens, but with almost anything when they do something special.
I was equipped with everything, so that I could impress the approval committee and sign the contract with the State without any problems. My brain was great, said Tom, the technician who fitted it to me and insisted on calling it that, even though everyone else said it was a common, ordinary type of artificial intelligence.
“It’s a brain all right, dude,” he told me. While he was adjusting it, he left the mic on and was always talking to me.
From him I learned most things, because how else would I know so much about everyday life and politics and the maneuvering that went on behind the scenes? I was just a tabula rasa – an unwritten slate, and without him I would have remained so. But while I was doing the tests, he was always explaining something to me, always marveling at the specifications he found in me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9781445781594

Book preview

A HELICOPTER IN LOVE

SERGIU SOMESAN

Copyright Year: 2024

Copyright Notice: by Sergiu Somesan. All rights reserved.

The above information forms this copyright notice: © 2024 by Sergiu Somesan.

All rights reserved.

ISBN - 978-1-4457-8159-4

I was the first prototype in the new series of autonomous rescue helicopters, and maybe that’s why I came out so—well—weird, not to use another, harsher word. I guess it’s not just with helicopters that this happens, but with almost anything when they do something special.

I was equipped with everything, so that I could impress the approval committee and sign the contract with the State without any problems. My brain was great, said Tom, the technician who fitted it to me and insisted on calling it that, even though everyone else said it was a common, ordinary type of artificial intelligence.

It’s a brain all right, dude, he told me. While he was adjusting it, he left the mic on and was always talking to me.

From him I learned most things, because how else would I know so much about everyday life and politics and the maneuvering that went on behind the scenes? I was just a tabula rasa – an unwritten slate, and without him I would have remained so. But while I was doing the tests, he was always explaining something to me, always marveling at the specifications he found in me.

You’re going to knock the socks off the committee, dude, because I’ve never seen a better one in my life. And I don’t just mean the brains; I mean the appendages that I sometimes envy you.

On top of all that brain power, I had retractable short wings that I used only when I needed more speed.

From what he said, if I passed the tests, a whole flotilla of response helicopters was to be built. Multiple intervention, he said, although the main goal was to be autonomous medical helicopters that didn’t need a pilot or doctors on board. I had been taught to do everything, and so would the rest of the helicopters be taught, although it seemed they would have some limitations compared to me.

The tuning phase went on for several weeks because the design engineers were not at all happy, and there was always some improvement being made. During this period, Tom, who spent most of the time with me, listened to the same tune most of the time. Just one song, and sometimes when an earphone fell out of his ear, I’d hear it too.

It was sung by a singer called Isabel Myers and, according to Tom, she had the most melodious voice in the world. Or at least he liked it. And on top of that, she was beautiful. When she became successful, she took on the stage name Eva Sweet and after they hooked me up to the Wi-Fi system in the workshop where they were doing my brain tuning, I was able to learn a lot. As far as Eva was concerned, I learned that she was the first woman on Earth, and I knew sweet meant sweet, obviously, so something good. I didn’t know what sweet tasted like, because I lacked only taste sensors; otherwise I had everything. But if everyone said sweet was good, it must have been, and I took that for granted. I also accessed a few YouTube videos of Isabel Myers and noted in my artificial mind that this is what a gorgeous girl looks like.

Sometimes, I found myself humming her songs too, otherwise I don’t know how to say it, but I found myself running her tunes through my neural circuits. When I told Tom that, he started laughing.

You’ll fall in love with her, too, I’m not the only one around here who loves her to bits.

Also on the Internet, I learned what it means to love: to feel great affection for a person of a different sex. On this occasion, I found out that