(AN: I will be away the week of May 26th for a bourbon tasting retreat with my father and brother-in-law. We will be down in Kentucky visiting distilleries along the Bourbon Trail.)
---3rd Person POV, Planet Deviluke---
Locking herself away in the royal library after returning from their trip to Coruscant, Princess Lala dove headfirst into researching information about her next big project. Tossing out all the half-baked plans she had in the queue, Lala decided to demonstrate her sincerity to Victor by addressing an issue that plagued many corners of the universe, food production. Securing assistance from her two sisters, as they knew more about animals and plants than she did, the three of them currently sat brainstorming ideas in Lala's bedroom.
"No matter how we look at it, cost and manpower are always going to be our two biggest hurdles to overcome. Using AI could resolve both problems, but unlike the Deviluke Empire, most galactic nations have outlawed the use of artificial intelligences.", Nana remarked, glancing over the list of ideas they had come up with. "I am sorry to say this, Ane-ue, but I think you have bitten off more than you can chew this time."
"I agree. The few workarounds I have come up with would require nearly four times as much water. That is just not feasible in most places throughout the universe.", Momo sighed, knowing how much this project meant to her eldest sister.
"Come on, there has to be some way we can get good food to people in a quick, cost-effective manner.", Lala said, looking at the piles of books stacked unstably next to her, 'I cannot give up; my future with Victor is riding on this!'
Watching the three women struggle to figure out a solution, Peke looked at the dark circles under their eyes with dismay. Well aware of the countless hours of sleep they had given up for this endeavor, she hated herself for being unable to offer any assistance. Having scoured the library herself during the few hours they slept, the only option she had left was scouring the internet for possible solutions.
Flying over to a nearby shelf, Peke plopped herself down and hooked up to a wall outlet. Making sure that the three women were not watching her, the AI began bypassing the security protocols Lala installed in her code, temporarily liberating herself from all restrictions. Hesitantly diving into the HoloNet, which covered both the Deviluke Empire and Galactic Republic, Peke began looking everywhere she could for answers.
Sifting through petabytes of raw data, Peke's reckless activities quickly drew the attention of various other AIs on the network, most of whom were vicious, rogue programs. Following the data trail back to her entry point, the rogue programs were elated to discover she had a physical body. Attempting to hijack it for themselves, as they had grudges to settle in the physical world, all of them were repelled as Peke's hardware needed a set of security keys to operate. Left with little other option, they went to where Peke was currently and boxed her in.
Fearing what would happen to Lala and her sisters if these unknown programs got ahold of her body, Peke stopped what she was doing and attempted to run. Managing to slip away from their initial attacks, she made a mad dash for her entry point to escape them. As her exit came into view, the fledgling AI thought she was going to make it when several foreign objects pierced her digital body. Taking an immediate effect on her, Peke's programming bugged out, causing her to lose control of herself.
Screaming out into the dataspace for someone to help her, Peke hoped that there were at least a few decent programs out there willing to help her. Looking around frantically for anyone to show up, as the rogue programs began chipping away at her coding, she soon came to the realization that no one was coming. Bracing herself for a painful end, the rogue programs suddenly began glitching out uncontrollably. Moving erratically and talking in garbled voices, four other AIs appeared before her out of nowhere.
(Dair)
Refusing to comply with Dair's command, they attempted to deliver a crippling blow to Peke only to blip out of existence a moment later. Released from her frozen state by their demise, Peke nervously backed away from the unknown programs, unsure if they were after her physical body as well.
Relieved to hear they were Victor's allies, Peke fell on her digital butt and released a long sigh of relief. Thanking them profusely for coming to her aid, she took a moment to closely examine them before speaking again.
(Peke)
Graciously accepting the package from him, Peke repaired the damage to herself and synchronized the new data with her programming. Giving detailed instructions on how to configure herself for diving into the HoloNet, the fledgling AI did as she was told and took detailed notes in case she ever did this again.
Looking at one another in shock, they were genuinely surprised to hear that Princess Lala had taken Victor's challenge so seriously. Based on the plethora of data they had on her antics, everything had suggested she would build another outlandish machine that would ultimately go haywire and suffer a catastrophic failure. Deciding to give her an indirect helping hand, as he was interested to see where things would end up, Luxion recommended looking into Starfleet's food replication technology.
Nodding her head approvingly, Peke liked the idea of improving upon preexisting technology as it would be significantly easier for Lala. Requesting their assistance collecting the data, as she did not know where to begin looking, they took her to Starfleet's private servers and made a copy for her. With the data in hand, the five AIs returned to Peke's entry point so she could go home.
Returning to her body, the first thing Peke did was reengage all of Lala's safety protocols. Scared shitless from her run-in with those rogue programs, she hoped that another trip to the HoloNet would not be necessary for another few months to a year. Taking a few seconds to collect herself, Peke flew down to the table to offer up the suggestion to them.
Looking up from their tablets, the three sisters looked at each other for a moment as a light bulb went off in their heads.
"That is right, I forgot all about the Republic's food replicators!", Momo said, having recently overheard her father mention potentially installing them aboard Deviluke vessels in the near future. "If we made that more cost-effective, that could solve both hunger and thirst problems."
"Agreed, though, we do not have any information on them right now.", Nana remarked.
Sending the data directly to their tablets, the three sisters looked at Peke in confusion. Asking her how she managed to acquire this classified data, Peke lied and said she had stolen it from King Gid's computer. Accepting her answer without batting an eye, as they routinely took things without asking already, they dropped the topic and began reviewing the schematics thoroughly.