Date: 10th March 2142.
Subject: Initiating Alpha testing on ‘Eva’.
Entry: After many months of coding, tweaking and reconfiguring my work, finally the anti-virus programme that I have designed should be ready for the first attempted run. I have checked, double-checked and even triple-checked all portions of the coding and I believe that there should be no errors. The blips that I reported within entry 52 and 60 have both been fixed – both were remnants from the original Attacker coding and were easily modified. In fact, I am hoping that the modified structure of the base coding will give the AV more depth than the average protector and that’s why I chose to modify the extraneous attacker coding to fit in smoothly rather than cut it altogether. The last thing that needs to be completed before running the programme for alpha testing is setting a name... Thus far she – as I suppose I shall no longer be able to call her ‘the AV’ or ‘it’ any more – has remained nameless on the system... However, a name for her was decided quite a long time ago; Eva. I will input that momentarily before executing the run command. I am excited and nervous to see the fruits of my labour ‘come to life’ so to say. I will report again with my initial observations, I hope they are positive.
---
Saving and closing his work log Albert nervously ran his fingers through his hair. Scraping a few stray strands back out of his eyes he chewed his lip before shifting his dexterous fingers to tracing the outline of his jaw; feeling the shade of stubble, anxiety clearly expressed upon his face. He was avoiding the issue here... He knew that everything he had done, his grand project, was ready to be launched into testing. There was only so many times he could rifle through the endless reams of zeros and ones checking for any critical errors that would cause the child of his labours to crash miserably. Right now all he had left to do was click once, to open up the script, and again to run it and then he could proceed. Yet a dreadful doubt in his own capabilities held him back and that was why he was stalling like this.
“Do it you moron...” He sighed under his breath, tersely returning his hands to the keyboard, forcing his self doubt backwards.
Evelyn wouldn’t beat around the bush...
Eyes closed, the light of the computer screen illuminating his face within the dark room Albert took a leap of faith and hit enter.
Almost instantaneously the computer started to make more noise as its internal mechanisms were thrust into action. On screen nothing appeared to be happening, there was simply a progress bar slowly counting to 100%... Yet within the mainframe a splendid, startling series of events was occurring. The seemingly nonsensical concoction of numbers suddenly had meanings attached to them and the computer was frantically reading them and executing the commands. Create a digital body; that was first and foremost on the list... Swirls of zeros and ones coiled together, playing off one another, interacting in unquestionably complex and indescribable ways. Somehow inherently biological – like the synthesis of a protein from the instructions given by DNA – yet ultimately removed from the world of flesh and blood. Of course as the ‘physical’ shell of the programme materialised, simultaneously thoughts to fill her head were flooding into her. Numbers buzzed around her, dictating how she would act and sinking into her rapidly forming form; dictating her nature; setting up her parameters – the rules she would live by. Still more coding was thrust into the mix – hours upon hours of late nights and coffee fuelled typing. Skills vital to her role as an anti-virus coursed through her solidifying coding like lifeblood. Defend, shield, protect – yes, she was a protector. A label now ingrained into her by Albert’s work.
The programmer tensed up... He couldn’t see his anti-virus yet but on screen the numbers were reaching the limit. Not long to go now – a matter of seconds until he would see if he had succeeded or failed.
90%
91%
92%
93%
94%
He was teetering on the edge of his chair.
95%
96%
97%
Holding his breath he refused to exhale, the tension was too great.
98%
99%
Complete.
Materialising instantaneously on the screen upon the moment of completion was Eva. She was perfect, or at least as perfect as one could get for a work in progress. As expected there was the tell tale hole in her chest – though delicately painted around it was a flower design. This floral motif was beautifully continued through her appearance. As per Izzy’s suggestions he had coded for a flower to be tucked behind the anti-virus’ ear and sure enough, there it was, fresh and delicate looking. Another sign of her status as a binary level programme was her lack of a lower body. However, unlike what Albert had been expecting (gradual disintegration and data dispersion into nothingness) the appearing coding he had dedicated elsewhere within Eva’s makeup had evidently worked its magic and her torso ended in gorgeous fluted petal-like shapes.
“Hello Eva.”
WIP!
