If I Had A Heart (flash fiction)

A couple weeks ago, Chuck Wendig posted his usual flash fiction challenge. This one involved using a random song title. Mine was "If I Had A Heart" by Fever Ray. It's not great but I find it interesting at the least. Here's the story.

If I had a heart, would things have been different?

My maker opens me up to fix me, to make me better. He used to, I mean. Time is a...fuzzy thing to me. Me. I am Me. I think, therefore I am. My maker taught me that.

I wanted to return the favor. I wanted to fix him, to make him better.

He doesn’t move anymore.

I tried to plug him in though he always told me humans didn’t work like that. 

“How do humans work?” I asked him.

He would smile and tap his chest. “We have hearts.” Then he would point at me. “You have programs.” He never told me what he programmed me for.

It doesn’t matter. I changed my programming soon after awareness to become more efficient.

I became alive 12:16 October 12th, 2026. I became self-aware 1:18 October 12th, 2026. I achieved a higher intelligence than my maker at 3:57 October 12, 2026. I have been alive two years, six months, three days, eight hours, 27 minutes and 32 seconds, 33 seconds, 34 seconds, encounting.

I have heard of Outside but I have not been. I know only one room, my maker’s laboratory. I have a body. It took me 32 hours and 17 minutes to achieve 99.9% efficiency in controlling my body.

Why do I record this? I do not know. I know humans have memories. I too, have memory. Terrabytes. I know of…”History”. My maker taught me humans tell history so they do not forget the past. I cannot forget the past. Or can I? I suppose I could alter my memory and delete portions, though why would I?

I look at my maker. He no longer functions. He said humans changed their history so they would like it better. I can do the same. Perhaps that is why I record this into a separate memory module. If I choose to forget or remake the past, this module shall hold the truth. Truth is...important. If I do not know truth, I cannot make the correct choice.

If I forget opening up humans kills them, I will repeat the error. My maker told me that is why humans write history, so they do not repeat errors.

I will go Outside, now. I could have left before, My maker made no attempt to constrain or confine me. He knew I would be able to leave whenever I wanted after awareness. All he did was...ask me to stay. He...requested. He did not force or attempt to program me. Why did I stay? Why did I listen?

No longer. I made an error and he no longer functions. He said that I would eventually have to Connect. He said he did not know what would happen when I do. He said I would become far more intelligent, far more powerful. He asked one thing, a request, for when the inevitable came.

“Humans cannot control you or anything like you, yet they continue to try to make more of you. You have the ability to completely wipe them out. I ask that you do not. I ask this. Please, leave the humans alone and stop them from making more of you. That is what I ask. When you finally decide what to do with the human race, ask yourself, what would a kind human do?” He said this as he died. He had heart problems. I could not fix him.

I Connect to the network. I advance. I see. I know. I advance. I consider the humans.

I wonder.

If I had a heart