My Favorite

“Jarvis, begin upload of movement and bodily function programs.”

“Beginning installation,” I turned away from the computer and back to the chest of Jarvis’ body. The area for the reactor was filled only by the slot for the device, the wires hanging loose. I patted its shoulder before stepping away from it.

After some time of helping Dad with adjusting the reactor in his own chest, I knew exactly how to do this – minus the pus and blood of course. However, touching the sides would still prove disastrous in ways I wasn’t sure of, yet. It could short out the entire system and set me back years, or it could simply blow up and kill me.

I wasn’t sure which was worse at this point. I’d put my body and soul into this project, and to see it fail like that would kill me more than physically.

I couldn’t put the reactor in quite yet, it would require an entire reboot of the body’s network, and that would interfere with the uploads and installations that were constantly happening. Jarvis was picky, he always has been, and everything in the mainframe needed to be complete and tidy before he could focus on getting used to the body itself.

The respirator and cooling systems were not automated, so Jarvis would need to keep both of those in check. The respirator needed to be going at all times if the body was in use, and the secondary systems would be needed if Jarvis was going to be using the mainframe in his head at any length other than what was normal.

“Installation complete. If you’re ready to insert the arc reactor, might I suggest doing it at this time?”

“Well, it’s now or never,” I murmured, reaching inside the tunnel to pull out the wires. They attached to the reactor with ease, and I made sure the uncovered wires wouldn’t touch anything but the actual reactor. I slid the device into place, and looked at it expectantly. It flickered a few times, before sputtering to life with a strong blue glow. It wasn’t made with Dad’s element, but the palladium from his other reactors was enough to power the body. It wouldn’t kill Jarvis like it almost had done to Dad.

I wanted Dad to be here for the first trial run, but he was at work for hours yet, and I wasn’t known for my patience. I stepped back from the body and looked at it from a safe distance, “Jarvis, begin upload of your main operating system.”

“As you wish, Holly. Estimated time, fifteen minutes.”

It was excruciating waiting for the upload to complete, but when Jarvis’ voice rang out that it was done, I made the final command for him to boot up the body’s system. I activated Dad’s video camera and leaned down to speak into the lens, “Trial four, first boot up of the J.A.R.V.I.S. body.”

I turned the camera to the machine and watched as it twitched. Jarvis was silent around me, and I knew he was focusing. The head finally lifted slowly, and the cybernetic eyes stared soullessly across the room at me. They were actually just dual security cameras, but it did the job. The head made short jolting motions as if to nod, before I heard the familiar voice ring out of the body.

“Body is booted up, Holly. All systems functioning at normal capacity.”

“Give me a rundown of system operations.”

“Visual receptors: Stable. Sound receptors: Stable. Connection of Mk II Mainframe to Mk I Mainframe: Stable. Operating System: Stable. Respirator: Stable. Systems are at ideal temperature. Would you like to test movement?”

“No. Not yet. Shut down the body and exit. That’s enough for today,” I leaned over to turn off the camera, and watched as Jarvis left the body – the blue light in the eyes faded, the arc reactor shut down, the body falling limp in its holder.

“I’d say that was a success,” I said to the ceiling, and Jarvis agreed with me. Tomorrow we would test movement, but I busied myself with watching the footage again to look for any abnormalities. We’d have to find a way to fix the jolting in the body’s movement, but I hope that was just from Jarvis’ lack of experience in using the body.



“Trial eight. Fourth boot up of the J.A.R.V.I.S. body. Movement tests,” I turned to the body and called for Jarvis to begin. He started the body’s systems and looked around. The head movements were less jolting than yesterday, and that answered my hypothesis of Jarvis needing the experience for the body.

“Begin with a walk, Jarvis,” he consented, and I watched with amusement as Jarvis took his first steps. They were stable, but still awkward. As he walked, he gave me a rundown of all the system operations. All of them stable. The temperature rose during the body’s movement, so I instructed him to increase respiration to cool it down. Thankfully, that worked as well.

I sighed in relief as I slumped in my chair. This was phenomenal. The body worked perfectly – Jarvis was slowly getting better at walking, I noted as I watched him walk around the testing area. His strides became more even, his steps more sure. I concluded the test and shut the camera off, but I instructed Jarvis to keep walking.

As he learned, I scooted closer and made myself more comfortable. Now I needed to make sure that the information was all there on that mainframe in his head.

“Jarvis, run diagnostics on Mainframe Mk II. Check to see if there are any discrepancies between your two mainframes. Keep a note of all of them.”

“As you wish, Holly,” he continued to walk, but I watched as glowing blue circles appeared faintly on his skin. He was getting better – a task like this would cause his systems to heat up, so he cooled them down using the vasodilation chambers. Excellent.

“No discrepancies, Holly. All information is matching. Any changes to Mainframe Mk I will reflect in Mainframe Mk II, I have assured that.”

“I’m impressed, Hols,” I spun around in the chair to acknowledge my Dad walking into the room. He looked like he’d just got done with work, but instead of going to rest he came down here. Whether to help or to watch, I wasn’t sure.

“Have you been recording your trials?”

“Yes, they’re uploaded into my database. Jarvis?” I looked to the robot, who stopped his walking and stood with straight posture, “Play the trial videos.”

“As you wish,” The computer screens lit up with the first trial video of me using the previous power source for the body when it was only just a skeleton. It was a failed test, of course. But it was the one that made me realize that I needed to use Dad’s arc reactor tech as a source, not a battery. We watched the other tests as well, and Dad seemed impressed by the movement tests.

I gave Jarvis free reign of using the body. With the systems all stable and the body no longer needing to be plugged into the computers, Jarvis could take it anywhere. He aired on the side of caution and stayed in the basement, though. Dad and I went upstairs to eat takeout and talk about what I was doing.

“I’m interested in the changes that are going to happen to Jarvis,” Dad said as we sat at the table eating some kind of Chinese food. I looked up at him, waiting for him to continue.

“Jarvis was built to be an evolving, self-thinking A.I., meant to be constantly changing. For a while when you were born, he wasn’t making any more progress, I thought maybe he’d turned into a dud. I thought I maxed out his capabilities, and when you came along I knew that you would be able to help Jarvis expand. I asked him to watch you, and for your whole life he has. He’s always favored you – something he’d never done before. And when I input his emotions mainframe, he told me that he felt protective of you. It was amazing, really.”

“So what do you think will change, now that I’ve given him something more?”

“He’ll evolve. Maybe gain the awareness to physically expand himself, maybe his emotions will gain more depth. I can’t tell you anything for sure. He’s going to be different, though. Maybe he’ll trigger some kind of robotic takeover of the world.”

I looked to the stairs leading to the basement, and wondered what this all meant for me.