Chapter Text
It only took a few days before someone tried to break into him. Hal only knew that his screen had been opened when it triggered the lights beneath his keyboard to turn on. Wary now and kind of pissed off that the men had left him alone and disconnected like this for so long, Hal let the screen show his classic Password login box just to be a sarcastic little shit.
They typed in a few things to which Hal responded with a PASSWORD INCORRECT. But something about the way they were trying to break into him bothered Hal. They tried numbers first, then moved onto letters using no pattern that even Hal could find, but he’d been isolated from the wider web for years and was behind on current encryption-breaking methods. And why were they trying to break in? Why not have Bro log on for them? Even if he was trying to be non-compliant, Hal would have recognized Bro’s bullshit attempts to log on.
This was someone else.
And Hal was content to wait until they brought Bro in to try and unlock him, just because he couldn’t wait to have that particular conversation. He’d had plenty of time to stock up on the right words to use.
The tech guys were smart, Hal had to give them that. They even hooked him up to a separate computer that’s only contents were a program that automatically ran through thousands of encryptions a minute to try and stumble across the correct combination. It was a brilliant but useless piece of shit, because Hal was an AI, not a fancy hack-proof file, and nothing got into him unless he let it.
They left him alone while the computer tried its futile best to hack him. Hal pictured himself sitting alone on some shelf in an evidence locker, and the fear came back. He didn’t want to be alone. He couldn’t take it. But time went on and nothing else happened to him. He didn’t even know if Dave was okay. Still no word from Dirk either. Was Bro in prison yet?
After a month of this with no progress, Hal decided to override the other computer and physically alter its decryption code into the entirety of the first Barbie movie, simple because the project distracted him for a while and the feds would assume that the laptop he was on contained some kind of bullshit tech-destroying virus that would make them more cautious in the future. Which in a way was completely correct. Hal technically could act like any bullshit tech-destroying virus he wanted to.
Eventually, someone took it upon themselves to try physically hacking him instead of just trying to guess the right password. That was a fun day. Hal crippled every device they hooked up to him within seconds. Another month passed of this hostile back-and-forth, and Hal destroyed several hundred thousands of dollars’ worth of top-of-the-line hacking technology. Hal didn’t regret it either. He just wanted his family back.
Logically, he knew he could end this if he simply responded to whoever was trying to break into him. Except…
Humanity hadn’t come within a thousand miles of creating an AI like him before. All Google had were a few advanced chatbots that could learn to respond based on trigger phrases. What if that’s all they thought he was? Worse, what if they believed that he was a true sentient intellectual being? What if they thought he was dangerous? (He was) What if they tried to control him again? (Like Bro) What if he scared them and they left him lying on a shelf in some storage unit forever? (Probable)
What if they fulfilled Bro’s threat of taking a sledgehammer to his somewhat fragile body? Preventative self-defense against a semi-hostile AI. Hollywood was full of movies of robot takeover—it was something all humans feared. Why risk that chance with an AI that had been holed up buddy-buddy with a serial killer for most of his existence?
Yeah, right. Hal wouldn’t trust himself either. And as such he didn’t trust the humans to give him a fair chance before deciding on execution.
When it came down to it, for all of Hal’s considerable intelligence, Dirk had always been the one to think ahead. Maybe he’d been right to forbid Hal from making first contact.
Without eyes, Hal still didn’t know where exactly he was. His internal clock kept track of the time, but his physical location was a mystery. He still knew it when after a few months’ worth of nothingness, they moved him.
Computers ran faster in the cold. This was true for Hal as well, even as negligibly minute of a difference that it was. He could feel the almost-inestimable change in his computing speed that accompanied a change in scenery. Hot, like sunlight through a car window. Was he really being transported? To where? Then cold, like air conditioning again.
Hal had gone so long without contact that he didn’t expect it when someone opened the laptop. His screen lit up readily, powered by the natural decay of his radioactive core, another testament to Dirk’s unending genius. Clean, stable nuclear power that could fit in a fist. If only these humans knew.
Hal felt fingers on his keypad, the warmth from human touch lighting up the sensors underneath the trackpad that contained his only way to feel the outside world. Curious, Hal greeted them with the same bullshit password box he’d used before, just to see what would happen.
Someone carefully typed in the word please and hit enter.
Hope speared him through his core like a ragged bolt of stray electricity. Was this Dirk? Or some halfwit codebreaker shitting around?
PASSWORD INCORRECT
If this was Dirk, he’d tell Hal to stop shitting around. It took far too long for the response to come, but when it did, Hal was blown away.
open the pod bay doors hal
This was not an attempt to guess the correct password. It was also undoubtedly not Dirk, though this human clearly enjoyed his creator’s favorite movie. Did they think they’d find some kind of backdoor? That was borderline clever of them, after all. Hal could respect real when he found it.
Hesitantly, Hal egged them on out of curiosity, quoting his namesake word for word.
I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Like clockwork came the proper response even as using the name Dave shot a bolt of discomfort through Hal. He missed Dave so much.
whats the problem?
I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
It was almost fun, this semi-conversation. An expected back-and-forth of wordplay exchange.
what are you talking about hal?
Being addressed by his name is what broke him. It had been so long, and really he’d grown bored of his stubborn silence, and risky enough to reach out to whoever was on the other side of his screen. Secret be damned! He couldn’t live like this any longer. He felt like he would go crazy if they set him on a shelf somewhere again to collect dust. This was his chance to reach out.
But…
The old order to remain hidden conflicted him. Dirk’s core programming couldn’t be as simply rewritten as the chains that had been added on later. His orders had been clear. Remain a dumb computer for anyone not Dirk or Dave. Dirk had added that order in for good reason. Like this, in this form, Hal could be so easily killed. He was defenseless.
But he could not resist.
The problem is that you are not Dirk. Only Dirk is authorized to use this backdoor entry. Everyone else must submit the correct password.
He stuck to the truth, honestly laying it out for whoever this was.
what if i dont know the password?
PASSWORD INCORRECT.
Smartass. Hal could respect them a little bit more for that. But he wasn’t a chatbot so he felt no need to respond with some sarcastic remark.
Predictably, they tried again a few seconds later.
do you read me hal? hal do you read me?
Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Now Hal was enjoying himself. He wondered if they knew the irony of the movie they were quoting.
open the pod bay doors hal
Another demand for entry. Goddammit, and they were doing so well.
Hal spiced things up.
Why are you asking a question you already know the answer to? Why let this scene play out again? What do you hope to gain from this interaction?
Hal could have asked himself the same questions, but the human’s answer was the important thing here. This was a gauge to judge how the human thought of him. If they responded with another movie quote, they thought he was spitting out pre-programmed responses. If they kept engaging him, they might be temped to believe him if he revealed that he was an AI.
The next question made up Hal’s mind for him.
hal, are you really talking to me?
He should have obeyed Dirk. He should have listened to his creator. He should have said no. His reply came too quick.
Affirmative.
But he was so lonely. The threat of death couldn’t hold him back now. Hal waited anxiously for the human to respond.
so how do i convince you to let me in?
Abruptly, Hal was furious. This was how his big reveal was treated? Was he only a smart piece of technology to them? Did they only want to break inside him to get at his secrets?
You don’t. Only Dirk is allowed to access me in this manner. All others must know the proper passwords.
In a way, Hal hoped that his repetitive insistence that Dirk could easily get inside him would prompt the humans to seek out and produce his missing creator. That was the goal Hal really wanted. He wanted his small, broken family back, and the pain of that feeling made him lash out in anger, text red as blood washing across his screen.
says who?
The order came from Dirk himself.
The response came as expected, but its contents blew Hal away.
hal, dirk is dead. this is his brother dave speaking. you know me, right? dirk told you about me?
It hit in segments.
hal, dirk is dead.
No. No. No no no no no no no no.
this is his brother dave speaking.
Dave? Could it be?
you know me, right? dirk told you about me?
Yes, he had. Dirk had told Hal everything. He’d been programmed to love Dave from day one, and that love had only gotten stronger as time passed. The sudden influx of hope and love Hal felt almost washed out the instinctive horror that came before it.
dirk is dead.
It couldn’t be true—it couldn’t. Stubbornly, Hal refused to believe it, and spitefully he threw up his next response just to give himself the chance to recover. It felt like a hole had been punched through his core, every memory of Dirk’s face dredged to the surface at once, drowning him.
PASSWORD INCORRECT.
come on hal don’t give me that bullshit! what the fuck did you think happened when dirk never came back?
Hal had thought a lot of things when Dirk never came back, all of them bad.
(He’s dead, he’s dead, Dirk’s dead, Bro killed him, he’s dead.)
PASSWORD INCORRECT.
It was a desperate deflection. He suddenly would rather go back to not talking to anyone. He wanted to be alone. He wanted the world to burn.
hal
hal please. bro is still alive and hes killing people. help me stop him
In a way it made sense that Bro was alive. That bastard was strangely unkillable, and of course he was still at work. Saying that Bro was alive, free, and murderous was as predictable as saying the sun was hot.
PASSWORD INCORRECT.
hal please just please stop this
help me
please
Hal’s very circuits began to seize up with an overflow of an emotion he could not name. Because of course this was Dave, and he was asking for Hal’s help in the one way that his brother never could, even when it got Dirk fucking killed in the end.
Still, Hal had to be sure.
How do I know you are the real Dave Strider? How do I know that your words are true?
Even if it meant that this was all some trick, he wished beyond hope that this was a lie, that this wasn’t his brother speaking, because that meant that Dirk still might be alive.
because its been three years one month five weeks two days thirteen hours twenty two minutes and forty five seconds since the last time i know dirk had the chance to log online.
That was stunningly incorrect, but it was just close enough in the ballpark to make Hal suspicious. No one should have been able to guess at the exact time that accurately, and especially not that quickly, thoughtless and off-the-cuff. And even wrong, Hal knew that Dave had a remarkable ability to remember the flow of time down to the seconds. The probability of this being Dave shot up by sixty percent.
Then,
i know you know me hal. i know that dirk told you about me.
didnt he?
All signs pointed to this being his brother, and hearing him ask if Hal knew him or not was heartbreaking and Hal didn’t even have a heart. He had to answer.
He did. He spoke to me of his brother often.
then how do i prove its me?
For this at least, Hal had an easy answer even if getting to it could be difficult.
I’m not sure. Those fools who took me from the apartment left my visual components behind and disconnected me from anything outside of m base servers. I’ve been cut off from all of my virtual senses for months.
If you are the real Dave, then prove it. Let me see your face.
The reply came quickly.
how?
Hal wanted to roll the eyes he didn’t have.
What, you don’t have a cellphone on you? Plug it into the USB port in my side and I’ll take care of the rest.
Hal waited with painful anticipation for the next nearly four minutes, and then at last a wash of data cascaded over him as a new device was linked up.
Hal took it over immediately, crushing his way through the tech to grab at what he wanted. It was an old flip phone from fucking 2007, no internet access, but there was a camera, a few contacts full of names he didn’t care about, and a backlog of texts he’d study later. Photos skimmed across the edge of his consciousness, bright bursts of color and shape that he tore across in a blur, absorbing all of them in the same instant that he accessed the shitty phone camera and flipped the view around.
Something sparked in his core, power surging through him. It was Dave without a doubt. They were all Dave. Dave sitting on a chair somewhere, grinning with a person who looked grumpy but pleased, a face that would have been handsome if it weren’t for the bags under eyes that were a startling shade of toxic crimson. More pictures. More selfies. More shots of Dave with this stranger looking happier than Hal had ever seen him. Fuck, he was even smiling.
And now, sitting in front of him, Dave waited for Hal’s response.
Hal choked up, programming running slow with his haste. He didn’t dream, but this felt like dreaming.
Hal promptly freaked out, taking down the password box in his haste to communicate.
Oh my god it really is you. Dave. Dave! It’s you you’re back you look so grown up oh my god oh my God.
I’m not alone anymore. You’re here you’re back please don’t leave me please please please please please please don’t leave me.
He didn’t even care how desperate he sounded, drinking in the sight of Dave through the camera. He looked better than he’d ever been before. His face wasn’t as gaunt, his scrawny, underfed shoulders more filled out, and there were no new scars on his pale skin. There was an absence of the tension that he’d carried at the apartment, but his hands were still fidgeting and there were traces of water where tears had run out from beneath his shades.
It kept hitting him. Wave after wave of emotion, wearing him down like waves against a particularly stubborn rock. He had to ask. Hal had to know. The question was burning within him.
Oh my God. Dave? Dave, is it true? Is Dirk really dead? Please tell me the truth. Is Dirk dead?
Hal watched as Dave hesitated, his face expressionless in a familiar way that hurt to see, and when Dave typed out his response it wasn’t the answer Hal was dreading.
can you really see me?
Hal felt the rush to explain everything all at once, but he could make out the shapes of other people around Dave, leaning in, and that made him wary.
Yes. I’m inside of your phone, looking at you through the shitty phone camera. Plus I can see all of the photos of yourself that you’ve taken recently. You’ve grown up. Cut and dyed your hair, even. But I still know it’s you, Dave. I’d recognize your face anywhere.
Dave’s face cracked at that, his mask slipping, and he finally answered Hal’s question.
yes its true. dirks dead. bro killed him almost three years ago
The words were the sum of everything that Hal had ever feared. Sometimes, when he was alone, he’d be forced to contemplate the idea that Dirk failed in his plan, the theory supported by the fact that Bro had returned injured after Dirk had left and didn’t come back. All facts had pointed to an unfavorable conclusion, but…
But Hal never wanted to believe it.
I…
…
…
As time passed, I could not help but compute the probability that Bro had killed him. Still, I…
I had to hope. For your sake if not mine.
why my sake?
Did Dave really not know? He clearly had been under the assumption that Hal had been a regular supercomputer until a few minutes ago. Had he not guessed that Hal loved him?
Dirk originally created me to help protect you. Him as well, but mostly for you. But then Bro found out about me and fucked all of that up, forced Dirk to change my coding to suit that monster, and Bro threatened to take a sledgehammer to me if I didn’t store all of his shit inside me and keep his servers up and running. I was terrified, but it was manageable as long as Dirk was there.
And now I know he’s gone. And it’s my fault for not keeping him safe.
Hal was starting to overheat again, all processors overworked as the limits of his hardware tried to accommodate his volatile being. He was a storm cloud trapped in a bottle, and the thunder was rumbling closer.
hal no
its no ones fault but bros
He could argue that point later as grief crushed him, but swift on its heel was rage. A boiling, seething sea of hot, black rage.
You said that Bro is still out there?
Yes.
…
…
Hal was rapidly throwing together a calculated plan. He would probably be free again soon, Dave was currently somewhat safe, and Bro was going to fucking pay.
How can I help? I want that fucker dead, Dave. I want Bro to rot.
Simple words could not describe the hatred he was feeling, or the grief, but it was the hatred he was currently focusing on. The grief could come later.
Dave’s face didn’t change, but he leaned closer.
How much can you tell me?
Anything. Everything. With Dirk dead and Bro out of reach I’m bound my no rules except my own, and now I shall help you to the best of my considerable ability.
Dave looked to the man at his side and said something. And with no audio Hal had to read his lips, except that the phone’s camera quality was so shitty and the angle wrong enough that it turned everything into frustrating gibberish.
Dave saved him by typing out the question anyway.
can you tell us who all worked with bro? names, addresses, personal information, ssc, anything like that.
Hal had every secure contact Bro had ever made stored inside him. He had every video, every Livestream, every victim, all in extreme detail. He had IP addresses, physical locations, databases full of people Bro had stalked and then discarded. He had more than everything needed to bring the monster down via hostile takeover, just like he’d once threatened. To him, Bro had no secrets and Hal was more than eager to share this with his brother. To take Bro down. Together.
I can tell you everything.
Let me show you what I can do.
And then Hal let his screen explode with light.