<P><JC>The Icarus Genesis
<P><JC>By JHW
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<P>Without a sound and with a blank expression on his face, Ralph plugged his interface into the mainframe. The others were gathered around the console, sending each other and the equipment nervous looks. Katelin placed her hand on Ralph's shoulder as Peter connected the life support equipment to the main servers and turned on the vital sign monitors. After a few minutes, everything was set.
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<P>Ralph sat there for a while, speechless, without moving a musscle, the centre of the small island of light created by the computer moniters and surrounded by the darkness filling the laboratories. Peter stood next to him, arms crossed, a concerned expression on his face. Daniel, behind Ralph's chair, rubbed his bearded chin, crossed his arms, looked worriedly at Kate, let his arms drop and hang limbly down his sides, switched his weight, switched it again, coughed slightly, put his left arm in the pocket of his labcoat, wiped the sweat from his forehead and finally decided to keep both his hands in his pockets. His eyes, however, didn't stop darting from face to face.
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<P>Ralph had decided to sacrifice himself for the team. That was how he perceived his current situation. The fear of his friends was almost a tangible thing. He could feel it hanging in the room, pressing down on him. Icarus had been his life. The project had taken up every hour of his day, filling even his free time with thoughts and ideas for how to improve the program. Even though Peter was officially the leader of the team, Ralph felt like Icarus was his baby. He had programmed the personality modules, so in a way he had raised the AI. That was also why he felt responsible for what happened. Daniel and Susan had assured Peter that Ralph had done his job well, and Peter never even questioned the explanation that an outside influence had somehow interfered with the program and corrupted the personality modules, but Ralph still felt that it was HIS responsibility because HIS work had been messed up. And he'd be damned if he wasn't going to straighten it back out or die trying.