What would you do for love?

Time seemed to be playing a game with us as the professor made the final calibrations.

The lab remained silent, except for the slight hum of the servers. The very servers that we poured blood, sweat and tears into making. The very servers that contained the emotion of every lost relationship, every night spent sleepless, hungry and depressed.

The very servers that our careers now depended on.

"Alright that seems to be it," the professor said as she sunk into her seat, as a result of the all-nighters we spent finalising the last pieces of code.

"Let’s see if you’re any good," muttered the professor, as the file slowly started booting up for the first time. My worries increased with every second it took. I feared what how my co-workers will react when the truth of my actions is exposed, and worse, if it had all been for nothing.

After what felt like and an hour, but in reality, was just over 5 minutes, it had finally loaded up.

"Hi, I am Matilda. Where are you honey?"

"What?! This makes no sense. The AI isn't supposed to have a name yet. None of the functions are working. I knew our estimation were incorrect.” The professor was dejected, and after a few seconds of contemplation, and a long sigh, she decided.

“Shut it down."

"NO! Wait, wait. Please wait," I screamed as the prospect of losing everything once again almost became a reality.

"What's wrong? It’s a dud," one of my lab partners said as, suspicion slowly crept across their face.

"It is most definitely not dud. This is a masterpiece!"

"I am sorry. I had to deceive you all, but I had no choice. There was no other option."

"What do you mean you had no choice? What did you do?" The professor said. Anger and frustration creeping from her every pore.

I was always one for conducting research into weird and barely known practices. It was a hobby I developed out of curiosity, but that changed the day I lost my wife. What was once a hobby turned into an obsession. I spent every spare hour of every day reading and looking for something to feed what at the time were delusional thoughts. Most of the studies were a bunch of nonsense, but there was one particular study that was intriguing. This one had something and that was enough for me to dedicate the next several months researching it. The more I read of this research, the more I was convinced of a solution. After thoroughly researching this paper, and others like it, I ended up finding an unexpected solution. It was not one I was looking for, but one I felt was the best option.

I can now transfer consciousness into a machine.

"HOW COULD YOU!” The professor exploded. “Don't you realise what you've done? How many ethical boundaries and laws you've just shattered?!"

"We’ve spent half a decade on this project and the whole time you were doing this behind our backs, with no regards whatsoever to what it would do to us!"

"I am sorry, truly,” I hung my head low. I couldn’t face them. “When I saw a way of getting my Matilda back, nothing else mattered. Not discovering the newest element, or even discovering a whole new species. Hell, we could discover that dinosaurs still exist and wouldn't give a shit." I said honestly.

"We can’t let you take this. It’s a crime, what you've done.” I looked up briefly, only to see the disgust on the face or the professor and everyone else. “You desecrated your wife’s memory. She can’t now rest, and that's on you."

"I can’t let you do that. I’ve spent the last decade on this. I spent the last decade without the love of my life. Do you know what that's like? To have to live life when a part of you is dead? No, you’ll never understand."

There is no other way. I have thought of the possibility and tried had to find an alternative, but I can see now that it was pointless. I slowly pull out the pistol I had been concealing under my lab coat. There was a strange calmness in every move I made.

“I’m sorry. I can’t let anything come between us now. If I have to get my hands dirty, so be it." My thumb rested on the safety switch of the pistol.

A faint click resonated around the silent lab. Nothing else could be heard, and then...

BANG! BANG! BANG!