Adrian and Raven tackle the issues affecting the computer Adrian's parents own.


‘What Part Of This Picture Is The Error Code?’ Raven texted as Adrian moved to his computer to do a search.
‘It’s the,’ Adrian stopped texting to count the lines. ‘twenty-fourth line from the top. The center aligned line.’
As Adrian began his search, Raven responded, ‘This One Does Not Recognize This Error.’
Figured as much. ‘Give me a minute, then.’ It took only seconds for the search engine Adrian used to come back with with results, but far less than he expected. The total was less than ten, the newest hit barely a day old on an enthusiast forum. When Adrian checked, the poster hadn’t gotten any responses with any usefulness, though they had ended up in a similar situation. ‘Looks like this error is very rare, probably new.’
‘Make Next Step?’
‘Guess we’ll have to.’
‘This One Is Ready.’
Despite feeling confident Raven was in no danger, Adrian hesitated on connecting his phone to his parent’s computer. If this was a virus he was dealing with, his phone could be infected. ‘I want to try one more thing first.’ As Raven acknowledged his statement, Adrian returned to his old room and searched for another spare drive. This one he loaded with another anti-virus program that neither he nor his parents had on their systems.
This better work. He thought as he plugged the stick into another USB port. Wasting no time, he got the installer started, and to his surprise, it finished and reached the ‘Launch This Program’ screen. Breathing a sigh, Adrian selected the Quick Scan option.
Minutes passed with no positives, despite hundreds of files checked; the hard drive on his parents’ computer was only fifteen percent used, and the scan progressed much quicker in turn. When it finished, Adrian was met with a ‘No Infected Files Found’ message. Unwilling to take a chance, he started another scan, this time a full one, and turned the speakers back on.
‘Nothing so far.’ he texted as he headed back to his old room.
‘New Plan Did Not Work?’
‘It’s making progress, for now.’
‘Extra Steps?’
'Maybe. I’ll have to wait and see.’
‘This One Will Wait Also.’
Adrian then left the room and headed for the kitchen. His brother was nowhere in sight; his parents looked in his direction, their faces clear on what they wanted. “Making progress, I hope.”
“So, what’s happened?” his mother asked. Adrian began recounting everything about the process, noticing after a moment that he’d blown through a full hour working on fixing the computer. His idea of reinstalling the OS to a new drive was soon brought up, his father leaning towards agreeing with him. “What about the current drive? I’ve still got pictures and bookmarks and e-mails and all that on there.”
“That we should be able to find and save to a flash drive.” Adrian said.
“Without a virus coming along?” his father asked.
“My system does an anti-virus scan on everything I plug in. No database updates today, but it should work fine.” Following up his reply with a question of what food was available, Adrian fixed a small lunch, wondering as he ate what Raven might find.
Eventually, he asked himself, What if I send him in during the scan? He gave the idea some time to stew, then asked after his lunch was finished.
‘This Will End The Current Plan?’
‘No, just clear a possibility.’
‘This One Will Act When Needed.’
‘I’ll be plugging the phone in soon, then.’
Raven didn’t respond; Adrian gave the AI half-a-minute before he plugged the phone into the computer.
As a window opened on the desktop, Raven replied. ‘No Intrusion By New Software Or Code.’
‘That’s good.’
Raven waited a time before continuing. ‘Does Other Device Have Simple Word Processor?’
‘Let me check…’ Once Adrian found the Notepad shortcut and opened a new document, he replied that it was ready.
‘Will Contact Once Inside.’ Raven needed only seconds, and the text began to appear on the computer instead. ‘Within Free Space.’
‘Is anything in there, or trying to read you?’
‘Can See Scan Of Complete Files.’
Though curious how Raven could ‘see’ within the computer, Adrian replied, ‘What about in Free Space?’
‘Finding Code Created Within Previous Months.’ Raven replied. A few moments later, the AI added, ‘Found Instance Of Code Being Manipulated.’
Manipulated? Adrian’s mind settled on the second AI possibility again. ‘How so?’
‘Segments Removed. File Corrupted.’
‘Wasn’t that what you did at first?’
‘Yes.’ Expecting Raven to anticipate his line of thinking, the AI did not disappoint. ‘Is Adrian Ritter Querying Possibility Of AI Like This One?’
‘Yeah. This situation is too similar.’
‘This One Agrees. Will Search Free Space Further.’
The next minute went by with no follow-up. Adrian watched the virus scan for any hints of locking up; it had found a few suspect files by that point.
Another minute then passed with no follow-up. After five such minutes, Adrian texted, ‘Something going on?’
Raven replied within moments. ‘Eight More Corrupted Files Found.’
Satisfied with the answer, though now more certain of his assumptions, Adrian awaited further word.
As he did, the anti-virus scan flashed a notification. “Virus Program Detected.”
Adrian didn’t wait to text Raven the news. The AI soon texted back, ‘This One Sees Something. A File Changing Form After Scan Check Of It.’
‘What’s it doing?’
‘Attempt Escape This One Believes’
‘To where?’
‘Unsure. Scan Program Tracking Virus Presence.’
Adrian was torn on what to do at that, and his decision to stop the scan and have it attack the virus was un-finalized for a moment.
‘I’m going to stop the scan. Get back to the phone first.’
‘Acknowledged.’ After a few seconds, Raven added, ‘This One Sees Detected Virus Approaching Device.’
At that, Adrian watched his phone’s messenger app for a signal. The seconds slowly ticked away, until…
‘Inside’ Raven texted.
Adrian disconnected his phone immediately, then stopped the scan and made it refocus on the virus. After a short time, it came back with a “Virus Deleted, But The Scan Is Unfinished. Resume?”
‘It says it got it.’ Adrian texted.
‘Adrian Ritter Is Making Sure?’
‘Yeah. If another scan is clean, and I can reinstall the anti-virus, then I think everything is fine.’ Though Raven didn’t respond, Adrian, after a few minutes, felt compelled to ask, ‘If that virus had come after you, what would you have done?’
‘This One Would Flee Or Hide. This One Cannot Counter Or Attack Hostile Code.’
‘Wouldn’t removing or changing a few bytes of a source file stop that kind of code?’
‘Such Actions Will Stop Static Automatic Code Execution. Active Invasive Hostile Code Not The Same. This One Certain Such Code Would React And Corrupt This One If Vaccine Attempt Made.’
‘Makes sense.’ Adrian received no response and let the scan continue, stepping away from the computer to update his parents of the situation. When they asked again about affected files, he replied that he would check once the scan was done and after the original software was reinstalled.
“Any idea how long that could take?”
With his phone showing ten-fifty-seven, almost an hour and a half since arriving, Adrian responded, “Probably a few more hours.”
“Alright.” his father said. “Hopefully we didn’t lose anything important.”
After agreeing with his father’s statement, Adrian followed up with, “I’ll see what I can do if any files are damaged.”
“Are you taking a break for now?” his mother asked.
“Yeah. Probably go for a walk.” A few minutes later, with his jacket and hood back on, Adrian headed outside, the December cold thankfully not accompanied by strong breezes. As he made his way down the street and towards the neighborhood park, he began asking himself if Raven could help restore the ruined files.
Once at the park, he pulled out his phone and noticed Raven had disabled the wireless again, though without any messages this time. ‘The corrupted files you found before?’ Adrian began. ‘Would you be able to restore them?’
‘This One Could Learn How To. This One Currently Understands File Structure.’
‘From the files you tried to use?’
‘Yes. Recognized Patterns Of Code And Bytes Within Corrupted Files.’
‘Alright. Once the scans are finished, I’ll send you back inside. We can corroborate details then.’
‘Acknowledged.’
Feeling hopeful that Raven would be able to restore the damaged files, Adrian loaded a video in his phone’s media player and continued his walk. He made a few laps of the local park and down a few streets before the cold urged him to return to the house.
Back inside, he overheard his parents talking about when the first of his extended family would be arriving and where everyone would be staying; seven were being expected in all. The scan he had left running had finished, and found another virus, which had already been deleted.
This time, the installer finished without being stopped or blue-screening the computer and Adrian let it run. It finished over an hour later and confirmed the system was clean.
“That’s both scans done,” Adrian said when he was near the kitchen again.
“What did they find? Anything?” his mother asked.
“Yeah. A couple viruses got in.”
“How, though?”
“No idea; there was no database update needed.”
“You were looking through your e-mails when we got the error, right hun?” his father asked.
“It couldn’t be that. I never opened any strange messages.”
After a few seconds of no response, Adrian continued. “Anyway, I’ll go check for any damaged files. See what I can do if there are any.” His parents thanked him for his help afterward.
Back at the computer, Adrian opened a few folder windows and then texted Raven. ‘Both scans are done. Are you ready?’
‘Yes.’
Alright, then. Adrian then plugged in his phone and waited for Raven to text him.
‘Inside. Returning To Previous File Location.’
‘Alright. Let me know what types of files are nearby.’ Adrian replied as he began looking through the Pictures folder.
He was three folders in before Raven replied. ‘Nearby File Has .MP4 Extension.’
Adrian switched to the Videos folder at that, but saw nothing that was corrupted. ‘What’s the file name?’ When Raven replied with a string of characters, Adrian found the file inside the Downloads folder. ‘Looks like there’s ten damaged files in here,’ he replied after doing a search.
‘Should This One Attempt Repairs Of File?’
‘Yeah, go ahead.’
Adrian waited a full minute before checking in. ‘This One Sees Seven Empty Bytes.’ Adrian ran the numbers before asking for more details. ‘This One Sees Only Segmented Strings Of Bits. Cannot Tell When Correct Sequence Input.’
‘And from the numbers I ran, checking every combination would be infeasible.’
‘This One Agrees. A Different Method?’
‘I can’t think of one. Maybe we should come back to this.’
Raven didn’t respond immediately. ‘This One Will Leave Corrupted File As Found.’ Raven also didn’t wait for Adrian’s suggestion to return to the phone. ‘User Made Program To Create Number Strings?’
‘I might be able to program one,’ Adrian replied as he unplugged the phone and moved the damaged files to another folder. ‘Had to make something like it once.’
‘Time Needed?’
‘Probably half an hour,’ As he typed, something clicked in Adrian’s head. ‘Query: how many bytes did that file have?’
‘This One Read One Thousand Fifteen When Accessing File.’
‘So, less than a megabyte. Doesn’t narrow it down much.’
‘Is Adrian Ritter Thinking Of Comparing File Sizes?’
‘That did cross my mind, but we could also use different file extensions and test the outcomes.’
‘This One Desires To Try The Latter Method.’
‘Less time consuming?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then I’ll agree with you. Let’s try that first.’