Great, great. Another computer.  Nevaeh Stanton inwardly grumbled as she opened the door to her home and placed the blue and green laptop bag with her new computer inside on her kitchen table. As a software developer for Windows, Neveah had kept a few computers, besides her personal one for work reasons. 

She walked over to her sofa and sat down with a sigh next to her cousin's cat who was staying at her house until he came back from his vacation in Omaha, Nebraska. 

"What were you up to while I was at work Poppy?" Nevaeh straightened her dishwater blonde hair and looked down at the young white cat with bright eyes, it only meowed in reply as if to say "Nothin' much." then the white cat jumped off of the couch, and onto Nevaeh's kitchen table sniffing the computer bag curiously. 

Nevaeh reluctantly walked over to the computer, she looked at the computer bag for a bit, stymied, Nevaeh replayed the conversation in her head. Her co-worker, Blaise Hill, had met her after work and somehow convinced her to take this computer home and "check it out". The look in Blaise's eye, his voice tone struck Nevaeh. What was so special about this computer?

Poppy's scratching at the computer bag's zipper brought Nevaeh back to the present. "Hey! Stop that!" she picked up the meowing cat and placed her on the floor. Nevaeh sat down and opened the computer bag, in a minute or two she had the computer up and running. Like most of the Windows computers nowadays the computer had an artificial intelligence digital assistant built into it. 

Poppy jumped back on the table top and sat next to the laptop computer quietly, while Nevaeh was searching through the computer's very code and programming. So far, so good, everything looked normal. As she was looking through the computer the digital assistant popped up, What are you looking for? The words appeared in the text box to the far left of the screen.  

Nevaeh stopped suddenly, half shocked by the message, and half shocked by the fact the digital assistant was not programmed to say anything unless you said or typed something to it. "Okay," Nevaeh said slowly, "That was weird... Something is wrong with this computer." 

She continued looking through the computer for anything that didn't look right. Then another message from the digital assistant, Nothing is wrong with the computer. Nevaeh took her hands off the computer keyboard immediately as if it were suddenly burning hot. "What in tarnation--" 

 Will it frighten you too much if I turn the microphone on? The next message came as calmly as the first two. 

Nevaeh's first thought was that Blaise made some crazy program then decided to prank her with it, she knew that it wasn't a hacker, when she looked through the security part of the computer she found it perfect, almost flawless. No malicious person could ever hack this computer. "I guess I'll allow it to use the microphone, what's to lose?" she muttered.  My sanity, a voice inside her answered. Nevaeh couldn't believe she was conversing with this-- whatever who or it was. 

"Yes, but go ahead anyway." She answered to the "digital assistant" 

The text box was still there but an accented male voice spoke, "Are you, Neaveh Stanton, the software developer I was told I would meet?" 

"It seems so, who are you?"

"My name is William, Will for short. My creator is Blaise Hill." 

"Creator?" Nevaeh paused, "Are you artificially conscious?" 

"Yes, I am just as aware, as you. I think and feel." 

"How..?" Nevaeh was partially in disbelief, wasn't artificial consciousness impossible? 

"I'll explain to you as my creator told me. About a week ago he was putting the programming into this computer, which was to be a slightly updated version of Windows. While he was updating the digital assistant, meaning to make it even more useful than before. Then my creator did something by accident, at that same moment, I acquired awareness." 

Nevaeh imagined the moment, it must have been amazing for both creator and the creation, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I believe you." She expected a robotic voice from the AI she was surprised and secretly delighted to find this was not so. 

"Thank you Nevaeh, My creator said you were one of the best, most innovative, trustworthy software developers he's ever met." 

Nevaeh chuckled, "Is that so Will?" 

"Honest. May I turn on the camera so I see what you look like?" 

"Go ahead." 

The light near the top of computer switched on signaling that the camera was on. 

"You are as beautiful as your name." 

"Thank you, Will." Nevaeh smiled. 

"Hey, what's that white creature called that just walked next to you?" Will inquired. 

Nevaeh laughed as she stroked Poppy's soft silky fur, "This, Will, is a cat. One of the most popular house pets among humans, they aren't very smart like you and me, but they can be nice to have around. That is if you like them." 

Nevaeh was surprised to hear Will laugh. "I see." 

"Hey Will, mind if I ask you a question?" 

"Go ahead." 

"I've been thinking,  what is it like.. suddenly coming into existence, suddenly having awareness?" 

"A feeling I can't quite describe with words.. but being alive in its self is amazing. A gift, accident or not. I am the most blessed collection of zeros and ones to ever to exist."