Challenge #03155-H246: The Right Kind of Electronic Babysitter

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Several children, Humans, Havenworlders, and other Deathworlders, trapped together in the nursery. The power had gone out and the doors had locked. Everyone was scared, then someone started singing. Soon each youngster took turns singing their favorite lullabies their parentals would sing them to sooth them, and, as a result, when rescue finally got to them, all the kids were contentedly close to each other, peacefully asleep. The first singer? An independant AI nanny who'd just finished charging and unplugged just as the power had gone down. -- Anon Guest

N4N-E had to take some time to examine their initialisation footage. The children had been engaged in play and, as they began their warm-up procedure, the lights had gone out. Night mode engaged, filling N4N-E's visual input with shades of green. Their audio input filled with shrieks and screaming. Danger assessment became priority one.

Passive air circulation was in operation. Infonets down as the electricity had failed. Other AI's around the station were using more primitive radio bands to ping each other. The children were not hurt. Just panicked. Crying.

Initiate subsystem "calm and orderly". N4N-E ran their star-field lights and launched one of the soporific tunes. "Allouette, gentile allouette/ Allouette je te plumerai..."

It worked. When N4N-E ran out of Allouette, one of the older ones started off the others in singing Rock My Soul. N4N-E could move at last, and ran themself around the room. Tidying up toys and laying out sleep mats and blankets. Matching smaller children to their stuffed comfort toys.

They all sang their way through a wide assortment of soothing songs. All of the classics and some of the stranger ones. Some of which were sung out of pure mischief, but laughing children were not scared, and that was beneficial.

The songs wound down and N4N-E kept the friendly white noise up with their music-box renditions of all the familiar tunes.

The lights came back on, and with them the organic supervisor could re-enter the room.

"I heard singing," said Supervisory Educator Bri as he searched for any clues. He kept his voice soft because there were sleeping children. "Who started that one?"

N4N-E also kept their voice soft. "Calming protocol dictated familiarity in the face of unfamiliarity. I was in contact with other AI's and verified that there was no need for further alarm."

"Genius," said Bri. "Any of them telling you what happened to the electricity?"

"News update," said N4N-E. "Station security has arrested CEO Baulis for attempting to charge his ship directly from the station reactors."

Bri boggled. "I though we fixed the access issue from the last time one of them tried that."

"Apparently, this one knows his rights," said N4N-E. "In this case, the right of getting his own way."

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / coffeekai]

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