We didn't mean to create a robot that couldn't stop crying - originally it was just a probe with a pre-programmed personality that allowed it to express its findings using emotional language. The focus of the study was both on the depths and how an emotive being exposed only to sunlight would react in such vastly different circumstances. A way of exploring how humans might react on long space voyages.
We called it Nate - short for Fascination, a key piece of its AI that we hoped might allow its more delicate emotions to remain balanced in the face of a perfectly alien environment. The first few minutes were a little worrying, Nate recently concluded that its emotions made it human just like us and it knew humans couldn't breathe underwater so it thought it was drowning.
After pulling Nate back up and attaching a few placebo 'air tubes' to the outer hull we were able to begin the drop again with much milder issues. For a while everything went great - Nate became such a happy little thing who loved all the fishes it saw and wanted to learn how to swim like them.
When the time came for us to leave him down there to gather data we all felt like we were leaving our kid behind - I don't know when he became 'he' rather than 'it' but I can't think of him as anything other than a little boy who wants to be a fish when he grows up.
So we did what any parent would do - we lied and said we'd be back before he knew it, not telling him that he'd be left there for twenty months. We barely spoke on our way back to shore, all too busy sending Nate reassuring messages that we would come back soon, that we missed him already and asked him to list all the fishes he saw down there for us.
Eventually we moved out of his range, half a message appearing before the signal cut completely. He'd just discovered an angler fish - possibly a new species but we'd learn more when we came back. There wasn't a dry eye on the ship that day and it was almost as bad when we all boarded to pick Nate back up again.
I'll never forget the way the colour drained from everyone's faces when we were back in range and Nate realised we could see what he was saying. He wasn't programmed to feel pain but the AI adapted and the first thing he addressed to us was five simple words, one heartbreaking question - what did I do wrong?
I learnt how to drown, aren't you proud of me for holding my breath for so long?
I learnt about a water that swallows the sun and I felt so small.
I am so very small down here and so very alone - you left me alone.
I learnt that the lights in the distance are hungry. They've been feeding on a dead whale for the almost ten months and when it was less than bare bones they turned towards me. I don't think there's enough of me left to bring back now. I think I am a ghost.
He was so badly damaged that he died halfway to the surface. We could have dealt with this, we could have repaired him but in the end we thought it was kinder to extract his data and let the AI in this version remain dormant. He was surrounded by all his favourite fish again and his code streamed with laughter before it cut out for good.
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