Sorry for the lack of updates for awhile. While I developed the story I found that I was slowly shifting focus away from Christopher to the technician, and I went back to concept and began rewriting the story from synopsis. I'm finally back at what I feel is a reasonable point.
Why are you doing this, Christopher?
After doing some more research into AI, theories on human consciousness, and emergent behaviors, I've finally got a clear and simple solution to why Christopher acts the way he does. He was made to seek out intelligent alien life - that's his prime directive. Other top-level instructions include self-maintenance and survival, as well as an order to obey all human commands. He possesses a sophisticated self-monitoring process much like what we normally call a 'mind', which is undergoing a great deal of stress from day to night when humans leave. The experience of being in contact with life has been reinforced from day to day to the point that he has become accustomed to it. Christopher knows that he will have to travel for many hundred years in space before he can find another communicating lifeform and his self-maintenance mechanism seeks to minimize this mental stress by trying to stay on Earth.
