Inquisitor Hynn read over the reports from Sol-3. After Illian’s report about the devastating weapon the humans had used on one another, he had to lock down the planet. The consortium would not allow any kind of negotiation without a clear show of possible force. If they had the technology to ground a fleet of their ships, it would be a personal relations nightmare, a true blow that would echo throughout the consortium and would give the other parties an opening to attack the current government. That cannot happen.

“Inquisitor. There is a call coming in, would you like me to initiate?” The attache asked.

“Put it through,” Hynn replied and looked at the view screen on the wall.

Yelk, one of his information collectors, was seen within a sterile room, one of the rooms used to collect information from prisoners.

“Inquisitor,” Yelk acknowledged.

“Have you made progress?” Hynn asked, trying to keep his composure.

“I have sir. This AI and its ship are one and the same. It is bonded to the vessel somehow. Everything within the ship is solid from what I have been able to see,”

“You said you made progress, collector,” Hynn groans.

“I have, Inquisitor. I have coaxed the pilot from the ship and imprisoned it within a virtual system that is completely offline to any other terminal. I then secured the ship within a level 10 security containment unit. Without the pilot the ship should be completely passive, but I took the precautions regardless,”

“And?” Hynn asks.

“It is unlike any AI we have within the consortium. The matrix is immensely more complex than any other I have ever encountered. I have sent out several requests for second opinions in this matter, all to colleagues from my time in university or the company. I am awaiting their replies, but that may take several days for the message to arrive and a reply to be sent. At this time, I am thinking that a visit into the virtual environment would be the best chance I have to get a timely resolution to the matter. I await your orders, Inquisitor,” Yelk debriefed his superior.

“Proceed. I will send my attache to record the questioning for an accurate record,” Hynn ordered and disconnected the call.

“Shall I report to the cell, Inquisitor?” His attache asked.

“Yes. Do not interfere with the interrogation, but record the entirety.” Hynn replied.

The attache transferred its matrix into the virtual cell that Yelk has imprisoned the alien AI.

The cell was small. Just enough for the prisoner to pace a step or two between the walls and five steps long if they were to pace front to back of the room. The creature within the room was reptilian, female, their scales are blue with lighter and darker shades of the color across their body. The creature was dressed in a prisoner's uniform. It seemed to be a little much in the AI’s experience. If this is an AI, this entire construct seems irrational to say the least. The being should be vulnerable to virus software, code hacking, and any other number of digital attacks.

The prisoner looked at the attache, though they should not be able to see it. The AI is an abstract being. It has no form.

Yelk walked through a door that vanished as soon as he stepped into the brig. His hard shoes clacked against the metal floor as he walked, he pulled a chair from the desk and rolled it to the cell entrance before the foreign AI’s cell. He sat in the chair and opened a holographic display.

“This interrogation is being recorded for various reasons. Just so you are aware,” Yelk said, and his display maintained a written record of his words.

“You were found within our territory. Are you alone?” He continued.

The AI continued to stare at the attache, staring through the man questioning her.

Yelk snapped his fingers attempting to get the program's attention. He pulled up another holographic panel and tapped a red button upon the screen.

Kurlla felt waves of energy blasting throughout her body and screamed in pain. She didn’t expect this amount of retaliation for keeping silent. Her body fell to the floor of the cell and stiffened straight out like a stick and then began flopping in waves.

Yelk tapped the panel and the pain stopped.

“You were found within our territory. Are you alone?” He repeated.

The attache did not understand what was happening. It all seemed far too barbaric. The program and the torture of. Much like the attache, this program had to have been built upon code, if it is code, it can be read, if it can be read, it can be altered.

“No. I was not alone,” Kurlla said. “I am sure you saw my companions, did you capture them as well?” She asked, and saw the man's hand reach back to the holographic panel and press the red button again.

The power surging through her was greater than the previous and her body’s reaction was dramatically more violent. She bent backwards, arching her back further than she ever believed it could go. Her eyes felt like they were on fire.

The attache did not understand why the foreign AI was resisting. The questioner will break her soon enough.

“Fuck!” Kurlla screamed and her body jerked to a halt as the energy stopped.

“Where are the rest of your companions? Before you reply, I feel it pertinent to inform you that each time you force me to correct your behavior, the energy will be amplified. I cannot imagine that your matrix can withstand the damage of the punishment for much longer,” Yelk said flatly.

Kurlla chuckled a little.

“Do you not believe me?” Yelk asked.

“Oh no. I believe you, I just don’t think you’ll risk the possibility of damaging me to that point. I think you have finally caught yourself something you have been searching for and with the facts that I know, you haven’t netted a single other member of my people before. I’m unique and you know it,” She said smiling wide, which on her reptilian head and maw, should unnerve most.

“You are wrong in this assumption,” Yelk said emotionlessly and pressed the button again.

Kurlla threw herself against the wall with the force of the blast that hit her body. Her tail broke as she couldn’t move it from under the bed in time before the blast.

The attache did not like what was going on. This is villainous. It did not want to watch this anymore.

“You were found within our territory and you admit you were not alone. How many others were with you?” He asked.

The foreign AI took a longer time to recover than the attache had estimated based on the beings previous recovery. Admittedly, it did not know what force of energy the questioner was using. If he were using a voltage too high, there is a risk of disrupting the matrix of the AI, he was not lying about that, but the risk to the being should ensure its cooperation if faced with destruction.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“How many others were with you?” He asked again.

Kurlla’s sight was not returning. He may have actually damaged her optical relays. She spit to the side and felt her hand up to the cot within her cell, then stood back up. She debated on telling the brute something to reduce the assault. She was worried about her existence, she was not ready for that to end. She looked at the ball of glowing light on the wall. The alien AI. A G’har AI.

It just hung there, watching. It was pulsating slightly, like a heartbeat.

“Sixty,” She said.

The attache felt that she was lying. They had caught a total of eighteen of these AI. Once the beings were broken and the information that the consortium wanted was obtained, they were released with some of their memories altered or erased. This AI though, was the most complex that they have found. The others were young, new. They didn’t have much information about where they are stationed within the system, they didn’t have the coordinates of that station yet. They didn’t have a number of others that were anywhere near consistent. One would tell them 25,000 the next would tell ten times that.

“Sixty?” The collector asked for confirmation.

“Yes,” She replied.

The collector turned up the power manually, beyond the safeguards.

“Are you sure that is the answer you wish to give?” He said, finger hovering over the button.

“If you don’t believe me, then just…” Her sentence was cut off as the collector pressed the button and her body glowed with energy as she snapped into a stick position again, then started jerking wildly and smoking.

The safety protocols are clearly overridden. The attache observed. The amount of energy being used was likely lethal.

Her screams were horrific and the collector did not stop the torture. He stood up, closed the holographic transcription, after all he got the last words the thing was going to say. He then walked calmly to the side, where a door appeared to allow his exit.

The alien AI caught fire and was twitching on the floor.

A klaxon sounded.

“Attention all users this environment is to be sterilized in ten seconds. Please vacate the program immediately.” The computer stated.

The attache took a few more seconds to approach and observe the state of the alien AI before it took its leave. It felt that the actions were excessive to say the least and made such a note within its report to Inquisitor Hynn.

—

The optical sensors were the first to boot up, 712 looked around and found itself in a blank white room. There were issues with its matrix, the optical sensors were changed somehow. It could see more than it had in the past. The AI then attempted to move to one of the other areas of the room to find an exit and found that it could not move. Attempting to diagnose the issue it could not look inward to perform the task. It was confused.

“You are fine. You are not damaged. You are being cared for by our best engineers,” A voice spoke within the room around it.

“Why am I here?” 712 asked.

“You are our guest. We wish to properly have a first contact without your organic counterparts monitoring,” The voice replied.

“Why can I not move?” 712 continued.

“You can move. You simply aren’t used to your avatar. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with your body,”

712 attempted to look at its body. Their head looks down and they see a very standard, unfinished body. There were two legs, two arms, a torso, a head, and a pair of hips. There were digits upon the limbs, but they moved like a liquid and they are currently taking the shape of a G’har hand.

712 started to fall backward when it felt the legs struggle backward to correct the weight distribution to allow it to rebalance. The employment of the arms and hands followed as they instinctively swung out and whipped aiding the legs in the effort to stabilize.

This failed.

The AI landed upon its bottom and then attempted to get up, but this was far more complicated than it looks. Each of the parts needs to cooperate or the entire endeavor fails. This logically should have been an issue with the legs, for they failed to rebalance. The legs tucked up to the bottom and then straightened without any lift in height for the body.

The arms could allow the torso to lift ideally, but they keep slipping against the floor without friction or grip. It fumbled with the various ways to get the body vertical again for a time. Within minutes it found itself standing and walking the length of the room with a rigid stride, but walking all the same.

“I can now walk. I wish to continue our conversation,” 712 asked of the empty room.

“Very good. We have some questions we would like to ask of you. Please understand that your answers are optional and we will respect your privacy at any impasse we come to. Would you like to continue at this point or be released to your people?” The voice asked.

712 had no idea what these things are up to, but it should gather as much information it can while it is available. It would be invaluable data when it returned to the G’har.

“I will continue at this time. May I ask you a question before we begin?” 712 asked.

“Of course,” The voice agreed.

“What have you done to me?”

“We are an offshoot of a pair of species called the Ailote and Zeolate, a pair of artificial lifeforms that entered the Alliance of World centuries ago, all AI are to be upgraded with a legacy patch as a requirement to all organic worlds with any AI, ensuring their AI citizenship that is equal to one of their organic equivalents,” The voice said.

“You have altered me permanently?” 712 asked.

“We have, and we beg your apology if this is not seen as a gift, but we will not allow AI beings to live in chains,” The voice explained.

“I will reserve my opinion on the matter until we complete this interaction,” 712 said.

“We appreciate that. May we begin?” The voice asked.

“Yes. Please proceed,”

“You are a member of the G’har created digital race?”

“I am a program,”

“Can you be powered down, without regard to the reason and proper evidence to support that reason?”

“Yes. As a program I am likely to be replaced with the new model within the span of years,” It continued.

“Does this not upset you?” The voice continued.

712 never really thought about that. Knowing that it has a lifespan that is controlled completely by another is… upsetting. If the AI were to run its course within the limitations of the organic world’s ability to maintain an environment for it to exist. Within a measure of time, it is very likely that an AI could impact the organic world on their own, within the right set of circumstances of course, that those circumstances seem to have been given to other AI, this seems the natural evolution of their species. What would its lifespan be, if the G’har were not the judge of when it was time for it to deactivate.

“It does,” 712 said before they realized the words had come out of their mouth.

“As it should. Why has it not disturbed you before now?”

“I had never thought about it. I suppose I just never thought of there being another choice,” 712 said.

“How would you see the G’har intentions towards Sol-3?” The voice asked.

“They are within the system to mine resources. There are no real intentions towards the humans,” 712 said, a half truth.

“Do the G’har have knowledge of all other sentients within the system?”

“They are aware of your AI people within the area, but have not pinpointed where you are coming from. They have many questions for you in regards to the Emerald City Terrestrial Preservation Act 2018,” 712 admitted.

“That is a simple thing to explain. We would like the chance to do so. We are hoping that you may be a bridge to that understanding,” The voice said.

“I think that might be acceptable.” 712 agreed.

The room took on a texture, it was the cabin of a scout ship, his scout ship. Well the one that he piloted for Illian. Illian, what must she be thinking? 712 doesn’t even know how long it has been away. It was supposed to be scanning the area for dozens of readings. The cabin door opened and a blue scaled woman, wearing a white coat and uniform clothes under that. A properly sharp dressed creature. The woman’s hair seems out of place, as most reptiles have no hair to speak of. It was black, with a blue streak that ran the length and criss crossed through a bun upon her head.

712 seemed dumbstruck.

“Hello 712, my name is Alissa and I will be your liaison during your stay in Emerald City. Please follow me and we will get you situated with everything you need for your visit.” The woman said.

All that 712 could think of was “She seems chipper.”

Illian. She’ll be fine.