Pod 42 hovered in the Makers workshop, floating serenely under his gaze "why exactly are you here? I presume you want something?" It was a fair question to ask, Pod's rarely left the side of their androids, and A2's was no exception to that rule. The pod noted that the Engineer had been working on the same project for six hours, even though a solution to it was readily apparent. The human was wasting time.

"This unit wishes to question you" The Engineer, somewhat intrigued, nodded for the Pod to continue.

"First query, Why did you end the war between Android and Machine?"

The Engineer didn't even hesitate to answer. "The war was wasteful and pointless"

The Pod bobbed its chassis up and down to indicate a nod "Second query, Why does the Maker remain an active presence on Nauvis?" That seemed to take a few instants longer for the Maker to answer. "It is the ideal place to sharpen myself, any weapon or tactic I develop will be countered, and I will need to counter it in turn. This leads to rapid growth in ability that could not be replicated without the planet's lifeforms."

"Why do you need to 'sharpen' yourself?" The Engineer nearly scoffed at that. "To keep myself and my factory safe, the universe isn't a safe place and I need to be stronger and prepared." Another short pause "Query, if safety is the goal why did you open a new portal to an unknown dimension?"

"Because I needed resources, do you have a goal here with these questions?" "Clarification, this unit has many goals with these questions. Query, You have the untapped resources of an entire two realities at your disposal, why not expend those first?"

"Then what are your goals? And that one's easy, we didn't have FTL, and the FTL we have now is only capable of high speeds through relays. Which we cannot yet reproduce." The pod shook its head in the negative "Maker unit could produce FTL drive using current technological principles, and has already designed three such devices." The maker nodded at that before retorting "The ship size and energy requirements made interdimensional travel the faster and cheaper option"

The pod nodded at that, though the Engineer had the feeling it wasn't in agreement. "Query, Why prioritize risky development over safe development if Safety of Factory and self is primary motivation?" The Engineer narrowed his eyes at that. "I'm beginning to realize you are far more clever than I'd originally guessed. It just seemed like the correct course of action given that I already had the equipment built"

"Next query, why has Maker unit allowed Androids to reveal themselves, and by extension itself, to the Humans?" The Maker shrugged at that "The androids would have done it themselves eventually, I just would rather it happen when I'm prepared for it"

"Incorrect, if the Maker had commanded it no android would have revealed themselves to the humans. No android would go against the Maker's order, nor would the majority of machine life forms. Maker unit is aware of this, and more than capable of preventing contact regardless"

"....are you going to be getting to the point any time soon?" The pod nodded its body "Next query, Why does Maker unit plan to send android copies of itself into dozens of nearby realities?" The Engineer responded "To scout for threats and noteworthy tech" the Pod responded "Would Resistance scouts not serve that role better? They have far more experience and the Maker unit is not adept at combat or exploration of unknown environments"

The engineer paused for a moment. "I think I get what point you're trying to make, you're saying I like the endless fight for my survival." The pod hovered the for a few moments, almost confused "No, this Unit is implying you have a hero complex" The engineer froze before speaking in a flat tone, 'Explain' And the pod bobbed in acquiescence "You are currently stalling for time under the assumption that something will force you to act to save lives, you continue to fight the bugs so that you alone will be all that is needed for the threat, and you are venturing to new realities to 'save' them. You are also operating under the Bias that every government should be monitored by or under you as you 'don't care enough to be corrupt'"

A short pause "This unit believes that this, in addition to your desire for improvement, is what is driving you to act recklessly. And this unit believes that these subconscious actions are hazardous as long as you're not actively working on the goals, instead of continuing your current, reactionary, methods." The Maker inhaled slowly, seemingly processing what the pod had said "I feel like I have severely underestimated a Pods intellect" the Pod nodded "Most do, we were created to observe and predict android behavior. This can and has been extrapolated to humans"

Time passed for severely moments before the engineer spoke again "Aside from that, I take it you want me to what? Preemptively hunt for threats? I'm already doing that." The pod floated side to side as if shaking its head, "This unit wants you to accept what you are actually doing, so that you are better prepared for your own impulsive actions" another short pause "...And I take it you've done that now?" another bob from the Pod and the engineer spoke again "great, well then I'll get back to work. And I suppose make a few rapid response teams"

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I sat in the workshop, staring at the vent the Pod had flown into, being left alone with nothing but my thoughts, half complete inventions, and the buzz of background information racing through my mind.

Me a hero? Well subconsciously acting like one? The thought was absurd, Everything since the day I'd awoke had been guided by in-built protocols, building my factory, expanding it, trying to get a distress message out. All of that was hard coded into me. Even my desire to stay on Nauvis wasn't really to 'sharpen' myself, that was just a justification, it was because that was my world. I had to build there, leaving it undeveloped was actively grating to even think.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

But those were thoughts I'd had before, and I wasn't so stubborn as to be unwilling to entertain new thoughts. If I couldn't I wouldn't …. Adapt. There was something there, that thought. Adapt… what about it poked at my mind? I needed to adapt to survive, but that was the thing wasn't it? I'd changed, and I wasn't meant to. A set of blueprints, a set way to improve, everything I made came pre-programed with only a bare bones logistic system to automate anything.

That hadn't been enough though, I had needed to change the blueprints, code my own programs, modify and change things to survive. I wasn't programmed to do that, so why had I? If I had only used what I had available and eventually died then I would have kept to my programming. There was a significant chance it was simply because I hadn't finished being programmed before I'd been stranded, leaving that suggestion vague at best.

What about that would imply a hero? I could understand that my actions towards the androids were inherently good, and I hadn't purged the machines. But that just led into my programming again, It would have been a waste. Grow into the world, and then optimize it for enhanced growth. I'd turned what resources I could use without waste towards my own gains, ensuring no memories or valuable skills were lost while letting the androids and machines fight my battles.

Allowing worship and a degree of freedom to prevent any uprisings and keep the whole of the factory operating and growing smoothly with the newly integrated components.

Only that led back to what I'd done when my subconscious mind had been unshackled. My feelings had immediately changed towards them, understandably so. But more importantly my actions had changed as well, emotional modification rather than social manipulation to ensure control. That was arguably more efficient, and it would have been easy to sneak control ships into the hardware I'd given them and cease direct control of their emotions. I'd even made steps towards that with the berzerk chips.

So why hadn't I done that, and why wasn't I? Letting the androids go around contacting the humans and aliens was dangerous, so if I was operating under nothing but my programming, why would I let them want to do that?

And for that matter why did I now think that all my actions were dictated by programming? Just because I'd discovered it could do things if the bulk of my mind was incapacitated didn't mean it controlled my behavior outside of those events.

Back up, getting off track. The Pod thinks I am putting myself and others in danger because I am unaware of my own motivations, and not acting efficiently. I need to determine if this is true, and if the pod's assessment of what my motivations are is accurate.

I saved the androids, I did not need to, and it demonstratively put me in unnecessary danger. I could have just built underground or sent a ship out of orbit to gather resources. Ignoring the overall conflict unless either side bothered me, and with how engrossed in conflict both sides were they wouldn't have had the personal to do so to an extent to halt or overly impede my own growth.

So why had I? I thought it was a waste to let the androids and machines die. That was a point towards the Pod. Not only that, but I had over extended myself to do it.

Next, the human intervention. Even less reason to do it, and less reason to do it so soon. I had no ships, and no true base of operations in that reality. Though it was unlikely even in the worst case, to threaten Nauvis or Earth, I still could have lost The Range and had to deal with a new front.

I'd thought I'd done it to keep the androids calm, and to test my own weapon systems. But for the latter I should have waited until I had more war ships and defenses, and for the androids I could have just sent some androids to pretend to be human mercenaries in 'experimental' power armor. With fake human bodies it would have been a safer way to keep them pacified, though potentially more suspicious. Add in a fake alien 'ruin' that they'd stolen the suits from and it'd be relatively safe once humanity had finished its investigations on where some mercenaries had gotten advanced equipment from.

The only reason to send a ship then, was effectiveness. Which could be put towards me finding it distasteful to be inefficient, or towards me wanting to put the best effort I could into keeping humanity safe. Which would be a heroic action, and thus a point towards the pods theory. Which was… beginning to look more solid by the second.

As for stalling for time, I was wasn't I? "Planning" large projects, rather than just building them. Spending time deciding on the 'best' solution to the connection with 2B when I already had three solutions that would at the very least work.

I wasn't starting any large project because I was expecting something to interrupt and that I'd need to change focus to deal with it. And when nothing did for days I just kept waiting for the other boot to drop. That didn't even have anything to do with being a hero either, it was just a fact.

With my brief introspection done I set the fabricators to building all three of the designs I'd made, and strode back to my table.

If I was waiting I might as well do something productive, and this new stage seemed to be centered around space. Might as well make something big. And the aliens think they have dreadnaughts, I'd show them what that really meant.