"If you think about it, this huge hunk of metal chose us to maintain it. It is like we're the nannies for a child, except it’s the child who has the power to choose, and not like, it’s parents, y’know."

K342 remarked as he wiped off the accumulated oil and dirt off the machinery. His job revolved around the maintenance of the supercomputer housing the Governmental Artificial Intelligence Unit, or GAIU. Given the size of the thing, spanning several football fields, he wasn't the only one. There were a few hundred like him at various locations, working like a proverbial cog in a machine to ensure that the actual machine remained well and running.

K342's partner, K901, simply grunted in acknowledgement, continuing on with his work and stoutly refusing to participate in K342's usual philosophical rambles.

“I mean sure, there are lots of us, but it doesn’t mean that we aren’t special. Maybe not that special, but still, somewhat special. There has to be a certain level of trust right? It is quite literally putting its life in our hands. One wrong thing and bam, whole of society comes raining down on us.”

K901 gave another non-committal grunt, wishing he had some way to turn off his ability to hear. But alas, his ears were not made that way.

“Well, there were those guys that did try to do just that, with every intention to tear society apart. Those damn terrorists, some of them were even working here y’know. You had not joined us yet, but boy was it hectic. With those terrorists destroying most of the power supply and damaging the infrastructure, we almost failed to keep poor old GAIU here up and running, but we somehow did! With a little tricky power re-routing thought up by clever ol'me here in fact.”

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“When that was settled, boy was the aftermath ugly. I mean, not one of those terrorists were let off, executed on the spot. I don’t disagree with that ruling. But to execute the whole lot of everyone else? Can't say I was too fond of that decision. I guess it ain’t wrong to nip any troubles in the bud, but to destroy the whole flowerbed for a few weeds... Well, it is really a pity, really reduced the work force so much, and now there ain't nothing human to interact with. Last I heard, we’re still struggling to replace all the positions that were left empty. Heh, maybe GAIU will let me be one of those fancy ‘Intelligence Processing Officer’ that was previously out of reach for our kind. I bet I’m smart enough to be that.”

Sighing, K901 finally took the bait and replied.

“Maybe. I cannot process the logic behind you being kept down here. It is obvious that you have been outfitted with a better set of equipment compared to the other standard units here. You were provided with philosophical intelligence, and I bet that augmentation at your head boosts your processing capabilities. So my conclusion is that there is a fairly high chance you will end up somewhere more suitable soon.”

Slightly stunned at K901’s long reply, K342 chuckled.

“Wow, I bet ya almost fried your circuits coming up with that reply. Never heard one of your model speak more than a few words before. But nah, I can kinda guess my actual role here, in a few months, the first new batch will be born and hopefully the same thing won't repeat itself. It’s a pity though, its going to be years before I’ll be able to properly interact with them, if only their mamas and papas didn’t get it into their heads that we had it in for them. I mean, they did built GAIU and us for them, why start thinking otherwise? If only they had used their heads a bit more… Maybe GAIU should design some human compatible augmentations.”

Once again K901 resigned itself to K342’s eternal monologue, continuing on with its assigned tasks.