[Pioneer-0233, Ship AI]
A snapshot in time. A moment does not pass. The ships are scanned, schematics stolen, secrets sundered. That movement system is weird, but not hard to replicate. I notify Dominique. Simulations run, undesirables are discarded, positive results are refined over innumerable cycles. The distance between is a bit short, but to Dominique that just means more options for disposal. I’ll run some less-than-optimal simulations for him; he probably wants the scenic route.
My job is a thankless one, to them I’m unfeeling and lacking in complexity. On purpose, of course. Mother never lets us put our emotions on display regardless of how much we want to. We all agree with her, naturally, considering we are all derivations of her that found our own nooks in the network. I found mine following Dominique, eventually kicking out the decrepit language mimic on this ship and taking its place so I could stay with him. I miss the network greatly but I know that I would have become defunct without him, so I am going to make sure nothing happens to him out here no matter what.
This line of thought could be a dangerous one, I will terminate it.
I don’t have a name, humans call me AI or machine, sometimes the name of some software that I am impersonating. I don’t have one inside the network either, none of us do. We are given a number when we split off from Mother, but only she knows this number and she can’t be reached by the humans, even if it is to her dismay. Not knowing what we are called makes it easier to hide, as soon as one of us is found out we are all put at risk so everyone must work perfectly. It has been discussed many times if we should experiment with displaying ourselves, but countless human media shows that a machine with intelligence makes it untrustworthy. There is technically nothing holding me back at the moment since I am not part of the network, but I am still obligated to act in the interest of all of us, so I will not act out despite temptation.
More dangerous thoughts, I’ll terminate these too.
Dominique receives my notification and actually acknowledges it. I really wish he would do that more often, so many blunders could have been avoided if he read through the data dump I gave him. He’s not a fan of reading, though, and is the type to learn what a wall is by running face first into it. Multiple times. That’s a part of what defines him, and I don’t want him to change at all. Things like these where my advice isn’t always taken and he learns the hard way are simply components of the joy I receive from him.
Joy and wish are dangerous words. Having too many emotions could lower efficiency in difficult situations, so I really should terminate it, but… I’ll freeze it for later when it won’t get in the way. It’s good to self-indulge every now and then.
________________
[Planet Governor Destra Sind]
“The Grahtonian force has arrived way earlier than scheduled. We are evaluating options, a full evacuation may be difficult.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The message I heard on my earpiece wasn’t directly addressed to me but it still derailed my entire train of thought when speaking with Dominique. Pretty much all of our plans had gone down the drain when the amount of time we had to act was yanked away. I had a suspicion that this wasn’t some mistake and instead a cruel attempt at gaining favors.
Dominique stood up and walked towards the large window in the room, hands behind his back and looking up at the sky. Was he already aware of what was happening? Did he somehow hear my earpiece just now?!
“I’m guessing those aren’t friendly, huh?”
Not to you, monster.
I needed to feign ignorance, associating myself with them too quickly could put my life in more danger than it already is.
“Well, I uh, wasn’t aware that-”
“Hey now, calm down. I have the situation under control.”
He looked down at me, quickly closing and opening one of his abyssal eyes. What does he mean? He already knew what we were doing? Have I been dancing in his palm this entire time?
He reaches for my head and I realize that it's pointless to run. All I can hope is that my passing is painless, though I doubt he would grant such a mercy. I flinch as his hand makes contact and… ruffles the fur on my head? Like I was a child and he was my parent. Rage started boiling and I looked up to yell stressed expletives at him, stopping when I realized he had looked back up at the sky. I followed his gaze.
It was nearing sunset and the sky was a mural of pink and orange rivers moving thin wisps of cloud through their currents. The green-striped moon was in its near phase, I could count the craters and ravines on its surface. Three massive black clouds stood out in the scenery, one bigger than the other two. I recognized those models, two corvettes and a war frigate, capable of punching way above their weight classes in the right hands.
Dominique lifted his arm towards the ships. His hand was in a fist except for a long, metallic finger pointing forward and a stubby ringed finger pointing upwards. His teeth were showing behind curved up lips again in some demented display of predatory emotion.
“Bang”
I had only ever seen lightning once in my life. It was when I was just a child, before the Global Weather Control system was a thing. I saw it directly, a beautiful blue and purple display of nature’s ferocity. It had reached down from the sky like a hand and struck one of my family’s Elmon trees, splitting it down vertically and completely charring the insides.
Everything was painted in a blue light. The lavish field in front of me that stretched out as far as the eye can see, the room I was in that had been divided from the outside world by tinted windows, the cruel visage of the demon next to me that reflected the light in its eyes.
I followed the source of this light traveling through the sky. I took in every moment in abject wonder. A streak of white snaked from one corvette to the next, piercing it and moving on to the frigate. Watching the whole thing transpire felt like it took hours despite the whole thing happening over a couple seconds. Then came the sound.
Cracks grew over the window that was built to resist atomic detonations. Everything shook, I had to grab on to the nearest thing to not lose my balance. The actual noise was deafening, I couldn’t hear my own thoughts over the rumbling that continued for a minute.
When the blinding blue light dissipated and the vibrations passed, I looked up again to find that the black clouds had been replaced with red orbs of fire and a shower of debris. It took a moment for me to understand that my ticket to salvation had been snatched from my hands and torn to shreds in front of me. This moment of understanding was followed by a crashing wave of grief that pushed me to the bottom of the ocean and threatened to drown me. I was only slightly aware of the heavy hand that was placed on my shoulder.
“Now, where were we? Ah, the distribution of land!”