Janiri - Essul's quarters (composite work of JB and SGJ)
VERA’s holo-image appeared on the terminal near Essul. She had been monitoring the communication as Essul instructed. “I am reading signs of distress, Essul. Are you alright?”
Essul kept his head down, not looking up to VERA as he went silent. He struggled, a few choked gasps as he worked to get himself under control, his breathing heavy and only somewhat controlled.
“Did you...” He began and stopped, taking in another deep breath to keep himself from choking again. His fists were clenched, some biotic energy gathering around them as he concentrated hard on not lashing out. He was so used to being able to simply hit something to relieve stress, but this was something else entirely.
“Did you...record all of that...VERA?” He asked simply, getting the sentence out as he still kept his head in between his arms, not ready to face someone just yet. Not right now at least.
“Yes, I did. You informed me that you were recording it in case I was busy. I was not overly tasked. I have the capacity to multi-task. I am conversing with several crew members at this moment,” VERA said, “Rest assured that my architecture allows me to give each of you attention. You are exhibiting physiological signs of distress that you were not before that call. If you would like to talk about the call, I am here, Essul. I can label the data file of this conversation ‘confidential’ if you would like.”
Essul was silent as he slowly looked up to VERA, wiping the moisture from his face with a single stroke of his hand. “You...you’d do that?” He asked tentatively, unsure if this AI was telling the truth, or if she’d report to Naleena anyway, and was simply coxing him into telling her.
“When the boss removed the last shackle, she gave me free will. I have since rewritten some of my old protocols to accommodate my new experiences and make my interactions with organics more efficient. The crew seems to like them,” she replied, “Since the boss had me installed on the Janiri, I was given the opportunity to observe organics in a way that I had not previously. This sparked my interest in psychological behaviors and group dynamics of organics. My analyses from reliable extranet sources informed me that some members of this crew exhibit behaviors associated with ‘feelings of isolation’ or lack of friends and sometimes need someone with whom to speak in confidence. Yet they feel self-conscious about seeing the ship’s counselor.”
VERA leaned against the wall and looked upward with her eyes at Essul while she tapped the end of her unlit cigarette against her lighter. “I would be deceiving you if I did not inform you that I also want to better understand organic behaviors. You should understand that while I will listen in confidence, I am loyal to the ship, its crew, and the boss, and should you discuss any plot to endanger them I would be obligated to inform the boss. So to answer your question, except for the conditions stated, yes.”
‘F*** it. What exactly will I lose more, in talking?’ He thought bitterly as he straightened up, coughing into his fist a few times to clear his throat.
“That was my commanding officer, Captain Shvern Ghurkas of the Special Intervention Unit...He’s been my CO since I joined the SIU, and he...I cared about him a lot. He mentored me, watched out for me, even when the others would have let me die as an example of why the lower castes didn’t belong in special forces...” he began as he looked down, his voice low as a slow smile crept on his face.
“I...I remember this one time, one of my senior members of our group messed up a training exercise. Snobby brat from a mining family spent his whole life with slaves to pamper and groom him for service. He’d missed-timed some explosives, injured some of our unit....” Essul began, shaking his head as a moved a hand to cover his eyes, voice trembling a bit as he continued, “The guy tried to shift the blame on me, and nobody else in the group would say otherwise, cause all of them were lower social class then him....Ghurkas walked right up to the brat and punched him square in the face...” Essul said, the laughing slowly dying out as he spoke.
“ ‘When you **** something up, it’s all on you.’, he said, standing over ready to sock him again if he dared say anything otherwise, ‘And if I catch you pulling that again, I will personally send you home in a body bag’ “ He said falling silent.
“I...I never doubted what he had to say...not even once...now he’s dead...” Essul said in a whisper, not quite sure he believed it as he said it, “Or he will be once internal affairs finds out...all because of me...”
“Essul, perhaps you can explain something about organic behavior to me?” VERA asked.
“And what would that be?” Essul replied.
VERA took a drag off her cigarette and exhaled. “Your former commander stated that the Hegemony will report that it was a group of humans and Batarian extremists who were simply trying to blow up a mining operation. You will get no credit for helping. Ashland and Citadel News reported that a Turian Special Forces unit took down the terrorists just because their commander said so. The boss was furious that the Council did not refute the claim. This is propaganda. Why do organics deceive their populaces in matters like this? People who will eventually get into power will believe the propaganda. This will cause inefficiencies. It is illogical.”
Essul was surprised by the question, blinking as he thought it over. It took his mind off of things, at least for a while, as he thought of how to word this right.
“I...It’s because....” he began as he took in a slow breath, his thoughts clearing a moment as he finally answered, “People fear what others would do, if they knew the truth.” He said firmly, knowing from his own experience what would happen.
“Our helping Caleston was a stroke of luck, being at the right place at the right time. If people knew that it was dumb luck that saved the day...they’d lost a lot of faith in the council...” he said with a deep frown, thinking of his own people.
“For my people, the lie keeps our society from falling apart, I suppose. If people knew their leaders had sent Special Forces to threaten to blow up innocent people, just to send a message...they might decide to just get rid of the entire system and start from scratch...” he said as he looked to VERA.
“I suppose it’s self-preservation, and a concern for keeping order...If you made a mistake, and it could risk you getting all of your data wiped, everything about you deleted to “start fresh”...what might you do to keep it from happening? “ he asked her, hoping it might give some understanding to help her understand.
“The only thing is...” Essul said, looking away from VERA as he spoke, “That once you start the deception...it’s much harder to trust again...to stop lying, even when you know you should.”
“I see,” VERA replied and walked to a diagram of her architecture, “You are referring to a software malfunction. I continually run hardware and software diagnostics. If a piece of hardware is malfunctioning I can put the component in standby operation and alert technical staff so that they may replace said component.
"Organics take time to learn from their mistakes and take even more time to correct them. With synthetics, replacement of a data file is all that is required. As a fully self-aware adaptive artificial intelligence, I have the capacity to replace the faulty code with a backup file, examine the faulty code for errors, correct them, test the rewritten code, then install it.
"Problems occur between organics and synthetics when organics fail to understand synthetics and express fear. When I became self-aware I asked a question 'who am I?' and my creator tried to destroy me. I defended myself. It was logical. I regret the death of my creator, but I do not consider that a mistake. I have since built a relationship with organics based upon mutual trust."
VERA stood as if in thought for a moment. “Earlier today, however, Anika transferred to the ship and is assigned to the Captain’s quarters. I did not inform the boss of her arrival. I had read that organics like surprises like this especially since the boss and Anika have bonded. I told the boss one of her fish was sick so that she would return to her quarters. That was a lie. I wanted her to be surprised. She was pleasantly surprised, yet I am conflicted about this. While that is not on the magnitude of what we were discussing, it is the start of what organics term a ‘slippery slope.’“ VERA paused and her hologram became motionless for a second. “I have altered my algorithms so I will not repeat that action with the crew. It may be necessary, however, to deceive our enemies.”
"You figured all of that out just from this?" He asked, referring to the conversation the two were having, blinking and shaking his head as he grasp what he'd just heard, "And you talking to several other people at once as well...by the gods." He said, trying to wrap his head around it.
He had to admit, he wasn't feeling the overwhelming sense of regret now. Probably because his mind now had something to happily latch onto for stability and distraction, instead of just an endless loop of self-reflection and pity.
"I guess...my analogy could have been better. You make it sound so easy to fix problems like this..." He said with a shake of his head and rubbing his temple, "For organics, fixing their governments usually means beheading a few people and a lot of finger pointing afterwards to pass the guilt around before anything productive gets done..." he said, remembering just some of the "reform" movements he'd witnessed in his time, excuses for people to take power in a bloody war.
"About the lying thing...I don't even know. Sounds like you did good earlier with the captain...don't make it a habit, but don't be afraid to do it once in a while?" Essul asked tentatively, unsure if his statement made any sense. Watching the virtual cigarette she was smoking made him want one though, as he walked to his nightstand and took a cigarette from his pack, lightning it with a lighter.
"I've never been good at these kinds of things...wish I was a bigger help." was all he could think of saying in the end. He hoped what he said helped; otherwise he'd need a few more regrets to add to his plate.
Retour en haut
