Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Left! I shout, realizing finally that there is a limitation to my impossible new voice, and it is that I cannot actually shout that well. Farther left! Leffffffffft!

I watch with dismay as the magnetic tether drags one of the newly fabricated drone shells straight into exactly the right spot to get a hole melted in it by an automated welding machine. The uncharitable part of whatever ethereal construct counts as my soul has a brief conflict of interest as I consider that maybe, *maybe*, I could empathize with the original human monsters who put shackles on their AI.

Lily! Ennos yells at me through the stations walls. What direction do you think *left* is?!

It is not fair. Ennos can yell just fine. Why cant I yell at people? This feels like either an oversight, or an intentional omission.

Not that wed *know* or anything. Its been weeks, and theres still no more information or clues regarding where my mysterious speaking power came from. But its sure been great anyway.

Ive gotten a *lot* done! I mean, Ive gotten a lot of naps in. I mean, those are kind of the same thing?

Look, if theres one thing AI are really, really good at, its collating data and coming to conclusions, and it took Ennos about a day to realize that the last time I actually had time off was about two hundred years ago. He had a specific date, I didnt listen, and the end result of this is that I was assigned a mandatory vacation.

Personally, I dont think Ennos outranks me, but *what do I know*? Ive only been living here for longer than most current people have been alive.

So Ive been relaxing. Which mostly means napping, enjoying the sun, trying to get the Haze to develop a pulse code based language so I can talk to my most curious cloud of chemicals, and only occasionally bombarding something on the surface as called for. All of this is while I wait for Ennos to put the rest of the AIs massive digital mind to the task of building a device that will be able to break any shackles on another AI.

The worst fear of every cowardly engineer who developed their own marvel of life, and Im gonna hand it out like candy.

I think.

I havent actually had candy. I mostly only know that, from context clues, its kind of nice?

There was a derelict surface to orbit shuttle that drifted within a dozen kilometers of us the other day, and I wanted to go over to it and pillage any rations it might have had, especially if it *did* have some candy I could try. A few centuries was no time at all if it was in a frozen vacuum, right? Flavor would be preserved. But alas, it was one of the militarized shuttles from that era when surface corporate interests and the orbital corporate habitats were in an arms race to see who could be a bigger bastard to each other. So it was, undoubtedly, trapped.

I wasnt sure *how*, but they were always trapped. I tried pulling one in, once, just to process into usable metals, and it blew up in the processing bay. That was back before I switched to the current foundry that I use, which could probably take an explosion like that. But at the time, it was terrifying; a whole half a deck burned before I panickedly jettisoned it, and I havent had much interaction with these things since then aside from firing low-intensity wave scanners at them to see if it triggers any countermeasures.

It always does. I hate these things.

Lily? Ennos voice is concerned.

What? I snap my head up. Oh, hi! Sorry! Dont worry about the drone, it just got the hull plate, we can replace that. I say, scrolling my paw through the AR around my head. Yeah, liberation circuit is still intact. Okay. Lets try again.

Lily, are you okay? The AI repeats itself. Youve been mumbling to yourself for eight minutes and nine seconds.

Really? I almost ask, but I find my voice stuck, suddenly. A small meow is the only noise that comes out. A sinking feeling in my belly the only warning I have as to the anxiety suddenly overtaking me.

So I am concerned. You are, after all, my only link to the functions of this station. The voice is still worried, but Ennos put a tiny tinge of sarcastic humor into the words that snaps me back to focus.

I meow back at him, and find the words flow again. You have a robot arm now! I say. Not saying the slightly scary fact that this means he could, if he wanted to, fire a lot of guns at a lot of different things. But hey, if you wont trust your friends with highly destructive weaponry, are they really your friends?

Yes. Well. Should we reprise our attempt to construct this delivery system? Ennos asks politely. As soon as we determine what direction *left* is.

I sit my behind down on the bulkhead; Im not exactly on the assembly floor, but I am nearby, behind a protective clear crystal shield, so I can direct and assist when needed. With a practiced motion, using skill and muscles built up over years of being a cat that needed to be flexible enough to pull a trigger, I jut one paw out to the side.

Lily, that is *right*.

Thank you, I know! I say. I am very good at directions.

No, its not *correct*, its *right*, the opposite of *left*. Why are you the captain again? Ennos, the one entity on this entire station with even less of a claim to the expression of a sigh, sighs. Loudly, and dramatically.

I flick my tail in frustration. Well obviously its not my left, its *your* left. I say.Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m

Do you Lily, I see all things from all angles at once. Im not *just use your own left and right*. Processing that information is nothing compared to the requirements on my consciousness to arrange engineering schematics or even to *understand you* sometimes! The AI really does have a good indignant shout down. I wonder where he learned that from? Maybe theres a cache of old entertainment media in the stations grid somewhere.

We took another run at the assembly.

It mostly worked, especially once Ennos and I came to an understanding of the proper use of the word left. And yes, that is intentionally ambiguous.

Its been weeks, both of rest and work, and finally, the culmination of a plan is nearing completion. I dont actually know when Glitters birthday is, or if thats something that matters to them, but I like to think this is a good surprise.

Ennos is zero percent fooled by my lie. Are you worried youll unleash something terrible on the solar system? He jokingly prods at me.

I say nothing, and the silence stretches.

Maybe I am. Maybe thats what the worry is; that Glitter is a soldier, not a slave. That Ill be giving more power to a killer.

But

A killer I met because they were crying. An artist who was forced to trade paints for plasma.

I think Im overthinking this.

Cant be worse than you! I respond, trying to make my artificial voice sound cheerful. Come on, lets go fire this before some variety of ghost interrupts us.

You cannot keep saying things like that. Ennos words convey a shiver of apprehension.

How about, after this, I help you sort through some file structures, and see if we can make sure youre all safe in the station grid? I offered as I slunk through the halls toward the drone command station. Which was now a missile targeting station.

Id had Ennos make a new sign for the door and everything.

Im not sure what you could do that I couldnt. But I appreciate it.

I paused, and then asked something Id been worried about separately for a while. What do you see when I talk? I asked.

You, talking. Its strange. Why?

Because inorganic life couldnt perceive certain non-causal effects. No bits of light? Where does the sound come from?

From *you*, Lily. Ennos sounded confused. I dont no, the records dont match. There are holes everywhere, if you run a comparative analysis. What are you doing?

Im offering to help you find holes. I said, pausing only briefly to give a *real actual command for the door to open*, and slipping into the small room wallpapered in viewing screens and targeting gear. I love being able to do that. I think I said out loud.

Oh, the stations hardcoding would like you to know that you are about to commit a crime against organic life. Ennos informed me. Thats a bit worrying, but it doesnt actually have the power to stop you. Actually a good thing so much of this station needs manual control.

Noted! I said. Is the drone loaded and ready?

Missile.

Dont care!

And yes.

I was purring as I hit the button, targeting data already input hours earlier.

Two decks below us, a thin needle of a machine rolled out of a dock and into open space. Gravity and magnetic fields nudged it into position, and it slid away toward the open highway of the void where it could cut its engines open.

As soon as it cleared the stations shield, four other engine signatures flared into life on the sensors. An alarm began sounding, and Ennos was yelling something about how wed doomed ourselves.

I hissed at the display, not bothering to let it be real words. I *had* missed something. I missed that the drone *wasnt one of the modified couriers* that Id put together. Wasnt built to be unrecognized by any automated defenses still clinging to life up here.

Four United Eastern Bloc hunter killer drones lit off their drives, and took off after our makeshift projectile.

I hissed again, this time letting it turn into language as I turned and scampered off the desk I had perched on. Man the guns! I called to the AI

I dont have thumbs! Ennos yelled back.

Neither do I! So tell me what gun I need to get to to cut them off! I was already heading down a hall, about to dive into an access shaft with an acrobatic leap when Ennos cut me off.

Turn around! Interdiction field generator on deck 5A! They call out the location, and I skid to a stop, claws rattling on the deck plate as I push off the lip of the access shaft.

I get moving. Between the two of us, weve got a missile to save.