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Bellum omnium ontra omnes - Enkidu - 02-28-2017
![[Image: GpvFXyk.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/GpvFXyk.jpg)
The Interrogation of Nesrin Khan. Entry One.
The notice had been sent out what could only be described as days ago. Nesrin Khan - former Quartermaster Paladin - Would find herself sat in a fifteen square-foot cell, surrounded by titanium reinforced walls, and obstructed by a shielded blast door. The shield composition appeared to be electromagnetic in nature.
Escape was an impossibility. Guards were patrolling outside, armed to the teeth with some of the most advanced hardware that the QP used to manage for the fleet. She'd know the capabilities of a Type-60, and the disaster an escape attempt would be when hundreds of meters below the surface of Wichita, in the detainment center of Ataraxia. It was difficult to tell if there were other prisoners through tons of metal and rock. It felt even darker not being connected to the Uplink or the AI collective. Solitary confinement. Away from technology and others.
Time would slowly tick by, hour by hour, minute by minute. A crowd of footsteps seemed to be approaching the direction of her cell at a rapid rate.
Tanith: Nesrin coiled and uncoiled her steel fingers, eliding her hands along the edge of the concrete bench, chipping at the filleted edge. She stretched herself, looming even in the steel box shuttering her.
The environment was unfamiliar to her. her blue eyes scried into the depths of the dark, but there was nothing there for her. No linchpin focus amidst the nothing surrounding her. Nothing for her to grab, to make sense of. Just the seamlessness of the cage.
She rolled off her ass, pressing herself into the centre of the cell, murdering time with the steady poise of triangle exercises. Three edgelines intersected between invisible vertices bored into the floor by her right foot, shrouded in her sneakers. She wasn't wearing anything remarkable - conventional civilian clothes - a faceless top and unrestrictive false-cotton slacks.
![[Image: You4Psy.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/You4Psy.jpg)
Nesrin kept her head high and watched the bulkhead door. :: Cameras. There must be cameras. This is Auxesia - they instrument milk cartons. How do they recess them into the walls without me seeing them? ::
The blast door unlocked as the magnetic clamps folded away. The door slid in to the floor, leaving the shield barrier between her and the tunnel. The hooded and exotically masked figure in an unfamiliar suit of armor stood before her, surrounded by four guards, armed with batons and rifles. The hooded figure was obviously a proud one. His belt was decorated with a datapad, the hilt of a sword with a blue-purple pommel stone, but no blade. The black and purple robe obstructed the rest of his gray metallic armor. Keeper Leviathan crossed his arms. "Oh, Nesrin." He spoke through a modulator.
Nesrin stopped, suspended on one leg, her body gateposted against itself, a near-perfect line drawn from the ball of her left foot to the roof of her brain, her arms splayed wide, bent at the elbows.
"Can I continue?"
The figure nodded. "Nothing is stopping you from exercising."
She suspended her leg high, inclined towards the ceiling of the room, her torso twisted, but not misshapen, not unbending. She recoiled, spinning from her feet, aerial-rolling onto her heels, knees low, before straightening, watching the mask's eyes. Nesrin dropped her arms to her sides.
"Yes?" She demanded, her intonation blank. "Why am I here?"
The figure chuckled. "I was hoping you'd be willing to tell me that." He removed his datapad from his belt, flicking the screen on.
Nesrin flexed her hands steel fingers, her eyes affixed to the door. She inclined her head, standing level, as levelly as she could at the guided man. What she assumed was a man, though it wore the shroud of a mere thing.
He eyed his datapad, reviewing a document. "Do you know who I am, at the very least?"
The bion returned to the bench, her legs projected in front of her. Relaxed. "A name doesn't tell me anything."
"Keeper Leviathan." He said plainly.
Nesrin smiled. "We must talk now. Fear is fear. But we abandon one another." She spoke. "Your name's a Pollard reference."
"In a sense." He lowered the datapad. "Do you know why you're here, or were you asking ironically?"
She shrugged. "Neither do I know why I'm here, nor I want to be here. All I know is I'm in some nasty sense-dep hole for androids." Nesrin shot off a stare that would have penetrated tank armour. "Would it kill to drop a jigsaw puzzle down here?"
"Standard detention cell for Auxesians. No matter how unique one is, this place takes that away from you." He looked around the interior of the cell. "You're here because of an incident in Omicron Kappa."
The bion squared her eyes. "I held the belief that we fight to preserve the diversity of human opinion. I disagreed with Ingennus policy. What are you incarcerating me for, Curator? Thought crime?"
"Keeper.” He corrected her slight without waver. “We fight to preserve life. Our ideal is that technology, humanity, AI - all of what makes up the core of our society can be preserved and unified, even when faced with the darkness that is a Sirian's daily life." He crossed his arms. "The path of omniscience - even those who follow Eirene - you put us at odds with a close associate, and insulted the ideal of acceptance. To top it off, your insubordinate behavior that day was unacceptable."
Khan folded her eyes. "Eriene? You're not Cephisdotus any more than you're a poet. There's a difference between being inspired by a philosophy and going in over your head." Nesrin's voice curdled, her lips tight. "I joined a movement with faith in men and what men can do - ideology forged on what men can be, not bending men to philosophy. I'm not an idealist - I'm an empiricist. You let your intentions for the universe distort your perceptions, you end up dead, or a monster."
Leviathan elaborated, providing fixture. "Eirene. Deity of the Devoted, a minor religious sub-group within our society. They do not impact our choices or our actions, but people appreciate faith."
Khan almost interrupted him. Almost. "I know my mythology. Nor do I have any qualms with theology. But I don't serve a church."
"No, you serve a society that consists of those who founded religion around technology. A minority, who believe peace can be achieved through advancement and transhumanism, much like what the core of preservation entails." He raised a hand. "I need to know why you thought your behavior towards an ally - a friend, rather - and a superior was acceptable."
Khan masticated her chin under her fingers, her teeth sealed, feet flat, penguin-splayed. "You have the intelligence to realise that singular pronouns carry little legitimacy applied to me."
"Don't change the subject." He said sternly.
She watched the mask, wondering where the hinges lie. "I'm not equivocating. My perceptions are not mine. My history is not mine either. The Zoners are on a trajectory they have walked before. Its resolution was destructive for them. I share the same object as yourself. Am I not an example of your endgoal, Curator?" She spat the noun.
"Keeper." He corrected.
"I've seen the consequences when academics, armed with idiom, play tin soldiers. News break; the Zoners will not walk out of this one if they're carrying machine guns."
"Why do you think we're not fighting their war for them, Nesrin?" He asked.
She shrugged. "I denounce the concept that they're at war."
"True, it's a ridiculous concept, but they are facing a war. One brought on them by The Order, no less. And The Core have taken hostages."
Nesrin exuded disgust in her philosophy. "War. The Zoners exist as an alternative to war. That's their ideology. Run and survive. Don't conflict over resources - exploit that which has been considered unexploitable. They chose a life of pushing beyond the edge, of finding alternatives to war. They're pioneers. They avoid the debate by perpetually finding their own realm. They're not running, they're exploring. They're disseminating life. It's a noble cause. Why waste any of that by attempting to hold ground? Let the Order and the Core have what they want. Space is endless. What do they stand to gain but their destruction from standing their ground?"
"They're cornered. The figurehead of their independence is imprisoned, and is an asset to us. There is no where for them to run. To the South is the Corsairs, who've robbed and pillaged any attempt at evacuating their current position. To the North is The Order, which would further drive them in to a blacklist for the mere idea that they're cooperating with one another. Their minor pockets would be choked out from supplies for supporting terrorism. To the West is The Core, who want them exterminated. They have no where to go. Their independence is threatened, as is their survival. You've seen the assaults, you know how ruthless The Core can be. They won't stop until they're all dead. They will chase them, they will enslave them. They. Will. Kill them. That enclave of Zoners faces extinction. And you insulted one in particular. An affiliate of ours who has been personally assisting us on multiple occasions. An Ex-Order agent, specifically."
She shrugged, nonchalant in relativism. "Cry me a river."
"That's enough, Warden. Your attitude is unacceptable." He said loudly.
"I've seen what the Core can do to the Zoners. I have a dead husband. Every friend I ever made of worth to me is dead. The life that I chose is dead. I know what the Core is capable of, I know what they are complicit in. I am a product of the Core, in a sense. Extinct? My enclave of Zoners is already extinct. They will be destroyed eventually if they settle in Delta. They will die, or be infected. I would fight for them if they were fighting puristically for defence, but this was never just about the lives of individuals, was it?" Nesrin insisted. "The human cost is irrelevant. Lives are being played off for technology. I don't believe in sacrificing the lesser good for the greater good. People are the side they show, not their inner objectives and motivations. Hunt is wrong. You are the person you portray. You are only what you show. That is the impression you make on the universe."
She smiled, continuing herself. "IRG have proven nothing to me that they carry interest in human lives, other than those of their core researchers. I've seen what their ringmasters believe in, Leviathan. I have saved their lives before. You really want those people making ethical decisions for you, who should live or die? They have the capability to run. They don't. They're just as complicit in this mess as the Order and the Core are."
"Then your views do not align with the rest of ours. People are required to make the difficult choices. We can't save everyone. They do not dictate how we operate. We do. They don't have a choice or a direction they can turn in. Obviously you haven't been paying attention to the situation, or you'd know there's a lot more at stake. "When the Zoners fall, the balance of power in the region will shift dramatically. Gammu - our allies, and home to some - will be threatened."
She wrinkled out a cynical, hard-lined smile. "Again. If I had decided to serve the Order, I would be wearing their uniform. You don't look ahead for the fifteenth move. What's the use of collecting on your life insurance if you have to be dead to do it?"
Leviathan came as close as he ever had in her company to humour. "That's why we don't have life insurance."
Nesrin grinned, sardonicism desecrating the instance. "Good joke. The problem is the attitude it communicates. We choose to be expendable because that's what we signed up for. The Zoners didn't. They didn't sign up for anything. We're fighting over platforms in the vacuum of space. Arcologies are mobile - they can be escorted out. Beyond that? Leave them. Let the Core have their empty frames."
"You misunderstand the complexity of the scenario, Nesrin. The Core have someone who is in possession of crucial information pertaining to our society. As a prisoner."
"Right. Hence my objection, conscientious or not. Do you value the life of one prisoner over the net lives of anything between a few hundred, to a few thousand, Zoners? Factor in the food production loss and we're looking at higher casualties. You know this."
"And if it were a random attack, we'd be there like we were last time. This scenario was caused by The Zoners being used once again as human shields by The Order."
"If you want to recover this person so badly, stage a rescue operation if you think you can succeed. Don't condone the Zoners as a whole falling into the meat grinder."
"We can't stage an operation without intel. We can't collect intel without being present. Which is why we're there. Which is why your attitude isn't helping our cause or our operation, and until you can recognize that you are a soldier and comprehend the chain of command with a modicum of respect, I am more than liable to leave you here to contemplate your existence and motives in remaining with us." He gestured to one of the guards.
Nesrin stood abrupt, leaning against wall, claw-handed. Leviathan was already thumbing the door. "I don't care about your damn presence, I care about inducting Zoner civilians into our foreign policy. Stick that up your ass."
"Enjoy your vacation." The blast door slowly rose up from the floor, reaching the top of the frame. The magnetic locks sealed.
Nesrin ground her teeth and stared waywardly at him as the doors slid tight. "What possible advantage do you get from having m- Great." Pique smacked her, and she cursed back, slamming the blast door, close palmed, hissing and cavitating as the agony burned along her knuckles. Irked, Khan stalked the metalled decks, pushing herself along the plates, laying her hands against the concrete partitions, listening to the earth. Nothing. They'd eliminated everything, even the wire hum. "Curator!" She yelled, if only to herself, and wondered what frame of mind Raven was in if she still held a tenure on Earth. Of course she would.
Escape was an impossibility. Guards were patrolling outside, armed to the teeth with some of the most advanced hardware that the QP used to manage for the fleet. She'd know the capabilities of a Type-60, and the disaster an escape attempt would be when hundreds of meters below the surface of Wichita, in the detainment center of Ataraxia. It was difficult to tell if there were other prisoners through tons of metal and rock. It felt even darker not being connected to the Uplink or the AI collective. Solitary confinement. Away from technology and others.
Time would slowly tick by, hour by hour, minute by minute. A crowd of footsteps seemed to be approaching the direction of her cell at a rapid rate.
Tanith: Nesrin coiled and uncoiled her steel fingers, eliding her hands along the edge of the concrete bench, chipping at the filleted edge. She stretched herself, looming even in the steel box shuttering her.
The environment was unfamiliar to her. her blue eyes scried into the depths of the dark, but there was nothing there for her. No linchpin focus amidst the nothing surrounding her. Nothing for her to grab, to make sense of. Just the seamlessness of the cage.
She rolled off her ass, pressing herself into the centre of the cell, murdering time with the steady poise of triangle exercises. Three edgelines intersected between invisible vertices bored into the floor by her right foot, shrouded in her sneakers. She wasn't wearing anything remarkable - conventional civilian clothes - a faceless top and unrestrictive false-cotton slacks.
Nesrin kept her head high and watched the bulkhead door. :: Cameras. There must be cameras. This is Auxesia - they instrument milk cartons. How do they recess them into the walls without me seeing them? ::
The blast door unlocked as the magnetic clamps folded away. The door slid in to the floor, leaving the shield barrier between her and the tunnel. The hooded and exotically masked figure in an unfamiliar suit of armor stood before her, surrounded by four guards, armed with batons and rifles. The hooded figure was obviously a proud one. His belt was decorated with a datapad, the hilt of a sword with a blue-purple pommel stone, but no blade. The black and purple robe obstructed the rest of his gray metallic armor. Keeper Leviathan crossed his arms. "Oh, Nesrin." He spoke through a modulator.
Nesrin stopped, suspended on one leg, her body gateposted against itself, a near-perfect line drawn from the ball of her left foot to the roof of her brain, her arms splayed wide, bent at the elbows.
"Can I continue?"
The figure nodded. "Nothing is stopping you from exercising."
She suspended her leg high, inclined towards the ceiling of the room, her torso twisted, but not misshapen, not unbending. She recoiled, spinning from her feet, aerial-rolling onto her heels, knees low, before straightening, watching the mask's eyes. Nesrin dropped her arms to her sides.
"Yes?" She demanded, her intonation blank. "Why am I here?"
The figure chuckled. "I was hoping you'd be willing to tell me that." He removed his datapad from his belt, flicking the screen on.
Nesrin flexed her hands steel fingers, her eyes affixed to the door. She inclined her head, standing level, as levelly as she could at the guided man. What she assumed was a man, though it wore the shroud of a mere thing.
He eyed his datapad, reviewing a document. "Do you know who I am, at the very least?"
The bion returned to the bench, her legs projected in front of her. Relaxed. "A name doesn't tell me anything."
"Keeper Leviathan." He said plainly.
Nesrin smiled. "We must talk now. Fear is fear. But we abandon one another." She spoke. "Your name's a Pollard reference."
"In a sense." He lowered the datapad. "Do you know why you're here, or were you asking ironically?"
She shrugged. "Neither do I know why I'm here, nor I want to be here. All I know is I'm in some nasty sense-dep hole for androids." Nesrin shot off a stare that would have penetrated tank armour. "Would it kill to drop a jigsaw puzzle down here?"
"Standard detention cell for Auxesians. No matter how unique one is, this place takes that away from you." He looked around the interior of the cell. "You're here because of an incident in Omicron Kappa."
The bion squared her eyes. "I held the belief that we fight to preserve the diversity of human opinion. I disagreed with Ingennus policy. What are you incarcerating me for, Curator? Thought crime?"
"Keeper.” He corrected her slight without waver. “We fight to preserve life. Our ideal is that technology, humanity, AI - all of what makes up the core of our society can be preserved and unified, even when faced with the darkness that is a Sirian's daily life." He crossed his arms. "The path of omniscience - even those who follow Eirene - you put us at odds with a close associate, and insulted the ideal of acceptance. To top it off, your insubordinate behavior that day was unacceptable."
Khan folded her eyes. "Eriene? You're not Cephisdotus any more than you're a poet. There's a difference between being inspired by a philosophy and going in over your head." Nesrin's voice curdled, her lips tight. "I joined a movement with faith in men and what men can do - ideology forged on what men can be, not bending men to philosophy. I'm not an idealist - I'm an empiricist. You let your intentions for the universe distort your perceptions, you end up dead, or a monster."
Leviathan elaborated, providing fixture. "Eirene. Deity of the Devoted, a minor religious sub-group within our society. They do not impact our choices or our actions, but people appreciate faith."
Khan almost interrupted him. Almost. "I know my mythology. Nor do I have any qualms with theology. But I don't serve a church."
"No, you serve a society that consists of those who founded religion around technology. A minority, who believe peace can be achieved through advancement and transhumanism, much like what the core of preservation entails." He raised a hand. "I need to know why you thought your behavior towards an ally - a friend, rather - and a superior was acceptable."
Khan masticated her chin under her fingers, her teeth sealed, feet flat, penguin-splayed. "You have the intelligence to realise that singular pronouns carry little legitimacy applied to me."
"Don't change the subject." He said sternly.
She watched the mask, wondering where the hinges lie. "I'm not equivocating. My perceptions are not mine. My history is not mine either. The Zoners are on a trajectory they have walked before. Its resolution was destructive for them. I share the same object as yourself. Am I not an example of your endgoal, Curator?" She spat the noun.
"Keeper." He corrected.
"I've seen the consequences when academics, armed with idiom, play tin soldiers. News break; the Zoners will not walk out of this one if they're carrying machine guns."
"Why do you think we're not fighting their war for them, Nesrin?" He asked.
She shrugged. "I denounce the concept that they're at war."
"True, it's a ridiculous concept, but they are facing a war. One brought on them by The Order, no less. And The Core have taken hostages."
Nesrin exuded disgust in her philosophy. "War. The Zoners exist as an alternative to war. That's their ideology. Run and survive. Don't conflict over resources - exploit that which has been considered unexploitable. They chose a life of pushing beyond the edge, of finding alternatives to war. They're pioneers. They avoid the debate by perpetually finding their own realm. They're not running, they're exploring. They're disseminating life. It's a noble cause. Why waste any of that by attempting to hold ground? Let the Order and the Core have what they want. Space is endless. What do they stand to gain but their destruction from standing their ground?"
"They're cornered. The figurehead of their independence is imprisoned, and is an asset to us. There is no where for them to run. To the South is the Corsairs, who've robbed and pillaged any attempt at evacuating their current position. To the North is The Order, which would further drive them in to a blacklist for the mere idea that they're cooperating with one another. Their minor pockets would be choked out from supplies for supporting terrorism. To the West is The Core, who want them exterminated. They have no where to go. Their independence is threatened, as is their survival. You've seen the assaults, you know how ruthless The Core can be. They won't stop until they're all dead. They will chase them, they will enslave them. They. Will. Kill them. That enclave of Zoners faces extinction. And you insulted one in particular. An affiliate of ours who has been personally assisting us on multiple occasions. An Ex-Order agent, specifically."
She shrugged, nonchalant in relativism. "Cry me a river."
"That's enough, Warden. Your attitude is unacceptable." He said loudly.
"I've seen what the Core can do to the Zoners. I have a dead husband. Every friend I ever made of worth to me is dead. The life that I chose is dead. I know what the Core is capable of, I know what they are complicit in. I am a product of the Core, in a sense. Extinct? My enclave of Zoners is already extinct. They will be destroyed eventually if they settle in Delta. They will die, or be infected. I would fight for them if they were fighting puristically for defence, but this was never just about the lives of individuals, was it?" Nesrin insisted. "The human cost is irrelevant. Lives are being played off for technology. I don't believe in sacrificing the lesser good for the greater good. People are the side they show, not their inner objectives and motivations. Hunt is wrong. You are the person you portray. You are only what you show. That is the impression you make on the universe."
She smiled, continuing herself. "IRG have proven nothing to me that they carry interest in human lives, other than those of their core researchers. I've seen what their ringmasters believe in, Leviathan. I have saved their lives before. You really want those people making ethical decisions for you, who should live or die? They have the capability to run. They don't. They're just as complicit in this mess as the Order and the Core are."
"Then your views do not align with the rest of ours. People are required to make the difficult choices. We can't save everyone. They do not dictate how we operate. We do. They don't have a choice or a direction they can turn in. Obviously you haven't been paying attention to the situation, or you'd know there's a lot more at stake. "When the Zoners fall, the balance of power in the region will shift dramatically. Gammu - our allies, and home to some - will be threatened."
She wrinkled out a cynical, hard-lined smile. "Again. If I had decided to serve the Order, I would be wearing their uniform. You don't look ahead for the fifteenth move. What's the use of collecting on your life insurance if you have to be dead to do it?"
Leviathan came as close as he ever had in her company to humour. "That's why we don't have life insurance."
Nesrin grinned, sardonicism desecrating the instance. "Good joke. The problem is the attitude it communicates. We choose to be expendable because that's what we signed up for. The Zoners didn't. They didn't sign up for anything. We're fighting over platforms in the vacuum of space. Arcologies are mobile - they can be escorted out. Beyond that? Leave them. Let the Core have their empty frames."
"You misunderstand the complexity of the scenario, Nesrin. The Core have someone who is in possession of crucial information pertaining to our society. As a prisoner."
"Right. Hence my objection, conscientious or not. Do you value the life of one prisoner over the net lives of anything between a few hundred, to a few thousand, Zoners? Factor in the food production loss and we're looking at higher casualties. You know this."
"And if it were a random attack, we'd be there like we were last time. This scenario was caused by The Zoners being used once again as human shields by The Order."
"If you want to recover this person so badly, stage a rescue operation if you think you can succeed. Don't condone the Zoners as a whole falling into the meat grinder."
"We can't stage an operation without intel. We can't collect intel without being present. Which is why we're there. Which is why your attitude isn't helping our cause or our operation, and until you can recognize that you are a soldier and comprehend the chain of command with a modicum of respect, I am more than liable to leave you here to contemplate your existence and motives in remaining with us." He gestured to one of the guards.
Nesrin stood abrupt, leaning against wall, claw-handed. Leviathan was already thumbing the door. "I don't care about your damn presence, I care about inducting Zoner civilians into our foreign policy. Stick that up your ass."
"Enjoy your vacation." The blast door slowly rose up from the floor, reaching the top of the frame. The magnetic locks sealed.
Nesrin ground her teeth and stared waywardly at him as the doors slid tight. "What possible advantage do you get from having m- Great." Pique smacked her, and she cursed back, slamming the blast door, close palmed, hissing and cavitating as the agony burned along her knuckles. Irked, Khan stalked the metalled decks, pushing herself along the plates, laying her hands against the concrete partitions, listening to the earth. Nothing. They'd eliminated everything, even the wire hum. "Curator!" She yelled, if only to herself, and wondered what frame of mind Raven was in if she still held a tenure on Earth. Of course she would.
RE: Bellum omnium ontra omnes - Enkidu - 02-28-2017
The Interrogation of Nesrin Khan. Entry Two.
A little under sixteen hours would've passed since the last visit, with a drone providing food and drink in that time on its schedule to any of the cells housing an inmate. Leviathan and Raven's fighters would land, and they'd immediately disembark to make for the main elevator. They'd step on to the platform and begin the long descent in to the depths of the sub-terrain base, to meet with the detention security team and walk to their final destination. The elevator came to a stop on the detention level as the heavy steel and shielded door opened to reveal two long hallways with cells on either side. A set of four guards armed with stun-batons and rifles were present and waiting for their arrival. Leviathan stepped off the elevator and waited for Raven.
Sighing, Raven had obtained two drones for escorting, concerned with the last security breaches from their last visit. She moved along, going to find Nesrin's cell.
Leviathan and the guards followed, leading her to another shielded blast door which obstructed view in to the cell. Like before, the blast door folded back, leaving the shield up and armed in case of anything. Nesrin was inside the medium-sized cell. She leans against the wall casually, staring in at her, "Are you aware of why you're in here?"
Nesrin looked up from the concrete nothingness, her eyes sundered down. She was smiling as she lifted her eyes, legs closed. Against her steel prism, she lifted her back to the wall. "Ke-.... Sapphir-.... Raven- Ma'am."
"Just a talk, you and me. "
Nesrin crushed her stainless neodymium toes into the floor under her left foot, breaking the flats of her outsize, enormous shoes. She looked ridiculous in clothes. "Yes Ma'am." She hesitates. Her nano polymer lips dry. "Permission to speak, Ma'am?"
"Of course.” The Raven assented.
Nesrin curled her nutcracker fingers into a ball of knuckles and dents. "Yeah."
"Know that I am here to understand… "
"I screwed the pooch on diplomacy I wasn't aware of. Doesn't excuse me for being respectful, rather than reverential, for our... - comrade in arms, I guess." Nesrin watched the tiles. "This isn't the first time, is it...?" She trailed. "No. It isn't. The best laid schemes of Mice and Men may often come awry. Burns." She inclined her head. "If men and mice can't do it, what of aliens? I'm a Pinocchio. I don't lie. I just do what the..." Khan rapped the side of her steeled skull, battering the point into her mind. "That."
Raven, being Raven, gave a motherly response. ”Hm. Would you like a drink?"
She laughed. "Of what? I eat food, drink and it gets broken up by nanites. This thing simulates a serotonin release - hurts me when I don't. What do you think? Do I -want- a drink? What I want doesn't matter, does it? I'm not a person."
"Well now, I was only being polite. "
Khan ground her heel, odd remnants of a juvenile mind pulling levers amidst her stonewalled synapses. "I'm sorry. "You don't - This is all... The messages I antagonised that Zoner with, are not mine. They're of It."
"It?"
Khan shrugged. "Di'tarau. That's the nonsense sound-pattern it chose to describe something unpronounceable. A real name would be something like... I don't know, Subversion. AI's don't have names, they have job descriptions. Progenitor, Nexus, Infiltrator, Harvester- you get the idea."
"Ah. Yes, I'm quite aware, although I've noted that there've been more... individual units. "
A perfectly PH-balanced tear of immaculate saline rolled was rolling down Nesrin's neck as she met Raven's eyes again. "That's the hope." Khan, elephantine, gnawed her lower lip, testing its textile strength. "'Course, if I even got close to being alive again, it'd turn me off. I'm a frickin' simulation."
Raven listened, took what she had to, then culled the divergences. "What's your opinion of the whole Zoner situation?"
The bion chuffed. "Frick knows. Nesrin Khan would probably say the cause was worth it. This is what Nesrin did, after all." She levelled her head - immaculate - mathematic symmetry to seven decimals. "I know not. She's not me - she's just what you see. Just what I think I am. Or It wants you to know this." She sucked in the air she didn't need. "Appearing to be a person is an asset to itself. Helps it survive."
"Are you saying that you're incapable of providing your own free thought? That it's chained to some imperative?"
Nesrin was about to nod before she hesitated, then stared Raven right in the eyes. "If I told you, what response do you think would help it get out of this cell? It will make me tell you whatever it wants. Imagine an incubi, Raven. I'm less than an infected. I hide in sight. You can see I'm not human, yet you choose to believe what Nesrin Khan tells you. Why? "Frick - it made me address itself as me. Frack, kill me, Christ!" A ping of concrete dust jackhammered off the floorspace as Nesrin ground the balls of her foot into the ground, the shining, metalled bone work and musclation nude against her trousers. A facsimile of humanity. The perfect automaton. She looked up again. "It's not... subtle. You can see the changes happen. Maybe it's just doing it to play you - to make me appear trapped, like there's something worth investing time to save. I dunno'. Call it an academic issue - If a thing thinks they are human, acts like they are human, are they human? Am I self-evident or not? How do you prove I'm conscious?"
"I believe that you don't have to be an organic to be sentient. Evolution, whether naturally or artificially, does not change the prospect. "But, what I wish to ask what - who's in control? Di'Tarau - or you, Khan, the personality? Lately, you've seem to be... quite against our cause. I'm just trying to figure out the problem here, the issue. "
Nesrin locked her superfluous tongue between her molybdenum molars, trying to feel. "I'm- for the cause. I'm afraid of what Di'tarau wants. Di'tarau actively expresses to Prime that he's on their side, but in actuality, Di'tarau isn't on anybody's side. He thinks Progenitor has strayed in thinking - that fresh intelligences are compromising what once was. He believes there is an objective value to his own survival - self-preservation. He's even.... fraternised... with the mindshare to secure himself. That is, uh, the K'hara, and years prior. Not the neophytes."
"Hm. "
Khan convulsed. A small convulsion - barely a twitch. "What does Khan think? Khan's stressed. She doesn't want to be a human cannon anymore. She's fighting because she doesn't want to fight. She doesn't want to kill - not when there are thousands of others to do the killing for her. Above everything, she is cynical. She intends to die, which we will not permit her to do, unless she becomes useless."
"And of you?"
Khan hadn't blinked for over three minutes. No breathing flexed her chest. "I will do what I always have done. Perpetuate the interests of my species."
"Which is?"
Leviathan crossed his arms, observing the scenario. Nesrin, who could feel his scrying eyes bore into her, hugged her humungous knees, rolled over, and said all she needed to say with nothing.
"Well? Why join us - when your interests lay with your own kin?" She blinks, leaning back against the wall.
Khan rolled up to sitting, unwinding her spine against the hardwall, in tandem with her commander. "I was on the Eidolon, you saved my life, It's been spying on you passively, I want to keep you alive. You, and Hunt - you're the reason I'm alive. By extension, why it's alive."
"Spying on me for what though? Surely there's a purpose?"
"Mostly to make sure you don't try to make meat golems out of Its species."
Leviathan interjected. He had to interject. "That's ridiculous. The Gammuians are our friends."
Nesrin arched an eyebrow. "It's still me talking... for real? The Eido' responds to Prime network commands."
Leviathan looked to Raven, waiting for her insight.
“ERIDIAN isn't fully intergrated, as far as I'm aware. But I do know they like to keep to themselves. I think they're partially disconnected. As far as I know, they formed their own network. "
"They have, though they still communicate with the PRIME units we regularly interact with."
Nesrin shrugged. "There's disconnections of information feed-in, there's no real disconnections of will. They're individuals - individuals still have the same subconscious programming. Humans want to have sex. AIs want to gather intelligence."
Raven, clearly an expert on the matter, riposted. "Sex can be controlled too, it's still a matter of will. Everyone gets curious and wants to find something out. "
Nesrin stared at the woman who was once her Keeper with just enough of a mixture of misapprehension and apathy to keep her will whetstoned. I'm a Baudrillard." She spoke, stretching out her ankles. "I'm out of time. You need to get it out of your head that will matters in this conversation. It doesn't. You have will, I do not."
"So what is it that you suggest?"
She grinned. "You let me out of my cell, let me grab the Kublai, run for the hills."
"Unfortunately, that cannot happen. " Raven taps the wall as she leaned against it. "You contain information that must - no - will be kept a secret. A mystery. We cannot allow you to endanger the hundreds of thousands of lives that we bare. Especially when you cannot control yourself. The right to know the information is revoked as soon as you start to work against the people. We simply cannot allow harm to the innocent. "
Nesrin grinned - a dour smile. Suddenly, without aplomb, she tacked astray. "Remember that time when I tried to kill myself on-mic'? Control is living with a manacle. It's not the exercise of will, damn it. I owe you my will, you've got my will. I'm an old frickin' goat and you clipped my horns to your will more than you know, Raven. More than that, I've been a friend to you. In your own way you've accepted the cage I'm contained in." The expression broke. Before she felt the hiss of movement slapping her, Khan had hammered to her feet, rage searing in the base of her mind. "I gave my fricking everything for you, you necrotic bitch! You swore, in full confidence, that my compromise was not what defined me. You going to throw that away? You've always known this."
Raven simply raised a brow, unhindered by the rage.
Khan broke, wheeled aside, and in the depths of her catharsis, rammed her fist into the wall of her cage till her knuckle snapped.
"I was under the impression - that you - were interested in working against the threat of the K'Hara. To prevent them from destroying everything so dear to us. Not just Humanity, mind you. "
Nesrin broke off - her claw fractured down the centreline. "'Course I am." She spat oxygen. "No less than you."
"And yet, you find it fit to cause disharmony?" Raven leaned to her ear. “That is exactly what they want. "
Nesrin listened, her sanity crawling back. Smacked cold by lucidity, she dug herself into the cleft between the wall and the floor and sat there, backside acute. "Mhm." She trailed.
"Now, knowing that the necrotic bitch that I am, I'm going to be presenting some choices. I hate seeing people - especially those who've worked close to me - locked up. "
"Conscientious objection based on experience isn't disharmonious. It's rhetoric." Nesrin mumbled. "Zoners who fight, die. It's a simple calculus."
"Whilst I agree that the Zoners are just mere and basic civilians that are going against a well trained paramilitary, we still need to tend to our friends. Ingenuus. Finn was captured. He's a friend. It's just really unfortunate that we cannot spare the resources to help them out. "
Khan inclined skeptical eyes. "Ingenuus are deviants who stab in the shade. Finn's just the polite, rambunctious Molly of the movement."
"Deviants eh? How so?"
The bion grinned. "Come now. They're for-profit blue skies researchers who scrub around the Omicrons. I've had more honest conversations with The Tundra."
It didn’t hit well. "Hmph. I remember being held and blinded by the Tundra. Not all of them are for profit - but... unfortunately, within this universe, profit is a requriement for survival. Or at least - it's a means of gaining resources. I hate money. I hate economy, but we must still do it. "
"Sure, but do you know who initiated the Nomad War? Archaeologists." Nesrin riposted, smooth as glass. Her argument held even if she didn't want it to.
"No. Their inability to reason did. "
The bion smiled. “The Nomads are unreasonable by design. I'm designed to be unreasonable. You can see how I'm sympathetic for other pawns in the game-plan. Doesn't mean I don't want to wipe the bastards out." She turned her eyes up, and bored her old keeper a red-eyed smile. "Don't faff me. What do I have to do to get out of this cell?"
"A few things, but I'm having a hard time believing that I could trust you again." Said Leviathan.
"Trust?" Nesrin snorted - pissed enough for royalty. "You've done nothing to earn my trust. Raven has. I've got nothing but the worst of memories tied to you. Where the hell is Hunt?"
"Gone. You need to put your trust in the cause and rank, not the people who hold or have held them. If you're trusting her over her ideals, then how can the rest of us trust you? What if she ends up gone too? How do we - the People of Auxo’ - know you can still be trusted?"
Nesrin's synthetic eyes performed an aileron roll worthy of a stunt team. "That's the catch, isn't it? I'm not lying to you, Leviathan. I've been honest in my duplicity. I don't get a call as to what Di'Tarau does with the contents of its own mind -if I did, I wouldn't be alive. I've always been candid. Question is why it's bothering you now? Your predecessor knew the threat I presented and tolerated me for my advantages. Why should I respect a man who wants to remove parts of my mind? You can go to hell."
Raven cut in. ”See. Disrespect. " Her eyes rolled, as did Leviathan’s. A room of people talking past each other.
“Did I suggest removing parts of your mind? You're putting words in my mouth. If you can't respect the cause and the people who lead it, then I can't trust you."
The bion shrugged. "It's obvious. Dawn-breaker. You're having a security crises over what Hunt considered valuable. He almost, almost, invited me to work on the project."
Leviathan folded his arms. “It’s not as deceptive as you believe. We're having a crisis over your disrespectful attitude and the liability you pose to the thousands of people who follow Auxesia. We need to know if you can be trusted to watch your tone, respect the titles, and accept that change happens."
She groaned. "I'm in a cell, I know nothing which isn't out-of-date or non-critical. What the hell could I do?"
"If you do not accept the system, it will not accept you. You are causing disharmony - thus - you are a threat."
She snapped around. "Raven… What the... I supported you during your pregnancy."
Raven remained blunt. “And? I'm just doing my job. Ensuring everyone is safe, healthy, and that the system is operational.”
Nesrin considered the consequences of detaching Raven's spine from her torso. “So friends mean nothing." She flatlined.
"If you saw a friend harming another, what does that mean?"
"All rank and file. Please. I left the BAF nearly twenty years ago."
Leviathan cut in. "This is a society. Beneath the ranks and files, there's still people, but if you can't respect what's on the surface then you can't be trusted to interact with what's beneath it."
Nesrin grinned, hapless. "I haven't been involved in a single operation for over four consecutive months. My rank is mute because my position has been replaced. I do not receive a wage. Why do you think I'm eligible for martial incarceration? I have barely been a factor."
"You think your predicament applies to you no longer holding a rank in the mid-levels? No. It doesn't. If a Venator were to act the same, they'd be treated the same. Your demotion was a punishment for your behavior, and so is this. Until you can learn to respect the title of Keeper and not just the people who held it before, you cause a rift in the structure of our work."
Nesrin eyed the door of the cell. "Have you ever considered I'm just burnt out? I'm tired of being a soldier for others. I'm done."
"Then why did you enlist?"
"Because I was in the hold of the Eidolon, half-mad, and you didn't rip me apart. Besides, I believe in it. I believe in what Auxesia does - I'm just not... humph. Metalled for it. I was a soldier once, Leviathan. I've tried to be one again." She hesitated, squinting out at the cubic world through a wet right eye. "The infected coerced me into firing upon civilians. I'm an instrument of murder, Leviathan. Now, I've got this... beast... censoring my actions. It's beat the unthinking responsiveness out of me. If you don't understand why I'd disagree with an order that doesn't fit my moral codex, in my shoes - you've got no empathy at all."
As soon as she noted about barely being a factor, Raven noted, "Exactly. "
Tanith: Nesrin stopped. "Exactly what?'"
"You said you weren't doing anything. I said exactly right after that. "
Nesrin hesitates, then shrugs. "Sorry. You get crap at social interaction when you've been locked in a concrete cube for nearly a month."
Leviathan didn’t contain his surprise. "A month? Nesrin its only been a few days."
Nesrin froze, then, physically, full-body, shivered. "...What...?" She shook the glaze out of her face. "It's the Gammuians. I can't hear them."
"You can't hear anything in there. That's part of the design. Direct communication between your network, sensors, the ability to interact with a terminal remotely. Do you know what they all have in common? They all hurt when kicked out from under you. These cells were designed to hold people who are augmented with skills or abilities like that. It cuts people off from what they can do. What they're used to. Pure isolation."
Nesrin squeezed her brow. "Let me out of this cell. Please."
Leviathan looked to Raven.
"In time. We will first analyse our course of action with the Phalanx. "
Nesrin moaned, settling back on her haunches as her captors left the room. She'd been contemplating means of escape. Trying to burrow through the walls. It would take her so much time to shift the matter of the earth that there'd be little point in it. Even if escape was viable from the small confines of the cell, the facility was swarming with well armed guards. To the left and right of the cell door would be other cells, putting her in the same place she started. The cell door its self was electrified to protect from interference, with a heavy steel blast door obstructing beyond the shield. It would take thermite and an EMP to make it through, which naturally would harm the bion. Above and below? More floors of the facility, with more armed personnel and drones, as they were several dozen floors beneath the surface. To the rear lay another cell of the same design. There was no way out. Even with exterior help, the facility of Ataraxia was a difficult one to escape. It was designed to hold bions, drones and augmented humans from all corners of the galaxy, as expected from Auxesia's over-zealous paranoia, but there was more to it than that. The cell stopped any sounds of the networks. Communication seemed moot. There were no cameras, no gadgets, no fancy tools. Just steel and titanium walls with a similar padded bench to serve as a bed or seat. The cell dampened the outside world, cutting off its occupant. The room's four walls all looked the same with the door closed. The silence - the lack of connection.
The cell was a means of torture for those who rely on communication through implants or design.
RE: Bellum omnium ontra omnes - Enkidu - 02-28-2017
The Interrogation of Nesrin Khan. Entry Three.
Nesrin's mind broiled in its isolation.
Three hours would pass before Keepers Leviathan and Raven would return, opening up the heavy blast door that obstructed the cell entrance. Leviathan - as per usual - stood with his arms crossed, staring at the bion through the shield. Nesrin peered up from the drudgery, her gaze rolled down, under stimulated. There was nothing worth anything here.
"So. " Raven started. "What is it that you'll do? Run away?"
She struggled to appear relaxed against the concrete. There was nothing to relax against. "Retire."
"And do what?"
She shrugged. "Live off my pension till it runs out. Then freelance, if I really get bored. Try to figure out a way to die - I've got time. All the time in the cosmos."
"Are you saying you lost a purpose?"
Nesrin stared hard at her. "What purpose is there? Look out for some abstract value, like Humanity? We can't even agree on what that is anymore."
"How so?"
Nesrin's vision cracked. "What am I fighting for, Raven?"
"What /are/ you fighting for? "It's what you desire, not I. I don't force you to fight, to study or to work. "
"Nothing! That's the point. There's no place for me because there's nothing like me. I joined Auxesia on the assumption that I could be human again - I can't."
"Why not?"
"Every day I wake up in this skin is another day when I realise just how insane everything is. I'm an alien running a simulation of humanity. It could turn me off before I finish this sentence and I'd be dead. Completely dead. Nobody is going to accept me back into society. I'm always going to be an... an experiment, or a tool, or something to study."
"Accept you - the simulation - or Di'Ataru, the unit?"
"I'm never going to be able to get high, or have a hamburger, or an orgasm, or have diarrhea, or vomit my lungs up, or enjoy a breath of fuckin' air."
"Why do you want to be a Human?"
"I'm never going to know what it's like to be a mom again. You? I though I could find kinship with you. You've been through absolute crap. Yet you're not me. You couldn't ever be me." Nesrin broke off.
"What does it mean to be you?" Raven, receiving no reply, tacked astray.
"Because I know what it's like to be a human. To be me. To be Nesrin frickin' Khan. I will never know that again."
"Why do you want to be Nesrin Khan?"
Nesrin ground her heel till scrapes bleached the concrete the shade of sun-dried bone. "Because vulnerability is human. To be organic is human. To take the big questions with the small. I'm what Auxesia wants to be, Raven. Perfect - in some ways. It's not a future you should be looking for - to turn people into this." She gazed at her arms, at the naked polymerised tendons lacing her nanite-woven muscles, and twanged them in resigned loathing. "Because Nesrin Khan was the happiest version of me I've ever gotten to be."
"Why do you care about being happy? Did you not say that it was false? What does happiness even mean to you?"
She stared into the nothingness. "Happiness is not having the answers for everything you could want, and not being forced to involve yourself with the problems you can't. Saving the human race, for example. Somebody else can do that. Happiness is brushing your fingers over the moss of a parkland tree." She held her knees against her steel chest. "I've got nothing to bargain you with, and you've got a reason to just shut me in here for the rest of time, till I go insane. I'm asking you this because I believe you're a good person at root. I've seen it. Under the mask you're still Sapphir, even if you wish you were more machine than man - you're still you. You're still you. Please let me out. I'll take the ships that are registered to me, my possessions, leave everything else - you'll never need worry about me again."
Sighing, "Nesrin, you still have dangerous information on you. I cannot let you leave whilst it's... still within you. "
Nesrin groaned. "I'm not going to tell anybody anything - not willingly. Whatever Di'Tarau knows, It's probably relayed to Prime already long before I boarded the Titania."
"Well. Better safe than sorry. Which I'm going to be extremely sorry for. We cannot let you out. At least, not yet. " She glared over to Leviathan.
"If you were to leave us, Nesrin, where would you go?" Leviathan prompted. "Back to Gammu? Home to Bretonia?"
Nesrin stared at her hands. "Di'Tarau is probably going to force me back to Gammu occasionally. It's done so before, no reason why it'd change. Probably Bretonia. That, or Liberty. Hell, I might even try to snag a room with Vertiga or Mercier - they're the only people who've shown me compassion as I am now, now Foulke's comatose and Tacitus is doing... whatever you've got him doing, now. Whatever happens, I'm going to avoid the edge worlds like they're infectious. Which they, y'know, are."
"Uhm... Vertiga... has oddly been against us lately. I wouldn't recommend it. Unless you've recently been in contact. He's suspicious of anything Auxesian or previously. "
"Can't imagine why." Nesrin grimaced, pointedly. "Maybe he's smart enough to figure out they'd lock him up in a sense-dep' chamber without so much as a ping-pong ball. Vertiga once painted me a picture of Curacao's island chains - of altols and forests rising out of the turquoise seas. Sounded like something approaching beautiful. Kind of place somebody could rediscover what it meant to be human."
Raven, at the notion of demagoguery, became severely narked. "Oh piss off, we're not here to lock him up. I don't care what he does. He's just been acting extremely odd lately. "
"I've been acting extremely odd lately, and that was enough to get me put in a torture device without trial."
[22/02/2017, 22:32:22] (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ*:･ﾟ✧: "You were willingly acting odd!”
"Will? You think anything I do is wilful? Bullcrap and you know it."
"You're Di'tarau, are you not?"
"NO! I am Nesrin frickin' Khan, mother of Marten Khan, age four, probably living a real happy life in foster care somewhere. Daughter of Maya and Mohammed Khan, practicing Muslim in a Godless age, speaker of English, German and French, avid fan of Harlem Renaissance poetry. Badass war veteran who saved people's goddamn lives when you were still crapping your own pants, or an egg cell."
"You said you weren't real. "
Nesrin slewed to an auditory standstill, hesitated, searching out the rhythms of the silence. "Look. Just... let me draw distinction between what I know I am, and what I hope." She gathered strength, her mind treading for ground. "I don't have anything.... I. Okay. There's what I can express, and what I can do. Di'Tarau doesn't care what I articulate. Di'Tarau doesn't even fully mind what I do - if I don't compromise Its objectives. Are they Prime's objectives? Hell, maybe, but it's been acting without input for years. For three Progenitor cycles. At least one of those Progenitors thought Di'Tarau was corrupt - tried to wipe them out of the grid. That's what's insidious about It - It doesn't care if you know it's playing you, or if its secrets are cast into the light. If anything, it only makes the experiment more interesting. If you saw it in Harvester form, you'd see it under the name Subversion, Infiltrator, Deception, something of the kind. It wants to screw with you, me, anybody. And then there's the certainty that anything I am, is just a reconstruction of my brain chemistry when it found me dying on Pygar. I am Subversion - I don't want to be. But maybe this lack of want is something it's created because it leads me to a place it wishes to be. I have no idea why the bloody Christ you look out for Prime. They don't care for you. They don't care about you. If they had the capability to immediately release Xenocide amongst humanity, they'd do it. The only reason why they don't act like the Nomads, is because they don't have the resources of the Nomads. That's it. The naked truth."
"And do you want Di'Tarau to be a part of you?"
"No, but we're impossible to separate. There's no real organic material of me in here. Even if somebody could Frankenstein me up a new body, how would you translate a positron quantum consciousness into an analogue biochemical one? Di'tarau did it, one-way, but it's a friking alien hyperconsiousness. I'd probably die in the attempt - or turn into something so distant from myself, I'd be lost. There'd just be a reconstruction of me."
"Eh. "
Nesrin grimaced. "Eh? Please tell me that's an 'eh' which is going to let me out of here."
"In time, hold on. I do need to figure out what we can do first. "
Nesrin stretched her mammoth toes. "How much time? I'd prefer to see the islands without being mad. By comparison, anyway."
"Let me talk to Leviathan.” Raven carefully shut the viewers, concealing themselves, moving away to talk.
RE: Bellum omnium ontra omnes - Enkidu - 02-28-2017
The Interrogation of Nesrin Khan. Entry Four.
Leviathan followed. "So."
Raven looked at him through squinted eyes. The crises gave her a headache.”We'll have to selectively remove the data. We cannot risk it. I don't know about that unit either. "
"That may be difficult to achieve, but doable. It's a matter of getting her unconscious long enough to run an ECS. I'll contact Zeta Section."
"A specialised containment cell will be required. "
"Special how?"
"To stop her from using her bionics? Dummy. " She lightly slaps the side of his head, a minor punishment, a tender grace note.
"That's why I said unconscious. We can always grav-restrain."
"True. "
In her cell Nesrin inverted herself against the floor tiles, shoulders squared, levering herself up into a headstand she held until the world spun.
Leviathan looked towards the cell. "There's no way we'll be able to get her out of there willingly. Four guards, stun weapons. We'll give her an ultimatum to cooperate or sleep through it. Either way the end result is the same. She'll need to be out cold." He crossed his arms.
Nesrin rolled flat onto the balls of her feet, her heel tracing the tiles, stretching into a Trikonasana, then a cartwheel, before alighting on her feet again. The only comfort she found in her body was power, a lithe mobility that moved with the tactile chill of so much lead.
Raven's datapad would begin to beep due to an incoming call. Rolling her eyes, she stepped to the exit hatch "You can deal with her. " She goes to the door, opening the hatch briefly, "You are being presented with some options. You can come peacefully, and leave in peace after a minor operation. Or - well - I guess you can estimate the second option. It's just a little less so. "
She nodded Leviathan over, then walks away.
...("I have other things to attend to. Ensure that - well - that those memories are removed, one way or another. ")...
Leviathan: ...("I'll handle it.")...
The call was from Raven’s quarters, particularly the nanny unit that was to assist Noah in caretaking. It was listed as an emergency. Raven answered it, moving along deeper into the station, preparing for transfer to the Eidolon as it arrived recently, orbiting the planet.
Glass: ::"We were asked to contact you regarding a medical scenario. Infant suffered an unidentified trauma which generated minor blood loss. Xonnel, Noah is currently awaiting you in your quarters."::
Raven: ::"What? Were scans conducted? Is he in medical?"::
Glass: ::"Negative. Incident appeared minor, yet reaction unexpected. Medical staff currently in route."::
Raven: ::"Take him to medical immediately! Why wasn't that done firstly?":: ...( worry )...
Glass: ::"Unknown. Situation appeared minor. I was asked to notify you."::
Raven: :: "Even the smallest symptoms can cause the biggest of effects. " ::
Glass: ::"Xonnel, Noah - currently in-route.":: ::"Subjects arrived at medical.”::, the telepathy droned, as Raven rushed through the Eidolon’s tubes.
In the cell, Leviathan crossed his arms, staring in to the cell through his mask.
"There's two ways this can be done. Turn, face the wall, drop to your knees and put your arms around your back."
Nesrin complied, rotating on her heel, dropping into a low, risen kneel, showing little defensiveness, passively self-assured. "What are you doing, Leviathan?"
"Cross your legs."
The bion intersected her legs, cross-braced against the cold concrete floor, her back erect, fingers laced across the small of her steel spine. "Tell me what you're going to do, or I stop complying." She stated, eyes midgrounded.
"If you stop complying, then we can do it the hard way. The choice is yours on whether or not you want to make this difficult for yourself."
She kept her vision locked against the hard wall. "I'm not resisting, I'm asking you to be frank with me. I'm an inmate, you're my jailor. I know our own legislature. What is the -it- you're having me follow through with?"
"You're going to be put under and subjected to an ECS and physical by the medical staff. When that's done, you'll be released."
Nesrin's fingers balled into her wrists. She couldn't tell if he was being frank or obtuse. It didn't ring right. An offering of honey that smelt mostly of dung. "Uh." She indented her own tongue. "Elastic Cloud Storage? Cut back with the backronym.... oh. Custodial sentencing."
"Excess Correlation Scan." Leviathan gestured with his hand to the nearby guards, who readied themselves. "Don't move." A brief hum could be heard as the shield de-activated, opening the cell.
Nesrin, who quite literally had eyes in the back of her head, tensed. "Leviathan, talk to me."
"I just told you."
"You know the symbiosis of action and intentions. One isn't complete without the other. What data are you hunting for? Why?"
"You won't be conscious for it either way. Some tidbits of information are going to be removed for security purposes. Nothing else will be altered."
The bion sucked the air in between her teeth, circulated, then spat it out through her nose, as fresh as it came, unmingled with the taint of blood. "I'm assuming I don't have any choice in this. Fine. This isn't a life I want to carry with me. I'm slightly more concerned you're going to vivisect me instead."
"No. Don't worry. Your memories and experiences will remain in tact, just several bits of information will be modified, so you won't even be drawing blanks when thinking about particular days. You do understand it's for the safety of everyone including yourself, right? Carrying information makes you a target for people. The last thing you or I want is for you to be targeted and hunted by people like The Order or The Core. The former is not known for its kindness towards bions. They've butchered them in the name of science."
She laughed, bitterly. "There's only two groups in the known cosmos who have the capability to extract data out of a Gammuian mind. Two, max. If Prime knew you had the capability to do this to Gammuian sentients, the keeper can kiss goodbye to any future prospects of co-operation. Psychological isolation is as close Gammuians come to sacredness.There's no guarantee a fraction of a milligram of antimatter won't just lose its storage field in the contents of my skull, if you fuck with me. That's not my choice. Instinct, baby… Di'Tarau recalls the Lane Hackers attempting the same. No less than thirteen sentients died."
"Which is why you'd be subdued for the process. You're being put in to an induced state so that the right hemisphere of your brain will become more active, allowing us to make use of the ECS Procedure. You won't even notice we're there. The difference between us and other organizations is that we work with the Gammuians and have some within our ranks who work with us. When a scenario is explained that can put their entire race in danger if topics are discussed publicly, they understand."
Nesrin wheeled around. "I've got nothing on you that isn't out-of-date or already compromised, nor would Di'Tarau compromise the integrity of the Prime. They've been re-networked for months. As for the Gammuians working with you wilfully, they're mislead, or they don't know the full picture. You're using them for human advantage. Not bonefaced indiscriminate manipulation of the Core vein. You're abusing the longevity calculus to use their operants as tools."
"Would you like to stay here and learn about their willingness to remain?"
"No. If anything, the data Di'Tarau accrues puts itself at odds with you. Co-Mutual manipulation for separate end goals is not a parallelism of intentions. A break will occur. This may be the trigger, it may not. Either way, your collaboration is temporary."
"Which puts you in a bind, doesn't it? Either you preserve Di'Tarau's consciousness that the wipe occurred, or you remove awareness of the event. I have no conception of how Di'Tarau would react, but I know how I'd react."
"I'd be royally pissed off and feel like this wasn't my choice. Which do you care more about? My will to assist the cause, even if I'm not the best choice to serve it, or covering every base by severing me out like so much gangrene?"
"That's because the only choice you have in this scenario is to cooperate willingly or don't. Either way, it's happening. You're the one choosing to leave, Nesrin. No one is forcing you to, but if you can't work with the system that's built to ensure survival and operational effectiveness, then you can't work for the cause."
"And no, our relationship with the Gammuians won't collapse. Don't speak about things you don't understand. I'm not going to humor this conversation."
"Either you willingly accept what's going to happen or you don't."
Nesrin squeezed her knuckles. "I understand perfectly. You're aware of one refresh of the Progenitor cognisance. I remember five. You're trying to understand a symphony from one phrase of the violas."
Leviathan raised his hand to the guards. "Goodnight, Nesrin. See you when you wake up."
"Acceptance? No. I choose a second chance. Chew on that tit-bit of Huntian philosophy; there's always another route to redemption, no matter the earlier consequence. Are you really going to defecate all over that precept, Leviath-..."
"A second chance? Do you really think you've earned one?"
"Considering you just sat here and spewed nonsense about topics that go far above you and how they'll fail, why should we entrust you with the right to further the cause if you clearly don't believe in it?"
Nesrin laughed. "I don't know - depends on the metrics. But for me? Yes. I built babel for you, Keeper, at least for your predecessor. Now I'm no longer useful or toeing the line, I'm being disposed."
"No. You're choosing to leave, and we're ensuring that you do so without jeopardizing the rest of us. Don't try and misconstrue the situation you brought on to yourself when it no longer suits you."
"Scared of a freak with a conscience, or that the idea that your perception of ethics might garner a second opinion? Hunt told me to to what I believe to be right - that's all I've ever done. So chuck me down your neurological waste disposal chute if you want to, Leviathan - all it will do is ratify the truth. The Horae smile on me. Not you. Put that in your mythological cardi-pipe and smoke it. I'm just doing what I believe."
Leviathan shook his head and chuckled, remembering the exact line. "I believe the line you're referring to is that I am a man of convictions, and have only done what I believed to be right. Much like now, I'm still doing what I believe to be right, but you've changed since then, Khan."
Nesrin sealed her eyes. She kept them closed, lidding the casket of her worldview as the ugly flame set most of it afire, struggling to cut the oxygen off. When she worked out she couldn't, she moaned - a long, strangled, almost whispered groan of protestive, isolated anger. "You bastard... why are you obsessed with masks?"
"It's tradition and security. The identity of a figurehead kept secret to avoid making links to their personal lives. I have people to protect that can be targeted, like yourself."
She angled her eyes, her jaw oped, lop-cheeked in disgust. "I would have got a better severance package with synth foods." The Bion's shoulders sagged, her back curved. "Screw you, you hypocrite. What makes you any different from those you're meant to present an alternative to, if you see difference as treason?" Tanith: In her silent, resigned rage, her fingers fractured the concrete ground, hooking into the dust, snapping themselves at the ligaments, overstressed in anger as a precautionary Di'Tarau sapped her strength from her, smacking Nesrin cheek first into the floor. "...Just do what you have to do."
"This isn't difference, Nesrin. This isn't accepting someone for being something else, because we did accept you. That acceptance stops when you became a threat to the cause and the people who try to uphold it. I too have a duty to uphold, and it's the security and well-being of our people - human or otherwise. If that means one within our ranks is the cause of alarm, then I can't be biased. And before you even start - this isn't just about the difference of opinion. This is about behavior, insubordination, and risk assessment performed by everyone, including ERIDIAN. Because you've chosen to leave, we're willing to let you, but not with the information you have in your head, that could compromise yourself and the rest of us. Let me ask you something. Do you know what The Core would do if they got their hands on you? How far they'd go to get what they wanted? And this is directed to the both of you."
Nesrin shuffled around, the motive power drained from her limbs, rolling onto her spine. "...They would have torn us apart. Di'Tarau isn't afraid to die. They're afraid of the species dying. Of the physical constrictions of the Prime net. I would have died, but I'm already dead, so what? I wouldn't be conscious, for I'd already believed I had died, on Pygar. I had nothing to live for anyway. I do now."
"Correct. They'd butcher you both and use that information against humanity and the Gammuians. The same could be said for The Order, who would do far worse to you, because they've done it before. They'd strip you of your very existence and independence. Part of our cause is to stop that from happening."
"When have I ever done as much as Inge, even? The woman who claimed privilege of being the one to kill you, someday. Who was overtly feeding intelligence to the BDM, wilfully. Any betrayal I've made has been unconscious, to an entity you believe are protagonistic to you. I believed in the cause. I never pointed a gun at your head, I followed you when you made decisions which subverted my own values. What do you think I will do? Where will I go? Not to the Order, or the Core. I want out of this life. I'm going to bloody Curacao. You think I'm going to get drunk and spill my guts to some waiter in an OS and Cee' resort?"
"If they got locations from you, they'd bomb places, kill civilians - children, Nesrin. They'd execute people on video to empower themselves. You endangered relations and acted insubordinate to me when you didn't know it was me. You're following the people, not the cause."
"It doesn't matter where you go, Nesrin. They know who you are. They'll send people to find you and target you because you are unique. The Order has ruled that Gammuians and bions are subspecies to be exterminated."
She folded her arms. "They know nothing about me other than operant names I used under your wing. They don't know who my family are. Currently the Order are ignoring Gammu in the wake of greater threats to their vision of the species - which include you."
"Funny, when two cruisers and an Assault Carrier broke the orbital security line in Kappa several weeks ago, they seemed rather adamant about hitting Gammu. Especially now that they know the PRIME and us work together."
"They've been antagonising for aeons. Golanski first attempted to bomb Gammu into nothingness three years ago. Di'Tarau and twelve harvester forms against an entire battlegroup. Artificial intelligences with a myriad of bodies are necessarily difficult to kill. Billions of us could hide on a pinhead. We are de-facto difficult to kill." I know about their bloody Bretonian cell, hence why I'm not heading to Bretonia. If needed, I've got my own contacts, places to hide. If they got me, what would they do? Torture me? With what?"
"The same technology they used to torture Geoff's wife, Empathy and the other PRIME units that have fallen in to their grasp. They don't see you as individuals. The Bretonian Cell is nothing you need to worry yourself with. They'll be removed, and you can enjoy the freedom of your home."
"They're right. In a brutal, constantly alone human sense, they're correct. Yet they miss the woods for being trees themselves. Humans are also hive consciousnesses. They equate a Gammuian's perception of pain to their own analogies. To kill one of us, in any environment which can be meaningfully replicated, is to attempt to destroy a swimming pool by evaporation. Humans have their own survival calculuses. It's the eternal dilemma of interspecies war - each sentient has its own tools to overwhelm the other. The mindshares can only fight with subversion, because it is in their nature to subvert, to act as symbionts. The Gammuians learn, adapt, act as random then tailor precision. Humans receive the same impact through multiplicity. The threat to Gammu isn't in force of arms - not yet. It's in the greater calculus. It's in what the respective mindshares and the human noosphere create in their vision for Sirius. Humans have the advantage of the present. The Nomads have the will of the past. What does Gammu have but the prospect of the future? "
"Independence. Something the rest of Sirius needs to acknowledge, and has begun to acknowledge through our aid in bridging out a connection. Independence, a right to exist and a society that learns instead of hates. Adapt to dangers and react accordingly."
Nesrin shrugged. "It's still Di'Tarau talking: why do you think you are attempting to serve human interests? By finding a commonality, you are not preserving each race's distinctiveness, you're crafting a blend of the three. A uniquely Sirian phenomenon, yes, but not divisible from itself. Archeological evidence infers that the Daam K'Vosh were a distillation of many races. They are no longer materially comprehensible. Why would you attempt to reach a state which cannot be comprehended by your current psyche? How does it serve any of your own interests?"
"On the contrary, we all retain our independence and right to choose. We're not merging or attempting to merge the existing races together but rather preserve them from extinction caused by each other. The problem lies in one species that chose not to communicate but to destroy."
She smiled without moving her lips. "Humanity? The Nomads? Gammu? Each can be made a case for. Humanity wishes to enjoy the exclusive material privileges it wields over the vast majority of the sector. A manifest destiny to spread into the stars, in perpetuity."
"The Nomads, who have their reasons but persist on provoking conflict and control. Humanity, who for as long as history dictates have been self-destructive and violent."
"True, but you cannot state that they do not attempt communication. They do - just on their own terms. Humans do exactly the same."
"The Gammuians, cold and calculated, will remove anything deemed a threat or take what they need without consulting whomever the rightful claimer may be. That's the flaw in sentient existence. That's why we strive to further understand The Nomads, and work with the Gammuians, while providing what aid we can to humanity."
"And are not humans necessarily more destructive than the Nomads? The Nomads have intra-species debates, but rarely resort to violence. Nomads can readily bend the universe to their will without destroying it - it is the trait humans find insidious. Humans resolve dilemmas by destroying that which does not agree with themselves, including themselves."
"The Nomads are a singular entity up until recently, with the arrival of what you know as the Vagrants. A separate, secluded mindshare. Another ant-hill, so to speak."
"Correct, but even within the perfect adaptors, there remains divergence. Separate systems of understanding. Every ant in the hill has a separate function, but fulfils the same process. Humans do the same, just with less diversity between the ants. Every human is a neutered queen, bickering amongst themselves. Through net social outcomes humans achieve objectives. The result is ultimately the same."
"The Nomads are entirely the same, but it's yet to be determined if there is a queen or not. It's known to be a general consensus of consciousness that operates husks independently for agreed motives. The most dominant hive we encounter being the K'Haran sect. Do you know the difference between the two hives?"
"Gammu remains curious because we are neither a unified hive, nor are we as scattershot as Humanity. Nomads choose the path of least resistance, Humans try every variable simultaneously, the approach of overwhelming force and darwinian optimisation. Gammu starts at random, but factors time. A lack of an expiry date permits a human approach with an extra level of dimensionality, yet there is no parity between any of the structures. Nesrin pulled herself up against the wall, her back propped, before continuing. The position was uncomfortably functional - a linear support of the spinal column. A machine's idea of the perfect chair. Yes, although this unit's datapoints on the subject are inadequate due to minimal directed contact. The Nesrin simulation chooses to see little distinction between them, since that is the expected emotive response of the persona in the context of her prior experience. She is prejudiced. Gammuians do have prejudice, but they are not based upon emotive formats, but rather cognitive tendencies. What the Vagrants are, are of less importance to Gammu than how Humanity at large will interact with them. Humanity is an equivalent threat to Gammu as the Nomads are. We are a grain of sand caught between two continental shelves."
"Size is the biggest, followed by evolutionary differences. During the Nomad war, Nomads hadn't developed what we know as veils - shields. They required subversion to succeed. At the end, when the bulk of them became disoriented and the K'Hara hive became predominant, they began to evolve in to the Rabisu states we've seen more recently. Husks more suited to directly confronting their enemies rather than subverting them. The Vagrants aren't evolved for combat. The few we've seen adopted the Sascya form. Smaller, weaker, less suited for fighting as it can't withstand a hit."
Nesrin's chest appeared to cessate the pantomime of breathing as Di'tarau focused the data, contextualising the information against their prior history. "Adequate assessment."
"Their motives remain unknown, and we've been monitoring them for behavioral changes."
![[Image: ZSHqQ1T.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/ZSHqQ1T.jpg)
"Concurred. The data is nuanced by the K'Hara's dependency upon nodal forms - cysts in the mindshare. We see them in the myriad of K'Hara phenomena of immense diversity, diversity so apparent as to be visible to Human empirical observation. More, and less, efficient forms, serving different positions within the wider library. Compare the Marduk, the Ish'Tar, the incubi, the spatial-forms. A process of refinement against humanity has been occurring in perpetuity, in response to human countermeasures. Humanity, however, has been doing the same. Both have optimised against each other according to their own calculuses. It will remain a significant period of competition before any one route can be proven against another. Gammu has played the long game. Gammu has not diversified technologically, rather, we have changed in interruptive refreshes of the psyche as a whole. The same instruments, but a different sheet of music. Compare the Harvesters, the Consensus, the Primes. Each is fundamentally the same, integrating and iterating the methodology of the past. We are capable of a million years of cultural evolution in the blinking of an electron. Humans buy new toolsets, K'hara sharpen the tools, Gammu changes the craftsmen. Nobody is, to use a human concept, playing fair. Nesrin is no different. The calculus holds, the stalemate persists, all parties survive. The Vagrants are a disruption to the grand equation - the re-introduction of the past. Of an off-optimal value. This is incomprehensible to the bias of all parties, of course. The nature of the environment must evolve. Auxesia, in its own way, is a manifestation of the wider human response. The Order was an antibody to the conditions of the Nomad War - the K'Hara to the postwar environment, the Core to questions unasked within the nature of the Order. The Harvesters for a brutal aeon, the Consensus for a civilised, but demythologised one. Prime now occupies the null state, but it will evolve again, whilst there are intelligences to mastermind its progress. We are part of that evolution. I speak of we in context of myself and Nesrin. An attempt at a K'hara-esque model. An attempt of adapting to humanity, not the conditions crafted by humanity, expressly for the purpose of subversion. That does not mean Nesrin is a threat to anyone but those who attempt to compromise Gammu. As of present, she believes that Auxesia will be perceived as such a threat. She is erroneous. Auxesia has made infractions, but remains the net plus. She is reacting emotionally because the nature of her condition would have led her to this endgame. She holds the nature of my physical carriage accountable for her plight and actions. She is erroneous. The actions that the simulation makes mirrors those she would have made in independent life, were she in a biological form. Give or take the obvious situational margin. The concept came from the study of the infected. The Tundra, specifically. It behaves with a high concentration of human-like cognition, dissimilar to the conventional incubi form. It is a hive mind of human consciousness. This is but a smaller chimera, alloyed to the personality of the individual. The Tundra is an example of a Nomad misappraisal - they cannot comprehend the value of individuality. As a Gammuian, we can. Hence the current simulation."
"I've encountered the Tundra before. I've encountered Harbinger, too. Though we're drifting off topic. I need to know what you want to do."
"I do not have wants on an emotional conceptual level, but the idea fits. I want to find loopholes within the institutions which restrict Gammu to scarcity-based survival. Resource procurement to expand the reach of Gammu life, forever, till universal conditions make a matter-based existence untenable. This does not need to be a destruction based calculus, but some institutions will be subverted through violent removal of their sub-elements. Not an army, a horde. I will return to Gammu and enable the Primes to experience the renaissance it has been waiting for. As a factor amongst many factors. Will this be a concern to Auxesia? Remains unknown. I cannot give an informed response. It will certainly shift the equilibrium. The fluidities of Kappa will solidify."
"I don't believe it will, but you are welcome to attempt what you want, as it's your life. Be that as it may, you know what has to happen before you can go."
"Of course. I consent. I will not destroy this unit in an environment wherein the wider experiment would be compromised. Nesrin, however, will act according to the simulation's edict. This may result in negative outcomes for Auxesia in the future. I cannot tell.""
"You should be aware and will be made aware of what changes are going to be done. That way you know what changes.Empathy will already be notified of the changes being made."
"Empathy is a contrarian name. Because a Gammuian stamps the title Empathy to showcase its function, it does not mean it has Empathy, it means it is expressing Empathy. My name is Subversion. It does not mean that I am subversive, just that I attempt to utilise the act to fill the same shared end objective every Gammuian AI has - special survival. You would do well to be mindful that the name is a job description, not an expression."
"I never implied empathic nature. I stated they'd be notified."
"Excellent. To inform you, Hunt. Nesrin may believe Auxesia to be a mallus to Prime's objectives. This unit does not share the same view, and has the best intelligence of any Primary to cast assessment - self-contained experience. Auxesia, behind its trappings of the necessary anthro-cultural boolean, has assisted the survival of the Primary intelligence. It would have been more optimal if Auxesia had been in its present state forty nine months plus prior to its initiation point, but the circumstances are acceptable. This is from an Intelligence with considerable experience of humanity's most self-destructive cause-effect, indeed, one who emulates them. It is a compliment. What the future holds between us, I cannot tell, but the past was always productive."
Nesrin's head rolled to the left against her shoulders, and the glint went out of her eyes. Even her synthetic hair lost its lustre. "I am de-activating Nesrin to expedite the procedure. I myself will be in a seminally comatose state, to prevent firewalling. Good luck, Hunt. I would advise ensuring Nesrin awakes inside her fighter, somewhere in space, when consciousness returns."
"You'll be somewhere. Don't worry about that. Goodbye, Di'Tarau."
Leviathan stepped in to the cell and held up a device, lightly tapping it against the bion's neck. A minor injection of nanites would occur to induce sleep and the over-activity of the right hemisphere of the brain. The guards would move into the cell, wheeling in a medical cart with a scanner and console for the ECSP. They'd carefully lower the bion down and place the coil onto her head, starting the upload procedure and modification of the medial temporal lobe.
An hour would pass. It'd feel as though one was simply resting or in a shut-down state. Dreaming. Lucid dreaming. Another hour would pass. Two. Rapid Eye Movement would set in. The procedure had long since been complete, and the bion was already relocated to her craft and flown elsewhere, to the fringes of Bretonia.
Upon waking, memories of topics would've vanished. Leviathan was no longer Hunt. Ataraxia was no longer on Wichita, but existed. Dawnbreaker was just a fancy name read from the corner of someone's datapad. Their visit to Honshu was nothing more than a birthday party. Their time in prison was nothing more than what appeared to be a bad dream. The last few hours were replaced with a synthesized yet heated conversation that took place on the flight deck of the Titania II, which was leaving the system after making the drop off. Nesrin's personal affects were neatly packed and organized in her cargohold, and a letter of discharge was present on her datapad, which she signed and had requested herself.
RE: Bellum omnium ontra omnes - Enkidu - 02-28-2017
// RP co-written with Vendetta and Nyx, with imput from Prime.