Arrest: Victoria Romero

[Toaster]

Hartley:
[Crossing arms.] So, you're telling me that you're a pirate who doesn't harm people, is working on a personal project, and takes care of her own?

[Pause.]

Tell me about your folks, then.

[Knicklichtjedi]

Victoria:
[Rolls her eyes.] If you keep asking me questions this vague we'll sit here until my sentence is over. [Sighs and sits down again, staring at the cealing.] I was on my way to talk to a contractor, regarding something about my project. Has anyone ever reported me to you guys even? If you want to paint me as the bloodthirsty bad guy then go ahead, but I won't sit here and help you doing so.

[Pause.]

[Coughs once.] If I tell you we're not all like Rogues or Outcasts then you probably ask for proof which I don't have, and if I tell you the opposite then what will this proof to you? That you were right about me, and us from the start? [Looks away from the officer, towards the ground.]

[Toaster]

Hartley:
Alright, you ain't one for small talk.

[Glancing at PDA.] We get calls about hackers disrupting trade lanes often enough, y'know. Panicked transport captains don't tend to write down the callsigns that robbed them. So, no. We've not gotten any detailed reports concerning you.

[Standing up, leaning on table.] You want some more specific questions? Who's the contractor? What did you want from 'em? What are you working on? [Tone hardening.] If you plan on seeing something other than an assembly line again in this life time, you'd better start workin' with me, Romero. I can only go easy on you for so long.

[Knicklichtjedi]

Victoria:
[Stares at her cuffed hands on the table as the officer asked a barrage of questions, trying to keep them all in mind. Starts to speak in a calm manner.] I don't know his full name, his ship was called Nightowl. If I wasn't stopped I would have had the time to find out more when we met, but you know what happened. The guy said he'd be able to give some insight on my project of which I will spare all the technical details because you probably would not get much from that anyways.

[Pause as she thinks about a way of putting her project into words.]

I'm working on a project to simulate self-aware artificial intelligence. That is the end goal, at least. For now it was just meant to be an ordinary assistant for my ship which would be updated and worked. It was meant to go much further than that, but I guess now that I'm here I shouldn't go on to my hopes and dreams, huh? [Blows a strand of hair out of her face since her hands are still cuffed, starts to speak in a slightly sarcastic way.] I hope this was more to your liking, officer.

[Toaster]

Hartley:
[Straightening up, crossing arms.] Aye, that's more like it.

[Brief pause.]

Nightowl, huh? How'd you get into touch with 'em? Who're they affiliated with?

[Knicklichtjedi]

Victoria:
I had a long conversation with various people some days ago. Freelancers and even a bounty hunter, after some time they were quite interested in the project. One of them mentioned they could link me to a Gammu drone. I hope I don't have to explain to you what this is. [Coughs again and looks at the officer] Can I have something to drink? Talking is much easier without a sore throat.

Anyways, I said I'd think about the offer, since her price was quite high. So the conversation ended and I got to do some research, and apparently it wasn't as hard to find someone with experience in these topics as I thought. Apparently the guy is a freelancer, but he did a very, very poor job at wiping his tracks. I could find indications for previous employment at Planetform. Those guys apparently use artificial intelligence to assist them with various tasks.

[Looks up at the officer again and awaits his response]

[Toaster]

Hartley:
[Nods at camera.]

[Pause.]

Yeah, I'm familiar with the basics about Gammu. Sentient artificial intelligences of not precisely known origin. [Sighs.] Some of 'em caused trouble in Liberty, so we tend to dispose of them on sight these days.

[Officer REDACTED enters, carrying tray with two glasses, two bottles of water. Hartley nods. REDACTED places tray on table, leaves.]

Hartley:
Continue.

[Knicklichtjedi]

Victoria:
He suggested a time and place to meet, and that's about it. I tried to get there when one of your officers arrived and disrupted my cruise engines. I don't know if the guy was even there, but it's not unusual for people to do business with us when they just can't make a living from the social services.

[Hesitates to ask, but commits to it after looking into the detective's eyes.] Did he rat me out? Was there some anonymous hint that your people would be right there when I crossed the lane, and in such big numbers too?

[Toaster]

Hartley:
No, no one ratted you out. You just got unlucky that a police wing had been deployed to clean up a few miscreants causing trouble near one of the ice fields. Wrong place, wrong time.

[Steps up to Romero, stands beside her, looking down.] Quite frankly, none of this is of any real use to us. If you're hopin' to see the light of space again any time soon, you'd better give me something more valuable. [Leans in close. Quietly.] Tell me more about this project of yours.

[Knicklichtjedi]

Victoria:
[Sighs and hesitates.] Fine. As I said, for now I'm just trying to make a properly self teaching program, run it on literally any system and within a couple of minutes it should know how to properly operate it. [Compared to earlier she took on a much more relaxed position, not even focusing on her cuffs.] Whatever it is, a mining vessel, an automated transport or even warships, with proper adjusting of course.

Although even this is already very ambitious as I'm the only one working on it, I want to go further. [She continues to speak, even gesturing with her cuffed hands.] If this works, if a simple lines of codes are able to teach themselves pretty much any possible tasks... [Pause, hoping the officer would be just amazed as she was talking about it.] I'm completely sure it is somehow possible to integrate personality into it. What defines it, how to make it possible or if there should be limits - I don't know. But I'm set on finding an answer to all of those. It goes much further than that, but that's what I think I'd be capable of doing.