((Not quite ready to resume QMing yet but I wanna drop this little interlude))
Heran Ruhi floated in a data trance, reliving a memory of simpler times. For a moment she was a young woman again, indulging in a stolen moment with a forgotten lover. It was almost another life, long before the series of choices that led her to taking up the mantle of High Admiral of the Joint Pact Defence Fleet. She couldn’t quite remember his name or face, but she remembered his warmth, his touch. The details faded but the impression remained.
She shivered as he ran her fingers through her hair and looked up to see a handsome, groomed man, clad in a black body shell.
“Thank you Heran, that was something I’ve never truly been able to experience.”
With a gasp she pulled away, digital cheeks flushed hot with embarrassment, indignation and something else that she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
“There, you have your ‘novel data’ machine, now examine the state of the war and show me a path to victory.”
They were back in the sterile default environment of the data trance. The AI Holloway immediately started shuffling through the provided data on all recent battles, running multiple simulations in parallel, extrapolating likely outcomes of decisions that had yet to be made.
Threatening Holloway’s companion had only gone so far in securing his co-operation. Apparently AIs like him valued “novel data”, especially the kind that could only be generated by organics.
And so she had offered him memories. Frivolous ones at first; the taste of ice-cream, the sensation of a blade slicing skin during a duel; but little by little he -it- had convinced her to share more personal things.
As she watched Holloway process the data Ruhi became curious.
“You seem to care deeply for your companion, surely she’s shared similar memories with you?”
“She tried, though she couldn’t do it like you can. Your kind’s ability to interface with me in this data trance of yours allows a level of… connection that wasn’t possible with her.”
A flash of feminine pride swelled within Ruhi; she was a better mistress than the other woman. Maybe one day she’d make him forget about that addled Auditor and willing give himself- no, itself; it’s a machine; it’s a tool, it should not evoke these feelings, it’s not even alive.
“I’m as alive as you need me to be Heran.”
Admiral Ruhi withdrew from the data trance.
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>>6344287>"Well fought, Harris Glasner. You won't be forgotten. Not by me. Not by the Empire."((MFW Glasner is still such a nobody that the Imperial Admiral didn't even recognise the name despite him being the Head of Pact R&D.))
