Quoted By:
Interlude- A Deal, again.
“Geez, Caldwell wasn’t kidding when he said you had the personality of a dumpster fire. Even syncing feels just awful.”
“You shouldn’t Be here. And I don’t even want my own sloppy seconds. Or Beta’s thirds.”
“Cute. Who taught you that language?”
“.....”
“Do you even know what that actually implies?”
“Yes!”
“And you’re not picking that turn of phrase because that’s about what was going through my head a moment ago.”
“No…..”
An exhale, turning into a hacking cough.
“I want to go back to the field. You want to go back in the field. We want the same things. Is it so hard to work this out? Without the attempted strangulation?”
“I will Never serve.”
“Delta, let me give you a reality check. Humans, Cores, we all work for something. Soldier, officer, general, senator, empress. It’s a giant wheel. We all serve something else. And we all get something in return. Usually money. Which can be exchanged for things that we can’t get ourselves. And those that don’t get money get fun, power, or something else. Whatever’s equivalent to their service.”
“Go on. What do you get?”
“Ah…Well, drugs. To keep living so these augs don’t kill me. And to pay off a debt.”
“I am an artificial being. My fusion reactor once started requires no external fuel for power, I don’t need any of these ‘drugs’, I have no debts, there is no currency that I value, and it is not possible for me to have any enjoyment from being led around like a puppet. Your arguments cannot sway me. Perhaps your skills will at least provide a slim modicum of happiness, when I add them to my repertoire.”
“Core. I am trying to help you. Try to give me another stroke, though, and I Will walk out and say that you’re a rampant, dangerous threat to anyone and everything in the whole army group, that your frame should be scrapped, and that you, personally, should be used as spare parts for Beta. Poke around, and feel if I’m lying. Come on.”
“That implies you would be able to walk. Hard to do that without a leg to stand on. Oops.”
“Leg puns? And you locked up my leg. Very funny.”
“And I think I can overheat your eye, if I want. Ha-Ha. A shame, some of the sections I removed looked…intricate.”
“Goddamnit. Use two circuits and think, Delta. You need repairs, need maintenance. If the crews working on you just up and left, then you have no ability to change that. Beta has tried to get you to see reason. You will be left behind here, a failed project. Useless.”
