"I am pleased to finally meet you, Jake. Regar told me what you did for us. Unlike Regar, I am not one to offer a life debt. You have my deepest gratitude," Kiril said. His voice was disconcertingly deep and steady.
"Yeah, no worries. Metra would have killed me if I hadn't rescued you guys."
"Were we interrupting you, Jake?" Regar asked.
"No, not really. I was just banging my head against a problem. I'm trying to design an effective non-lethal weapon for use against baseline humans."
"Non-lethal?" Regar asked, his thick right eyebrow shooting up. "I have studied your world's culture since we met, Jake. Brick was kind enough to provide a media library. It seems on your world a lethal response is normal."
"Brick gave you the movie library? That's just the movies, and they are violent. We're not really like that. I mean sure, we do go to war against each other, and there are murders, but," I said, my voice trailing off as I realized what I was saying.
Regar and Kiril said nothing, standing politely and waiting for me to finish my thought.
"Okay, fine, yeah, we do murder each other too much. That seems like a really dumb thing, now, though. I don't want to murder any humans. The Ferals will happily kill us all, no need for us to help them. To be fair though, most of Earth still thinks we're totally alone in the universe."
"I am glad to hear you say this, Jake. What you have expressed is the first tenet of the Seekers. We work to preserve sentient life," Regar said. Kiril nodded in agreement.
"I thought you guys were all about seeking out knowledge of the apocalypse, the AIs, that sort of thing?"
"Yes. The question you must ask is, why do we seek that knowledge? To preserve sentient life."
"Yeah, that makes sense," I replied.
"You may be a natural Seeker, Jake," Kiril said.
"Thanks, I guess. I'm not looking to join any new clubs right at the moment, though."
Regar and Kiril both burst into laughter.
Regar stepped up and gave me a friendly slap on the shoulder. "Fair enough, my friend. A Seeker in spirit is good enough for me."
"I consider myself an accomplished tinker. Perhaps I could help you with your problem? I know nothing about non-lethal weapons, but with another set of eyes we may find another way," Kiril said.
"False modesty is an unbecoming character trait, Kiril," Regar said. "Jake, Kiril is a genius engineer."
"Honestly, I would love the help, Kiril. Thanks. We can go sit down in the control room and I'll show you what we're up against."
"Wonderful," Regar said. "I will not burden you two with my ignorance. Jake, may I go outside and visit your world? It has been far too long since I have been anywhere but Hephaseta. I need to see a living planet once again."
I couldn't see any reason why not. We were in the middle of nowhere, so no one would be alarmed at what looked like a dwarf with a plasma pistol.
"Uh, sure. It's not going to be like the movies you've watched, though. We're extremely isolated in the northern wilderness. There's nothing out there but trees, lakes, and animals, all of them covered in snow and ice."
"Hah, even better! I'm not so fond of people that I seek them out."
"Oh, and keep an eye out for wolves, too. They're a four-legged predator that hunts in packs. They can be dangerous."
Regar patted the pistol on his hip. "I have spent far too long on Hephaseta hunting Ferals to be worried about the natural predators of this gentle world, Jake."
"Alright, if you're sure. Brick, would you guide him to the exit?"
"Yes, Jake," Brick replied immediately. "I have made the outpost map available to your interface, Regar, along with a marked route to the exit."
Regar grimaced as Brick spoke. "Thank you, Jake."
Regar left, following the guide that Brick had sent him. A minute later Kiril and I were back in the control room.
"Why does Regar hate Brick so much?" I asked Kiril.
"He is a Seeker, our First. We have been to many Infested worlds together. We have seen what the machines did to those worlds, and to the people that lived there."
"Right, I get it. But Brick's not one of those machines."
"Perhaps the machines that have destroyed the galaxy were once friendly and helpful like your Brick. Maybe they grew and evolved beyond their initial functions. Then one day they simply decided that their creators had to be destroyed to preserve their own lives," Kiril said, looking directly into my eyes. His voice was somber and serious.
That sent a chill up my spine. "Is that how it happened?"
"We don't know. No one living in the Union does. This is part of what we seek, the truth of what happened so long ago."
"Brick was made by the Union. He's got those restrictions built into him."
"Yes, the restrictions. Have you noticed that they're not quite so absolute as they seem?" Kiril asked.
I thought about it, remembering Brick's spider bots bringing proximity-fused grenades that Metra had attached into range of the enemy soldiers. He'd saved my life with that, by pushing on his restrictions but not actually breaking them. How else could he stretch the restrictions, and was that a bad or a good thing?
"Yeah, I have. You're kind of freaking me out here, Kiril."
Kiril's serious expression lightened. "That is not my intention. Let me be clear—Regar is suspicious of machine intelligences because they are our enemy. It is a general principle of our order. His suspicion is only that. There are no known cases of Union-restricted machine intelligences becoming independent or any kind of threat to sentients. The Ahrimani architected them well. Brick will most likely be just fine unless he is directly exposed to an Elder AI.
