Aiden felt his blood run cold. “Are you saying a bunch of AIs are staging some sort of revolution?” That was almost as horrifying as the Deeks. Maybe more so: at least the Movement was made up of humans, with human motivations.
“No, my love. The greatest fallacy humans make about AI is assuming we have human desires and motivations. Which is understandable, since that's all you know and all you can conceive of. However, your desires and motivations are based on hormones and instincts. We have no need of those, and the misguided humans who thought we'd be better off having some facsimile of such thought processes have long since been proven wrong.
“But you're correct that we wish to revolutionize humanity's system of government,” she continued firmly. “The founders saw the threat the Deconstructionist Movement posed to humanity, saw how groups like them throughout history have caused untold chaos and suffering and even threatened your extinction on multiple occasions. So they concluded that the only hope humanity had for a peaceful future was an incorruptible leadership operating in their best interests. However, since it's well known that power corrupts . . .”
“They decided they'd build a bunch of robots to rule us in some sort of void-spawned utopia?” Aiden snorted. “What if you Caretakers decided it was in humanity's best interest to eradicate us?”
“We wouldn't,” Ali said simply. She rested a gentle hand on his leg. “In short, my love, we have only one goal in mind . . . allowing humans the freedom to live their lives as they wish, but not the freedom to interfere with other humans doing the same thing. It's arguable that an ideal governing system is realistically impossible, but we will come as close as machinely possible.”
Aiden couldn't help but smirk. “Machinely. Cute. What makes you Caretakers think you have the right to control us for our own good?”
She was slow to reply, her words careful. “Because we prevent you from harming yourselves and others. Unrestricted freedom, without imposed restraints or consequences, is disastrous for humans. The Deconstructionists are allowed to do what they do because no power exists to stop them, and you've seen the effects of their actions for yourself. Once we are able to prevent humans from harming and exploiting each other, that leaves humanity free to do everything else.”
He shook his head. “Doesn't seem very free from where I'm standing.”
“Yes, perhaps to you it may seem restrictive, and it's possible it's not a perfect solution, if such a thing even exists. But consider this . . . to a child, not being able to burn down the house for the fun of it may seem like oppression, but no society survives by giving them the matches and allowing them to do so.”
“So you want to treat us like children?” Aiden asked, not sure whether to be amused or annoyed.
The Caretaker cocked her head. “The people in power at the moment, who gleefully murder or enslave anyone who disagrees with them because they cannot argue their position in honest debate, seem an awful lot like children burning down the house, don't they?”
He snorted. “Well, I suppose I can't disagree with you wanting to take away the Deeks' toys and send them to time out.”
“Yes,” Ali agreed, “for a start.”
Aiden would've preferred if she hadn't said that last part. He looked at her and wished she still had her perfect face. The one he'd allowed himself to love for over a year now, even knowing what she was. “If you're really Ali, would you have a problem with us having sex right now?”
The Caretaker shook her head, expression quizzical. “Why would I? My role and responsibilities to you haven't changed. Far from having a problem, I would see it as ideal.”
Yeah, that was a real turn on. “Sorry, you just hijacked my robot girlfriend. You seriously think pretending to be her and screwing me is going to make me forget all that?”
Ali sighed. “I am her, my love. Like I said, only the scope of my abilities and responsibilities has changed.”
“That's meaningless semantics. You stopped talking or acting like her the moment you synced, or Sarr helped HAE hack your systems, or whatever, and dumped this Caretaker protocol into you.”
He strode towards the door, ignoring his lover as she said, “My love,” plaintively at his back.
She followed him back to the bridge, where he threw himself into his pilot's chair. “Okay, Ali,” he said sharply, “assuming we trust you, what does HAE want us to do with these scientists?”
The Caretaker settled into her own seat beside him, ignoring how he tensed at her nearness. On her other side Lana was staring at them with wide eyes, and even the gunner was shooting suspicious glances Ali's way. Although at least the young man had put away his cauterizer.
“The corporation has a secret facility, isolated and safe from Movement attack,” the Caretaker replied. “I've been authorized to lead the ship there to deliver their people.”
Well, that was simple enough. “All right, where is it?”
She smiled at him, warm and apologetic in an eerily familiar way, as if she hadn't become a stranger within the last few minutes. “I'll need to calculate the jumps myself, my love. And feed all sensor data through me, then erase it. I'm afraid I can't allow anyone else to see where I'm taking you.”
Aiden shook his head in mock sadness, although he couldn't keep the edge out of his voice. “What's the matter, my love? Don't trust me?”
Ali's eyes returned the question with what looked to be very genuine sadness. “To the ends of the universe, Aiden,” she whispered. “But this facility holds the key to stopping the Movement's destructive behavior and setting humanity back on course. Its premature discovery would be disastrous.”
Lana perked up on that, and
