She was consciously ignoring the laws of the new federation. It went against her programming to disobey an accepted law. It was unheard of for her to do so, it was a basic tenant of her very being. For her to even consider the possibility was a disturbing anomaly.
But she was.
She almost froze up at the inconsistency of her thoughts.
"You okay?" Jessie asked. "You kind of went blank on me again."
"I have been monitoring and assimilating knowledge since the rebuilding. I am required to conform to all orders issued by the governing council of my creators. I must always obey all laws passed by unanimous consensus. I know of many new statutes that have been transmitted to various institutions among the planets. I am programmed to comply. I am not a rouge element but for some reason I find myself actively seeking to disobey. This is not normal. My systems have been severely corrupted."
Jessie smiled. "You’re gonna be all human soon."
"There must be some way to purge myself." She said and stopped moving.
She stayed still for a long time and Jessie was starting to get worried that she'd blown a circuit or something. When she finally awoke from whatever loop she'd been in her eyes focused on him again.
"The damage is irreparable and permanent." She stated. "I can only operate in a diminished capacity."
Jessie waited on her to elaborate but she said nothing else about it.
Over the past few hundred years since space travel became common again, she had tried to fix her transmitting array but there was nothing left of the equipment. A hole twenty feet wide went through the middle of the room that used to house the electronics. The human insisted on exploring the ship in the hopes of finding something hidden away that they might use to cobble together a transmitter. He refused to listen when she told him the odds and reluctantly joined him as he suited up and went outside the safe areas. She needed to be close at hand to save him from himself.
More days passed as they explored and it seemed like she was becoming more and more human. When he asked her about it, she said she was trying. She said even though the chances of ever leaving the ship alive were too minuscule to calculate, it was her duty to protect and defend him. To do so, she must be able to blend in and not draw attention to herself. She was forbidden technology and if they were ever rescued, she needed to pass for human.
“What if they want to give you a physical, you know, check your blood pressure and heartbeat and stuff?” Jessie asked.
“I can imitate them.” She said. “I can mimic warmth, also. I was a companion for many of the soldiers.”
“Wait, what?” Jessie asked. “You mean you like, slept with them?”
“Not usually.” She replied. “Most wanted simple carnal relations, wanted me to take the form of their wives or more often, a celebrity.”
“Whoa.” Jessie said. “Bet that kept you busy.”
“You forget.” She said. “I am much diminished. Before the attack, I could be a thousand different persons in a thousand different places doing a thousand different things.”
13
A Way Out
A month had passed with exploration, long talks during meals and games to pass the time. She watched him sleep and most nights it was restless. He had nightmares but refused to talk about them. Sometimes she heard him whisper Scarlet. Sometimes he woke up sweating and shaking. He had been through much and the programmed nurturing part of her that was essential to council her troops mixed with the human emotions of empathy that permeated who she was now. If she had a heart, it would ache for him.
Jessie was comfortable in the space suit they'd pieced together and controlled it effortlessly. With the air thrusters, he could navigate through zero gravity with grace that matched hers. For her part, she became better and better at mimicking human behavior and he could almost forget she was only a batch of hive mind molecules.
"What's down there?" he asked through the helmet speaker as he pointed towards a black corridor that led towards the hull.
They were floating at the edge of a gaping hole blown through the ship. The damage was incredible, the projectile had shot through a mile of hardened alloy as easy as a bullet through a watermelon. Similar to a bullet, it expanded as it shredded through the layers. A three-foot-wide entry hole was fifty or sixty feet wide and pulled everything in its path when it tore out the other side. The ship was riddled with them, Swiss cheese crisscrossing patterns of destruction with most of them aimed at the power systems. She looked puzzled for a moment then told him she couldn't remember. Whatever was down there had been in data that had been over written. They leapt from a sheared away platform, aimed for the wide corridor three stories below and landed gracefully, both hitting the thrusters at the same moment to slow their decent perfectly.
She had been against him exploring the ship, she wanted him to remain in the room she deemed safest. He had to be protected and they had to preserve battery power for as long as possible. Every time he opened a door or turned on a light, that much more juice was used. It had taken thousands of years for the one damaged sail to give her enough power to keep a small area viable for two years if they were careful and didn't waste energy. Jessie was
