With the death of the final pirate the simulation ended, giving me a battle report on the operation. Of course I had succeeded and with a thought dismissed it and awoke to the real world. Everything was silent as I stepped out of the pod, the marines were just sitting there a stunned expression on their faces.

‘I might have over done it in the simulation. To them it must have seemed like I was dodging incoming fire, which was the point of the combat brain in the first place.’

It started with a moan and then a cacophony of sounds hit me as the marines broke into wild jeers, groaning, shouting and in a curious case a group broke off and started crying in the corner. My senses were nearly overwhelmed by the sudden influx of noise but I was able to manage and saw both GySgt Earl and Cpt Green walking over.

Earl was smiling and Green had a slight scowl as he discretely slipped a chit into Earl’s waiting hand. “I thought gambling wasn’t allowed on this ship.” Earl’s smile got even wider, “yes if you bet money but we’re betting favors and it looks like some people really won big today.” I take another look around the room and I can clearly see chits being exchanged.

“I see,’ I point at the group in the corner, ‘what about those guys over there?” Cpt Green looks over and a small chuckle escapes his lips, “those guys were the ones that put the most work into making the simulation that you crushed.”

I can’t help the laugh that comes out, “please offer my condolences to them, would you? It was a good exercise to test my limits with this body.”

Cpt Green nods, “yes it was certainly entertaining to say the least but you know how Agent White will react to this.’ A small tablet beeps and he looks at it, ‘speak of the devil that was him just now calling me to the conference room.”

“Could you put in a good word for me sir?” “I will if you can answer my one question. Would you ever turn your back on humanity?” I can see in his eyes how seriously he is taking this question so I pause time to consider how to best respond to it.

“Cpt Green I will never turn my back on humanity as long as one person still believes in me. I will do my best to prove my loyalty even to people that fear and hate me. I will never give up on humanity as a whole.”

He studies my face for a long time, searching for my sincerity, seemingly satisfied with what he finds, he nods and walks off towards the conference room. I watch him go as Earl pats my shoulder, “I saw what you did for Carl and the risk you took simply to give these bastards some entertainment. What I want to say is that I believe in you.”

“Thank you Earl that means a lot to me. I should go now and leave you marines to your celebrations.” He laughs, still patting my shoulder, “I would invite you for drinks but you can’t drink can you?” I shake my head, “Sorry I can’t.” “What a pity, I’ll take you with me when we get back to Gaia, show you how a real marine parties.”

“Haha, I’ll hold you to that then. Well anyways I’m off.” As I’m leaving the room I receive various waves and cheers from the marines, who I assume won big off of my actions today, as well as boos and other negative comments but they seemed to be good natured heckling and not mean spirited.

‘I’m glad to see that the marines accept me now. They probably just love seeing a good fight and saving Carl went a long way as well.’

My feet unconsciously take me to Vahlen’s workplace while I’m thinking of the implications of everyone seeing the simulation and the marine’s newfound acceptance of me. As I walk through the door way I see Vahlen standing there with her arms crossed and a stern look on her face.

“I want to start out with that you’re an idiot Scott. Why in heaven’s name did you think this was a good idea? You’re just fanning Agent White’s paranoia with that stunt you just pulled. Do you want to dismantled and sold for scrap? Why would you do something so stupid?”

I stand there listening to Vahlen’s rapid fire questions that become louder and louder until she’s nearly screaming at the end. Vahlen stands there, panting slightly, “Well do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to be shown to everyone, but I needed to know my capacities in order to protect you.”

“Protect me,’ she seems incredulous, ‘you can’t protect me if you don’t have a body!” The statement seems to snap something inside her and she starts crying.

“Ah, no please don’t cry.” I quickly stride over to her and place my hand on her cheek, while wiping away her tears. “I know what I did was stupid. I’ll make sure I consult you before I do something so idiotic again, alright?”

Her eyes are still moist but at least she has stopped crying, for now. “How about this? You’re almost done with the second body right?” She nods, “then why don’t you finish it and I’ll hide it within the ship. That way even if they take away my body and shut me down I’ll have a backup that only you and I know about.”

“Th-That could work, I already have most of the materials on hand from making your last body. All I would need is some time and more nanites which should be easy to obtain.”

“How much time would you need?” “Maybe 2 days unless you help then I could probably get it done in a day.”

“I’ll go get the nanites, Vahlen start working on the body and I’ll be right back.” I ran out of the lab towards engineering where they would have excess unused nanites that I could take. Gathering the necessary amount and a little extra just in case I rush back to Vahlen.

We work frantically throughout the rest of the day and into the morning. Agent White’s conference has ended long ago but nothing has come of it so far. Finally we finish and Vahlen slumps into a chair and falls asleep almost immediately.

I finish the process of transferring my conscious, for the first time, into the new body but then immediately switch back to my first body.

I pick up Vahlen, princess style, and head for her room. As we leave my second body lays down on the floor and, acting like a quagmire, the floor sucks him in leaving no trace.

I am able to bring Vahlen back to her room and tuck her in before I receive a summons from Cpt Johnson to come to the conference room. ‘I have some contingencies in place and I don’t think it’ll be anything too extreme unless they want to trap themselves out here.’ My thoughts consume me until I stand in front of the conference door and with a sigh I walk in.

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For those of you that hate on Scott for being so stupid for an AI, consider the fact that he is making the decisions and not following a best course of action plotted out by it. Would you be able to follow such a strict and confining role that is decided by a machine even if you are one yourself? Even if you did follow it, could you truly keep your humanity as you use the AI more and more eventually becoming as calculating and emotionless as it is?