Liaden Universe [19] - Alliance of Equals - eARC by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

meet the mentor who had the teaching of you. I could learn a thing or two.” He paused, and added, just to be clear, “No disrespect, Pilot.”
    “Certainly not. If you think such a meeting would be of use, I will ask my mentor if he will see you, when this mission is done.”
    “I’d like that, thanks.”
    “You are very welcome. And now, I fear, my questions.
    “What are you, Tollance Berik-Jones?”
    That was asked well enough that he was persuaded she already knew. No point in lying, then, or in remaining silent. “I’m a manufactured human, Pilot. The human ’s so I don’t offend the Complex Logic Laws.”
    “There are also laws against manufacturing humans, I believe.”
    “A lot harder to prove ‘manufactured.’”
    “I see.”
    There came another pause, as if the pilot were considering his answer.
    “Are you the Uncle’s?”
    He blinked. Hadn’t seen that one coming.
    “No, Pilot,” he said, not surprised that she knew the Uncle—and that she expected the same of him. People on the underside knew their neighbors, that was all.
    “This vulnerability of yours, which you have been working to…limit. How much danger does it bring to our ship, and our mission?”
    Well, that was the question, wasn’t it?
    “Pilot—I don’t know. The pool of available directors is pretty small.” He allowed himself a moment of grim humor. “Smaller, now, thanks to Haz. Even if they mean to have me, no matter what, it’s going to take time for word to get back to the school; time to send another team out; and then they have to find us. I’m not saying it’s impossible that they will…”
    “I understand,” she said, after his words ran out. If she’d been human, Tolly had the notion she’d’ve sighed right then.
    “This vulnerability—what is its nature? An implant? A construction? Something biologic?”
    He shook his head. “Pilot, I don’t know.” He hesitated, then decided it wouldn’t do any harm to tell her. “I figured to steal the specs, back when I was young and really stupid. I can tell you that the directors keep them locked up tight. And that they’re stinting of praise when one of the students shows initiative and has a go at the locks.”
    “I see. Describe to me, please, the effects of control.”
    “My will is overridden; my…self is submerged. I am compelled to do such things as the operator deems necessary. When I have completed a mission, I am allowed to return to…what I believe to be myself.” His felt his lips quirk. “This may be a flaw in the system.”
    “Perhaps so. One would assume that there was a reason for it, however.”
    “Yes’m. Could I ask you a favor, copilot to pilot?”
    “Yes.”
    “If it seems to you that I’ve fallen…victim to my vulnerability, will you please kill me?”
    Her face came fully visible for an instant, before the pilot angled the screen downward and tipped slightly forward in a bow.
    “Yes,” she said. “I will.”
    It soothed him to hear her say it, which was maybe stupid. Still, he figured her good for the promise; whoever’d designed Pilot Tocohl had been uncommon clever; she wouldn’t be caught in any whistling glamor.
    It came to him then that he had two solid allies, standing at his back, given what Haz had already done for him and that thing the pilot promised. Two allies; people he could depend on, without question.
    He couldn’t remember, in all his life, having so much as one ally, and he hoped, his eyes pricking a little as he looked to his screens—he very much hoped that he would stand just as firm, for them.
    “One question more, Pilot Tolly.”
    He drew a breath, and turned back to face her.
    “Yes’m?”
    “I wonder if you have heard a…rumor, let us say. Presently, I hold it no higher than that—a rumor of a very old AI recently wakened. The Uncle may be in it—there’s that rumor, also—but surely he would be, so it’s no surprise, there.”
    An ancient AI waking— reawaking , it would be. And