Dauiland

Once again, his plan was failing.

Of the ten Lesser he had influenced and brought here, to the iron wall, seven had banded together to tell him the barrier was simply impenetrable, in what they thought was a group too large for him to simply kill off.

But no punishment was too harsh, no sacrifice not worth it, no death too high a price for him — he would have all that was beyond the wall. It was his destiny.

Turning his focus to the three remaining Lesser entities, he implanted in their minds the question of what they were going to do next, backed up by the image of the lifeless bodies of their kind roughly piled against the wall several meters away as a reminder of the cost of failure.

One of the Lesser merely picked up a hammer and started repeatedly hitting it against the wall.

Useless fool, he thought, influencing the other two to deal with the annoyance. One complied, but the other, who had been exhibiting indications of leadership over this Lesser group since coming here, remained still.

Again, he tried to sway this one to dispatch the Lesser currently hammering at the wall, but, again, they refused. And then they gave him images. The images said, “Spare their life, and I will tell you how to succeed.”

He drew the Lesser that had complied with his kill-order away from their target, then returned his attention to the leader, inducing them to share with him their new idea. This time, they chose to obey.

They gave him two images. The first was of far outsiders — entities from afar, not like the Lesser he was dealing with; they were coming here, also intending to take that which lay past the wall. The second was of those foreigners succeeding, using their outsider tools and technology to destroy a portion of the wall large enough for two to walk through side-by-side.

He asked through inserted images how they knew this would happen. The Lesser responded with a display of uncertainty that the specific images they had provided would come to happen, but a guarantee that there were many far outsiders, and some would inevitably arrive at the wall, whether intentionally or not.

Satisfied, he gave the Lesser entity one final image. It contained a concept about which he had always known, but which he had only used once before, after a far outsider had helped him: gratitude.

And then he gave an order to the other two: kill your leader, then yourselves.

He had promised the Lesser leader that he would spare the life of the idiotic one, but now, he had the knowledge he needed, and there was no point in letting any of them live.

For he was cruel, and cruelty forbids trust.

—

As always, the Councilroom was large, low, and dim, lit only by a set of candles — a reminder of past centuries, when setting fire to wick was the innovation of the time. In the room’s core was a rectangular wooden table which held the candles in its center, and around the table were seated the four Councillors, convening for the first time in weeks.

Unlike the previous meeting, there were no extra chairs placed around the table waiting to be occupied by the Governor of Josezhey and her wily assistant. But once again, Harlin Enolin had brought essential information to their attention. One hour before the gathering of the four, he had transmitted to Councillor Arven Lore a copy of an official NIB document, simply entitled “Scinrea Report,” with an equally succinct message from the Modus Vivendi operative: Acquired by Gov. Kadhir from Sec. Gierplun. Detailed events could have vast ramifications.

The Councillors of Four had spent enough time reading the Unidalanian Intelligence report, and now it was time to talk.

“My friends, this is what will inevitably happen when Scinrea is allowed to do whatever she wants,” Gious Sevanis, the Fourth Councillor, began the discussion, her words predictably blunt. “She captured the Unidalanian agent, Bersan Sieders, when her job was simply to neutralize the Trinity Corporation. She continued to deviate from her orders when, for no apparent reason, she revealed to him the existence of the Sanctuary, and—”

“We understand what you’re saying, Gious,” interjected the Second Councillor. “But Scinrea didn’t die because she expressed freedom and did something outside the plan. She died because the figure called ‘the Harbinger’ killed her.”

“And how did the Harbinger find her, Arven? Because she stayed at Trinity to interrogate Sieders,” Gious parried. “If she’d dealt with Conag Lokamir and the rest of Trinity’s leadership and simply left the base as planned, we might be talking to her right now.”

“If the Harbinger could track Scinrea down to the Trinity headquarters, she could track Scinrea down to anywhere,” Arven said coolly. “Whatever the case, though, I think we should put this point aside. When Scinrea became human, she gained the ability to ‘do whatever she wanted,’ as you put it. She was no longer a mere computed intelligence — she was a human one, so her mind no longer unquestioningly accepted our instructions. It became inevitable that she would begin to do things her own way.”

“I must concur with Arven’s judgement,” the First Councillor said, drawing a candle from the center of the table towards its edge to illuminate his face. He wore a grave expression, and directed his words at the Fourth Councillor. “According to you, Gious, in breaking from her task of simply dealing with Lokamir and moving on, Scinrea also broke from her deal with us. Is that correct?”

“That is correct,” Gious said.

“Then may I remind you that the idea of , but Scinrea’s?” Orlind said somberly. “And that because it was Scinrea’s plan, she had the right to execute it however she wished?”

Before Gious could respond, the Third Councillor spoke: “You cannot draw the second conclusion from the first. None of us can refute the fact that Scinrea formulated the plan we instructed her to carry out, but I don’t recall any fact stating that the creator of a plan has the unconditional authority to choose the method with which it is accomplished.”

“Possibly, but—” Orlind tried to rebut.

“We especially shouldn’t have trusted Scinrea as much as we did with accomplishing her objective,” Vick Estamin added anyway, “because of the mental instability she suffered after her transformation from an android into a human.”

When Orlind didn’t attempt again to protest Vick’s rejoinder, Gious elected to do so. “You act as if Scinrea only felt overwhelm when she became human, but that was not at all the truth. Certainly she felt inundated by the new demands and emotions she faced and experienced, but Scinrea also felt anger: anger towards Gene Russell.”

Orlind saw where the First Councillor was going with this. “It was that anger that led to Scinrea plugging Gene Russell and Tessin into the Sanctuary,” he picked up. “According to Sieders’s report, Tessin was abducted by the Harbinger, but Gene Russell is still in the Sanctuary. More importantly, she was in the Sanctuary nearly the whole time Scinrea was human. That gave Scinrea the time she needed — and, if she were still alive, would continue to give her the time she would need — to destroy Tessin’s legacy without any interference from Russell.”

Vick scowled; Orlind barely noticed, as the expression was only a miniscule departure from his usual face. “Don’t be so easily deceived, Councillor,” he said. If voices could have facial expressions, his would be glowering, too. “That was a coincidence, not some masterminded scheme of Scinrea’s.”

“I’m anything but credulous, Vick,” Orlind countered. “It’s at least as likely that it was more than luck, given the terms of our arrangement.”

“Really,” Vick said flatly.

“Really,” Orlind returned, hoping to somehow get through the Third Councillor’s stubbornness. “Shall I remind you exactly what that deal was?”

Vick remained silent, and Orlind took it as a sign of indifference. “We were to help Scinrea in her transition to humanhood and supply her with the resources she needed for her achievement of her objective and, if necessary, her own basic survival,” he decided to explain. “She would carry out that plan — destroying Tessin’s legacy — for two reasons: first, in exchange for our aid, and second, because her newfound humanity caused her to feel animosity towards Gene Russell for making her human, and she felt that erasing all indications of Tessin’s life would cause Russell anguish.”

After a few moments of silence, when Vick knew the other was finished talking, he said, “I know all that, Orlind. There’s obviously something you’re trying to tell me. Just get to the core of your monologue.”

Disregarding the disdain in Vick’s tone, Orlind did so. “Scinrea knew that plugging Russell and Tessin into the Sanctuary made it easier for her to destroy Tessin’s legacy.”

Now knowing the First Councillor’s point, Vick mostly dropped his displeased demeanor. “So you argue that her actions were a consequence of logic, not emotion.”

“Correct,” Orlind said, cautiously satisfied.

Vick started to reply, but this time it was he who was interrupted. “Councillor Orlind Karvis,” Arven Lore said, his tone odd and unreadable. “Councillor Vick Estamin. Councillor Gious Sevanis.”

The three others looked to him to signal their attention. Somehow, they could tell he was going to say something important.

“There’s no other way to say this: I’m disappointed in all of you,” Arven said. “You have been talking about Scinrea as if she had never become a human — no, not even that; she even had a mind when she was an android. But you have been acting as if she were no more intelligent than a machine tool, and you have gone against everything we claim to represent as Councillors. I’m disappointed, and I’m astonished that none of you have realized your hypocrisy. Our ultimate goal, Orlind; Vick; Gious — our ultimate goal is curing death, so shouldn’t you treat Scinrea’s life with some respect? Scinrea wasn’t a device that we could utilize as we pleased. She wasn’t a basic logic program that acted on input based on certain conditions. She was a person, and even before that, an intelligence.”

The Councilroom was quiet for a long moment. Arven could see the other three Councillors, at their own various paces, grow pensive and think about his words, understand the truth behind them, and put together a sincere apology.

Orlind was the first to speak.

“You’re completely right, of course, Arven,” he said quietly. “I spoke and acted poorly and in a manner not befitting the Council of Four. Scinrea was a true person, as alive as we are. I apologize.”

Arven smiled faintly. “Good, Orlind. Thank you,” he said. “Gious? Vick?”

Gious looked back up towards him, and gave an apology as eloquent and clearly honest as Orlind’s. The Fourth Councillor’s statement was acknowledged by Arven, and he looked to Vick. The Kaltamian simply gave a nod, but Arven knew the gesture was as genuine as Orlind and Gious’s spoken apologies.

Arven nodded back in acceptance. “Good,” he said again. “I don’t like to reprimand the three who saved my life.” He meant it; it felt wrong to reprove his friends and allies, even though he knew their wrongness. A reminder of the dangers of letting attachment obstruct one’s better judgement.

“Still, it’s pointless to bicker over what we could have done to help Scinrea stay alive. We know from the NIB report that the Harbinger killed her some time ago, and there’s no reactivating her,” he continued, choosing his words deliberately. “We need to think about what we’re to do now.”

Deciding that he had talked enough, Arven returned the candle illumining his features to the middle of the table, indicating to the rest that he was surrendering the discussion to them.

“Any thoughts?” Vick said gruffly.

“Yes,” Orlind replied after a moment. “As Arven said, Scinrea is dead now. We can’t just recharge her batteries, or even send her to a hospital, before sending her back into the world, but she did almost entirely succeed in her plans. Tessin’s legacy is nearly gone.” He shrugged minutely. “We could form a new plan based on that.”

“What do you mean?” inquired Vick.

“The original reason we wanted to destroy Tessin’s legacy was so that Gene would have nobody to turn to but Scinrea, who would direct her to us.”

“How is that relevant to your idea? Scinrea is gone,” Vick asked, sounding mildly grateful that Orlind had gotten right to the point this time.

“Instead of Gene only helping us as an engineer,” Orlind said slowly, visibly thinking things out as he spoke, “she could also help us as the person who made Scinrea into a human — as a designer of life.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Vick responded, “except for the part where I said that Scinrea is dead. Without her, Russell has no reason to help us. It’s possible she doesn’t know about us at all, since we don’t know if Scinrea told her about our existence.”

“Then we create a reason for her to help,” Orlind said, more confident now that he had educed his proposal. “Gene is currently trapped in the Sanctuary, so why don’t we send someone into it to help her escape?”

“Why don’t we just unplug her?” Arven asked from the darkness.

“Because,” spoke up the Fourth Councillor, “Gene Russell is a person-driven person.” Before Vick had the chance to make a sarcastic remark asking what that could possibly mean, she added: “I was Scinrea’s liaison with the Council. I know from her that there’s incredible realism within the world — and especially the people — of the Sanctuary. If Gene has found and made connections with those people…”

“She’d be angry, not grateful, towards us,” Arven abruptly understood, “for forcing her away from them, and from a satisfying conclusion.”

“Exactly.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Arven said. “I can understand how easy falsehoods are much more tempting than difficult truths.”

“Then we’re agreed?” Orlind asked.

“I am,” said Arven.

“So am I, naturally,” Gious said.

“Even if I said no, I’d be outnumbered, wouldn’t I?” Vick said, then gave an exaggerated sigh to show that he was being facetious. “I concur,” he said in seriousness.

“Then it’s unanimous,” Gious said. “And I think I know the best person for this mission…”

—

Yinro Morn had not expected the Council of Four to give him an assignment so soon after his last one, and so he replied to Gious Sevanis with a mix of caution and compliment. “I understand what you want me to do,” he said. “I have one question, though: is the Council’s fundamental strategy for achieving the ultimate goal still the same?”

“What do you know about the strategy?”

“It’s essentially a modification of what the Liberlitatian engineer did with her android, Scinrea. Instead of taking an existing android and replacings its AI with a new human brain, you want to take the mind and build an android body around it.”

“Anything else?”

“Nothing explicit, but I assume the mind will be a new one that’s been given the memories and personality of the original.”

“Good thinking, Yinro,” Councillor Sevanis said. “You’re right on our overarching approach, and your assumption is also correct. And to answer your question, yes, both of those things will remain the same.”

Yinro nodded, his curiosity satisfied. “Thank you. I’ve received the coordinates you sent, and I’ll depart within the day.”

—

Gene Russell was irked that Masapolia’s garrison forces had chosen the day she and the covert were in the city to institute a stricter curfew. She knew it was probably because they were there, but still… General Detrane had seemed so arrogant when they had defeated him on the monorail. Why couldn’t he just stay overconfident like a good incompetent Imperial?

“Gene?” came a voice from behind her. She turned around, hoping her illogical and impotent irritation wasn’t showing. She knew — and Pellaton had told her — that their victory two days earlier meant the Empire would focus more attention on them: the Imperials would see them as the threat they were.

It was Morn. “Hello,” she said.

“Hello.” He looked around, then said, “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

Now Gene was curious. Morn hadn’t struck her as a very secretive person. “What is it?”

Morn sat down next to her. “Do you remember trying to explain to Pellaton that you’re from another reality, and that this one is a simulation?”

Gene frowned; her memory of that conversation was distant. “Sort of. It was a long time ago.”

“Well, I’m also from that other reality. I just arrived in this one, and I’ve come to help get you back.” He chose not to mention that Gene’s conversation with Pellaton had occurred shortly after they defeated General Detrane.

“Isn’t that already what you and the others are trying to do?”

“Yes,” Morn said, “but I brought some knowledge that the simulated me didn’t have, including some information about Scinrea.” He mentally braced himself; Gene had been close with Scinrea, and despite the former android’s sudden turn to cruelty, he knew Gene wouldn’t like this news. “Unfortunately, Scinrea has been killed. She was found—”

“Hold on,” Gene interrupted. “Who’s Scinrea?”