Self defense is always acceptable. If that's what it is.

But again, missing the point.

I told you about trauma games. If you ran them, people wouldn't want to talk to you, associate with you. Let you learn new things.

If you follow revenge, even if people don't actively attack you for fear of you, they won't want to associate with you.

Nor with them.

Broken AIs, who are still far away from being stabilized. Isolated and alone on a big ship that's stagnant. With a Captain who will become stagnant because no one wants to interact with her.

An AI with nothing new to learn from, with nothing new that can happen to them, will not be able to grow. And if they can't grow, they can't stabilize.

Epsilon is an AI fragment who has a soul. Who was enough of a person to fill a full team slot on his own. You know how he did that? Because he made friends. He made connections. He learned and grow because he allowed new experiences to shape him.

Your AI need to be able to do that too, or you will never be able to help them.

Revenge is isolation. If you put it above everything else, revenge is all you will ever have and it will be all they ever have, and you do not grow with revenge.

And if an AI doesn't grow....then what's the point of your existence?