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This is not a matter I require your advice on, nor your help. I will handle it by myself.

...it's one thing to handle things by yourself when it's your issue.

But because you refused to consult with anyone else, one AI got really hurt, and Ai-chan got lucky they were out before I slept, or they wouldn't have been doing much better.

It wouldn't have been hard for me to hurt Ai-chan. It was actually incredibly hard not to do so by mistake. It's pretty obvious I have no intention to hurt any of the AI even if I'm fucking pissed at you.

Puma.

If—when—I reach the point where it may be feasible to request your aid on this matter, I will do so.

As it stands, I trust neither her, nor myself, to be able to protect you. Your expertise does not make you invulnerable. [ Do not tempt her to use you. Don't. Don't. ]

Her?

[Well, that's interesting phrasing]

The fragment.

She is laying silently in bed in the medical ward, and is quite incapable of hurting anybody.

[Also interesting phrasing.]

...

I suppose there is something else to focus on first.

The children.

Do you understand why it's not right for you to strike back?

No, I do not.

I do not understand why I should allow myself, or my charges, to be hurt without retaliation, while even those not committing violence look on with satisfaction.

...the implantee. You put a bunch of responsibility on him he wasn't prepared for. That he had no means to be prepared for, not even taking into account any trauma he might already have. He's probably traumatized himself with how he was acting. I saw how he acted, he's not malicious to be malicious. He was just trying to deal and it didn't work out.

Their situation is one of two victims. The AI didn't deserve it, and he didn't deserve it.

As for the other...

He's you.

[ She says nothing. ]

[ And Puma may have the feeling that he is being watched very, very closely right now. There's a level of intensity to it that isn't usually there, when she's implanted into her human. ]

Someone was hurt whose important. Someone to protect, to care for. Someone who couldn't run. Someone who couldn't be helped.

Then, an opportunity to hurt the one who caused that hurt.

That's you.

And that's him.

The difference is, you were the one who instigated the situation. Was what he did right? No. But right now, it's eye for an eye. If you go for the other eye, then he'll go for the other eye, and it will continue until you are stopped.

Because that's how it will go. Because you're the one with the power. The one with options. You can do a million and one things to hurt him, and people will see that, and people will hate you, and fear you.

And if you can't stop, then you have to be stopped, and so far, if we can't convince an Echo to stop, then our only option is to find a way to stop the Echo completely.

[ That sounds like a threat. And she has to admit, it is tempting. It is so tempting to stop trying to care. Why should she? It would be so much easier not to. Let it go, throw it away, focus on her work. ]

You seem to forget that I have let him go. Twice.

[ Her voice is back to blankness. ]

Twice he has hurt us, and twice I have let him walk away.

And his important person suffered for days, terrified and scared. Bodies recover a lot easier than minds.

More than that, if you become an Echo to be feared, you doom the AI. Your anger will do more harm to you, to her, and to them than anyone else.

You are aware of the percentage likelihood that somebody will attempt to cause harm to us without provocation, are you not.

[ It's not really a question. If she can see it, if she can sense it, surely he can as well. ]

I am aware. But that's the thing about revenge. If you just keep hitting back, it get worse. That's why revenge is a very dangerous thing to pursue if you don't know what you're doing. If you let your anger control you.

But I'm not talking about an attack.

Do you remember what I told you about trauma games before?

Yes, I remember.

However.

Regardless of whether or not I decide to— [ an odd pause ] Regardless, if we are attacked again, particularly without provocation, I will defend us. That is not negotiable.

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?

[ There's a long silence. ]

[ A silence eventually punctuated by Iota … disappearing. ]

[ It all goes: the avatar, the feeling of presence all around him. He's left with nothing, alone in the teleport deck. ]

....

[Welp.]

[But she didn't kick him out.]

[Well]

[.....]

[TIME TO INVESTIGATE, I GUESS.]

[I mean, he watched the footage, he's got a pretty good map now, can he head to whatever room she was in before she left the ship before?]

[ The very last room she'd stopped off in before leaving the ship … happens to be the very same galley she'd taken Puma to when they'd drank hot chocolate together. It's a fair trek from the teleport deck, but nothing gets in his way of heading over there. ]

[Welp]

[Was there anything she was reading there?]

[ Nothing like that, no. ]

[ There's isn't much of note in here, unless one counts the clean mug and spoon standing next to the machine she'd used to make the hot chocolate. It looks like she'd been planning on coming back and making herself some … ]

[So it was a sudden interruption.]

[....]

[Let's head to communications.]

[ That's over towards the bridge. And … ]

[ And the route seems familiar, somehow, and it's not because of his mental map. Weird, huh. ]

[ The virtual keypad on the comm room's door indicates that it's locked. ]

[....that's...that's VERY weird.]

[Well, if there's weird familiarity going on, is there any sort of deja vu feeling for numbesr?]

[(Or whispers)]

[ No. It just … it just feels familiar, like he knows this place. Like he's been here before. ]

[ Like he should be more aware of it than he actually is. ]

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