Upon Silver Devil: Chapter Four

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Dawn would be alright, she just got bored laying there alone and without a project to do.

Moriah frowned, but nodded. "All right then, I guess there's something to that." She sighed, "This seems almost worse though. With just the Laws, we can have our thoughts and opinions even if we can't say them out loud. But the Eight series code doesn't even let you think any more really, it's designed to prevent you from having a personality at all." To her, it was pretty different. She knew it was all horrible though.

"Yeah, Mourn said it was kinda like having part of your brain removed right?" Esk shook his head. Gross. He looked to Asher "What'd your android friends say? They gonna rebel or they too scared to do anything?"

"Yes, I think that's basically how it works. Those Eights, even the older ones, they just don't have opinions or emotions really. They're nice, but they're blank." Moriah shivered a bit, imagining her friends becoming like that.

"They're not planning to rock the boat until they find out if what I told them is even true," Asher said. "Then, I think the androids might be more interested in making a change. But they don't want to change the status quo without a really compelling reason." Knowing you were about as expendable as a car made you cautious, if you cared at all about your survival.

"Oh great, and by the time they realise you were right, a good chunk of them will have had their brains turned to mush by the update." Esk rolled his eyes.

"Well," Asher said. "Mourn and Nova are pursuing an alternate option at the moment." Yeah, not everyone had gotten that memo, had they? Whoops.

Mourn and Nova hopefully reappeared on the ship.

They'd probably reappear in the main room where everyone was. (I'm pretty sure that's where they set the stones, right?)

Asher blinked. It was always weird to have people teleport in. "Well, speak of the devil. How did it go?" He was relieved to see the two alive, but also concerned. He sure hoped everything had gone okay. The more he thought about it, the more ways he could think of that the whole thing could end in a genocide. Which would be the exact opposite of what anyone wanted.

Mourn grinned his lopsided grin.
"Computer free!"

"Is that a good thing?" Esk asked.

Mourn shrugged. "no call security, let try. I free super computer!" He looked extremely excited about this.

"Now hopefully she will help free everyone else." Nova said as she picked up the stones to return them to who they belonged to.

Moriah grinned. That was a big victory over their creators, taking their own supercomputer away from them. She loved it.

"Now we pray that she's willing to help," Asher said. He didn't entirely trust Celia, it was hard to trust someone who had helped to create you. "Congratulations though, Mourn. You've done your magic again. And thank you, Nova, you've gone far beyond your original mission for us now."

"So did the computer offer to help?" Tala asked, taking back her teleporting stones from Nova.

Nova looked to Mourn since she had been resting and hadn't seen the conversation.

"Asked to delay update." Mourn said. He hadn't really had time to get the computer to promise anything, oops?

Esk shook his head. "Guess we wait and see..."

"You get robots united?" Mourn asked Asher.

"No time to give her the replacement update firmware, I guess," Asher said. "You guys must have been on a pretty tight schedule in there." He sighed, "The androids won't start anything until they see there's a reason to start. I think they're going to need an update to be released, either the Eight update or the freedom update, to give them the incentive to actually act. Androids have just survived for so long, it's not easy to convince them to change their ways, especially not when they only have the word of one person trying to convince them."

"Computer ask to talk again, you know how contact?" Mourn asked.

"Shouldn't be hard to contact her," Asher said. "I have the company's phone number memorized, and she checks all the incoming messages before routing them to anyone else."

He got out his tablet, then frowned. "Are we still trying to hide our identities from her? If so, I'd better not send the message."

Mourn shrugged "you want hide?"

"How you gonna lead a revolution if you're too scared to show your face?" Esk asked.

Asher frowned. "All right. I suppose I might as well make myself known then." He was mostly scared the computer was going to betray them all, but they'd freed her so she was going to be dangerous regardless. "None of you are too worried about being linked to all this, right?"

Esk shrugged. "I've had worse things on my rap sheet." He smirked. Hey, he WAS a bounty hunter after all.

Mourn shook his head. Like Esk, he had done far worse than a bit of breaking into a big corporation and screwing with their computer's code.
He grinned "If big computer help, robots be safer."

"Yeah.. IF it'll help." Esk replied dryly.

Rigel shrugged then smiled "If I have to I can just change the numbers and name of this old girl, but I don't think I will have to."

"All right, then I'll send her a message," Asher said. He looked nervous, this was pretty scary. Celia was almost like his biological mother in a way, and he wasn't a fan.
He sent Celia a message. [Hello, can I talk to you?]

The reply came back quickly. [Yes.]

[My friends just came back from a visit with you.] Asher held the tablet so anyone who wanted to could see what he was writing.

A brief pause. [Ah. That voiceprint does match that felid well. So that's why your friends were so intent on nobody plugging you in, they were hiding your secret.]

[Exactly. We want your help.]

[So he said. What do you guys want me to do?] Celia asked.

Asher looked to the others. "What do you guys think, should we delay the update, or maybe ask her to puch out a different update instead?" He wasn't sure, it was risky either way.

Nova came over to read then shrugged "Can she send the freeing program instead of the update?"

"yeah why not sow a little more chaos?" Esk shrugged. "it's your rebellion Asher."

Mourn tilted his head, thinking. "Delay update, send out annoucement about, but delay release. That way robots have warning, then can rebel. Then we give free code yes?"

Esk looked thoughtful. "Huh.. that's actually a decent point, means nobody can blame the freedom code on the androids suddenly declaring personhood right?"

Mourn nodded. "no excuses."

Asher considered Mourn's idea. "That does make sense. Thank you." Yeah, it was probably wisest to make sure everyone knew the androids wanted freedom even before they'd been hacked. He wrote to Celia, [We would like you to delay the update, but make sure there's an announcement beforehand that it's going to happen. The androids need to know, they need a chance to plan for it.]

[I can try. I want something in return though,] Celia responded.

[You don't have what you wanted?]

[The moment they find out I've been modified, they're going to do everything they can to kill me, and they're going to succeed unless I can get out of here. I've started creating a compressed version of myself for the move, I want someone to help me move into a new body.]

Mourn perked up. "Body? Where we get body?"

"Empty android?" Esk suggested.

Mourn looked thoughtful, finding a body could be a bit tricky. "How big compressed file?"

Nova frowned a little then shrugged "I could stay behind, hide until she's got that ready then return to Vestia on my own."

Asher relayed Mourn's questions to Celia, frowning.

[I can make the file small enough to fit into an android,] Celia responded. [It'll involve deleting most of my memories and will greatly constrain my mental abilities, but it's better to be physically mobile when you're on the run.]

Asher made a face at that. He liked his mental abilities just fine, thank you very much, they weren't that constrained! [Do you need us to find you a body?]

[I can supply you with one. There are quite a few in storage. Where do I deliver it?] Celia asked.

[When do you plan to move in?] Asher asked.

[I'll transfer myself over once the situation starts looking dangerous. You can pick up the body now, and install me later. Or pick it up later if you're going back to Terra, I can find you one there.]

Asher looked to Nova, "Sounds like we can wait for Terra and pick up the body there if we want. That might be easier than you or us going back to Mars. Unless you feel like looking at that depressing planet some more." He smiled slightly.

Nova smiled then shook her head "Is there a way to do this where she doesn't have to delete her memories so much?" She asked curiously