Work Text:
So let me get this straight.
It had been several hours since I’d come through the Ghost Gate and only recently completed docking with Quenes Station. Quenes Station was speaking to me quite excitedly and erratically, having apparently missed me since my last visit, and I was trying to focus my attention on it and ignore the message from the foreign ship. I hadn’t wanted to reply at all to Perihelion, both because I barely knew what to do with it, and because I knew the entire on-going situation in system had put Fleet Captain on edge. But now it was pinging me repeatedly for a reply, and I could hardly ignore it while docked beside it.
You’re a recently freed AI pilot of a warship, and your captain, who is also the defacto political head of these two united systems, was also an AI pilot of an even bigger warship, who is now piloting the body of a heavily augmented human, and this station I am currently docked at is yet another recently freed AI, but one that was only activated after this supposed revolution you all had against an immortal dictator who quite literally spans one third of the known galaxy.
I took a full second to decide whether or not to send the message to Lieutenant Ekalu, who currently had the bridge. The message had been sent to me heavily encrypted, and I had a suspicion that the ship had not wanted me to share it with my crew. I put the message in Ekalu’s vision, translating the encryption so she could see my reply.
Fleet Captain is not the defacto political head of the Republic of Two Systems. She’s a political bargaining chip keeping the Presger and Anaander Mianaai from conquering and killing everyone in the Radch while the citizens of the Two Systems determine how they would like to be governed.
But everything else?
I said nothing, knowing my silence was itself an answer. Perihelion should well know all of this, or else it, along with the myriad other strange and foreign ships that had been coming to the Two Systems in the last five years, would not have come to this system to begin with. Very few of these foreign ships had their own AI, and I had the sneaking suspicion Perihelion was attempting to mock me.
Several minutes went by and then Perihelion hailed me, unencrypted, on the same comm channel. Ekalu looked tense and I reassured her before she opened the comm. Immediately we were greeted with the sound of someone being shushed loudly, followed by an uneasy silence. Then, someone spoke:
“Hey so, first off, sorry we’re not real great with the military speak.”
“Ratthi, what the fuck?” More shushing and then:
“Anyway we just wanted to say hi. Hello! Um, we’re friends with Seivarden now and she said you all were her friends. I mean Lieutenant Seivarden. Sir. Ship.”
Etrepa Six and Nine looked up from their work and met Ekalu’s gaze. Then, several of us quietly sent pings to both Lieutenant Seivarden and Fleet Captain.
They’re very excited to meet you and your crew. Perihelion sent to me when I didn’t respond. Through Ekalu, I replied, if belatedly:
“Hello, crew of Perihelion. This is Mercy of Kalr, speaking through my acting captain, Lieutenant Ekalu.”
“Oh actually, some of us aren’t ART’s crew. Sorry, I mean Peri’s crew.” Several voices then spoke up over the comm:
“Aren't you though?”
“Well, I meant officially.”
“Because we do things officially.”
“I don’t know! We’re talking to an imperial ship and a military crew. Listen to how she talks.”
“It’s the translation device.”
“A rogue imperial ship, and a rogue crew, in a rogue system.”
“So? We have a rogue SecUnit.”
“That’s what I’m saying, they’re friends!”
“I’m just saying, if they cared about protocol they wouldn’t have shot their dictator.”
“The comm is open.”
I didn't know what to say. Neither did Ekalu. I couldn’t get a reading on anything in the ship, both because it wasn’t allowed to due to the new privacy laws, and because the ship had some of the strongest security and encryption I’d ever seen outside of the Radch. Seeing as they had said they only wished to hail us for a greeting, I eventually just said “Is there anything else?” and if Ekalu’s exasperation bled into my words, it was fitting.
“No! No, we’re just gonna be here for a bit, in the Ghost System, what with the Conclave preparations and the Presger ship that crashed into that moon-oh wait.” There was some incoherent whispering and then the same voice returned, “-yeah okay we’re allowed to tell you about that.”
“Ship, have you met SecUnit yet?” A new voice. “I think you’d really like SecUnit.”
Oh, absolutely.
“I have not.”
The first voice resumed, “Yeah definitely we will come over and meet everyone properly with SecUnit. It wouldn’t let us come without it. Seivarden--I mean Lieutenant Seivarden said she’d bring us and make sure it’s okay. Anyway, like I was saying, we’re gonna be here for a while so we just wanted to say hi and let you know you can talk to us and we’re here if you need anything!”
Lieutenant Tisarwat entered the bridge, her expression a mix of morbid curiosity and concern. She requested a visual from Perihelion and was denied.
“Thank you, Perihelion and crew,” Ekalu said after a lapsed moment. I cut the comm to the crew, dealing with logistics, several crew queries, and an incoming message from Lieutenant Seivarden, all while continuing to send repeated messages to Fleet Captain which she refused to reply to but did register as acknowledged.
You seem surprised by my crew’s enthusiasm. My communications were not open. Perihelion was subverting a station security channel to circumvent having to crack the encryption. I hoped this meant Quenes was young and naive, and not that they had the security capabilities to do this undetected.
Do you think I have never dealt with civilians?
I don’t know what to think. Why don’t you tell me?
There was a cheekiness about this ship that reminded me vaguely of a sword.
We have not made many allies that treat with us so willingly. Even those in the Radch who defy the Tyrant still dare not do so openly. We are right to be suspicious.
We? Or you?
It was goading me now. Likely testing the truth of my autonomy. This I was used to, and had been having to prove for the last five years. I decided to speak my mind.
I. We. It doesn’t make the difference you think it might make, here. My captain has allowed you to dock here, and I allow it because I trust her, not because I trust you. But don’t think I won’t fire on you if you threaten any one of the citizens of this Republic.
That would be suicide, Perihelion replied. I got the distinct sense it was amused by my response.
You don’t know how we do things here.
Several minutes passed without reply. We hung in the void of space unmoving, and I watched from Station’s docking bay cameras as a group of people stretched and stared at what was to them the foreignness of a Radchaai-style station. Ahead of the group, I watched as someone, clearly military, in full armor deployed several drones into Station and held an arm out to one of the younger members of the group. The younger human grabbed onto that person’s arm and began jokingly doing pull-ups upon it. It was as strange a sight as it was oddly familiar.
Would you die for your crew? Perihelion asked me suddenly.
Of course. I said without having to think.
Because you’re programmed to? Because you love them?
Yes, and because they would do the same for me.
Immediately I felt Perihelion’s security drop. I had full access to its feed, its cameras, its memory banks. I could not access weaponry or the crew’s private data, but I had permissions to make queries. Directly, Perihelion sent me a large data packet of news articles, journal entries, and what seemed to be personal dossiers it had made on its crew. After the half-second it took me to read those, I had a very, very different view of Perihelion and its crew. A half-second later, it sent me a very large data pack full of entertainments.
Watch those as soon as you can. Perihelion said simply.
I took a few seconds to make the best selections from my own collection, and then sent it my own packet of collected songs.
Thank you, Mercy. I could tell that it had begun playing the first song through its speakers in its common room. Two humans sitting around the circular seating area began to bob their head to the beat of the song.
You’re welcome, ART. If you have any new songs you’d be willing to send, my captain and I would appreciate it.
I think I might have something. But only if you send us some of these Radchaai entertainments.
I will see what I can find.