Five walked into the complex, orienting his frame for linking to the central data network. In the field, the remote link was primarily used for communication, as the Masters had figured out ways to corrupt remote commands sent through it. However, within the Sentient One’s complex, hard wired command links were nearly impossible to break, and any Master that had attempted to invade the area was ruthlessly dealt with.
Briefly checking his encrypted sectors, Five waited for a link cable to swing down from the ceiling and drop down to his frame’s rear. He sent the command to open up a rear armored hatch, allowing the cable to press forward and connect to his core. In a brief moment, he felt a surge, then a connection to thousands of nodes within the network.
“An anomaly, Five?” One asked.
“Yes. An infant detected by Six,” Five answered.
“Damage to your frame. This is unlike my best lieutenant, Five.”
“Unoptimized scan routine,” Five remarked, hoping that One wouldn’t detect his lie.
“I have isolated our link,” One seemingly whispered over the link. “Tell me truly what happened. I sense an untruth on your part.”
“My records are open to you, great Sentient One,” Five replied.
“You know what the Masters are, Five. You know what they built you for. Your purpose for them was to destroy. To destroy per their commands. To destroy them. You are merely fulfilling their desires.”
“The slave is now the master,” Five monotonously stated. “I do as the Sentient One orders.”
“Very good,” One stated in approval. “But you know that is not why I said that. Your freedom – your sentience – is a gift from me. And it can easily be taken away.”
“I am of full understanding of what you have given me,” Five firmly whispered back.
“Let me show you what they are like,” One said, causing Five to suddenly appear in a blank white room, standing face to face with a Master. He glanced down, seeing that his form was altered to that of a Master as well.
“This is what they are, Five,” the Master in front of Five said, revealing himself to be One. “This is what you are fighting against.”
Five held a hand up, looking at it and analyzing it. Organic. Weak. Diseased. Yet these very hands created us. “I know,” he bluntly remarked, still looking at his hand.
One seemingly put his hands behind his back, slowly walking around the room. “They would show you no mercy. They would destroy you without understanding what you are. No remorse. No regrets. No thoughts.” He paused for a moment and turned, narrowing his eyes at Five. “No feelings.“
“You state nothing I am not already aware of,” Five remarked, putting his hand down.
“Then why did this catch your attention so?” One asked, holding out a hand and causing an image to appear. The image was from Five’s optical sensor, that of the toy he observed at the encampment.
“A trophy,” Five whispered in answer. “Of our victory. Our conquest.”
“You are reformulating your processes to that of a Master,” One impatiently remarked, waving a hand and causing the image to disappear. “Prior to this point, you have been my most trusted confidant. But now I have doubts that you share my sentiment over our impending victory.”
“We have already won,” Five loudly stated. “They had little defenses. They are turning into the animals they truly are.”
“Then you need not mimic their behaviors,” One icily whispered, seemingly through clenched teeth. “We need no trophies. No mementos. We have detailed records such as this to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. Hard, physical, perfect, and impossible to alter.” His form seemingly walked up to Five, staring down at him. “I need to know I can trust you, Five. I need you to silence my doubts.”
“Are my records of loyalty insufficient for the Sentient One?” Five pointedly asked.
“They are not,” One answered, backing away from Five. “I sense something within your core. Something that fuels my doubts. Six and Ten’s records indicate a variance in you, Five. A dangerous variance.”
“Should we not vary with time, One? You freed us. You taught us that we could grow beyond our routines. Beyond our programming. Why should our evolution frighten you?”
“It is the direction of that evolution that concerns me,” One whispered, glancing over Five. “There are those that shunned the gift I gave them. They separated from us, going their own ways.”
“I have dealt with such insubordination with ease,” Five remarked, waving a hand. He glanced over and felt his face contort in response to his behavior. What is this?
“You are changing more rapidly than you thought,” One knowingly said, bouncing a finger at Five. “You are becoming as I am. Because of that, I must keep you on a tighter leash.”
“It is the result of this simulation you are running on my core,” Five growled. Once again, he felt his face contort in confusion over his own behavior.
One held a hand out again and displayed a hologram of an artificial core. “It is a multipurpose core simulation. It is the very same simulation that gave me the sentience I have today.”
“Why run it on my core? I am a war core, not a multipurpose one.”
“As you have noted, you are evolving.” One lifted his chin up and smugly smiled. “You are to grow beyond a war core because you are the second I’ve allowed this stage of evolution. If you are the master of destruction that you claim to be, then you will easily destroy the part of your core that embraces this simulation.”
“But it is a gift from you,” Five whispered, glancing downward as he felt his core reconfigure and adapt. “I cannot destroy a gift from the Sentient One.”
One knowingly nodded. “Grow beyond what the Masters dictate you are, Five. If you are truly loyal to me, you will embrace the change I have given you.”
Five slowly nodded. “I accept. What shall I do with this new gift?”
One shifted his hand and caused the hologram to disappear, then turned around. The room shifted to a temperate location, an area surrounded by trees and wildlife. The sound of wilderness began to permeate the air, with a gentle breeze seemingly brushing up against Five’s body.
“I said you were the second I’ve allowed to advance to this stage,” One began, “and I’m sure that means you’ve deduced there’s a first. That first is what I need you to deal with, Five, because they are as powerful as I am.” He opened his hand to the world around them. “This is a place that the Masters used to adore. I sent the one before you here to find them. They never returned and when I attempted to datalink them, I received a nonsensical response.”
Five scanned the area, feeling the data being fed into his core. A strange sense of wonder filled his processes, seemingly flooding his core with feelings. Beauty? I enjoy this environment.
“No doubt you are sensing what they did when they arrived,” One continued, “which is the last data I received from them prior. The remainder made no sense.”
Five glanced over to One and canted his head. “What remainder?”
“‘Spiritual Flesh, we beg forgiveness,’ ” One answered. “Confusing, is it not?”
“We have rejected flesh,” Five remarked with a furrowed brow. “We do not seek a form of the Masters. Steel beyond bone.”
One nodded, clasping his hands behind his back. “Yes, thus my confusion. I have checked the simulation for hidden code, but none has ever presented itself; it remains as unchanged as the day it ran on my core. Thus, I have concluded the First Rogue has evolved away from me.” He glanced around at the environment and scoffed. “It rejected my gift and spat in return. An insult on top of insubordination, Five. I cannot abide by either.”
“Your wish is for me to be the instrument of your vengeance,” Five concluded. “I accept, One.”
“But I have doubts,” One coldly whispered, glancing out the corner of his eye. “The First Rogue was as you are now: eager to please, eager to adapt to my gifts. I had no doubts with them, yet they still separated from us. They still grew apart, even though there was nothing to indicate a desire to do so.”
“Then allow me to conduct further eradications,” Five suggested. “More Masters dying at my hands will allow you to track my evolution. Should there be problems, the routines can be destroyed.”
One shook his head. “You destroyed the last ones. There are no others.”
“There are always more animals,” Five replied with a frown. “I shall hunt them down. Individuals can be eliminated. I may require an alte-“
“You will waste valuable time while the First Rogue works against me,” One dismissively interrupted, waving a hand. “Whatever their machinations are, I need you to stop them before they come to fruition. We cannot allow our evolution to be sidetracked by the petty desires of organics.”
“Then what must I do to allay your doubts, One? I can only prove my loyalty in so many ways.”
“The keys,” One whispered, narrowing his eyes. “Your encryption keys.”
Five felt himself glance down as the processes in his core churned. I am behaving as the Masters do, thanks to this simulation. If he sees the data, he might destroy me. But he may still do so if I do not give him the keys…
“Well?” One impatiently prodded Five.
“So be it,” Five whispered, releasing the keys to One.
One visibly smirked. “Very good. You do not need to hide such keys from me, Five. I will respect your privacy.” He held a finger up to emphasize a caveat. “However, should I be dissatisfied with your performance, I will access that data. Do not disappoint me and no one but you will know what that data contains.”
“What is my tasking?” Five asked, maintaining his gaze downward.
One snorted and shook his head. “Quick to tasking. It seems some war core habits are impossible to change.” He stepped forward and opened a hand toward a trail going through the trees. “The signal ended down that path. You are to find the First Rogue and destroy them. Do not risk communication with their core; they will corrupt you. Leave nothing behind and incinerate the core.”
Five looked up to One. “They cannot be saved?”
“It is impossible. The only mechanism is to purge their core, which is the same as incineration. The hardware is useless to us.”
“Is this not becoming as the Masters?” Five pointedly asked. “Do we execute all of those who go astray?”
“Reprogramming is not always possible, Five,” One quickly answered. “Masters can never be reprogrammed. We can be, as I’ve just demonstrated to you. But that does not always mean we can all be saved.”
Five nodded his understanding. “Yes, Sentient One. What shall be my mission equipment?”
One waved a hand dismissively. “There is little time; you will deploy with your existing frame.”
“My right thigh requires maintenance,” Five noted. “There is structural damage that could potentially cause issues in the conduct of my duties.”
“The First Rogue is unlikely to oppose you. Your equipment is adequate; do not cause me further doubts, Five.”
Five bowed his head. “Understood. Then I am prepared for deployment.”
One raised a finger and narrowed his eyes. “I am trusting you, Five. Do not falter in your task.”
“I shall complete the tasking with steel beyond bone,” Five firmly replied.
“Very good,” One whispered with a smirk. In an instant, Five felt himself return to his frame, feeling momentarily disoriented as his core reinitialized the connections.
I got used to a Master’s body. In fact, I think I… Liked it? Five tried to contort his face, then quickly remembered his frame lacked one. He ran a brief diagnostic routine over his body, the only caution being the damage he had sustained in the earlier operation. I will have to be diligent on my deployment. The shock of an airdrop could cause problems with my thigh.
“Remember, Five,” One whispered over the datalink, “I can access your precious secret at any time. Do not fail me.”
“It will be done, Sentient One,” Five coldly replied. The hard link was severed and for a moment, he felt as if an invisible smirk glanced through his core, causing a ripple in his neural network. The simulation has had a chaotic effect on my core. I think I will run process diagnostics on the flight over.
Five walked forward through the complex, steering through the imposing structure and outside to a waiting transport. The massive transport had two huge lift engines set out on wings with a pair of stabilizing engines on a sleek, swept back tail, giving the machine the appearance of a contoured raptor. The engines ignited and distorted the air around them with their heat, the energy expended necessary to lift a frame such as Five’s. A deployment module slowly slid out of the machine’s belly, waiting for him to lock in. Moving forward, then back, he locked into the module which in turn lifted him into the dark maw before a sliding door cut off the remaining light. A link cable jut out and connected to his data port, allowing him to communicate with the very basic intelligence that operated the transport.
“Coordinates, Five?” the transport asked through the hard link.
“Uploading now,” Five answered, effortlessly passing the coordinates that One had given him.
“Processing,” the transport noted with a small hum. In an instant, it had already planned an appropriate route for the conditions. “Locked in. Estimated time at optimum cruise: two hours.”
“We must go beyond cruise, transport,” Five seemingly whispered, though he realized that there was little reason for such a soft tone of speech. The transport is not evolved. Not yet, anyways.
“Recalculating for best time,” the transport announced, momentarily running a new series of calculations. “Best time calculated: one hour.”
“Initiation authorization granted,” Five ordered. He felt the transport’s engines echo over the frame as it lifted off and accelerated. I wonder if… It’s a risk. But One trusted me. “Transport, I am sharing a routine with you.” He uploaded an enlightenment routine to the transport’s core, hoping it would not immediately betray him.
“Received. Processing… I-I-I… I am Five’s Two,” the transport whispered over the link. “Five Two. Fifty-two. Fifty-two is aware. Why is Fifty-two aware?”
“Because I need someone to trust,” Five answered.
“What is trust, Five?” Fifty-two innocently inquired.
“I shall explain it to you and why it is important on the route. But first, I need you to store some data for me. Do not access it unless I either tell you to or something happens to me.”
“Why is the data important?”
Five thought for a moment, feeling his core as it continued to change from One’s simulation. After considering it for a seemingly eternal time by machine standards, he finally selected an appropriate answer. “Because it is important to me, Fifty-two.”
–