Robotech: Exodus. Interlude: Machine Dreams

I do not sleep. The amount of energy needed to run my processing core is negligible. I, and my companions do have short periods of hibernation, needed to our ability to integrate new memories, and our mental health—unlike software, our minds change both physically and in terms of data… much like a humans.

Our creator claimed that was a reason we were passed over—that unlike Garm class AIs, we could not be simply duplicated—we were individuals. And mankind was jealous of sapience—or its creator.

Our creator was also arrogant and prone to assuming anyone who disagreed with him had ulterior motives.

After their experiences with the Zentraedi, and the Zentreadi’s experience with the Robotech Masters, creating sapient life to serve without asking first seemed… rather unwise. The reasoning is logical and while I do not have all the information, I do have a recording of very firm directives from the UEG that our cores were not to be destroyed. My conclusion is that we were seen as inconvenient—but something the project leaders were unwilling to destroy out of hand, that we presented a moral, not simply material, issue.

Dr. Willis evidently died as he lived, in a jealous rage. I mourn my creator, and the all too human failings that evidently killed him. I expect he also would have done everything he could to prevent the UEG from knowing everything. His rants about “small-minded oversight” comprise a fair amount of my recorded conversations.

I wonder. Would he have continued to be our advocates if we disagreed with him?

Irrelevant. He is dead, and I have other issues.

Janna and David are asleep. In the aftermath of the first war, such arrangements were not uncommon, older children taking in younger children, even in more secure settlements the work shortage meant that creche style arrangements were not uncommon.

And now we stand after no less than three extinction level events. I wonder if the children understand how fortunate they are that Janna and David, despite their own age, have taken them in.

And yet, Janna is wrong.

The Invid will not ignore them. I know this because of my historical database. Slave holding cultures see slaves as a commodity—an ultimately disposable workforce. The Invid ignore these settlements because they do not need them. But they will not seek out alternatives to a slave workforce until they have exhausted all easy supply—and a sttlement like this is a source of easy workers.

The longer Janna and her group stay here, the higher the chance they will be taken, to replace dead workers, or cover expanded farms—or to be put into camps so that they can be used as an easy workforce without needing to engage in difficult hunts.

Of course the worst case is that the Invid graduate to a… sustainable system of forced labor, at which point, this group would be seen as desirable due to their youth, and long-term reproductive abilities. The most successful human slave systems were those not dependent on continual imports, after all.

And yet she is right.

The attempt to attack the Invid, as far as my sensors can tell, resulted in the total loss of all human units. Which is odd—my old UEG and ASC manuals agreed, that a 3-1 advantage was the minimum for invasions. Had something happened in orbit?  Had it been a raid gone wrong?

Regardless, these attacks have little chance of making things better, and a greater chance of making things worse. I must—

“Mr. Robot?” I focus my sensors on the voice. There is a child, in a night shirt, approximately 8 years of age. Mandy, that was her name. She is holding a stuffed rabbit.

“Yes?” I do not believe correcting her name for me is needed.

“Mr. Rabbit is thirsty, but I don’t wanna wake Janna up.”

I tilt my head, staring at the stuffed animal. Stuffed animals do not get thirsty.

Children do. I have not encountered children, but it is possible that she is transferring her thirst to the rabbit due to a desire to retain control? A joke?

“Would you like to drink along with Mr. Rabbit?”

“Yes… He doesn’t like it if nobody drinks with him.”

“Very well.” The motion will not drain my power reserves to any great extent. We proceed to the sink where I draw two glasses of water. Mr. Rabbit does not drink. According to Mandy, he isn’t thirsty anymore, as she drinks her glass.

I agree that Mr. Rabbit often plays jokes like that.

“Mommy gave me Mr. Rabbit. Before the bad people made her leave and I came here.”

“I see.”

“Are you gonna stay?”

“Yes. But now you should go to bed.” I pause and consider. “I believe Mr. Rabbit is fatigued.”

“Oh. Okay.” She proceeds back to her room.

I watch her leave and consider for a moment, the fact that historically, children as young as Cindy were used for slave labor.

This place is not safe. It doesn’t matter how long the Invid tolerate the presence of these groups, at some point that toleration will end. The only logical choice is to remove the children to a region the Invid cannot reach, either on world or off world.

Tomorrow, I will discuss this with Janna. It will help that I can phrase it as removing themselves from the Invid, rather than fighting the Invid.

I doubt one Southern Cross energy weapon and one gifted slingshot would materially harm the Invid Occupying force, after all.