Interrogative 01: Tiago and the Masterless Read Online Free Page A

concerning.
    "Good work, Audra. Interrogative. I'm done with…"
    "Please don't," Six-six-four said.
    "Interrogative. Belay that," Tiago said as he looked over at Audra appraisingly.
    "I know it's stupid. It isn't like you're killing me or anything. I'm still around, just not… physical," Audra said.
    He heard the frustration and hopelessness in her voice. He saw them in how she carried herself. Empathy – he felt empathy for a sim, for an instance of a sim – when the hell did that happen? Maybe, he thought, it was time to start calling her Six-six-four again. This may have gone too far.
    "Interrogative. Please assign quarters for Audra," Tiago said.
    "Room two assigned to Six-six-four instance designated Audra," the computer said.
    "I can just stay on the bridge," she said. "I don't need to sleep. I don't sweat, so I don't need to change clothes or wash unless something is spilled on me."
    He could hear what that comment cost her. She wanted to indulge his fantasy that she was real. Despite that, she couldn't just go along. Six-six-four just wasn't designed that way. He wondered how much of that was her original programming and how much he'd imposed upon her. He'd never intended to make her so capable of nuance and complexity. Somehow, he'd either released hidden aspects of her design or, perhaps, unconsciously augmented her to become what she was now. He wouldn't be going back to calling her Six-six-four.
    "I like to have the bridge to myself sometimes," Tiago said.
    It was true and it was easier than saying all the other things he wanted to say. Audra took that as dismissal. She saved her analysis session and got up to leave. She stopped at the door for the lift.
    "Tiago, I can't call for the lift," she said.
    "Interrogative. Provide Audra lift access so she can come and go from her quarters," Tiago said.
    "Sims cannot directly make requests. She will not be able to call the lift to come back to the bridge," the computer said.
    "Audra, return to station. I'll fix this later."
    Since she was effectively stuck on the bridge, Tiago left instead. He sat in his quarters, nursing his multitude of body aches, and thought about the ship/sim separation. Since sims weren't designed to be incarnated in solid bodies – that was one of his changes – several things Audra could do were not envisioned when Interrogative was designed. That meant that the rules which stopped her from physically using the lift were part of the general prohibition against letting sims directly order the ship's computer. He still couldn't grasp why those rules were ever put into place.
    The government generally trusted its computers far more than it trusted its citizens. Tiago wondered if one of the software engineers had sneaked these changes in to protect the crew or the colonists. It didn't track for him. The changes were embedded in far too many programs to be the work of one lone engineer. Moreover, it would have shown up in testing and been pulled out, he reasoned. Knowing why it was put in would help him decide if there was a danger in his removing it. He put that aside. It was too big a job to contemplate right now.
    "Interrogative. Contact Audra," Tiago said.
    "Audra here," Six-six-four responded.
    "Audra, what if we instantiate a sim on the planet to perform a survey?" Tiago asked.
    "We don't have any method of external matter assembly. There are strict limits on how far we can transmit the stream," she said. "Unless you've changed that, too?"
    "I'm thinking of sending equipment to the surface so that we can do it locally. But I haven't done it yet. Up until now, I've only done software changes, not hardware. Well, not to hardware other than you. Can you run an analysis of the equipment we have and see what it would take?" Tiago asked.
    "Negative. Calls for creativity beyond my capacity. I wish I could. If you do it, there are many points where I could assist," Six-six-four said.
    "I'll get back to you. Tiago, out."
    Limits piled on top of