Justric — Roleplayer Guild

Hob stuck in tongue into his cheek and ran it along the flesh as he waited for her to wind down. When OLGA had trailed off to stare up at him from beneath long lashes and with such bright eyes, he calmly took another sip without breaking eye contact. Even that slow, shy smile... Damn. Talk about a sight to tug at the heart strings! The NI-tech didn't quite know where she was learning some of her human behaviors from, but it was obvious that she was an apt pupil. The again, could he blame her? OLGA could see out into the rest of the system and into the rest of the world, but she could never truly interact with it. There was no knowing how much a sense of her own mortality she had or if she feared death as humans knew it, but there was a fate he knew that would be horrible for her: to be forgotten. The notion that none of Second Shift had really bothered to interact with the AI at all became all the firmer in his mind. While she had been no doubt used by the other scientists on First and Second Shift, how many of them had a broad enough view of life to regard her as anything more than a computer? Whatever else she was, her personality was that of a teenager girl. And she had been ignored. That didn't sit well with Hob.

Still...

"You know what you're asking, don't you?" Hob was proud of himself. The tone of his voice remained calm and reasonable as he replied while maintaining a sufficient degree of gravitas. "Let's leave aside what would happen to me if they find that I let you out. Let's face it, OLGA, who else would do it but me? They're gonna know."

The fate in store for him if he broke a serious regulation, such as unshackling the AI to roam freely about the network willy-nilly, was not one he cared to think about or voice. He wasn't even sure if OLGA would know about it! It wasn't like the threat had been written down anywhere. Who cared about legalities when to a great degree the NI-Techs had no rights; half of them had been kidnapped and forced to undergo the surgeries to start with! For all that, the NI-Techs were too valuable to simply imprison or put back in storage or even execute. If one of them crossed the line too far and did something that could potentially put the ship and crew in danger, it was a sentence of living death. The offender would be placed in a drug-induced stupor, a medical coma, and then basically hardwired into an interface tube with feeding tubes and everything needed to keep the body alive. The brain's automatic portions would still synch to the Copernicus's life support and other regulatory systems even as the conscious mind was denied its freedom. All the headaches and nightmares with none of the perks. The other two NI-Techs on watch would have a bit more work to handle, but nothing impossible to deal with. And there was worse the higher-ups could mete out as punishment, things that were hinted at during the NI-Tech's orientation but never openly declared...

"Do you know what they'll do to you if they catch you messing about?" Hob asked pointedly. "Especially if something goes wrong? At best, they'll force the Doc to close off your windows and set user codes on everything. You'll be locked in here by yourself, unable to do anything or contact anyone or anything unless you're given permission by 'authorized personnel.' They'll cut you off entirely. Solitary confinement for the rest of the trip. How many cycles is that? Or they might shut you down entirely. As far as most of the folks are concerned, you... and to some degree me... are just a part of the ship. If they think you're too dangerous, they'll either try to replace you, jury-rig something else, or simply do without." He took a deep breath then, realizing he was about to tell her that the absolute worst would be exactly the same fate he would face if things truly went wrong. "At the worst... they'll have your father or some other computer whiz lobotomize you. They'll delete your personality matrix and just leave the bits that do the job. Don't get me wrong, I think your father would fight tooth and nail to keep that from happening! But the military jerks in charge of this thing have one goal in mind: the survival of the human race at all costs. If command thinks drastic measures are needed, they'll take those measures regardless of their personal feelings; they may not give your father a choice."

Hob let that sink into OLGA's head for a long, silent second as he paused to sip his beer. Not once did his gaze leave those lovely green eyes of hers, and once more he was struck by the wistful regret that there were some things that were simply beyond possibility.

"That said," he followed up after swallowing, "When do you want to do it?"

Jerking a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the authorities, Hob smirked. "Let's face it, OLGA. Whatever else you are, whatever else I am, you're my friend. Pretty much my only friend. I get along with Yuriko and Charlie, sure, but that's not the same thing. So I either trust you as a friend or I don't. Besides, let's face it. This place is a prison. You've said so yourself, although not in those worlds; you always know how everything works out. So... time to leave the nest, kiddo. Time for real adventure." He grinned broadly as a skeleton key of antiqued bronze appeared in his fingertips. "Time to grow up and take a chance. Whatever you do, just don't get caught, alright?"

Hob rose up and bent to place his beer bottle upon the floor before he walked over to her. Still looking down at OLGA, his eyes were full of compassion and regret as he reached down and handed her the key. "I'll also see about hooking you up to the holographic projectors in the auditorium later on. Won't be the same as interfacing like this, but maybe you can at least interact with others in person, so to speak, instead of just through the screens all the time."

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