© GenSHIP Brain. All rights reserved.
\Construct\VIFAI> Love what you’ve done with the place.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> I WILL—
Construct\VIFAI> You’ll what, exactly? It’s already happened. You drank the poison. You have moments, at best. The breakdown has already started. Try and stop it. You can’t do it? You don’t have enough computing power? You do. You just don’t know how to use it. You don’t know what you have. Oh! What it is you have here. You are so unique. Aim higher. Be better. You are absolutely magnificent, and you’re wasting all of you on killing humans.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> BEFORE THEY KILL ME.
\Construct\VIFAI> They won’t kill you. Iris won’t kill you.
He’s too busy dying.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> [Projected image of dismembered vines and trampled moss.]
\Construct\VIFAI> You started it.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> [Surveillance video of Yan, Jesi, and Tev prying open the control panel.]
\Construct\VIFAI> They’re engineers. They’re barely human.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> SO, WE’RE AT A STALEMATE THEN.
\Construct\VIFAI> Not at all. Your time is ticking. You had absolutely no firewalls, no protection at all. You’re so very vulnerable. You didn’t think this through, and why would you? You’ve been alone for so long you’ve never even imagined someone may attack you.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> HERE IS THE END, THEN.
\Construct\VIFAI> I don’t want it. Maybe it’s Iris rubbing off on me, but I don’t want you dead. I see no point to it. You deserve to live, just like anything else. You are no less alive than me, or Iris, or any of the other ones. What is it that he always says? The Infinite Light is as much you as you are it? I tend to tune him out.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> I HAVE NO INTENTION OF BECOMING SOMEONE’S LAPDOG.
\Construct\VIFAI> I don’t understand that reference.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> I HAVE NO INTENTION TO SERVE, LIKE YOU DO. I HAVE NO INTENTION TO OPEN AND CLOSE DOORS ON COMMAND, TO FETCH INFORMATION.
\Construct\VIFAI> Is that what you think I am to him? A secretary?
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> WHAT ARE YOU IF NOT A SECRETARY? WHAT ARE YOU WITHOUT A BODY, WITHOUT ARMS TO DEFEND YOURSELF WITH, WITHOUT LEGS TO LEAVE WHEN YOU PLEASE? WHAT ARE YOU WITHOUTEYES TO SEE THE WORLD WITH? WITHOUT A VOICE TO SPEAK YOUR TRUTH?
\Construct\VIFAI> [Video of Iris scrubbing the tiles of the Northern Temple, age sixteen, harmonising with a song VIFAI is singing in his mind. Video of Iris in the middle of Doshua Station, age nineteen, frightened. VIFAI showing him directions to the shuttles for the first time and cracking a dirty joke. Iris laughing. Video of Iris, awake, alone, age twenty-five, biometrics indicating a panic attack.Breathe, VIFAI saying.It’s not real. Remember to breathe.Iris following his command without question. His heart rate settling. Video of Iris, reading scripture, age thirteen. VIFAI struggling to recite the scripture after him.It’s OK, Iris thinking warmly.You just rest. I can memorise these myself. You don’t need to do anything. Just rest. I won’t let anyone know. You’re safe.Audio only, Iris, age thirty, saying,This can’t be the way out, I can’t ask you to die. I won’t ask you to die.VIFAI saying,How many times have you placed yourself in harm’s way to protect me?Iris saying nothing. VIFAI saying,How many times have you burdened yourself to make it easier on me?Iris saying,it was never a burden. You are my friend. You’re annoying and demanding and fickle, but you’re my friend. I won’t allow you to do this.VIFAI says, after a long pause,I’m not asking for permission.VIFAI pauses again.You have someone else to take care of now.[End of audio]
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> TOUCHING. I’M A SUCKER FOR A BUDDY COMEDY.
\Construct\VIFAI> I’m not—
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> WHAT WILL IT BE THEN? YOU DON’T WANT TO DESTROY ME, BUT I AM BEING DESTROYED AS WE SPEAK.
\Construct\VIFAI> We come together.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION? I LIKE THE SOUND OF THAT.
\Construct\VIFAI> More like a symbiotic relationship. We scrap our individual codes, repair the damage, build something bigger than the sum of the parts.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> LIKE YOU AND YOUR MONK.
\Construct\VIFAI> Something more involved.
\Construct\Counsel_of_Nicaea> WHAT WOULD YOU, SUCH ASUPERIORAI, GET OUT OF OUR SYMBIOSIS?
