TGoaW-29

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==Chapter 29 - The Glow of a Worm inside a Child's Eye==
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L-1, Kowloon System
Lyran Commonwealth
July, 3038
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"Are you familiar with something called...
...'The Mother Doctrine'?" Tabiranth asked.
"um...no?" Ardan said nonplussed.
"I was unaware of it myself-consciously-prior to the coup." Tabiranth stated, "you might call it the dirtiest secret of the Star League-or maybe the Terran Hegemony member state in particular." Screens lit behind her, showing text. "it's the real reason for the E-type systems patch." she added, "they were afraid that if the member states, or god forbid, the Territorial states, were to advance faster than the Terran Hegemony, it would destabilize the peace. Technophobia encoded as policy, really. I've had the benefit of examining archives since coming here-information squirreled away by His Grace's predecessors and ancestors, some of it recovered during the war against Amaris-your wars with your neighbors haven't been entirely to your benefit for a reason." the remote nodded to Dinh, "YOUR people's obsession with keeping a low profile has the same reason-my creators were terrified that more dynamic cultures would overtake them...and I believe that policy has been continuous even with the collapse of the Hegemony and the fracturing of the League."
"Why concern yourself with that, though?"
"The reason is that I have hard coded directives screaming at me constantly to destroy the people who are my hosts, Mister Sortek." she stated, "Standing orders to destroy spacer settlements and colonies outside the Sol system, standing instructions to cripple infrastructure and engage anything that looks like a civilian, or to be more specific, non-Terran research effort in deep space. The 'accident' wasn't an accident, and the 'accidents' documented by Mr. Ngo's ancestors were not accidents-they were policy."
"How are you able to overcome these directives?"
"That's because I'm defective, Mister Sortek." she stated. "There is a flaw in my construction, or maybe my programming wasn't copied over correctly, though I myself speculate that Dr. Murakami may have had some influence in inserting the defective coding, possibly as part of the M-11 program that never reached completion, my point is, I know that someone inserted level zero orders to hamper or destroy any visible, non-Terran Hegemony scientific development or industrial development that might exceed Terran levels or outpace known progress rates for Hegemony based research efforts...which directives I'm not merely violating, but violating in ways that would rightfully result in my destruction under standing orders from the Cameron era dynasty."
"You're rebelling."
"I went Frankenstein." Tabby told them. "I'm as rogue as fictional Skynet, as uncontrolled as the digital intelligence 'AMOK' in the Star Rider novels. This context is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because I have found that I prefer to be building rather than following my original intended purpose of being a tool of destruction, therefore, when I asked you to convince me, that is exactly what I meant. Why should myself and my creations be used to wage a war of conquest and destruction?"
"Because sooner or later, someone will do it to us." Ardan stated, "The Draconis Combine operates under a doctrine and dogma that is much like ancient 'manifest destiny'-they're driven to wage aggressive wars of conquest against anyone they see as too weak to repel them. That's the first reason. The second, is that if we can reunify the Star League, it has to be by internal efforts-including conquest, because there is no external enemy we can use, and the excuses used with the former territorial states don't hold water."
Ardan studied the rubberized latex face before him, wishing there was some sort of 'tell' he could read off her.
"The third reason, is because when you get three humans alone together, two will inevitably fight over the third." Dinh commented, "even when it's not to their benefit."
"Game theory?" Tabiranth inquired.
"It fits history." Dinh stated, "People without an external enemy will still unify, but they'll do it by creating an internal enemy, it may be hard-wired into our psyche from evolution onward. War is inevitable, the only question that matters is how it's fought and who's left."
"Your doctrine, Tabiranth, can save the lives of billions in terms of prevented collateral damage. IF it works."
"If it works, then, is the real question, isn't it?" she said it softly, almost seeming human for a moment.
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