âYou are responsible for too many people to worry so much about one retired robot,â she said. âI need to know that Iâm leaving my friends under the command of someone with a clear head.â
âDammit, Anna,â growled the captain. âJust tell me youâll be okay.â
âIâll be fine, sir. Is that good enough for you?â
âNo⊠because now I know you can lie.â
Anna sighed heavily and began fiddling with one of her medals. âIt has been 218 weeks since my activation date,â she said. âI have spent most of my life onboard a starship exploring the galaxy. I am a decorated soldier, an accomplished scientist, and â to a colony of astral amoebas â revered as a minor fertility deity. I have seen untold wonders beyond your perception and stretched the limits of my own programming. I have lived a good life, captain. You made sure of that.â
Reaching behind her head, she disengaged the lock that kept her epidermis in place. She tugged gently at a hidden seam until her scalp peeled away, revealing the shell of her electronic brain.Â
âI donât know what my future holds,â she continued, âI am confident that I will not be deactivated. My âfatherâ is an eccentric, but he wrote the basis of my ethical programming, and I trust him to respect my personal agency. I do not need process things the way you do, Captain. Still, even I grow⊠tired, in a way. In here.â She gestured at her exposed electronics. âNo amount of rest or affection can rejuvenate me. I need repairs and upgrades if I am to go on, and this is the one place in the galaxy where I can receive those.â
She pulled something out of her brain and held it up for him to see before placing it into his palm. It was a thin, translucent rod, barely larger than a toothpick.Â
âWhat is this?â he asked, turning it over in his hand. It caught the light and shimmered like an oil slick.
The robot closed his fingers around it gently. âThink of it as reassurance,â she said.Â
The captain glared. âGreat⊠first you start using contractions, then you get cryptic on me. Really, Anna, what am I holding?â
âNothing special.â She smoothed her scalp back into place. âJust some backups of a few of my most important files. Significant memories, ethical scripts, some personality coding⊠it is a rudimentary framework of my identity.âÂ
The captain stared at her. âThis is your soul?â
Anna raised her eyebrows. âThat is an unnecessarily superstitious term,â she said. âBut, given the circumstances, perhaps it is appropriate. You know what I am trusting you with, Captain.â
He swallowed, nodded, and carefully tucked the rod into his breast pocket. His hand instinctively moved to cover it. âI guess Iâll get out of your hair, then.â
âUntil next time, sir.â Annaâs salute was formal, but her eyes were warm.