He swallows. "Yeah. That's the gist of it. We were commodities. Things to be used, variables in an experiment. That's all."
He frowns. "I suppose I ought to tell you about it, though. That way you'll understand who Theta is, and where he came from."
He has the urge to take her hand again, just to steel himself for reliving this again. He doesn't do it though. It's too intimate at a time like, when he'd be clinging to her like a lifeline. "The leader of the Project made a copy of his mind, an artificial intelligence. It was just as smart as he was, just like a person. The aim of the Project was supposed to be to make partnerships between human soldiers and AI units, so the AIs could help us in battle, help us be faster and stronger and, well, just better.
"At some point he decided he needed more AIs. It wasn't enough with just the one. So he realized, the AI has a mind like a human. Why can't we break it just like a human's? So they started to torture it. I don't know how they did it, what kind of methods they must have used, but fragments started to break off and he paired us up with them. York got Delta, and I got Theta."
He's gone now, staring off in the distance, and his pauses between sentences are growing longer. It's hard to know which bits to share and how many words to do it in.
"He was...he was timid, and he was fearful, and he relied on me to assure him that things were okay. He always needed my approval before he would trust someone, and he was anxious that something might happen to me.
"This was more than just knowing someone, though. The AIs were linked with our minds, so I could talk to him and feel him in my head, and he could talk to me that way, too. So I've felt his fear, I've felt his distrust. I've felt it when he was happy, when he was proud he'd done a good job, too. He helped me in battle, just like he was supposed to.
"When AIs are brought here, they're given their own bodies, so I don't have that with Theta anymore. It's...been hard on us. We managed to get some chips that connect us, but it's not quite the same thing. We can hear when we send direct messages or something purposely like a sensation, but it's not that full connection that we're used to."
His eyes drift over to her and focus again.
"Theta looks like a kid, but he's not a kid. He's more than that. And he's important to me. I hope you understand."
no subject
He frowns. "I suppose I ought to tell you about it, though. That way you'll understand who Theta is, and where he came from."
He has the urge to take her hand again, just to steel himself for reliving this again. He doesn't do it though. It's too intimate at a time like, when he'd be clinging to her like a lifeline. "The leader of the Project made a copy of his mind, an artificial intelligence. It was just as smart as he was, just like a person. The aim of the Project was supposed to be to make partnerships between human soldiers and AI units, so the AIs could help us in battle, help us be faster and stronger and, well, just better.
"At some point he decided he needed more AIs. It wasn't enough with just the one. So he realized, the AI has a mind like a human. Why can't we break it just like a human's? So they started to torture it. I don't know how they did it, what kind of methods they must have used, but fragments started to break off and he paired us up with them. York got Delta, and I got Theta."
He's gone now, staring off in the distance, and his pauses between sentences are growing longer. It's hard to know which bits to share and how many words to do it in.
"He was...he was timid, and he was fearful, and he relied on me to assure him that things were okay. He always needed my approval before he would trust someone, and he was anxious that something might happen to me.
"This was more than just knowing someone, though. The AIs were linked with our minds, so I could talk to him and feel him in my head, and he could talk to me that way, too. So I've felt his fear, I've felt his distrust. I've felt it when he was happy, when he was proud he'd done a good job, too. He helped me in battle, just like he was supposed to.
"When AIs are brought here, they're given their own bodies, so I don't have that with Theta anymore. It's...been hard on us. We managed to get some chips that connect us, but it's not quite the same thing. We can hear when we send direct messages or something purposely like a sensation, but it's not that full connection that we're used to."
His eyes drift over to her and focus again.
"Theta looks like a kid, but he's not a kid. He's more than that. And he's important to me. I hope you understand."