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‘Welcome to Captain Smacky’s ordering system!’ a chipper recording exclaimed. ‘Simply place an order and we’ll dispatch a drone to your location tag straight away. If you know what you’d like—’ ‘I do.’ Pepper nodded seriously. ‘I’d like the left side of the menu, please.’
Blue got to his feet as Pepper and Sidra walked in the door. ‘Hey!’ he said with a big smile. ‘Hi,’ Sidra said, and simultaneously accessed the file named make yourself comfortable. 1. remove jacket 2. remove shoes 3. find a place to sit 4. (optional) get a snack or beverage
‘Sidra, this is Issek, one of the finest bartenders on this rock.’ ‘One of?’ Issek said, flicking his tongue. ‘Who else?’ Blue grinned teasingly. ‘Pere’tek at the Sand House pours f-faster than you.’ Issek rolled his eyes. ‘He’s got tentacles. That’s hardly fair.’
‘If you hate it—’ Issek started. Pepper shook her head. ‘Nope. Nope, it’s good for me to know what it feels like for a fuel line to be cleaned out. Professional development and all.’ She patted Blue’s chest. ‘Tomorrow’s gonna be a rough morning.’
‘Yeah. Your mind and your body. Two separate things, right?’ Sidra directed all her processing power to the conversation at hand. ‘Right.’ ‘Except not. Your mind comes from your body. It’s born out of it. And yet, it’s a wholly independent thing. Even though the two are linked, there’s a disconnect. Your body does stuff without asking your mind about it, and your mind wants stuff that your body can’t always do. You know what I mean?’ ‘Yes.’ Stars, did she ever. ‘So, tattooing . . . you’ve got a picture in your mind, then you put it on your body. You make a hazy imagining into a tangible part
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On the way back, Jane reminded herself of the things she needed to ask Owl. She wanted to know words. Words for the flying animals, for the purple stuff that wasn’t an animal and also maybe food, and for the feeling you got when you felt bad for making a thing dead but also good because you were still alive.
Are we going for an anchor or a compass? A memory to ground you, or a spark to guide you forward?’
Owl said it was okay to be sad about 64, and about the bad things that had happened at the factory. She said that was a kind of sad that would never go away, but it would get easier. It hadn’t gotten easier yet. Jane wished it would hurry up.
‘The more I think about these things, the less I understand why they are the way they are.’ ‘It’s very easy to understand,’ Pepper said. She stretched out her legs, crossing one ankle over the other. ‘It’s the same thing the Enhanced did to us factory kids. It’s the same thing the Harmagians did to the Akaraks, or the Felasens, or any of the other species they mowed over. And you guys, you guys invented AIs in the first place. Sentient code didn’t exist before you wrote it down.’ She shrugged. ‘Life is terrifying. None of us have a rule book. None of us know what we’re doing here. So, the
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