Up Against It - M. J. Locke [140]
Obyx gazed at her speculatively, tapping fingers in a complex rhythm. Ze gestured for Harbaugh to step over. A transparent bubble surrounded the two of them. The two spoke, but Jane heard nothing. She glanced at Sarah, who shrugged. Then Obyx burst the bubble with a finger flick and leaned back. “This supposed conspiracy by the Martian mob that you postulate is better suited to the tainmosphere than to hard meatspace. But let’s say that, for whatever reason, a berth on a Downward-bound ship soon—within the next week, say—would be of use to me. Are you saying you can get me that?”
“I am. And I’ll let your courier board with no questions asked—despite the fact that you stole an extremely valuable item from my system, that by rights belongs to the people of Phocaea.”
Obyx tensed. “A sapient can be no other sapient’s property. Our species recognized this when slavery was eradicated. We are the foulest of hypocrites, to fail to apply the standard to intelligent, self-aware beings simply because they are not made of meat.”
Jane rolled her eyes. “First of all, human slavery hasn’t been eradicated. That’s a myth we choose to believe to help the rest of us sleep at night. Second, don’t lecture me about precious freedoms that are denied to digital denizens. We both know you have every intention of using the feral sapient to suit your own ends. Or, I should say, your masters’ ends, back on Earth.”
Obyx and Jane glared. Sarah shifted once more. Jane knew what Sarah would tell her; she shouldn’t provoke Obyx. She was deep in Viridian territory, and all of her tech was inactive, or readily within their control. Not that she believed they would truly harm her. Even so, she needed Obyx.
But hir cavalier dismissal of the lives of the people of Phocaea had gotten her blood up. Jane couldn’t help but wonder whether humanity would survive whatever use the Viridians had planned for the sapient.
But Obyx merely shook hir head, sadly. “You misjudge us, Commissioner. The sapient is a child. Less than a child. Intellectually it is massively powerful, but morally—socially—it is barely more than a fetus. That it would do great harm to itself and others … that is not its fault. But it needs schooling before it can be freed.”
“You admit you have it.”
Obyx smiled. “Let me just say that, if we had the sapient, in all our actions, we would have only its well-being in mind. As we do all sapient entities. We are not fools, Commissioner. We recognize the risks that volitional wavespace entities pose to meatspace.”
“And so you have Phocaea’s citizens’ well-being also in mind?”
Obyx waved an insouciant hand. “We intend no harm. But there are plenty around whose duty is to care for meat sapients. True wave sapients—especially wild ones—are far rarer and more precious. And they have no protection under the law. If we do not stand for them, who will?”
Jane looked at Obyx in mild disgust. But she had better not weigh in again with her opinions, or they would all regret it. “Do we have a deal?”
Obyx sighed, looking put-upon. “You ask a lot. We are giving you the keys to our own privacy. Once knowledge is unleashed, it is impossible to stuff it back into the bottle. Tech that allows you to disable our own defenses against ‘Stroiders’ could clearly be used against us.”
“Which you would assuredly be able to hack a new barrier against.”
“True. But not without a cost, in effort and time.”
“And in return, you’ll have what your people have sought for generations, a spontaneously created digital sapient. Untampered with, yours free to unleash on an unsuspecting populace … God help us all.”
Obyx still hesitated. Ze cupped hir chin in a hand. “How do I know we can trust you to live up to your end? I could give you this recording tool you seek, and you could renege. You might not only share with others this ‘Stroiders’-hacking tech, not only renege on your promise to obtain for us this seat on Sisyphus,