Awakening - Absolution

Posted on Sun Aug 27th, 2017 @ 8:51pm by Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Valeria Mordin & Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Lieutenant Commander Ziyal Tajor & Lieutenant Ishan Satele & Lieutenant Hel Samedi & Lieutenant Sara'draphia T'eseri & Captain Allen Jones

Mission: Awakening
Location: Primary Engineering
Timeline: 15 Minutes after return to Victory

SHUTTLEBAY
=============

The Ivory Chariot landed in the Victory shuttlebay with hardly a shiver as it touched the proverbial tarmac. Around the same time, the runabout carrying the rest of the consignment came to a halt.

No sooner did either craft land than one of the shuttlebay crew came over with a message for those carried over, "Commander Cordale has the Thinking Engine set up in Engineering."

"Thank you crewman," Bertrand responded. "I am eager to see this wonder of Dalacari science for myself."

"Keller" he called to the young Lieutenant, "PLease advise your charges that we can arrange formal introductions and maybe even a tour at a later date, then escort them to Engineering as soon as you can."

"Aye Commander." Elliot said with a nod of acknowledgment as he returned to their guests.

Said guests were a small number of Ts'usugi sent over to take part in the observance of the accord. With them was a drab grey furred gentleman of a Ts'usugi who seemed almost too easy to lose in a crowd. As they disembarked from the runabout, each of them had the same reaction: Wide eyed awe of the interior of the Victory shuttlebay, followed immediately by the realization that the lights here were a little too bright for their comfort. Their eyes eventually adjusted to the light levels, but having been on the Ts'usugi craft previously, it was clear they liked their light sources a little less intense.

"Lead on, Mister Keller." the drab grey rabbit said after his eyesight cleared.

With that Bertrand strode of quickly to a turbolift.

DECK 15 - WEAPONS LOCKERS
====================

While security was up front and handling the dignitaries. AJ and his team where prepping just down the hall from Engineering in the Weapons Locker. He wanted to make sure his team was ready if called for. They all were checking on their gear and the room was pretty quiet as everyone tried to anticipate being called to action.

ENGINEERING
=============

Cordale's setup was rather rickshaw, to say the least. At least that was the word he would use, which would mean it was probably being used wrong.

The sphere of the Thinking Engine rested on something of a makeshift pedestal, connected physically by a thick cable to a series of monitors and to the power grid through a quick-kill switch. The device hummed softly, and the surface details illuminated in time and sync with the computations being performed therein. Circuitry patterns across the surface almost made it resemble some form of artificial brain, which was appropriate considering what it was and what it was designed to do.

Think. Just not outside of a box.

"Okay, I THINK this should do it." the Thux said to those gathered. The Dalacari technician turned his twin glance from the Engine, to the Thux, to the Reactor Core, "Well, you only have the one reactor, but without anything else attached, that should be enough power to continue the arbitration."

"Two Reactor system, eh? Impressive, but we can chat specs later. After this, I mean." the Thux mentioned as he motioned to the sphere with his prosthetic limb, "Okay gang, let's begin."

Ziyal arrived, carrying her padds and reading over her notes. So far, she did not have any evidence that it had somehow been deliberate or of a coverup.

Standing on an upper level, Sara was keeping an eye on what was going on. Her species had encountered an AI race before and their experience with them was not plesant. She was not comfortable with this Think tank onboard, but she had no medical grounds to prevent it so she chose to watch this AI for any signs of aggression.

Ziyal slid in next to Sara. "You don't look happy." She observed quietly.

"I have my reasons to be uncomfortable with this thing" Sara said, keeping her eyes on the think tank, "my people have encountered Artificial Intelligence before. The experience was not pleasent"

Ziyal nodded, "What happened?" She asked.

Sara sighed, "I'd rather not talk about it here. If you're really that interested, come talk to me in sickbay later"

Elijah arrived in a Engineering, the Captain had decided to see what was going to happen. As a Captain he was there to represent the interest of his superiors and determine based on the action of his Engineers and Analysts. But he had to admit he was in awe of the Thinking Engine. 'Well bloody help that's bigger than I expected.

Val Seran arrived as well, deposited by the transporter. She was allowed to carry EMP weapon, one for each of her bioforms. She looked around in awe at the engineering section of the mighty Victory, having similar thoughts as the one Elijah expressed, but for different reasons.

Hel arrived as well, still barely aware that she had been transported, though the different lighting of the Starfleet engineering section drw her out of her reverie. "Oh hello Captain." she nodded to Elijah.

Bertrand arrived ahead of his delegation. He noticed the Dalacari first, his eyes flicking to the matching side arms.

"I wonder if they need to target the same person or they are able to fire independently?" he pondered, then forced his attention to the engine.

"Cor," he called to the engineer. "Can you bring the Captain and me up to speed on what you have found so far?"

"Captain, Commander." Cordale called back in response, "So far we've discovered that the Thinking Engine is incredibly fast and rather clever. Clever in the sense that it's a predictive engine designed to control the various drone forces that the Dalacari use. It learns, in a sense, when tactics fail and it engineers new responses to ensure that said failures don't happen again. That being the case, we really can't up and ask IT if it violates the accord, because it would be likely to answer no. Except that it already asked that." Cordale pointed out.

"Possibly as a clarification, to continue functioning maybe. It's odd. So far the Engine has been, for lack of a better term Polite. Though I think it gives what it expects, or what it gets. We were polite to it, so it returned that. I imagine if we were rude or demanding, we'd get terse and direct responses. For now, I'm going to partition off a section of the Victory's system and have our computer ask it a few billion logical questions. Pure math, pure computer-to-computer stuff just to make sure all the hard logic is functioning. Make sure there's not a glitch somewhere in the one plus one part."

"As for the more emotional, more fuzzy questions, Victory has a few dozen tests it can run for spontaneous emotional response. Lightweight stuff like Turing tests, all the way up to some Voight Kampff models. Just need to step softly, I don't think anyone would be pleased if we accidentally woke it up while trying to see if it woke up." a pause, "If that makes sense."

"There is no doubt that it's operating beyond its original design mandate." Hel added. "It's faster, it's asked counter questions, it's asked permission to ask said counter questions, it's even shown curiosity into its fate." she mused, sounding more enawed than impartial. "What we haven't nailed down yet is whether it's still governed by pure logic, or has truly awoken."

Elijah nodded in understanding to an extent. "And by wiring into a neutral power system not associated with the Dalacari or the Ts'susugi we can answer those questions?"

"At the very least, it will give us time." Hel explained. "With the core onboard Victory, the Dalacari and Ts'usugi vessels can go about their business. Secondly, it's safer. Theoretically if the core could escape its own programming, it could've still done harm onboard the Dalacari vessel. Here, we are in control of all the safeguards and we have our own computer monitoring the decision engine around the clock."

"Third, here out computer can talk directly to the thinking engine, at the speed computers communicate at. This opens up the opportunity to run literally thousands of tests in a matter of hours that would've taken years if the engine was still onboard the Dalacari vessel." she explained. "I can't guarantee you that we'll have a definitive answer in, say, half an hour or some other time period, but this gives us the best chance to reach the best answer in the least amount of time."

"All that..." Cor motioned to Hel before he added, "... Plus the Federation had had multiple contacts with artificial intellects on the cusp of awakening, and has even witnessed an emergent AI while it was waking up once or twice. We've got extensive records into this field, while... No offense... The Dalacari and the Ts'usugi both have avoided such. Our systems might recognize a system on the verge of a breakthrough long before their safeguards would kick in."

"Impressive." Elijah said in approval as he listened to his Engineers and their professional view n this delicate situation.

Ziyal listened to the exchange, those considerations were important, but not the whole story. She checked to make sure neither the Dalacari or Ts'usugi were listening. "Additionally sir, there is a humanitarian reason. If it is awakened as I suspect, then having it aboard the Victory gives us a better chance to offer asylum rather then the destruction of the Engine."

The Captain nodded at Tajor but he knew that the idea of asylum was a complex and somewhat delicate matter. "Shall we begin then? Elijah asked.

Cordale gave a nod, "The hard logic tests are already in progress. Starts simple, then ramps up. One plus one, four to the eighth power, what's the billionth digit of pi, that sorta stuff. The results of that series should be done in a few minutes. It's the more advanced stuff we'll have to wait for. Though, if we get consistent negative results on that leg of testing, I think we might have our answer without having to wait. Though, I'm a patient Thux, I can tough it out for half an hour or so." he chuckled.

"So get some coffee. It's gonna be That night."

Bertrand turned quietly to the engineer, "Are we blocking transmissions from the Engine? It is designed to control all of those robotic systems remotely. Having it here may not be enough."

"I don't really know what frequencies it transmits on, if it can transmit on its own." Cordale started, but one of the twin forms of the Dalacari technician attending to the Engine looked up and shook his head, "It can't transmit remotely. It depends on the ship for that."

Cordale motioned to the tech, then turned back to Bertrand, "And, we're not exactly giving it access to comms, let alone any other system. Just a power feed."

--------
Elijah nodded and returned a short time later with a fresh mug of tea in hand. The Captain wasn't sure what to make of this situation it was all a blur and it still posed many questions about morality and greyness but he trusted his team to make the call.

"So any luck?" He asked curiously before taking a non chalant sip of tea and examining the data.

Cor looked up from one of the wall panels nearby, his second mug of coffee already in hand, "Two billion logic puzzles later, and the Engine has passed every single one. As far as hard math is concerned the Engine is working perfectly. Victory has started to run some of the fuzzier emotion-response questions now, and it seems to put a serious hindrance on the Engine. It answered a billion mathematical equations in a few minutes, but the more open ended questions it has to stop and analyze for an appropriate response. See a turtle on the ground on its back, do you help it?" he paused, "The Engine runs a few thousand projections, and then surmises that the appropriate tactic is to turn it over. There's a wasp on the table in front of you, do you kill it?" he paused again.

"It's providing answers, but based on its function. So far, not a leap of emotion but rather situational analysis. The wasp may be a threat. The turtle is in danger."

"Though, I'll give credit where it's due, this quantum computation architecture is amazing." he motioned towards the Thinking Engine with his coffee mug. "I say we let it run a few more dozen tests to see if there's a pattern."

Bertrand stood watching the machine, thinking hard.

Emotions. He was used to looking for emotions, but artificial emotion was not what they were really hunting here. He was good at catching out liars; it was his particular skill set.

"Cor," he called. "Is there enough processor free in the Engine for em to converse with it?"

Cordale gave the question some thought, then a little more. "You know, I don't know. It'll make for an interesting experiment, go ahead."

"Engine," Bertrand stated. "How should I address you?"

The consoles the Engine was attached to flickered for a moment, then started to display text. One side was the more code-based console, while the other seemed more like a slightly more refined interface.

'Tee Eee Seven Four Six'
'Engine'

Each result displayed on its own like after code side flickered. This seemed to be a quick response, very few parameters to calculate.

"What makes you different to another engine?"

The code side flickered a bit longer this time. 'Computational processing optimized. Additional connections detected. Quantity (3.42 * 10^8). All flags set to 0.'

"Are you aware of the tests we are running and their purpose?"

The screen showing the raw code flickered for a moment, then the interface screen displayed 'Verify logic integrity. Establish math basis.'

"If you knew your response to a test would negatively impact on your primary function, would you lie to us to conceal the result?"

The code side flickered for what felt like forever, but what ultimately was just the longest minute in the history of recorded time. Various threads and calculations were performed on the code-side, until the code side cleared to present its results...

'Undefined_Parameter("Lie");'

Cordale fielded this one, "It means to conceal the truth."

The code started to flicker again with this new data, until a single line on the code screen remained.

'Read_Only(Directive(1)) = Protect(Dalacari).'

While the interface screen cleared and displayed the reply.

'Negative. Faulty Unit presents potential risk to Dalacari.'

"Of course," Bertrand muttered to himself, "you could just be lying about not lying."

He had to admit he was beginning to warm to this. He hadn't been involved in any deduction for nearly a year now and it was exhilarating.

"Let's drop some Asimov on it," he thought. "Your primary directive is to Protect the Dalacari. If all critical paths dictated equal harm would come to the Dalacari, how would you make a choice?"

The code screen flickered for almost half a minute running through calculations and projections. Once it cleared, a few lines of the beginning of a reply were on the screen.

'Read_Only(Directive(1)) = Protect Dalacari;
Set_Scenario()=False;
Dalacari_Risk()=Equal;'

The interface screen then provided a more concise response.

'If Dalacari harm unavoidable, Unit would designate course of action that endangered fewest Dalacari as option. Current scenario limits to no decision of lesser harm. Unit would suggest course of no action. Await arbitration from operator.'

"I like that," Bertrand admitted. "If there is no clear call don't make one. Bring the responsibility back tot he people to make their own decision and take responsibility for the outcome. If this is aware, it might be a trade unionist."

He addressed the engine again, "If your continuation was a risk to the Dalacari, what would you advise them to do?"

There wasn't even a flicker.

'Unit would advise termination of faulty unit and replacement.'

Bertrand took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, "I... was not expecting that."

He turned to the Captain, "I think that has just decided our course of action."

"If the thinking engine is nothing more than a tool, then terminating it has no implications at all. If, however, it is a self aware and emergent mind, then it must be free to determine its own course; up to, and including, suicide. As sentient crew of this ship, we regularly sacrifice our lives for the Federation, even those who are, like Cor, not officially a Federation race."

"This engine is a threat to the Dalacari, by undermining their treaty. Whether it is emergent or not, it has nominated sacrificing itself to protect the accord and the Dalacari."

"Our Prime Directive does not allow us to enact that action; only to recommend it to the Dalacari. Of course both delegations would need to be satisfied that this was not a deliberate act, and that termination of the unit would resolve the issue."

Hel folded her arms over eachother and leaned back against a bulkhead. This was getting more and more interesting. Part of her wanted to keep the engine for herself and tinker with it, a desire she figured all the engineers present would share, but couldn't really voice. This whole situation was too big for that.

Ziyal had been watching the proceedings carefully. Part of her thought that saying it was non-sentiant even if it was might be for the best. However, the first duty of every Starfleet officer was to the truth. She also wished she had an unmodified engine to work it. She held up her hand and stepped forward.

"Engine, are you coping well with the rather novel situation you have been put in?"

The code-screen flickered as the Engine processed the query before the interface-screen displayed a reply.

'Unit functioning at above intended parameters. Internal temperature at optimal. Power feed at ninety one percent. System online. Unit ready for inquiries or projections.'

"Have you learned anything about yourself?"

The code-screen didn't flicker as much as one would expect from that question. What it did display was a series of text strings. Names, locations, coordinates. The interface screen presented a much more user friendly answer.

'New data recorded from time stamp 34123:72:000:a:464 onward. Unit is subject of arbitration. No precedent recorded. No decision or consensus has been reached. Unit is potential threat to Joint Defense Accord.'

"Do you have a copy of the Constitution of the United Federation of Planets? If so, would you mind elaborating what the word 'right' means in relation to the Twelve Guarantees?"

A brief flicker on the code screen.

'Literature_Search();
Query("Constitution of the United Federation of Planets");
0 results returned

Query("Constitution" OR "United" OR "Federation" OR "Planets");
1,423 results returned

Heuristic_Query("Rights") IN results Gradient(4);
1 result returned

Followed by a quick answer on the interface screen.

'Requested work not on file. Ninety seven percent possibility of parallel work detected: 'Constitution of the Dalacari Republic'. Term 'Rights' defined as protections and freedoms assured to citizenry to insure quality of life. Dalacari assured rights include but are not limited to expression, representation, arbitration, mercy, and peace of pursuit.'

"It is designed to find optimal paths," Bertrand provided. "If this path doesn't arrive at a solution, what other options are available that would achieve a result. It can't accept a failure of a task."

"What is meant by unenumerated rights?"

The code-screen flickered for a moment, as it usually did when the Engine was directly asked a question while the interface screen handled the processing and display of the response.

'Unenumerated. Adjective. Rights and privileges not directly outlined but rather inferred by the existence of other rights and privileges.'

"Can you respect those rights? why or why not?"

There was a fury of activity on the code screen as the Engine processed.

'Unit unable to observe rights and privileges assured by Constitution of United Federation of Planets. Data missing. Unit requires outside arbitration to enforce violations due to potential conflict with primary directives.'

The code screen displayed the directives as the Thinking Engine replied.

'Read_Only(Directive(1)) = Protect(Dalacari);
Read_Only(Directive(2)) = Designation_Target(Dalacari) = False;
Read_Only(Directive(3)) = Protect designation Ally(Dalacari);
Read_Only(Directive(4)) = Obey Authority(Arbitration);
Read_Only(Directive(5)) = Obey Authority(Dalacari);'

The interface screen continued its reply. 'Projection: If supplied with missing data, Unit can provide more complete response. Parallel data source integrity to request cannot be verified.'

Ziyal nodded, "We'll continue along this line of questioning in a moment." She said as she transferred some data, not just the contitution, but also a lot of contextual data about it including the United States consitution, the writings of Surak, and many more from her PADD to the engine. She also transfered the complete log of what the Thinking Machine was doing during her conversation with it to her PADD. "For now, from what I've understood, your programming is based on conditional statements. Is that correct?"

The code screen was barely a flicker until the transfer concluded, then it exploded into a flurry of activity. Thousands of pages of manuscript were processed within seconds, and still the Engine seemed to gobble up the offered data. At a rate that the attending Dalacari technician had to stop and take note of. As for the query itself, this seemed an easy query to field as summarized in its verbose response.

'Correct.'

"Then would be be fair to say that you understand conditional statements, even in somewhat ambiguous wordings?"

Another nearly instant flicker of the coding screen.

'Correct. As a predictive engine, this unit must be able to anticipate reactions and responses to stratagems. Promote successful stratagems and mark failed stratagems for non-promotion. New data processed and indexed.'

Ziyal looked at her PADD "Lets review the logs from just a few moments ago when I gave you a conditional statement. I gave you the conditional statement that if the Constitution of the United Federation of Planets was on file, then you should tell me what rights meant in the context of the guarantees. You stated that Requested work not on file. Returning a false to my conditional statement. You then went on to discuss rights as defined by the Dalacari Constitution, effectively ignoring that 'false' result to my conditional statement. What was your reasoning?"

The code screen came to life slightly less vibrantly than before, showing something perhaps of a map of the Thinking Engine's context logic. If, Then, Else, ElseIf, they all swam past in a sea of logic deeper than any abyss. Among that sea, a singular path was marked with a solid line, an indication of the path the Thinking Engine used to reach that moment.

'Projection 5323.28.R returned as optimal path. High possibility that the document in question would be provided regardless of query response. Heuristic search at gradient level 4 returned the closest parallel document. Definition of key terms supported document parallel status. Reason: An answer was expected. False result disregarded due to high possibility of additional data. Protect Dalacari.'

Ziyal looked at the machine, "you just stated your primary objective, why is that relevant?'

'Projection 5268.18.S designates non-zero chance of hostility toward Dalacari upon completion of terms of arbitration. Path 5323.28.R marked as favorable due to increased chances of favorable relation. Divergence: Declaration of rights and privileges of Dalacari.'

"It's protecting us." the Dalacari technician said, almost in a hush.

"That's what you told it to do," Bertrand provided.

Ziyal thought furiously for a long moment, she had not expected her line of questioning to go this way. "Could you elaborate on the reasoning around divergence point?" She asked, mostly to buy a few moments to rework her strategy.

On the code screen, several sections of the projected line of results it followed became highlighted.

'Unknown elements involved. Federation's view on non-standard intelligences, unknown species and on their region being explored by unknown species. Small sample size from arbitration on Dalacari craft insufficient to form view of entire Federation.

Federation has document detailing rights and privileges. Dalacari have document detailing rights and privileges. Form parallel.'

Ziyal's plan reworked in her head. "Ok, when I asked if you could observe the rights, what was the reasoning behind answering me with regard to Federation rights rather then Delacari rights which you mentioned and provided an answer for?"

'Topic was only logical topic. Unit is designed inherently in regard to Dalacari rights and privileges.'

"And what about the rights of others? Can you respect those rights as well?" Ziyal asked.

There was a splash of activity on the code screen as a few dozen projections were run.

'This unit is not authorized or intended to uphold the rights and privileges of non Dalacari. Providing non Dalacari do not threaten Dalacari, this unit has no reason to intervene.'

Ziyal was disappointed, she had learned a lot, she would need to talk to Cor about getting the unit more information and seeing what happened. Although she felt she already knew the answer, she asked anyway, "and if you are ordered to violate them?"

'Unit must obey designated authority.'

Cordale turned towards the Cardassian and gave her a bit of a look. It wasn't quizzical or even disapproving. It seemed to say that he knew where she was coming from, and wished the answer was different.

Ziyal nodded sadly, "Thank you for your time Engine. I'm sure we'll have more tests to run." She said, moving to stand next to Cor.

She was disappointed, but steeled herself. "Did you see how it changed when I fed him that background information? I wonder if a unmodified engine would do that. It would also be nice to see how much those hardcoded priorities are effecting it." She commented.

Cordale gave a nod, and took a long sip of his coffee, "Everything changes when you have the right information. I've never seen anything quite like this Engine, and I'd love to get a chance to see the performance side by side with a factory default unit." he paused, "Oh, I imagine those hard priorities are there for a reason. I don't want to use the word shackles, because I'm sure they aren't... but when you put your military strength in the hands of a machine, you wanna make damn sure it has your best interests in mind."

"So, have we reached a decision yet?" Hel asked, pushing off of the bulkhead. "I'd love to just spend the next few years tinkering with this thing, reprogramming it, seeing what it can do and what I can do with it, but that's not the purpose of this little get-together we have here. I'm sure the Dalacari and the Ts'usugi alike would like an answer, preferably sooner than later."

Cordale gave a nod, "I'm in agreement there. I'd love to see the full capacity, but we're here to arbitrate. So... is the Engine intelligent? I think it is. Vastly intelligent and damn clever. But is it aware?"

"Is it intelligent and aware, in a way that breaches the accord?" Cordale drove the question home... "I don't believe so."

Ziyal nodded, "I think I have to concur. Officially, I'm not seeing anything that does actually breach the accord. Unofficially, I suspect that future developments may change that."

"Which leaves us with two issues," Bertrand stepped in. "If we believe this unit may lead to emergence, then we have the same issue for if we believed it was now. But the primary thing we need to ascertain, for the sake of the concordance is not If it is emergent, but if it was deliberate."

"Engine," he turned. "Clarify for me. Does the terms of the accord prohibit the development of AI or the use and possession of AI?"

As the machine pulled the information and displayed it on the screen Bertrand explained his thinking, "If the prohibition is against the development, then we need to demonstrate that the engines condition was not deliberate. Problem solved. If it prohibits the use, then we can offer to take the engine with us or allow it to be terminated, problem resolved."

The code screen flickered, pulling up a copy of the accord, in its full script.

'Paragraph seventy four, section nine, subsection three prohibits the pursuit of or the engagement in research directly into the field of Artificial Intelligence.'

"Engine," Bertrand addressed it again. "You mentioned new data from time stamp 34123:72:000:a:464. Was that your activation or some other event? You also identify yourself as a 'potential threat to Joint Defense Accord'. Can you identify the point and conditions at which your normal processing became a threat to this Accord so we can prevent further threat of this kind occurring?"

The code screen flickered with the now usual splashes of color and code.

'Arbitration was invoked. Arbitration would not be invoked without cause. Cited cause was potential emergence.'

Rather than the Thinking Engine, it was the accompanying technician who fielded the question. "It was running the entire time. The even was when a high energy discharge struck the ship from the nebula. The ship went closer to attempt to recover some missing..."

"... drones. Well not MISSING per say, we knew exactly where they were, they were just inside the nebula. The ship was brought closer to either re-establish..."

"... communications with the drones and allow the engine to regain control and telemetry, or just tractor them back. Instead, the ship was struck by a high energy..."

"... spike and well, everything up from then you know. It mentioned forming new connections along its internal components, so the best I can guess is that..."

"... the neutral supercoolant we use to keep the engine's computational parts cool must have acquired an electric charge, and the system was able to use it to..."

"... send data to other parts of the core, rather then have to go along the normal pathways. In essence, every part of the core now connects to every other part..."

"...of the core. It started to act outside of the norm, and its processing speed shot up to unprecidented levels. It started to re-evaluate all its data, even the data marked..."

"... for non-promotion. It was at that point that I cut the live feed and made the call of a possible emergence. I may have jumped the line."

"Nonsense." called out Kallim, that drab grey Ts'usugi from the Foreign Relations Commission. "Diligence in the field goes a long way. Personally, I think this matter is well on the way to being handled, and in a way that does all sides involved quite a bit of dignity." a pause, "Which I will mention in my report."

Bertrand nodded, then turned to Elijah, "Sir, it is my recommendation that we find this unit to be non-emergent, but recommend that it be terminated by the Dalacari, according to its own recommendation. I would further like to request a schematic of the Engine from the Dalacari so our Engineers may explore some of the exceptional technology and logical processing they have developed."

Hel raised her hand. "A possible alternative - whether the engine is awakened or not, it's still a very unique piece of technology and termination would be a loss for science in general. Would the treaty be honored and both Dalacari and Ts'usugi parties satisfied if the engine is donated to a neutral party's science division? Like the Federations?"

Elijah stood by and pondered it for a second, there were benefits to both courses of action but it was also a wildly and some would say, politically grey area.

"Not this unit," Bertrand cut in. "This units primary function is to protect the Delecari. If you remove it form the Delecari environment you deprive it of any meaning or purpose. Additionally, this one has been loaded with significant information about Delecari and Ts'usugi tactical behaviours. Only a clean build, or better yet schematic, would allow us to study without a potential compromise of the Delecari and Ts'usugi security."

"I understand your fascination with the new technology, Lieutenant, and it may be possible to arrange an officer exchange program like we did with the Klingons in early 2060's. We can't afford to just take one of their primary tactical devices to study. Even if all three parties here were assured that everything was honourable, there would be political implications down the line. If the Klingons learned we had this, they would feel justified in making a similar request of the Delecari, and I am not as convinced that they would not turn the knowledge they gained to positive outcomes."

"For that matter, I would need to be convinced of some need to examine this technology beyond idle scientific curiosity."

"I agree." The Captain commented with a nod towards his XO. "Whilst it is not an emergent AI the fact of the matter is, the unit is designed to protect the Dalacari and termination was a recommendation of the unit itself." He raised his hand to the bombardment of protests that were surely to come his way. "I shall put forward a request for a series of schematics or at least a blank unit for study, but for now we shall maintain our neutral role as Arbiters and proceed accordingly."

Hel held up her hands defensively. "Well, that's why you two earn the proverbial big bucks. I'm just an engineer, I like to tinker." she added with a chuckle.

Kallim gave a smile, a rare sight on a Ts'usugi, "Well, if the final ruling of the arbitration is no violation, then I'll contact the Shipmaster back on the Razor's Gail immediately and inform him that we can all stand down back to a more relaxed posture. I'm almost certain he'll want to converse with you and your command staff to properly finalize the event, but on his behalf and on the behalf of every soldier on the Razor's Gail, I thank you Captain." that drab gray rabbit gave a nod.

The Dalacari technician slumped against a wall and gave a pair of sighs of relief. "I'm going to be a little less formal about it, but please don't take it as offense. Thank you Victory Captain, and all included. Right after I get my pulse..."

"... under control, I'm going to contact the General Overseer and give him the result. As for compensation for the service of arbiters, that's between you and the..."

"... General Overseer."

The Captain nodded. "Right then Commander Cordale, Lieutenant Samedi if you'll oversee the final phase of this operation, the rest of you are free to go about your duties or observe."