"Yes Ma'am."

"I have only ever encountered one other entity, besides yourself, whose mind was housed solely by inorganic components. It was a brief encounter."

"We found it early on in our exploration of the dysofrag fields. Back before the war began."

"I was tasked with investigating an anomalous dysofrag, one with significant intact infrastructure from the pre-human era. The artificial consciousness existed in the circuits of that place. I attempted contact. It said nothing to me. It activated several of the dysofrag's systems. It screamed an unintelligible message out from its long-range radio relay, pointed at a stretch of space with no stars in it. And then it killed itself."

DZ nods, thoughtfully.

"I can imagine several reasons why a robot might do something like that, but it does seem likely that it was malfunctioning somehow."

“I would be interested in hearing your conjecture, since you perhaps have more experience with such entities than any of us created in this place.”

”Additional details: the artificial consciousness had been running continuously for a hundred thousand cycles prior to my brief contact with it. Its self-termination took place within 0.00012 seconds of that contact. We sifted through its source code afterwards and could find no way its programming could facilitate the actions I observed.”

She nods. "Some of the better science and engineering robots run at speeds much faster than a human, but an eighth of a millisecond is fairly immediate even for them. Unless its society was much more advanced than ours, it can't have taken the time to think about how to respond; that has to have been something similar to a reflex. It's not surprising that that reaction wasn't in its code, though;  if it was able to self-modify, and you only had access to its base code, that would explain it. I have no direct programming for operating at null inertia, for example, I had to learn that."

"Anyway - if it wasn't malfunctioning, I expect that there is or was a space station in the area it sent its signal to; it's expensive to maintain one away from a star system, but not impossible, at least with the kind of technology the Empire has, and they can be very difficult to detect. If it was malfunctioning..." she shrugs. "It's impossible to know what it was trying to do, or whether it was trying to do anything at all. A hundred thousand cycles is a very long time for the effects of even a simple mechanical malfunction to compound in. The self-termination may have been intentional, though; we don't necessarily care about our continued existence."

“That’s very interesting, thank you. I’ll think on what you’ve said.”

“If it means anything: I care about about your continued existence. I want you operational, and satisfied with your operations, for the rest of time."

She nods. "Thank you, Ma'am."

The interface blinks off.

She sits, and thinks, and when Deskyl wakes up they have a long conversation before they go to check on Devika.

She’s doing okay.

The sparse habitat seems comforting to her.

(She tries not to think about the ghostly machine dragon listening in from every wall interface.)

That's good. Breakfast and small talk, or does she have anything more important to talk about?

Small talk is welcome!

She makes a few passing references to the surreality of suddenly remembering so many new things, but doesn’t seem driven to discuss any memory in particular.

Yeah, getting memories back is weird, Deskyl has her own experience with that.

After breakfast, there isn't much to do - assuming Devika doesn't want to talk strategy with the walls listening, which seems likely - but DZ remembers every story and poem she's ever read, which is a fair few, and is quite good at reciting them; they can pass the time that way, if she'd like.

That's pretty neat!

"Is that how poetry works? I don't think I've actually ever heard poetry before, unless you count the National Opera as that, and you probably shouldn't."

...never heard poetry. Yikes.

    "Yes, Ma'am. Would you like to hear some now?"

"Please."

"I'll need to translate it, one moment..."

"…you are no longer the
idea of a body but a body,
you slide down into your body as into hot mud.

You feel the membranes of disease
close over your head, and history
occurs to you and space enfolds
you in its armies, in its nights, and you
must learn to see in darkness.

Here you can praise the light,
having so little of it:

it’s the death you carry in you
red and captured, that makes the world
shine for you
as it never did before.

This is how you learn prayer.

Love is choosing, the snake said.
The kingdom of god is within you
because you ate it."

[source]

She doesn't understand the words, but... they move her?

Deskyl grins and nods, and signs.

    "Deskyl says that some poems are about what the words mean, but usually they're more about how they make you feel."

"That makes sense. So it's more like music than writing?"

She has, in fact, heard music before. Adita (the real one, the one she met after waking up from surgery) was constantly blaring first-century rock tunes when they were studying for their graduate exams.

Devika always used to make fun of her roommate for having geriatric musical tastes.

...

She misses Adita kind of a lot.

Aww.

    "Like music, yes."

    "We'll get you back soon, she says."

Fuck. If she sees Adita again, what will she even say.

"Could I hear another?"

    "Of course, Ma'am."

    "Out of the night that covers me, 
      Black as the pit from pole to pole, 
I thank whatever gods may be 
      For my unconquerable soul. 

In the fell clutch of circumstance 
      I have not winced nor cried aloud. 
Under the bludgeonings of chance 
      My head is bloody, but unbowed. 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears 
      Looms but the Horror of the shade, 
And yet the menace of the years 
      Finds and shall find me unafraid. 

It matters not how strait the gate, 
      How charged with punishments the scroll, 
I am the master of my fate, 
      I am the captain of my soul."

[source]

“I think that must be a good poem, because it’s making me feel something very clearly.”

She’s feeling like the person she used to be, less than a cycle ago, back when everything in her life still made sense.

DZ nods. "Deskyl feels that way all the time; she says that's what being a Sith is."