He was going to make some comment about that being an interesting system of management, but that last comment shocks him.  "You can't just - grab someone else out of the simulation?  Spin up another simulation?  Didn't you say you did that before me!?"

"You're running on an expensive and difficult to manufacture system called a quantum core. It's expensive enough that my funding didn't extend to more than one. I would need another one to create another person like you while you're still running."

Quantum... core...?  "Okay; that makes sense."

And it makes his other self-appointed task a lot harder.

"I'm curious... is that small enough to fit in the android?  Either way, do you think it would help for me to talk with some of those decision-makers?"

"It'll fit. It's actually fairly small, just ten centimeters in diameter. There's plenty of room for it in your head without the Soong style positronic nets taking up that space. If you'd prefer I do have an alternate design that makes room for it in your torso.

"As for whether having you talk to people would help, I'm not sure. Non-sentient computer programs are very good at carrying on believably sentient conversations for short windows."

Shrug.  "I never worked with robots; put it wherever you think best...  Huh, our computers couldn't really carry on conversations.  I wonder what's different?  But if it won't hurt...?"

"That was intentional." She taps at her invisible console some more. "I've submitted my report and queued a copy to go to Data and a few other people who are likely to be interested. I've also escalated the priority on my request for parts and asked for additional support personnel. Both for the engineers I already mentioned and a counselor for you. Even if you turn out not to want that it's better to ask."

"Intentional -" He narrows his eyes at that.  He doesn't like the idea of the world being limited by something else.  Even though he guesses it makes sense from her angle... he doesn't like thinking like that.

And he narrows his eyes again at the thought of a counselor.  "I've heard bad stories about counselors some places...  Hope she's not going to make me do anything?"

"But for all the rest of that - sounds great; thank you!"

She considers expanding on the bit about it being intentional but decides against it. He reacted badly the last time she emphasized how his simulation wasn't real.

"As long as you're a civilian nobody will order you to see a counselor. Well, outside circumstances where you seem to be a danger to yourself or others. And even then nobody can force you to cooperate. It's possible, in your special case, that they'll want a counselor to confirm you are a person, but I think my records have thoroughly established that. And they probably won't be open about that regardless."

Jerach relaxes.  "Oh, good.  And I'll be happy to carry out a sapience test if it's trustworthy."  Which is a legitimate question, but - "I suppose the sapience tests must be a lot better-tested here given that you have aliens in the same Federation?  Not to mention Commander Data?"

"If we had a sophisticated and objective understanding of sapience, my work would have been a lot easier and Data's trial would have taken a few hours instead of the months of back and forth technical and philosophical arguments that it took.

"Ultimately, what we have are minimum requirements we've agreed constitute evidence that it's better to treat a being as sapient than risk treating them as if they aren't. There's a lot of intricacies in the details but the basic summary is that the criteria are: the ability to grow and change in response to life experience, the ability to set and pursue goals more sophisticated than simple self-preservation, the ability to cooperate and negotiate with other sapient beings, and the ability to introspect on themselves and their place in the wider universe."

He frowns.  How much of that is - ah, it should be safe to just ask that.

"Is that a legitimate gap in testability, or politics?  It sounds like you've got a shrewder understanding of sapience than we did, but it might be counterproductive if it means you can't use any objective tests.  Those tests were convenient for us...  though..."  A new thought comes to him.  "Though with more sophisticated computers, I guess flaws in any objective tests might be a lot more relevant.  Still, it'd be nice to not have to go through months of arguments."  He shakes his head.

"In legal matters it's always easier to follow precedents than to set them. Data was fighting a complicated battle because none of the other species we'd acknowledged the sapience of were designed as opposed to evolving naturally. Now that the precedent is set it won't be that difficult in part because you've been subtly tested for those things all through your life so far and people will be able to see that in my notes and documentation.

"Politics is absolutely involved in the definition we've chosen for sapience, and part of that politics led the definition to include things that are hard to assess. You don't have specific modules in your mind to meet each criteria, everything in your mind is mixed together in a way that's difficult to tease apart even for me. And the same is true for organics like us. We have studied minds extensively with sophisticated sensors and telepaths but we can't easily objectively measure something like growth. Not in a numerical way at least. For most of these criteria, the ultimate test is time and a slow accumulation of evidence."

Jerach quivers inwardly at the notion of being subtly tested throughout his life.  He definitely wants to see that documentation... no, he doesn't actually want it, but it wouldn't be any worse than a lifetime of imagining what's in it.  Maybe sometime in a few months.  After he's talked to more people here besides this woman.

Outwardly, he nods slowly.  "I'd like to ask Data about that someday... I'm glad I'm not in his shoes having to set the precedents."

"I haven't exactly kept track of the Enterprise's missions but unless they're doing something particularly time sensitive I expect you'll get to meet him in the not too distant future. He's going to want to meet you, so it's just a matter of whether he's officially assigned to do it or if he has to take leave."

Jerach smiles.

"I'll have so much to ask him.  Or anyone else from a Starfleet ship, really.  I don't suppose anyone here has been a crew member on one?"

Oh right he wouldn't recognize the uniform would he. "I served a few years on an Oberth-class before moving here to do static research. Most people in Starfleet serve for at least a little while in the fleet even if they joined targeting other duties. Not everyone here on this station is in Starfleet but it's well over a third."

A broader smile breaks out.

"Oh - what was it like on their ships?"

"Hmm, that's a big question. Oberth's are science ships and I'm Science division so mostly for me it meant spending a lot of time studying various sensor readouts and occasionally going down to planets or other stellar bodies to take more scans and samples in person.

"There was also the occasional exciting interlude every couple months, times where we ran into some weird phenomena or hostile force, and we briefly had to sub in as damage control or as additional medical staff when those were more important than another set of eyes on the sensor feeds.

"In general, serving in the fleet differs from other duties in that you have a more regimented duty schedule and rank is a lot more salient. Here on Jupiter Station, I can go weeks or even months between getting new orders, but that happened multiple times per day while I was shipboard."