Recording started: Year 3610, Month 9, Day 24, Hour 1, Minute 16 GalStandard Time.
Subject: Statement of suspected enemy infiltrator Esau St. John, recording taken by Skarsian Secret Operations Director Mickey Riley.
But it’s really all quite simple. Machines only make mistakes when badly programmed. Humans are, by nature, badly programmed. And the subconscious mind keeps inducing new errors. That’s why telepaths are superior. If only we were allowed to be cybridized…
Oh, that. I’m afraid I’ve been taking suppressants. I can still use my telepathic projection techniques, but I can’t hear anyone’s thoughts. It wouldn’t be good for me to look into Lilith’s mind, from what I understand. It’s a problem, I know. Telepaths have a response to the Cu’endhari which I can only call irrational. It’s pretty embarrassing to watch some of the vids of Molly Fenton, the former special attaché on Cu’endhari affairs. She’s clearly not in a sane state of mind.
I don’t hate you, any more than a programmer hates the discovery of an error. It’s simply something that needs to be fixed. I didn’t hate my parents, either, but neither do I see why they were deserving of any especial attachment. They certainly weren’t model citizens. They weren’t working for the betterment of society. They were deluded by sentiment. On its own, that would simply be a detriment to them personally. But by extending that sentiment to individuals that society had deemed useless, they were harming everyone.
I find Lilith more worthy of attachment. Love? The concept has no meaning to me. But she is methodical, loyal, logical and powerful. Those are positive traits. She could be of much use to society. I wish I understood what you did to cause her to become so erratic. It makes an enormous difference. If the Nau’gsh can be useful to society, they won’t have to be eradicated. You don’t honestly think the concept of deliberate extinction pleases me?
Of course, I’ll kill you, if I have to. I’d much rather they use you for study. You could be of more use that way. You could have been of most use had you chosen to fixate on someone of real worth to the human species, like President Harmoulis. You might have saved him. Such a loss to CenGov. Such a loss to us all.
And the most tragic thing is that he was killed by one of our own. Don’t you see? The human race is so flawed. We so desperately need to be rid of our erratic animal natures.
The one I’d really prefer to see dead is Clive Rivers. If I regret anything, it’s that I allowed Lilith to convince me to rely upon him. She was right, but it was odious. A caricature of my father’s worst traits grafted onto a murderous agent of chaos. I’m pretty uncomfortable about questioning the government, but was my father’s knowledge so important as to have transplanted it into Rivers? Rivers is too much of a risk; he should have been executed while we had the chance.
No, not at all. Let him read this. Honesty will be good for both of us.