Chapter 262: Handing Over A Gift
I absentmindedly pet Pumpkin, the feeling of his soft fur calming me down more than anything else could. I was worried that Jun Li was worried. And it was a very disconcerting feeling.
He had gone silent for a while, and I didn’t know what he was up to or what he was doing. But I wasn’t going to bother him. He might technically be nothing more than a computer program; however, I had never once seen him that way.
"I have some information," said Jun Li suddenly.
I looked up at the camera in the corner and nodded my head. "What’s up?"
"Pippa..." he stopped, not knowing what to say. "A few months after Pippa and Stargazer were released, they visited the Alliance headquarters. When they were there, Pippa downloaded a part of Stargazer’s programming into the computer system."
"And has successfully managed to take over the Alliance?" I mused, letting out a soft chuckle. It was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one with the idea of taking over the universe. Must be a human thing.
"Yes," answered Jun Li, "It seems like something you almost expected."
"I honestly didn’t," I shrugged as I rubbed a spot behind Pumpkin’s ear. He practically melted in my lap. "But at this point in time, nothing really surprises me."
"She is the one responsible for the two tortured humans that we found," pointed out Jun Li. "The Alliance hasn’t made a single move on their own for the past two years."
I nodded my head, my mind spinning. "I have found that, for the most part, humans always think the best about other humans. It always amazed me about how optimistic we could be. Especially when there are over three thousand years of history proving the opposite."
"I don’t understand," replied Jun Li, and I could hear the question in his voice. The one he didn’t want to ask.
"Humans can be divided into two different groups. Those that want to rule and those that want to be ruled. The majority of us fall into the second category. We are more than happy to live our lives following the rules and not get into too much trouble. We toe the line, obey the laws, and believe that our government has our best interest at heart."
"And the first group?"
"Those are the ones that want to rule," I shrugged. "They start from humble beginnings and think that only they are able to save their people. Unfortunately, their reigns are always bloody, killing men, women, and children in order to create the perfect world."
"And you are telling me that Pippa belongs to the first group?" asked Jun Li.
"Apparently. However, if all she has done is kill two other humans, then she is very much lacking in the dictator department. I don’t know if I should commend her for a bloodless coup or shake my head at her stupidity."
"I don’t understand," said Jun Li again; unfortunately, I was not necessarily in the headspace to be able to explain it anymore.
I looked up at the camera with a smile on my face. It was nice when your enemy did all the hard work for you. "Do you know where Stargazer currently is?" I asked as I gently put Pumpkin down on the floor and stood up.
"I do," came his answer. "Are we going to kill him and Pippa?"
"We are," I answered, leaving the living room. Opening the doors to my quarters, I went straight to the bathroom. Standing under the water, I closed my eyes and thought through my plans.
If Pippa were really the one in charge of the Alliance, then killing her would cut off the head of the snake. I wouldn’t need the Hive to go in and kill everyone. I should be able to do it with a few well-placed hits.
But my issue lies with the fact that Stargazer was integrated into the Alliance system. That meant that he would survive the ship being blown up. God only knew how many devices across the universe he was in. Any species that had a connection to the Alliance would have a sleeping AI in their system. One that didn’t even know it.
"Would you be willing to kill Stargazer?" I asked softly as the shower washed the soap from my hair.
"Yes," came the quick response.
"It would be more than just the ship that Pippa was currently on. I would need you to go through every last device that the Alliance was connected with and hunt him down. I am not going to let a second Great AI War start because we didn’t completely eliminate him."
There was silence on the other end of the link, and I kept quiet. This was one of those things that Jun Li would have to figure out himself. I couldn’t help him.
"I didn’t even consider that," mused Jun Li after a few minutes had passed. "Do you think he knows?"
"I don’t know," I shrugged, pumping my facewash onto my hand and lathering it up on my face. "If he doesn’t know now, then he definitely will once we blow up his ship and he is still alive."
Jun Li hummed as I rinsed off my face and started to wash my body.
"Who would take over the Alliance?" asked Jun Li curiously. "Do you have a plan for that?"
"No one," I replied, closing my eyes as I went back under the streaming water. Once I had been sure that all the soap was off, I stepped back. "We are still destroying the Alliance. We don’t want to hand someone the gift of an already established governing body. There is no way."
"Then what are we to do?"
"We are going to blow Pippa and Stargazer out of the sky, get to the Alliance headquarters, input you into the system, and have you take out Stargazer’s systems," I answered as I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my hair and body. "And that is all step one."
