Naima got her first chance to see her gerion fight.
Her instincts told her to clap, mostly because she couldn't see half of Braen's movements. The general was almost inhumanly fast, jumping over and sliding under the eight-legged mechs that resembled giant arachnids. He did it with a fluidity and grace that Naima thought impossible of something so inherently violent.
The tall, heavy battle spear twirled in Braen's hand, an extension of him rather than a weapon. She couldn't tear her eyes away, watching a born warrior fight, even if she'd never liked shameless displays of violence.
There was nothing brutal about Braen. The general moved precisely and efficiently, his every strike and blow aimed perfectly where he wanted them. If the mechs had been actual living, breathing opponents, Naima suspected they wouldn't have suffered for long.
When the last of the mechs crumbled to the ground, Braen finally turned his attention on her and Kerven. Naima's heart skipped a beat, seeing the way the general's eyes lit up at once when they fell upon her.
It was hard to accept the extremity of the Brion bonds, but she couldn't deny that the way Braen looked at her made her believe all that he’d told her was for real. It made her feel sort of warm and fluffy, even if the whole thing was sort of ridiculously impossible on too many levels to count.
She had no idea what it all meant for her, for them, or for the whole galaxy. Audrey had warned her that the Fearless would use any weakness to get its victory.
As much as the Brions wanted to insist that the bond was a strength, against a monster who saw into her mind... it was definitely not good. While she wasn't sure about her feelings towards Braen, she certainly didn't want the general to die because of her. She didn’t want to distract him in any negative way, in fact.
Every person deserved to be their own person. Standing on their own two feet.
So why was a growing part of her so eager to forget all about it and give this two as one thing a chance?
There were footsteps behind her. Before Naima turned to see the Chali proxy, she saw Braen's eyes slide over to the android and the general's expression turned to pure loathing.
"Careful, Chali."
14
Naima
Talking about things that neither live nor breathe...
The android stopped at Braen’s growled greeting.
Naima had seen androids before, sure, but never one so perfect. The ones on Terra were good and Palians were able to create robots that could pass for one of their species, but there was always a tell.
Terra had always had the problem with androids falling into the uncanny valley of being close to perfection, but not quite, making everyone tip-toe around them out of sheer discomfort. Naima had felt the unease herself back when a remarkably realistic android had been sent to assist her team once.#p#分页标题#e#
Doug had gotten rid of it quickly.
The one standing in front of her somehow managed it all effortlessly. Without knowing much about robots or AIs, Naima could tell that it had been built with utmost care and attention. There were tiny flaws, beauty marks, and all the proportions fit, unlike with many androids that were built to imitate physical perfection that was unachievable in real life.
Or maybe not, she reminded herself, glancing at Braen.
The android was clearly female, however, if it could be assigned a gender. It certainly looked like a humanoid woman, if slightly androgynous, and an entirely normal one at that. With a pointy nose and high cheekbones, wide-set eyes and a fit body, Naima would have believed it was a living being.
If not for the pearly white skin, everything else fit. The fluidity of the android's movements was unbelievable, every miniscule reaction on point down to the natural brightness of its gray eyes. In short, it looked like a woman whose skin was made of snowy plastic.
Naima liked it, for some reason. She wondered if the android had been constructed to have facial features that inspired trust.
Probably.
Braen certainly wasn't buying it. The general joined them, sheathing his spear and looking no less threatening for it. Naima had learned that it didn't matter where the hefty spear was. He, like all Brions, was the weapon and all the sharp blades in the world were just handy tools in the hands of true warriors.
His eyes showed the measure of danger the others were in and right now, she expected to see pieces of the android scattered to the floor any second.
"Give me a more natural shade," the general said.
The android's skin dimmed at once, assuming a very light pink tone. It still couldn't have passed for a human, but it was easier on the eyes. The initial color had been practically glowing.
Naima had to wonder why the Chali had originally chosen to use androids. Perhaps with something so… disposable at their command, they’d fallen away from putting their physical selves in potential danger.
Rebuilding an android was a hell of a lot easier than resuscitating a living being with a Brion battle spear through their abdomen, for one.
"My name is Alona," the android said, nodding its head in a respectful greeting.
"You mean you are the AI?" Naima asked, excited. "Your voice is so nice."
That had to be programmed as well. It seemed to Naima that she recognized a timbre of a famous singer's voice that people loved. The Chali were known to create their proxies using components like that.
While the Corgans took the pieces they needed, the Chali simply… borrowed. It said plenty about the galactic opinion of the traders that out of those two, the Chali were hated more for their practices. At least Corgans took the flesh and blood of their enemies as a sign of respect.
Naima thought that their customs were brutal, but it was nothing compared to how she felt about what the traders did.
It was certainly as far from respect as it was possible to go. The Chali didn't differentiate between an interesting rock and a human being. Both were only worth as much as someone would pay for them and once they lost their usefulness, to the garbage they went, side by side. They were the slave traders of the universe, the peddlers of dangerous goods and danger itself when it had a high enough price tag.
If something needed to be bought or sold and no one else was morally willing to touch it, the Chali were the people to go to.
Naima suppressed a shiver when Braen growled. For a moment she thought the general was going to end the talks just like that, by decapitating the android. She would have been very sorry to see that. Alona was nice. A pleasant change to hallways filled with stern Brions who would not meet her gaze.
"Where is your mistress?" Braen demanded, his voice so threatening it made Kerven tense up a little, expecting the same blow as Naima imagined coming soon. "I would have thought she was smarter than to make me wait for her."
"Lady Sinetha will be with you shor–" the android began to say, when its expression changed all of a sudden.
It began to speak in a different voice, unmistakably a real person this time, the slight tint of machine precision removed from the timbre.
"General," it said. "Forgive me. Sometimes it takes a moment to override Alona. I'm afraid we make them very independent."
In a way, Naima admired the Chali technology. It was completely unlike anything else and it suited their needs well.
The traders almost never left their home worlds or their gigantic space ships, whichever they chose for their home. Instead, they traveled around the galaxy and dealt with other species by proxies.#p#分页标题#e#
With Brions, it was undoubtedly the wisest move.
All Chali augmented themselves heavily, believing that human flesh was ultimately weak and not equipped for the level of precision they needed. Sinetha, the trader, was a cyborg. Naima had never met the woman, but she had met other traders on her journeys and could imagine them well.
The machinery she'd seen on the bridge of the Benevolent was built-in. While the Brions used technology to their advantage, the cyborg traders were one with their machines instead.
Their mechanical hands plugged into the consoles, allowing them to literally charge their bodies, as well as achieve dexterity beyond anything. That was how they built their wondrous androids, too. Every last one of them a piece of art.
The androids went out to the galaxy in their stead. The AIs were amazingly intelligent and had minds of their own, running the Chali ships and acting as stand-ins whenever needed.
Alona was an AI, but Sinetha was able to take control over the android any time she wished. Naima had seen the miraculous platforms and harnesses that broadcast whatever the trader was doing. By stepping onto one, they were able to control the androids like puppets.
Whatever they did, the android replicated. Whatever they said, the android broadcast. It was so perfect the androids even mimicked the facial expressions.
It would have admirable if it wasn't used for such purposes. The Chali had never been ones to give anything away freely, and the technology they used to control the androids was still mostly a mystery.
As soon as Sinetha took over and started speaking, Naima felt disgust for the being controlling the android.
Unlike her instant fondness for the android, Naima's first reaction was that she didn't like the Chali one bit. Sinetha's voice was honey, but there was something so utterly fake about it that it made Naima's insides crawl. It was unbelievable how much more human the AI sounded, how much more compassionate.
How can something heartless have more of a heart than a living being? she wondered.