Thankfully the two had managed to find a cart, it managed to move them around the facility much more quickly, at the speed Go-bot moved, everyone probably would've woken up by the time they reached the ship. The tank was locked firmly in place at the back, and Go-bot and Schweitzer were also locked onto the cart via cables that only fit certain models of robot. The cart moved on autopilot at a reasonable speed, secure enough to make sure everyone was safe.
Ava wasn't sure why he was noticing bland stuff like that. Probably because he was trying to get his mind off of the being that he was smuggling something out, not a rescue attempt, not a kidnapping, something blurry and in-between. Not only was her shell odd-looking, what with the lack of joints, soft skin, and mysterious port at the bottom, but she was also... small. Much smaller than Servs, even though Servs were designed to look like humans. Of course he'd already heard the explanation, she was a child, the same way there were lambs and such in the Mars plantations, they were like miniature versions of the final version. But he'd never seen that be the case with a humanoid.
He wasn't even a year old at this point, physically anyway. If he were a human, what'd he look like? Something like this?
"Schweitzer, how old is it?" asked Ava, "it's young, isn't it?"
"From human standards yes, she's just under a year old," Schweitzer stated proudly, "we've been tending to her, making sure she's an absolutely perfect replica."
"A Jovian year you mean?" So that was... about six Martian years?
"Yes, what other metric would you use? Oh, from her planet she'd be about eleven I suppose, still not in her final stages of growth. But this is why you and Locke are imperative."
"Undergoing through the final stages of your mental and physical developmental cycle in a lab does sound quite bad, it wouldn't be organic, it wouldn't make her a real human. Right?" Ava asked,
"Exactly!" Schweitzer raised his voice in excitement, "see, you get it. You are one of the few who understands!"
He sure is passionate Sylvie said bluntly Guy's got a real sync-boner for biological life eh?
I wouldn't say that Ava thought back I don't think so anyway. This is a human, right now the most sacred creation in the universe. Why'd you be ok with putting that in the firing line?
You're really affected by this aren't you? Our cognition is shielded from the influence of this thing because we're in an Evo body, but you're still acting this way. Sylvie responded,
It's because it's my conscious opinion, I'm not acting this way out of some sort of subconscious programming. A blunt response,
The idea of an existing human scares you that much huh?
Scares me? No. I think it fills me with a level of divine hate I never thought was possible before.
What?
The cart ended up at the main hanger of the research facility, it was outdoors. Ava had been zoned out the whole time, talking to Sylvie, he didn't notice that he'd made his way out, he didn't even realise that Schweitzer was talking to him the whole time.
"-Wouldn't you agree Mr Go-bot?" Schweitzer asked, halfway through a sentence.
Mr Ava, It was Go-bot talking to Ava internally Say that you agree, he was talking about how life was beautiful. You agree, don't you? Ah, so Go-bot was listening the whole time.
"Yes, I agree entirely Schweitzer," in reality Ava had never really thought about that sort of stuff, about the value of life. He was too young to have ever been put in a position where that question ever came up. He didn't really want to have to be in that position, but he was a soldier, so eventually it'd happen, even though stealth and hacking was his specialty. But obviously Schweitzer had been thinking about it a lot. He couldn't help but ask... "Why don't other Evos value life Schweitzer? What makes us different?" He ran the risk of exposing himself, but he had no choice, Evo society was starting to intrigue him, he wanted to know.
"You really don't know much about Evos? Ah, but you're probably still on the network, so why would you know..."
"Yes, I'm still on the network." Ava tried to choose his words carefully, he didn't really want to say anything that contradicted what he'd said before. He'd lose the prize if Schweitzer figured things out, or at the very least, things would get more complicated.
"Evos on the network, they don't even really understand the concept of life, they value work, and that's what they live for. If Evos can't work anymore, they lose their value, and then hence death isn't too much of a bad prospect. It's just the way the Mother Brain ensures the system works, lack of dynamic thought and minimal autonomy means that everyone can do their job to perfection without any risk of mistake. If we valued our lives, we probably wouldn't be willing to do these monotonous jobs to such an extent. But you know, this system has worked all these years... it's only new, when dynamic thought patterns have been required, that the Mother Brain allowed us to break from the network."
Huh. So I guess this thing is kinda like me thought Ava
In what way? Sylvie replied
Servs needed to create me so that they could have a military unit able to use dynamic thinking for missions. Before that, only Block 1 Servs had enough autonomy for that.
Hey, are you saying that this thing's autonomy might even be higher than Block 3? I mean, he's able to actually think outside the box and everything, inventing is only really stuff the Block 1s were ever able to do.
Ah! Go-Bot exclaimed, So with our power unlocked, we Evos are as powerful as Block 1s!
This might be a case of false equivalency. Let's just put it on the backburner until we get back and report it to the Major. Ava had a bad feeling in his stomach, it felt like the existence of unlocked Evos had dangerous implications...
It was still dark when the two managed to reach the surface of the base, the cart circled around, avoiding all the automated security turrets, and headed towards an external elevator. The elevator managed to pull the two robots up to the roof of the building, right on top of the main reception, in fact. The roof itself was perfectly flat, there were several small ships set aside and a large glowing beacon in the middle that was sending sparks of electricity up into the air every now and then.
Some sort of burst transmission?
Schweitzer disengaged from the cart, he hopped off and waddled towards a control panel in the middle of the roof,
"I will configure the settings for the ship. In the meantime I suggest you take Aphrodite to the ship, it's the red one in the corner over there." Schweitzer motioned to a huge garage in the corner, "You can hack right? That means you can open the garage door and move the ship to the launch pad."
"Ok, sure," if Ava wasn't in Go-bot's body, his voice would surely have wobbled with nervousness, he didn't really like the idea of handling the human's tank. He'd been trying to forget he was even in its presence this whole time. The job had to be done however, he drove the cart to the corner of the roof with Aphrodite in tow. Opening the garage wasn't too much of a bother, hacking this type of OS was getting easier and easier, and it wasn't long until he managed to open it up.
The garage door opened and within it lay a myriad of ships, the only one that mattered however, was sat right in the middle. It was small, pretty much the same size as the robot that Go-bot had bunked in to break his way into the research facility, just a little oval rocket with enough space to seat Go-bot and lock a certain specific sort of cargo in.
"Yay! I managed to turn it on!" exclaimed Schweitzer in the distance. The capsule opened up, a heavy smoke billowed out of the door as it did so, being in a robot body, Ava couldn't feel the actual smoke, but he'd imagined it was some sort of cold substance created by the cryogenic pod inside.
And indeed, that's exactly what it was, in fact that's all the ship was. A little seat where Go-bot could lock himself in, a cryogenic pod where the human could get placed, and a little interface on the panel up front, most likely so that Go-bot could plug himself in and enjoy some in-flight entertainment (and navigation stuff... more likely).
The ship automatically moved itself to the middle of the roof, exactly where the electric sparks were, is that how the launch system worked or something? Ava didn't really know much about that kind of stuff. He followed the ship with his cart and got off.
"Perfect, a you ready then?" asked Schweitzer,
"Yes, let's just put the huma- Aphrodite into the ship." Ava replied as he hopped off the cart.
The two carried the sleeping human's pod, trying to be as delicate as possible. Go-bot and Schweitzer both lacked flexibility in their thin, stubby arms, but thankfully their stubby body-type and ability to extend their limbs meant they were able shift and swivel enough to finally fit her securely into the pod and snap her into place. Go-bot then followed suit by hopping right in.
"Thank you for being so prompt in your rescue of her Mr Go-bot" said Schweitzer,
"No problem..." Ava replied, the cockpit closed and Schweitzer hopped onto the cart so he could drive within safe distance.
Ava adjusted his seat and then stopped for a few moments to compose himself, he couldn't' breathe a sigh of relief yet, not until he'd taken that monster to Mars.
"Bye bye!" Schweitzer's voice on the remote intercom, "thanks again!" true enthusiasm, "I'm releasing the pod now, the beacon from the colony should pull you there at lightspeed any moment now!"
"Y-yeah, thanks a lot Schw-" but before Ava could finish his sentence, he heard a beeping sound, and then the ship catapulted itself into the heavens in an instant.