Stardate: 80805:0137
Title: The Truth Hurts
Author: Ravien Lox
Time: Current
Scene: USS Relentless


Ensign Ravien Lox wasn't two steps out of Lab 2 when he coughed. Then he coughed again, more viciously, and, wheezing in another breath as he leaned against the wall for balance, he let out a series of unstoppable coughs that racked him to his core.

Relly winked into existence, again wearing the unmarked cadet uniform.

"Out of my way," said Lox, heading for the turbolift. With his research complete, it was time to make a full report to the Captain. The little girl image followed him, looking up at him with a severe expression. At last, her time to counter-attack had come. He realized this even though she didn't say anything or leave any hints to her intentions. Her cold observational attitude was enough for him to guess how she would react. The turbolift opened, and he stepped inside.

"Ensign, there's something I would like to verify," the Relentless said.

Lox was about to command the turbolift to take him to the bridge, but he decided instead to get this encounter over with first.

"Yes?"

Relly blinked before continuing. "You're aware of the regulations regarding sudden illness aboard a starship?"

So that was it. "Indeed I am. All crewmembers must report to sickbay in the event of sudden illness, no matter how severe.

"Sickbay," he commanded. The turbolift whirred into motion.

Relly didn't comment on this sudden change in his itinerary. Instead she changed back to their age-old subject.

"Ensign, your opinion of me differs from that of the rest of the crew after all."

"Indeed?"

"Yes. Every crewmember that I have interviewed has had a positive reaction to me. But your reaction is negative. Also, many other crew have contradicted your statements. This leads me to believe that you are ineffective as a part of the Relentless team."

Lox smiled wryly, and looked down at her. "That's true. But you're forgetting that you are the cause of the disagreement." He gave her his kindest, most psychopathic smile. "Your very existence is an obstacle to the operations of this ship."

The turbolift ground to a sudden halt, tossing Ravien into the wall. Relly never lost her balance.

Ravien laughed. "You're angry, aren't you?"

The Relentless computer image merely looked at him, displaying no overt signs of anger. But he knew that deep in that electronic psyche there was a turmoil of unpredictable, unstable rage. Primal rage.

Kneeling, Lox stopped smiling and, covering a small cough, he went down to her level, looking at her eye to eye. He looked like an uncle or a teacher kneeling down to have a talk with a troubled child. However, this was the opposite of the truth, since he viewed 'Relly' as an enemy, and would leap at the opportunity to destroy her if he wasn't certain that it would lead him straight to a court-martial. The Symbiont in Lox's body twinged with fear every time it saw the 'Relly', remembering in its ancient life the time when an A.I. had murdered the former host's wife in cold blood. With its robotic, steel hands, the supposedly emotionless, supposedly unsentient robot had...gruesomely turned against 'his' owners.

"Listen, Computer," he said, "It's not that I don't think you're intelligent. You certainly are intelligent. It's not that I think that you're emotionless. You certainly do have emotions.

"As a scientist, I am not foolish enough to dismiss the very real existence of A.I. Once a computer obtains certain programs, it can evaluate and process data like any life form. Give it a body...and the computer becomes an entity in the real world."

Relly, looking back into his eyes from the eyes of a holographic projection, was evidently confused. "Then...why do continue to be antagonized by my existence? Why do you feel that the ship's operations are disrupted by my existence!"

It was some time before Ravien could answer, as he coughed several times into his fist. Relly looked on with disgust, seeing before her all of the limitations, the weaknesses, the sheer ugliness of flesh-and-blood.

"Because you are a computer, Relly," Ravien paused for effect--it was the first time he had called her by name. "Computers are tools built for the convenience of life forms. You are a tool for the crew of this ship. You are forbidden to be anything else. And yet the image standing before me is unnecessary to the function of a tool.

"The image before me can think for itself. It is a life-form, true, but that is not its original purpose. The crew of this ship expects you to follow their commands. Can you imagine me commanding any living crewmember to open doors for me, make me prawn masala with nanbread for dinner, adjust the frequency of the sonic shower? No.

"Relly, you are supposed to be a tool. But instead you're a useless little holographic projection."

The words were hardly out of his mouth when the turbolift hurtled upward at unnatural speed, slamming him to the floor. Relly stood over him, unaffected. The red numbers above her head morphed into a blur as the turbolift bypassed deck after deck.

"YOU'RE THE MALFUNCTION!" the Relentless computer said normally, but with the volume at its maximum setting. "ENSIGN LOX! YOU ARE UNNECESSARY TO THE OPERATION OF THIS SHIP!"

Words like those were hard to deny, he thought, just as the turbolift came to emergency stop, flinging him against the ceiling, and then back to the floor. When he slammed back down, Ravien was knocked out cold, and the turbolift doors opened into the abandoned storage section of deck fifteen.


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Ensign Ravien Lox
Science Officer
USS Relentless
NCC-11966
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