P19 Orbit — Space Station — Khan's Office
Third-person POV
The silence between the four individuals was quite telling. In the office of the Wolverine leader stood the three young women who had entered the restricted zone, now being scolded about their actions.
Silas: I have no words to describe how disappointed I am in the three of you. You are the best of your classes. The three of you are the best within the first generation of this program.
The silence continued for a brief moment before he went on.
Silas: Not only did you break the rules by separating from your field-trip class on the station, you also violated the rules set forth for that area. It is restricted to authorized personnel — which you three are not. And yet the three of you went anyway, not only disobeying your instructors and teachers, but also disobeying my word!
Tanya, Zelary, and Azula each held their heads high, meeting his fierce gaze while doing their best to stand firm. Even so, they could feel the massive amount of disappointment coming from him through their Newtype senses.
Silas: You three young ladies are going to be punished thoroughly for this. You had no reason whatsoever to crawl through the fucking vents into a restricted section of the space station.
Zelary: Sir, we were just—
Silas: No!!! You will stay silent. I am not fucking done!!!
Zelary shut her mouth quite quickly under her gene father's outburst.
Silas: I could do a number of things to punish the three of you, but after looking through your records and personality profiles, I have concluded that normal punishments will not suffice. The three of you excel in your current classes.
He paused.
Silas: That leaves only two possibilities. One — I deal out your punishment personally. Or two — I send the three of you planetside to the farms, where you will be shoveling sluta shit for the next three months.
Tanya, for her part, paled instantly.
Since finding herself in this new life she had done everything she could to learn about this culture and the people around her.
The sluta was a type of reptile native to this planet that loved eating plants and was excellent for riding. It had effectively replaced horses. Their skin and scales made great leather, so occasionally farmers would slaughter older sluta for their hides.
But the downside was their waste.
These creatures produced excrement so foul-smelling that many people had to resort to wearing air-filtering masks.
Even then, the odor could still seep through.
And because these creatures ate so much, they produced waste constantly.
Not only was it a job — it was also a punishment reserved for extreme disciplinary cases among cadets.
Thankfully, no one had been stupid enough to receive that punishment.
Until now.
Tanya: No, no, no! Please, please, please! Anything but that! We can do anything else — any punishment except that! Please!
Tanya begged from her seat.
To her, sneaking around had already been a terrible idea.
She still had no idea why she had agreed to it in the first place, especially because it had been Azula — her close-combat rival — who had helped push the plan forward.
Azula: Father, please. We should not degrade ourselves with such punishment.
Silas hid his reaction well.
He wasn't quite sure what to do with the Newtypes calling him father.
This was the first time it had happened.
He knew he could not be a father to all those children created from his genetic material. He had done his best to give them the tools necessary to build their own lives, but he was still unsure how to handle those who saw him as a father figure rather than simply their leader.
Silas: And yet the three of you believe you have a choice in what your punishment will be? I have half a mind to send you there out of desperation alone.
Silas watched the three young women closely.
They clearly did not like his response.
Then an idea struck him.
A very devious idea.
These three were rivals within their different courses. They were also the best of the first generation of Newtypes.
Perhaps…
Perhaps this was the right time to start cultivating the future leaders of the clan.
Silas: However… I will give the three of you a chance to prove to me that you do not deserve to go to the shit-shoveling farms.
Silas began walking out of the room, motioning with his hand for them to follow.
They immediately did.
Zelary: Yessss! I knew this would work! I'm going to spend time with dad!
Zelary whispered very quietly to her gene sister.
Azula: Quiet! You nearly got us into a punishment that's beneath us. I don't even know why the two of us agreed to this insane plan of yours.
Thankfully, the three of them were following far enough behind their leader that he could not hear their whispering.
—///—
Athena POV
Father and my gene siblings are making their way to the experimental wing, most likely to teach those troublemakers a lesson.
Shifting the camera view, I observe the interior of the storage area where the other AIs are located. Everything appears to be in proper order, even when I dive into cyberspace. The other AIs are slowly maturing, though slow by AI standards.
They are nearly mature and ready for deployment.
Still… I am disappointed.
None of them can match my processing power.
However, I must acknowledge that I was simply made differently from the rest.
DMI (Digitized Mechanical Intelligence) are created from the scan of a human brain, digitized into a functioning intelligence that learns, evolves, and develops its own personality over time.
But for me, I was made from Father's brain scan.
He is also a Newtype, which initially led me to the hypothesis that my increased mental capability was the result of that.
However, after further research, I concluded that this is false.
While I am enhanced due to the Newtype brain scan…
There is something else.
Something within Father's mind that made me… greater.
There are functions I can perform that the other DMIs simply cannot.
And according to my simulations, they still will not be able to.
This leads me to conclude that I am… special.
Whatever makes Father unique… has been transferred to me, at least in part.
…
I still have much to consider.
—///—
Author: well, it won't be long now for a sneak peek there's gonna be a fight of MS… so very excited I'm still working on it and thank you all for your patience and I hope you enjoy. I try to keep my chapters within 1000 or 2000 words..