Dumped into special cells onboard the Lonestar, Sarah, Tina, and Tellius found themselves isolated from each other and soon to be interrogated.
Meanwhile, Ethen stood beside the High Marshal, trying to convince the man that they shouldn't be arrested.
"But High Marshal Givens, sir!..." Ethen insisted as the two men walked from the cells all the way up to the ship's bridge. "... I deputized these people! Why did you order their arrest?"
"Do you know for certain that they are even human? How do you know that they're not controlled by a competing AI program that sought the destruction of the Devil?..." the High Marshal asked back, his voice barely containing the anger he was feeling for being questioned. "... Furthermore, as is stated in Article 6: 'You shall in a time of need deputize men to aid in your investigation.' It said men, not AI or robots, but men. In case their actions are caused by zeros and ones, you have been lied to, and we have a case of false identity. And you very well know what that means, Marshal!"
"Yes, sir!" Ethen replied, knowing that the High Marshal knew of his wife's previous condition of being AI-possessed but was ignoring that fact for his sake.
"Good, and now get out of my sight, Marshal!" Givens ordered and entered the highly secured bridge head, leaving a sick-looking Marshal Ryan behind.
Seeing the corporate battlestar-class spaceship still in orbit around the moon, the High Marshal questioned his bridge crew. "Why the hell is that ship still here? Didn't I order it to leave? Are those guys still here?"
"Sir, the Ares Corp. demands reparations and that we hand the Devil over to them!" answered a female officer.
"Like hell we will!..." Cursed Givens angrily. "... By the way, did we finally get an answer from the Sector Attorney General?"
"No, sir! Apparently, he's at a corporate conference on Paradise IV..." Answered a male officer from behind a monitor. "... So, we shouldn't expect a quick reply."
"Damned! Back in the old days before the Corporate War, we would have charged politicians with corruption for stuff like this!..." cursed the High Marshal as he lamented the reform enacted following the war from 10 years ago. "... Damned! All we can do is wait for them to leave or for the SAG to answer us."
Meanwhile, after having split from the High Marshal, Ethen had found his way to his ship's cabin where his wife was eagerly waiting for him.
Sitting on the bed, his legs crossed, Yelena asked him as soon as he entered. "What's going on? Why did you arrest our saviors like common criminals?"
"It's complicated..." Replied Ethen, exhausted as he sat down beside his wife, his right hand on her left thigh. "... Apparently, it isn't proven without a doubt that they are human and not some AI."
"But Tina is most definitely human!..." Noted Yelena before she offered. "... I can vouch for that."
"Yeah, about that..." Ethen stated, a bit embarrassed. "... I wouldn't do that if I were you!"
"Why?" Yelena asked, confused.
Rubbing his neck, Ethen revealed. "It appears that High Marshal Givens knows about your previous condition."
"So, he knows about-... Ow..." Yelena exclaimed in shock, just as her husband got a message.
"Damned!..." Ethen cursed before he had to go. "... I've gotta go... Orders..."
"That's okay, go!"
...
Simultaneously, Sarah found herself to be the first to be interrogated as she was thrust into a dimly lit room littered with cameras. Stripped down to just her bra and panties, she was chained via magnetic shock bracelets to a simple, yet cold, metal chair.
"Okay, so let's get this over with..." Sarah exclaimed, slightly annoyed by the marshal's theatrics to pressure her, which caused her blonde hair to turn crimson. "... I still have a steaming hot date with my shower!"
"Oh, and nobody wants you to miss your shower date, Miss Lawson..." A young male voice told her as its owner entered the room behind Sarah. "... I am Marshal Smith, and I need you to answer a few questions for me."
Seeing the young and handsome Marshal step into the light right in front of her, Sarah thought that he looked like one of those toyboys rich women would rent on a pleasure planet like Paradisio IV.
"Ask away, Marshal... The sooner you ask, the sooner I get my shower..." said Sarah as she seductively stretched her muscles. Noticing the pack of cigarettes in the man's chest pocket, she asked while gesturing at them, "... So, I am all yours... but would you kindly give me one of those?"
"You know that? Why not..." Replied Marshal Smith as he pulled out an unfiltered cigarette from his chest pocket, stuck it inbetween Sarah's puffy lips and lit it with a lighter that he had in his pocket. "... So, your an AI uploaded inside a human brain or are an actual human?"
"Pfff...." The female cyborg puffed the smoke out of her mouth erotically before she asked, gesturing to her bracelets. "... Would you kindly?"
"Just your hands!..." Replied the marshal, and the bracelets on her wrists unlocked from the chair she sat on. "... So, human or program?"
"Pff..." One more puffing, Sarah replied with a question of her own. "... I remember being born, growing up, going to school, fight in a war, dying... Isn't that the human experience of life?"
Nodding, the young officer agreed. "It is, but is your memory only copied ones and zeros or made ones..."
"Is that what all those cameras are for?" the female mercenary interrupted the officer with a snort.
"Yes and no. But that's beside the point..." Marshal Smith replied cryptically before he lit himself a cigarette, too. "...Pfff... So, can we quickly go through these questions?"
"Yes, of course..." Sarah agreed as she seductively played with her lit cigarette. "... Ask away, I'm all ears."
"A person you love is burning, but you aren't saving them..." The young officer asked while checking Sarah's micro expressions. "... Why might that be?"
"Maybe he betrayed me..." Sarah replied, unintentionally revealing that the person she loved was male, so she added. "... Or she deserved it for being a bitch, who knows."
"Thank you..." Marshal Smith stated and promptly moved on to his next question after he noted the analysis result of her answer. "... Your child has gotten hurt and needs your help. What do you do?"
"What's the injury?" Sarah asked matter-of-factly in return, her training as a soldier kicking in.
"Doesn't matter..." The officer dismissively stated yet focused on her reactions. "... What do you do?"
"I assess the injury..." Sarah answered as she imagined Tina to be hurt and intentionally blurred out. "... I calm her down and either clean the wound, administer an antidote, or contact a specialist."
"Thank you..." Marshal Smith once again stated with a knowing smirk as if he was able to read Sarah's mind. "... Okay, last question: you have to decide to save your own life or that of another. Please note that death in this scenario is permanent... How do you decide?"
"Is this a trolley problem scenario? Does my decision kill others with me?" the female mercenary questioned as she recalled the famous philosophical conundrum from her basic education courses.
"It is not..." the young officer, his eyes focused on Sarah's minute facial expressions. "...It's your death and another's survival, or your survival and another's death."
"Do I know the other person?..." Sarah asked before she hastily gave her answer. "...Because if it's someone close to me, I'll sacrifice myself, but if it's somebody random, I'll save myself."
"Thank you, this is it!" Marshal Smith announced and immediately left the interrogation cell without another word.
...
Shortly after Sarah's interrogation had begun, Ethan reached Tina's cell. There, sitting on a bench with a shock bracelet around her neck, was the young genius.
Spotting the Marshal, Tina stated coldly with narrowed eyes. "You pulled your gun on me!"
"That is true..." Said Ethan, as he entered her cell. "... But I am here to help you."
"Will you help us like you did fighting that Hydra?" Snorted Tina angrily at the man for the little help he had been since they had escaped the vault and for arresting them.
"Oh, come on! How should I have known that we could get out of that situation alive..." Ethan defended himself before he confessed. "... Also, arresting you wasn't my idea... I was ordered."
"Screw you and your orders! We were only supposed to help you get your wife!..." Tina angrily pointed out, her nostrils flaring. "... But what did we do? Tellius and Sarah fought an immortal gang, hacked robots, I battled an AI digitally, corporate mechs, Tombstone mechs, and a Hydra. We did all that not because we were ordered but because we wanted to help... a friend!"
Struck by a truckload of guilt that he had been so far rationalizing as just following orders, something broke inside of him, and his eyes dulled. At that moment, Ethan decided to go against protocol and loosen the shock bracelet around the little girl's neck.
"There! Now you should be able to hack into our systems and manipulate the results of your friends' tests in your favor..." Ethan told Tina, knowing the consequences of his actions, just as the little girl's eyes turned blue.
...
Meanwhile, in a nearby interrogation cell, it was Tellius's turn to undergo the same test as Sarah, but with a young female interrogator named Marshal Danes.
Contrary to Sarah, the male cyborg was stripped down to his underwear, as he wasn't technically wearing any. His bare, black metal body frame was furthermore mostly exposed anyway, with only a few armor plates covering the most important parts of his body.
"You're on the battlefield, ordered to shoot on sight, and yet you see a child. What do you do?" asked the female officer, her tight blouse barely containing her ample bosom.
"I get the child out of there, in compliance with Article 3 of the Infantry Handbook..." answered Tellius instantly, before he quoted the said article. "... 'Women and children are not to be involved in matters of war and, as such, are not subject to military orders. As long as they don't make themselves combatants by carrying a deadly weapon, they're to be evacuated from any active combat zone'."
"That must be an older version..." Miss Danes unintentionally commented before moving on to the next question. "... Next question: For a hard-fought victory, your commanding officer allows you to plunder a nearby village. What do you do?"
"I report my commanding officer to a superior of his for actions unbecoming of an officer..." Tellius answered almost immediately, unaware that his by-the-book answers flagged him as an AI program. "... Which would be in accordance with Article 13 of the Infantry Handbook."
"Thank you..." Noted the young marshal, her fingers itching to shoot the supposedly AI-controlled cyborg in front of her. Yet, she kept up the charade and asked with a friendly smile. "... Now, moving on to the final question: You discover that an AI program has developed a human-like consciousness... Do you terminate it or not?"
"I would-" Tellius began to say when suddenly he heard Tina's voice inside his head.
'Stop answering their questions by the book! Those are flagging you as an AI!'
'What the...? Tina? How are you? Are they treating you well?' Asked Tellius while appearing deep in thought on the outside.
'I am good, Ethan just loosened the restraints on my hacking...' Told him Tina before she repeated her warning. '... But that's besides the point! I repeat, do not answer their questions by the book. Prove your critical thinking.'
That said, their split-second conversation ended as to not alert the spaceship's analog security systems.
Following Tina's advice, Tellius reshaped his answer into. "I could follow the book and terminate the AI regardless of its level of sentience, but before that, I would do an Expanded Turing Test with it. If it scores an 8 or higher, I would only contain it, but with a 7 and lower, I would terminate it without hesitation."
Surprised by Tellius's human-like response, the officer, Danes, left his interrogation cell baffled.
"'Pew, thanks, Tin-Tin!' Tellius told Tina via an encrypted point-to-point transmission.
Instantly, he got an encrypted point-to-point transmission back from her that stated, 'My name is Tina, but I like Tin-Tin, so I'll allow it. Also, you're welcome. :)'
...
Shortly after Tellius's interrogation, Marshal Smith and Danes reported their findings to High Marshal Given.
"Sir!" The two officers saluted Givens simultaneously.
"At ease, officers!..." The High Marshal ordered them before he asked, "... So, what are Marshal Ryan's deputies? Human or AI? Marshal Smith! Your evaluation of the female cyborg."
"Her name is Sarah Lawson, just like one of the heroes of Thermopylae-6..." Smith stated before he announced, "... And in my evaluation, Miss Lawson is 96% a converted human cyborg controlled by a human consciousness."
"Good. That makes Marshal Ryan's deputizing of her legal..." Givens noted before he addressed his female officer. "... And what about this Tellius, Danes?"
"It's a bit complicated, Sir..." The young marshal began her explanation. "... His first two answers were infantry textbook-accurate replies, which instantly flagged him as an AI program, but his third answer lets me question that evaluation."
"How so?" Asked the High Marshal, confused.
Pulling up a vid of Tellius's third answer, Danes concluded. "Yes, his answer was still textbook accurate, but not with the current ones. He mentioned the Expanded Turing Test, which was discontinued ten years ago."
"So, what are you suggesting?" Marshal Smith questioned his coworker.
"I say that he is most likely human but with a soldier's consciousness from fourteen to twelve years ago..." Danes offered as an explanation for her test results. "...Or a badly programmed AI that tries to emulate General Warfield."
"Yeah, as if..." Snorted the High Marshal with contempt. "...I was there when they burned his mind..."
"Sir! An answer from the Sector Attorney General..." A female bridge officer reported to Givens. "...We're told to hand over the Hydra's core to the Ares Corp battlestar-class spaceship."
"Damned!..." Cursed the High Marshal and struck the console in front of him with a heavy hit. *Thump!*
Having calmed down a bit, Givens ordered his men. "That's it then. Shall somebody else give a shit about any of this!"
"Sir?" Asked Smith, Danes, and the female officer.
"Have those mercenaries released and hand over that Hydra Core to those corporate hounds." "Ordered the High Marshal angrily, as once again his corrupt superior was making it hard for him to actually do his job."
...
A few hours later, Sarah, Tina, and Tellius were being dropped off at the bombardment spaceport where their journey had begun just a day ago.
Wordlessly climbing over rubble to get inside the hangar where they had parked the Wings of Eos, the two cyborgs soon discovered Old Mel buried underneath a boulder.
Wordlessly, they agreed with each other through just a look, not to let Tina know of the old woman's death so as not to further disturb the child. After all, the permanent death of a human was a horrible thing to let a six-year-old know about.
And so, as Tina and Sarah went inside their dropship, Tellius went out of his way to atleast give the old woman a proper funeral as payment for their parking.
'Is this what the colonised systems have become?' Asked the male cyborg himself quietly just as he finished filling up old Mel's grave, just as the sun set behind the horizon.