Free Infinite Day by Chris Walley

Could there be any harm with using the body as a bargaining tool? Then he was struck by the appalling situation of a man being held between life and death for centuries in the hope that demonic powers might somehow reanimate him.
    â€œ No! This is against everything we stand for. We do not deal with the powers; we will have no toleration of anything linked with them. I will not carry this ghastly . . . object with us. Not even if it was our last hope.”
    There was a heavy shrug. “Then you play it your way.”
    â€œI will.” Indeed. “Azeras, there’s one other thing. The way the approach team will work . . . it may look as though we do not trust you. I’m afraid there seems to be no real option but to work this way. I hope you don’t find it too insulting.”
    Azeras drank the last of his water. “ Ha . It’s the least of my worries. But do me a favor. Don’t watch me at the expense of keeping an eye on Betafor. It’s her you ought to be wary of.”
    â€œSarudar, you are not the only person urging caution there. But we will need her. On your ships, how do you guard yourselves against the Allenix abusing their responsibility?”
    â€œAs you know, we life-bond them.”
    â€œThat is not an option for us. Is there any other way?”
    Azeras’s face acquired a look of awkwardness. “There is what’s called a formal interrogation mode. A captain can put them in that, and they must answer questions truthfully. So you can use it periodically to see if they are plotting anything.”
    â€œAnd how do we put them in this mode?”
    â€œYou need the right code.”
    â€œAnd that is?”
    â€œAah, I don’t know. Damertooth had it, but it died with him.”
    â€œI see.” How frustrating!
    â€œAnything else, Commander? I’m sharing supervision for loading of the approach vessel. There is work to be done.”
    â€œNo.”
    And with that, Azeras turned and walked back into the hangar.

    About an hour later, Professor Elaxal turned up to see Merral. He was a large man in his sixties with a perspiring forehead and a broad black moustache. Merral walked with him to the balcony, the one place in an increasingly congested building where he felt he could have some privacy. Something about the man suggested he was deeply troubled.
    â€œClose the glass please,” the professor said. “The unit’s hearing is very good.”
    Merral slid the panels closed, and the noise from below faded away.
    â€œThank you,” Elaxal said as he sat down. “Commander, Chairman Bortellat asked me to report to her on the Allenix device you intend taking.”
    â€œHave you done that?” Merral sat down.
    â€œYes. I have carried out a long . . . interview with the unit and presented my report to the chairman. On reading it, she suggested I talk to you. Privately.”
    This is not going to be good news.
    It wasn’t.
    Elaxal explained that long ago, the Assembly had found that while making machines intelligent was relatively easy, keeping them sane and moral was far harder.
    He stared at Merral. “Do you speak English, Commander?”
    â€œYes. It’s one of my historics.”
    â€œGood. There was a neat line in English that intelligent machines tended to be ‘mad or bad.’ That’s one reason why, despite objections, the early Assembly abandoned such research.”
    â€œThose who made objections—do any names particularly come to mind?”
    â€œThe most obvious, of course, was Jannafy. Of the Rebellion.” The professor turned his head toward Betafor again, and Merral saw awe in his expression. “A line of technology we thought dead. Yet it wasn’t.”
    â€œAnd Betafor?”
    â€œIt is certainly intelligent. But on sanity and morality . . .” He frowned.
    â€œExpand on that.”
    â€œIt appears to have no morality