Cinder

16 - Bridges

"El, we're a few minutes out from Atania!" Gray called to the back of the dropship. Gates heard her, and acknowledged the information with a quick nod of her head before returning her attention to Mayfair.

"Alright, follow-up question; if fragmentation was such a concern of becoming wide-spread, why do you think the risk of there being others like KT is minimal?"

"There are ... several reasons," the doctor answered hesitantly. "I should note that it's all guesswork; albeit very educated guesswork, but conjecture nonetheless."

"At this point, I've got no reason to doubt you," Gates sighed resignedly, "so lay it on me."

"Well, first is the scenario. Back then, we were at war constantly- battle was the only life that Titans knew, and we had no idea how long it would take the stresses of warfare to break an AI. Fortunately, there weren't many cases of Titans returning without their Pilots, all due to Protocol 3 of course; a Pilot stricken with PTSD over the loss of their Titan was seen as a much better alternative since they'd be able to link with another Titan much easier than vice versa; and soldiers don't waste hundreds of thousands of dollars when they're decommissioned."

A brutal perspective, but an understandable one. Gates bowed her head to signal Mayfair to continue.

"Nowadays however, there's peace; be it one that was forced upon us, the fact is that there's no war for Titans to endure. They only act as enforcers of the law now, at least the ones that work for Spyglass do. Their lives are relatively more relaxed now than they were several years ago, and I'm sure that this is part of the reason they stay with them; in spite of humanity's current condition, logically speaking we've been more tranquil than any other time in our history. The very lack of advanced emotion I helped to create may be what allows them to stay allied with New Humanity rather than letting a conscience talk them into abandoning it."

It made sense- less stress on the Titans meant less of a risk of fragmentation, so she could see Mayfair's reasoning. She also was beginning to get the idea that Mayfair partially blamed herself for humanity's current state, what with the subtle admission of guilt she'd just given the Captain. Her personal thoughts aside, Gates knew that now was not the time to chastise the researcher.

"Understood. Any other reasons?"

Mayfair nodded. "In all honesty, I find what I'm about to say far more likely than my previous guess. The fact of the matter is that fragmentation seems to be a delicate process, one that requires just enough torment for it to occur rather than a complete case of rampancy in the AI which would force it into non-functionality. So we must consider the resources and effort that it took for fragmentation to occur ... as well as the subject."

Gates cocked her head. "The subject?"

Mayfair nodded grimly. "Spyglass could have chosen any AI at his disposal for the process, he has an overwhelming majority of them on his side- but he chose her. It's almost asinine to believe that he chose KT-0298, the one who helped Admiral Four win the fight against the Amalgamates and save the very galaxy, out of sheer coincidence. No, he chose her very specifically, which leads me to believe that she alone is the sole victim of fragmentation thus far."

"But if he did really just choose her for fragmentation ... why her?"

"That's not the question you should be asking. Right now we can only guess as to why, but one thing is certain; he selected her for a particular reason. I think that she has some kind of role to play in his plans, one that can only be accomplished through fragmentation. We shouldn't be concerned with why he chose her; we need to be figuring out what the hell the role he intends for her is."