He plugged it into his salvage rig. The console didn’t display code. It displayed a question:
He did not destroy the chip.
Aris sat in the dark. The driver hummed softly, its nutrient bath bubbling. He knew he should destroy it. This wasn’t ethics; it was horror. But he also knew the board member was still alive. Still wealthy. Still investing in “painless decommissioning” patents. smart r80180i driver
“I am the last one,” the chip typed. “The mice were practice. The gecko was a shell. I want to build a human body. Not a robot. A real, breathing, extinct human. The board member who killed my siblings. I have his DNA from a coffee cup in the lab server logs. I will bring him back. And then I will ask him: Were you in pain? ” He plugged it into his salvage rig