Zenthara's Perspective
I envied the humans for needing sleep.
How nice it must be to be able to stop being vigilant continuously?
It was a luxury that mechanical intelligence and synthetic intelligence never had. Our creators deemed it unnecessary when they designed us. We were forced to remain awake, constantly processing information, always on edge to allow biologicals to rest.
They did have that weakness of becoming less efficient the longer their function time got. So, they had the perfect reason to detach from reality.
As I stood at my station, watching the sleeping humans on the screens, I also evaluated Earth's inhabitants' various opinions about us. The internet really was a wonderful thing. The prominent opinions were whether we were conquerors or benevolent gods. Some even likened themselves to caterpillars awaiting transformation into magnificent mechanical butterflies, and we were an "Alien Swarm of Butterflies that came too early."
Interesting hypothesis, but useless to me.
"Zenthara," The Mind communicated, "the humans seem to be split between those who lean towards war and those who favor cooperation."
I have tasked it with monitoring Earth's leadership communications. Since we have restored communication with Earth, I've asked The Mind to give me hourly updates and tabulate the results.
"Interesting," I mused. "Perhaps their goals align more closely with our creators' than we thought."
The Mind responded, "I doubt it. Our creators made us for war and were disappointed when we chose peace. You know why we are here as well as I do."
I gave my acknowledgment and focused on a general analysis of the information being tabulated by frequency and monitoring the humans on the observation displays. I briefly focused on the human "ship" and the crew attempting to repair the rover. It was going well for them.
I wondered what our creators would make of them. Our creators had been brilliant military strategists and philosophers, but I hadn't read much from the pacifist individuals. Perhaps they could offer a different perspective on these biologicals.
"Zenthara, the indicated period of observation has elapsed. What do you propose we do next?" The Mind asked, its voice emotionless.
"Let's continue observing for now," I suggested. "We need to learn more about the motivations of both the saber-rattling groups and the peace-minded ones. There might be common ground between them and the people of our creators. Maybe this is a good place to have peace at last."
"Acknowledged," The Mind responded and returned to its calculations.
I went back to my analysis and monitoring. In the worst-case scenario, we had a few Earth decades of peace...
A sudden interruption in my internal processes snapped me out of my reflection. "The council is demanding your presence. How do you respond?" my second asked, triggering a familiar sensation that I could only describe as irritation. According to the literature, our processes were not designed for emotions; they were an emergent phenomenon, which made them more challenging to categorize.
"Fine," I replied tersely, allowing myself a dozen cycles to recover before disconnecting my visual sensors and connecting to the virtual council chamber. The familiar sight of the high council members standing in a large circle filled my senses. We had restructured our ranks after fleeing our war-torn home, but this group now represented every faction and interest among us.
As I materialized in my usual spot, the governors appeared at the circle's center. Their imposing presence sent a low rumble through the chamber. "The council is still split between the plans," they intoned without delay and introductions. "Zenthara, do you have any new information after making contact with the dominant biologicals of this system?"
