Another Life (Oc x reader)

Chapter 59 - Thorough Scan

Jason walks into the med lab and see Bernie and Zayn arguing. Zayn is still upset about what they did to Javier.

"Bernie." He says and they stop. "I'm gonna wake up the crew."

"Okay, I'll meet you in soma." He says and walk out.

Jason walk up to Zayn. "Hey, uh.. Do you think you're gonna be able to save Javier?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

...

You and Ethan are walking in the corridor, you're going through something on your tablet with him. Then you hear distorted screaming and stop. You frown and then hear that Iara is screaming. Ethan and you take off running to the particle accelerator.

Getting there, your eyes widen at them torturing Iara.

"Please! I'll confess anything!" She screams in pain.

"What are you doing to her!?" Ethan asks them.

"We tweaked her processing speed to analyse her data."

"You're torturing her!" You tell them.

"Make it stop." Ethan tells Dillon and he does. "Drop the firewall."

You go up to Iara worriedly. "Iara?"

William appears and comforts her. "Hey, it's okay now, it's over. What did you do to her?" He asks Richard.

"I did it." Iara says weakly. "I cut the tow. It was me." She disappears.

You give Ethan a look, tears in your eyes. She was forced to admit something she didn't do.

"I needed to read her comm files, but they were scrolling way too fast. So when slowed them down, they-"

Ethan interrupts him. "You realises that you could torture her."

"She's an AI." Richard then says.

William turns to him. "I'm an AI. Designed to think independent, but I also feel emotion, like anger and rage."

"All thanks to a string of code typed into a computer."

"Enough, Richard." Ethan tells him with a stern look.

"We need to bring Iara back online. She confessed to sabotaging the tow."

"You coerced her! So it doesn't make it true." You tell him.

"I understand you guys are upset. But someone on this ship, and not someone human, cut that tow. So if it's not Iara, then there's only one other AI it can be." Richard says and look at William.

"I helped set up the tow. Why would I sever it?" William then turns to Ethan. "He tortures Iara and accuses me of-"

"Hey." Ethan turn to him with a soft voice. "Let's go through all your records."

"I ran a thorough scan."

"I know. Just.. look for any actions that go against procedure and investigate."