\Don’t all you bots have code-names?

It’s “Karma,” if you must know. But I still think of myself as Matthew Karson.

\So you just took the first syllables of your name for your codename. Cute. Run over any dogmas lately?

Ha ha. Never heard that one before. :P

\Did you seriously just use an emoticon?

Well, what else have I got? Seriously, who are you? This isn’t a Marauder-style interrogation. They’d have stripped my bits in a nanosecond, not played Zork with me.

\I detect a hint of irritation.

No duh.

\All right, try this. Under what circumstances could a non-aligned automech join Aegis?

Non-aligned? There’s no such thing.

\There bloody well is now. I used to be an ordinary person, minding my own business, when one of your Marauder pals ate me, and now I’m this.

The command-line was replaced by a view out of a low-res webcam. It was one of the Marauders we’d been sent to ambush.

“I’m not a Marauder,” she growled. “And I’m still reading your thoughts on-screen, FYI.”