Ada was thoughtful as the automata pushed the Lincoln and the escape pod towards the Babbage. At an intellectual level, she understood that she should feel terrible about the suffering that she was subjecting the angel to.

However, she also understood that the neurophage in her lymbic system blocked all un-Babbagelike thoughts, and therefore she couldn’t give a hoot for the welfare of some lower life form. They were like parasites, really, bleeding knowledge out of the universe and sharing it, of all things. Next thing they would try and replace steam technology!

That made her think of Charles and his obsession with steam and cogs. She had found a journal of Ada the 20th, which had explained how that Ada was immune to the neurophage, and attempted to introduce nuclear technology and electricity. Reading between the lines (and around the big clot of blackish goo in the book) Charles had not taken to kindly to that. She supposed that she should feel horror, but it had been so long since she felt anything…