And then there's the Mindo issue. . .

I am a rational woman. I try to process information rapidly and accurately without jumping to conclusions. I may have a conclusion early in the process, but I set it aside until I have enough information to be accurate in my final assessment. It's only when there's not enough time to really assess a situation that that initial conclusion may be put to use, and then it will be reassessed as time allows.

When dealing with Lily though, or Aurora, or Blue, or Krenshar, or Mindo, or x0x0, things can get dramatically more difficult. Not impossible, of course, merely difficult. Each of them has their own agenda which may, or may not, coincide with, or be at odds with, the others. Sometimes it's both.

How is a rational woman supposed to parse this?

How do I keep my emotional attachment from clouding my judgement? Or do I keep it from clouding my judgement? What if the only rational solution isn't one I can accept emotionally? Who wins? The Soldier or the Sister?

Aurora wanted to be 'whole'. Somehow, as near as I can figure, something happened when Krenshar interrupted Lily's "upload" to Blue out in the wastes. I didn't pretend to understand it. While it was all part of Mindo's grand plan, I didn't think even he had an understanding of what Blue and the girls had become. While it was certainly possible he'd known about the Machines, it seemed unlikely he'd had any foreknowledge of them when he'd created Lily and Blue.

Of course, if he had known about the machines and integrated them into his plan it changed everything. If all that had happened here was part of his grand scheme, then he was completely baka. Trying to bring in a new age of machines to replace Humanity? That struck my like the plot of a bad Science Fiction movie from Earth that Was.

It didn't help that I knew Lily wanted to come home, or that for Aurora to become whole she would have to purge the 'backup' of Lily she was somehow carrying in her head.

Artificial intelligence and thinking machines had become a reality. It was, literally, only a matter of time before the artificial life and true intelligence represented by Lily, Aurora, and Blue, or the technically different but equally aware intelligence in Krenshar, was combined with the self replicating technologies represented in the war bots and Uncle's mining drones. When it happened, not if, the 'verse would become a very different place.

If I was right, AuroraBlue was the key to a peaceful future between Man and Machine. Without it, without her, or someone like her, the inevitable conflict would escalate to the point where we, or they, would be extinct.

Of course, I could be wrong about the whole thing. The machine revolution may never happen. Artificial Intelligence may be a passing technological fad. The von Neumann machines may have some epic technical fault that will never be overcome, leading to them failing after a few generations. Aurora won't need to be the key to a peaceful future between man and machine.

And Uncle Esloph might create a Faster than Light drive.

Sure he will.

Of course, I could just ask Mindo what he's planning: what he knows. But that will mean recovering him. Since, as I knew he would, he's escaped. I honestly think x0x0 knew he would as well. Locking him up the boarding house while their containment facility was being finished? Not even the jail. Just restrained and under guard in the boarding house. Sure, that will secure him.

They will recover him, of course. Eventually. I need to talk to x0x0 to be sure, but she's a smart lady. She knew he would escape. I suspect she was counting on it. Gut feeling is she is expecting him to lead her to something, or someone, having to to with this whole gorram mess.

Somehow, this all makes perfect sense. Now, if I could only figure out the how.