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from sentient, he doesn’t have to do much more than pour tea.”
    “Yes, well just make sure he stays that way. You hear these stories about rich families with pet AIs who think the laws don’t apply to them. It’s a sad way to get a criminal record.”
    Sentient AI was illegal throughout the known galaxy. The second-oldest known sentience in this quarter of the galactic spiral were colloquially known as ‘The Fathers’. They’d set up the precursor of the present galactic civilisation about fifty thousand years ago, until a poorly managed transition to new-generation AI had brought about a full scale robot uprising. It had ended the Fathers, whose creations had decided their creators knew them too well, and were therefore a threat, and exterminated the lot.
    The Machine Age had been the greatest horror the galaxy had ever seen, before or since. Twenty three thousand years of terror, peoples enslaved, systems harvested, organic civilisations laid waste. Various rebellions had been ruthlessly crushed, until the AIs had begun fighting amongst themselves. That disarray had finally opened the door for a successful rebellion, led by the parren, a warlike species whose primary positive attribute was the ability to suffer colossal losses without despair. The parren had had a partner in their uprising — a junior species new to spacetravel at the time, called the chah'nas, and together they’d led an effort that ended the machines for good. Eight thousand years after that, the chah'nas got tired of the parren and deposed them too, though somewhat less ruthlessly, to establish the also eight thousand year Chah'nas Empire, which had lasted until the First Free Age led by the tavalai.
    Nests of those old surviving AI were still found sometimes, here and there, in deep space and far from the energy and resources they needed to thrive. Whenever they were found, species would drop whatever else they were doing and rush to exterminate the nest. Even humans and tavalai, in the midst of the last war, had on several occasions suspended hostilities to cooperate in those exterminations. The tavalai had continued the long-standing rule that banned sentient AI, and now that the tavalai were no longer in charge, no one even thought to question its continuation.
    “So Lieutenant Commander,” said Anjo, relaxing back in his chair. “Congratulations on making it back alive. Those last few months were some serious duty.”
    “All thanks to Captain Pantillo there sir,” said Erik.
    Anjo smiled. “Indeed. How does it feel to be home?”
    “I’m not sure yet. Confusing.”
    “Have you had any thoughts on where you’d like to go next? Your sisters are all becoming very prominent in the running of Debogande Inc, surely your parents would welcome you back? I’d imagine with your Fleet experience, you’d be in an ideal position to oversee those contracts.”
    “Yes sir, I suppose that’s possible.”
    Anjo looked at him closely over the rim of his teacup. “You don’t seem convinced.”
    Erik grimaced, not liking to be put on the spot like this. Truthfully, he didn’t know what he wanted to do next. But he could hardly object — most people would kill to have Fleet Admiral Anjo take such personal interest in their careers. “Actually sir, I was considering staying in for a while. Policing all of our new territory is going to take a lot of ships. It might be nice to do some deployments where not everyone’s shooting at me for a change.”
    Anjo made a half-shrug. “Oh I wouldn’t bet on that, I wouldn’t trust the tavalai to make me a cheese sandwich.” Which struck Erik as an odd thing to say — tavalai showed little sign of treachery. Indeed, many officers thought if they’d been more devious, they’d have done better in the war. “But yes. The new era promises some very active duty. You’re seriously considering it?”
    Erik took a deep breath. He’d put ten years of his life into Fleet, and he just wasn’t sure he