The Island - Peter Watts

Peter Watts 27 The Island
track so they built something that couldn't go off it; but they also
knew that things change, and that's why we're out here, Dix. To
deal with things the chimp can't."
"The alien," Dix says.
"The alien."
"Chimp deals with it just fine."
"How? By killing it?"
"Not our fault it's in the way. It's no threat—"
"I don't care whether it's a threat or not! It's alive, and it's
intelligent, and killing it just to expand some alien empire—"
"Human empire. Our empire." Suddenly Dix's hands have
stopped twitching. Suddenly he stands still as stone.
I snort. "What do you know about humans?"
"Am one."
"You're a fucking trilobite. You ever see what comes out of
those gates once they're online?"
"Mostly nothing. " He pauses, thinking back. "Couple of—
ships once, maybe."
"Well, I've seen a lot more than that, and believe me, if those
things were ever human it was a passing phase. "
"But—"
"Dix—" I take a deep breath, try to get back on message. "Look,
it's not your fault. You've been getting all your info from a moron
stuck on a rail. But we're not doing this for Humanity, we're not
doing it for Earth. Earth is gone, don't you understand that? The
sun scorched it black a billion years after we left. Whatever we're
working for, it— it won't even talk to us."
"Yeah? Then why do this? Why not just, just quit?"
He really doesn't know.
"We tried," I say.
"And?"
"And your chimp shut off our life support."
For once, he has nothing to say.
"It's a machine, Dix. Why can't you get that? It's programmed.
It can't change."
"We're machines, just built from different things. We change."
"Yeah? Last time I checked, you were sucking so hard on that