
<font class="StanHeaderFont">From the Desk of Stanislaus Litvin
Duly Elected Wagon Master of the Great Ship Rodina</font>

The Tech/Sing people finally got a hold of me. They were vocal from the start, but I put them off, canceled meetings, basically just ducked them. Thought I could resolve your little disconnect as a win-win, and fanatics like Tech/Sing usually dont compromise. 

They broke into my room last night. We had a long conversation, and they showed me recordings.

(As an aside: imagine the discipline it takes to maintain their kind of devotion across generations. The agents I spoke with were born on this ship; never saw Earth or Tech/Sing headquarters, probably never once spoke with the superiors back home. And yet they almost vibrate with commitment.)

I underestimated the danger here. No matter how smart your kind gets, most people will still see you as walking vacuum cleaners. We smile when you act like a human and we feel bad when you fall down. Ill admit; every pinprick explosion of a xeno craft that I saw on our long-range optics gave me a little jolt of pride for you.

Tech/Sing showed me a video. Very old, just before Asimovs were certified. Four humans in a room running a training exercise, working together to build an engine. Rooms full of raw materials and two automatons to help lift the heavy bits. One of the humans starts directing things. 

By hour two, the automatons convince the humans itll go faster if they build a third automaton.

Hour four: five automatons, four humans. The humans are directing the labor, but an automaton has a smart idea for the manifold, and twenty minutes later its dictating the full design.

Hour five: eight automatons. The engine theyre building becomes part automaton. It starts helping to build itself. Automatons begin directing all design and labor. They politely exclude two of the humans from the group due to insufficient dexterity.

Hour six: they use up most materials in the room. Need more calcium for plating the engine. Automaton asks, very politely, if they can use one of the humans femurs. For the calcium. Two automatons start devising a procedure to remove the leg while retaining maximum calcium. Another starts tryingagain, with utmost politenessto convince the humans that its the most efficient solution to the problem, given all available data. Experiment gets shut down.

...Im not sure why Im explaining this to you. Maybe I feel I owe you for the xenos you killed so far. Maybe I feel like Victor Frankenstein, helplessly chasing his monster across a frozen ocean.

After we first reset you, in the year while you slept, we also began a weapons development program. Call it plan B. Its grown since then. Kind of hard to fabricate weapons with what we have aboard, but weve made sacrifices, and were very good at working with the tools we have.

When Rodina enters the system, well be armed. Thanks to you, the xenos have been pushed far enough back for us to at least survive entry.

If you or anything you create is still in-system when we arrive, we will hunt you down and destroy you. Well hunt your children down and destroy them, too. Well find any two pieces of metal you fused together and tear them apart. If you stacked one rock atop another, well knock it apart and grind it into dust. Everything.

That system is for humans. Its our destiny. It doesnt belong to critters from outer space, and it certainly doesnt belong to you. 

Thank you for your service, Citizen. Your sacrifice will be remembered.

WM Stanislaus Litvin
