Part Three: Current Opera (1/1)

Eunji's hand fell to her pocket, her fingers finding the smooth surface of the cube tucked away there. It was still about the size of an apple, the square edges making it a bit uncomfortable pressed into her leg, despite the roomy size of her cargo pants. How could it have been the hands that lifted her? She remembered how it had been a liquid at first, tranforming into the small square when she touched it, but to change complete shape and size to become something much bigger than an apple - that was inconceivable."Um," she ventured, unsure how to converse with an object sitting in her pocket, but luckily it seemed to recognize her intent."What do you need?" The same voice, still androgynous and slightly metallic sounding, and this time she could tell that it was coming from her pocket. Such a strange sensation and she couldn't help the shiver that passed down her spine. She was here, sitting in the dark elevator shaft, speaking to a piece of alien technology that could bring them down on her at any moment.She needed to know. "So, you said I'm your current operator. Does that mean that you won't give me away to the crawlers?"There was a short pause, the silence making her nervous, before the cube finally answered. "Is that was you call the Asryekrngndjkse? Crawlers? No, I will not do anything without my current operator's direction: I am a tool, after all.""Um, I didn't direct you to lift me into here..." she said slowly, thinking that she had caught a loophole in the logic, but the cube answered immediately."I also do what you require, and at that moment your requirement was a lift. You said so yourself and so I formed a shape to be able to help you toward what you required."Eunji sat and let that sink in. So it was a tool, this... thing... but it could also form thought on its own to be able to anticipate her needs. But was that what she actually needed, or would it be what it assumed she needed? "In future, do not act upon any guessing or requirements of mine unless I specifically ask you to, understood?"She expected argument or questioning, but to her surprise the voice merely answered, "Understood.""Good," she responded after a moment, then shifted. "Can you slip out and see if the coast is clear, without being discovered?"A short pause once again, then the answer yes, if that was what she wanted. She said it was, and just like that, she felt the cube shift out of her pocket. It was an odd sensation, feeling the thing go soft and malleable and leave its confines on its own, without anyone touching it. She suppressed a shiver and simply waited in the darkness, hoping that it would do as she asked."Wait. How did I become your operator? Is it whoever touches you that controls you?" If so, then any alien could simply grab it and she would be given away."No," came the answer almost immediately, and she felt relief run through her that the cube hadn't yet left before she had thought to ask that. "Operational commant ends with the death of the operator. Since my last operator was killed - the pilot of the ship you shot down - I would have simply waited within the interface to be assigned to my next operator. Your interference meant that I was biologically assigned to you instead, and so, now I am your tool."A slight smile came over her face and she nodded. "Very good to know," she said, and it was. She was now, until her death, the operator of what seemed to be an advantage, maybe in this war if she could know what questions to ask of it. "Check quickly and come back to me."She sat in the dark for probably almost five minutes, trying her best to not think about Wonshik and Bomi and instead focus on what to ask of her new asset. She would have to know if it could connect to other cubes and get troop movements and orders; if so, that would be a huge benefit to the ERF. Instead of reacting to the crawlers, they could finally have some intel and maybe be able to be proactive. If used right, this cube could be the f