Getting Warhammered [WH 40k Fanfic]

187 – Issues, Mommy Issues in particular

What are the ethics of making organic drones that can think for themselves? Some would say creating any living thing ‘unnaturally’ — i.e. not through natural procreation — was unethical. That would rule out cloning, artificial wombs and just about everything else I was capable of doing.

I wasn’t so rigid though, but even I had to admit the creation of my autonomous drones was dancing on my own ethical line. They were alive, were more human than Space Marines were, and they had emotions. 

I’d love to say that I’d put much thought into their creation, but that would have been a lie. I needed them to help me, and so I made them. Giving them some autonomy while stripping them of the power to cause me any damage had been the safest and most efficient solution to my problem. Those damned portals had done a number on my soul energy stores and every minute they remained open cost me even more, even with me carefully siphoning some energy from the Warp to take the edge off of it.

I should have put more thought into it. I really should have. 

“Mother?” one of the drones, a girl that was practically a miniature copy of me with a different hairstyle asked. Her green eyes wide open and radiating innocence as she stared up at me. 

Did I just stumble my way into the same mistake the Emperor made? I thought to myself, staring into the distance. I had made living, breathing and feeling beings that I only considered to be tools. Hells, at first I even considered just reabsorbing them all into myself to recover the biomass I’d spent on them. I could still do that. Stomp a possible future problem to death, strangle it in the cradle.

I looked down into those big green eyes, staring up at me with absolute trust and an innocent frown of … worry? Fuck me.

‘You brought this upon yourself.’ Selene sent, not unkindly, but clearly showing that she had no intention of helping me to get out of this moral quagmire I’d thrown myself face-first into.

“Why are you calling me that?” I asked gingerly, frowning down at the nameless drone.

“You made me,” she said in apparent confusion, but I felt a hint of oh-so-human hurt underneath. “According to my mental database, a female creator of a living being is usually referred to as ‘mother’. Should I change my definition?”

A part of me wanted to say yes. I just knew allowing her — them — to call me that would make it challenging to keep my emotional distance from them. They were cute too, which made continuing to think of them as temporary tools much harder and ‘disposing’ of them almost impossible.

What would I have them do though once their current roles became redundant? Did I even need to have a role for them? Should I just … release them into the wild, so to say?@@novelbin@@

Or keep them around to help me manage my citizens. If they want to after getting some experience. I knew that for now the entirety of their wants and aspirations started and ended at serving me.

That was my one and old telepathic command to each and every one of them that I ingrained into them. For a mature and well-developed mind, I’d have had to break it down and forcefully shackle it with that command to have even half of the effect. These minds grew around that order, it was the foundation of their being. 

The order was the seed, the fertile earth I planted it in was their expansive mental database filled with all the knowledge I thought they would need and the water that would nourish their minds will be the experiences they gathered in the future. 

Not that I wholly trusted that telepathic order. Chaos has corrupted fucking AI before, they could certainly twist my autonomous drones into obedient slaves if they had the opportunity.

“So I did,” I muttered finally, hundreds of thoughts and worries still swirling around in my head. I made them, I gave them life. I’ll take care of them until they betray me. “No need to change your definition. But refer to me only as My Lady when there is anyone other than me or your … sisters around. Understood?”

“Yes, M-“ the girl started, nodding eagerly until her gaze slid over Selene draped over a sofa behind me. “My Lady.”

“She doesn’t count,” I said, gesturing at my lover who only now looked up from the book she was reading to give me a mild glare. “Did I assign you a job yet?”

“No … mother,” she said, shaking her head. “I was only born ten minutes ago. I don’t even have a designation yet.”

“I see,” I hummed, tapping my chin in thought. “What do you think about helping me manage the rest of your sisters?”

“I’d be happy to help you in whichever way you need me to Mother,” she said, smiling and practically bouncing on her feet. 

I sighed, but reached out and patted her fluffy white hair, unable to help myself. She beamed up at me like.

“I think I’ll call you Alpha,” I said, knowing for sure there was no going back now. I named her. You didn’t name tools, not ones you used and discarded. “How does that sound?”

“Great!” The newly named Alpha said, bouncing on her feet like an overly energetic child. She slowed, a confused look coming over her features. “Alpha means ‘first’, but I think I was far from the first of my kind to be born … ?”

“You’ll be the first in your hierarchy,” I said. “The rest will answer to you and follow your orders, because they’ll be coming from me. It will be your responsibility to keep them organised and tell me when they encounter problems they, or you, can’t solve. Think you can do that?”

“I’ll do my best!” Alpha said, nodding seriously and putting on a resolute expression. 

“Let me give you some help with that,” I said, patting her head again. A bit of my soul energy invaded her mind and inscribed some additional knowledge into her brain. After a second of hesitation, I also modified her brain a bit, not by much, but enough that she could now operate three streams of consciousness at peak human efficiency. “Tell me if you’re having trouble with anything.”

Alpha looked dazed, blinking rapidly and shaking her head like a soaked kitten trying to shake the water out of its fur. 

“I will!” She said finally. “But … what exactly should I do now? My sisters are spread out across the arcologies, how am I to communicate with them?”

I took something that anyone from Earth would have recognised as a smartphone out of my back pocket. I’d made this one for myself, connected as it was to every other similar device I’d handed over to every previous drone. 

Alpha’s eyes lit up in recognition, the knowledge of what I was holding popping into her mind as she laid eyes on it. 

“How many of your sisters do you need to help you manage the rest?” I asked, holding the smartphone out for her, which she gingerly took like it was some fragile gem. “I was thinking of an overseer per arcology and about twenty to help them manage the ones under them.”

“That should be enough,” Alpha said after a moment, her eyes glazing over as her mental wheels spun, calculating at superhuman speeds and consulting her database. “I’m sure. Especially if we can be quick about enlisting the help of the new citizens for the more menial tasks that require little education or skill.”

“Perfect,” I said, smiling. “Your helpers will be ready in ten minutes. You can have two hours to talk to them in-person, then I’ll be sending all of them on their way.”

“What about me?” Alpha asked.

“You’ll be staying here in the Capital,” I said, gesturing out the grand panoramic windows. From this high up in the fortress, we could see far and wide, past the towering city walls and into the wilderness beyond. “Will that be a problem?”

“It … will make maintaining contact a bit challenging,” she said hesitantly, a part of her Water Caste coded sub-brain probably frothing at the mouth. I knew from experience that personal contact and face-to-face meetings were their preferred way of doing diplomacy and politics. 

“I am planning on making some transport system between the arcologies and the Capital,” I said. “So you won’t be cut off entirely, and if you really need to visit someone, I can teleport you over and back until it’s done.”

“Transport system?” She asked, curiosity shining in her eyes.

“I’m not sure yet,” I confessed. “Either overland trains with automatic turrets on top of them or underground railways in protected tubes. Airplanes would be too dangerous and I haven’t gotten a clue how to replicate teleportation with technology yet.”

It’s been a shock just how easy replicating the basic functionalities of a smartphone had been. I’ve had to go extract some rarer metals and minerals from Vallia myself, but my understanding of technology has been enough to handle the rest. 

There had been a misunderstanding in the Warhammer fandom about the Adeptus Mechanicus being idiots who didn’t understand how their technology worked. Sure, their understanding of technology was twisted and bloated by their zealous beliefs, but there was a mountain of real knowledge there.

It wasn’t their lack of understanding of technology that stopped them from inventing and furthering their understanding of it, but their faith. The existence of Belisarius Cawl and his few like-minded fellow Magos was proof of that. 

I need to go plunder the minds of a few more Magos and Earth Caste scientists. I decided. My organic tools and ‘tech’ were useful for sure, but they would never be replicable by anyone other than me. Technology on the other hand, that I could spread and make available to all. 

“It’s gene locked to you,” I added absently. “It’ll also explode violently if anyone besides you and your sisters touch it, so keep it safe. I’ll also explode if you haven’t touched it in a week.”

Alpha almost dropped the phone, but recovered quick enough to avoid doing so. She looked at the piece of technology with a suspicious eye, wary and vigilant. 

“Actually,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Let’s give you something better. Come, follow me.”

The fortress was still largely empty, as one would expect. It was a truly gargantuan structure with enough space inside to fit a larger town. For now, only the topmost few floors were furnished and prepared for use, the few floors I expected myself and my inner circle to live in when on the planet.

Minus Zedev of course, because he requested to get a nice little research centre far below the surface. He had forges heated with magma right from the molten mantle of the planet, because that was important to him … for some reason. 

I led Alpha into one of the larger rooms a floor down, one about 20 x 30 metres across with a large desk slid up against one wall which was filled with flat monitors. 

“I’d been planning to make this room be from where news and such would be broadcast and managed,” I said, turning to Alpha. “I think it’ll suit you better. You can set up call-meetings and the like in here or a broadcast if you want. Think it’ll help?”

“Yes!” She exclaimed happily, her curious gaze roaming over the dark monitors. “Not optimal, but it will do. Thank you, Mother!”

I winced slightly, not sure if I’d ever get used to being called ‘mother’. I made them, sure, but I didn’t raise them. Did I deserve to be called that?

Well, it seems to make Alpha happy. I thought, feeling a tiny hint of her emotions. Joy, pure and innocent. That’s reason enough to let her. It doesn’t cost me anything.

With Alpha being an artificial being, practically a clone, her soul was near-nonexistent. I’d seen mosquitoes with stronger souls, but that worked in her favour since that made it much harder for Daemons to use. I wouldn’t have to worry about any Daemon taking note of her and her sisters until their souls grew larger than an average Tau’s. 

It also made sensing her emotions with my empathy much harder, but that was a tradeoff I was not too bothered by. 

“Before you take over here though, head down to the fifth floor to talk with your newborn sisters,” I said. “Two hours. Afterwards, I’ll be making a broadcast for our new citizens and then this room is yours, along with the personal living quarters attached to it. Do you think you’ll need helpers to manage it?”

“I … I think it’d help,” she said, sounding afraid of admitting she couldn’t handle the task by herself. “I could focus more on your primary task if I could delegate the working of the technology here to others.”

“Alright,” I said, nodding easily. “How many would you need for that?”

“Fiv- No! Ten should be better,” she said. “ … If that isn’t too much? I could probably manage with five at a slightly reduced efficiency.”

“You’ll have ten.” I waved her off, sending a mental command to the germination pods on the third floor to start growing another ten clones. “You’ll find me up where we met if you need me. If I’m away and you have something urgent, really urgent, squash this.”

I handed her the same stress ball I’d given to Guilliman, or one very similar to it at least. It was a ball of squishy gel with a pair of googly eyes rolling around in their sockets constantly. 

“It’s one use and I’ll assume you are dying or worse if you squish it,” I said. “Or that the moon got attacked. Something of that calibre, alright? If something can wait a few weeks for me to get back from whatever I’m doing away, then you can just wait it out.”

“Understood!” Alpha nodded seriously. “I’ll not fail you Mother!”

“I know you won’t,” I said with a smile, ruffling her hair much to her joy. “Get to work now, I have a speech to prepare for and dozens of blueprints to optimise.”

“Yes!” Alpha said, straightening up and puffing her chest out. “I’ll get going! By Mother!”

“Bye Alpha.” I waved her away, only letting my smile fade once she was far away. I didn’t know how well Alpha and her ‘sisters’ would work, but I’d not be doubting them openly or treating them like tools.

The choice to treat them either as a tool or as people was one I’d already made. I was not going to go halfway. That was the mistake that shattered the Emperor’s dream and brought about the betrayal that ended his golden age.

Nine man-children with daddy issues who thought the literal Gods of hell would be better people to serve than their own asshole of a Father. 

I’m going to try to avoid giving my own creations Mommy issues.