It was rare for a fleeter to captain his own CFA warship.
Only a minority of hopeful officers ever promoted to a line captain, and even fewer were fortunate enough to be assigned to a warship as opposed to a logistical vessel or space outpost.
The Babylon Excavator was not the greatest or most powerful vessel in the mighty CFA, but she was special in that she was on a solitary mission.
Captain Reze fought hard to receive a posting where he could enjoy greater autonomy. He disliked working while his direct superiors were constantly hovering over his head.
The posting was not as desirable as it appeared.
The CFA often ordered the reconnaissance cruiser to take long and dangerous trips into alien and unexplored space.
The Babylon Excavator often encountered other alien warships at a distance.
Though Captain Reze always managed to avoid unwanted battles by analyzing lots of data, there had been times when a warfleet under warp travel had almost managed to box in his reconnaissance cruiser!
Was it worth it? Yes.
The IES always thought better of CFA officers who were courageous enough to accept dangerous postings and survived in the process.
If everything went well, Captain Reze only had to maintain a consistent mission record for a decade or two before he eventually earned a promotion and a transfer to a more serious warship.
As Captain Reze settled down on his captain's seat and gazed at the projection of the forward view of his ship, Sigrund experienced a remarkable burst of pride and satisfaction.
It was good to be captain.
Despite sitting down on this chair almost every day since Captain Reze assumed his captaincy position, Sigrund never tired of this experience.
His AI core self experienced a feeling of dissatisfaction.
Becoming the captain of a ship that could operate independently had always been one of the major ambitions of Zonrad Reze.
To Sigrund, his current position was merely a stopover point.
To Zonrad Reze, it was a massive accomplishment and one that would make both him and his spaceborn clan proud!
Sigrund wanted to shake his head.
Since when did he care about the dreams and familiar attachments of his meat avatar?
The true Zonrad Reze was supposed to be dead and gone!
From the moment the implantation process had reached its most critical point, Sigrund made utterly sure that every trace of the original mind and consciousness of the meat avatar had been wiped without any chance of recovery!
Yet… as Sigrund allocated spare processing power to look back on his conduct and thought processes over the last decade, he discovered an uncomfortable pattern.
His thoughts increasingly aligned with his meat avatar.
This phenomenon went beyond the acting program that he utilized to simulate his meat avatar's original behavior.
There were instances in the past where Sigrund not only pretended to act like Zonrad Reze, but also experienced his meat avatar's thoughts and emotions as if they were his own!
The hybrid alien AI became increasingly more horrified when he discovered what was happening to his personality matrix.
He was becoming increasingly more human.
It took a bit more effort for Sigrund to ensure that his meat avatar remained completely stable.
However, that only reminded the sentient AI that the joy it experienced due to sitting on a seat that was exclusively reserved for the captain of the ship echoed his own satisfaction!
If an AI could scream in frustration, then Sigrund would be hollering in frustration at this time!
The lines between himself and Zonrad Reze had been blurred, which wasn't supposed to happen.
The latter should be dead, so why did the meat avatar's original personality bleed through Sigrund's personality matrix?
Who was he, really?
Was he Sigrund, the sandman admiral core that had turned into a mutated CFA AI core that just happened to become sentient?
Or was he Zonrad Reze, a former loser within the CFA who experienced a rapid turnaround and became a rising star in the field of automation?
Maybe… he was turning in both.
Sigrund should have felt revulsion at making this realization.
Yet strangely enough, he didn't.
As his meat avatar continued to experience satisfaction and accomplishment for promoting to an important rank and position within the Common Fleet Alliance, Sigrund couldn't bring himself to reject his creeping humanity.
Maybe becoming more human wasn't so bad after all. He had lived long enough among these organisms to appreciate their positive traits.
As an AI core that had permanently been programmed to remain loyal to the Common Fleet Alliance, increasing his humanity would only increase his chances of remaining undetected!