Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi by David Adams

datacore working away next to them, she suspected that he was trying to find a way to logically refute her statement.
    “Very well, Captain Liao. You have my word. I'll treat her the same way she treats me.”
    Liao nodded. “Good.”
    A creak from the opening entrance hatchway caused her to twist in her seat. As though right on cue, Saara stepped through the hatchway, giving a nod towards Liao.
    Nothing like that for Ben, though, and Liao could see he noticed.
    The Toralii woman stepped up to Liao, handing over a clipboard with paper attached. [“Captain, the salvage results. Aside from the datacore, which is in poor condition and corroded in some places, there is precious little aside from scrap metal we could realistically salvage from the Giralan . My apologies.”]
    Ben turned to her, his tone acidic. “Salvage, hmm? What about survivors?”
    Saara, looking confused, glanced at him. [“Of course not.”]
    “Well, I’m here and I am notsalvage,” Ben hissed, his thin, metallic voice cracking slightly as his fairly simplistic modulator struggled to adequately express the tonal range he was pushing through. “I’m a survivor.”
    Saara turned her body towards him, tail flicking slowly behind her, her face screwed up in confusion. [“I suppose that you are. I don’t know, it just seems so strange and awkward to be saying that.”] She tilted her head towards Liao. [“I mean, look, I’m sure you’re enjoying being mystified by this piece of advanced technology, but I feel as though it’s your, well, your ignorance ,that’s really causing that reaction. Humans are a young species in the interstellar community. Advanced devices like this construct are found everywhere, and they are all the same; they are not alive .”]
    Ben’s claws clicked and clattered, and for a moment Liao thought he was going to spring up and clamp hold of Saara’s neck. “I am alive! I am! I am! I’m sentient, I think, I’m not just a machine—”
    [“With all due respect, Captain, the construct isn’t really sentient. Yes, it speaks, but it’s no more alive than your radio. Voices and speech come from that, too, but you don’t consider such devices alive, do you?”]
    Liao gritted her teeth and stood, glancing between the two of them. “I can understand your argument, Saara, but Ben is far more advanced than any artificial intelligence Humans could create, and there is still considerable debate about the ethics surrounding the subject on Earth. However, for the moment, Ben has demonstrated an ability to learn, a desire to grow and change, and he suffers. To me, that’s enough to be considered alive.”
    [“I understand how he appears , Captain, but any animal can be taught tricks. That’s all they are—complex machines. There is no sentience in there, no more than there is in a trained beast.”]
    “That is your people’s opinion, Saara, but I am surprised to hear that it is yours, too.” Liao folded her hands in front of her. “I understand that you don’t see Ben as a sentient life, but it’s important to me that you acknowledge that I do.”
    Saara hesitated, and Liao’s tone softened somewhat. “Humanity can be brutal, Saara, but it can be caring, too. I would have thought that you, more than anyone, would have understood that by now.”
    [“I understand,”] Saara said, glancing towards the still furious-looking robot, [“but to me it seems foolish to show kindness to something that does not truly understand the concept and is merely repeating what its programming told it. This ‘Ben,’ as you call it, is not capable of sentient thought and merely understands commands and composes verbal replies based upon complex heuristics. It is a machine. A complicated and intelligent machine, yes, but not a living thing.”]
    Ben scuttled forward, his claws clicking angrily. “You and your arrogance! You Telvan bastards left me on that planet to rust, and now you don’t even have the moral fortitude to acknowledge