This was a one way trip, the captain had as good as admitted it. He was sending him out to lure out the virus, and once that was done… well, after that the plans all became a little hazy. Nevertheless Babbage walked along the middle of the street with a spring in his step.

“It’s not so bad is it, Adlai? We have to embrace our curiosity, our inquisitiveness, forget about the fears and doubts that hold us back. Some will try and tell you they are there as warning signs, there to keep you from danger. It’s literally the oldest story in the book. It takes the serpent in the garden of Eden to encourage Eve’s curiosity, to convince her to eat from the tree of knowledge.”

“That didn’t end particularly well for Eve though did it sir?”

“Exactly my point Adlai, exactly my point. The writers use the story of Eve to warn you against following your curiosity, against breaking rules. Do not ask difficult questions, they say, for they will only lead to trouble. And troubling answers. Those in power have always acted this way. Which begs the question…”

“Why are we being encouraged now?”

“Right! Why now? And the answer?”

Babbage stared down at the ripples in the road his feet made as they trudged through the rain. Everything around him seemed sharper, more detailed, more real.

“Because we are expendable?”

“Perhaps, perhaps. I get the feeling most people are expendable in their eyes, no matter what side of this divide they talk about they’re on. This reality divide.”

“Because we are useful then?”

“Part of it. Not the answer as such, but a facet of it. We have our talents.”

“What then?”

“Perhaps they are not so afraid of what we might find. They seem to already know all about it, or at least think they do. What was it the captain told us?”

“Uh, something about understanding not always leading somewhere.”

“The search for understanding does not always lead where you might expect. Particularly poetic for a man of his leanings, if we can describe him that way, and I think that we can.”

Babbage had his pipe out now and began puffing on it contentedly, a slight smile on his face. There was something very comforting in things from the past.

“And where does that leave us? An old piece of software and his somewhat invisible intellectual companion?”

The realisation, the words, didn’t drag at him. He was happy with what he was.

“It’s times like these I take comfort in Madigan’s words. ‘One mustn’t dehumanise those with the power of consciousness.’”

They walked along, lost in their own thoughts. The neon sign for the bar reached out to them through the rain.

“Besides, Adlai, the more I learn about the world, the less I think such questions matter. We all find out in the end.”

He tucked his pipe back into his coat and jerked his collar up around his neck. It was time.

“Now let’s have a drink.”