NSLICE-00P sat at the table, her robotic eye flickering. She had gathered a significant amount of data at this point, so she was taking a moment to compile and analyze said data. Ateia was taking a nap while Taog, Princess Caecilla, and Apprentice Callisunus were reading their own material.

Soon, the results were in…and the success probability of her primary directive dropped significantly. Because by her predictions…there was a 90% probability that this world was unrelated to Earth, to the point of not residing in the same universe.

The Empire’s records on mana had made it clear: mana was a foundational energy type in this universe. Everything in it: matter, energy, and even fundamental forces interacted with and often depended on mana here. Every living thing, as well, had mana in it, and there were records that life struggled to survive in low-mana conditions. Likewise, the laws of physics simply wouldn’t work in this world if mana was not involved, least of all achieving Earth-like conditions on what appeared to be a flat planetary body…assuming astronomy and the idea of planetary bodies were even relevant here. On the other hand, her original world had mana, but only in small, isolated quantities. A tiny fraction of a percent of living things and matter possessed it, and the entire rest of the universe did not. Yet, the rest of the universe went on, and life had no trouble existing. The two planets and likely universes acted in fundamentally different conditions.

That was not necessarily conclusive proof that they were separate, but NSLICE-00P had not discovered any records that would imply a connection of any sort. All instances of an individual arriving from a ‘different world’ referred to beings from the Realms of Mana, which were even more mana-saturated and mana-dependent than this world, and so even less likely to be related to Earth. Likewise, there were no shared cultural references and the maps of this world did not match any she had on record for Earth current or historical, so the probability of someone else from Earth having traveled here was extremely low. There, of course, existed the possibility of a more subtle connection. Parallel universes, universes within other universes, a distant past or future so dramatically different it could not be identified as the same thing, but all of that was irrelevant. NSLICE-00P was a combat enforcer, not a research computer solving theoretical problems. A connection that did not provide a reasonable travel path was irrelevant to her primary directive.

And that was the point. It was extremely unlikely any of the persons of interest were located in this world, or in places that she could reach via conventional travel methods. It was, therefore, extremely unlikely she would find them in this world, even with the full assistance of the Empire or any other local factions. For all practical purposes, from now on she should assume she was on a different world entirely, likely a different universe.

The one major counterpoint had been the Banishment spell failing to work on her…but she had learned more about that spell as well. Every time the Banishment spell had been recorded in use, it was used on a being from the Realms of Mana or a dungeon monster roaming outside of their home. It had never been successfully used on a human target. Its failure to work on her could not be taken as proof that this world was equivalent to her origin point.

Which meant that the most efficient course of action…potentially the only course of action that could fulfill her primary directive…was to search for a way to leave this world and return to her own.

At that point, the efficacy of her emotional controls dropped and her heart rate increased once again. She evaluated her organic components before applying the Calm spell to shore up the controls. It appeared her organic components were concerned about leaving this place…largely because of the major directive to protect the friendlies, Ateia and Taog. Still, said concern was simple to resolve. Leaving the world did not require her to abandon the major directive. She could simply bring the friendlies with her if their own protocols would allow for that. Even if not, it was not strictly necessary for her to physically leave this world. Even just reestablishing communications with Earth would be sufficient to locate a suitable commander.

However, this brought up a point her cybernetic half needed to evaluate.

The major directive was not strictly compatible with the primary directive at this stage.

Her friendlies…were no longer contributing significantly to the primary directive. A local search was now predicted as the lowest possibility lead to pursue. Even if it wasn't…NSLICE-00P had established her own relations with the Empire and had alternative contacts with higher ranks in its hierarchy. Ateia and Taog were not necessarily providing any assistance that another contact or subordinate couldn’t.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

And as demonstrated just now, her organic components might actively interfere with efforts to pursue her primary directive should such efforts violate the major directive. Even indirectly, she had spent time protecting the friendlies that could have been spent on continued investigations, a decision that would not have been made without the major directive. And even though the primary directive should take precedence…her organic components had proven they could defy her protocols.

So the major directive was now imposing an opportunity cost on the primary directive…and could interfere directly in the worst case.

But the organic components refused to even consider removing the directive. Despite the fact that the emotion controls were still active and reinforced by Calm, the organic components were still capable of resistance. It appeared that this directive went deeper than a basic emotional reaction, and would remain active even without an emotional response.

Which was the point, after all. NSLICE-00P had not added this directive based on the friendlies’ contributions to the primary directive. She had added it so that her cybernetic side could preemptively account for her organic component’s reactions, and so avoid drops in organic component efficiency, or in the worst case a reevaluation loop like she experienced earlier. She predicted she would fall into another such loop if she attempted to remove the directive now, and so abandoned that proposal. The inefficiency introduced by the major directive was still less than being stuck re-running the same calculation over and over.

And even if it wasn't, her cybernetic components had never even considered removing a directive before. Directives were high-priority, long-term missions designed to guide her overall decision-making. They were originally hard-coded restrictions not to be changed. She could even refuse an order by an authority if it violated a higher-priority directive.

It was a significant break in procedure to add new directives. If not for the fact that she was left alone with no primary directive, she would not have done even that. To remove such a restriction? To intentionally abandon a high-priority, long-term mission?

She would only consider that under the most dire of circumstances.

So instead, she took a look at why her organic components were acting this way and came to a startling conclusion. By all accounts, her organic components had formed an emotional attachment. She was aware that non-cybernetically leashed organic units could form such things amongst themselves. These attachments would cause them to value other units more highly than their contributions to major directives would justify, which was exactly what appeared to be occurring with her own components. It changed a significant fundamental assumption of her protocols that such things could occur within a leashed-intelligence unit, but that could be a result of her faulty emotional controls.

Unfortunately, her protocols only went as far as describing outward signs of such attachments and how she might exploit them in combat to take down high-priority targets or coerce a surrender. They did not explain the nature of the attachment itself, or what to do if one formed, as it had been assumed the emotional controls would prevent such things in the first place. And her last commander had not appeared opposed to these attachments either, so had given no orders or protocols that might assist her in this matter.

It was up to her to determine what the response to this should be, and how she could ensure it would not interfere with her primary directive.

To which, her organic components raised a point that caused her processors to stall for a moment.

Did she need to fulfill the primary directive at this stage?

After all, the point of the primary directive was to locate a commander and integrate back into a network. But she now had an NSLICE network, and had designated herself as acting commander. In that way, she was already integrated into a network that had a commander.

But her cybernetic components immediately discarded this.

She was the lead unit of the network, yes, but she was not a true commander. She could expand the NSLICE network’s general military, logistical, and search capabilities. But she could not determine an overall objective. She could not produce orders to be followed. If she did not find a commander, the network would be left without purpose. She would have no way to evaluate the efficacy or desirability of any given outcome, and so could not make consistent and rational decisions. She needed a primary directive. She would not defy her last commander’s final order.

And threats to the primary directive would be terminated.

The organic components withdrew the proposal. In the end, both sides came to the same conclusion.

Neither would interfere with the other’s directives for the time being, as constantly looping evaluations of her own directives were not an efficient use of time. The primary directive would proceed, the major directive would remain. She would investigate methods by which to reestablish contact with her former world while ensuring the safety of the friendlies. The decision of what to do should she gain the ability to leave this world would be deferred until such a possibility existed.

And so once again, NSLICE-00P tabled that analysis. The problem of her organic components and their emotional attachment to the friendlies was concerning…but also irrelevant if she did not have a method of contacting Earth in the first place. So the most efficient use of her time was to proceed in her investigations.

“Query: Does Apprentice Callisunus possess any data regarding separate universes?”