***Hey, you don’t have to yell. You know…I’m right here…why don’t you let me out…give me some atoms to work with?***
Now, Winger took a deep breath. He looked around, fully aware that everything he said and did was being recorded. Through the porthole, Sergeant Gavin was staring back at him, mouth open, transfixed.
Gavin, don’t lose your breakfast, Winger thought.
“You know I can’t do that, Dana. We’re…you’re being scanned, studied. We’re not sure—“
***…what I am…is that it? Wings, you know who I am. We need to talk, you and me. Like we did at the Custer Inn***
“We can talk like this. Dana…what are you? Who are you? You’re not really Dana Tallant, are you?”
***Wings, with enough atoms, I can be Dana Tallant. I can be anything you want. I’m not so different from your own ANAD, you know. What you like to call a multi-config entity. True, there are some differences between you and me. But we do have a lot in common***
“Yeah…like what? You’re a bot. You’re the size of a few atoms. What I saw at the Custer Inn wasn’t Dana Tallant. It was a simulation. A pattern.”
***But Wings, don’t you see…that’s the key. We’re all just patterns. You’re a collection of atoms same as me. The big difference is that I can change my pattern***
Winger didn’t like the way this was going. “So, what’s it like…being a bot. Or an angel?”
He watched the imager view for any sign that the thing inside the pod was reacting. It continued its faint rhythmic beat, but was otherwise unchanged.