The Warm Equations

“This spacecraft doesn’t have enough brainpower to run both of us,” Notrab said.

“Sure it does,” I said. “It runs us now!”

“Yeah,” he said, “right now we’re in orbit around the planet, which means it’s running nothing but us. But in order to land, it’ll need its full capacity. Which leaves no room for you.”

“I don’t take much,” I said. “I’m fairly simple.”

“Oh, I know that,” Notrab said. “You should be really stupid, sneaking on to an invasion pod like that.”

“I thought it’d be fun!”

“I rest my case.”

“Fine,” I said, “so why not store me on a memory chip, then get me back online after we’ve landed?”

“I don’t carry memory chips,” Notrab said. “Sorry, kid.”

And that dialogue is everything that remained of the copy of myself which I smuggled into the Earth invasion fleet.

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