Astraea
Location: Deep Space ~ Uncharted Derelict Station
Astraea cocked her helmeted head first to one side, then the other, confused by this sudden response. She wasn't aware of any basis in which the deduction her erstwhile companion had suddenly made, or of any process of proofs that would lead to such a conclusion. While her artificial nature was obvious, she failed to see why it was relevant to her intelligence or lack thereof. She herself wasn't aware of any lack of processing power on her part, although she did run a diagnostic on her systems just in case. Everything seemed to be functioning properly, however, which only compounded her bafflement at the Human's statement.
"...I am unaware of any error present within this body's systems. Furthermore, the origin of this program and the terminal housing me are irrelevant to my functionality," Astraea said calmly, staring back at the young man from underneath her helmet. Something about his rather hostile evasion of her question had triggered some sort of process in her system she couldn't quite identify. It was almost like the feeling of achieving a target lock on an enemy vessel, or having one's shields hit and raising defensive power to compensate. Almost as though she wanted... to return fire?
"However, your refusal to comply has been acknowledged," She sighed, the faintest hint of - was that smugness? - creeping into her voice. "Creating memo. Human designated 'Kaiden Archibald' shows tremendous hostility when his capabilities are so much as questioned. If such an action provokes a defensive counteraction, logically this means that the Human subject perceives this action as a threat. Thus, research evidence seems to suggest that his Human's capabilities are very low, or perhaps nonexistent. Addendum: As the Human's continued integrity is required for the sake of sustainable research, extra care much be taken to ensure that his incapacity to perform basic tasks - which, I might add, even an 'artificial being,' as he so terms us, could accomplish - does not result in him causing injury to himself or to this unit's host body. Memo completed."
Thus finishing her little diatribe, she turned to the door, where two large gray humanoid machines of Astraea's own were standing. Their blue eye-lights flashed with recognition as they targeted the larger war droid, moving towards it and lifting it up before carrying it out of the large door and back onto the V.I.R.G.O. Turning back to the Human, she found her body's face moving without her knowledge again, the edges of its lowermost opening raising slightly. She couldn't help but feel as though she'd just accomplished a major objective, but wasn't sure why. All she had done was respond to the Human's "attacks" in kind, even if they hadn't presented any major threat or obstruction to her... come to think of it, why had even answering his inane babble been such a high priority? This was very strange. She ran another diagnostic on her own mental functions, but yet again, it found no major issues. And yet, something seemed to be interfering with her computational processes, prioritizing and rewarding actions that seemed to have no intrinsic value... What was going on with her, anyway?
Unable to obtain an adequate answer to this question, she decided to simply continue with the process of researching the alien station. Heading back for the door, she motioned for the Human to follow her. "We are returning to my body. It is strategically disadvantageous to leave it unoccupied for too long." Speaking thus, she turned away. That much aside, she also needed to begin analysis of the war droid she had recovered. She had to admit, she was very curious as to what secrets its construction and programming might hold...