"No," she said. "You've been transparent about your nature since the beginning. I knew you were an observer. I chose to be honest with you anyway." She paused. "If whoever receives your reports decides my methods are concerning — the monitoring function, the emotional conditioning strategy, all of it — then they should have that information and they should make whatever assessment they make." She paused. "I'd rather be accurately assessed than perform something cleaner for the record."
System looked at her for a long moment.
"You know," it said, "in all the assignments I've had, across all the subjects I've observed—" It stopped.
"How many," Elara said.
"That's not relevant," System said.
"System ."
A pause.
