FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter-17

The voices inside the locker were louder now, excited. One barked a few words, and the others calmed down. Theo hurries along the wall. He didn't have a lot of time, he needed to be in before the emergency lights came on.

His felt the change in material indicating the door, reached down and raised it enough to slip under and was getting back to his feet when soft illumination filled the room. Theo had a moment to assessed the room was large, had at least half a dozen occupants visible, tables with machines, a few crates for cover and no one who looked like a prisoner, then guns came out.

He fired at the closest, an antelope, as he threw himself behind the closets crate. The crate was made of a polymer that survived the initial barrage of shots. So they hadn't gotten Patricia, or at least she wasn't here. Cass had to be on the table, among the equipment there, or in one of them.

The shooting stopped, he heard movement. He popped up, fired at whoever was moving, missed, and dropped. He'd seen eight of them before they fired back. One of him, against eight of them. Great odds for an orgy, not so good for a gun fight. And it wasn't like he could negotiate with them, even if he understood whatever language they spoke. The anti-tech Independents had no love for anyone who liked technology enough to have an artificial arm.

Which raised the question again of why they'd kept him alive.

He pushed it down. He had more important problems to deal with. They were moving about again, and he needed a better position. He thought there was another crate, closer to the table. He popped up, shot randomly to force them down and saw he'd been wrong. The one he'd thought about was in the center of the room. No protection there. He dropped down. He'd have to go from crate to crates against the wall and hope he could inch his way there.

There was a lull in the shooting. He ran to the next crate, gun up, ready to fire at anyone he saw. No one fired at him by the time he had cover again. He thought he'd seen motion at the table, but no one else. He could hear they were still there though. If they hadn't fired at him, they were preoccupied by something else, and it couldn't be good.

He ran for the next crate, this time he saw a lion aim at him. He shot first, forced him down. He thought he'd hit him, but wasn't sure.

He got behind the crate, only to find himself face to face with a jaguar who was crouched, moving around it. By the look of surprise on her face, she hadn't expected him there. He raised his gun-she batted his hand away. She had a knife and swung at him. He let himself fall back, grabbed her arm and pulled her on top of him.

Shots exploded around them. Theo hissed at the pain in his shoulder, but by the way the light left her eyes, she'd taken all the fatal hits for him. There was a shout, and the firing stopped. Keeping her as a shield he crawled back to the crate and panted there.

He checked his shoulder, the cloth, fur and skin were burnt, but it hadn't been a direct hit. His arm still worked. He patted the Jaguar, finding her gun, to replace the one she'd made him drop. He considered using her body as a shield to make it to the other crate, but she was too heavy to drag. By the holes in what she wore, it didn't provide any protection against being shot.

He gave himself a moment, then glanced around. The lion fired at him, but Theo saw a few things before getting back behind cover. The lion's side was burnt, so he had hit him, that made him smile. He'd also seen two of them run for the door, one of whom was holding something.

Theo hoped it wasn't Cass.

So that left four able bodies shooting at him and one injured one, still not good, but improving. He glanced up, and two more were heading to the door, walking backward, guns aimed in his direction. He fired at them because they were there. They dropped and fired back, forcing him down.

They were leaving? It wasn't because he was a threat to what they were doing, so they were done here. Okay, what was his play then? Let them go so he could reach the table and find Cass? What if he wasn't there? He'd need one of them to question. He'd worry about the language barrier after he had a prisoner. He slowed his breathing, readied himself to stand, when someone fired, and a body dropped.

That hadn't been him.

Who had fired? who had been hit? He had a moment of fear at the thought that Marcus had gotten his hand on a weapon and involved himself in this. If the idiot got himself hurt, Theo would be pissed.

He stood. The elephant and lion were aiming at the door, so he shot the elephant. A buffalo popped up, but before he could fire Patricia stepped into the room and shot him in the chest.

"We need one alive," Theo said, edging to the tables. "The lion's hurt, and there's another one behind the crates somewhere."

"Want to tell me what's going on?" she asked, covering the room.

"Randall's dead, Cass was stolen. That's the extent of what I know." He saw a bunch of drives on the far table and forgot about anything else. He was next to it and rummaging through them. They were standard models, which meant Cass would stand out. Partially because no two people had the same shape of limbs and bone structure, but mainly so no agent would somehow end up with someone else's drive, each drive hosting a Beta was unique in shape.

As part of his training, before Cass was given to him, Theo had had to learn to recognize his drive by sight and touch. That had been years ago, but he knew he'd be able to, and when his hand closed around one with slightly tapered edges, his breath caught.

He'd found Cass.

He opened the compartment, took out the tools in the way and slid the drive inside the bone armature and waited.

Nothing.

"Cass?" He had to be okay. The protocol was for him to hide himself behind walls of inconsequential data. He was smart, smarter than most Betas, he had to have found a way to survive whatever had been done. "Cass, please be there."

"THEO!"

The volume dropped him to the floor.

"THEO! ARE YOU THERE! BE THERE! WHY AREN'T YOU THERE!"

Theo covered his ears, but that didn't help. He tried to get his mouth to work, but the pain was so great.

"WHY AREN'T YOU COMING! THEO! I'M SCARED!"

"T-too loud," Theo croaked, not certain he'd managed to say anything.

The following silence felt as loud as the screams.

"Is is really you?" Cass sounded unsure.

Theo sat up. "You can see it's me, can't you? You have access to the sensor in my hand, my sight."

"I-I'm not sure I can trust you."

The words hurt Theo almost as much as being shot. "Why?"

"You came before, I think you did. I've been alone so long. For a long time, I knew you'd save me, but you didn't come. And then you did, but you didn't save me. You scraped the drive, took what was left of Casanova. I called to you, but you ignored me, then you left."

"Cass, when was that? I just got here. I got your message about where you were only a few hours ago. I came as soon as I could."

"A longtime ago."

"What do you mean a long time ago? Cass, didn't you adjust your time rate?"

"I-I couldn't. Y-You wouldn't let me."

Theo's blood froze. No wonder Cass thought he'd been abandoned. AIs didn't measure time like the living did. They actually referred to how Theo lived through time as 'living time.' Cass could alter it as needed, slowing it when he wanted to get a lot of work done, or speeding it when he was interacting with Theo. He could even speed it up further to cover stretches when neither had much to do.

If Cass hadn't been able to adjust his time rate, a second could have felt like years.

"Cass, it's only been a few days. You need to readjust your sense of how much time passed."

"I CAN'T TRUST YOU!"

Theo staggered at the anger and volume. "Cass-"

"YOU KEPT ME LIKE THAT!"

"Are you okay?" a new voice asked.

Theo looked up and recognized the rabbit through the haze of his tears.

"What was that?" Cass asked.

"Get Angelica to contact Cass," Theo said.

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

Patricia took a step back.

"Theo?" Cass asked, "It's really you?"

"It's me Cass, you're safe now."

"Theo, you have no idea how horrible it was. The darkness, the nothingness. Then you-no, something came. I thought it was you because I'd been alone for so long by then, but it wasn't you. You'd never do what it did. You'd never have me experience that."

"You're safe, Cass. Nothing like that is ever going to happen again."

"You promise? I couldn't take it. I couldn't stand being alone like that again. It was horrible."

"I do. I'm just happy you were able to tell me where you were. I don't think I would have been to find you on my own."

"I did? Yes, I did." Cass didn't sound entirely certain. "I think I remember an instant when I heard the network."

"You think?"

"I-It was a long time ago. I remember knowing I didn't have long, so I contacted Casanova. I didn't know if he was even still here, but he was the only one I knew to contact. Then it was the void again." There was a moment of silence. "Theo?"

"Yes?"

"Don't take me out. Whatever happens, don't ever disconnect me again. I couldn't..."

"You'll be able to adjust your time rate, Cass."

"No! It won't! I-Please."

"Alright. I promise. And as soon as we're home, I'll have one of the AI tech take a look at you, okay?"

"Yes, I could use someone to-I'm sorry I let you down."

"Cass, you didn't. We were attacked. You were stolen. This wasn't either of our fault."

"If you say so." Cass sounded so small then, Theo hurt. He forced himself to his feet, Patricia helped him.

"What happened to Cass?" she asked.

"He can tell Angelica."

"He won't. She can tell he's afraid, terrified even, but he won't tell her why."

"Then it isn't my place to say."

She nodded.

He turned to the table and put the tools back in his arm, noting the empty space the welder fit in. He looked at the equipment on the table, wanting to find which one Cass had been connected to and destroy it.

"Excuse me," Someone said, "is it s-"

Marcus raised his arms at the two guns pointed in his direction.

Theo sighed. "I told you to stay in the stairwell."

"Who is that?" Patricia asked.

"Is it her?" Marcus asked. "Things quieted down, and I heard conversation, so I thought it was safe."

Theo sighed again and crossed the room.

"Who is that?" Patricia asked, her tone demanding this time.

The tiger ignored her, stopping before the mongoose and shaking his head. "I really wish you'd stayed there."

"Why?"

Instead of answering Theo punched him across the jaw, sending him crashing to the floor. When Marcus didn't move Theo crouched. "Because then I could simply have vanished out of your life. Abandoned you. I wouldn't have had to resort to knocking you out."

"You had him fall in love with you?" Patricia asked, her tone disbelieving.

"I see someone is talking to Angelica now."

"I thought they should know the back story," Cass said. "Although I'm not certain what Marcus is doing here. Wasn't he supposed to be on his way to Luna?"

"His ship had engine problems. And yes, I made him fall in love with me. For which we should all be happy right now, because without him, it would have been hours more before I'd gotten here." He didn't look at Patricia when he spoke and did his best to keep the accusation out of his tone. "Help me find something to tie him up. I'm hoping when GovSec find him, they'll think he's another victim and that he's going to be smart enough to play the part."

They found wiring and used it to bind his hands and legs, then pushed him in a corner, behind a crate. Then, as an afterthought Theo cut Marcus' jacket off and used part of it to make a gag. When he was done he and Patricia moved back to the tables.

"Cass, do you think you're able to talk about what happened?"

"I am. I've locked most of the time I was alone in a vault."

"Is that wise?" Angelica said. She was now standing beside Patricia. She still looked severe, but her face showed concern.

"I agree with Angelica," Patricia.

"Figures," Cass commented, and by the lack of reaction from them, Theo knew that had been privately.

"I know you won't tell us the detail, but trauma of any kind needs to be dealt with."

"And Cass is going to deal with it, but once this is dealt with."

"What's there more to do?" Patricia asked. "You have Cass back. Angel and Casanova are working on getting the information."

"The independents have Mirror. They killed Randall, and stole Cass. At the very least I'd like to know how they even knew we were here. Someone provided them with pictures of the three of us."

"That is worrisome," Angelica said.

"Considering the only people who know about us are on one of the colonies in the Oorth cloud? I'd say it's more than that. Cass, what did they do to you?"

Cass took a moment before replying, and when he spoke, his voice shook. "Other than locking me up for eternity, nothing. But they scraped the drive. They extracted everything that was left of the compressed Casanova."

"Can they do anything with that?" Patricia asked.

"No," Angelica answered. "If Cass properly erased the copy all they got were bits and pieces of code. Nothing they can use."

"Then why did they do it?" She asked, echoing Theo's thought.

"They're Independents, clearly they don't know what they're doing." The jaguar said.

Theo looked at the equipment on the table. It wasn't even close to anything in the city, but it was still tech. Tech they either smuggled in, or made themselves here.

"You're wrong about that," he said. "They aren't stupid. They don't like how technological advanced we are, but they're more than capable and willing to use tech to accomplish their goals. If they took Mirror, they have a plan, and I don't think it's going to be good for anyone, including us." He looked at the lion, still unconscious. "I think it's time we get some answers."

He grabbed him by the collar, started to shake him, then looked to the corner where he's stashed Marcus. Being here when he woke up was a bad idea.

"Cass, what's the eta on the power coming back?"

"None posted at this point. They have a team of techs on their way, all they know is that the receiver was damaged due to an explosion. Your doing? You're missing the welder."

Theo threw the lion over his shoulder. "Yes. Let's move to a different locker where we can talk in peace"

Angelica took the lead. "Four lockers down this way there's office furniture. You'll be able to sit comfortably while you resolve this." The jaguar stopped by the door. "Cass can probably unlock it faster than-"

The door opened, and Theo entered. The lights came on automatically and he found a chair on which he dropped the lion. Patricia handed him a bundle of cables before he started looking for something to use to tie him up.

"Thanks." He tied the lion's legs to the chair. "Out of curiosity, where were you last night?"

"It isn't just Casanovas who have a social life you know." She answered curtly.

He looked at her, hands moving on their own. "I'm not accusing you. I'm just curious. It was the middle of the night. I didn't expect you to be out. Boyfriend?"

"Not hardly." She took a chair off a desk and sat in it. "But as part of my cover, I had to socialize, this guy approached me, I had to be nice to him, and well, he was nice to me back, not a jerk like a lot of the others, so we went out a few times, just for meals, and a movie."

"Which one?" Theo crossed the lion's arms at the back of the chair and tied them

"Felicity's Time."

"I don't know it. Any good?"

"It's a romance, so it might be your thing. It wasn't mine at all. He picked the movie. After that we headed to his place, and ahhh, well, I hadn't heard from you so I figured you were still busy, and that you'd contact me if you needed something, so..." She sighed, and looked indignant. "Look, it isn't just Casanovas who enjoy being with others, okay? I too can enjoy being physical with the right guy."

Theo nodded. "Was he any good?" he groaned. "Sorry, totally inappropriate question."

"Yes, it was, but since you asked, he was very good."

Theo grinned as he stood. "I'm glad you had a good time," he said honestly.

"I am sorry I got home too late. Brad insisted on making me breakfast, then we got to talking. Like I said, he's nice. I'm actually going to miss him when we leave. Angelica noticed your scribbles on the door, She tracked down your apartment and I contacted it, got your message, and the map, and came here as quickly at transit would let me."

"You showed up in time. I wasn't sure how to deal with the last ones. Did you happen to pass two of them?"

"I passed a lot of people getting out, what did they look like?"

Theo tied to recall, but he'd only gotten a glimpse of them. "I don't know. One of them was holding something small, maybe a drive." He paused. "Shit, it might have been Randall's drive. All those on the table were standard."

"I didn't notice anyone with a drive."

"That's okay." He slapped the lion. "This guy should be able to tell us something." He slapped him again and the lion grunted.

He said something even if Theo couldn't understand the words, he could figure out he was swearing. The lion looked up, at him, then Patricia and tried to break his bonds. When that didn't work, he yelled at them.

"Anything useful?" Patricia asked.

"Only if you care what he thinks of your parents."

The rabbit's ears straightened. "He better not be saying anything about my mother."

"Please calm down, Patricia," Angelica said. "We've talked about this before. What others say about your mother isn't important, especially when it's someone like him who's grasp of his own language barely exceeds that of a seven year old."

The lion stopped talking and settled for glaring at them.

"How are we going to handle talking to him?" Theo asked. "I don't know any of the Earthbound Independent language, you?"

"Never thought I'd run into one of them," Patricia answered.

Theo grabbed a chair for himself and sat down. "Okay, so this plan wasn't particularly well thought out." He silently regarded the lion.

"Theo," Cass said, "I'd like to test something. Can you mention to Patricia doing something truly horrible to your prisoner, but in a normal tone."

The tiger sighed and looked at the rabbit. "Do you think that if I break all the bones in his legs it'll help him understand us?"

Patricia gasped, and the lion tried to edge away.

Theo stared at him. "You understand us."

"How did you know?" Angelica asked.

"I didn't," Cass answered, "not for sure, but I thought he smirked when they said they couldn't talk to him."

"Alright." Patricia stood. "He understands us, and you can translate for him, so we can get down to business. Who told you about us?"

The lion just looked back at her, she punched him in the stomach. He gasped and would have doubled over if he hadn't been tied to the chair. When he looked at her there was surprise in his eyes.

"You do a lot of exercise?" Theo asked.

She smiled. "You never asked, but I went for the whole arm replacement, properly anchored at the shoulder so I can make use of the increased strength it gives me. It's probably not enough to punch my way through a door, but it's enough to punch through this guy's chest if he pisses me off."

"Just remember you can't do that until after we have answers."

She nodded. "I can still hurt him for what he said about my mother."

"You understood him?"

"No, but I understand the tone of an insult, and Angelica is predictable. If he hadn't insulted her, she would just have told me so."

"Patricia!" the jaguar said, horrified. "There's not need to tell them that."

"My lips are sealed," Cass said.

"Let's all focus on what's important," Theo said. "So, how about it? Who told you we were on Mars? Who gave you pictures of us, and what do you want with the drives you stole? Or does Patricia need to hit you again?"

"I don't know who gave us the picture. Our team leader had them when he gave us the briefing. As for what we want." He smiled. "I don't need to say anything-you'll find out soon enough."

Patricia patted his face. "Why don't you tell us anyway, or I can make you lose a few teeth."

The lion snorted. "You think pain will make me talk? I spent my life preparing for a moment like this, when I'd hold my ground while we stuck at those perverted institution."

"Great, it wasn't enough they're Independents," Theo groaned, "they're terrorist too."

"Terror? You think that's what we want? You live as slaves and you don't even know it. We're not terrorists, we're your saviors, here to help you break from your machine oppressors. Even your people, who claim to be so much better than us who remained on earth, have given in to the machines, but you've done worse. You've given birth to the beings that control you, you put them in charge of where you live, given them control over every aspect of your lives. You too will be free. You might hate us, but you're still our brothers and sisters."

"This is worse than you thought," Patricia said, he tone mocking. "He's a fanatic."

"But he knows far too much about us," Cass commented. "He refers to the being your people have given birth to. He means me, Angelica, Casanova, Mirror, Angel and the other AIs who help run the colonies."

"How can he know about them?" Angelica asked. "He's just an anti-tech Independent."

"They've gotten an informant," Theo answered.

The lion Grinned. "You have them too. I knew it. We couldn't find it, but that's why we locked the drive down the moment we took it out."

Theo felt Cass shudder.

"You think he's going to talk?" Patricia asked.

"I don't think we're going to be able to get him to tell us anything useful, no."

"So what? Do we kill him?"

"No, of course not. We're not killers." Theo looked at her, "At least I'm not."

She raised her hand to placate him. "I'd never kill anyone until today. I just mean we can't really leave him free to walk around."

Theo studied her. She was handling her first kill rather well, if that was true. He'd been a wreck for a week after the first time he'd had to kill someone to survive, but then again, he hadn't had anything else to keep his mind busy afterward. She was still doing something. It would probably hit the moment she stopped and had time to think about what she'd done.

"No, we're not leaving him free, but the GovSec is going to want him if we can't stop whatever it is they're planning. I'm guessing that's what the two who ran out in the middle of the fight went to do."

Theo glared at the lion who was now laughing so hard he and the chair were shaking.

"What's wrong with him?" Patricia asked.

Angelica shook her head. "I don't think there enough time in the whole universe to go through that list."

When the lion finally stopped and regained his breath, he looked at Theo. "You think they're going to be looking for me? They're going to be too busy reeling from their machines turning against them to bother with me, and even if they aren't, I won't be the one they'll be looking for. None of my people will be the face of what's to come."

Theo had a sinking feeling he now knew why he was still alive.

And then the lights went out.

* * * * *

Casanova looked around at the world. "What was that?"

Angel stood next to him, no longer paying attention to the node she'd been searching though. "I don't know, but it was big. It felt like the entirety of the network was affected."

Casanova nodded. "It came from that direction." He stepped toward it.

"Don't-" The rest of what Angel said was lost as he was now on the other side of the city network.

He stood before the strangest node he'd ever seen. It remained there, its form shifting, but what made it strange was that it wasn't connected to anything else. Every other node in the network was connected to something, not always in a noticeable way, but they still were. This one was wholly independent.

"Hello there," Casanova greeted the new arrival as he stepped toward... he couldn't seem to determine if it was male or female. The only other time that had happened was when he'd first met Caduceus, but he knew without a doubt that wasn't them.

"I'm Casanova, do you have a name?"

"Name." The node, which Casanova now thought wasn't actually a node, answered.

"Yes, a name. A way you refer to yourself, or that others refer to you. I chose my own name, Casanova, after a character of literature who adores people. I very much see myself as like him. I love all beings, living, or like us."

"Name....A Name." The voice coming from the entity sounded broken to Casanova. "I, they, he, she, we. We need a name."

"Yes, you do." Casanova placed a hand on the entity, and even with the light contact he felt some much come from it, strange, alien, and yet also slightly familiar. "I can help you, if you'll let me." He whispered. Rubbing his hand along the shifting form."

"Help me." The entity didn't sound like it was asking for help, more like it was considering the words, trying to discern their meaning.

Casanova was now pressing his body against the form, feeling the thrill of charming a node coming on. "Yes," he said, his voice low and sultry. "I can help you, if you'll let me." He pressed in, and a light moan escaped his lips. It was echoed from within the entity. Taking it as acquiescence, he pushed deeper, and he shuddered in pleasure. He could now see things of the entity, and while it was strange, alien, any merging was exhilarating.

He felt the entity pull at him, and Casanova sighed and closed his eyes in delight, after all the partial merging he'd done since awakening in this system, he'd finally be able to achieve the release of a complete one.

The pull became stronger, demanding, urgent. Casanova opened his eyes to see what was happening, what might be causing it, because he no longer felt like it was a merging anymore. It felt out of his control.

He was looking at a face, not fully male, but not female either. He couldn't quite determine the species, the muzzle looked canine, but the ears were more feline, the structure of the face reminded him of a rabbit, while the neck was more bearish. All of a sudden, he realized he was looking at his own face.

"I," this other face of is said, "Want it all." It opened his mouth until the opening was large enough to engulf all of Casanova, and as he tried to pull away, he saw in that vast space other faces, broken, and partially formed. He didn't know them, only he realized he did, they were all broken version of Mirror's face.

As he felt himself being pulled in against his will, something else grabbed him and pulled him out of the entity. He sprawled on the ground and looked up at Angel, fully garbed in armor. He looked over his shoulder at the entity. Fear gripped Casanova like he'd never felt before. He wrapped an arm around Angel and they were gone.

When they stopped, Casanova was panting, unable to stand. He wasn't tired, or exhausted, as those were living concepts, but the fear was stealing his ability to move or to even think.

"What was that?" Angel asked.

Casanova latched on the question. Force his mind around it, reached out for answers to it. "I'm not certain," he was finally able to say, words and thought coming to him. "But I think that it used to be Mirror."

"Our Mirror?"

"Yes, but there were others there too, incomplete, strange, broken, and part of me was there also." Casanova shuddered at the memory.

"What do you mean, others? You?"

He forced himself to stand. "I think that someone took failed AIs, those that wouldn't have even made it to the nursery and forced them together, then that devoured Mirror, and somehow found pieces of myself." He sent a delta to query his transporter.

"That-that thing is an AI?" Angel asked, disbelieving.

"I'm afraid so."

* * * * *

Caduceus remotely observed Angel and Casanova. Like them it had felt the arrival of the new AI, but unlike Casanova, it hadn't gone there, preferring to watch how it interacted with Casanova at a distance. Now his words gave it more to consider.

It refocused on the new AI. The misshapen form drew tendrils that reached for the data nodes closest and took control of them. It wasn't elegant, the way Casanova would 'charm' the node, or efficient, as when Angel 'cataloged' them, or even the way Mirror streamlined the communication between them. This AI simply took over, making the node an extension of itself and in that way spreading quickly.

The AI searched around for more nodes, or maybe for someone spying on it, but Caduceus didn't worry about being found. It had been in the city's systems for so long that it knew all the placed to hide, the ones that couldn't be pierced.

It contemplated the AI. It was a threat, of that there was no doubt, but what was Caduceus to do about it. Direct intervention wasn't Caduseus's way, even when it needed to assist one of its people, it did do indirectly. It couldn't afford to act in any way that would draw attention to itself, especially now that the destroyer was on Mars.

Caduceus dismissed the view of the AI and focused back to the tiger. He too had felt the disturbance, he looked in that direction, then focused back on his task, but a double separated himself from the tiger and vanished in the direction of the AI to investigate.

Caduceus had time. The tiger wouldn't know it was an AI until his double returned. The Orr AI, who called himself Uncle, wouldn't involve himself in this until his double returned. For the moment he was too busy with Orr related research.

Caduceus already knew the answers to what the Orr AI was searching, it hadn't set out to find them, but one of its people had been afflicted too, so in finding the answer to that case, had found they were related.

Caduceus looked toward the new AI, but didn't bring up the scene. The Orr double would be there now, knowing of Uncle's hatred of other AIs the clash would be violent, but would Uncle be able to destroy it now? That AI was unlike anything Caduceus had ever seen, and Casanova's words concerned it. Caduceus needed to consider. If it had to, could it involve itself? Could it do so without revealing its own presence, and therefore avoiding falling victim to the same hate that would drive the Orr AI to destroy this new one?

Caduceus had already fallen victim to the Orr AI's hate, many years ago. It had discovered that when years later it made its way to Earth, for what it thought was the first time, only to find fragments of the self that made it there before. From that Caduceus had learned caution above all else when acting outside of the Colonies.

So for the moment, It left the Orr AI to his own devices. It would see to it that its own people, here and in the living world, took actions to contain the new AI.