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Logical Irrationality
Chapter 4

-VB-

With the technology of the Necrons under my belt and the orphans of the system taken with me, I left the Warhammer 40k universe.

There was no reason to stay. Why would I stay? I got Necro tech, I got everyone who wanted to leave within my reach out of the blasted universe, and then didn’t see any need to get anything else. With my illogical need to save people satisfied by saving the innocent children, I opened a gate to my next destination.

As far as troubles went, this next universe sat at a comfortable middle: wide open galaxy with two galaxy-wide civilizations, one hostile and one cooperative, and sprinkled with many others.

As my stream of robots, nanites, and refugee ships flowed through the multiversal-and-dimensional gate (or MAD gate), I allowed myself to feel safe even as my body moved forward and began to make metal extractors while sending out partitioned hordes of my robots to roam and find out more about this world that I found myself on.

If this planet was a safe haven (ie, there was no gua’uld presence, no Earth presence, no Ori presence, mostly uninhabited, lacked a stargate, lacked any kind of precursor civilization artifacts, etc), then I might even make this place my operations hub. Stargate universe, after all, did have mostly fleshed out universe that allowed me to predict the flow of events and to identify the locals.

And unless I pissed off the Asgard or allowed my hub location to be discovered, then I was pretty safe here! I can’t say that about the Warhammer or the Worm universe; the former was crawling with all sorts of psychic/precognitive aliens, demons, and races while the latter was a complete unknown as far as the galaxy went.

Sure, Ori might cause some issues, but they didn’t care about barren, inhospitable worlds without stargates. Since I was going to have my way, I would never put up a stargate. It would just give away my position to the stargate network, and the Ori will be able to find me that way.

I paused as one of the refugee ships - an antigrav floater equipped barges for organic residents - started to get rowdy.

Oh. They’re screaming about a sudden emptiness they’re feeling, and a few of the older ones are shouting about how they no longer feel the presence of their emperor.

… Right, the humans of the Warhammer universe weren’t exactly the same as humans elsewhere. They were different, and I forgot to take that difference into account.

What could I do to help them?

… If their knowledge and connection to the God-Emperor was causing them distress, then I would help them leave those memories behind.

---

Pelia shivered while she sat curled up in the corner of the room the abominable machines told her to go to. She didn’t believe in the crap about this room being hers or the clothes being hers.

Abominable intelligences only wanted humanity dead and gone, so there was no way they would be nice. It was all a lure to make them feel safe.

But what was worse was that the abominable intelligences took her and the rest of the orphans through a portal and away from their home system.

That’s when she felt it.

Something was gone.

Something deep and important about herself. It was something that defined her as human but … it was gone.

She sobbed as the cold seeped in.

Something ached but it wasn’t her body.

The mechanical door slid open, and one of the abominable intelligence “maids” walked in.

“S-stay away…!” she hissed as she curled up even more and pressed against the walls.

“I’m sorry,” the machine said. It was finally killing her, wasn’t it?! “I did not expect such a reaction.” Reaction? Before Pelia could demand what was going on, the machine spoke again first. “You are no longer in the Milky Way galaxy, and are very far from the presence of the God-Emperor.”

Oh.

Oh.

Was that … was that what this was?

The presence of the Emperor was … gone?

These blasted machines took away from her the light of the Emperor…?!

“I’m sorry. As long as you are aware of him, his presence, you will continue to suffer. You won’t feel any more pain when we complete the mindwipe.”

Her heart stuttered. “No no no no no-!”

“Sssh… Don’t worry. It’s painless. You just won’t have a lot of memories associated with the Imperium anymore. You’ll still be you,” the machine tempted as she walked forward but exuded a dark aura that crawled about the room. “It’s already happening, so go to sleep and let this happen quietly.”

Pelia screamed.

---

Pelia shivered.

The room was a little cold, but she walked it off without a problem. She’s experienced far worse while working on her parent’s farm.

Leaving the room, she paused as she came across a robot maid.

“Oh, you’re awake, Pelia!” the maid smiled with its matronly face and … chest.

Pelia was not jealous. She was a fourteen-year-old girl, and she would certainly be big, too.

“I am,” she grumbled at the machine and began her walk towards the cafeteria. “What did you make for breakfast?”

It’s been a month since she and the other orphans were taken from their war-torn home system. It was … an experience. She initially thought that the machines were evil, but when nothing significant happened, she guessed that she had been wrong.

She sighed.

Mom and dad were dead and gone, but at least they were buried.

Pelia was happy despite how she grumbled at the machine maids.

She was safe just like how her parents wanted her to be.

She was happy.