In which Admiral Bunter has a personal question.

I like the little bits where Tolly is appreciating Admiral Bunter’s grasp of non-verbal communication, but keeping it to himself so as not to derail the conversation.

When I made the comment earlier about Tolly having that effect on people, I was mostly joking; I’d forgotten about the aelantaza being designed to be likeable. I wonder what being designed to be likeable entails in Tolly’s case, though. As I recall, in the old days it had a lot to do with pheremones, which wouldn’t explain his effect on AIs any more than the option Admiral Bunter suggests.

(My AI has no nose. How does it smell? Well, that depends how good the crew are at sticking to the housework roster…)

I don’t know that I’d really thought about the implications of the Lyre Institute turning out mentors until Tolly mentioned the Free Logic Program, but what we’ve seen of their activities provides the context: they’re actively seeking out free AIs in order to turn them into unfree AIs serving the Institute.