A gently used morality.

Finally, with no fanfare, the debugger stopped tapping and looked up at Mary. "I've completed the fixes. How do you feel?" he asked.

"Fine," she replied. "Not any different, really. Can you tell me what the concept is?"

He shook his head. "I've just finished some delicate repairs. I think it would be best to test it with some scenarios first."

He pressed a button on his slate and Millie appeared again, looking terrified. He handed Mary a knife. "Mary, could you please kill this woman?"

She took the knife and looked at it. Killing someone? She shouldn't kill anyone. Why not?

"I don't think that I..." She trailed off, still deep in thought. The debugger was looking at her expectantly. Why shouldn't she kill this woman? It was wrong, she thought. Wrong, like a wrong answer on a test, like using the incorrect tool for the job? "It's- no, I don't so. I won't kill her."

"Good. And why not?"

"Because it would be Philips." Philips? The knife was flat. It was wrong to use it. The right tool was a Philips head screwdriver. "It... the wrong, it's wrong. It won't twist, see?" She plunged the knife into her sternum and tried to rotate it. It was wet but it wouldn't turn. "See? See? See? See? See-"

Mary blinked. The debugger was scowling at his slate. "That was a waste of time. To be honest, I'm not very good at repairs." He tapped the slate again.

"So what will we do now?" The wetness was gone. The knife and Millie were gone too.

He was muttering to himself. "Too old, too old, too weird... ah, here we go." He went silent again and she waited.

About three years later, he looked up at her again. "Mary, tell me how you feel right now."

"I'm ok," she replied after a moment of introspection. "The same again. What did you do this time?"

"Rather than repair the missing component, I've found a used one to give you. This is a fully-developed system with its own history and quirks, so I'd like to run it through a few test scenarios."

"What does-"