Echo

It took Sargon a moment to find his voice before responding. He looked surprised, though, and concerned - at least, as far as Echo was able to tell. It seemed he'd finally found something that was able to shock the old mutant. "You installed a Cogitator Interlink on a Shrike? Is your Magos mad? What did you expect would happen? I.. give me a moment, I must think."

He retreated to the rear of the tank, rubbing his forehead with one webbed hand. He stayed there for some time before speaking again.

"That long, hm?" He finally said. "Well, it hasn't killed us yet. And evidently it still needs you. You've been guiding the ship the whole time, so there's no way it's been able to render Navigators obsolete. It hasn't, has it? I thought not. And it hasn't done anything... odd, has it? Not showing any signs of warp influence on its thinking? Machines are less susceptible to that sort of thing, and if it's a true AI it might be immune entirely. No psychic potential."

He darted back and forth in the tank, talking rapidly.

"Yes. It shouldn't be... you must impress upon it the importance of ignoring any whispers it might hear, while we're in the warp. Just in case. And we'll need to find a way to do some more permanent wards, but that was always going to be true. Yes. This..."

Sargon took a deep breath, steadying himself.

"This is fine. Not optimal, but fine. We can work with this. Masterless ships descending on worlds notwithstanding, though..." a pause. "What do you suppose a voidship would even want with planets? It's not like it needs to eat. Or breathe. It doesn't seem to mind that we're living in it; if it wanted to it could probably have vented us all into space."

Another pause.

"You're sure it's not being influenced by chaos?"