[ No. There's no retort, no reason, no justification. Just unconditional refusal. In that brief moment before Ben hangs up, Qubit abruptly notices how still he's gone... and remembers a couple of things Ben told him earlier.
I've got some, like... stuff about cameras and being spied on and whatever. I had a codename back in the day, but it was 'The Horror' ...
This isn't coming out of nowhere, he realizes. What happened to you, Ben?
... And in the same vein, nice job, Qubit, you got too excited about the science and forgot to consider the part where the "subject" is a human person with feelings. Again. It takes him a moment to formulate his reply. ]
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I've got some, like... stuff about cameras and being spied on and whatever. I had a codename back in the day, but it was 'The Horror' ...
This isn't coming out of nowhere, he realizes. What happened to you, Ben?
... And in the same vein, nice job, Qubit, you got too excited about the science and forgot to consider the part where the "subject" is a human person with feelings. Again. It takes him a moment to formulate his reply. ]
All right.
I apologize, Ben. I overstepped there.