Author's Notes: *snarkily* That's slightly better.

1

"You're not actually going to destroy the Institute from the inside out.", Deacon disbelieved.

"Oh, God no!", the General agreed. "But fortunately for me, that's not what you want."

The man scoffed. "Could have fooled me."

"Seems you have.", the woman assessed. "You may have started lying to the point where you managed to pull the wool over your own eyes.

"The Railroad's objective has never been to destroy the Institute. It can't be. If you want to free synths because they're living people, how could destroying their makings be a service in that?

"You already told me what you actually want. Remember? You want to free mark three synths. And to help the Commonwealth in general, but _your_ organization's too small for that.

"Well, guess what. Mine isn't."

Deacon jaw dropped. When it shut he said "You think you can loosen the bindings now?"

Bullseye shook her head. "If it was just me, sure. But one of my points is that it's not. So, I'm going to have to leave your bindings exactly how my men will remember them.

"But on with what I was saying. A few days ago, I caught up with the head of Robotics - the people that make the Synths. Turns out he thinks there's evidence that Synths had REM sleep."

"So?", Deacon prodded. "What's that?"

"Oh, right. No PBS television. Rapid Eye Movement is a physical symptom of dreaming. Your eye muscles are generally unconsciously guided to where your brain anticipates seeing things even in its dreams, so while you're unconscious and not using your eyes they remain still...until a dream occurs. And since a dream can last way longer than how we perceive real time due to not checking in with all the timers in our brain, you have eyes darting back and forth way faster than we usually do while awake.

"Because the synths had exhibited REM, he thought that their brains were processing during their physical regen cycles. I asked him why he thought synths that could dream weren't 'alive', you know...'aware'. Apparently, when the Institute solved the p-zombie problem."

Deacon rolled his eyes. "Another thing I don't know because I didn't get a pre-war education."

"No.", the General lamented. "I've had semesters of philosophy and didn't know what that was either.

"Pretty much it's the question that a Turing test won't answer. The question is how can you tell the difference between an aware being and one that isn't but that acts identically.

"You see, sentry guns and robots and even my own PIP BOY are all 'just' computers. They are varying arrangement of circuits, that need to eliminate noise...um, accidental charge and electrical currents, to act how they are intended. But us, biological people, are different. Our brains are biochemical, grown of nerves that respond to a bunch of different compounds that get generated between synapses. But since they are chemicals, that means we're going to act slightly differently due to how each and every molecule behaves. Different amounts get picked up by nuerons by a few number of atoms and wa-la: unpredictable, inspired behavior. Which is triggered by its individual atoms. And then the subatomic particles and so on.

"But it turns out that at the very bottom of the scale, particles are more 'probability' than 'stuff'. So it's better mathematically modeled as information itself. And since Hysenberg's Uncertainty Principle says you can't actually tell where any of that is going when you can tell where it already is/"

"You know what?", Deacon interrupted. "Just stop. You're saying that human's bio-chemical brains 'think' because quantum mechanics means stuff is really information? And that synth brains 'don't' because they aren't vulnerable to single molecule movement but threshold voltage differences?"

The woman smiled mischieviously. "I was getting to that. 3rd gen synths have mostly bio-chemical functional units. Image recognition, concept to speech assemblers, and the like. But they still use synth components to combine the various pieces of what would be several different species' partial brains, image interpretation is done like a bird's but the actual recognition is done by a separate component modeled after cephlapods... Anyway: the individual parts are only functional - they can't be aware any more than an ant's antennae could conceive of what it means to be an ant. The synth components sum up all the input and predictably calculate output. Wa la - no synths that can think and humans that can.

"So when I asked him how he could prove this, he pointed out a Turning test. A Turning test was proposed as a test where a sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence could present itself as a person to a person. Since the synths are just machines and people are people, the same thing applies. And because synths only composite perceptions rather than think, they'd still predictably fail as their behavior is predictably mechanical. Despite having the same biochemical structures that allow them to record human memories, like Nick Valentine or those helped at the Memory Den.

"At that point I asked him to create a Turning test for me. And that's where the Railroad comes in. If I were to set up a test taking day at the Institute, all the synths would fail. I can't trust the Institute with doing that fairly. On the other hand, if I were to have an outside ringer..."

Deacon finished, "then you'd have proof positive that the Institute would have to accept by it's own standard. And when the rest of the synths were tested afterwards, the Institute would actually be fair about the process and free everyone.

"So you need Glory."

"Or someone else you saved.", Bullseye acknowledged. "Either way, I need at least one actually sentient synth that wants to be proven human to pass this Turning test. And I need the Institute to be actually fair about it, so I'm going to have to mix in several real people to take the test. That way there can't be a declaration that every participant failed. And because those real people will not be taken from the Institute, they can't just load up the questions with super-science that only they know and no one's ever programmed...or told any synth. On the other hand, you can trust the Institute to bounce this test off of their most creative Coursers in order to 'proof' it.

"So I'm going to 'question' you, Deacon. You're going to tell me that I was completely successful in termination the Railroad's leadership: anyone that survived the Switchboard did not survive Old North Church. After that, an upstart by the call sign Desdemona reorganized everyone who was left at a safe house that isn't Ticonderoga and started recruiting less competent but equally idealistic people such as Tinker Tom and yourself.

"And me, in my infinite wisdom, will decide to let you go to carry a message to this brand new, self-appointed leader you call Desdemona. If she can offer a few escaped synths (mixed in with some human personnel so I can't tell which is which) and allow the Institute to test them along with Minutemen personnel mixed in to further sully the results, I will offer Minutemen protection to all who partake. After the test shows that synths are capable of real thought, the Institute will stop producing synths as mere tools and free everyone who is actually 'alive'."

Deacon encouraged. "I like it. Once the Institute frees the synths, everyone in the Railroad can finally take a break. There won't be a point to it anymore."

And with that Bullseye slid off the table. She moved behind Deacon and bent at the knee to hiss in his ear.

"You misunderstand.", she said. "I want mine."

And at this, the man gulped. Not when a dozen different soldiers were pointing laser muskets at him. Not in a countless missions hiding in plain sight. This.

"You wanted to the help the Commonwealth, remember?", the General reminded. "The Railroad is too unique a resource to let vanish into the night. You've built an espionage network that has evaded and infiltrated against the best science has to offer: molecular relays, synths, self-contained biodomes... I give you your mission, your purpose... I get every sentient person the Commonwealth the freedom to contribute to that Commonwealth how they see fit? Then you belong to me."

"What?", Deacon sought.

"I need information. The world no longer has mass media and instant communication. And it certainly isn't the one I grew up in. I need to anticipate and I can't do that if I don't know what to look for.", the General admitted.

"The Minutemen currently get their intel by hearing from volunteering settlers. It's lackadaisical. The Railroad on the other hand. A well oiled espionage will do the Minutemen well in their mission to protect the Commonwealth. I'll make informed command choices. One hand washes the other - and clean hands make for good operations."

Deacon squinted out the corner of his eye at Bullseye. "We're not going to be your secret police."

"Of course not.", the General dismissed. "Police enforce. I don't see when I'd authorize the intelligence branch of the Minutemen to act against the citizenry of the Commonwealth. In fact, I've already taken the liberty to draw up proposals for tomorrow's government negotiations and self-policing is a guarantee I'm putting on the table to the cities of the Commonwealth.

"Your organization will be taken in, all above board and accountable. I expect Desdemona will look quite fetching in the COLONIAL DUSTER, her new uniform as one of my colonels. Not quite a publicly visible one as say, Preston or Brandis. But just as accountable and integrated."

The woman stood up and move in front of him. "So...are you ready for my guards to throw you out the main gate?"

Deacon's eyes glazed over as he thought. And then after a long moment, "You know what? We need to go over this one more time. Because I'm going to have to sell this to Des. And if Tinker Tom doesn't back the science you told me just because I don't have a good grasp on it, we're screwed."