Priest Keshi's electronic eye contracted repeatedly. After confirming the items projected by the Servitor, he turned and picked up his mechanical greataxe. A Servo-skull responded to his summons and floated to his side.
"Command: Servitors DC-11 through DC-15, retrieve items A06, B25, B35, and G97 from Storage Room C3."
Watching the Servo-skull slowly leave the hangar and disappear into the ship's labyrinthine passageways, Priest Keshi turned toward the damaged Servitor.
"Sir, I seek knowledge to resolve the problems with my body."
"You may call me Iax. You are clever. Knowledge itself can be spread and copied. This is a far more valuable choice than a transaction to correct the defects in your Bionic Body."
Iax studied the Priest closely.
Compared with the others, this Priest named Keshi seemed better at dealing with him.
Although his gaze held the same fervent longing for Iax's mechanical body, he clearly had far stronger principles than the other Tech-Priests. At least he had shown no intention of touching things without permission when the others grew restless.
Iax did not refuse trades, just as he had aboard the Glory of Fire, when the Priests had exchanged their treasured possessions for his simple technological products.
Keshi, however, was the first to offer items in exchange for technical information.
For every member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, whether an ordinary Priest or an Archmagos, knowledge was precious wealth. Spreading one's knowledge indiscriminately meant squandering that wealth.
The price of acquiring knowledge was more than others could bear.
Buying a batch of Leman Russ tanks on a Forge World, for example, might be extremely expensive, but the price was still acceptable. Buying a copy of the Leman Russ STC Template, however, was an entirely different matter.
That was why, even when some members discovered how to get along with