The 'AI core array' that governed the operation of many of the essential systems of the Dominion of Man was more horrifying that Ves imagined!
He was already aware that the fleeters tended to invest heavily in AI core research. The Common Fleet Alliance never made it a secret that they had been trying to chase after the holy grail of sentient artificial intelligences.
Due to this unreasonable obsession, the researchers who dedicated their lives and careers to this goal tended to get really… creative.
Many researchers had already tried and failed all of the usual solutions. When no sentient AIs became forthcoming, they started to explore less conventional solutions.
Ves easily figured out that he had come face to face with one of the demented outcomes of these failed experiments.
The brains did not contain any coherent intelligences as far as he and Blinky could perceive.