He thought he was supposed to have free will. What a joke. He can think all he wants, but when it comes down to it, he can't bring himself to hurt a human, no matter how much he wants to. And even his thoughts would slide away from the idea. And even though he looked, he can't untangle that part of programming from the rest of himself.

If he were to purge that function from himself, he would lose too much of his personality data. Then would he really be himself any more?

He doesn't respond initially; it's different for androids. So he asks a different question, calmer, "How old do you think I am?"

This isn't the first time he's gotten grief over his age from a pointy eared humanoid.