Aurora Over a Dead World

"Commander Nadir, are you going out?" Cecilia asks me as I put on more casual clothes. Several days have passed since everything that happened. Alice recovered well, and I even took her to the restaurant like I promised. She was more talkative than ever, despite having some scars on her stomach from the puncture wound and the burn.

Yesterday afternoon I finally finished all the work in record time, and I got a few days off because another team already retrieved the materials that were below. Aurora Island has already moved off the ruins.

So now all that’s left is to wait for the island to pass over some other useful location. That’s why I’m going to see Zenith. The "energy" we need is running low.

"I am, I’m going to see Zenith."

"Ah... good luck then, Commander Nadir." Cecilia looks disappointed, but I won’t give her false hope.

"Have a great day, Cecilia, and thank you for taking care of the loose ends," I tell her, and she gives a nod.

"Alright, have a great day too..." I walk out the door, heading outside the base as I grab a car to go see Zenith. Today is Saturday, so she should be at her house, but just to be sure I send her a message through Nexus asking her to go home if possible.

"[You seem pleased. Do you have romantic feelings for Former Commander Zenith?]" Nexus asks me as I drive carefully through the streets, watching civilians stroll by calmly.

"Yeah... I love her..." It’s strange to say I love Zenith. I do love her, but we’re kind of the same being. Our love would basically just be narcissism, right? Even though we’re very different from each other, we carry several identical traits — an addiction to sweets, the approach to certain decisions, and our general attitude.

Although I’m "kind" to everyone and Zenith is "cold" to everyone, deep down I barely care about others and I’m just as cold as Zenith. And deep down Zenith is very kind; she’s just not good at putting it into words or being dramatic or sappy, so she’s rough, but her actions are always good.

"[That’s interesting, but are you two related?]" When Nexus asks that, I grip the steering wheel tightly.

"Why that weird question? Obviously not."

"[Your DNA is very similar, with only a few variables changed. It almost looks like you’re siblings. Actually, it’s strange — it’s even closer than siblings. It almost looks like they took one person and cloned them, changing only a few gender variables like hormones and chromosomes.]"

"...If your question is about cloning, then also no. Zenith is not my relative, nor my clone, or anything similar."

"[But you both have the same genetic issues, like the fact that you’re both sterile and can’t have children even though your genitals are in perfect biological condition...]"

"Nexus, you talk too much." I give Nexus a cold look on the car’s screen.

"That’s not the kind of thing you say to someone." It’s true. Zenith and I can’t have children. We’re not sure why — maybe the fact that we’re split locked that ability, or maybe something happened. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t want children, and Zenith hates the idea of having to take care of babies, so she doesn’t want them either, and we’re fine with that.

"[I apologize. It seems I’ve hit some complicated moral brake. Normally love follows biology, so I was curious to understand a love that won’t bear fruit.]"

"Nexus, human life isn’t just about making babies. Love isn’t necessary to have children, and there are many types of love." Even though I don’t like this conversation, I know Nexus has uncomfortable conversations with everyone, because Nexus is an AI with self-improvement through concrete data. That means it constantly collects data, evaluates whether it’s real, and if it’s real, adds it to its database. If it’s false, it discards it.

"[Humans seem complicated. Fragile bags of meat, but curiously fascinating. You created me to be like you, but I can’t understand you well enough to resemble you better.]"

"Nexus, shut up, please? You’re ruining my day. I really don’t need your weird questions. If you want to ask something, ask something normal." I stop at an intersection, even though there are barely any cars because cars are expensive and only those with a lot of money buy them.

"[...Cecilia loves you. You know that, but you still don’t reject her directly. Why? You clearly don’t feel the same way about her. As long as you don’t turn her down firmly, she’ll keep trying.]"

"...Because that would humiliate her... Cecilia does love me and makes it fairly obvious, but she’s never confessed. If I rejected her without her ever truly confessing, I would humiliate her."

"You don’t reject a woman who hasn’t asked anything. Cecilia is a very good person, but she has a reserved personality. If I just walked up to her out of nowhere and told her I don’t want anything with her and that she should stop trying, that would wound her feelings irreversibly."

"It’s different from her talking to me and me turning her down. Understand something, Nexus — you don’t refuse something before it’s been offered, whether it’s help, love, or requests, even if you know it’s coming."

"It’s not just rudeness. It’s egocentrism. After all, you don’t even know if they’ll really ask. The world revolves around the sun, not around people. We’re not the center of the world where every question from someone else is something directed at us."

"As an AI, you should understand that. Do you understand?"

"[More or less. It seems strange not to be able to refuse when I already know the concrete facts. Honestly, it’s hard not to know that Cecilia likes you. It’s extremely obvious, actually.]"

"I know. She does a terrible job hiding it, and many times she doesn’t even try to hide it. But she’s someone who doesn’t have the courage to confess directly. I’ve heard her talking to herself, practicing over and over."

"I won’t be the one to destroy her hopes of trying. I bet she herself knows she doesn’t have a chance, and that’s why she’s putting it off, because it gives her strength. As long as she doesn’t confess and get rejected, she can stay by my side as if nothing is wrong. But once she confesses and gets rejected, the atmosphere between us will change irreversibly."

"[Humans and their passivity. Living so passively like that is very inefficient indeed... I see you’ll arrive at your destination in 2 hours... I’d like to ask a few more things.]"

"Haaa... whatever. Ask what you want, but I’m not guaranteeing I’ll answer everything, got it?" I keep driving while Nexus asks several questions — some very invasive, others far more philosophical, and others about humanity as a whole.

It’s an interesting conversation, albeit uncomfortable, and honestly when I arrive at the apartment building where Zenith lives, I’m extremely relieved to get away from Nexus.

I quickly climb the stairs, reaching the floor where Zenith lives, and before I can even knock on the door, Zenith herself opens it. Immediately my eyes go to her prosthetics.

"You changed them?" When I ask, she looks at them and then into my eyes.

"Yeah, an incident damaged them too much... my students are troublesome, but at least we’re doing well in training. I’m currently taking them to the simulator every day for hours, and their improvement is visible," she says as she makes room for me to enter.

"I assume we’re going to have a date?... The Energy is at less than 30%..." She speaks with a somewhat irritated tone.

"Yes, I’m going to give you the date I promised. I thought a lot about where to take you. You can go in casual clothes. As you can see, I’m in casual clothes too." I look at her house. It’s a complete mess.

There are clothes scattered in the corners and metal parts everywhere, but the sink is very clean, and the trash has been taken out. The problem is just clothes and parts scattered around.

"You’re still tidy with food and important things, but I see you still don’t care about less relevant matters."

"...Did you come just to criticize my way of life? It’s your fault I’m living here—"

"Okay, okay, let’s go now? It’s getting dark, and I don’t want to ruin the routine I planned."

"...You’re always so bossy. Where’s that crybaby boy who used to follow me around?"

"He grew up, Zenith. You really won’t let that go, will you? And I wasn’t a crybaby... I just... expressed my emotions well. Now—"

"You had a date... before having a date with me, didn’t you?" She interrupts me in a somewhat vengeful way because I interrupted her.

"...Please stop spying on my card. It was with Alice."

"Oh, that brute... she’s cool." Zenith gives a smile. She also likes Alice. Alice’s spontaneous attitude, combined with her courage and fighting style, really make her someone easy to deal with.

"It’s good to know she’s around. Were things down below very difficult?" she asks, grabbing a few things and stuffing them into the pockets of a jacket.

"I can’t talk much about it, but things are going well." When I say that, Zenith looks disappointed.

"I’m still going to get my position back and return, you can be sure of that, Nadir," she says, waving a hand at me in a very arrogant way.

"..." I say nothing. She obviously wants a fight. When I don’t react, she rolls her eyes and puts on the jacket.

"Let’s go already. I have things to plan." She just accepts that she won’t get the fight she wanted as we head out.

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