“And Ava?” I ask. “Why did you make us meet?”
He pauses. “I didn’t.”
“Let me guess. Ava’s father is behind that choice,” I say.
He nods. “I believe that’s why he insisted I tweak your mating faculties. It was my hope you would find a partner. I had no idea he meant for you to find her, his own daughter.”
“Why?” I ask. “What kind of sick fuck would do such a thing?”
“You clearly don’t know her father,” he says.
“Enlighten me.”
“Again, that’s more of a nightmare than a story. From what I have gathered, he did everything he could to bring her down. Yes, there were the obvious physical altercations. Violence. But I don’t think that’s what stung the most,” he says, taking in a deeper breath required for worse things.
He swallows. “It was his words that eventually broke her. Of course, it became a catalyst for her. An anchor, if you will. She dove into her studies and came out of the wreckage stronger. But, alas, she had no one to love. No one to care for. She believed she didn’t deserve it.”
Hearing all of this turns me into an enraged animal. I feel for her, a strong empathetic emotion a cyborg like me is not supposed to feel.
Losing control, I swing my arm and grab him by his collar. Teeth gnarled, I pull him close and growl. “If I’m so fucking fake, why does this hurt so much?” I ask.
He doesn’t flinch.
“You are the outcome of many failures,” he says.
I feel my muscles bulge. I’ve lost all control. “I will kill you for this, you monster,” I shout.
He continues on as if I didn’t just threaten his life. “Which is precisely why you have grown to love,” he says. “You see, you were programmed to mate and protect. But never to love. Never to feel empathy. No autonomous cyborg has ever felt what we do.”
“But I feel,” I say. “I live and breathe her pain.”
“Yes. Now you do,” he says. “You have grown with this place, a miraculous feet indeed. But it’s useless if you die here.”
I loosen my grip, hands rising to my head. “I don’t understand,” I say.
Elon smooths the crinkles in his cloak and takes a small step back. “I’m here to tell you that you were right all along, Kalxor. This isn’t a game or a simulation exercise,” he says. “This is your wake-up call. This is the first time you’ve ever truly been alive.”
“My memories...”
“You will make new memories, but you will always carry the source data, the code I helped give you,” he says.
“You mean other aliens’ memories,” I mutter. “You stole narratives and put them inside my head. You made me believe in my pain.”
“We could not risk losing connectivity from the software to the wetware. We had to keep you powered on,” he says, sighing with deep regret. “I can never change what we did, and neither can she. But I can help you get out of this place.”
“Save it,” I tell him. “I’d rather put her father’s--”
Elon, of course, finishes my sentence for me. “Head on a stick? Yes, I’ve seen and heard you make this threat many times now, but this is more important than cute parlor brawls. I’m serious when I tell you, Earth awaits your presence. Don’t turn your back on love.”
I look into his eyes and see complete and total honesty, the same type of honesty that made up Ava’s demeanor. This world has let me down so many times now. Trust is difficult to come by.
I give up, bowing my head, breathing the air I don’t even need to breathe to exist. I wait for him to tell me what I need to know to escape.
“Go on. I know there is more to this story,” I say. “Get on with the big reveal.”
“Ava,” he says. “There’s something you need to know about her.”
Somehow, I already know. I think I’ve known from the start. “She’s… one of them,” I whisper.