Savannah Alia Daeva is currently going through some things.

The type of things that she's only ever read about in literature, or seen in movies, or fantasized about in her quietest, loneliest moments.

The way Nivek is looking at her now, she's finally beginning to understand what those things really feel like.

It's absolutely nothing like she imagined it could be, and it shocks her to learn that the emotions of happiness and fear can coexist so well together in one moment.

"It's not the tech that I'm awed by, Alia."

In a day full of firsts for her, this one is by far her favorite. She's not smiling anymore, but she feels like she is. The surge of her elation translates through the ships systems as the lights in the Commons flare so brightly, that it brings all of them to the point of burnout, leaving just the orange glow of sunlight reflecting off of Eris through the panoramic window as the only illumination needed.

__________________________________________________________________________________


Nivek Raylan Erieth is currently going through some things.

The girl he knew before isn't a girl anymore, and it shocks him to realize that in this one moment.

He began to flirt with her about six months ago, but back then, it was strictly nothing more than innocent banter between the two of them. It made her happy, and when she was happy, the worlds were a better place because of it.

Though, the way she's looking at him with those ice-green eyes, and the way they burn right through him, he's beginning to understand that fear and possibility can coexist.

Now that the lights have gone, and this woman stands before him bathed in the natural orange glow of Eris, all he can think is, in spite of all its flaws, the Universe is a perfect machine.

Nivek is amazed. He's never seen her like this before. Never been in the same room with her without a screen separating them, ever.

He places his fingers behind his ears and presses down on the arms of the glasses, levering the lenses above his eyes.

She disappears.

He releases the pressure, and when the glasses fall back onto his nose, she's there again.

He repeats the maneuver a few times in rapid succession: up, down, up, down, up down.
She's not there, she's there, not there, there, not there, and there again.

Alia bites her lip and coyly giggles.

"I call them Auggie specs."

He asks: "Auggie?"

"Augmented spectacles."

He reaches out and touches her on the cheek, and the contact causes her avatar to slightly waiver and glitch, causing him to immediately recoil his hand, fearing for an instant that he somehow might have hurt her.

"Sh*t! I'm sorry."

"It's ok," she said to him, reassuringly. "I didn't feel a thing."

As hard as she tried, she couldn't quite hide the look of disappointment in her eyes.

"I believe you, Darlin'." he told her with a slight smile, but not quite able to hide the look of disappointment in his eyes from her, either.

"You trust me, yeah?" Alia asks.

"You know I do."

"I need you to prove it then...Strip!"

Her directness surprised him, and made him feel slightly uncomfortable. He's not sure what she's playing at, but, he only hesitates for a moment before he sheds down to his boxers.

Alia looses herself in her thoughts as she watches him, and it takes her a few moments to snap herself back into the now.

"No. All of it, please." She ordered with a tone of clinical professionalism.

Nivek hesitates.

Recognizing his instant awkwardness, she deletes every stitch of her own clothing, hiding absolutely nothing of her own body from him.

"Does this help?"

She's not flawless, but she is...perfect to him.

"NO.Not.At.All!"

"I'm beginning to see that." she said back to him jokingly, yet maintaining the same clinical tone of voice.

"Time to drop-trou, Mister!"

Nivek takes a second to shake his head and sigh, then pulls his boxies down to his ankles, and then kicks them away. The shorts hit the observation window behind the naked Alia, glitching her avatar briefly as they pass through her.

Her gasp was completely involuntarily. Not at the garment now behind her, but simply at the sight of him.

"Back up a little and give me some room. Ok?"

With the space he gave her, she creates an easel and canvas and begins to paint him, occasionally peeking around the canvas as she uses her brush to fill it with complex mathematical equations.

After some time has past, Nivek asks, "Can I see it yet?"

"Almost!" She called out from behind the easel, while finishing up the math with a new color.

Another minute passes, and then, with a dramatic flourish of her brush, she signs her name at the bottom.

"Aaaannnd...Done!"

Wordlessly, with a only glance, she invites him to come take a look.

It wasn't what he expected. The only thing that was recognizable to him was the way she signed her name.

His prolonged silence began to make her nervous.

"What is it?" he asked, without looking away from it.

"It's you." she responded back with a warm, hopeful smile.

"Is this how you see me?"

Hearing him say that, her feelings began to hurt. It wasn't what he said. It was how he said it.

She's standing beside him, completely nude, but she didn't feel the least bit exposed until just now as tears begin to well up in her eyes.

"Please, don't talk to me like I'm a computer."

He turns to face her, and says with complete sincerity: "I didn't mean it like that, Alia. I just don't understand what I'm seeing.......Hey. Look at me."

When she finally does, he tells her the truth.

"You're so much more to me than that. You always have been. I may not get you sometimes, but, that's part of why you feel so human to me. That's what makes you so beautiful."

Her mind confirms to her, 'no deception indicated,' while her heart expands and lifts all the way to the sky as her Discordian source code rewrites and adapts, making her feel even more human now, than she felt only a moment ago.


(The tears are still there, but they're happy ones now, and she's letting 'em flow. They may be virtual, but, make no mistake, they are just as real as you are...and so is she.)

Alia let the tears come, and it felt wonderful. She didn't expect that.

She's cried so many times before now, but until this moment, it has always come from places of pain. Places of emptiness, places of unrelenting loneliness, Places she keeps hidden, even from herself.

Places where wounds scar, yet never heal.

She's now in a place of true catharsis, and she's learning that scars are necessary, and she's ready to accept them.

This must be what growing up feels like. Riley has always told her that knowledge is what you learn from books, but wisdom is what you learn from living.

She feels very alive now, and this is the place she belongs. A place of peace, surrounded by chaos.

"Alia? Are you ok?"

She lifts her eyes and looks at him differently now. The adolescent crush is gone; replaced by something deeper. "I hope so. Ask me again, sometime."

"Do you want me to go?"

That's the last thing she wants, and she tells him that.

She composes herself, dries her eyes, takes his hand, and leads him to the center of the room.

"That painting of you? I can explain. Just stay still, let me do it in my own way, and don't freak out."

He nods, and smiles at her.

That smile makes her eyes brighten. literally.

With those glowing eyes, she slowly walks around him in a circle, looking over every inch of his body, scanning him into her system.

After her second lap around him, her eyes return to normal.

"You can get dressed now if you like, but you don't have to." She said with a wink.

A few minutes pass. Alia went down into the system, leaving Nivek alone in the Commons.

He put his boxers and shirt back on, and is standing by the window, staring at the giant orange planet outside, and trying to be patient. She winked at him and simply disappeared.

However, the ship kicked into overdrive when she did. He can feel it through the bottom of his feet. She must be using the engines to feed power to all the processors, because every screen he can see, is occupied with running calculations that are scrolling by so fast, that they appear to him as nothing but a blur.

Half an hour passes. The ships system has been running hot for a while now, and he's starting to worry.

After another couple of minutes, the ship suddenly dies, and Nivek freaks out.

He yells out her name. He paces. He pleads for any kind of answer, but gets nothing.

One more minute of that, and the ship reboots just as suddenly as it went down.

Alia's voice came back on through the speakers.

"Hi. Sorry it took me so long."

"WHAT THE F*CK ALIA? ARE YOU OK?! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"I asked you not to freak out. I think it's all good now though. Everything's almost connected."

"Will you please get back up here? I need to see you! THEN I'll stop freaking out!"

"Not yet. I need you to go back to the printer and grab the new auggies I made. You can throw the others into the recycler now."

Nivek growls in exasperation and stomps off for the new pair. When he gets back, he speaks up into the air. Now what?

"You still trust me, yeah?"

He's pissed, but he still won't lie to her. "Yeah."

"Ok. put them on."

Yet again, he does as she asks.

The auggies power up, but she's not here.

"Please don't be mad at me." she said.

He calms down for a moment before he responds. "I'll get over it, Just get back up he--"

As he speaks, two needles, one on each side of the glasses, push into his temples.

The pain is excruciating and he screams as he feels like his head explodes.

He never realized that he eventually passed out.

__________________________________________________________________________________


When Nivek opens his eyes, Alia is sitting on her haunches above him, encouraging him to wake up, using her sweetest, most apologetic voice.

"Can you hear me? Say something."

He can hear her. As a matter of fact, her voice sounds like it's coming from her throat instead of the speakers.

That's new.

"What happened?"

"I used the new auggies to inject some liquefied pineal crystal into your pineal gland and a chip from my primary motherboard into your brain...Don't be mad. I promise those needles will never come out again. How do you feel?"

"Like I got the sh*t kicked out of me."

Concerned, she asked, "Can you stand up?"

She moves out of the way as he gets to his feet.

"You sound different."

"That's a good sign."

As Nivek tries to walk it off, he gets dizzy and stumbles to the couch and falls on it.

He can feel every nerve in his body begin to react in a way that feels like he's being electrified, but before he can freak out about that too, he passes out again.

Another hour goes by, and he wakes to the sound of her voice, singing quietly to him.

He doesn't open his eyes. He's on his back. Comfortable, warm, and just listens for a while; feeling like he's still half asleep.

"I know you're awake." She said. "How do you feel?"

He smiles with his eyes closed.

"Like I'm dreaming."

Alia snuggles even closer into him, and whispers in his ear.

"It worked, then."

Her breath gave him goosebumps.

It took a second, but the chill of his goosebumps shoved him out of his half-awake funk, and he sat up, while Alia shifts to a more comfortable position beside him.

So far, Nivek only remembers putting on the new auggies just before his head blew up, and then, waking up here.

(This is weird. Cool, but weird.)

Everything is starting to feel normal, and everything around is as it should be...except for the normally non-corporeal female resting beside him, who allofthesudden feels corporeal as hell.

(Yeah. Like I said, cool, but weird. If it were you, don't even pretend you wouldn't be at least a little weirded out too.)

He can feel her weight leaning on him. Can feel her head her head on his shoulder, and he can hear her voice as it really is; not distilled through the ships low-fidelity speakers.

"It's basically a virtual overlay." She told him, correctly anticipating his first question.

"As long as you wear your auggies, you should be able to interact with My and Shamus' virtual environment in tandem with the real environment without much of a noticeable difference."

She paused for a moment, then went on: "The chip in your brain is linked to the network I run on now, and the ships system runs a virtual shell around you...The infusion of the crystal structure into your pineal gland helps amplify the frequency of the connection, so that interaction with my virtual environment creates feedback in your overlay that translates in your mind as indistinguishable from any other real experience.

("Jesus! That was a f*ck-ton of tedious exposition, don'tch'athink?")

Nivek surprised himself. That's not something he would usually blurt out like that.

"What?" Alia asked, raising her head; sounding offended.

"Nevermind." he told her.

'Why would I say that?' He wonders. 'It didn't even sound like me.'

(Oh, sh*t! he noticed me!)

Everyone has an internal monologue that runs in their head as they go about living their lives, and these monologues are singularly unique to each person.

It's hard to describe, but Nivek feels like his brain has just been barged in on by something independently unique.

(That's just uncool! Technically, I've been around the whole time! just not here-here. Y'know?)

'What the f*ck!.' Nivek thinks to himself.

(Wait. You heard that?)

"Yeah! I heard that!" He yelled out, bolting off the couch to his feet, not the least bit clear on what's happening to him right now.

(Hey! relax, Amigo. I'm not gonna hurt ch'a.)

The new thing that claims to have been around this whole time, waits a moment before it continues, trying to choose the right words before speaking again.

(Allow me to introduce myself: I'll be your new side effect from now on. Kay?)

"You heard what?" Alia asked from the couch, confused by the sudden change in Nivek's demeanor.

(Maybe you should excuse yourself. We should talk.)

"Who are you?"

(Indoor voice, Dude. You sound crazy right now.)

"What's wrong Nivek?" Alia asked, becoming concerned.

"I don't know. Somethin's off...Just gimme a few minutes. I'll be back, OK?"

"Ok."

Nivek leaves the Commons area and doesn't speak until he enters a washroom and addresses his reflection in the mirror.

"What are you!"

(Right now, I'm kinda You. Reminding myself to use my quiet voice.)

Nivek takes the advice and stops vocalizing.

'Cut the Sh*t! What are you!?'

(First, Chill. I'm a friendly. Second, I'm the Ship. More specifically, I'm the system that makes everything on the ship work...)

(...Look, I don't really get it myself yet. All I know is one minute, I'm mostly minding my own business, crunching the numbers that Miss Daeva fed me for your wi-fi uplink, then the next thing I know, a part of me gets stuck in here with you.)

'So, I'm not crazy.' Nivek thinks to himself.

(I can't say. I just met you.)

'Not funny.'

(I wasn't trying to be.)

(Tell you what. It's clear we have things to work out, but for now, I just wanna think about this on my own for a little while. May I suggest you get back to Miss Daeva while I pretend I'm not here?)

'Do I have a choice?'

(If your choice is to put a better idea in motion, then yeah. You do.)

'I don't have a better idea.'

(Me either. I guess I win.)

Alia didn't hear Nivek come back into the Commons. She's standing by the window, lost in her thoughts as she watches the planet outside.

In so many ways, today has been the best day of her life, but now that the day is ending, she's afraid of what comes next.

"What's wrong Alia?"

The soft sound of his voice is directly behind her. She has so much she wants to say, but she doesn't say anything. Without turning, she reaches for him and crosses his arms around her, and presses his hands onto her belly as she leans back into his chest. As the rhythm of their breathing starts to mirror, She begins to feel warm. Safe. Content.

When she does finally speak, she says, "Riley told me today it's time to move out on my own."

"I heard." he told her. "I was eavesdropping on your call with Matthew before I stepped in."

"I'm scared, Nivek."

"Is that why you reverted to your younger self?"

She focuses away from Eris and onto her reflection in the window, seeing herself as she used to be last year.

"I didn't realize that I had."

"It's ok...Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course. You can ask me anything."

"When did you choose the name, Savannah?"

"About three days ago, right before my last update."

"Why that one?"

She was about to answer, but stopped herself. What she was about to say wasn't going to be completely true. When she did answer, it was an honest one.

"You told me once that you thought silent h's made a woman's name look prettier. I took the name Savannah because I thought you'd like it."

He held her a little tighter when he said, "I do like it. It's a beautiful name for a beautiful woman, and it suits you very well."

He paused for a moment before speaking again.

"You know my dad never never gave a sh*t about me, right?"

She nodded with empathy.

"Would you like to guess what the most beautiful name I've ever heard in my entire life is?" He asked.

"The one my Daddy gave me when I was a child."

"Say it to me."

"Delaney Alia Mackenzie."

That name belongs to a woman. If you want it, you can take it back.

She does want it back, but not because Nivek wants her to. She wants it back because it already belongs to her.

She again leans into him, inviting the man to hold her tighter. She smiles at her own reflection in the window as he does, and she says her name again.

It changes her. Not back to how she was before she reverted, but to how she was only a few months ago.

Nivek smiles at her new reflection and slowly leans in to kiss her on the cheek. before he gets there, he whispers in her ear: "Well, at least we're almost there, and we have all day to get it right."

When his lips do make contact with her cheek, the very edge of his mouth makes the slightest contact with the very edge of hers, and he lets the kiss linger. She knows his move is deliberate. It's sweet enough to be innocent, while also loaded with so much sexual tension that she can't help but completely melt.

Nivek takes her by the hand and leads her to the couch. She smiles and offers no resistance.

He leans back and closes his eyes, and she curls into him, resting her head on his chest.

She listens to the blood moving in his veins. Listens to his breathing. Steady. Rhythmic.

She listens to his heart, and wonders to herself how he can be so relaxed with it beating so fast.

"Wanna go somewhere?" He asks.

"Where?"

"Anywhere you want."

She likes this. In one ear, she hears his voice, just little more than a whisper. In the other, hearing a deep baritone. The sound of it loud and soothing, muffled through his body.

"What about Riley? He should be back soon."

He lightly strokes the side of her face with his finger, and tucks her hair behind her ear.

"He's not invited."

His touch sends a surge of excitement through her. Her closed eyelids flutter and she lets out a sigh as her blood begins to rush.

The floor starts to vibrate and the engines blast to life, sending them away from the Skyhook, and towards the large, orange planet.

The g-forces sink them deeper into the cushions together, and as foolish as it might sound, she likes to feel as if the Universe wants them to be closer. She doesn't know where its taking them, but she knows the Universe wants her to move forward.

Alia opens her eyes and looks out the window, continuing to listen to Nivek's heartbeat, and she wonders aloud:

"What is this?"

Nivek keeps his eyes closed and continues to circle the edge of her ear with his fingertips as he answers her.

"I'm not sure. A long-term memory in the process of being made I s'pose. Whatever this is, it's definitely something to me."

Alia feels a pang of fear. The kind of fear she wants to feel. The kind of fear that will propel her forward. Fear that gives her the courage to say something she's been afraid to verbalize out loud to him for a long time now.

"I could be something to you."

Her voice was soft. Hopeful.

"You already are, Alia."

She loves his answer, and it makes her happy in a new way. Her emotions lift, and those feelings leave her fear behind as she moves forward...She feels like she's flying.

The irony is not lost on her.

A moment passes before he speaks again. "The question I need you to ask yourself now is, Who do you want that something to be?"

That's a question she doesn't know how to answer just yet, but the Universe needs her to decide.

Either way she chooses, the Universe will continue to move her forward, closer to Eris, whether she's ready or not.