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.
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.