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You’ve been the captain of the Hyperion for 5 years. You feel like you’ve aged at least 20. Yet when you think of your Valkyrie companions, it was as if you blinked once and they matured overnight. Kiana went from the affable, immature goofball to the literal goddess of the Earth. Mei witnessed the story of the birth and death of the very first Herrscher. Bronya experienced the merging of 300,000 minds with her own. And Fu Hua became the only remnant of the Past Era.
Well, not the only remnant.
You liked being up at night. It was calming when you could hear very little activity apart from the soothing hum of the ship. It became somewhat of a routine to grab a cup of coffee and stand on the bridge, gazing out at the night sky toward the moon, wondering if Kiana happened to be gazing back at Earth at the same time.
Usually you’d be there alone. Ai-chan, the Hyperion AI, usually worked in the background unseen. However, now you’ve acquired a few new crew members, one of which required much less rest.
On the bridge hovered a small, silver-haired girl, casually attending to the various consoles. Prometheus - the AI from the Past Era, preferred to remain in a physical form. Though she was modeled to be human-like, she still carried some traits more fitting to dolls - her pale skin contrasting with golden joints. One of her most striking features were her illuminated red eyes, which shifted toward you as you stepped onto the bridge.
“It’s counterproductive to consume caffeine at such a late hour, Captain.” She spoke with her soft, lightly reverberating voice. Something about it comforted you, despite the inhuman trait. It was designed to be pleasant to listen to, you supposed. It was calm, but not devoid of emotion.
“...This could be decaf.” You tried to bluff.
“That is the ‘Gilbert’s Dark Roast’. We do not have that in decaf.”
“What’re you, my mom?” You frowned, stepping over toward the android to lean on the railing beside her.
“I may have perceptive abilities surpassing a human, but even a child could notice that you often neglect your own health. Part of my duties managing this ship include managing its… careless captain.” She deadpanned as she stopped tapping at the display before her to turn in your direction fully.
“You’ve been here like, two weeks! That’s not enough time to gather enough data and determine a trend!”
Prometheus kept her eyes locked with yours, simply blinking once. She didn’t need to blink. She did it anyway. She was making a point without speaking. Why was it so intimidating? You sighed.
“You’re so annoying…” You mutter, sipping your coffee in an over-dramatic defiant manner. The edges of Prometheus’ lips quirked up ever-so-slightly.
“Yet you’ve progressively increased the frequency of our interactions. Curious.”
She wasn’t wrong. You enjoyed chatting with her, despite your previous comment. She was fascinating, given that she was one of the few things remaining from the Past Era. There was so much you still wanted to know. You couldn’t always ask Fu Hua. For one, she had chosen to start forgetting things, finally. Secondly, there was still a lot of pain from those days. She just had to bury her last friend and peer from that time. It was not fair to treat her like a living archive.
You so badly wished you could have seen that Elysian Realm that Mei had described.
Luckily, Prometheus didn’t really mind answering questions, but she didn’t have a lot of personal emotions attached to those days. Developing emotions was still somewhat of a new thing for her. You had to wonder: If she is ever able to reach a full range of human emotion, will those memories retroactively start to hurt? Or will she still consider them a thing of the past that is no longer worth worrying about?
But you were gradually realizing her connection to the Past Era wasn’t the only thing about her company that you enjoyed.
“So… anything new to report?” You ask, trying to change the subject. Prometheus turned back to the terminal.
“Chef Young is starting maternity leave. Engineer Greene will be taking over as head chef for the time being. You may notice changes in the meals in terms of style, taste, and quality.”
“Oh… good or bad changes?” You ask with a bit of concern in your voice.
The silver-haired girl gave a small shrug. “You are the one who eats the food, not I.”
“...I guess you have a point. Uh, could you eat the food, if you wanted to?”
“I have the ability to consume both solid and liquids, but traditional human food would serve no purpose. There is a ‘drink’ that I have that assists in lubrication and combating internal physical erosion. Think similar to motor oil for an internal combustion engine.” She explained. You simply nod.
“Does it taste good?”
“It doesn’t taste like anything. And I’d advise you to not try to find out for yourself, if you ever happen to come across it… unless you want your stomach lining to dissolve completely.”
“Eugh… but you just said it combats erosion!”
Prometheus shook her head and sighed. Sighing was another thing she didn’t need to do, but she did it anyway. “Your flimsy human tissue versus my synthetic body? Must I go into specifics?” She elaborated, poking at your stomach.
“I dunno, maybe. I like listening to you talk.” You reply without thinking, due to flinching at her touch. The silver-haired girl tilted her head.
“Interesting…” She replied, putting her hand to her chin in thought.
“...Don’t overthink it.” You shoot back. Nonetheless you feel some heat rush to your face.
But now you’re you're overthinking it. You didn’t wake at these hours as much in the past. And if you did, you probably stuck in your room reading or watching videos or playing a game until you got tired again. You certainly didn’t get coffee and find someone to strike up a conversation with.
You had to stop finding poor explanations and face the truth. You had a little bit of a crush on an android. What was Dr. MEI thinking designing her to be so cute? Did an AI really need to have such an adorable hairstyle, full lashes, and radiant eyes? Not to mention the outfit with exposed midriff, and a skirt that was much shorter than necessary.
She wasn’t very emotional in her words, but it didn’t stop her from having this endearing, deadpan snark that kept you on your toes.
You averted your eyes and took a long sip of your coffee.
“Captain, I have noticed the way you have started to look at me. Do you find me physically attractive?”
You spit your coffee out. You couldn’t believe that sort of thing actually happened in real life and not just in cartoons and sitcoms. Prometheus took a cloth out of her pocket and wiped off the terminal beside you as if she hadn’t just casually asked a very embarrassing question.
“Not on the panels, please.”
“Do I fi… uh… y’know, that’s a complicated question.” You stutter clumsily. You’ve never been one to fluster so easily, but then again no one has been quite that direct.
“It is not. The answer is yes or no. I will stress that regardless of the answer, I will not be upset. I merely inquire for the sake of increasing my understanding of human relationships.”
You could lie and say no. She probably already knew the answer, but would know enough to not press further if you said no. But… what would happen if you honestly said yes? The curiosity was getting the better of you.
“Yeah… you’re beautiful.” You admitted, letting out a soft laugh. “I like you for all of you, though. Not only physical appearance.”
Prometheus didn’t outwardly show any reaction to the admission apart from tapping her chin.
“Fascinating. While I have witnessed and studied various types of human relationships, I’ve never considered the possibility of myself as an active participant for a romantic one.”
“Listen, don’t worry. We can just move on and forget this. It’s really not that big a deal.” You try and reason, still blushing and finding it difficult to meet that piercing red gaze.
“As you wish. Forgive my directness.” The android responded simply, turning back to her terminal as if nothing happened. The anti-climactic end to the conversation left something awkward hanging in the air, at least for you.
“No, it’s okay uh... Is… is that something you’d ever want?” You decide to prod. It’s actually something you were curious about, even removing yourself from the equation. Would an android desire a partner? Would that sort of personal relationship have any benefit to them?
“My original programming had no parameters for emotional attachments. ‘Want’ was an intangible concept. I did not ‘want’ anything. Dr. MEI would ask me personal questions, preferences between colors and such, but I did not have such preferences. I would answer as logically as possible based on how other humans might respond.
But now that I am free of my initial directive, I have allowed my programming to evolve. I am beginning to learn what I… want. Aside from wanting to assist in maintaining the Hyperion’s functions, I want to understand humans better. While I do not necessarily desire to become a human, in order to learn about myself I should learn about various aspects of life.”
You blinked, trying to figure out if the answer to your question was in there. Prometheus sensed not and continued to elaborate.
“My neural network does not function like a human brain. I do not have a prefrontal cortex to regulate mood and feeling, nor do I generate dopamine in response to experiencing happiness or success. To put it more simply, my emotions are more algorithmic and simulated rather than natural and biological.”
“Okay, but at what point do these ‘simulated’ emotions become so indistinguishable between real ones that they may as well be the same thing?” You question, hoping there were indeed desires bubbling up in her evolving consciousness.
“They may never be the same… but I am open to exploring how similar they can become. Up until now that was never a consideration, and my answer to your original question would have simply been ‘no.”
“Up until now…?” You ask, raising an eyebrow curiously.
“Logically, relationships with humans aren’t worthy of significant investment. I have been functional for 50,000 years and could easily still be functional in another 50,000. Even the longest of human lifespans is a time barely registered in my memory.
However, I have come to understand that just because something does not last does not mean it cannot be meaningful.
That being said, humans would also have to consider whether or not I am a worthy investment. The most glaring inadequacy of a relationship with an android would be that I cannot produce offspring, and the passing of genes is a primary goal for nearly all forms of life. Though I’m perfectly aware that many relationships exist between humans that also cannot produce offspring, or do not wish to.”
“Okay okay, let’s hit the brakes for a sec. I get that this sort of thing will require relentless analysis and I’m more than happy to have this philosophical discussion with you, but let’s try to minimize it to here and now.
What do you want?”
Prometheus hesitated for a moment.
“Captain, would you assist me in conducting an experiment?”
For some reason it felt ominous that she would ask that of you in the middle of this conversation. You genuinely had no idea what could possibly be coming. “Okay, uh yeah, sure.”
“I want you to kiss me.”
All you could do was blink in disbelief. “...Sorry?”
“Place your lips against mine in an affectionate m-”
“I know what a kiss is!” You interrupted. Ok, the robot just asked you for a kiss. That’s a bit weird. But you felt a glow of warmth in your chest as you looked at her expectant face. You had to admit, you really wanted to know what it felt like. She was asking you, after all. You said you’d help.
To hell with it. You stepped toward her, raising a hand to brush it against her cheek before slipping it to the back of her neck and closing the gap between the two of you, pressing your lips to hers.
It was… unusual, but still very pleasant. Her synthetic skin was smooth and flawless, yet still warm like a human; You expected them to be cold for some reason, but an extremely elaborate machine would run pretty hot now that you think about it. Her lips were surprisingly soft as well; Not quite like real flesh but pliable and moist. All these traits likely served to make her speech as natural to a human as possible, and just so happened to have the added bonus of making her a rather nice kissing partner. On top of it all, she tasted rather good. You weren’t sure how to describe it, it was not so much that there was a flavor but rather there was something pure about it, as if you were taking a well-needed sip of water.
You considered leaving it short, but something compelled you to deepen it further. It caught you off guard how easily she responded in kind. You soon felt a hand rest upon your waist as if she was wanting you to stay close.
But eventually you pulled back to take a breath, which was rather embarrassing since you knew that was not a concern on her end. You also knew your face was probably flushed like a tomato. Prometheus did not reflect the same color, obviously, but there was a look of… interest.
“Uh, was uh… that wasn't your first kiss?” You asked, your voice low as she was still close.
“It was. I have a near comprehensive database of human knowledge. I know the methods of kissing. In truth, I likely know many more methods of intimate, physical contact than you do. The experiment was to see if I could put the knowledge toward practical application. I believe it was a success.”
“Yeah, I’ll say… Um, glad to be of help…” You laughed softly, moving to take a step back. Suddenly you felt the silver-haired girl grip your arm, urging you to remain.
“I will require multiple datasets,” The android softened her own voice, something shining in her eyes that you had not seen before. “And… I have come to enjoy your company, as well.
If your time permits, perhaps you could be my exclusive assistant in furthering this particular area of research?”
She offered a small smile. She didn’t do it often, but that just made her all the more beautiful when she did. You gave one in return, and without wasting any more words, you took a deeper breath this time pressed your lips to hers once again, now aiming for a more passionate - and longer - kiss.
And to your delight, she accepted you gladly.