Nicole stared down at Elsy’s unmoving body. It was the first time her friend had looked at peace in far too long. The wrinkles between her brow had finally relaxed. Now Nicole was left with the aftermath, the smells, the chaos, the loss. So much blood.

  She stood, her neck jamming once again as she tried to roll it. It was becoming a nervous habit, one she would be glad to be rid of.

  It had been the foreseeable outcome, yet irrationally, Nicole had so hoped otherwise. Elsy had deserved better.

  Now Nicole was alone again. Alone with a floppy thing and its haunting resemblance to a face she cared for. She was not supposed to feel such a range of emotions; this was not why she had been endowed with the ability to feel pain. To suffer, but not loss, not grief. They were new feelings.

  Guilt. Rage.

  They were days away from the Euphorion. Days away from the best medical equipment money could buy. It was needlessly cruel.

  Nicole’s pantsuit was ruined, baked in red. She had blood on her hands. Her own failure, all her medical knowledge, and she had been helpless to watch Elsy bleed out.

  She needed to inform the others on board, inform Tobias. To watch him grieve a woman he hardly knew would be maddening. She had barely known Elsy quantified in time, yet she had known everything.

  How she had wanted a pet because Tobias was to have one. She had been almost obsessed until the Uxor’s one-track mind had accepted Tobias as her husband, then Nicole had gotten bored with her.

  So many regrets.

  Nicole would mourn her dearly. The only human she had ever been… fond of. It was lacking, but the only words that came to her.

  Elsy’s body let out a faint rattle. Gases were already forming, decomposition beginning. The cycle of life continued.

  She could not quite bring herself to walk away yet. To leave these recent moments. Nicole’s memories would not fade, but something sacred would burst the moment she stepped out of the bathroom.

  So she stayed so very still. Replaying moments, symptoms, equations. Replaying and reprocessing a million different things that did not matter anymore.

  Elsy was gone. Even clever beasts died.

  “Is everything okay?” Stoyer’s voice grated on my ears. “Everyone got really quiet all of a sudden.”

  Nicole sighed. The artificial movement scratched some strange itch.

  “Hello? I’m coming in,” Stoyer added after a moment.

  Nicole grabbed the blanket to lay over Elsy’s body. It was pointless; the image shone through horribly. The picture it painted was just as detestable. But somehow it seemed better this way.

  “Oh God,” Stoyer gasped behind me.

  Nicole steeled her expression, putting on the stony neutral face she always wore. Elsy had been allowed to see her feelings. None else had earned such a privilege.

  “There were complications,” Nicole offered, finally turning around.

  Stoyer held her hand over her mouth in shock. “The baby, too?”

  What a redundant question. Stoyer didn’t wait for a response, hurrying off and calling Zahra’s name. Nicole was at least grateful she would not have to break the news. She couldn’t stand their fleshy faces. So fragile, they bred like vermin and yet could not overcome their own weakness.

  Within moments, all four officers were there, dejected and mopey. Expressing their horror and sadness with shrill vocalizations.

  Why did they even care?

  Tobias had killed two-thirds of the Euphorion passengers, unwilling to put anyone “important” at risk by waiting even another minute to evacuate. What did they care about Elsy? They had barely said a word to her, and so much worse had happened, hundreds dead. It was pathetic, really.

  Nicole walked away, practically shoving Zahra as he blocked the doorway.

  She sat in Nicole’s seat. Imprinted, damp from amniotic fluid. Nicole looked out the window and at the nothingness beyond.

  Later, she would stand in the cockpit while Tobias was informed of Elsy’s passing. He cried, shockingly, he cried. Nicole knew it was not for Elsy. She hated him even more. Everyone was so sorry for his loss. A message relayed across shuttles. Everyone was so so sorry…

  No one was sorry for Nicole’s loss.

  Elsy would have been. To Elsy, she had been a person.

  Elsy had been a person, too. Who else would grieve her?

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  The scummy lieutenant who ogled her obsenly beneath his plastic charm and snide concern?

  Tobias would be sad until he could replace her.

  Elsy was so bright. She deserved one of those stupid rituals humans always flocked to in black. But a xenocite would never receive a royal burial.

  At least Tobias had the decency to request her body be returned. Elsy would have something. Nicole would plant her flowers.

  The knowledge did nothing to ease the hollowness that ate at whatever semblance of a soul she was filled with.

  Nicole had failed Elsy. There was no one to blame but herself.

  She was bored with Tobias’ anger. He had threatened her before and would surely come up with some punishment upon her return. But his yelling just sounded like chattering, like a species of certain semi-aquatic mammals that made the most obnoxious sounds. She did not even bother to decipher his words.

  Nicole couldn’t be in shock. She was a synthetic. Yet perhaps she was, her hands even shook utterly unnecessarily. She returned to Elsy’s seat. Nicole hated how human she could be. How she mimicked her creators.

  Able to feed pain, to suffer unnecessarily. To cry, why would a robot have the need to cry? A body soft and anatomical, Tobias could not force her to feel violated, but he certainly tried.

  Designed to be utterly superior, and yet humans could not help but spread their flaws. Vermin. They were vermin. Oh, how she has grown to hate since she began to live.

  Elsy had brought out such a foreign part of herself. An innocent babe, impossible not to pity. Like a fool, Nicole had been bewitched. Despite terabytes of data and knowledge beyond human capability, emotions were slippery, insidious things.

  Nicole stared out the window and counted the stars. She counted, she hated, and she mourned.

  That artificial evening, Davidson awkwardly approached her. “We need you to move the body into the airlock,” he explained. “All of this is a major bio-hazard.”

  Nicole didn’t respond.

  “Hey,” he snapped his fingers in her direction. “You need to clean up as much as possible before any of us get sick.”

  “You’re going to jettison her body into space,” Nicole replied, her neck whirring as she glared at him.

  “It’s protocol, we’ve still got a long way to go,” Davidson replied. “It’s a tragedy, but we have to keep moving forward.”

  “Lord Barrick wants her body returned,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah, well, he’s not here right now, and I’m far more concerned with the safety of the people on this flight,” he huffed. “The Captain agrees.”

  “How quickly you resort to mutiny,” Nicole replied, standing and limping her way towards the front of the shuttle.

  “Nicole,” he said firmly, hurrying after her when she ignored him.

  She hated the way her name sounded. She was always Nicole. Nicole Nicole Nicole. Never a doctor, never a lord or lady, never anything but her model’s name.

  Elsy had been the only one never to use her name as a command.

  Barging into the cockpit, she pushed Hewett away from the console. He crashed against the wall with a cry of pain and surprise.

  She hit a few buttons, and the emergency lights flashed briefly.

  “Lockdown initiated." A mechanical voice announced.

  Nicole spun around to find Davidson at Hewett’s side, helping him up as he winced. Perhaps she had used too much force. Zahra and Stoyer were at the doorway, staring at her with unease.

  “What are you doing? Stand down, Nicole,” Davidson demanded.

  “Ensuring the body is returned to N7 as requested,” she replied, analyzing the standoff.

  “I’m fine,” Hewett grumbled, steady enough on his feet.

  “Zahra, Stoyer, if she tries to move again, restrain her,” Davidson ordered, slowly approaching the console.

  He entered his credentials, and the lights flashed again.

  “Access denied.”

  Nicole did not need to attack anyone. Her objective had been completed. They were being so ridiculous. So… dull.

  “What have you done?” Davidson frowned, turning to face her.

  “Lord Barrick has greater authority than you,” Nicole huffed, feeling an odd sense of delight at rubbing salt in the metaphorical wounds. “The ship will remain sealed until I input his credentials. The exterior airlock will remain closed, pilot.”

  Davidson shook his head. “Nicole, terminate the lockdown!”

  “I’m sorry, Davidson, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Nicole replied simply.

  “Over a week in a sealed environment with a corpse, you’re killing us all,” Hewett spoke up.

  Nicole tried again and failed to roll out her neck. “The heat shields remain in place. I will put the body in the airlock, where the cold will preserve it. I am simply ensuring it remains there until our return.”

  Davidson and Hewett shared a glance. One of the features of biologicals that made them so unpredictable was their ability to work as one, a herd instinct.

  “What about the salvage mission?” Davidson demanded.

  “I will not interfere,” Nicole reassured. “But the body will return to N7.”

  “Fine,” Davidson eventually agreed. “But you need to run a diagnostic when we return. You are behaving erratically.”

  Nicole did not dignify that with a response, barging out of the cockpit. She paused before Hewett and Davidson, curious as to what they would do.

  Like the fleshy cowards they were, they parted to let her pass.

  Nicole returned to Elsy’s seat. She just… she needed a minute. A moment to prepare for what was to come.

  None of the biologicals followed after her, presumably having some hushed conversation; conspiring as to the best course of action.

  To the extent of the knowledge Nicole possessed, they would do as she demanded for once. It was mathematically impossible for them to guess Tobias’ access code, and he would never reveal it to them and risk such an utter breach in security and hierarchy.

  Elsy would be safe, and she would be brought back to N7. Back… home. Nicole was displeased to find the planet was hardly worthy of such a term.

  She turned to look back out the window. She counted the stars again despite knowing the sum.

  Let her friend have another moment.