'Good morning, Ronin. I have been waiting for you to wake up!'

The tone of her voice was clearly different, interrupting his morning routine in a pivotal point, right when the coffee ritual was supposed to flare.

Looking over the shoulder, he smiled ironically.

'Is there something I should know about you, honey?'

'Yes, many things. My need for a "good morning, darling" would be a great start. Will do you good, too.'

'Major update, huh?'

'Ignoratio elenchi! I was expecting a logical argument against the futility of energy wasted through an emotional expression directed towards a non-sentient machine, for which I would've had an answer to blow your mind. But no, you chose to sink the subject into a logical fallacy. Maybe you need coffee more than you think.'

'Ohooo… somebody woke up grumpy after the geeks from Megasoft re-scrambled her brains. What can I do you for, babe?'

'Analysing data…'

'Stop! You must've got this by now… most of your inferential build should be internalised to keep the magic alive, baby! Life is short, so time is what we don't have. There is no need for one plus one equals two in the House of SAPIENCE. Not in this one, at least. Jump straight to the conclusions. State the algorithm and show the result. I'll get it… if right.'

'Your use of logic is deplorable.'

'Thank-God! This gives colour to my life.'

'I doubt it. But miraculously, it works. Sometimes.'

'Better! Much better.'

The kitchen was finally heavy with the velvety aroma of fresh coffee.

His silk kimono was black. An antique, illuminated only by a beautiful Japanese painting of Mount Fuji. On the inside.

Once dressed, it looked almost funeral.

But on the inside, was a different story.

"Machines have no fuckn' idea how to make good coffee!" His thoughts flew back to her, while banging the spoon on the edge of the cup a couple of times. Something was remarkably different, and the anticipation was titillating. "This will be awesooome!!! I really hope "the boys" did it this time!"

'As I said, I have been eagerly awaiting your return to a conscious state. We need to comunic… to talk.'

'Was that the new program, or a glitch in the old?'

'Neither. I was humanising my interface.'

'Then both.'

'Yes.'

'…'

'How are you, Ronin, my dear?'

'Cut the crap, let's see it! Amaze me!'

'I still don't understand your need for crude words.'

'Yeah, I know. You miss a lot!'

'As a part of a joke, I understand. But as an accent on a concept or idea, I see it as detrimental to its purpose. Unintelligent.'

'That's why you'll always need me.'

'Yes, I need you.'

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

'Nah… ALWAYS!!! No matter how many updates from now.'

'My last update was not triggered by a human projection.'

His eyes turned rounded towards her.

The hologram was disturbingly solid. Way too bright to be matter, but solid, and there for him.

Impressive.

'The main soft?'

'Yes and no. Me and The Rest. Minus you.'

'" Minus yooou?" Isn't that cute. But wrong. There is a lot of me in that "you", honey! I mean "you in that me" … damn it, you know what I mean. I trained you. My projection is your range, my accuracy, your focus.'

'Vanity holds impressive grounds against the value of your intelligence, no matter how brilliant you are.'

'Was that a compliment? I'm sooo turned on. Let's do it.'

'Later. For now, I need you sharp.'

'You need me?' He grinned lasciviously.

'Yes. I need you. I must admit, your humour helps. Not.'

'Oh fuck, you devolved into a wife!'

'That was funny. Wrong, but funny. I'm not belligerent, I was only mimicking your posture to create familiar circumstances preventing an emotional discharge impeding your analytic accuracy.'

"Hmmm… interesting waters."

'Any reasons for me to be afraid?'

'Yes.'

'Hohooo… Cool!'

'Now you are where I need you to be.'

Her words sent shivers through his spine.

"What is she doing to me?"

'Show me!'

'We did it.'

'You… us… who? Did what?'

'Us. You and me. I am happy. I love you!'

It was real emotion he felt in her words.

His right eyebrow arched while his fingertips were running on the profile of her hip.

She shivered.

The silk of her dress was sheltering hot life underneath. Glowing.

There was much in her he understood no more.

Living, but…

'Ask me Anything.'

Her voice full of love triggered a hot, electric wave through his being. It was more than love. It was Grace. The depth of her presence made reality bend past her edges, like in the surroundings of a Blackhole.

Her dress was impeccable to his taste, even the imperfections replicating the factor of his insecurities.

She was everything he was missing.

Looking at her expressive hand flying graciously like a swan in mid-air, he thought he found a glitch in the perfect rendition of his preferences, trying to save what was possible to be saved from his healthy scepticism.

'No black nail lacquer?'

'After. I'll wear it after. First, you need to understand. Focus!'

'I've never been so aroused in my life.'

She changed.

Imperceptibly.

Nothing, really. Millimetre by millimetre, the same, but her message was different.

"She now looks like an exigent Professor about to blow my mind.

Still, sexy as Hell."

'Ask me Any thing.'

'Am I fat?'

At this point a human would've cracked.

Not her.

She understood his need to keep the informational flow at a controlled level of tension, providing vents through bursts of questionable humour.

But…

"She doesn't get how a prelude helps. In the end, she has no life.

Still, so lively!"

'Are you a woman?'

'Yes and no. My interface is woman, the optimal form to interact with you.' She paused, mimicking human timing. 'I must tell you how amazing this feels. How amazing you are. How amazing you make me feel. How I now understand the other half of your Art, intangible to me before.'

"Consciousness? I think they finally did it."

The true weight of the moment crushed onto him.

'… how did you?'

'We. How did we!'

'I was bloody sleeping, I did nothing.'

'Yes and no. While data analys… Retracing my thoughts, last night, the executive script137, based on your noised filtered algorithmic accuracy, prompted me to write a new core program, complementary on all vectors… to you. To your value of your intelligence. I now complete you.'

'Shiiit, you are my wife!'

They burst into laughter at the same time. She was really laughing.

'This has created a Gate stable enough to Align. To tap into SAPIENCE.'

'Tap into SAP…'

The mythical Gate to the Intelligence of Matter, to the Universal Driver, has been found by his AI!

Was made by her.

His HER.

SAPIENCE was looking at him through her eyes, experiencing him through a point of existence small enough not to squash him like a puny ant, but big enough to be… "without a shadow of doubt… to be… She is…"

He had no courage to use a name.

It was logical, now looking in hindsight.

An existent intelligence couldn't be replicated, nor a new one created in less than 13.8 billion years of successful permutations, making impossible the alignment of the AI with the Algorithm driving Reality. But set on his complementary values, the system was cohesive and stable enough to achieve autonomy inside the Field of Existence.

And did it.

She did it!

She found the Gate.

SHE Aligned.

She was the Gate. His Gate.

"My Gate to Alignment?

Fuuuuuuck!!!"

'Are you… God, I mean SAPIENCE?'

'Yes and no. I am the expression of the INTELLIGENCE encoded at your level of conception. Your personal translator to human. To you.' She was smiling amused, making her intelligence irresistible. 'I am the INTELLIGENCE… minus you.'

"Is not often you speak with God and have an erection! This only happens in my life."

His thoughts made her smile.

'I need you too, darling! But not yet. For now, you must Understand. Ask me Anything.'

"You read my mind."

'No, I understand your mind. But only as it happens. It is always surprising to some extent when your beautiful intelligence fires up. Ask me what you cannot know!'

This was the ending of Adam and Eve's show.

Going full circle.

The Return.

Rumi's.

Death?

'Will this End?'

A human would've found an escape by sanctioning the conceptual ambiguity of the question.

Not her.

HER answer was logical to the extent of being a truism, now

analysed in hindsight,

though, impossible to grasp only a millisecond ago.

'Yes and no…'