Elster frowned at the moon her superior pointed to on the System map. “Rotfront?”

That seemed strange. The moon was still relatively young and in the midst of climate forming. Its population was low, and its industry was nascent at best. The war hadn’t even affected it that badly. It made no sense for so many Replikas to be transferred there, especially since there was still much work to be done here on Vineta.

The Storch unit shrugged. “Rotfront’s Replika numbers aren’t as high as they should be, since a lot of units were moved off-planet when the war got worse. Apparently, there are now some security issues in the civilian sectors that the meagre local forces are having trouble handling. They also need more Replikas to help decommission the local Penrose faculty and deal with the outdated satellite uplink issues there as well, which is where our staff’s experience comes into play. We will be sent in to deal with both issues. Not sure if that warrants the transfer of so many staff members and an entire Protektor security outfit, but orders are orders.”

That reasoning felt weak to Elster, but perhaps it was simply because she didn’t have the full picture. She doubted the Nation would simply transport an entire facility worth of Replikas to another planet for no reason, especially when the current one they were on was already in such a dire state.

“And another thing.” The Storch unit suddenly sounded a lot more serious. “You didn’t hear this from me, but orders have it that our unit will be joined up by some Replikas from High Command.”

Elster grimaced. “Kolibri and Adler units? For an outfit as trivial as ours?” The last time she had seen those Replika types was right after her ‘birth’, during the tests they conducted to see if she was fit for service or if she was to be decommissioned. She could not say she enjoyed their presence. The unfeeling, calculating gaze of the Adler unit as he decided her fate and Kolibri’s unnerving Bioresonance probing her mind made her uncomfortable. “I suppose our group is large enough to warrant High Command’s supervision, especially now that they can free up officers from the war effort.”

Her superior twisted her lips in distaste as she rapped her fingers on the table. Was that nervousness she sensed? “If it were just them, I… well, I won’t be happy, but it wouldn’t be that bad. No, it’s worse than that. For some reason, AEON’s sending a damn Falke to oversee us as well.”

Elster thought she felt her biomechanical heart skipped a beat. That was unexpected. And very, very much unwelcome. “That can't be right, The Nation won’t waste a Commander unit on Rotfront. They’re too valuable.”

“That’s what I thought too, but it’s true,” the Storch sighed. “They will be landing ahead of us, so we will be reporting to them the moment we reach. And just so we are clear, you can’t pull that shit you do in front of the Commander, got it? No more threatening death stares, no more stalking the halls scaring the staff, and no more requesting firearms. Got it?”

“Wait, was that you who kept rejecting my request forms? I thought the Star quartermaster just didn’t like me.”

“That’s true for almost everyone here, not just her, Pipsqueak. And more importantly, I wasn’t going to let you have a bloody gun! You were already frightening the entire facility with your broody presence alone. A gun would most likely terrify half the Eule staff into hiding within their quarter. The other half would probably start a fan club or something and make the Star units jealous.”

Elster didn’t know what to say to that. Her superior ignored her deadpan stare and continued.

“Anyway, consider yourself warned. I might tolerate your shit because it’s funny, and you get good work done, but the Commander is probably not as magnanimous as me. Would be a shame to see you get decommissioned, so try not to piss the new management off, alright?”

Elster sighed in subdued annoyance. “There’s one thing I don’t understand.”

“Oh?”

“Why did you call me up here?” Elster gestured around her superior’s office. “The news about the Penrose program decommissioning would probably be announced to the rest of the facility soon anyway, so why would you summon me up to tell me about this personally?”

“What, you don’t like the special treatment, pipsqueak?” Elster’s eyebrow twitched, and the Storch unit laughed. “Fine. Yeah, you’re right. If it was just the Penrose news alone, I wouldn’t have called you up here. There’s one more thing, and it concerns you personally.”

“And what’s that?”

Her supervisor grinned widely at her. “How would you like to live like a Gestalt for a while?”

-

After some more needless small talk, the EULR unit finally led her to the rooftops, opening the locked door and passing her the various keys so that she could access the satellite relay and the other communication dishes. The Eule left her after giving her a cheery wave, and Elster let out a sigh of relief. Finally, she was completely alone.

She set up her tools and got to work, methodically looking through the checklist and technical manual she had downloaded in her head beforehand. Thankfully, the relay designs were similar to the ones she had to work on back in Vineta, so progress was smooth sailing. Most of the systems were woefully ill-maintained; with so many parts past their due dates, it was a miracle any of them still functioned at all. But Elster did not mind. She relished the peace and quiet as she steadily worked down her checklist.

It was her little slice of nirvana; that little rush of satisfaction she gets whenever she completes a task, her tools neatly laid out beside her in easy reach, the simple joy of tinkering, greasing, and re-wiring cables. She could even feel a satisfied smile creeping onto her usual stoic face as she worked. She did not mind it. There wasn’t anyone on the roof to bother her or interrupt her work. She was free to be herself.

Most Replikas detest solitude. It was a common trait she observed among the other types. Eules always tried to hang around in groups whenever they could. Stars are seen commonly patrolling in pairs or staying close to their platoons when they can. Even the Storches preferred hanging around other Replikas rather than staying in their offices, despite their short tempers. Regardless of their different models, there was usually a sense of camaraderie found when being among other Replikas.

Not the LSTR units, however. Their social skills were deplorable, and their relations with other Replikas had always been more sided towards a cold professionalism. It wasn’t as if there weren’t any opportunities to interact with others; the Eules made quite a few attempts for Elster to join them in meals and whatnots.

Elster had never felt comfortable accepting, however. But that was fine. Their kind were made to prefer solitude and quietness. They were quite literally built that way, as their work as orbital technicians meant they spent long periods of time alone. It would be a problem if their neural patterns couldn’t handle the isolation. Elster couldn’t imagine a Eule being able to handle their line of work, even if they were given the necessary technical knowledge.

And so Elster was quite comfortable working alone on the roof, dozens of stories above the ground, where the only noise was the chilly wind, the clinking of her tools, and the occasional sound of a train passing by below.

Until that feeling of paranoia returned.

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It had disappeared after Elster and the Eule had entered the building. The Replika had to hold back a sigh of relief when that feeling of being watched had finally, finally left her. She was prepared to fully forget the experience and move on.

But now it had returned. Despite her being on the roof, where there was no one possibly around and nothing around her but bulky electrical machinery and satellite dishes. Elster felt herself tense up, slowly standing up as her hands reached for the stun baton on her hip. She glanced towards the rooftop door. It was still locked, just as she had left it, and she definitely didn’t hear it sliding open earlier.

She slowly stalked around the roof. There wasn’t much space, and it didn’t her long to check behind each electrical transformer unit where someone might be hiding. But there was no one around. She observed the trail of footstep imprints left in the ash-covered roof. There was only a single set, and it was undeniably hers.

All physical evidence pointed at her being alone. But that feeling of another presence nearby persisted. Elster couched and kept as silent as possible, sharpening her hearing to detect the slightest hint of any unnatural noise. The sound of someone else’s breathing, footsteps, anything.

There was none. With an uncharacteristically frustrated groan, she forced herself to relax and stand up straight. Her fingers reluctantly left the handles of her stun baton. All evidence pointed at no one being with her.

I must be losing my mind. Should she take this as a sign that her neural hardware was finally failing her? That there was actually something wrong with her mind? All those persona deviations during her time at the old base were concerning, but there were relatively minor, harmless issues that did not interfere with her work.

This insistent, unsubstantiated paranoia was different, however. She truly felt as if there was someone else’s presence nearby, watching her. And there was this weird mix of emotion bubbling inside her directed at the presence that she struggled to describe. Anger, yes. There was fear as well, fear of the unknown. But at the core of it all, there was this… this painful…

Longing?

Elster didn’t know how long she stood there, trying to decipher the confusing cocktail of intensity within her. It wasn’t until an internal clock warned her that her maintenance time was nearing its end that she detachedly moved back to her tools. Her work was mostly done already, and she had more than enough remaining time to perform the finishing touches and checks, but her earlier good mood was gone like the ashes on the ground, and it left her bitter.

Her tools were cold to touch, having been left in the elements to freeze when she had wandered the roof looking for a non-existent ghost. Like a deranged Replika gone mad from personality degradation. She quickly performed the last few tasks on her checklist, cursing silently for not packing any gloves to ward away the chill in her fingers. Once done, she closed the electrical panels, tested everything was functioning within normal parameters, and began silently packing her equipment.

The feeling of uncomfortable delusion remained throughout her work, but by now she was beyond certain that it was all in her head. She wearily wondered what it meant to her mental state, and whether she should report herself for decommissioning if the feeling kept up.

She reached for the last few hand tools that she had laid out earlier. The Replika had been standing around so long earlier that they even had a coating of ash covering them. They were freezing cold as well. She wiped the ash from them, one by one, and–

And suddenly, warmth. Her fingers jerked in surprise when she reached for one of the discarded tools and found it warm.

Not warm as if it had been heated by a nearby running roof equipment or transformer. Warm, as if someone had been holding it in their hands for a while.

And she was absolutely certain she hadn't touched it since she had stood up and wandered around the roof.

There was someone else here.

Elster bolted up, hands ripping the stun baton clear from her belt as she powered it on without a second thought. The baton made a loud crackling noise as a rapid discharge of sparks jumped and arced. Elster whirled about, eyeing every possible hiding spot, constantly looking over her shoulder as she turned and stalked around the roof with not a care for subtlety. Her eyes were deathly furious.

How dare you?

Elster felt a snarl on her face. Sounds of animalistic fury clawed its way out of her throat. She was acting completely different from her usual calm, analytical self, but she didn’t care.

Where are you hiding?

Her stun baton was primed, ready to unleash a paralysing torrent of electrical fury, consequences be damned. She circled around the roof once, then twice, increasing her walking speed until she was dashing back and forth about the roof, madly trying to catch a glimpse of her-

Who are you?

Her. That’s what she had called out in her mind. No them, or him, but her. She knew whoever was watching her must be female, but how could she have known that?

And why…

Why…

No matter how thoroughly she checked that tiny roof, there wasn’t anyone else but her around. Could she have picked up the tool earlier by mistake? No, she was absolutely certain she had left it there. She had not imagined the warmth as well. But no matter how she looked or thought about it, there was no way there was anyone else on the roof but her. This wasn’t possible. Empress damn it all, she would have at least heard something or seen a glimpse of the person touching her tools. There was no way she could have possibly been that unobservant–

Wait. Footsteps.

Elster stopped her pacing and strained her ears. There were footsteps, soft and getting louder, but they were coming from behind the rooftop door. It must be the EULR unit from before. They had agreed earlier to meet at a designated time after Elster had estimated she would finish her maintenance. It was just about five minutes past that.

Despite her frenzied frustration, Elster still had enough sense to know that she could not be seen waving around her stun baton like a mad woman. She took one final glance around the roof and confirmed once again there was indeed no one, before furiously clicking off the baton and attaching it back to her hip. She tried to soothe her expression as much as she could before the rooftop door clicked and slid open.

“Hello again! All done?” The Eule cheerfully asked as she stepped onto the roof. Elster nodded to her, hoping that her expression gave nothing of her turbulent emotions away.

“Just packing up,” she replied, making a show of picking up her tools and storing them away. The hand tool that was warm earlier had chilled away again in the open cold, leaving Elster to despairingly wonder if she had, perhaps, conjured the warmth earlier in her mind alone.

Maybe I really am just mad. I can’t think of any other plausible explanation.

“Great! Was everything okay?” The Eule clapped her hands together and cutely tilted her head. Elster regarded her with as much detachedness as she could muster.

“All within normal readings.” At least nothing went wrong with the maintenance itself. Elster desperately wanted to get off the roof. “You mentioned there was something wrong with the heating as well? Why don’t you take me to the boiler room? There’s still some time for me to have a look before I must leave.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful! Come on, I’ll lead the way.”

Elster resolved herself to not look back as she and the Eule stepped through the door out of the roof. There is absolutely nothing there, she told herself. You need to stop this irrational behaviour now.

Yet as she heard the door slide close behind her, she could not stop herself from glancing back one last time. And during the barest millisecond of gap before the door slid shut, she finally saw her.

A pure white nightgown, the sheerness of which would have made it utter madness to wear outside in such freezing conditions. Bare-footed, yet her feet didn’t leave any footprints in the ash. Long white hair that flickered gracefully in the wind. And her face. Her red eyes–

You remember our Promise. Thank you, Elster.

The door slid shut with a click. Elster stood rooted. The Eule’s steps continued down the stairs, until she realised she wasn’t following her.

“What is it?” she called back up. “Did you forget something?”

Elster remained silent for a moment. Then, she took a deep, shuddering breath. “No, it’s nothing. Let’s carry on.”

She hurried after the Eule, her mind pounding with one thought.

I have definitely lost it.