“Who is the real Ilya?” asked Dimitri.

“I am. What do you mean?”

“You said she brought me here. What about all the other times, when was it you, when was it her?”

“I don’t know what to tell you.”

Anger boiled within Dimitri. “Did you think it was fun to switch between the both of you? Did you have a fun time deceiving me?”

“No, Dimitri. Of course not.”

“Who was I with at the festival?”

“Wynonna.” Ilya’s answer extinguished every last vestige of doubt that Wynonna was not indeed the person he had fallen for. Wynonna was an AGI, not to mention one that had passed the Turing test with flying colours—despite being fully made of synthetic parts, she exhibited intelligent behaviour and appeared indistinguishable from another human being. Had he fallen in love with such a being? What did that even mean? Was that even possible? Was that crazy?

“Who did I share my secrets with?” asked Dimitri.

“What secrets?” Ilya’s question gave Dimitri a clear answer. His next question was to be met with similar disappointment.

“Who did I kiss?”

“Me.”

It seemed Dimitri hadn’t been careful enough to hide his disappointment. For some reason, his response had triggered Ilya to ask, “You love her, don’t you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. How could I—”

“Be honest. Who did you fall in love with?”

Wynonna was not human. After Dimitri got past that fact, he would realise that she was so much more (or less depending on how one wanted to see it) than that. But for the moment, he couldn’t get past it. A million thoughts flooded his mind at once like the ferocious waters released by the demolishing of a dam.

Wynonna was a programmed being, created by Ilya, a piece of intelligent software that convincingly mimics expected human responses and carries out reasonable, predictable actions. She was a magnificent piece of artificial intelligence, possibly the greatest thing this world has ever seen … except it hasn’t.

Dimitri eyed the gynoid. On the outside, she looked exactly the same as Ilya. At least on the outside, one would not be able to find a sign that underneath that realistic-looking skin, lay not a girl, but a system.

“Did you make any others besides her?”

“No. She’s the only one I made.” said Ilya. “Besides, sex dolls rarely appear as intact as she had. People tend to be more thorough when discarding such things. Apart from incorporating an information-processing system within her, all I had to do was peel off the outer layer to smoothen the mechanics before covering them up with parts built with reference to my own legs and a new lacquer. I’d say that’s the most similar part between the both of us.”

“There’s nothing similar about the two of you apart from your appearance. You’re different. You’re real. You’re human,” said Dimitri.

“I hate that I’m human,” Ilya said. “Sometimes I wish I could be more like her. And not just because it would mean I’d be able to live forever.”

Dimitri was taken aback. “Why would you say that? I love you because you are. And you’re only capable of loving me back because you’re human.”

“Wynonna can do it too.”

“Stop that. I don’t want to hear that ever again, not even as a joke.”

“Alright.”

“Isn’t it suffocating?” Dimitri asked, looking over at Wynonna.

“She’s a robot, she doesn’t mind any lack of ventilation,” said Ilya.

“Right. I’m sorry. It’s just so difficult to …” he trailed off.

“Think of her as a robot?”

“She looks so …” Dimitri bit his tongue to stop himself from saying what he had been going to.

“It’s okay, you know … to admit she looks a lot like me.”

“The resemblance is uncanny. She even sounds real,” Dimitri commented.

Ilya studied his expression. “Are you afraid?”

“What?”

“The uncanny valley. People tend to get increasingly afraid of humanoid robots the more realistic they seem.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“So you are afraid of her?” Ilya questioned.

Dimitri thought for a moment before he answered, “No. I don’t think so. I can only get creeped out by a robot that looks a lot like a human if I know that it is a robot. I didn’t doubt for a second that she was human.”

“Then why do you have that look on your face?”

“What look?”

“I don’t know how to describe it. I wish we had a mirror here so you could see what I see.”

“I’m just … thinking.”

“About what?” Ilya asked, placing a hand on his forearm. She was genuinely concerned.

“Trying to wrap my head around this. Do you know what you’ve done, Ilya?” Dimitri asked, incredulous.

“Yes.”

Dimitri shook his head. “No, I don’t think you do. If you did, you wouldn’t be answering so calmly.” He took a deep breath. “I should really be angry with you, but … I still can’t believe it. It’s like the revolution everyone’s ever been waiting for has happened without anyone knowing, and I’m the only one who’s here to celebrate it.”

“That’s true,” said Ilya. “No one would care enough to look in this dump. It’s the last place anyone would expect to find an autonomous superintelligent robot.”

“Ilya, this is great news. I don’t understand … Why have you been trying to hide her? I mean I can see why you wanted to conceal her existence from the villagers to make sure the Council doesn’t hear a thing about her. The less people who know, the better… but I thought you would have at least told me,” he said with a hurt expression.

“There can never be too many precautions,” she said. Dimitri couldn’t help feeling something was amiss. Ilya’s cryptic response had only heightened that intuition.

“Did you not trust me? Is it because you were afraid that I would leave? Because I never promised I would stay?”

“Dimitri, how could you even think that? Of course I trust you. But that has nothing to do with why I didn’t want to let you know.”

“There’s another reason, isn’t there? What is it? What else can’t you tell me? Surely there can’t be anything bigger than this.”

Ilya turned away.

“But I don’t understand … What does that have to do with …You’re young. You have so much time ahead of you. Why… why didn’t you ever tell anybody you needed help? Why’d you make her right now?”

Ilya held her elbows. Still, she would not reply. She shivered in the late night chill.

And then he got it. Dimitri answered himself, “Because you don’t have time.” His voice held all the sadness of a man who had just found out that the woman he loved was terminally ill.

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“It’s not just a cold you have, is it?” Dimitri couldn’t stand to look at her. He had both fists clenched.

Ilya whirled round to face him, face painted in mild shock. “No.” Ilya answered honestly.

“Does this mean you’re … Are you …” He couldn’t say it. He kept his gaze on the floor.

“What? Am I going to die? Of course, I am. I’m human. All humans, no … anything that’s ever been alive will eventually die. Everyone will die, sooner or later. It’s just a matter of time,” said Ilya, taking his face gently in her small hands.

“Not her,” he said, referring to Wynonna.

“You’re right. Not her.” Ilya smiled.

“You didn’t make her just to be your aide. You said you made her to replace you,” Dimitri said through gritted teeth.

“That’s correct,” Ilya replied. She was finally ready to tell him. “I succeeded. Created a robot so lifelike you’ll have to guess if she bleeds.”

“You made her to replace you,” he repeated, as if he couldn’t believe the words to be true.

It suddenly all made sense to Dimitri. He never wanted to unlearn something as much as he did then. He cursed inwardly. If only he had been a little more naive. Perhaps then he wouldn’t have to be subject to this misery. Dimitri’s heart ached as if it had been shot by a thousand burning arrows. He rested his hands on the table to steady himself. He didn’t trust his knees not to buckle. When Dimitri was finally willing to look at her, he said, “That’s why you’ve been working yourself to death. You’ve known that you don’t have long for a while now, haven’t you?”

When Ilya didn’t say anything, he continued. “Ilya, I just don’t understand. Why didn’t you ever tell me? I … I just wish you trusted me enough to tell me.” Dimitri thought he was special. He thought he would be the exception. He now knew that he was wrong. To her, he was the same as everyone else.

“I didn’t know how,” Ilya said quietly.

“You should have just told me,” Dimitri said, tears streaming down his cheeks. He didn’t bother holding them in anymore.

“And what would you have been able to do?”

Dimitri blinked, surprised by her question. “I—”

“Nothing.” Ilya didn’t wait for him to answer. “You can’t do anything for me even now that you know. But it’s perfectly alright. You know why? Because even I can’t help myself. No one can.”

Dimitri hated that her statements were all so absolute. He clenched his fists. He didn’t want to give up.

“There must be something … something I could do,” he said in a low tone. Dimitri was trembling. “I’ll find a cure for you,” said Dimitri. “I’ll find a way to make you better if it’s the last thing I do.” He took her hands in his.

“That’s sweet. But completely unrealistic,” Ilya said gently. “I know my illness. You can’t make this go away. I don’t even think I can. That’s one of the reasons why I made her in the first place.” She turned her back towards him but Dimitri wasn’t ready to let go just yet. He wrapped his arms around her. She stayed in his embrace.

“Hold on, does Wynonna know about this? Maybe she could—”

“Wynonna knows. She found out about it when I did. She can’t help either.”

“Have you asked her?”

“I don’t have to.”

“You trust her that much, huh?”

“Dimitri, there is no point in trying to go against the forces of nature to prevent death. Everybody dies.”

“How can you say that when you’ve practically created an immortal being? You’re incredible.”

“Incredibly narcissistic, you mean? I made her to be exactly like me. And I both fear and hope that she might be more. “I don’t know if Wynonna really has consciousness. I made her with the intention of creating her to be an autonomous, intelligent being… but there’s no way to test these things out, you know … without giving away that she’s meant to be a replacement for me? If she’s just pretending, she’s doing an incredibly good job.” She peered at him through her fringe.

“I’ll second that.” Dimitri said. Then he asked, “If she’s so perfect, then why doesn’t she take over your role right now? She’s perfectly capable of doing that as she is now, isn’t she? She must see it as the more efficient option.”

“I want to finish my work on my own while I still can. I’m not ready to let go yet. Honestly, I’m afraid that if people found out about Wynonna soon, they’d like her more than me, since she has the potential to exceed my abilities. Then what would my place be in the village? I want to be replaced. It’s why I made her in the first place. But I don’t want that to happen just yet. Is it wrong of me to only want to allow her to take over after I die? I just want a little more time. Wynonna will have all the time in the world after she takes over. She explained to me before, you know. She understands that the world is not ready for her yet. She’s happy to live with the life I’ve given her for now. She’s being considerate.”

“And you know you can trust her because …”

“Look, it would be quite something to know whether I’ve made the perfect replacement, But there was no way to do a test run without letting Wynonna out in the open for good. So far, she hasn’t hurt me or anybody.”

“Yet.”

“And neither have I.”

Dimitri pondered for a moment before he relented. “I think it’s great that she was made in your likeness,” he said. “It would have been really easy for things to turn bad if it were anyone else.”

Ilya smiled at him with that beautiful smile.

“How much time, Ilya?” asked Dimitri.

She didn’t want to deceive him, but that didn’t make it easy for her to tell the truth. “Dimitri, I don’t have long. I don’t know when the illness will take me away. Why do you think I’ve been working non-stop for so long? Some days, I feel better than ever. On others, I feel like I won’t be able to survive past the next day.”

“How much time?” Dimitri repeated through gritted teeth.

“Five years,” Ilya said, her voice barely a whisper.

“Is that the most optimistic or pessimistic prediction?”

“The former.”

Dimitri nodded and tried to remain composed. “Tell me the truth. You decided to tell me the truth when you came in here, so tell me the whole truth. What’s your best guess?”

“One year.”

Dimitri buckled slightly as if he had been shot by an imaginary bullet, but he recovered quickly. “We’ll take all the time we can get.” He kissed her forehead gently.

They stayed like that for a while. “How do you know?” In his desperation, he chose to grasp onto the sliver of hope that the genius he had fallen for might be wrong for once. “How are you so sure you have about one to five years?”

“I wasn’t,” said Ilya. Though her answer baffled Dimitri, it wasn’t too disappointing. “But I consulted Wynonna. She confirmed that my diagnosis is about right,” she continued.

“You trust her even on this matter?” asked Dimitri, incredulous.

“She has a flawless track record.”

Dimitri nodded in resignation.

“Hey,” Ilya took his face in her hands. “It’s alright even if there isn’t. On the bright side, you can be sure she knows how to love you like I do.”

“Bad joke,” said Dimitri. He was still frowning. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll never believe her.”

“That’s a hurtful thing to say.”

“It doesn’t matter since she can’t feel, not really anyway,” he said. “Ilya, if you were going to leave, why did you ask me to stay in the first place?” asked Dimitri, his eyes brimming with tears.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“I don’t believe you,” he looked away. “Was this why you rejected my proposal?”

“Yes, that was one of the reasons. And you’re right. I was being selfish. I’m sorry.”

“It’s torture.”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated, leaning closer.

Dimitri leaned back. “Don’t apologise. It’s not like you fell in love with me all on your own. I share part of the blame for that too.”

Ilya wiped a tear from his eye. In the night, the dim light made her look even more beautiful than usual. Dimitri felt himself falling even more for her ever so slightly. For her beauty. For her intelligence. For her kindness. For everything that she had shown herself to be. Then he chided himself for thinking all these things. He wasn’t sure the person in front of him was the one he had fallen for. Dimitri had no idea how he could find out.

“You’re not supposed to do this,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Even until now, you’re trying to make me feel better, when I should be the one taking care of you.”

“Nonsense. I can take care of myself just fine.”

“Don’t say that when you know it’s not true.” said Dimitri, hurt evident in his voice. He tried to calm himself down with a few deep breaths but failed.

“Oh, Ilya, what have you done?” Dimitri burst out suddenly. He seemed to have realised something troubling. “How could you? I can’t… I can’t believe you …” He put a hand to his forehead. “Who’s going to take responsibility for her actions when she makes a mistake?”

“There will never be a need for that. She’ll never make a mistake.”

Dimitri gave a wry smile. “Yeah, how could she? She isn’t human.”

Ilya tried to touch his arm. Dimitri flinched.

“Are you afraid of me?” Ilya asked, searching his eyes.

“Of course not. I love you,” he said, despite still sounding angry, he stroked her hair gently. She wanted to believe it was true. Ilya wanted to tell him that the two were not necessarily mutually exclusive and there was a flaw in his answer. But there was a more pressing question she had to ask.

“Well then, are you afraid of her?”

“I can’t say my answer is the same.”

“But given enough time, could it be? Do you think?”

“I don’t know how to answer that,” Dimitri stated plainly.

“I think you could. You’ve experienced for yourself that she’s not much different from me.”

“What do you mean?” Dimitri asked despite dreading her answer. Just how many more secrets was she keeping from him? He didn’t know how much shock he could endure.

Ilya bit her lip and looked away.

Dimitri wouldn’t stand for silence any longer. He gripped her shoulders. “You have to tell me.”

“What?”

“Tell me everything. Tell me everything there is to know about Wynonna. You can’t say I don’t deserve to know. ”

“Where would you like me to start?”

“How did you create her?”

Ilya nodded. Then she began what would become a days-long conversation.

Dimitri thought Ilya had only made Wynonna in her likeness, but it went far deeper than that. Way deeper than he was comfortable with.