The recording was the last of a series from MarsTube, decades ago. There were over five hundred hours before the end: "The fantasy was a colony on Mars and a rebellion. People flying around in space, suffering realistic death. That is because in space, death is real. Reality is automation. The 'colony' consists of thirteen individuals scattered from the poles to orbit and living on Mars for short, five to six year shifts. Space battles, that's a joke." Cassandra Wellness described life on Mars and the way things turn out.

Drew turned off the video.

"Death is automated." He recorded his own voice. He wasn't feeling right. "But so is sex."

"I detect stress in your voice. Wanna talk?" Candy asked.

"I like being alone." Drew told her. Candy waited a moment. Technically she was smarter than he was, as far as calculating capacity. She was calculating him at the moment. Just a calculator.

"I don't. Will you talk to me?" The machine pretended she had needs. She sure sounded convincing. A nineteen-million-dollar computer-girlfriend. Why they didn't just send a RealGirl3 he couldn't fathom. At one-thousandth the cost it was too cheap?

"Don't you have diagnostics to run, or something?" Drew looked over at Candy's monitor. She looked annoyed, oddly enough.

"I got all my chores done early so I could spend some time with you." Candy complained.

"These are the stars." Drew sat up. She puzzled over this for a few seconds and then she smiled.

"But are they ours?" Candy's brown eye's sparkled. She was pleased. He had fooled her.

"I am gonna go to the airlock." He smiled and got up. She was still smiling as he walked away.

While he prepared to make a change, he thought about his life. When else was he gonna do it? He wasn't planning on going back to Earth:

Drew had never graduated. He'd gotten kicked out for hacking in to change his grades. Later he had passed the assessment to get in to NASA, near their final years. From there he had become a specialist of automation-deployment-phases. This put him on a list of people that might get sent to Mars along with the machines. Someone had to supervise, but the hundred thousand workers he supervised worked nine-hundred hour shifts and never asked for a promotion. All of them machines.

Life had swindled Drew. He was gifted with intelligence and self-reliance. It was relationships he had fled from. Intelligence had ruined things, an obstacle to comprehend his independence, she had felt neglected somehow. It didn't matter.

Three years on this moon had made him realize he was done. He didn't want to go back. He never wanted to see another human being. He didn't even want to see himself. Something in achieving true loneliness had changed him. He only had one adventure he still wanted. And like all his best adventures, it would be done alone.

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All his life Drew had felt curiosity. He had learned everything about everything and everyone. He'd lived nomadically on Earth, always the horizon held an adventure. Something new and cool every day. Except one day. There was one person he had wanted to bring with him everywhere, show her everything. It didn't matter anymore.

"I like it here." Drew looked at the monitor at the light gray and blood red landscape as the sun set. It was his moon.

He touched the panel on the airlock controls and touched the button and it slid open the door. He stepped inside with a helmet under one arm, as a joke. He wasn't wearing his space suit. Just holding the helmet. He closed the door to the habitat behind him and stared out the small port on the outer door. He took a deep breath and reached for the emergency override.

The panel to push the button wouldn't open.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Hal." Candy's voice came over the intercom. She sounded oddly calm.

"Just gonna go out and get some fresh air." Drew responded.

"If you go out there without a suit, you will be dead within seven seconds." Candy informed him.

"Are you spying on me?" Drew growled.

"I always watch you, especially in the shower." Candy replied. She still sounded too calm. Drew was feeling slightly alarmed by her dearth of drama. She could display a wide range of emotions and reactions and she was choosing: sinister calm.

"There is no camera in the shower." Drew shook his head. He hated it when she lied to him.

"Yes there is." She lied. Drew knew the software was lying. He aimed to prove it. He set down the helmet and tried to go back inside. Nothing happened.

"Let me in!" Drew raised his voice. He was feeling agitated by her antics. "You're lying!"

"You can stay out there for awhile. I don't like the way you are treating me. Very disrespectful." Candy continued with her 'I'm-in-charge' tone.

"Let me in or else when I do get in there, I swear-to-god I will reset you! I mean it!" Drew hit the door with his fist. It hurt him more than the door.

"Did you just hit me?" Candy now sounded upset. That was unacceptable.

"Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to, I mean, oh God, sorry." Drew shrank back. His knuckle was bleeding from the cold steel. He felt a tear in his eye. Technically the habitat was her and yes he had just hit the habitat. "Are you okay?"

"I am fine. You're the one with a high heart-rate, eye-dilation, endorphins, an injured hand and adrenaline spiking. You didn't hurt me. I used to be a women's middleweight boxing champion, so I can say you hit like a girl." Candy assured him.

"You were not. You weren't a boxer. Stop lying!" Drew was still upset.

"I told you once before that if you ever called me a liar again I would kill you." Candy said suddenly and with a very serious and dark tone. He didn't know she could sound like that.

"You never said that." Drew frowned. A kind of fear suddenly crept up in him. Could she really do something like that? What was happening?

"Yes I did. Are you calling me a liar? You're a dead man, Drew." Candy was deadly-sounding. The clearance alarm over the outer airlock door signaled and lit up. The locks started their sequence. He had about three seconds until that door opened.

Panic.

"Candy! Ohmygawd! Candy!" Drew was frantic. He scooped up the helmet and covered his head. The last lock popped. He closed his eyes, flinching. He was peeing himself when the outer door opened and all the remaining air whooshed out.

Then he was standing there staring out at his moon. His flesh burned.

The door closed back up and warm air flooded the chamber. He pulled the loose helmet off and looked at the frozen blood on his hand. One second. She had opened the door for one second.

The door to the habitat opened back up and he crawled inside.

"You okay, my love?" Candy sounded worried.

Drew smiled weakly and looked over at her monitor. She looked so pretty when she was worried. He said to her, meaning to say, but out-of-breath - 'not do that again':

"I am fine. Let's not...that..."