Chapter Seventy

Viktoriya and CLEFF stood together in a field under a clear night sky full of brilliant stars. There were many trees of various sizes and hundreds of sparsely spaced hovering cubes, about one-meter square, floating just above the ground.

“Where are we, Vik?” CLEFF asked as he scrutinized everything around them.

“I’m not exactly sure. But—hey, wait, how are you here with me? How did you get here? I thought these were my own flash-outs?”

“You, yourself, brought me here, Vik,” he said as he turned to her.

As they spoke, a mild cloud vortex appeared in the sky, spinning, spreading, and covering the view of the stars and night sky, causing some of the tallest trees to bend and bow. The clouds gathered slowly, and the night stars gave way for the gloom of the moment to take over.

“Viktori-Ya, is it true that humans, with your condition, your kind cannot experience love?” CLEFF said, enjoying the view ahead of them. The two both stared into the distance as he spoke.

“That something has disconnected you from other human interactions to the point that you are unaware of compassion?” CLEFF asked. He cast a glance at her, then back to his front, as though he desired to avoid her gaze.

“What?” she stuttered. She turned to CLEFF as he continued to mutter the words from his mouth. And perhaps it was anger or perhaps sadness. She could not tell, but it felt like something inside of her snapped. “CLEFF!? Why are you? What made you say—” she sucked in a breath in an attempt to calm her nerves, then spoke again. “Where did you find that?”

CLEFF cast a glance at her, saying more plainly than any words could. You know very well the only place I can find and search for information—The Collective.

She examined the vortex forming in the distance as it rapidly built into a storm, yet in the initial moment, she had not moved.

Everything here felt different. This was not their home on Earth, nor was it the bunker where they had been. Not the ark. It didn’t even seem like a regular flash-out that she usually encountered.

How had they gotten there? She took slow strides away from the ominous vortex, but it seemed the more she walked away, the faster it spiraled downward and moved closer.

“What search did you execute?” she asked him. But as a response, he only shrugged.

“You’re wrong. I can love, I do love. You’re just making up something that’s not even true!”

The vortex grew. The sound of wind rustling filled the air.

“I am merely repeating your search, Vik. The data you, yourself, indexed. You sought these terms and ideas yourself!” CLEFF shouted over the noise.

As they continued the conversation, the terror now resembled a churning tornado, extending down toward the field, growing louder and more expansive as a wall of wind and gusts surrounded them. Finally, two cubes collided with CLEFF, making loud clanging tower bell sounds.

“This place is not real. You are responsible for your flash-outs, and I may only communicate what you provide for me here,” CLEFF continued as the cubes continued to collide against him.

“None of what they say is true! No one understands me at all. No one, not one person on this entire Earth! I can love! I can love!” she screamed back at him, as the wind grew more intense, as though with the swelling of her rage, it rose to meet her distress. Thunder rumbled through the air, and Viktoriya screamed even more.

“I! Can! Love!”

“Then, who do you love, Vik?” asked CLEFF as he held out both of his hands, his eyes fixed on hers as multiple cubes kept clanging against him. A few bounced off him and struck her.

“Ow! CLEFF, you’re too damned big and slow to avoid these things, and this stuff banging all over you is gonna get us both killed! You’re useless!” she spat back.

But his question ran deep in her mind.

Who do you love?

She narrowly evaded another cube just as it ricocheted from CLEFF and barely missed her.

“Vik, you’re simply trying to avoid the question!”

Her vortex nemesis had now grown into a full-blown tornado, rumbling with the low undertones of a freight train, clearing everything in its path as it descended on them, almost as though it had a mind of its own.

Viktoriya stared into the aerial maelstrom as it thrashed upon them, barely able to see CLEFF as the turbulence buffeted them. More cubes continued ricocheting into him, clanging like a hyperactive church bell as they flew away. He let out a distorted, digital scream as he slowly dissolved into bolts, electronic pieces, and broken parts, being torn away as the turbulent winds consumed him. She went rigid and stared in disbelief. She could not move; she could not run.

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

CLEFF melted away right before her eyes, and all that she could do was stand and watch as the storm shredded him.

She should run.

She knew that, but her legs would not respond. Instead, her heart raced, and she trembled as she slowly began to lift off the ground.

“Help me!” she screamed, screeching, grabbing to hold anything, but there was nothing other than the feeling of empty air. She swirled and contorted, lifting from the surface even further, rising into the turbulent embrace.

Was this the end? She closed her eyes, almost willing herself to give in. To let it consume her, but CLEFF’s voice repeated in her head. Who do you love, Vik? Who do you love?

“My parents, Aura, Rebecca. Choe. You. Doctor Maribelle.”

She loved them all. She had always loved them, and it didn’t matter what any Collective search results had produced about her. She knew she was capable of loving so much.

She screamed again, “Help!”

Viktoriya jerked awake, her heart pounding furiously, sweat beads trailing her forehead. Her pupils widened as though to help accommodate any path of escape.

She tried to register everything that surrounded her. She was in her room. She was safe. She sucked in a deep breath, then another, but nothing. She could not breathe; she could not catch her breath. She was having an attack.

She fell from her bed when the door swung open.

Her mom and dad ran to her side. “Honey, it’s okay! Okay! Bad dream!” her mom said as she squeezed her girl tightly, kissing her forehead. “It’s just a bad dream,” she assured her again.

Everything was going back to normal. She squeezed her mom tightly, not wanting to let go of the comfort she had suddenly found. It’s only a dream. She shut her eyes tightly. They were all here. She raised her eyes to see her dad kneeling at her side and CLEFF standing by the door. His android eyes were full of worry.

After a few more minutes, when Viktoriya’s grip loosened, her mom also relaxed hers, staring into her gaze.

“Mom, Dad,” she said, casting a glance at CLEFF, who seemed oblivious of the question he had asked her during the dream, “do you think I am…” she took a deep breath again, as though trying to find the words to say. She peeled her hands away from her mother, wrapping them around herself, and sat up.

“Sometimes, when I think about who I am, and who you are. I wonder about how—” Only when she began talking did it occur to her they had not been home the previous night. In fact, she had landed here directly from the ship.

“Wait! Why are you home now?”

“Honey, we came yesterday when we found out your crew brought you home from the ark. We have our security detail with us, as you requested—everything is fine,” her mom replied and gave a faint smile, caressing her arms. “Now, what were you saying?”

“Do you think I can love?” she blurted out.

Her parent’s eyes widened in surprise. They had not expected her to say anything like that. Her dad glanced at his wife, then back to their daughter.

“Do you believe I am capable of compassion… Or empathy, or showing love to another person? I’ve read the medical and health databases, blogs. And other medical journals about people like me in the Collective, and they—they are not good,” she said. She raised her face to meet CLEFF’s stare and then to her parents for a few moments, as though searching for an answer in them.

“They are wrong, right?” she asked, breaking the silence.

“Of course, they are wrong, honey! We love you!”

“Yes, but… Do you think I can love? Do you believe that I. Me, myself. Can I love you?”

“Yes!” they both exclaimed. “Yes, my love, we know you love us!” her mom said.

“We see your love for us all the time,” her dad agreed.

She stared at them for a long moment, analyzing, trying to determine if perhaps they were only saying so to soothe her feelings. Still, when she stared into those older, wiser eyes, she saw the undying love of two parents for their daughter.

The love that showed they would always be there for her, and they loved her, no matter what. It was a love saying they might not be perfect, and the world might come to an end, but if they had to travel through the universe for her, they would. She sighed and hugged them tightly again, then raised her eyes to meet CLEFF’s.

“CLEFF!! Come over here!” she beckoned.

“Yes, Viktori-Ya?” he replied and took two steps forward.

“Let’s go to the lab. You’re too big and clunky, and you bang around and knock into stuff when we fight together. And you also need some major code changes, some personality type of stuff. And we’ll have to condense your weapon array. I need to run some, um, nested looping. No, wait, parallel AI logic patterns. And oh, while Mom and Dad are here, they can help us get you retrofitted. Wait a minute! I know! I got it! How would you like to be a girl, like me, CLEFF!?”

“Um. Okay. Affirmative! Vik, will my memory of you and I remain? Will I remain intact?”

“Of course you will! I’ll let nothing happen to you, CLEFF! I love you!”

Her parents stared at each other in disbelief at how easily she told CLEFF she loved him.

After a moment of searching through their home labs, she saw they were lacking many of the technologies she was looking for to upgrade CLEFF.

“Mom, Dad. No offense, but your labs suck! Can we go to iNASA-Climate? I need to make CLEFF’s new body in something stronger and lighter than chromium. ”

“Vik, sure, everyone here on this planet owes you multiple favors. Hold on a sec,” her father said while checking his tablet. “Look, let’s go in two weeks when they are not too busy using the robotics lab, okay? There is a scheduled opening at two o’clock that Saturday afternoon.”

“Perfect! Thanks, Dad!”

* * *

Choe was nervous and had her violin in hand to help her with what she must do next. For several months, she had been contemplating her strategy, and there was no more putting it off.

“Mom, I want to know how you would feel about something. Something very important to me.”

“Yes, sweetheart, I’m listening.”

“I would like it if we could both move into the Kuzland’s, with their family and Aura, since she’s there too. I know you are still unwilling for me to see Viktoriya, but I’m eighteen now, and I am determined to do this, with or without you.”

“I knew this was coming. I could tell. If you feel you must abandon me and turn your back on me altogether, then so be it. Ever since your father left, you’ve blamed me for everything, and frankly, I’m fed up with it. I’m your family, and your family is the most important thing ever. After everything that I’ve done fo—”

“Voxi. Silence, please.”