Without another word, Ripley ran down the corridor. Sarah followed in hot pursuit. Sarah’s lungs felt like they were going to give out on her. They stumbled into the lab to find the group scattered around the floor again.

“What happened?” asked Sarah.

“It’s gone!” said Selena. “That damn pscybotic is gone!”

“How did that happen!?” asked Ripley, shocked. “I set the remote. She... was reprogrammed. How could she be gone?”

“Yeah, well maybe you didn’t!”

“Doug,” said Sarah, defensively. “Why would you say that? You saw her do it yourself.”

“Yeah, well it doesn’t explain what just happened?”

“You don’t know what happened,” said Selena. “So why don’t you just shut up!”

Sarah noticed that someone was missing from the party. “Where’s Eduardo?”

Sam huffed a tired breath as he’d just got to his feet. “He’s gone too. Sommer took her with. She thrashed us then grabbed him. He’s gone.”

Sarah heard Ripley gasp one final word: ‘no.'

* * *

Run! Her legs pounded on the gravel, moving at a pace that humans could only dream of. She could feel the ground biting into her feet, but she didn’t let it stop her. She could actually feel it. It was amazing – her nervous system responding to her in real time. She almost felt human... but she wasn’t. Sommer was far from human.

The weight of the young man on her shoulder didn’t bother her either. It was like carrying a rag doll. She hadn’t planned on taking him this far. She had planned on simply taking him as far as outside, but the guards had been on her as soon as she had tasted fresh air. She had to use him to make sure that she wouldn’t be shot to oblivion.

It was only when she reached the shoreline at Kalk Bay that she stopped running. She dropped the one they called Eduardo in the beach sand where he landed with a thud. The beach was gorgeous with white sand running all the way to the roaring ocean ahead. Unfortunately, pscybotics didn’t have the capacity to recognize beauty.

Eduardo said something in a language that upset her norm. Sommer filed through her memory banks and matched his language to be Spanish. She programmed her conversation module so that she could interpret his words as she heard them. The conversation module also made the words that came out of her mouth his vernacular. Not that she intended on speaking to him.

“What are we doing here!? Why did you bring me here!?” said Eduardo in Spanish.

Instead of answering, Sommer simply turned her back to him and started walking towards the caves in the mountains that overlooked Kalk Bay.

Eduardo followed. “Where are you going?”

Sommer was walking at a human pace but was still walking fast. Eduardo was managing to keep up.

“Are you not going to talk to me? You brought me all the way out here, and you are not going to say one word? What, can you not speak Spanish?”

Sommer reached the bottom of a cliff and looked up. The cave was a hundred feet above her head. A piece of cake.

“Great! Another person who doesn’t hear a word I am saying?”

Sommer turned around. “I hear what you’re saying. I am just not listening.”

“You can speak Spanish?” said Eduardo, surprised by her perfect Spanish accent.

Sommer began ignoring him again.

“Sommer.”

Her name caught her off guard. There seemed to be a deeper meaning behind the way he said it. Like he wasn’t simply putting a title to an object, but instead giving her an identity as a person. She turned to him.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“I brought you so that they would not destroy me. But I do not need you anymore.”

Eduardo gulped. “Are you going to kill me?”

Sommer paused as if she was thinking about it. “No. I shall allow you to live. You can leave.”

“What if I don’t want to?” Eduardo looked to the ocean then back at Sommer. “I don’t know where we are.”

Sommer scanned the horizon using her computer-like brain to navigate the terrain. “Just keep heading North-West. Eventually, you will be found by the soldiers. After that, you shall be with your friends within hours.” Sommer began for the mountain.

“I would rather stay here with you.”

“Hmph.”

“What?”

“I am trying to decide whether you wish to stay because you are scared to wander at night alone or because I am currently without clothes?”

Eduardo winced as if the accusation alone pained him. He immediately took off his jacket and gave it to her.

An emotion registered in Sommer that she hadn’t felt in years. It was gratitude. She was an android. She wasn’t supposed to feel. As she put on the jacket, the forgotten words found her tongue. “Thank you.” She was so taken aback that she spoke the words in English.

She could see that he understood as he gave his head a soft bow. “So where are we going?”

Sommer didn’t mind the facts she hadn’t even said that he could stay with her. “Up there.”

“And how do you plan on getting there?”

“Jump?”

* * *

Before long, seconds had turned into minutes, and minutes into hours. Sommer and Eduardo were seated uncomfortably in the cave, but it was going to have to do.

Sommer sat with her knees curled against her chest, the jacket hiding every part of her body now. She noticed that Eduardo was in deep thought. “You are thinking of something. What is it?”

“Why did you allow me to live?”

“Because there was no logic in killing you,” she answered automatically.

“There was no logic in bringing me here, yet you did anyway. Why?”

“Was it not you that said that you would rather stay with me.”

“Is that why you brought me here; simply because I asked?”

Sommer hesitated. She didn’t know the proper answer to the question. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Yes?”

“Why did you wish to stay? Why did you not just go back to your friends?”

Eduardo shrugged. “I guess I liked the fact someone could understand what I was saying for once. I mean, it’s hard being me... understanding the basics of what everybody else is saying but them not understanding a word that you are saying. I only moved to Canada recently from my home in Mexico... well I guess it’s a long time ago now. Anyway, I just wanted someone to talk to.”

Sommer nodded. “Well, you cannot stay with me forever. No human can go where I am going.”

“And where is that exactly?”

“Away from here. I am not going to tell you just for you to go and tell your friends.”

“I wouldn’t tell a soul. But I understand.”

Once again Sommer was taken aback. She had that feeling again of gratitude. “Uh, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Sommer. Can I ask you a personal question?”

“There is no question that you could ask that would be personal. I do not have an identity that I would define as... personal.”

“I disagree. You do have an identity, even if it’s long forgotten.”

Sommer felt it again but didn’t directly respond to it. “What is your question?”

“Can you feel? From what I heard back there, pscybotics cannot feel. They are androids. Yet you—”

“I what?”

“You’re human. Well, almost human. But I mean, you seem to have this thing about you. I should be dead, yet I’m not. You’re supposed to be a killing machine, yet here I am.”

Sommer didn’t want to answer. She wanted to ignore this feeling that was becoming too familiar by the minute. But maybe it wouldn’t feel as weird if she spoke about it. “You’re correct. I can feel. Something those scientists don’t know about me is that, while their ‘rebooting’ doesn’t work, every experiment takes its toll on me.”

“Experiments?”

“Mind control experiments. Every time they try to ‘reboot’ me, it works for a short while, but then their control diminishes, and I am an android once again. But while my mind ‘snaps back’ to my true nature, my emotions seem to lag behind. I feel things that an android shouldn’t feel. I do things that an android shouldn’t do. I am even afraid.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“I am afraid... that one day I will explode. I am afraid that one day I will be faced with a choice between my two battling sides. A choice that I do not want to make. A moment I hope will never come.”

“The moment of truth,” said Eduardo, understanding. He understood what was going on in her mind. She could see that he now had a piece of mind when it came to her – all the conflicting emotions inside her like she was a high school girl.

They became quiet for the rest of the evening with Eduardo falling asleep and getting some deserved rest. He hadn’t gotten any sleep since the jump through time. Sommer watched him as he slept and found herself wondering what he was dreaming about. She wondered if he was dreaming about her. She couldn’t tell. She didn’t even remember what it was like to dream, considering that pscybotics didn’t have the luxury of sleep. She could only watch Eduardo with envy.