"Is this death or rebirth?" - "Falling Back to the Earth" - Starset

"A time to be born, and a time to die;" - Ecclesiastes 3:2

"Humans have always been capable of great change, Sir."

"No, we haven't."

"Oh, and what is this?" Lars gestured around him in the training room.

Sweat rolled down his face as he faced off against his robotic opponent. Lars talking with him while he was training was supposed to be a distraction, one he was supposed to ignore.

Unlike the droid in front of him, he was human a with few extra parts, needed and necessary parts.

And emotions.

Emotions he was trying to shut down.

"Your opponents will lack the basic empathy that you'll be carrying with you, Sir."

"So?"

"So their strike will always be faster and without hesitation. If you could learn to think logically while fighting, you'll stand a better chance of success."

"I get that, but..." He hesitated to answer.

"You'll wonder who is an AI... and who is simply a droid?"

"Maybe..."

"You are an odd human, most humans wouldn't ask, wouldn't consider the implications..."

His tone changed and Captain Scott could swear he heard a note of wonder in the metallic voice. After years of putting down a rebellious group of AI, changes had come, new rules for how an AI was born, raised... and even how they died. Few humans would hesitate to pull the trigger.

"I always find myself wondering if they are there by choice, or programmed..."

"You seem to be the only human I know with this issue, Captain."

"It's not an issue to consider whether they are enslaved or not..."

"Look at this way, humans on old earth used to use child soldiers..."

"...which is barbaric."

"...Of course, it was. But it worked because those on the other side would hesitate to shoot children, but in your case, you have to think about it logically."

He swallowed, not sure where Lars was going... He only stared at his opponent, a battle droid, who only existed as a practice opponent. He'd made sure there was no AI inside. Since meeting Lars he had no taste for the idea of keeping an AI inside any job it did not wish to be.

"A machine," Lars continued, "Would have looked across that field and only saw the weapons being aimed. Not the creatures holding them. They wouldn't have recognized the apparent youth or whether or not they wanted to be there. And who do you think would have won the battle, Captain?"

"The machine..."

"And the war?"

He hesitated, Lars was too damn philosophical sometimes. There wasn't necessarily a right or wrong answer here.

"Those wrote the history." It wasn't a good answer, but his brain was elsewhere as the training droid leaped at him.

Logically speaking it was whoever had dealt with the child soldier bearing armies. Sure they had engaged in a few skirmishes and won a few battles with them, but eventually, those people were dealt with, long gone.

But he didn't think people could change. He was a prime example of that. Here he was training to make it to the top, to be the best, hold his hard-earned position.

And an AI of all beings was telling him humans were capable of change.

Logically, he should use an EMP against this thing, it would be the fastest way to take it out. But that wouldn't help him engage the metallic beings, he had to learn to think as they did, move as they did.

Logically he would have to mow down those soldiers just to win the battle. But to win the war? War was more than just the fight, it was also the aftermath, dealing with what left behind. There was no way to win all of that...

Fortunately, he didn't have to make those decisions. He just had to keep the crew of the Aphelion going.

He tried to keep his mind focused on the fight at hand, but every time the eyes lit up with the bogus impression of life inside, he wondered as he fought to avoid the swings.

Could he make that kind of choice, if he ever had to face it?

___________________________________________________________________________

Ember leaned against Red's chest as he carried her up the bleachers. Her weight was nothing to him, his muscular arms made her feel like she was light as a feather although she had squeaked when he'd first scooped her up. 

She would have been lying to herself if she didn't admit she was enjoying the feeling. She'd never been quite literally swept off her feet by anyone. Her station in her previous life would not have allowed such a thing.

Life outside of Neo-Tokyo was vastly different. They were a bit freer with their emotions here. And this was just a prison. 

She wondered what a normal life was like for anyone not jailed.

She kept her eyes closed and her face slightly tilted towards Red's chest. It kept the light out of her eyes. Or so she told herself. She was exhausted, too tired to protest that she could walk, not when they both knew better.

She managed to curse at the designers for the Vesper program for the first time. It was hard because it had brought her so much freedom before and she loved it. The system was brilliant but it meant she could never retire. Did they know when they first set up the system in the first place? Had they set it up purposely? It was never explained this way to the young Ember when she eagerly applied for the position. Despite her own set-backs technology had enabled her to be useful.

Even now when she was dying.

For a moment in Red's arms as he moved up the steps she felt bitter hatred towards Neo-Tokyo, and she understood Red. His anger and bitterness, the way he cut his eyes at her because of who and what she was. She understood that, and yet he was carrying her now, pushing his disgust aside. Not to mention that thinly disguised rage.

Don't take it for more than what it is, she chided herself. He needs you to escape that's all. When they get out of here, you'll be dead and all of that changes.

She still remembered the dream and he was now only reinforcing the idea that he would protect her against...

She didn't know what he had been fighting against. Some sort of blackness that had threatened to overwhelm them both. It could only be the trigger in her brain, something her mind was trying to sort out subconsciously as it worked through everything she'd been through that day.

Red was just a prisoner, barely human, she reminded herself. Too long in the system and he was damaged.

But at the same time, she admired him.

Losing hope killed lesser men. He was still here, alive. Not untouched by the circumstances but alive.

She'd been born in Neo-Tokyo and served it for the longest time. After the Purge, only her family's position had kept her alive until this point and well hidden.

Her refusal to go along with her father's wishes had landed her here.

He'd wanted her to join Orion's Reach, a group that actively hunted down rogue augments and disposed of them. But a rogue augment was simply any augmented human that refused to have their parts removed, any human who refused to be "purified."

By that definition, she was a rogue augment.

"You just don't know!" Her father had raged at her. "But you will." It was an ominous threat, one she hadn't understood at the time. Until he'd dropped her here, weakened, drugged and unable to escape the mechanical prison known as Helion 7.

She came out of her own thoughts abruptly as she felt Red settle her bottom on the bleacher near the top corner. From here she had the advantage, no one would be able to sneak up on him. She doubted anyone could anyway, a deep scan of his augments showed her just how much was beneath the surface. She understood right away she was dealing with military and not just some run of the mill augment who needed an extra part of life support.

Dangerous, her brain screamed. Her mind tried figuring that out. Her father hunted down dangerous augments, that's what his group was for. How did they not know someone like Red was in here? And then he placed her in here with him?

"Thank you," she said out loud as she straightened and turned her face skyward. It was warm and would only get hotter. A breeze pushed the heat away from her skin for a few brief but wonderful moments.

She closed her eyes enjoying the heat for a moment, listening for him to walk away but he didn't. In fact, he did the last thing she expected and that was to sit down behind her and prop a leg up on either side of her.

Again, she gave a little squeak of surprise.

"Just lean into my chest," he grunted as he adjusted himself around her.

She was too surprised to do anything else but obey. She shifted until her back was to his chest and leaned back. His hand came up and pushed her hair out of his face.

"Won't people get the wrong idea?" She asked haltingly. She kept her hands folded against her chest, trying to make as little contact as possible. It was impossible considering he literally surrounded her.

"Yeah, I'm kind of counting on that," he whispered as he leaned back against the wall. "Makes things easier if they think you belong to someone already."

She stiffened and her cheeks flamed and she was glad he wasn't sitting in front of her.

He must have felt her tense up. "Just lean back, I promise that I am most definitely not going to get the wrong idea. I am well aware that you could fry me to slag if you wanted."

Ember snorted, not entirely comfortable. Too anyone else watching they looked like two lovers relaxing on a bench. His arms rested comfortably on his legs but he apparently was also making an effort to keep the contact to a minimum. They encircled her but he wasn't quite holding her. He was doing his best to not touch her if he didn't have to.

She sighed and leaned forward, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

"I can sit up here alone Red, you don't need to babysit me."

She turned her head and snuck a glance at him but he was leaning back against the rail with his eyes closed.

"Because that worked so well already. There are at least three men watching you right now, I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"The one from the hall?" She shuddered and almost leaned back into him by reflex which made no sense either. He was a stranger.

"Karik? He's just one of them..." Red opened his eyes and leaned forward catching her gaze. "I think... Maybe word got out that you... you are something else..."

She turned away but when she did, his breath tickled her ear, goosebumps rose along her arms despite the long sleeve shirt and the relatively warm air.

He leaned back again. She didn't have to turn around to know that his eyes were closed.

She felt her strength draining even as she sat there. She needed to push a signal out that didn't have the correct power supply. It was like being plugged into the wrong charger. The drain was pulling more than was coming in.

Again she cursed the Vesper program. She was going to have to shut down more systems.

She shuddered, feeling a chill that came with the fear emanating from her gut. There weren't many left. The one that took the most power currently was her visual cortex. It ran separately from everything else and was her most cherished augment. She remembered the day she'd received sight. The sight of her mother's deep brown hair and sparkling green eyes as she beheld her for the first time. Her older brothers' matching brown. And then her own glance into the mirror at herself. She had her father's brown hair and blue eyes. But her mother's tiny feminine features.

Her twin brother had created the system for her. He had taught her all the colors, taking delight in the eyes he had made for her.

She missed him more than the others. Her heart ached. She'd never been close to her eldest brother, but her twin, before she'd joined the Vesper program, they'd been close.

The visual cortex was the one system she was loathed to lose. She took a deep breath and prepared herself. The sun lit the grounds of the prison, humans milled around in disordered groups, all in the same brown outfits, some like herself had a white shirt underneath. Others had discarded the garment or turned it into something else entirely.

Some kind of game was going on in the corner involving a circular ball being kicked around. She had no idea what it was called or how to play.

It might be the last time she saw anything. Her eyes roved over the destroyed spectrum of humanity, from here she could barely make out the tops of old ships, and even some trees beyond the walls. The sky was a brilliant shade of blue that would have been beautiful if it wasn't the backdrop to such a tragic scene.

There was beauty, even here in the gutter of humanity. Father, you were wrong about this, all of it.

"Red," her voice was barely a whisper.

"Hear something?" He leaned forward pushing her forward as well. She didn't have to see his face to know he was anticipating her answer. They had been sitting there for hours already. He had to be stiff.

"No...I'm going to shut down everything necessary to keep my sensory array at it's fullest strength."

"Ok..." He sounded puzzled as he leaned back readjusting them both.

"When I do, I'll be blind."

She heard his breath suck in. "Is that necessary?" His voice was barely above a whisper. An arm had tightened around her only for him to relax and pull it away again.

"I haven't got much left," She replied leaning into him and letting her weight rest on him. "But I'm going to use it to get some of us out of here."

"I'm sorry."

Red went silent again. "Don't worry." Ember smiled as she gave the command to shut down her visual cortex. "I'll still be able to tell you, you're full of shit." Her voice wavered betraying a small amount of fear. His arms tightened in around her shoulders as he leaned his face into the back of her head. He didn't quite wrap his arms all the way around her but he came close.

"Why would you--"

"Someone is escaping this place, Red, even if it isn't me."

"I guess it's too bad you weren't born mute."

In spite of the situation, Ember laughed out loud at his words. Then she took a deep breath and gave the command to shut everything down.

Everything went black and she grabbed Red's arms instinctively startled at the blackness that surrounded her. She had to fight down the panic that came with it. Not again, never again.

This time his arm snaked around her waist and he pulled against him. "You ok?" His voice came out of the inky blackness, his breath tickling her ear.

"Yeah," She took a deep breath and focused on listening again. "I just wasn't prepared for every to go dark, I--." She stopped and took another deep breath.

"Dark? But--" He stopped and fell silent again.

She felt one hand on her shoulder and his forehead leaned against the back of her head. It wasn't a hand grabbing her in pain, but a sympathetic gesture.

She laughed a little remembering the dream she'd had. It seemed ironic now. She'd be dead soon, not him. Probably for the best.

Just as he'd intended, anyone who saw them now would have thought they were lovers spending alone time watching the sky. Not two people attempting to hatch an escape from the most impossible of places.

While one was on her deathbed.

He leaned back and without asking she did too, resting against his chest. If they were going to start broadcasting it would need to happen soon.

Ember went silent for a moment and judged by the amount of heat leaving her face that the sun was going down. She listened with everything she could, spreading her reach into as many signals as she could but paying attention specifically to the one she'd heard before. Was that satellite still out there?

She found herself leaning back into Red's chest completely relaxed. She felt his fingertips drift over her elbow. She could hear his steady heartbeat in his chest while she searched. It was a comforting sound above the other noises in the prison.

All an act, Ember, remember that... You're almost dead anyway.

In the silence Red shifted position around her leaning back, but never once did he leave her side, she could hear him breathing as he moved, the bleachers creaked every time he shifted. He stretched one leg and then the other groaning as he did so. But he didn't move away from her.

She switched between signals and feeds and listened. It had been faint before, she understood that someone was actually sending a feed and bouncing a signal to them, but it had to be hidden from rest of the signals permeating the atmosphere.

Whoever had done it was a genius.

Still even genius had to contend with space and time, not to mention the hostile elements out there...

Ember stiffened as the words dropped into her mind from the same frequency she'd caught before. Finally...

<...two clicks east...>