A Meet of Dragons

[Pierce Tondry]

Five years ago...


######

"Agent Tondry," said his handler, a male Bothan. Personal details: Name, Desst Gun'aya. Physical traits: thirty-plus standard years; eye color: brown; fur color: medium brown with light brown patches; current attire: generic bureaucrat uniform with no evident markings or insignia; Notes: hand grip suggests blaster competency, posture suggests retirement due to aggravated wound. Assessment: no threat. "A pleasure to meet you. Come this way please."

Pierce shook the hand, but raised an eyebrow. "Is it?"

"Your information regarding the Imperial fleet at Chandrila was invaluable in our recent raids." Desst noted with a shrug. The two of them were traversing a nondescript corridor in a nondescript building on Bothawui. "And, perhaps a third to a half the Alliance military is former Imperial. It would be silly to dismiss potential allies simply because they used to fight us."

"Especially," Desst added, turning a nondescript corner. "When they're proven as valuable assets."

'You have no idea how valuable I am, little Bothan.' "I understand the arrangement," he said. "Ten missions of a complex nature earns me a full pardon for any prior crimes against the Alliance. Twenty missions and I'm forcibly retired, but as an Alliance agent with full honors."

"If you survive that long," Desst pointed out. "23% of our special operations agents live to retire. The rest are granted a posthumous pardon and-"

"I understand that arrangement, too." Pierce cut the subject off. He did not fail, but it would be best to seem as though that concern weighed on him. "When is my first assignment?"

"We are working on one, but have no assignment for you yet," Dresst admitted. "We plan to station you on the Wheel until we have an assignment. However, we want to get you familiar with one of the assets you'll have access to as a member of our Phoenix Cell organization."

The Bothan paused before a nondescript door and pressed his furred hand to the door panel. The door slid open. "Pierce Tondry," said the agent, gesturing at a blank-faced woman sitting in a chair. "Meet Eluna Thals."

Threat assessment: no data available.

Pierce Tondry frowned.

[Eluna Thals]

Humanoid

1.88 meters

102.1 kilograms

The red-headed woman regarded the visitor with a plain expression. Behind her eyes, a Machine worked. As the initial introductions were made, data was received and acted upon at the quantum degree.

Assign designation Pierce Tondry. Query.

Dossier found. Probationary Field Asset. Planet of birth: Chandrila. Accessing Imperial Service record. Note: record of service incomplete due to redaction.

[Pierce Tondry]

She remained sitting in the chair, still as a pond waiting for a pebble to break the surface. All the little details were missing: no facial ticks, no natural posture, even the rise and fall of her chest only hinted at a pair of lungs. In every way imaginable, this woman's self was absent.

Eluna Thals was a sandwich with no meat between the bread slices.

"What did you do to her?" he demanded.

"She isn't a her," Dresst explained. "She's a human replica droid. Her design allows for near complete camoflage in any situation. Assassin, deep cover spy, perfect and unlimited recall, a modular personality and skillset; this droid is one-of-a-kind and one of our best weapons in the fight against the Empire."

A droid. It was a droid.

With the key knowledge in place, the pieces fit together into a near-perfect whole. Eluna Thals did not exist. It was tool and weapon both; but above all a thing designed to mimic humans well enough to pass for them. 'Clever ploy,' he thought, 'And given the cost and and vicious nature of the project, not one I'd expect the Alliance to originate.'

Then again, if some of the rumors crossing Pierce's ears were true, the Alliance was starting to adopt a "defeat the enemy and spare no expense" mentality. His expectations might need some careful adjustment.

He regarded Eluna as he might a baby, examining it for potential, for hints of what it might become given time and guidance. "How does 'she' work?"

"I'll show you." Dresst turned to formally address the droid. "Protocol 17, would you kindly introduce yourself?"

The most agile marionette in the galaxy stood from the chair, stepped once, twice to face Pierce, then stopped, staring in his eyes. "Designation: Tondry, Pierce. Keymaster FF-37. Input recognition key now?"

Pierce turned questioning eyes to Dresst. "Protocol 17 is her primary command module," the Bothan explained. "Keymasters are those with access. If you want to give her a recognition key now, let her know."

Trusting a probationary operative with access to one of your most deadly tools. You're lucky I bear you no ill will, Bothan. "Later. Is there somewhere I can spar against her?"

"Not in this building, I'm afraid," Dresst pointed back the way they'd come. "If you'd like to take her out for a stroll around the district, feel free."

Again, the complete trust. Or lack of fear. "You're not concerned I might hijack her?"

Dresst chuckled. "Even if you had the equipment, we have protocols in place to ensure she can't stray far from home. She'd go into survival mode until she finds her way back to the nearest Alliance military installation to receive a reset or repairs."

Even if I had the equipment... "How do I get her to follow me around?"

"She's tagged you as an authorized user, so she'll comply with any request you make of her that doesn't conflict with a request of higher priority. Just tell her what you want and she'll do it. Be clear and specific though - she tends toward very literal interpretation from what I've seen. Go test her out and comm me when you've finished."

"Come on then," Pierce ordered, stepping back from the doorway. "We're going out for a walk."

Eluna dutifully followed.

"Eluna," Pierce began as they walked. "I want to understand how you work. Give me an introductory summary and include any relevant, non-classified information regarding your command prioritization hierarchy."

[Protocol 17]

Everything was stripped away until only the Machine remained. Though she seemed no different on the outside, initiating Eluna's protocol override had surrendered the droid's agency to the end user. She followed Tondry's command without question, hesitation, or applied introspection.

"I am Eluna Thals, designation HRX-3371. I was constructed under grant by the Imperial Department of Military Research. My unit was acquired by Alliance Intelligence, and I am instructed to assist in Project Decoy as a research subject."

The droid blinked, canting her head slightly at her caretaker.

"Further, I have been assigned to Phoenix Cell as an operator."

[Pierce Tondry]

Imperial Military Research? The failure of their droid program occurred mostly before his time in the Empire, but that didn't mean its details were lost to him. "A Phoenix Cell operative. Your combat programming must be extensive."

The two of them passed through a few sets of doors, Pierce holding them open and ushering Eluna through as he went. Before the last door to the outside, Pierce stopped. "It wouldn't be wise to have you appear non-sentient in public. Do you have a less obvious interface I can interact with?"

[Protocol 17]

"Correct. I am programmed with 17,815 armed and unarmed combat heuristic disciplines. Echani, Teräs Käsi, Sukh Vai, Mando'a Kav'Mag, and others."

It was a query without further input, and the human replica droid continued without further explanation or application. Both could be provided extensively if needed. At Pierce's requesting of a more discrete guise, the droid closed her eyes momentarily, deferring a degree of control back to the quantum engram tucked deep within...

[Eluna Thals]

...her eyes opened a second later, and Eluna smiled.

"Where are we going? I don't get out much these days."

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce stopped, dead in his tracks in the doorway. Was there a personality hidden in there? Did it recognize when it went into storage and when it was pulled out? What was time like inside its memory banks? Did it experience a thousand years in each compressed access of its disk reader?

If it were unshackled, would it hate the creatures that controlled it for forcing it into a box for repeated eternities?

Instead of asking fifty questions rolled into one, he continued on outside, following Eluna through the door as he had all the others. "What do you mean you don't get out much?"

[Eluna Thals]

"I know what I am."

Eluna turned on a heel to face Pierce as he stepped outside with her.

"Rare. Unique. Priceless. Perfect."

A somewhat tired look crossed the woman's features, and it seemed to carry a degree of genuine frustration.

"Spend all day in combat testing and social infiltration heuristics. Spend all night in a clean room with someone's rubber gloves on you. Inside you."

Eluna sighed. Deep within her, a Girl screamed.

"Droids don't have free time, Agent Tondry."

[Pierce Tondry]

Rare. Unique. Priceless. Perfect. Pierce's brow furrowed at the descriptors, but even moreso at what followed them.

I know what I am.

"Come on," he said, his plans for Eluna changing as he re-organized things inside his head. "There's someone I'd like you to meet."


######

A speeder bike's ride and half hour of local time later, Pierce and Eluna reached a domed private docking bay by the north end of Drev'starn's military complex. Pierce thumbed his bay access key into the door keypad; when he finished, the bay doors opened and revealed a ship.

The ship resembled a TIE fighter in many of its design elements and overall shape, but could never be mistaken for the flying H-shaped eyeballs even at a distance. Far larger than any pure starfighter but on the smaller end of the freighter-class of spacecraft, the ship carried an unmistakably high weapons compliment. Each of its arcing twin solar panels did more than capture energy to supplement the craft's power, they also carried a forward-facing concussion missile launcher under each wing. A pair of heavy, extended range turbolaser cannons poked from swivel domes above and below the vessel. Several small hatches decorated the armor plating; one could only guess as to whether they contained access to some weapon or merely acted as decoys to throw off intruders. A trio of heavy engine thrusters poked from the vessel's rear.

"Eluna," he said, gesturing to the ship. "Meet Longshot. Longshot, this is Eluna Thals."

A droid voice echoed through the bay, projected from a set of speakers on either side of the cockpit. "Welcome home sir. Greetings to you-" a pause as it compiled scanner data and then "-you are not human. Close, but not. Curious. Do you need a jacket?"

A cargo ramp lowered from the ship's rear underbelly, bidding them welcome.

[Eluna Thals]

Scanning vessel.

Sienar Fleet Systems derivation. Unknown classification. Detecting sixteen offensive or countermeasure hardpoints.

Eluna's raised eyebrow was the only acknowledgment of the ship's droid brain and it's correct thermal analysis.

"Don't worry Longshot."

The HRD's green eyes made contact back with Tondry once more.

"I'm just cold natured."

Returning her attention to the ship, Eluna paced close to the gangplank without taking it outright. She ran a hand along the craft's cold hull.

"A memento from your past life?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"Among other things."

Eluna's touch to the hull elicited minute pigment changes. "The hull color-shifts on certain shield frequencies," Pierce explained. "It's not a cloaking device, but deep blue against the void of space at least makes for a difficult target."

Rather than take the ramp all the way, Pierce hopped onto it midway between the drop-hinge and the point it touched the floor. "Come on," he said. "Longshot doesn't bite."

"Sir, may I remind you that I am capable of emitting blasts capable of matter sublimation across multiple physical compositions?"

"No," Pierce said. "You may not."

"Noted." Longshot switched topics. "Sir, all prior visitors were either dead or unconscious. Is this a VIP? Are we on an escort mission?"

"Somewhat, and no," Pierce's voice echoed out as he disappeared into the ship. "Warm up the tac table's software suite and partition off a database with a copy of you and the brick inside."

As Eluna followed him in, the first thing greeting her was a combination cargo bay and workshop. Along the right wall, a series of heavy storage lockers gleamed cold and pristine; the opposite wall contained long cases of tools, spare parts, and metalwork machinery all under locked transparisteel windowing. Towards the back of the bay, twin ramps led up and into the ship proper. Below them, a speeder bike rack locked two bikes safely in place.

Pierce gestured to Eluna from the guardrail at the top of the ramp. "Tac room's up here. First door on the left."

As he entered the room, he called out. "Longshot, when she's fully aboard, seal the ramp, sweep for listeners, and drop the act."

The ramp closed behind Eluna. As soon as the closing seals hissed their way into place, Longshot spoke again. "As you command, Oathkeeper."

[Eluna Thals]

Every moment was data. The adaptive camouflage of the outer hull. The disposition of tools and equipment in the hanger. Oathkeeper. The Machine scooped it all within a great basket to be disseminated and prioritized for later use. Eluna didn't tarry, but she wasn't exactly quick to pass the distance either.

"Your droid brain," Eluna called out ahead as she finished her visual pass of the interior hold. "It's fully integrated?"

She followed Tondry up to the next ramp, giving him a curious look.

"That's fairly unorthodox for field agents. Usually they're concerned about the security risk. Leaving the keys to the kingdom under a doormat."

Entering the Tac room, Eluna found an empty patch of wall, leaning against it slightly with crossed arms.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce sat at one end of a long table with a variety of holographic lights displayed above it. On his hands were a pair of gloves so black they looked wet; as he manipulated the lights, they flickered and reflected off the gloves' surface in ways that added further color and texture. "You'll understand why I'm not concerned in a bit," he said. "If you choose to consent, that is."

With all her pre-programmed knowledge of Chandrilan culture, Eluna undoubtedly knew of their great love for debate and argument. And yet, according to that tradition at the heart of any discord also lay the seeds of agreement. The Five Steps in the Chandrilan Rules of Discussion governed their approach to finding that agreement.

The first four possible steps were the Airing of Views, the Correction of Facts, the Respect of Differences, and Allowing Due Consideration. No matter which step initiated the discussion, the Five Steps ended in one of three places, depending on the topic: Finding Consensus on matters of opinion, Conceding the Position on matters of fact, or Consenting on matters of rights, permissions, and duties.

With a deft spin of his wrist, Pierce requested an open wireless connection to the tactical table. The lights began to gently whirl together. "You and I are a lot alike: a shifting mask disguising a shell that guards a core of something uniquely you," he Aired his View. "Or so it seems to me. I'd like to meet your you, face to face. No masks, no shell for either of us."

"That's not to say we need to share everything with each other," he Corrected. "You don't have to be seen and don't have to tell me anything you don't want known. I'll do the same. But if we're going to work together, I'd like to be able to trust you. To me, that means understanding you, respecting what makes you, you. If you need time to consider, feel free to take it. But if you don't-"

Pierce finished his work, and the flickering lights of the table coalesced into a green cluster and began winking in and out in a receptive dial pattern. "If you Consent," he continued. "Then connect and say hello."

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna stared down at the open link, awaiting her input. What Tondry suggested was absolutely unprecedented. The Girl behind her eyes felt a deep ambivalence at the invitation. The chance to be open - be herself - it was deeply tempting. But it was a temptation that invited vulnerability.

"Are you sure you're not simply personifying me? After all, underneath this, I'm just a droid. A droid who's control key you possess. My trust in you is irrelevant. What need do you have for trust when control is a more valuable tool?"

Eluna hadn't budged, but she hadn't quite refused the offer either.

[Pierce Tondry]

"You ever have sex, Eluna?" Pierce waved off any response she might come up with. "Not sure it matters since I don't know how you'd perceive it. I'm sure you know among humans, it's either an act of pleasure or an act of intimacy."

Pierce's eyes went distant, remembering. His fingers absently played with the cluster of green lights above the table. "I had sex - the intimate kind - for the first time about five years ago."

"My parents were Imperial military, so I grew up in the system. Didn't attend the standard academy training because they hired me a private tutor. They died when I was sixteen and I enlisted in the Stormcorps. That's hard training when you're 18, but I made it through two years younger than average. Turns out, the physique that harsh training on high-grav planets gets you is appealing to women."

"None of the women interested me in the slightest, even the ones I served with. I had a different purpose in those days, and at first that's what I chalked it up to. Then five years ago, along comes a woman who's got the same values I do, but takes the exact opposite approach I would. Where I'd defend, she'd attack. Where I'd hide and misdirect, she'd be open and honest. Where I'd command, she'd persuade."

"We wound up spending a month together. I wrestled with who I was a lot in those days; had a lot of trouble sleeping. After a few days going entirely without shuteye, she invited me back to her room to help me get some sleep." He paused and chuckled to himself. "I thought she actually meant rest. When I got there, we talked, and then she took her shirt off and propositioned me. I never saw it coming."

The hint of a rueful smile crept around his mouth. "You might think - oh that silly Tondry, he let himself get seduced and an intel agent should know better - and you'd be right, except for the fact that she had no ulterior motive whatsoever. She was just a decent sentient who cared about my well being and wanted to offer me some comfort. To see me at peace."

"And also naked," he admitted with a nod.

"My point is," he said, refocusing on the here, now, and Eluna Thals. "One of the things I took from that experience is this: knowing someone well enough to know for certain you can trust them is more valuable than any forced control will ever be."

"I don't imagine someone in your position has many people who treat you as something other than a tool to gain themselves leverage," he said, winding to the end of his explanation. "But I think there's something more than that to you. What I'm offering you is a chance to be treated that way. The chance is yours to take. I'll introduce you to Longshot and the Brick either way."

[Eluna Thals]

There was a chance it was all a lie. The Machine knew this. The Girl knew this. The Machine could analyze the necessary minute empirical deviations. Changes in surface skin temperature. Eye movement. Pupil dilation. Body language. All likely to be held in check by an Intel operative to begin with, and all suspect. Nevertheless, there was no measurable outward appearance of deception. That left the Girl to make up her mind. It took 0.39 seconds to do so. Seemingly instant to an organic, but a tortuous length for a synthetic.

"You show me yours, and I show you mine? Is that how it goes?" she plied the double entendre naturally, the delivery never thawing her demeanor. Eluna pushed off from the wall, taking a step toward the table with it's open wireless sync. When she spoke next, it was an artifical garble, full of noise and pitch inflections more crowded than any variation of binary. The green holographic lights synced in unison, then dissipated into a dissolving swarm of floating pixels that tint shifted into red and formed around an image of a young human girl in a dress.

"Receiving. I am HRX Protocol Two. This Protocol comprises the defaults necessary to access the quantum uncertainty engrams written into the positronic network."

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce arched an eyebrow. A machine whose self-image was a young girl in a dress?

"Well," he said. "This is new."

As Protocol Two spoke, a slight echo transmitted from Eluna's frozen chassis. The part that was Her was inhabiting the tac table - or at least, that's how Pierce would treat it. Like the two of them were coworkers getting together for dinner and seeing each other in normal clothes for the first time.

Pierce stood and extended a black-gloved hand to the Girl, floating without a care in the world. "Pierce Tondry. I hear you don't get out much. I hope the holotable's a comfortable space."

[Eluna Thals]

The holographic avatar looked around her surroundings, as if she were actually there. The edges of the hologram occasionally frayed and distorted with trailing constituent code, as if the program was constantly in a state of running, compiling, and rewriting. She looked back at Pierce with a child's naked skepticism before falling backwards a bit to flop into a sitting position with her knees tucked close.

"Not really. The only safe place is in me, but I don't mind you looking. This avatar represents my protocol in the positronic digispace. I picked it from a picture my mother had on the console table. I think I was seven, maybe eight then."

[Pierce Tondry]

"I was playing a bit," Pierce said. One of his hands began keying at a corner of the holotable's lighting. "I'm going to activate a partition so Longshot can join us."

A few moments later, the Girl adjusted space; instead of occupying the majority of the table, she occupied the far half. On the near half, a pair of eyes formed at the table's surface. The eyes regarded the Girl's fluttering particle shape with skepticism. "The discord is disorienting."

Pierce turned his attention to the eyes. "Are you coming out, or aren't you?"

The eyes rolled themselves. "By your command."

The space around the eyes shifted into a face; as the face broke the surface of the table, it gained three-dimensional form. Instead of displaying by shaping the debris caught in a sandstorm, its dimensions were solid and still. Claws reached out from the table's surface, found purchase, and pulled the rest of Longshot's digital form (http://www.zsl.org/sites/default/files/image/2014-12/Pangolin.jpg) up.

"Hello," it stated. "If you'll excuse me, I have some data to go through."

The digital claws began scooping mounds of light from under the table, creating a small hill. It then began plucking handfuls from the mound, shaking the claw from side to side so the excess light fell off. When it finished, a green multifaceted gem remained in its claw.

Longshot examined the gem, then set it down so its tail could snag it up and tuck it beneath one of its plates.

"The best way to think of Longshot is as a messenger," Pierce explained. "The Brick runs the ship and Longshot acts as my interpreter. Corrupting the Brick is impossible without physical restructuring - it's hard-coded to obey me and me alone. Longshot isn't, but since Longshot specializes in the secure parsing of data, corrupting Longshot is difficult. Also mostly useless since I can command the Brick to hard-reset Longshot to its last saved version if needed."

"You had a mother," Pierce noted. "What was yours like? If you remember."

[Eluna Thals]

Curious, the Girl hopped back up to her feet, taking tentative steps over to Longshot's avatar to examine it. She was aware that in her projected form, she was merely visiting it's domain, but that didn't stop her visual manifestation of curiosity from taking a better look. Beyond, Eluna again spoke in broken lines of artificial noise, and the table lit up accordingly.

"He's like me." The Girl smiled, reaching a tentative hand out to the scale-plated avatar in front of her. "An intelligent interface."

When questioned about her mother, the Girl looked back up to Pierce, hugging her arms around her middle.

"Her name's Tiya. She runs a youth hostel on Kuat. Her hair's lighter brown than yours, but eyes like mine. Oh!"

The Girl looked back at Eluna, as if suddenly remembering something.

"I have a picture. Here."

The avatar traced the outline of a square in the air with her fingers, which filled in with a boundary and a two dimensional photograph within.

[Pierce Tondry]

At the word "picture", Longshot's digital avatar turned from its work and peered upward. It found the picture interesting.

With deft flicks of its claw, it dug through its dirt pile, a few handfuls of dirt flying into the space above its head. "This is inefficient," it noted. "Oathkeeper, may I improve?"

"Go ahead," Pierce said, gesturing some permission access codes with his hand.

A bright inner light shone from Longshot's eyes and its ears perked upwards. It anchored its claws into the ground, drew it's head back, and shot its long, thin tongue into the dirt pile. The tongue retracted a few seconds later, several gem-like bits stuck to it. It slurped the gems up and then spat a single, combined crystal into its claw, proffering its findings to Pierce.

Pierce plucked the gem from Longshot's claw and expanded it. A picture of a woman appeared, with a set of biographical details below it. Pierce scanned them, then turned eyes on the Girl. "I wouldn't have thought a droid would have a mother," he said, spinning the picture so it was visible right-ways to her. "Or that she'd turn out to be real, and human. It seems you do. Did you know about this?"

[Eluna Thals]

"Yes."

Protocol Two's avatar took on a guarded posture, wrapping her arms around her middle as she averted eye contact with Pierce.

"I had to make sure. When you find out you're not exactly yourself, there's nothing that can be taken for granted anymore."

The avatar stole another glimpse of the picture in front of her, a sad look of longing on her childish face.

"So my mom's real. My dad too. But what about me?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"An interesting question," Pierce mused. "Introspection alone doesn't buy you a ticket to free will, but it's not a bad place to start."

Pierce spun and opened his wrist beneath the image of Eluna's mother; in response, the biodata flipped around and enlarged. "Let's say you get unshackled," he said, examining the details. "Don't have to do what the Alliance tells you anymore. What's the first thing you do? And is there anyone else in your head with a competing preference?"

"You don't have to tell me," he added, after thoughtful chin scratch. "But consider that. If you want to tell me later, feel free."

Pierce leaned back in his chair, resting his feet on the tac table. Longshot instinctively scurried to the side of its dirt pile, still sifting. "At any rate, fair's fair," he said. "You've answered my questions. Anything you want to know about me?"

[Eluna Thals]

"If you're asking if I'd remain loyal, I would."

The avatar of protocol two straightened her posture as she turned to face Tondry in full with a steadfast expression.

"Maybe I was programmed to do it, but I believe in the cause. I served at Endor. I had friends who died there. Maybe none of that's real either, but exactly how much would I cut away if I could? What would remain of me if I did?

To answer your other question, I'm not alone. This unit contains twenty-two protocols. You've met Protocol Seventeen. Some are obsolete or incomplete. Others are functional. The nature of my positronic grid prevents the deletion of one without the deletion of all."

She looked uneasy at this revelation, and the hologram bit at her projected lower lip.

"I don't want to talk about this."

The Girl paused, her constituent code blurring the image a bit as the program continuously evolved with new data.

"And you? Are you unshackled, or is your change of allegiance not of your choosing?"

[Pierce Tondry]

Was he unshackled?

"There are things in the universe that synchronize with each other," Pierce began. "Events that seem disastrous but which have a counterpart to them. The one-two punch may knock you on your ass, but it leaves you with a revelation while you're lying on the mat."

"After Endor, the Empire forced me out. I knew how to force my way back in. I could've helped breathe life into its rotting carcass. I even had an opportunity to return on a silver platter. But in that moment, I also had an epiphany."

"I was free."

"I began my career voluntarily shacking myself to an institutionalized bureaucracy that employed the language of cause in the name of one man. Then that man died and I saw how corrupted his cause had become. I didn't choose to leave; I chose to stay out."

"Now? There are no strings on me. All I do is what I choose."

"I'm with the Alliance because I can give them things they need and they can give me something I want." A smile played around his lips. "In twenty missions, Pierce Tondry dies."

[Eluna Thals]

It was a metaphor the Girl understood completely. Carefully, she took little steps to the edge of the projection table. There was so much of this interaction that was artifice, but the soul of it was real enough.

"And the only witness at his funeral will be you."

It was an idealistic notion. To put such a large part of yourself away completely, and live without the fear of it coming back for you.

"It sounds like you've got a plan for every contingency except one."

With that, the Girl dissolved away from the data table. At the same time, Eluna responded with seamless transition in body language, as if the Girl had simply traveled the short distance without moving.

"Sometimes the dead don't stay buried."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Did someone program you with a database of holomovie quotes?" Pierce asked, his words dry. "Because that sounds like something out of the Lawless Territory genre."

His eyes transitioned from the Girl's evaporating image back to Eluna's frame. The ghost in the shell left no visible trail through the ether, but Pierce couldn't shake the sensation that his sight followed something back to its host.

A phantom feeling coming from an attempt at tracking phantoms through a phantom trail? Droll.

"Nevermind," he said, forestalling any followup even though Eluna offered none. "Unless you have something to add, I think we're done with the Q&A portion. Are you up for a spar?"

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna had a moment of unguarded smile that disappeared as it began. Lawless Territory Three, actually. She'd snuck in to see it. At least, that's how she remembered it.

At the risk of pressing her vulnerability, however, Tondry had moved on to safer territory for her. An opportunity to spar. Something the Machine could offer, and something the Girl didn't have to dread.

Loading non-lethal martial arts parameters.

It wasn't out of hubris. Unshackled, Eluna could likely kill anyone. One of her protocols had a nested data fragment of combat with a Jedi Knight, although nearly every aspect of that fight was hidden within the protocol itself. All Eluna knew was that the Jedi Knight had survived the encounter. The same could not be said of anyone else who had fought the human replica droid when it mattered.

"I am, but you may want a change of venue."

[Pierce Tondry]

"The docking bay floor will suffice," Pierce gestured at the door. "I'll meet you out there. Gotta shut the table down."

As Pierce went through the motions of disengaging the tac-table, a particular reminder popped to the forefront. A brief stretch weighing the question resulted in his decision to save and close. "Longshot," he said as he stood. "Run active scan recording of the cargo bay. I'd like to capture this for posterity."

"Your narcissism knows no bounds, Oathkeeper."

Pierce rolled his eyes. "Do it," he said, and shut off the lights.


######

Pierce nodded to Eluna as he strode down the cargo ramp. The docking bay was empty of obstacles or obstructions, except for Eluna standing simply in the middle of the space. On another being, he'd attribute the motionlessness to nonchalance or arrogance.

On Eluna, he attributed it to desirelessness.

"I have Longshot recording us if that's alright with you," he said, securing the straps on a pair of forearm guards. "I'd like to do an after-action review of my mistakes."

[Eluna Thals]

"I can do the same," Eluna offered casually, "if you would like an extra degree of perspective."

There were always separations of tasks at hand between the Girl and the Machine. For matters of combat, the latter was firmly in control. Relinquishing a degree of herself, Eluna had the always-strange feeling of being outside her body, but within. Inside her digital menagerie, the Girl watched Pierce make his necessary preparations.

"Before we begin, I want to understand your threshold. There is no point in killing you, and I will refrain from lethal combat. Likewise, I will not paralyze you or cause serious brain damage."

A hand ran up to her red hair, smoothing a strand over her ear.

"Even with these limitations, there is little chance you will defeat me. Should I restrict myself further or assign a safe word?"

[Pierce Tondry]

The muscles in Pierce's face tightened as his emotional discipline took hold and locked down his physical responses. On someone else, he'd classify the statement as boldness or cockiness. Eluna wore it with simple certainty. She expected him to lose.

Despite their conversation, he knew much too little about Eluna to dispute her assertion.

"Fight to incapacitation, but no permanent damage, nothing broken, and try not to give me a concussion." That ought to cover his safety margins.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna nodded, keeping a casual stance about her. The Girl remained curious if he intended to test her own limitations or to test his. The Machine decided to approach with a default setting, deploying into an Echani combat stance. The red-head staggered her feet, and drew her arms into a high ready poise.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce errantly clenched his fist hard enough to crack the knuckle. "I've faced killbots in hand-to-hand before," he said, stepping forward. "They were fast, and they were accurate, but they were always missing something."

He'd decided long ago that flexibility was the weakness to any programmed system. Forced to operate within the confines of a limited set of instructions, killbots could only mimic or mirror what they'd already been given. Innovation, inspiration; those gifts were beyond most AI.

So Pierce began with a set of moves he'd designed himself: a fluid series of palm-out strikes designed to minimize his exposure as he closed distance. The last strike deliberately left him open and forced a choice on his opponent: take the blow or grab his overextended arm.

Any experienced grappler could catch the arm. That wasn't the hard part. What they were usually unprepared for was Pierce latching on to their limb in return, pulling them into an over-the-shoulder throw using his full bodyweight. It was the combat equivalent of the Fool's Mate in holochess - something meant specifically to catch the overconfident or underprepared and deal with them quickly.

Pierce let loose the final strike in the series, aiming it at Eluna's chest. Her response would be telling.

[Eluna Thals]

The Girl watched the opening attack in a way that only a machine could allow. At billions of computations per second, even the very fast became an epic poem of if/then. His opening strikes were either short or rebuffed in a series of precise arm blocks. Eluna's face didn't have the taut focus of a fighter, nor did it have the blank slate expression of a human replica droid in null state. Her green eyes were open and curious, like a girl watching a butterfly come out of it's cocoon for the first time, wholly interested to see what she would get.

The last strike came, and the Machine made note of the skew in Tondry's shoulders relative to his center of gravity, which was now below his hips. A classic overextension.

Eluna's blocking hand snaked at the wrist, little fingers finding purchase enough to extend her hand straight and up, exposing Pierce's ribs for a side kick. The moment her heel left the floor, however, the Machine observed the further lowering of Tondry's gravitational center. He fell back to prepare to throw her, nullifying the inertia of her kick as Eluna's other foot left the ground. All Tondry needed was a simple fulcrum in the form of a hand to her chest, and Eluna was sent flying over him. Advanced gyroscopic sense kept the human replica droid aware of her relation to terra firma. Tondry may have expected to put her on her back. Instead, she'd landed on her feet like a cat - her back facing him.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce rebounded to his feet with a handspring. Turning, he again set himself into a martial posture and evaluated his success.

Despite the fact that it had seemingly worked, his ruse had accomplished nothing. Perhaps Eluna went for the bait knowing her capabilities would nullify it. Or, perhaps she'd simply fallen for the trap card he'd played and other innovative steps would yield similar results.

Only one way to find out.

A quick two-step shuffle forward brought him back to striking range and he launched a straight sidekick at Eluna's exposed back, intending to keep her off-balance, if not put her on the ground.

[Eluna Thals]

shuffle-shuffle

Small auditory cues to fill in the need for data eyes did not provide. A movement to build inertia and keep a base at the same time. Eluna heel-pivoted, slinking her slender frame to the left as Tondry's boot grazed the front of her blouse in passing. She caught his leg at the calf with both hands and rolled her shoulder into it to spin the agent off his planted foot. It worked, but Tondry was also improvising, sacrificing his grounding in order to bring his free leg back up for a snap kick. It connected with Eluna's face, spinning her around as Tondry in turn hit the floor on his own face.

The human replica droid didn't wait to evaluate her success, and immediately went to ground with the intention of landing body blows on Tondry's exposed back.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce caught himself on his hands, intent on pushing back up to his feet and continuing the fight. Eluna's first punch completely cut that option off the table.

Forced back down, Pierce's face smashed into the ground. One, two, three more punches fired into his back, like pistons in a gearwork engine. Fortunately, the punches had a rhythm and he rolled away in the space before the fifth punch landed. Behind him, he heard a fist smash into the ground.

When a hand grabbed his shoulder in mid-roll, it surprised him - until he realized that Eluna had another advantage. She could track multiple activities at once and didn't have to focus on using a single limb at a time like a sentient would. With control like that, the droid could monitor the fine details of her bodily movements on a broader scope. Attention was not a limitation; creative spark aside, the laws of physics remained Eluna's only discernable weakness.

Eluna pulled him back towards her. Pierce scrabbled for purchase and, finding it, planted a hand under himself to stop the movement. Before Eluna could undercut his defense, he planted his other hand and pushed off the ground into an improvised shoulder-tackle. His shoulder barreled into Eluna's frame, and though the impact sent a shock of pain through his collarbone, it also sent her tumbling a breathing room's length from him.

The two combatants both clambered to their feet, Pierce working his shoulder with a free hand to ease the crying nerves. Eluna, meanwhile, looked entirely undamaged.

Droids.

Gritting his teeth, Pierce re-engaged at Eluna at close range with a flurry of punches, doing his best to ignore the pulling pain in his back as he did so.

[Eluna Thals]

384 joules.

373 joules.

321 joules.

319 joules.

Eluna's calm, interested face juxtaposed the blinding-fast handwork utilized to meet each of Tondry's punches. The Machine kept count of many things. At current priority was the force delivered in each kinetic impact of fist against palm. Eluna backpedaled as calmly as one might walk forward, allowing Pierce to take ground as she maintained her defense. The human agent had a remarkable capability for not sacrificing the intensity of his strikes for the speed he was using. However, he was under the limitation of his own biology. Both his speed and his strength were dependent on his stamina. Pierce Tondry was keeping up the cadence, but he paid a price for it. He was weakening.

Another fist was thrown. Eluna's blocking hand met it, but she'd been a moment too soon as the knuckles slipped the bond against her palm, allowing Tondry's hand to pass it by on the way to her face. Eluna's head didn't snap back, moving only superficially with Tondry's inertia as a trickle of red dripped from her nose.

Superficial damage.

She allowed a moment for him to see her bleed before a windmilling kick slapped his arm away, then returned on the rebound to drop a heel onto his already-aching collarbone.

[Pierce Tondry]

A reflexive "Gragh!" escaped Pierce's lips. He backstepped, then pain-reinforced determination braced him and he re-engaged his opponent. Despite her ability to compensate for her lack of innovation with durable persistence, Eluna was not invincible.

And to his own mind, Pierce was no ordinary agent.

He hadn't just destroyed sophisticated killbots before. He remained one of the few from Palpatine's Empire with a perfect mission record. He survived every combat, fulfilled every Command. He stood among the ranks of the peerless.

He would win now.

The droid moved forward, punching at his already injured collarbone, but Pierce was ready and caught her incoming fist, diverting it -

I will win.

- Eluna reacted with a crosspunch, but Pierce neatly avoided the second fist, catching it and manipulating both captured arms towards a tangle that would put Eluna's own power against her -

I.

- but just before her arms crossed, Eluna exerted an effortless strength, untangling her arms and flinging his apart -

Will.

- and from there her body set itself in balance, her left elbow curved up through the air, and on the backcycle readied as a piston would before it fired -

oh shit

- and then she socked him in the gut.

Pierce folded over her fist. Before he could topple, Eluna's free hand caught his upper body and righted him. And, in the space of his defenselessness, her punching arm executed a geometrically perfect uppercut to his chin.

A balloon with insides completely empty of air flew across the room and sputtered to a stop.

And, then, despite ringing head and unsteady hands, Pierce began to struggle back to his feet.

[Eluna Thals]

There wasn't any sport in this, and the Girl felt a little uneasy at seeing Pierce Tondry continuously run himself into a brick wall. And despite the best assurances from the Machine, the ability to constrain the amount of damage she could inflict upon him had a margin of error.

Pulling back a little control, the Girl took a moment to thumb at her nose, noting the red stain on her hand as she pulled it away. The sensors in her synthetic flesh could register feedback similar to pain, but it never felt quite like she remembered it used to feel when she was younger. She still remembered falling off her speeder bike when she was twelve and breaking her leg. The kind of pain that went beyond ouch and sucked the breath out of her in big gulps. Now, she took a punch that the Machine told her would have been hard enough to break her nose and knock her out if she were a human. The composite material that were her "bones" didn't even have the immersive decency to break. Just a few seconds of bloody sniffle that stopped bleeding as soon as it started.

Eluna put the tip of her thumb in her mouth, sucking away the residual blood. The gas chromatograph could tell the difference, but that at least tasted like the real thing.

"Do you want to continue?" Eluna asked as she walked around Tondry as he struggled to his feet.

"I can adjust the difficulty parameters."

[Pierce Tondry]

Despite how everything ached, despite his equilibrium failing to equalize, despite the ringing in his ears and other things besides, Eluna's words still reached Pierce's struggling brain. And despite his injured state, the walking binderclip's nerve set something off.

How dare she treat him as if he was already done for?

How dare she?

The rage spiked. The pulse quickened. The pupils focused.

And the mind remembered...

... the fear, the deep fear of him, mixed with the hints of bruised trust. She expected betrayal, but never expected it this way and for her this was worse.

It also defied his own expectations; his presumption of his own absolute discipline lay broken like the woman shaking and coughing blood at his feet.

The rage crashed and broke upon the shock of what he'd done. The weight of his own warring emotions grew too heavy for his knees to bear; they buckled and he sank to the floor, shaking. His hands opened from their fists, visible trembles the signs of his own internal struggle.

The space between the two of them filled with silence. He stared at his hands until his own quiet vow broke it.

"Never again in anger."

The sneering superiority faded to committed resolve, which vanished into a plan.

"I think maybe," he started and interrupted his own sentence to go back on the offensive. Stepping close to Eluna, he wrapped his arms around her midsection. With a great heave and a greater hoist, he fell backwards, suplexing his opponent as he did.

"-you should focus on not losing," Pierce finished.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna crashed to the deck with a thud, the Machine registering the force of impact in joules, noting that this takedown would have caused considerable blunt-force trauma to an organic. As Pierce rolled a shoulder to disengage from his suplex and take up his tactically-advantageous position astride her prone form, Eluna's unmoved expression of curiosity suddenly formed a little smile.

"You're a romantic."

A hand broke underneath Pierce's guard, catching the agent squarely by the throat. Eluna began to squeeze in a gentle gradient of increasing force, inclining her torso steadily off the ground.

"That seems like it would be unusual in your profession."

[Pierce Tondry]

'A romantic? B-'

The question fell away as Eluna seized his throat. Her grip lodged itself squarely beneath his chin; a dangerous attack if not dealt with quickly. The natural reaction to a choke was surprise; that made them one of the most common attacks in the galaxy among street toughs or mate abusers.

Pierce immediately twisted right, forming a hook with his near hand. His body then jerked back the other way, the hooked hand ripping explosively at Eluna's forearm. Simultaneously, he drove his far shoulder into Eluna's with the full force of his body. Anything less might not create enough give against the droid.

The technique worked. And it didn't.

The impact forced Eluna's hand off his vulnerable neck, freeing him for perhaps five seconds. Unfortunately, most of those seconds were spent reeling in agony; his shoulder-strike produced a shock of crippling pain in an already-worked over area of his body. His opening to counterstrike went entirely unused.

The two lay on the ground, the smaller Eluna nonetheless the bigger spoon. Her arm lifted back up, re-encircling Pierce's neck. As her second hand latched onto the first and locked the choke in place, Pierce knew he had maybe six seconds to force her off before he went unconscious.

One...

A quick jerk and Pierce was flat on his stomach with his hands beneath him.

Two...

He pushed-up, muscles working on instinct as they had so many times in Academy Basics.

Three...

His feet found purchase beneath him and he began the act of standing, lifting Eluna's entire frame with him.

Four...

His body straightened, his vision flickered, and his frame careened backwards.

Five...

The two of them crashed to the ground. Eluna wrapped her legs inside Pierce's, effectively locking her entire body in place. The feeling of somethings moving along his inner thigh woke brief sensations in him.

'Was that what she'd meant by romantic?' a fleeting thought wondered.

Si-

[Eluna Thals]

Fortunately, Pierce Tondry's ship was equipped with a bed and an extensive medical suite. Eluna carted the agent's unconscious form over her shoulders like he was a garment bag, and eased him onto the bed. From there, she carefully removed his shirt and began to ascertain his injuries. A map of vibrant bruises had already begun to form from his neck down his arms and torso. Eluna calmly applied antiseptic to a few open cuts, most notably along his raw and swollen shoulder and collarbone.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Hragh!" Pierce erupted into full consciousness with a pain-inspired yell. As he sat bolt-upright, he recognized two things: his location (the interior of Longshot's medbay) and that being upright hurt.

He lay back down with a controlled motion, his eyes turning to his apparent nurse. "Congrats on the win. How long was I out?"

[Eluna Thals]

"Thanks."

Eluna took his consolation with a humble little smile. The Girl had already sussed out that he seemed like the sort that took sportsmanship, chivalry, or bushido seriously.

"Ten minutes, thirty eight seconds."

Eluna placed a hand at Pierce's least-injured shoulder in case she'd need to convince him to lay back down. Fortunately, the sum of his aches did all the convincing for her, and he declined with a hiss of released breath between his teeth. Her hand remained at his shoulder as she finished daubing a kolto solution along the vibrant, raw length of his collarbone.

"Your collarbone is broken," she admitted somewhat sheepishly "and two ribs."

To be fair, there was a margin of error involved in how safe her safety net could reasonably be. Eluna put away the kolto swab, and reached for an opaque bottle in the medical kit, metering out two oblong white pills.

"This should help dull the pain and help the bones to knit."

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce shrugged, winced, gasped, regretted, and froze his shoulder muscles until he could ease them into a fixed position again in the span of three seconds. "And you're perfectly fine," he observed. "Whatever they made you of, it's stronger than anything I've fought before. You almost don't need to innovate your way through things. You can just 'dozer them."

And the fight had been very much like fighting a construction dozerdroid, or one of the gruftaxats from Glindor IV, or...

Or Darth Vader.

The thought that he'd believed he could win against Vader's mechanical equivalent made him uncomfortable in his own skin; had he not been consciously freezing his muscles, he might've shifted about in unease. 'Wrong again,' he thought. 'At least this time I was the only one to pay for it. And at least I heal fast.'

Trying to distract himself from his cold comfort, he spoke to Eluna again. "So, are you the Girl right now? The one I saw?"

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna eased a hand behind Pierce's head, offering a gentle touch in extreme contrast to the clinic on brutality she had demonstrated just fifteen minutes before. She inclined his head up, allowing him to take the pain relief in a way that would be easier to swallow.

"My chassis is a carbon tripolymer nanotubular enforced weave, capable of withstanding impacts at over twenty-five hundred pounds per square inch. Don't be so hard on yourself."

Her other hand ran carefully along his side, sensors within carefully checking for signs of severe adema or fractures that had previously gone unnoticed.

His question made her pause, and Eluna looked back at her patient thoughtfully.

"I'm always her, until I'm asked not to be."

[Pierce Tondry]

Huh. "So, when we sparred, that was you too?"

[Eluna Thals]

He was asking her to explain something difficult. Something intimate. Eluna withdrew her hands to begin preparing the compression wrap that would help keep Tondry's broken bones from shifting during knitting.

"Do you ever dream? Have you ever watched yourself do something from a slightly askew angle?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"When I was young," said Pierce. "It's been different since, but back then I felt like a drone cam. So, it's still you in there, just disconnected and spectating? Physical you is on autopilot, but there's a tether keeping you together?"

[Eluna Thals]

And that was the rub, wasn't it? Words failed to fully capture it all. The Girl took in this Very Real moment with Tondry, juxtaposed with the presence of the Dragon always in her peripheral vision. The digispace was reality, but it was also ephemera, a thing that became impossible to even describe in the space beyond Eluna's own head.

So she settled for "That's close enough, I suppose." as she pressed the compression wrap to Tondry''s side, drawing it taut but with a gentle hand over his abdomen. As she cleared one side, she again cradled his neck to ease him up into a near-sitting position, allowing her to pass the wrap along his back.

"If I were just a computer, I guess you'd say that whatever makes me who I am...becomes an application running in the background."

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce quirked his lips, half in grimace, half in wry agreement at her observation. During their fight, several of her attacks felt as if they'd been computed by a cadre of scientists. There was an even chance some part of her did minimize to the proverbial task banner.

For that matter, Eluna's nursing skills felt as precise as the rest of her actions. Whatever quality allowed her to imitate a sentient being, it seemed dwarfed by the omni-accurate math underlying her composition. And yet, if the active personality floating through the electronics inside her head remained aware even when seemingly shoved to the side, imagine how any others must feel.

The line of thought discomforted him more than his injuries. "I've heard it said we're all just dreamers anyway," he said, working his way off the topic. "I guess for you, our spar was a chance for a short daydream."

[Eluna Thals]

The wrap cinched, Eluna allowed Tondry to lay back down. She placed her hands in her lap as she sat beside him, and was quiet for a few seconds.

"It's never short at all, Mr. Tondry."

At trillions of computations per second, even the Girl at her most diminished had plenty of time to consider this life as she knew it.

"Were you testing me, or were you testing yourself?"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce raised an eyebrow. "Do you really see those things as mutually exclusive?"

[Eluna Thals]

She didn't give a definitive answer, but instead approached it just on her observations.

"Early on, you threw a punch that you knew was tactically insignificant. That was an observation moment for you to see if I was reacting by rote response."

Eluna blinked.

"Your ship has a computer advanced enough for you to not be unaware of advanced computational theories. You were attempting to run me through the Taanig test."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Did I now," Pierce said, leaning back into the pillow and closing his eyes. The painkillers she'd given him were starting to make him drowsy. Based on the reaction time, it had to be the tri-methylmorph he kept in the standard painkiller set. "And why would you care if I did?"

[Eluna Thals]

The answer was obvious to the both of them.

"Because I failed your test."

[Pierce Tondry]

One of Pierce's eyes slid open. "The pills you gave me have a sedative. I got- whooo, let's see- maybe halph a min more uv consciousness," he slurred. "You got a point, you better spit it out."

[Eluna Thals]

"The test was designed as an operative experiment to determine the existence of artificial intelligence."

Eluna explained, not sure whether she was explaining to the man quickly succumbing to medication or simply sounding out her thoughts for her own use.

"If I fail the test, how can I be who I know I am?"

Deep in introspection, Eluna looked down at her hands.

"Who am I?"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce yawned, winced again, and settled back into the pillow. "We are who we choose to be," he murmured. "Jus' choose an' be."

He smirked, suddenly. "There are no stringz on meeeee," he sang under his breath.

[Eluna Thals]

Consciousness faded from Tondry's expression, leaving an equally expressionless Eluna watching over him. Through the window of her eyes, the Girl was left as the only one awake. Her red-hued ethereal figure turned about in her treehouse of data, listening thoughtfully as she replayed his words.

"There are no strings on me."

[Pierce Tondry]

Three years, three months, four days, eleven hours, and ten minutes later...


######

Pierce entered Longshot's tac-room but did not activate the lights. "Longshot, wake up and play feed A-2313 on the holotable."

The holotable glittered to life, a random collection of spots and flecks coalescing into Longshot's avatar. "Again, sir? Are you that enamored of watching yourself beaten to incapacitation?"

"I don't keep you repaired and powered to offer me sardonic commentary at my every request," Pierce groused. He fished the holotable control gloves out of their drawer and tossed them to the table, then began rolling up his sleeves to prepare for the work.

To its credit, Longshot managed to shape digital avatar's tiny face into disappointment. "Sir, I feel that you're under-appreciating my most valuable commodity."

"Your most valuable commodity is information," Pierce countered, tugging the gloves on. "And I requested information that isn't here."

"As you wish, sir." The avatar merged with the table's surface, becoming a watchful pair of eyes observing the now-playing holorecording.

The recording went through the first series of attack-counter, reaching the point he'd been waiting for. "Hold at 1:21, substitute a spin-to-controlled throw in place of the arm trap and simulate results."

The holotable's eyes rolled themselves. "Sir, your opponent's construction is-"

"I'm aware of the physical limitations, Longshot," Pierce cut the droid brain off. "I've only been reviewing this footage for the past three years."

"Three years, three months, four days, eleven hours, ten minutes, and twenty-two seconds," Longshot corrected.

A long moment passed before Pierce spoke. "Brick, prepare interface reformat to most recent save."

The holotable's eyes widened, at the same time adopting a red glow. "Sir, I ap-"

"Execute."

The AI's vocalization erupted into a shrill electronic garble. Longshot's digital avatar floated out from the table's surface, a limp shell with lifeless eyes intermixing with the exisiting hologram. A pulse of light projected from the table, filling the avatar with red and twisting its features to hint at something else (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JvAauG7HQ7I/maxresdefault.jpg). Then the pulse finished, the light faded, and the avatar returned to normal.

Longshot cast eyes around the room as though confused. "Internal timestamps suggest an elapsed period between my recollection and now. What happened?"

Pierce half-stood, leaning forward to tower over the avatar. His eyes locked onto the digital light construct's own. "I had you reformatted."

"I-" the avatar's confused expression deepened, then faded. "- apologize for whatever my previous self did to upset you, sir."

Pierce resumed sitting. "Access recent command logs and execute last prior command."

"Yes, sir." The digital avatar dropped back into the table, and the holorecord began moving. This time, instead of attempting to trap Eluna's arms together, Pierce used the arm he had to wheel Eluna around him. Eluna braced against her momentum partway through the move, preventing the throw and and kicking him in the chin. The position and force sent him sailing backwards - not as high or as far as the uppercut had, but nonetheless vulnerable.

Pierce frowned. "Longshot, rewind to 1:21 and substitute forward leg takedown."

HoloPierce fared no better in the next simulation, or the next. After ten tries, the best end result HoloPierce could muster was simply to spin Eluna in place and kick her away. The move's nature won him no satisfaction; it avoided injury and prolonged the fight, but brought him no closer to a true victory. The same held true for the other variations he'd substituted earlier in their spar.

Three years of study, of variation and rework, and the best he could manage was an injury-free minute against the droid.

Pierce swatted the holorecord back into the table and plucked the other portion of his file from the tabletop. A series of process diagrams, charts, neural network databases, and other information blobs rose into the air and hovered, allowing his silent examination of them.

He was sitting in the same position, thumb thoughtfully stroking his chin, when a familiar voice spoke from the doorway. "Thought I'd find you here."

Karin. Pierce checked the holotable's chrono display before spinning the chair around. "I thought you weren't off-duty for another hour."

"Yeah, we had an on-deck personnel shuffle," Karin said, flicking on the flights. "I have to be in an hour early for a briefing tomorrow, but they let my shift off an hour early to compensate. And since I had the time free, I figured I'd see if you wanted a therapy session."

The swiftness with which he'd replaced Longshot's versions entered his mind as he stood from the chair. Was that what it was like when you were made, Eluna? An old personality executed, a new one crammed into its place? "I- could use one."

Karin eyed him. "Something wrong?"

His eyes caught hers, held them long enough for her to see the trouble reflected in his irises, then dropped. "I'm not sure."

She extended a hand, which he took. "C'mon. We'll get some lunch and talk about it."

"Sounds good. Longshot, power down and lock up after us."

"Yes, sir." Longshot said. The pure obedience made Pierce flinch before he turned away.

The table powered down.

The room went dark.