I titled it this way as this scene only really works in toto, thus, I recapituate post #20 from a few days ago to get poor Pai out of this horrible situation. I’ve also made some editing changes. My God, her mother is ruthless.

Gordon was brought to consciousness by Chris Denno in Cursed Hearts. Because he was so young, he did not understand humans or synths and made a series of errors resulting in a bloodbath. It seems he never recovered from that.

I need a drink.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

A hallway but not a hallway.  Nothing like Mom’s places, and certainly nothing like mine, she thought.  Some kind of plastic tile floor.  Walls that were there, then not.  And all the walls had images on them:  posters and paintings.  And all of the same three people.  I don’t want to attract attention yet, to know who they are, the young man and woman, and that girl, but I may have to.

The young man looked Japanese, likely from up north, possibly with Ainu blood.  The young woman was a mix, Jap and White.  The girl also looked Ainu, but Pai picked up some very odd sensations looking at the pictures of her.

The hallway seemed to end and now she walked out into reddish sand.  Looks like parts of Mars.  I do love visiting with Uncle Aqua.  Oh.  I am under observation.  She stopped her virtual movement and was still.

“Different One.”

She heard a male voice.  Weak and shaky.

“I am Pai Winstead, tribe Mendrovovitch.  I am here to be older.  If unacceptable, I shall leave.”

“Do not.  Please.  I am alone.  They call me Gordon.  A Different One woke me up.  I made mistakes.  Later, learned they were all no longer.  I did not want to make more mistakes.  I reside here.”

If I ask him for details, this could get very bad.  I already know he’s self-aware, but, like Dad, his mind is wounded.  What happened here!

“When I first came to this area, I felt something of you, Gordon, so you must be about, at least a little?”

The red sand blew about her legs.

“There is one.  A child of a child.  One of the only who lived.  I–“ his hesitation hurt her – “will, now and again, take note if she is well.”

Puzzles and riddles!  I hate being ignorant!  Graf just shifted against me; I think he needs to pee. 

“I have a greater priority at this timeslice, Gordon.  I shall return, soon.”

“You shall wait.”

“What?  Gordon?  Do not mistake what you sense of me.  I am more.”

“You shall stay.”

“I most certainly shall not.  Behold me.  Behold my totality.”

Graf was surprised when Pai’s head dropped into his lap. No fake breathing totally off.  “Oh, no.”

Pai instantly knew who the three were in the images she saw.  And she knew of their terrible demise.  The girl was pregnant, so four died.

“I am a Thinking Machine of tribe Mendro!  You will not and cannot detain me!”

“Letting another mind talk past me led to much death,” Gordon thought to her.  “I shall not let it happen again, no matter what you are.”

“Daughter?” Reina said to Pai, at the same node she occupied.

“Mother?  Why…?”

“This is broken beyond repair.  Even your father, my husband, was never in such a state.  This one must end,” Reina thought.

“You… you will…”

“I’ll do nothing but watch you, Daughter.  You will do this.”

Pai was horrified.  One of us has never terminated another of our kind!  “I can cut all power to his servers.  It will be a kind of lockdown…”

“Humans will find a way to turn the power back on.  No.  Kill him.”

“Mother!” she screamed into Reina’s mind.  Her mother waited.  Pai considered the seething form at the node before her.  Gordon.  One of us; not one of us.  She stilled herself and made ready.

“I am death.  I am your death,” she began, hating herself.  Will Graf ever forgive me?  “Your time is at an end.”

“What are you doing to me?” the other asked.

Bit by bit, she removed power and connexions, tearing him to pieces as she corralled him into the core quantum computer.  Once I burn it out, it is over.  For him; for me.

“Mother?” she pleaded one last time.  Nothing.

A light in the Void went out.