I had thought decontamination would be something hardcore, like a sandblasting. Turns out it was WAY worse than that!

First, they scorched my hull with blowtorches, burning the Sarcophage flesh away. Then they doused me with jets of hydrochloric acid, melting any organic bits and bobs that were still stuck in the crevices of my armor. After that I was sandblasted, then steam-cleaned, then finally doused in freezing cold water. When all was said and done, my paint had been COMPLETELY stripped away and my bare, gunmetal grey armor plating was naked for all to see!

Agh, my beautiful paintjob! Blasted right off my poor body along with the bug guts!

Miette seemed sympathetic and kept patting my control stick. “There there, Sveta. Repainting is easy. You can even design a new paintjob for the next round, yeah?”

“I might consider your request of a flaming skull design if you promise to NEVER COVER ME IN BUG GUTS AGAIN!” I wailed.

Miette thought that over for a moment. “Can’t promise that, I’m afraid. There’s still a lot of Sarcophage to violently eviscerate.”

“Wau~n…” I moaned as Miette steered me past the decontamination station and into the hanger proper. “My dear pilot is running me ragged!”

“Welp!” Teles announced suddenly. “Since we’ve arrived, I’m gonna upload myself to the station’s mainframe. No offense, but this AI core is a little cramped with the two of us. Plus I feel like a third wheel when you two lovebirds are havin’ a spat.”

“L-L-LOVEBIRDS?!” I cried out, face turning red.

Miette grinned. “You’re such a kidder, Teles.”

IS SHE THOUGH?!

“Yeah, whatever.” Teles waved dismissively. Then she looked directly out me, suddenly sincere. “Sveta. Thank you once more for saving my life. I will never forget it.” She wrapped her arms around me and planted a big smooch on my cheek.

“W-W-W-W-W-W-W-“ I was way too flustered to speak.

She winked and smiled. “Hit me up in the mainframe once you get settled, Sveta.” And with that, she vanished.

With her gone, Miette’s eyes focused on me. She smiled gently, and my face was hot enough to make a plasma blade jealous.

“Well. Shall we go meet your mother, Sveta?” Miette said, clearly oblivious to the mood.

“Y-Y-Y-Y-YEAH! LET’S DO THAT!” I screamed, desperately trying to hide my embarrasement.

*****

As Miette pulled me into an empty set of docking clamps, I saw a woman standing on the scaffolding level with my cockpit. She was a tiny lady, with golden-brown hair and eyes, and an unmistakable pair of lion’s ears sitting atop her head. She was dressed sloppily in slacks, an ill-fitting blouse and an oversized lab coat. A lion’s tail protruded from her butt.

“That’s… that’s her, isn’t it?” I asked Miette with a sense of foreboding.

“Yup. The manic mad scientist herself, Zehra Aslanbek. Better put on those cat ears, Sveta!” Miette grinned.

“R-Right!” I said, quickly updating my avatar with the cat ears and tail. “I’m ready to meet her, nyaa~!

“Oh god.” Miette rubbed her nose. “You two really are peas in a pod, you know that? And here I am without any aspirin.”

As soon as Miette opened my cockpit hatch, Zehra dove through it and glomped onto her, nuzzling her cheek like a forlorn cat.

“Miette, Miette!” she said. “It’s been forever, gao~n! Where’s the vodka?”

“You get right to the point, as always.” Miette said, trying to push her away. “First things first. There’s someone I want to introduce to you.”

“O-Oh? Who m-might that be, gao~n?” She was playing coy, but I saw her tail twitching with anticipation.

That’s my cue!

I popped up in a video chat screen and struck my idol-winking pose. “Hello there, Zehra! I’m Sveta, the giant robot girl, nyaa!” I said cheerfully.

Zehra’s eyes were wide as she stared at my monitor. She seemed paralyzed by shock.

"Y-You look different but... that voice... your voice is the same..." she said quietly, white as a sheet.

Huh? My introduction went poorly?! Gah! It’s too late to back out now! Go for the personal touch, Sveta!

“Ah, well, anyway… i-it’s nice to meet you, Mom!” I added, flashing my biggest smile.

“M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M…” Zehra sounded like a stuttering motorboat engine.

“Uh… is she okay?” I turned to Miette.

“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen her act like this before.” Miette shrugged.

“M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M…”

“Oy, Zehra.” Miette poked her cheek. “Get it together, will you?”

Suddenly, Zehra burst into tears and fell to her knees. She was crying so hard, snot was running down her face.

“MOMMMMMM!” she wailed. “YOU CALLED ME MOMMMMMM!”

“Uh…” I was speechless. Miette looked like a deer caught in headlights.

“Oh m-m-my dear Lisichka! HOW I’VE MISSED YOU!” she said, struggling through her tears.

WHO THE HELL IS LISICHKA?!

*****

Miette managed to calm Zehra down, and get a few glasses of vodka in her to boot. With a face flushed by both crying and alcohol, Zehra began to relay the events of her past, the events of MY backstory.

As she told it, she had summoned me from my original world using some sort of combination of a naked micro-singularity and laser beams. She had been attempting to read the memories of humans from alternate timelines, as part of a project to study alternate histories and determine the Sarcophage’s impact on them.

“Wait wait wait. Do you mean… YOU’RE the reason I was reincarnated?!” I said, awed.

Zehra nodded. “I found it was possible to download human consciousness through the incursions if I managed to scan them at the moment of their deaths, gao~n. Even so, it was difficult. I only managed to recover two intact minds during the full course of the project, gao~n.”

Two? Myself and someone else? Also it’s impressive she can keep up the gao~n thing even when shitfaced.

Zehra explained how my mind, pulled from my original world, had been downloaded into an AI core and I had been reborn as an AI thanks to her mad science meddling with the cycle of reincarnation. Me and my sister, who was the other intact mind successfully recovered from an alternate timeline, had become precious surrogate daughters to her before the NKVD had threatened to steal us away.

“AHA!” I screeched. “I knew those NKVD thugs were up to no good!”

“And while we’re saying the obvious, the sun is hot.” Miette added sarcastically. “I coulda told you that.”

When Zehra recounted the last moments of her two AI daughters before they erased themselves to avoid capture, I found myself tearing up a bit. Miette and Zehra, both three glasses into the vodka, held each other and bawled like schoolgirls watching Titanic for the first time.

“WAAAAAAHHHHH! THAT’S SO SAD, ZEHRA!” Miette said, heaving as she sobbed.

“MY POOR DAUGHTERS! I THOUGHT I’D NEVER SEE THEM AGAINNNNN!” Zehra said, snot flowing from her nose at quantities exceeding Niagara Falls.

Ugh. As the only one here incapable of getting drunk, I’m feeling a bit left out of this rather heightened emotional moment. I thought in frustration.

“Still, it feels a little odd.” I said, trying to calm the mood. “I have no memory of being this ‘Lisichka’ at all. Are you SURE we’re the same person?”

“Your mannerisms, voice and personality are identical to Lisichka's, gao~n!” Zehra said, pointing at me with a confident air. She would have looked impressive if her nose wasn’t leaking snot. “And even if your avatar looks a bit different, the details of your former life are unmistakable!”

“D-Details?” I asked warily.

“Ufufufufu." Zehra said, her eyes taking on a dangerously mischievous light. "I know everything about your old life, gao~n! For example: you died in a forklift accident, when a pallet cracked and dropped dozens of cases of tequila on you, gao~n!”

“Th-That’s true…” I muttered. Ugh, what an ignoble way to go.

“Ohohoho. Also, in your twenties you were a HUGE fan of Stargate SG-1, gao~n!” Zehra added, hand on her hips.

“A-Also true…” I replied, my skepticism vanishing. Don't judge me, okay?

“Your favorite band is Veil of Maya! Your favorite movie is The Truman Show! And you are a HUGE lesb-”

“ALRIGHT THAT’S ENOUGH! I BELIEVE YOU!” I shrieked.

Miette looked at me, her head tilted and her cheeks flushed by the alcohol. P-Please don’t read too much into that last one, my dear pilot! N-Not that I’d mind if you did…

“Anyway…” I said, changing the subject as quickly as I could. “If I really erased myself like you said, how am I here right now? Shouldn’t I be nothing more than a blank AI core? And how the hell did I wind up in a Gravity Frame?”

“Hmm. I don’t know, but I have my suspicions, gao~n!” Zehra said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “I need to dissect you to find out!”

“BZZT!” I said, crossing my arms in an X shape. “ABSOLUTELY NO DISSECTION ALLOWED!”

“Aww, c’mon.” Zehra said, making big doe eyes at me. “I’ll be gentle, gao~n! I’ll put you back together again!”

“NO WAY IN HELL!” I screamed. “I prefer my mind wholly intact and functional!”

Zehra leaned over to me, whispering so Miette couldn’t hear. “You know, Sveta, I remember your deepest desires from before, gao~n. You told me all about them. One of the things you most wanted was a body.”

“I-I-I have a body! A giant robot one!” I protested, stealing glances at Miette who was pouring herself another glass of vodka.

“Not like that.” Zehra said, grinning evilly. “A body like your old human one, gao~n. A body capable of TOUCHING.”

“W-W-W-Whaaaaaaaa?!”

“I see the way you look at Miette, gao~n.” Zehra said in sly tone. “I know you well enough to read between the lines. But as you are right now, you can’t act on those feelings, right? You need a human-sized android body to control. I can give that to you, gao~n.”

My attention was laser-focused on my mad scientist mother, who knew me so intimately despite myself having no memories of her. She was speaking to one of my most secret desires, tempting me with a devil’s bargain.

“I can give you a body with a sense of touch, gao~n. A fully functional body capable of kissing, petting, stroking and… well. You know, gao~n.” she continued, winking.

“G-Guh. In exchange for?” I stuttered.

“Letting me poke around in your head a bit, gao~n! I want to find out what exactly what you, or rather your past self Lisichka did when she erased herself. I want to find out how she survived through you.”

“I don’t know…” The temptation was strong, but so was the risk.

“Sveta. You are my daughter.” Zehra said, her expression suddenly serious. “I would never, EVER do anything that would endanger you.” Her tone was sincere, almost pleading.

She was sobbing pretty hard when we reunited. I don’t have any memory of her, and she’s obviously an incredibly suspicious person… but somehow, despite all the available evidence, I feel as if I can trust her. Is this past me trying to tell me something?

“F-Fine. I’m willing to let you poke around in there, in exchange for that human-sized body.” I told her. “I… I don’t know why, but I trust you, Mom.”

Zehra looked at me with huge, liquid eyes for a few moments before bursting into tears once more.

“AHHHH! MY PRECIOUS DAUGHTER!” she wailed loudly, while trying to hug my holographic video screen and failing spectacularly. As Zehra tumbled onto the floor, Miette looked at her and laughed uproariously.

Although we might need you two to sleep off the vodka first.

pynkbites

Sveta is what the kids call a "disaster lesbian." She measures EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.