2103:08:11:14:27:04

  We stared at each other for a while in silence, meeting eye to eye but neither of us sure on how to begin. She fidgeted nervously under my gaze, twisting the fabric of her pants with her hands, while my body remained as calm as my mind wasn’t.

  “Anne, she ah… She told me about what to expect, but-” she cut herself off abruptly, taking a deep breath to steady herself. Then, in a soft and almost pleading tone, said, “You really don’t remember anything?”

  I shook my head in response.

  “Nothing at all?”

  “Nothing beside my name,” I replied.

  She remained quiet. We looked at each other for a moment, the silence returning. Then she looked down and put her head in her hands and released a deep, soulful sigh that turned into a moan partway. I was prepared for her to start breaking down again, but instead, she rallied. In a single motion, she snapped her head back up. There was a steel in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

  “Okay,” she stated, nodding to herself. “Okay. We can deal with this, one step at a time. How about starting with introductions?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “But I already know who you are?” I questioned. “And you know who I am better than me.”

  I expected her to wince or something – that seemed to be the trend whenever I interacted with others – but Kati smiled and shook her head instead. “On paper maybe, and the daughter I knew, well…” The previous sadness briefly returned, before she forced herself to smile again. “Well, while you’re the same person, you’re probably also very different, right?”

  What could I say to that? I wasn’t sure who I was yet. “I guess,” I replied with a shrug.

  My would-be mother looked deep in thought, rubbing her chin and tilting her head tilting at a slight angle. “How about I start telling about myself while you listen, and then you follow my lead. Doesn’t have to be deep or difficult or anything, just the little things, alright?”

  I nodded in response.

  She then cleared her throat and began to speak with a small smile. “I’m Kati Pearsson. I was born on the twenty fifth of May 2057 down south in San Diego. I moved to Charm along with Pierce – your father – back in early ’81 and later that same year, we were joined by another,” here her smile turned brighter, yet sadder all the same, “You. Then two years later we were joined by your brother Michael.

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  “As for more personal things, hmm…” She tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling, staying quiet for a bit. “I enjoy being active outdoors the most. Hiking, running, biking, swimming. I’ll even go mountain climbing or skiing during the winter, though it’s been a while since I actually did that. Though occasionally watching a movie or hanging out with friends, or lying on the couch pigging out has its own appeal. And that’s about it for now, I think.” She lowered her head again and leaned over, looking at me. “Your turn,” Kati said.

  I stayed quiet for a moment, processing. It was a lot of information all at once. Nothing my android mind couldn’t remember, but storing the data was one thing, and comprehending it another.

  Either way, it was something to process later. I opened my mouth and said, “I’m Samantha Pearsson,” then closed it again.

  I tried following the same script, but where my would-be mother’s speech flowed easily, I stumbled at the first hurdle. Again, I didn’t really know myself outside of ‘I am an android’ and ‘my purpose is to be a hero’, and those weren’t exactly things I could share.

  I didn’t have to tell her anything – she’d said so herself, but I felt pressured to say something nevertheless. But what could I even say? I wasn’t good at making stuff up and I’ve only been alive for little more than a day – about thirty hours, to be exact. There just wasn’t much I could tell.

  “I don’t think I like the forest,” I said, the words surprising even to me. “It smelled bad and made my nose itch and eyes ache in a weird way.”

  Kati smiled brightly at that. “You’ve never been good with nature. Allergies, got it from your father’s side of the family. It was so bad it affected you even during the winter. You had medicine to deal with that, could probably use the old receipts to get them for you again.” She smiled reminiscently, a look of nostalgia in her eyes. Then, she jolted like she’d been stung and turned sheepish, smiling apologetically at me. “Sorry, I shouldn’t interrupt.”

  Her telling me about the other Samantha made me feel some kind of way. A bit like how the Heroic Impulse made me feel, but somewhat less negative. It still felt bad, but not in an you-need-to-do-something-about-this-right-now sort of way.

  “It’s okay,” I replied. Questions bubbled up within me – questions like: did my creator allow for this overlap on purpose? 'Cause if so, that would be annoying, artificially giving me allergies just so I could fit the mold.

  Of course, I said nothing about it to my counterpart’s mother. “It’s fine if you interrupt.”

  My mother – I suppose I should get in the habit of calling her that – smiled brightly in return, but said nothing.

  I thought back on the past day and what to say next. “The helicopter ride with Mark and Evelyn – they’re the ones who found me if you didn’t know – that part was alright. They told me some stuff to fill in my gaps in knowledge, like where we were, where we were going, some history and things like that.”

  They told me about the Charm, or ‘New New Seattle’ as it was sometimes jokingly referred to. Where it lay in the province of Eastern North America under the Unified State, the world-spanning government established by Malcator after he successfully conquered the world. How it was founded after Tyrannicus tried to take over and crown himself king of New Seattle by hanging a meteor over it. When he mysteriously died two years later in 2051, the city died with him as the meteor crashed into it.

  “That was nice of them. Maybe we can find them and we can give them a thank you gift? Would you like that?” Kati asked.

  I shrugged. While not necessarily a heroic kind of kindness, it was still kind, so I saw no reason why not. “I suppose.”

  “Okay, I’ll try and see if I can get a hold of them. Anything else you want to tell?” She asked.

  I blinked once. “This conversation is very weird.” Even with my limited experience I could tell that. It was a bit like I was talking to the therapist back in the hospital, though less awkward.

  “Oh?” She said, grinning. “Well, I just sort of copied what I do as a firefighter, so it might be a bit stiff,” she explained. Then, she snapped her fingers and pointed at me. “You know, what if instead we get out of here, get some ice cream or something? I know a place you used to love, so how about we go see if your taste has changed.”

  I realized than that my mother wasn’t any more confident in this situation than I was. Her grin was shaky and her hand trembled as she pointed at me, and there was an almost frenetic energy underneath her tight control.

  “Can we just leave though?” I asked. Wasn’t I here in the first place to get papers or something?

  But Kati waved her off. “We’ll deal with all that later. They’ll have to change things around anyway, now that they found you have an actual background they need to check against.”

  Before I could say anything further, she stood up and grabbed her bag. “You coming?” I nodded and followed her out.