VIII.

We were lying in bed together, Sophia and I, cuddling, chatting, and — every once in a while — kissing. We had been dating for almost a week, already. And though I could feel the desire burning inside me with every touch, every kiss, I didn’t make any advances, and neither did she. Our young, budding relationship was precious to us both, and we were too afraid of making a wrong move and breaking it.

And yet, I knew that this beautiful time together with her was brief, and nearing its end already.

“Dad’s coming home tomorrow,” said Sophia, at some point. “He’ll probably want to take you to the laboratory, already, but I’m sure he’ll agree to wait some more, if you’re still undecided.”

“Actually, Sophia... I think I’ve already decided.”

Sophia turned to look at me, wide-eyed. “Wait, you have?! S– so... what are you g– gonna do?” she was so nervous that she was stuttering.

“I’ll do it,” I announced. “I’ll get the replication.”

Sophia gaped. “Wha– are you sure?”

“I am,” I said, nodding. “And I know what it means, I know that I’m going to die in the process. But if I don’t do this, I’ll still die in a year or two. And I don’t want that. I want to go visit your aunt next spring, and I want to take you to see the First Forest someday. I want to see the beautiful parts of this strange and wonderful planet, and to tell my mom what a great time I’m having here. The way I am, right now, I won’t be able to do any of that. I want to get the replication because I want to give myself — or some version of myself — the chance to live a life I wouldn’t be able to, otherwise. A life with you.”

I caressed Sophia’s face, and saw tears start to roll down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, would you not like that?” I asked.

Sophia shook her head fiercely a few times. “I’m happy,” she declared. “But I’m also sad. And I’m relieved, but also scared. I just... you’ve been in my heart for so many years, and we’re finally together, it feels like a dream-come-true. I don’t want to lose you now, Lyra.”

“You won’t lose me. Didn’t you say it, when I first came here? It will still be me.”

“Yes, of course,” she said, wiping her tears, “but it won’t be this you. What if, after your replication, you don’t want me anymore? What if you’re different?”

“I guess we’ll have to take that leap of faith,” I said, before kissing her forehead. “But I want to do this. For myself, but also for us. And I’m aware that we’ve only just started dating, and that this may not even work out in the end. But what I do know that what we have is beautiful, and is worth protecting. So if our feelings for each other continue to grow, and I don’t take this opportunity now, I’ll regret it when the time comes for me to leave you.”

Sophia bit back the last of her tears. “I understand.”

“Will you be by my side when I wake up?” I asked.

She nodded, smiling. “Of course.”

IX.

On my last night living as an organic human being, Sophia and I touched each other. We had been talking for hours, reassuring each other of our decision and of our feelings, and when it finally felt that the mood was right, we took that step further. It was Sophia who initiated it, pulling my shirt over my head and caressing my skin, and I welcomed it all. We both knew that the person I was at that moment would die during replication, because it was the only way for another me to be born in a different body. And it made me incredibly happy that Sophia had decided for us to have that experience before my death. Whatever would happen after my replication wasn’t within our power to decide, but we could still enjoy those last few hours together, and make them count.

“I heard the days are longer in Mars,” Sophia whispered, as we laid together, hugging beneath the covers.

“By thirty-seven minutes, in Earth time,” I told her.

Sophia smiled. “I wish we were on Mars.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because if we were there,” said the girl, kissing my forehead, “I’d get to have you for thirty-seven minutes more, before we have to part tomorrow.”

Sophia’s remark made me fell all silly and bubbly inside. “You know,” I told her, grinning, “you say some really cute things sometimes.”

“Just sometimes?” she asked, cheekily.

I chuckled. “Go to sleep, Sophia.”

“Not yet,” she countered. “I want to keep looking at you for a while longer.”

I covered my face with both hands, embarrassed. “Stop it,” I tried to argue, but she just laughed.

“Hey,” she called. “Let’s not sleep tonight.”

We locked eyes. I knew exactly what she was thinking, because I had been thinking the same things.

“All right,” I whispered.

X.

I finally met Mr. Melo in person, the next morning. He was a kind man, and he spent a good deal of time trying to reassure me that everything would be okay. It was, in his words, a safe procedure, I would just close my eyes, and when I opened them again, I would be a synth. He had no idea that Sophia had already explained it all to me in detail, and that I knew for a fact that he wasn’t telling me the whole truth. But it didn’t matter. He was doing me an immense favor and I was grateful to him for it.

In the afternoon, the three of us got in a car and were driven to an airport. There, Mr. Melo and I would take a plane to Montevideo, where the Echo Robotics laboratory was located. I wished Sophia could go with me, but I knew it would be impossible. Because between going to sleep as an organic, and waking up as a synth, an unspecified amount of time would pass. Most likely several weeks. “It’s like a coma,” said Mr. Melo. “Except that you will definitely wake up from it, as soon as your new body is ready.” Once again, I knew he was lying. The truth is that I would be dead all through the process.

Saying goodbye to Sophia then was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. We hadn’t told anyone about our relationship yet, so our farewells had to be short. She had a harder time than me trying to fight back the tears, and for once I had to thank my Martian heritage for my ability to conceal my feelings. Silently, secretly, she whispered “I love you” in my ear. I replied with an “I’ll come back to you, love.”

It was past midnight already when we arrived at Echo Robotics. The company had a shiny, beautiful laboratory, with a clean and modern look. A number of scientists came to talk to me, then, and started asking me all kinds of questions. They offered me the option to make small changes to my brain function, in case I needed or wanted to, such as fixing dopamine liberation to help cure drug addiction, modulating libido and improving attention span, among many others. I told them I didn’t want anything. That I was happy to remain exactly as I was.

I filled what seemed like a million consent forms. Then I went to sleep in a laboratory room, with the help of a sedative.

Shortly after that, I woke up.

I opened my eyes, and looked around. I was in a different room. I looked down at my body, wondering if the replication really had happened, of if I’d just woken up prematurely. Apart from the fact that my sleeping gown looked nothing like the one I lay down to sleep in, I didn’t notice any changes. My body didn’t look or feel different. I stared at my hands: they looked like regular, organic hands. Then I ran a finger through my right arm, and a display flashed underneath the skin. It showed me an energy consumption percentage and remaining battery time. That had definitely not been there before.

One of the scientists approached me.

“Good morning, miss Lyra.”

“Umm... morning?” I said. “Did I... did you do it? Am I a synth now?”

“Yes,” she declared. “How are you feeling, right now? Any pain, or funny feeling that wasn’t supposed to be there? We’ve tested everything exhaustively, as per protocol, but sometimes a bug still slips by.”

I shook my head. “No, I’m... fine. How long has it been?”

“Your procedure lasted six months.”

Six months!

I had just spent six months dead! Unbelievable.

I sat up on the bed, and began thinking about a number of things. Even though I knew, rationally, that my body and brain were new, that my consciousness — if there is such a thing — was likely not the same as before, I still felt like the same person. Sophia had been right about that. But I had never expected to be gone for so long. I felt a pressing sense of urgency, and knew that I had to get out of there immediately. “Could you get me my regular clothes?” I asked the scientist. “I need to go, there’s someone I have to see.”

“We know,” the scientist declared. “She’s here already.”

She motioned toward the door, and I saw a person standing in the doorway. Her hair looked different: shorter, styled up, and the golden streaks were mostly gone. Her wheelchair, too, had been painted a different color. Six months had passed in her life, even if to me it barely felt like a few minutes.

“Sophia...” I called.

She came up to me, and stopped next to the bed. We stared into each other’s eyes.

“Hello, Lyra.” I had never seen her this nervous, before. “How are you?”

“I’m... fine, Sophia.” I didn’t like how coldly this conversation was going. I was still the same person, and I wanted to tell her that, as soon as possible. I needed her to know that she was right about it all. That I was still me, and that nothing had changed.

“Do you...” she pursed her lips. “I’m sorry, I can’t bring myself to ask.”

But I knew what she wanted to ask. I nodded. “I told you I’d come back to you, love.”

Tears started rolling down her cheeks. She opened her arms to me, and I leaned into a hug. “I... was so scared,” she told me, between sobs.

“I know, I know...” I said, caressing her hair. “But it’s all right now. I’m here, and I’m still me. And my feelings haven’t changed, not one bit.”

Sophia nodded. I pulled back a little to watch her face, her new haircut, her tear-filled eyes. That warmth returned to my chest. I smiled.

“Hey, did you really wait six months for me?”

“Of course I did, you dummy,” she said, wiping the last of her tears. “I love you, Lyra. I’ll always wait for you.”

I interrupted her with a brief kiss on her lips.

“I love you too,” I said.

We smiled at each other. There was so much I wanted to ask her. I wanted to know what happened during that time I was gone. I wanted to know if she’d told her parents about us. If she’d been accepted into college. Most of all, I wanted to go back to her home, and get started on the rest of our life together.

“Hey...” I said. “I have an idea. It’s been six months, so that means it’s almost spring already, right?” Sophia nodded, smirking because she knew what I was going to suggest. “I was thinking we could get out of here and start planning that trip to your aunt’s place. Because I think it will be a while before we can go to Mars together, I still need to find a job and pay your dad back for my trip here.”

Sophia chuckled. “Yes. Let’s do that. My aunt’s, the First Forest, everything,” she took my hands in hers. “Together, right?”

“Together,” I agreed.

[End]