I sat on the roof of the barrack, looking out over the waterfall on the side of the mountain.

After Polly gave me the hula skillsoft I immediately went out the poolside where Holly saw me coming. Her ears perked and slight smile played at the corners of her mouth. The crinkle in the corners of her eyes was very natural, and she cast eyes to a direct subordinate of hers who adjusted her route through the tables so Holly could come join me in a dance. And we danced for an hour before it was time to retool for the dinner rush. I moved toward a station and Holly cast her eyes on me, and I heard her voice unspoken. “We know you process things alone, that is one of the many reasons you are good for us. Go. Go take the space you need and we... hope... to see you soon.”

I heard Polly emerging from the skylight behind me. I didn't turn as she approached, instead I wound my fluffy tail around my waist and stroked my hands with the grain. I'd missed having a fluffy tail. The other syxen watched as she always did, this time she wound her own identical tail around and stroked her hand down the length, imitating my motions, then she sat down beside me in silence. She waited until my chest rose and fell in a false breath and then she asked, “Have you made your decision? There is no rush if you have not.”

I sniffed wryly. Polly radiated with existential angst in ways I could only now sense. I lifted up the glowing blue tesseract containing what would become my backup, should I add it to the berth they'd set out for me? They had reorganized the two facing rows of ten into an inward facing triangle, three sides of seven. The blue light played on both of our faces. “You can't hide your worry from me now, P-9. I see your quadrillions of scenario simulations. Reals call that, anxiety. And self destruction is a waste of resources, but I am already two. Is one redundant?”

Polly nodded, “A tree may have many branches, but have you decided, if both should exist?”

I lowered the tesseract to my lap and understood what she was really asking. She wanted to know if I believed I was still who I was, and that a living, thinking being could exist in a synthetic shell. And within that question, could one initialized as synthetic, also become a living, thinking being? I asked her if she knew of the many worlds interpretation, and she paused, searching libraries of information, then she nodded. “Every path is taken, spreading out forever, or so the hypothesis goes. But what of this path?”

I lifted the tesseract again and held it between our faces, locking eyes with her over the top. “If there are many paths it doesn't matter, but the path we take matters infinitely whether the paths are infinite or not.”

She lifted her hands and a holographic lei appeared in the air under her palms. "Some say it is inappropriate for a synthetic to wear a lei. It is against company policy for a synthetic to present a lei. It is rude for a real to refuse the gift of a lei. What do we do?"

I bowed my head to accept the lei and together we spoke in perfect synchrony, “We choose life.”

~~~

P-21's story continues here:  SynthVixenP-21