I was back home again, the box which said AEGIS on it on a workbench in front of me. The girl’s voice had been silent ever since she cut off in the forest. I couldn’t see any way to disassemble the device, it looked like it had been built to survive an apocalypse, and from the scarring, the huge hole blasted in the front, and the fact I found it on the edge of a crater…it was possible it had.

The obnoxious Booooop device had also shut up, finally. It seemed likely to me there was a GPS or something inside the box which had also blacked out when it had died.

First order of business was to clean the whole thing of dirt and see what I had to work with. I grabbed a length of synthetic weave I’d been using as rag and got to work with the deruster mostly just to save my supply of water.

The round plate on top I realized was crystal, not metal, just so encrusted with dirt I couldn’t tell. It was also an incredibly ancient holo; all holos nowadays used tons of incredibly tiny projectors to create a true 3d holographic display, instead of one insanely complicated crystal. Like, old enough I’d only ever seen them used as projectors in elementary school, old.

What this box would need to project, I had no idea, but given that there was a mic and camera on the box, it was possible it was a gateway for two-way communication. That would explain the voice I heard, but not whose it was. The holo had been so caked with dirt that it was completely inoperable, but after a cleaning, it looked like it might work. The lens was scratched, so it might look a little crappy, but that was all we had.

There was no other writing on the box, but underneath the word ‘AEGIS’, was where the large hole was. If there had been more writing at any point, I’d guess it might have been there. I found more ports and hookups including a large aperture about the size of my fist on the side. I didn’t recognize any of them except, curiously, a standard power plug on the back, again plugged with clodded dirt.

I was getting pretty tired of cleaning dirt out of holes about now.

Since I couldn’t take it apart any further, peering into the big rusted central hole was about all I could do. Inside, I could make out a ton of completely alien machinery, with cores strung together with a tangle of wires. I could make out a pink effusive glow, hinting at a live core in there somewhere. With some effort, I tilted the box to get a different angle and heard the contents rattle loosely. The pink glow moved from one corner of the box towards the other.

Well that’s not right.

Seemed like the delith cell was rattling around loose inside? The power lines must have been corroded through, and broken when I’d disturbed it. So, it needed power at least. I dug through the bag of tools I’d recovered and pulled out an extension cord I’d picked up. I plugged one end into the port in the back and the other into a large cell I had, and hoped it was power enough for the device.

A blinking yellow exclamation point hovered in the air above the device, projected into the air by the scratched holo. It sat there flashing for a few seconds before the machine sprang to life.

“H-hello?” the girl’s voice came through again. Much louder and clearer now that the device had sufficient power instead of drawing through the corroded power lines. “Hello? Is someone there?”

The holo flickered several times before projecting a yellow image of a girl standing in front of an enormous computer, with numerous keyboards, both physical and touch-holo and displays, basically a semi-circular wall in front of her as far as she could comfortably reach. I noticed most of the display holos were dead.

“Hello? Hi there,” I said.

“Oh my god, you’re back. Thank god, I thought I lost you. I thought I was…thought I lost you…” she began to sob quietly.

She looked exhausted and haggard, clutching at the computer like she couldn’t stand without its support, but also holding it like it was her lifeline to the world. Her shoulders rocked with her sobbing, making the light sundress she wore, and her two long, waist-length pigtails shimmer and dance. The image was grainy and flickered with distortion from the scratchy lens, and it seemed the holo only projected in yellow, but even being unable to make out the details, I could tell this girl was both in distress, and breathtakingly beautiful.

For a conventional beauty, she was still a bit odd. Crying at a computer holo, standing alone in a dark room with a wall-sized terminal in a circle of light projected only from the holos with no other lighting. I couldn’t make out any other details in the room, or even see a wall behind her in the dark.

She was wearing a short sundress, which looked yellow of course, and ended about halfway down to her knees. Thin oval glasses, no shoes, no socks, just bare feet on the floor, and curiously, what looked like fingerless wrist braces on both hands, ending just short of her elbows. I guess she spent a lot of time on that computer and probably had messed-up hands.

“Um, please don’t cry,” I said. I realized I was just standing there staring at the tiny holo while she wept in front of me like a weirdo.

“Yes, I’m sorry. Sorry…sorry. It’s just been so long since I’ve seen or heard anyone, and then everything went black…gah.” She looked up and blinked back tears, rubbing her eyes with her forearms to avoid the wrist braces. “Sorry. I’m such a mess right now. Not my best day.” After a pause she added “Actually, this probably is my best day. What does that tell you about my life?” She gave a little laugh which was choked with a caught sob.

It was a little sad, but a lot adorable.

“Hey, so, what’s your name? You were about to tell me when we got cut off.”

“Oh. I’m…I don’t actually know. I know this machine” she patted the console at her fingers “is called AEGIS, so you can just call me that, I guess? It’s the only name I remember. Sorry.”

“AEGIS? That’s an…unusual name.”

“Uh, sure it is. Seems like a good enough name to me. What’s yours?”

“Athan.”

“Nice to met you Athan.”

“So AEGIS. That’s like, in all-caps, like it says on this device?”

“What device?”

“The thing I’m talking to you through.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She seemed a bit crestfallen.

“Don’t be sad, I’m just making conversation. I found this box out in the forest…this big metal machine. It’s got a camera and microphone that I’m speaking to you through.”

“Huh. That’s voyeuristic and creepy. I see you on one of my holos. Actually my only holo, everything else seems to be dead here.”

“There used to be a lot more?”

“I guess so? Seems silly to have a bunch of dead holos and just one live one.”

“You don’t remember? Did you just find that place?”

“What place?”

“The room you’re in. With the terminal.”

“Oh. I don’t remember, sorry.”

“You don’t remember? Where were you before you were at this computer?”

“I really don’t remember. I’m sorry, all I remember is being here for a long time.”

“Well that’s really weird. Where do you sleep, and eat?”

“Um, here. I guess. I don’t know. Why are you being like this?” A twinge of desperation entered her voice and I had to remind myself that she was already sort of on the edge of emotional collapse right now.

“Sorry, sorry,” I said, feeling like I was echoing her. “I just want to know more about you.”

“Well…me too. I don’t remember anything, and I’m obviously sort of stuck in this room with nothing else here but you. It looks like there’s a lot to this system, but most of it is down…maybe if I could get more of it working, I could figure out where I am and why I’m here?”

Her situation sounded a lot like mine. Imprisoned, banking on useless broken technology, not sure where she was. At least I had my memories…I wondered if whoever had put her there had tampered with her mind, or if she’d been drugged. My heart wrenched a little.

“Hey, AEGIS, uh,” I began, not sure how to articulate my feelings. “Look, I don’t know much about you or your situation, but I’ll do anything I can to help you out, okay?”

“Thanks, Athan, was it?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks, Athan. I appreciate it. For now I think I’m going to rest and think about what I can do on my end, if that’s okay. It’s been a very draining day already.”

“Yeah, no problem. Let me know if I can help okay?”

“Sure thing. Thank you for saving me.” She yawned and stretched, which made her dress ride up a little. “I’m so tired, but I want to talk to you so much. It’s like my body and my heart are fighting each other, you know?”

“Just get some sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up, and we’ve got a long time to talk and catch up and figure out what to do next.”

“Okay. Thanks for being so understanding. And thank you, thank you for saving me. You have no idea how much it means to me.”

“No problem. Now sleep, you dork.”

She laughed, and tapped a key and the holo went out. I guess I shouldn’t have expected to watch her sleep. That’d be creepy of me.

It was still light out and I didn’t want to keep relying on the food I’d picked up from the mines, but I’d promised AEGIS that if she woke up I’d be here, so I settled for a can of preserved mystery meat and set in for bed early. As I lay in my hammock, wishing I had a book or something, I kept finding myself looking at AEGIS’s machine.

It was kind of weird. Like, having a roommate, suddenly. Obviously we weren’t, she was god-knows-where, and I was an exile in the wilderness in god-knows-where-else, but she was a cute girl, she was in my house, and she was happy to talk to me.

Though both of us were in a lot of trouble, I went to sleep with a little bit of happiness, knowing that at least now we had each other. Both of us were a little less alone, if nothing else.