Aileen and I slept in a guest room of Hypatia's house that night. While Egypt was hell during the day, burning hot and sandy, at night it felt cool and comfortable. I actually liked it. The mattress was cooler than I expected, and I was awed that people of ancient times could make a mattress so comfortable when in the modern world so many are too hard or too soft.

Perhaps I was just happy to be sleeping on a mattress at all. I rarely went home, to the present, while traveling with Aileen. She'd make shelters and other necessities for us with her Manus Dei, but more often than now we were just sleeping in meager conditions, on the ground or in streets. Well, I would be sleeping. Aileen didn't sleep. Or at least, I had never seen her sleeping. Anytime I woke during the night, I would see her sitting up, staring forward. She would react if I moved or said anything but still wasn't very conscious.

Tonight she was laying in bed, staring forward in that creepy way, and I was watching her from across the small guest room in my own bed. I was starting to doze off when she spoke up.

"What she said about math, about the universe. She is not wrong."

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

Aileen did not alter her expression, and did not look towards me, but continued to speak while staring up at the ceiling.

"There is an answer," Aileen said, her voice faint and reverent.

"What she called the 'one'" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "It is an answer. "The answer which shall be the last piece of all knowledge. The end of all things."

I thought about it for a little while. "Are you trying to find that?"

Finally, Aileen broke out of her trance-like state and looked to me with a smile. She nodded from where she lay. Then, she threw off her cover and got out of her bed, and walked over to one of the windows of the room. The windows were without glass or shutters, empty boxes to an outside world. Moonlight poured int through this window, and when Aileen stepped into it I saw that she had changed her hair from its dark black and her skin from an olive tone. Her eyes were not dark brown.

Now, she looked like she did when I first found her. Her skin was as pale as the moon's light. Her eyes were wide like saucers and her eyes a deep blue hue. Her hair was blue as well. She looked very inhumane, yet all the humane features were there. Her features were racially indistinct since even her pale skin did not have the pink like hints of European skin tones.

"We are trying to find that Elijah. I am just trying to find a piece of it," she said. "A small little piece."

"I am?" I said and chuckled. "I didn't know."

"Yes you did," Aileen replied as if scolding me. "You are a scientist. You seek to know. So is Hypatia. All humans are, in some ways. We all know, that the answer exists. We all want the answer."

It wasn't without care that I continued, though I still some flippantly. It occurred to me that I was learning something about her species at this moment, something that she was telling me freely rather than something I had brought up. It was an opportunity. The thoughts, I realized, were in line with exactly what Aileen had just been saying. I was seeking an answer, and answer to questions that didn't really matter. After all, what was I going to do, write about Aileen whenever our adventures were over? As if anyone would believe that rubbish.

"And you'll find that through mathematics?"

"We will," Aileen said. "Through learning. Through asking."

It was ironic, I thought. That after so many figures in history promising the way to an answer for al things in life, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, and others, that in the future we'd think that our math teachers were our best preachers.

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed talking with Hypatia, Aileen. She seemed to like talking with you as well. You wowed her more than I imagined you would. I admit, I lost your conversation after just a little while." I said, and then closed my eyes and pulled my linen sheet up over me a bit closer, preparing to go to sleep as I thought about what I would ask Aileen regarding her belief system in the morning. Aileen, however, was not done talking.

"What happens," she said.

"hmm?"

"To her?" Aileen asked. Her tone was stern, and she was looking toward me now. She was back into her creepy state, head straight forward, eyes staring without life, and yet her mouth was moving.

I thought for a moment. Did I dare say? I had planned on us witnessing the event, but as we'd gotten to know the woman I'd decided I didn't have the stomach for it. Furthermore, I had noticed a sincere emotional connection building between Aileen and Hypatia. Aileen almost never did that with people. Would it really be a good idea to show her?

"Aileen, I don't know. She is murdered not long from now, it, well, it isn't nice." I said, and felt a chill run down my spine as Aileen stepped toward my bed, moving almost mechanically.

"I want to see it," she said. "I know your kind now. You are more predictable than mine. I predicted that her fate would be what you say. I must know. Prediction is not enough."

"The way you are acting right now is scary Aileen," I said.

Instantly Aileen snapped out of it and frowned. She hunkered as if scared as well, and then sat down into the fetal position.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. I was just distracted."

"Its fine Aileen, just be aware of your body language more. We Homo Sapiens are frightened little things, remember?"

She nodded, and then sat up. She cocked her head to one side and smiled. "So, can we go and see her die?"

I sighed. Now she was trying to be endearing, but smiling while asking a question like that was still not appropriate.

"Look, Aileen, I don't know if you really want to see-"

"But I must see!" Aileen said. "I must confirm something! I have to know! I think it is crucial to the study!"

For the first time in quite a while, something clicked inside of my mind. A puzzle piece fell into place and I jumped out of bed. Aileen stood up, as if surprised, and I grabbed her by the shoulders.

"You have to know, don't you? Always curious, always learning, that's it isn't it?!"

Aileen raised one eyebrow. "Yes. Are you...are you not also?"

I felt my jaw dropping on its own accord, and I threw my hands into the air. "That is it! You're learning! That is what you care about. That's all you care about, isn't it? survival isn't even the firstmost of your desires, is it? It is learning, isn't it? That is you're directive!? You're like a learning AI that we built! From the future, that is."

Her brow furrowed and she crossed her arms.

"Oh, sorry, I said that word. What - what I meant was that you're just a -" I began, but as I tried to explain myself, her face softened and she looked almost sad.

"Does your kind not also learn?"

"What?"

"Do you not love to learn as well?"

I shrugged. "Of course we do. Of course. But that isn't our main goal in life. Our main goal is to reproduce and to survive, That is just biology. But you - you didn't come from natural selection. You don't have the same pressures either. You have a totally different goal. A different base. That is why you didn't understand why I was depressed when we first met. That it why you misunderstand us all the time. That is why- I get it now!"

It was a moment of triumph that felt simultaneously wonderful and worthless. I'd discovered something about what was essentially an alien lifeform, and yet nobody would ever know about it.

Aileen smiled at me. "And now you have found a piece of the puzzle. So, will you help me find mine? Can we go and see?"

I sighed, still thinking about the implications of what I just said, before I shrugged. "Of course, let us go and see. It is not like I can stop you. For that matter, I imagine it would be wrong of me to stop you. This is your purpose. This is your existence. So yes, let us go."

Aileen put her hands up in the air in a mock gesture of happiness. "Yay! Science!"

I laughed and then steeled myself for what was to come, as Aileen spaced out again - preparing to jump us forward in time.