Adhara's Sonder

Chapter 13: Rebirth

The next morning, as Aliyah, Olive, and Maria came downstairs, they were each surprised to find Cyrus and Adhara already sitting at the kitchen table.

"Hi!" signed Maria, who had woken up last, since she was naturally a late sleeper and had stayed up studying later than usual every night for the past week. Aliyah and Olive smiled up at her. Their mouths were sticky with frosting.

"Good morning!" Cyrus replied, handing her a plate bearing a gooey cinnamon bun and half a sliced orange. "Adhara and I made breakfast."

Maria took a seat, took a bite, and swooned. "How is a robot so good at cooking? I know Cyrus didn't make these." Cyrus glanced at her, hurt.

"I excel when given specific instructions," Adhara answered. She handed Maria a mug of technically perfect coffee.

"What are you guys up to today?" asked Cyrus.

"We're celebrating!" Aliyah grinned.

"Yeah, we got our grades in online!" said Olive. "We all passed our finals!"

"Hey! That's great news. I saw how hard you guys were working last week—you earned it. But still, you must be relieved." Cyrus beamed. "How are you celebrating?"

"We're just gonna run some errands," Maria signed. "Visit Donny at the theater, I'm going in to help at the soup kitchen a few days...and then there's Christmas shopping. Christmas is Saturday, can you believe that?" she shook her head. "That means Adhara has been here for about five months."

"Seems like way longer."

"I don't suppose..." Maria ventured, "you'd like to come with us?"

He glanced at the ceiling, in the direction of his workroom. "I was going to work on my gauntlets some more... and Adhara did a bunch of mysterious stuff last night that I was going to look into." Cyrus took a sip of coffee and ex- haled. "Actually, I'd really like to come with you. It's Christmastime! Time to focus on something besides tinkering for a while."

"Great!" Maria beamed as Olive and Aliyah cheered. "Because I was going to ask to borrow the freight platform next."

"How about you, Adh—hey, wait a minute!" Cyrus did a double-take at Adhara. "Your arm!"

"What's wrong with her arm?" asked Aliyah. "It looks the same to me."

"You should have seen it last night!" Cyrus exclaimed. "It was nearly in two pieces!"

"My body is, fundamentally, modeled after the human body," Adhara explained, arm outstretched. "Skin corresponds to armored plates, bones to struts, muscles to actuators, veins and nerves to hoses and cables..." she held her wrist under the light. "Instead of an immune system, I have nanites that remodel damage." Looking closely, Cyrus could see hairline fractures—a ghost of the injury she had sustained last night.

"That's sick," Olive murmured.

"She broke her arm last night and you're only just now realizing it's fixed?" Aliyah asked. "You've been up with her for hours."

"There's another cool thing to add to my list," Cyrus muttered, ignoring Aliyah. "Anyway, are you going to come run errands with us?"

"No, I have to go see a man about a quantum state transmitter," she answered simply. "I'll be back by Christmas Eve." And with that, she left the kitchen. They heard the front door open and close, and her jets shriek as she flew away.

"Don't ask me—she's been talking funny lately," Cyrus told his bewildered friends. "That's a problem for future Cyrus."

To maintain balance with the AirShift towers, Acryogen Industries never allowed the temperature within Hudson City to vary more than ten degrees. But as Cyrus, Maria, Aliyah, and Olive emerged from the Pipeworks, they saw something none of them had ever witnessed before: Hudson City in the snow. The volume of precipitation held steady from the previous night, but the drop in temperature deposited thick snowdrifts that blanketed every surface. Cyrus almost wished he had brought his gauntlets so he could melt a clear path—as it was, they had to trudge through to get to the street. Though the air was heavy and muffled, they could hear faint bells and laughter. They traced it to Fleet Street, one of the major thoroughfares running through downtown, transformed into a winter wonderland for this week only.