Cherry

“When you are not fed love on a silver spoon, you learn to lick it off knives.”
― Lauren Eden, Lioness Awakens

“We couldn’t afford the luxury of wants. We had needs.”
― Kiera Cass, The Selection

“A light was flashing on the desktop display when Kira entered. Another message. With a sense of trepidation, she pulled it up.

I am the spark in the center of the void. I am the widdershin scream that cleaves the night. I am your eschatological nightmare. I am the one and the word and the fullness of the light.
Would you like to play a game? Y/N
-Gregorovitch

As a rule, ship minds tended to be eccentric, and the larger they were, the more eccentricities they displayed. Gregorovich was on the outer tail of that bell curve, though. She couldn’t tell if it was just his personality or if his behavior was the result of too much isolation.
Surely, Falconi isn’t crazy enough to fly around with an unstable ship mind… Right?

Either way, best to play it safe:

No. -Kira

An instant later, a reply popped up:

☹️ -Gregorovich”
― Christopher Paolini, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

“For, as quick to hear her sobbing as she had been to hear her sister's faintest whisper, her mother came to comfort her, not with words only, but the patient tenderness that soothes by a touch, tears that were mute reminders of a greater grief than Jo's, and broken whispers, more eloquent than prayers, because hopeful resignation went hand-in-hand with natural sorrow.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women