An Agent of Ice

Fragment: Love

Adam's PoV:

I was laying on my bed in the infirmary when I heard someone yawn. Confused, I looked around, but no one was around.

The hell?

As I tried to find out where that yawn came from, I heard what sounded like soft snoring and I looked down on my leg to see a tiny pink and blue glow. As I gazed at it for a bit longer, I realized I was looking at a pink girl clutching a dog plush closely. Sitting up carefully, I looked down at the holographic girl resting on my leg, seemingly at peace.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and the plush she was holding vanished. Sitting up on my leg, she yawned and stretched, then tilted her head. She looked up at me and stood up, pink armor forming around her.

"Oh! Sorry! I didn't know you were conscious..."

I smiled. "Hey, it's fine. What's your name?"

"Phi."

"Phi, huh? Nice to meet you. My name's Alaska, but you can call me Adam when we're alone."

"Okay, Adam! Uh oh, an Agent is right outside. I-. I should probably go..."

She began to fade as the door opened to reveal Linda. I looked at my AI. "Hey, you can stay. She won't bite." I shot her a quick glance.

Phi stopped fading away and returned to normal intensity. "Really? But I thought Carolina was super envi- HUH?!?!"

Linda had pulled me into a kiss and after giving Phi a glance saying "Sorry", I melted into the kiss. Phi just stood there, shocked and confused.

Linda sat down on the bed, her arms wrapped around my neck. "You worried me sick when you didn't respond to your radio after going in search of C.T. How'd you escape?"

I took a look at my bedside table and saw the patch. "I had some help."

"Really? From who?"

"Not important. What is important is that another person knows about our relationship." I flicked my head at Phi.

Linda slowly turned her head and saw Phi. Immediately, her cheeks heated up.

"I, uh. Um. Crap." She let her head drop while laughing.

Phi stood there for some time before lightly giggling. "I ship it!"

I deadpanned. "Oh god... You're..."

"The love!"

Letting out a long sigh, I let my head fall while Linda slowly stood up. Phi put a finger to her visor and Linda left without a word, somehow hiding her blush. After an awkward silence, Phi looked up at me.

"So, uh. I've been hopping around the Mother of Invention for some time before the Consular assigned me to you."

"And?"

"And I've met various A.I.s while doing so..."

I felt my cheeks begin to heat up and I knew where this was going. "Who do you like?"

She looked at me, shocked, but gulped and eventually answered me. "Th-. Th-. Th." Well, try at least.

Her armor turned to dust and I saw that her cheeks had become bright red and she tried covering her face.

"Come on, don't leave me hanging!"

"Th-. Th-. Th-. The-." She just couldn't continue.

Good thing was, she had already said enough for me to guess. "Theta?"

She held her head between her legs. "Y-yeah......"

I burst into laughter as she looked at me, sad.

"I-. I know it-"

"That's just PERFECT!"

She looked at me confused. "Wh-what do you mean?"

I smirked and got up. "Theta's Agent, North, is in the room right next to mine! If you want, we could arrange something hush-hush and let you two talk while we're in our rooms. I've read the protocol, it allows for two A.I.s to access the same document at the same time. Maybe I could make a file private to you two?"

Phi let her hologram fade away as she pondered it over in my head. Subconsciously, I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling for her chip, but nothing was there but a scar.

The heck?

"Your implants had been majorly damaged during your time as a prisoner, so they had to go in and fix those. While they were at it, they chose to implant my chip into your central nervous system, rather than implanting a lace and attaching the ship to that."

So, you're saying you can't be pulled?

"No. You can still transfer me to whatever you want, it just needs intense focus."

Huh. Good to know.

Opening my door, I was surprised to find Theta in here, examining my sister's helmet. The quiet hiss of the door locking caught his attention and he spun around to see me.

"Oh! Alaska! I'm sorry for entering your room without permission..." He stared at the ground.

I smiled and sat down before him. Holding out my hand, Phi appeared on it. "It's okay, Theta. I assume you wanted to talk to Phi here?"

Theta gazed at me. "But AIs aren't supposed to talk to one another."

I smirked. "You can access the same document."

"Oh....... OH!"

Theta and Phi watched as I created a document for them and when I got up, the two of them vanished into it. I had formatted the document to make it seem like they're texting one another and I couldn't help but smile.

I laid down on my bed and fell asleep, but woke up sweating. Looking down at my shaking hands, I curled them into fists and lept out of bed, startling Phi.

"Adam? What's wrong?"

I didn't answer and instead swiftly put on my repaired armor. Grabbing my SMGs, I rushed into the hall and heard an alarm blare through the ship.

"Intruder alert, intruder alert. Breach in security. Level Zero."

No! Nononononono! How could it happen so soon?!?!

Accessing the coms, I heard Wyoming in the locker room. I'll rendezvous with him.