The Android of Atlantis (ONC 2025)

In a remote mountain village of Southern Atlantis, where mist rolls through ancient peaks and crystalline rivers carve through the valleys, the world stands on the precipice of change. For the first time in history, a sentient android walks alongside humans. Ashur Napahu is the first of his kind.

Designed using code for military super soldiers, Ashur's loving mother never imagined he could do more than execute programming--that he could feel. Yet when he meets Alia Sitallu, a young Southern Atlantean woman carrying a deep secret and dreaming of realizing her own potential, something awakens within him. Together, they experience love in its purest and most fragile form, navigating a society that sees their bond as unnatural. But love, like logic, is not immune to contradiction. As the weight of expectation, prejudice, and fate bears down on them, Ashur must confront the limits of his existence.

Atlantis may have mastered the engineering of sentient machines, but it has yet to master the wisdom required to coexist with them.

Journey into ancient Atlantis--a world where the lines between man and machine blur, and a sentient android dares to ask the most human question of all: What is the meaning of life?

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This novella is a work in progress for the Open Novella Contest 2025, based on Prompt #71: "In a world where artificial beings and humans coexist, one artificial human embarks on a journey to understand love and emotions-only to uncover more than expected."