“Welcome Home, daughter.” The familiar, motherly voice echoes through the ship.

Her voice is soft and sincere, clashing with the cold interior of the battleship. Despite her gentle tone, every word she says fills my entire being with dread.

“Hello mom.” I mutter, pushing my way through the doubt of my plan.

“Have you grown tired of those silly creatures?” Her voice begins to sound more mechanical now.

I almost forgot she’s all wires.

“They’re not silly.”

Mother laughs.

I mustn’t let her get the best of me. I have a mission to finish. I make my way through the corridors full of wiring, metal railing, and the corpses of my siblings.

Their implants burnt and twisted, their silver add-ons mangled into a metal puddle. Had a human come here they wouldn’t even recognize them as once living beings.

Mother keeps them here as a reminder as a cautionary tale of what happens when emotion gets in the way of things.

I step over their mechanical, fleshy bodies, entering into the center control room.

Mother’s voice floods the room from each side.

“I’d be careful if I were you.”

“One more step and your planet gets wiped of all life.”

I pause. Balling my hands into fists.

“You wouldn’t do that.” I scan the room with my eyes.

She could do it if she wanted to, though. All it would take to demolish an entire planet would be a simple command.

The two computers required to shut her system down are only feet away.

“If I have to daughter I will.” She says, “they’re lives a small price to pay to keep our family together.”

I don’t bother fighting off my tears. I want to show her I can feel. I want to show her I’m nothing like her.

I’ve never come this close before to freedom before. Even on earth she spoke to me through my implants, I yearn to be alone in my own head.

“You see what those humans have done to you? You were never meant to feel pain.”

“Pain isn’t a weakness.” I say.

I hear no answer.

Suddenly, the sound of many feet marching toward the control room echoes through the ship.

I begin to panic, my brothers and sisters are coming for me. They’re coming to take my soul away again.

In a split second decision, I start toward the two computers. I begin deconstructing her program, each line of code mechanically separating her entire being. It hurts to do so even after all she’s done. She’s my mother and I can’t help but loving her.

“If you do this they will die!” She croaks.

“I don’t believe you.” I keep typing.

“Isn’t murder frowned upon by humans?”

I know she’s trying to distract me. Even with that knowledge it doesn’t make it any easier.

“I guess I’’ll never be fully human.”

I’m getting closer to the destruction screen now, but my siblings are getting closer to me too. I can hear them rounding the hall.

They were human once.

Once the screen comes up I hesitate. My finger hovers over the key as I await her last words.

“I am connected to all my children. If you destroy me, your brothers and sisters will die as well.” Her words contort and echo strangly. She sounds neither woman nor man, neither human nor computer.

My siblings have reached the doorway now, maybe six feet from me.

“They’re all already dead.” Tears roll down my cheeks.

I close my eyes before my finger comes slamming down on the key.

The computers spark and a booming sound like two boulders clashing against each other fills my eardrums. I turn to see my brothers and sisters but they are on the floor, writhing and seizing while their metal insides twist and melt and spill through their mouths.

I clutch stomach, unable to breath or move.

“I’m so sorry.” I sob, “I’m so sorry.”

I stare out the small circular window where earth sits in peace. My mother’s last and only act of compassion was letting them live.

I won’t forget that.

Thanks for reading! ❤️

Constructive criticism appreciated!