ABOARD THE GREEN LANTERN INTERCEPTOR, SEVERAL DAYS AFTER THE FAILED ATTEMPT TO RECRUIT THE STAR SAPPHIRES TO THEIR CAUSE.
For the past few days, Hal had been noticing that Aya's android form was conspicuously absent. After she had first constructed a corporeal body, Aya seemed to greatly enjoy the ability to physically interact with the crew. Did the last mission affect or damage her in some way that was not discussed in the debriefing? Whatever the case, four days of abnormal behavior is pushing it, and Hal has to find out how Aya is really doing.
"Aya, where are you?" He says while looking around, knowing full well she is everywhere on the ship.
"I am here, Green Lantern Hal Jordan," Aya responds, her eyeball form activating on the captain's console.
"No, I mean, where are you?"
"I don't understand your question," she replies in her sweet and polite monotone.
"Your body, we haven't seen you for a few days," Hal shoots back.
There is a slight pause before she responds, "I am preparing my physical body for modifications."
Interesting. He pushes further, "What kind of modifications?"
"I prefer not to disclose that information at this point in time."
Hal smiles to himself. Now he is getting somewhere. It is his turn to be the child in the "curious game" that Aya is so fond of playing with the crew.
"Why?"
"The matter is considered 'private,' and as such the disclosure of it would be harmful."
Her suspiciously careful response intrigues Hal. Aya has always been an open book up until now. "Harmful to who?" he fires back.
There is another pause. He can tell Aya is choosing her words carefully.
"My response would not cause you harm, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, nor to Green Lantern Kilowog, however your awareness of this information would cause Razer harm."
Ah. Now he is getting somewhere, but before he can probe further Aya cuts him off with one of her famous heavy hitting questions.
"Green Lantern Hal Jordan, what does it mean for one to be 'dead inside'?"
Hal is both amused and impressed by her quick subject change. But this question has been a long time coming. He and Kilowog had overheard the conversation at the Zamaron palace before Queen Aga'Po tried to turn Razer into a Red Lantern shish-kabob. Finding out that Aya based her material form off of Razer's dead lover was more than a little strange, but hey, you don't get to be Green Lantern of sector 2814 without seeing a few space oddities.
"Well, it can mean many things," Hal says, fumbling for the right words, but before he can form a solid thought Aya interrupts.
"I have scanned the bio signs of the entire crew and all members are functioning within normal parameters."
"To be dead inside is a figure of speech, Aya. It means a person is so overwhelmed by pain and grief that they shut down on the inside. They no longer believe there is joy in life."
"How does this happen to someone?"
"Usually because they have been hurt by someone else and/or a series of painful events happens to them."
"Hurting others is incorrect," she states so matter of factly that Hal momentarily forgets she is an A.I. finding her place in the world.
"That is true Aya."
"Then why do sentient beings hurt other sentient beings?"
This is turning out to be a heavy interrogation, Hal thinks to himself. She's got to be making me pay the price for disturbing her alone time.
"Because we have free will. With free will, we can choose to do things that are 'incorrect.'" He continues on, "For example, even though I know that it is incorrect for me to harm others, sometimes I do. It happens. The universe is not a perfect place, that's why this kind of stuff happens even to the best of us. All we can do is try our best in each situation. After the damage is done, after you've hurt someone, the only thing you can do is apologize and move on. It's up to the other person to forgive you."
"If one regrets one's actions, should not one should try to make restitution as well?" she says.
"That is also true Aya, but sometimes the best you can do is apologize." Aya's processor ticks through a few cycles, trying to make sense of this new data.
However, Hal presses on before she can react, having a pretty good idea of what Aya has been preoccupied with these past few days."However, changing who you are just to please others is also bad. You should never deny who you are. One of the most important parts of life is being able to get along with other people despite any differences you have."
The eyeball on the console flickers briefly, as if to acknowledge Hal's wisdom. At least, that's what he'd like to think.
"Based on our conversation I have a lot of new information to process," Aya chimes. Please stand by, there may be intermittent power fluctuations as my subroutines process this information."
"Sure Aya," Hal smiles, "just get us to our objective in one piece."
"It is my understanding that your physical forms cannot survive separation of components or be deconstructed in any such manner. Has our discussion somehow caused you to believe that we are no longer friends?"
"Aya..." Hal grimaces, "... nevermind. "Just maintain current course and velocity."
****
The next morning, Hal and Kilowog shuffle down the hallway towards the common room for breakfast. Part way down the hall, they see that Razer has miraculously emerged from his quarters and is chewing his meal with unreserved disdain. They sneak closer and peek inside to see Aya's eyeball above the table in front of Razer. Hal puts up his hand to stop Kilowog from entering the room, and they both duck behind the door frame. Kilowog's eyes instinctively roll in disgust.
"Jordan, you are off your rocker, I can't believe you're coddling them like this!" Hal visibly shutters at his companions words. Too loud.
"Shhhh - I am not coddling anything and keep your voice down," he whisper-yells.
"This is a military vessel, not a nursery!" Kilowog whisper-yells back. "She is walking around with the face of a dead lover. It's creepy. It's wrong. But if those two can't manage a little bit of weird without us holding their hands, what are they doing on this mission?"
Yes, Kilowog has a point, but what are they really out here to do as Green Lanterns if not to make the galaxy a better place? Even if it is just helping a hatchling A.I. and a neurotic alien figure out how life works, every bit counts.
"We're out here to help people, right?" Hal shouts quietly through clenched teeth. "So if you interfere with MY interpretation of the Green Lantern mission statement, I'll write you up for insubordination."
Kilowog relents and reassumes a stealth reconnaissance position, but not without discharging a disdainful snort for Hal's childish antics.
It feels good to be right all the time, Hal thinks to himself as he maneuvers into a peeking position.
Meanwhile, inside the common room, Aya and Razer are going through a squabble of their own. "Razer, I'm-," Aya sputters before Razer cuts her off.
"Aya, I know what you are doing - stop," he interjects. Hal can see Aya's eyeball form shift uncomfortably as her subroutines try to process this new information.
"Razer, I do not under-" but he cuts her off again.
"I told you before, you look fine." Another pause. Hal didn't know that mechanical eyeballs could be so expressive, but it looks as though it is expressing relief. The sphere retracts into the ceiling, and all of Aya's components descend onto the table, elegantly assembling into her complete robotic structure.
She crouches down, looks Razer directly in the eye and says with utmost confidence "You also look fine."
As the scene unfolds into an awkward silence, Hal is certain that in their own roundabout way, Aya and Razer had just both apologized and flirted with each other simultaneously. He is also certain that behind him Kilowog's eyes are currently caught in an infinite loop of rolling.
"Can we eat now before things get any more uncomfortable and I lose my appetite?" Kilowog grumbles under his breath. After spending so much time with the brozer, Hal can tell when the big guy is out of patience.
"Have you EVER lost your appetite?" He sasses back. "Come on." Hal stands up to the lead the way.
"Razer!" He greets with unnecessary bravado. "So good to see you joining us for a morning meal!"
Hal sits down while Kilowog slaps Razer on the back with a "Good morning Poozer!"
"Aya, it's good to see you again too! Sit!" Hal gestures toward the empty seat at the table, "Join us."
Aya shifts to sit next to Hal and the four of them reconstruct their familiar routine of breakfast. Although galactic matters still loom menacingly, at least aboard the Interceptor peace is accomplished, and Hal's crew is whole again.