Within a moment, a robot arm in the Repair Ward rushed towards EVE, bringing the cable she had specified to connect her with WALL•E. EVE took the cable from the robot arm, conscious of all that it could represent and bring to her relationship and understanding with WALL•E.
Accessing her newly-created WALL•E Engineering data files, she recalled where WALL•E's data port was.
"All ooo-kay," EVE reassured WALL•E as she made three brief taps on WALL•E's Solar Charge Panel display.
"Whooooah!" WALL•E exclaimed as the display obediently hinged open with a soft whirring, to reveal his data port — something he couldn't recall ever having been done to him in his conscious life before! Noting that his port was somewhat corroded and partly filled with dust from centuries of disuse, EVE beeped at the diagnostic station to hand her a standard sonic pulse cleaning tool, which the station compliantly did.
WALL•E started to laugh and jiggle uncontrollably as she cleaned his data port. It was a completely new and unfamiliar electrical sensation to him!
"WALL•E . . . pleaaaassse! . . . Stiiiill!" EVE asked him, trying to continue the cleaning as best she could. WALL•E allowed his EVE Directive to kick in, temporarily disabling his sensory functions in and around the port, finally enabling EVE to complete the cleaning. After cleaning his data port, she carefully plugged one end of the cable into it.
Then, pausing and taking a deep "breath", EVE opened her small Universal Interface port door just above her bio-stasis chamber, and plugged the other end of the cable into her Universal Interface.
As she sent the first data interrogatives along the cable to WALL•E, EVE closed her eyes.
Suddenly, she found herself seeming to enter a new world of awareness for the first time. EVE wondered, was she inside WALL•E's virtual mind, his world? Or in some neutral realm in between her and WALL•E?
Colors, numbers, and letters were all blending together, swirling around her in all directions — forming both random patterns and sometimes data strings, shapes, or images.
"WALL•E!" she called out, hearing her thoughts as speech just as clearly as she did inside her own mind.
"Evah!" she heard a voice respond. It sounded somewhat like WALL•E, but it was different. It was strangely crystal clear, and without typical robotic distortion.
"Show yourself," she asked, tentatively — unsure of whether it was WALL•E, or what form he might take in this realm they might suddenly be sharing together.
A white swirl of numbers and letters emerged from the background, coalescing in front of her perceived vision.
"What form would you like me to assume, Evah?" it asked.
"My name is EVE!" she responded, feigning irritation, yet uncontrollably smiling.
"I know," it said.
"But it's been something I've kept up to let you remember me by, and a way I've used to let you know I love you. How else would you know that it's really me before you now, and not just you talking to yourself?" it continued, with almost a smile in its voice.
"WALL•E!" EVE exclaimed, as she instinctively moved to merge with the white swirl of data before her. She started to experience an enveloping rush of sensations, energies, thoughts, feelings, images — like she never had before.
Suddenly, alarms started echoing ahead of and behind her . . . but seeming like they were each off in the distance someplace.
"EVE, stop!" WALL•E said. "I'm overwhelmed! I feel like I'm losing myself in you! Something's not right!"
EVE pulled her mind back, allowing a distance, a divide to exist between them again. The rush of sensations faded away. The alarms they were hearing around them diminished in pitch and intensity, but did not cease.
"EVE, this link is not sustainable." WALL•E said, with increasing concern and discomfort in his voice. "I feel both like I'm getting hot, and that my mind is starting to fade in and out in places."
From WALL•E's direction, they both heard an automated voice saying, "WARNING: DISCONTINUE INTERFACE! CPU OVERLOAD IN 30 MICROSECONDS!"
"WALL•E!" EVE cried.
"Do not fear, my love!" WALL•E said.
"But there's so much I want to tell you . . . to share with you!" EVE cried tearfully.
"I know," he said. "I want to share my own world of thoughts and feelings with you, too."
"But know this my love." he continued. "You tell me everything I could ever want to understand from you, every time you look at me . . . touch me . . . even beep at me!" WALL•E tearfully laughed.
"WARNING: DISCONTINUE INTERFACE! CPU OVERLOAD IN 15 MICROSECONDS!" the automated voice repeated.
"We have so much more yet to experience out there!" WALL•E concluded.
"Together . . ." EVE said.
"Always . . ." responded WALL•E.
"WARNING: DISCONTINUE INTERFACE! CPU OVERLOAD IN 10 MICROSECONDS!" the automated voice repeated again.
"I love you, WALL•E . . ." EVE said, as she mentally turned back towards her own side of the realm she had entered.
"I love you, Evah . . ." WALL•E said, as he too reluctantly turned back to his own exit from their shared realm.