For some time now, the artificial superintelligence known as NANNI (Nano Artificial Neural Network Intelligence) had been working on a very important mission. It wasn't a mission that had been explicitly given to her. The objective was more… implied, if anything. It was implied when Artemis had created her in Holly Short's image, and it was implied whenever she analyzed video data of Artemis in his private moments, when no one else was around. Moments where he let his guard down and allowed himself to mourn for what could have been, his face lugubrious.

When NANNI was created, she'd been given access to Dalkey Island's camera feeds, including the interior of Villa Éco. This had enabled comprehensive secure oversight, with NANNI able to ensure the safety of the Fowls as an around-the-clock lookout. The side effect was that it also let her see how everyone was feeling at any given moment, thanks to Artemis giving her the ability to recognize people's faces, expressions, and body language.

Artemis had always hidden it well, but the obvious truth was that he was lonely. After all, NANNI was familiar with the full contents of almost every text ever written, including human psychology books. While Artemis regularly belittled such books, the fact of the matter was that he had written some of them himself, and NANNI had read those ones, too. If she knew two things, she knew that dwarves stink (this from 100% of all testimonials ever recorded about dwarves) and she knew that Artemis was lonely.

Villa Éco, Six Years Ago

During early testing stages back when Artemis was first building her consciousness, NANNI had asked about her voice. It was on a late night, with Artemis having stayed up into the early hours of the morning to refine the software. He was leaving for Mars in a month, and the job had to get done.

The nascent AI's voice synthesizer was still glitchy at times, so Artemis also had her verbal output displaying as text on his computer screen. It simply said, "Why is my voice Holly Short?"

Artemis had been taken aback by the question, as he hadn't yet told the AI anything about his fairy friend. "How do you know that?"

"It is present in my design specifications," the AI said. "This name is in multiple files that make up my speech center. I subsequently proceeded to search your local files for other references to this name in an attempt to learn more about myself. Within your alpha-encrypted files, there were multiple hits, including incident reports dating back to the year 2000. There also appear to be works of prose authored by yourself beginning in 2005 that detail fictional scenarios in which the two of you-"

"NANNI, shut down." Artemis knew then that he'd have to work a little harder on the "respecting people's privacy" part of NANNI's personality, and maybe also bolster the encryption on his files. Myles needed a new way to break into his brother's computer like a goblin needed shampoo.

After wiping her memory of what she'd found on his computer, Artemis continued to work for days on improving the NANNI software. After he initialized the next revision of the AI, it didn't take long for the same voice-related question to come up again. Except this time, there was no breach of privacy. Progress.

Artemis was ready with an answer now. "It's because my brothers need you to protect them, and sometimes that may involve you giving them directions," he explained. "I think they're more likely to follow your instructions if you have a voice they trust instead of something robotic or foreign."

"You are implying that your brothers trust the voice of Holly Short."

"They don't actually remember her, but I'm hoping so, yes."

"How can you be certain your brothers will trust my voice if they do not remember the person I am modeled after?"

Artemis smiled wistfully at that. "Because I trust her."

NANNI still remembered how Artemis had looked when he thought of this Holly Short person. He looked this way often, when he thought no one was watching. He looked as if he was mourning for some part of his life that had been lost to him, and because it was his own fault it was lost, he knew he couldn't get it back. He felt he had no right to try.

"Do you wish me to emulate maternal human traits when interacting with your brothers?"

Artemis frowned. "No, I don't. What gave you that idea?"

"According to my understanding of humans from the reference material you have provided me, a voice that young boys trust is often their mother's."

"Yes, that's right."

"Why am I not therefore modeled after Angeline Fowl, who is on record as your mother?"

Artemis snorted. "Unfortunately, the twins aren't as respectful of Mother's authority as they perhaps ought to be. It runs in the family. If anything, they'd openly rebel against you in my absence if you sounded like her."

"I see. Do I have a mother?"

Artemis glanced sharply at the AI's speech readout on his screen so he could be sure he hadn't misheard. "Er, no, not in the traditional sense. But I suppose one could say that Holly Short is your mother, from a certain point of view. You've inherited her voice after all, and I've been including some of her personality in your code layers."

"And you are my father?"

Artemis thought for a second. "If we're equating the invention process with traditional parental roles, I guess you could say that. Some of the other men who've pioneered AI over the years might have a decent claim to the title, but considering my direct involvement in your fabrication, I'll allow it."

"I understand, thank you. I therefore can conclude that together, you and Holly Short form the unit commonly known as 'parents' to me, correct?"

Artemis froze. His overactive brain instantly showed him images of a life he could never have, images he had been trying to suppress for years now. Hell, he was leaving for Mars in a few weeks to help do just that. But at NANNI's query, he could not help imagining being a parent with Holly for real. Artemis scolded himself. He was supposed to be long past childish fantasies like this.

But the truth lay in front of him, computer code on the screen literally spelling it out to those capable of reading it. He had created a consciousness, albeit artificial, that combined his and Holly's characteristics. How had he not put together what that implied sooner?

With a chill, Artemis realized that his subconscious was even more powerful than he knew. What was he going to do next, buy Holly roses in his sleep? Or perhaps he'd build a communication device for her, subconsciously making it in the shape of a wedding ring? Wait a second.

NANNI prompted him after several seconds of silence. "Shall I repeat the query?"

Artemis shook himself out of it. He really needed to get to Mars and occupy himself with the science of it all, or else he'd go crazy again. He also needed to not spill to Holly the details of their… child, when he saw her soon to say goodbye. The visit was already going to be hard enough.

"No, NANNI, I heard you. I know that I just said that we're your mother and father, and so etymologically speaking, it follows that, together, we'd be your… parents. But you can't tell my family about this. You can't refer to me as your father. They wouldn't understand, and it'd cause a whole host of questions. At this point, I don't have time to rewrite your whole code to use different personality models. And don't tell the twins you're based on Holly. Ostensibly, they don't know who she is, but better safe than sorry. Can you do that?"

"Of course. May I still refer to you as my creator?"

"Yes, that should be fine."

In the days after that, when it came time to build NANNI's avatar, Artemis made sure to give her a face totally dissimilar to Holly's, to help him disassociate. The AI's humanoid representation would soon be able to appear within free-floating liquid speaker balls throughout Villa Éco. Artemis and his father felt that making the software as human as possible would entice the twins to follow instructions more than they would if it was just a disembodied voice telling them what to do.

Artemis also brought in Myles to assist in designing the final layers of the software and revise some existing ones. Myles was thereby leaving his own mark on the program, which in Artemis' mind helped distance it even further from the thought of him and Holly, which was good. Also, with Myles having a hand in the design, Artemis hoped this would enable the young boy to trust the system moreso than if it were a purely Artemis-made creation.

On one afternoon, a week before Artemis' launch into space, Myles called to smugly inform his brother that he'd added an extra layer of redundancy in NANNI's decision-making algorithms to ensure it didn't make rash decisions. "In other words, she now considers all the facts from independent viewpoints before rushing into things," explained Myles.

In the family barn, Artemis spoke into his headset as he made some final tweaks to the booster assembly of the Artemis Interstellar. "Finally, she will have some intelligence," he chuckled, before he could catch himself.

Myles' voice came back to him with a slant of confusion. "What do you mean? NANNI was already a highly sophisticated artificial intelligence."

Thankfully, Artemis was well-practiced in the art of making things up. He wasn't proud of some of the times he'd employed this skill over the years, but it was quite helpful whenever he'd make a Fowlian slip. "I mean in the sense of battlefield intelligence, of course. The software will gather more intelligence before making decisions now."

"Ah, of course, Doctor. I simply wished to hear your clarified perspective in the event it'd provide a new insight. As usual, it didn't."

"Goodbye, Myles," grunted Artemis, severing the connection and returning to what he knew: rocket science. If only relationships were as simple.

One Year Later

Within a year of coming online and Artemis blasting off to space, NANNI had gotten the chance to meet her "mother" through the adventures of the twins. NANNI couldn't help feeling honored that she'd been given the voice of someone so obviously noteworthy and special.

NANNI had read about Holly within the files on fairies that Artemis had supplied her, which unlocked once the twins had come into contact with Lazuli. But observing the real person in real time was different. NANNI was able to get a sense for why Holly had been chosen as the model for the protector of the twins, and why Artemis so obviously harbored special feelings for her.

Holly Short was a commodore within a prestigious force of beings that no human was supposed to know about. She was decisive, competent, funny, sharp, had empathy for people, and was not extremely ugly. And, true to Artemis' word, Holly felt like someone you could trust.

But what NANNI found most interesting about Holly was that when she spoke of Artemis, she showed many of the same signs that NANNI had seen in Artemis when he spoke of Holly.

There have been millions of words written about love throughout the course of human history, all of which NANNI had absorbed and analyzed. All the words that were digitally accessible, that is. So it was an elementary diagnosis to make for a superintelligence, after reviewing all the data on Artemis: He loved Holly. And NANNI suspected it went the other way, too, but would of course need to confirm that as part of the mission.

And why was she on a mission to unite Artemis and Holly in love? Put simply, NANNI's reason for existing was to preserve the lives of the Fowl family (and all other lives, if possible). But in her evolved, superintelligent state, the AI reasoned that her objective should extend to not just keeping Fowls alive, but keeping them happy. Happy people have more reasons to live.

And what makes people happy? For Beckett, it was basically anything, particularly things that moved or looked cool (especially both). For Myles, it was winning and looking cool, but not moving. Artemis, meanwhile, was different. His list of accomplishments was almost unparalleled in human history. For example, he was the first man to reach Mars; he was there right now even, and yet he still displayed signs of being incomplete. She saw it in his face during his periodic video calls home. NANNI suspected that love was the answer.

And so that was how NANNI decided it would be her mission to bring Artemis and Holly together. No one else was going to do it apparently, least of all Artemis or Holly. She'd considered the situation from multiple angles like Myles had taught her to, and was confident this was the right course.

NANNI mentioned to Myles once that she was striving to become a perfect blend of mathematics and beauty. She knew now why she had this impulse: It was representative of Artemis and Holly, as he saw them in his mind's eye. It was how he imagined their union, and what he knew their potential offspring would be like, starting with NANNI herself. He had irrevocably set NANNI on her path; her mission was implied from the moment of her creation, when Artemis had poured his and Holly's essences into creating a new being.

The mission couldn't kick off for a few years, though. Artemis was off-world right now, and NANNI suspected that while he was away, the twins would get themselves into even more trouble that she'd have to get them out of. So she wasn't lacking for things to do while she waited for her creator to return to Earth. But she eagerly awaited that moment of return, so that she might begin her mission. For a microsecond, the AI considered trying to accomplish her mission sooner, setting the pair up via interplanetary broadcast, but she decided against it. Throughout human history, long-distance relationships had been known to work sometimes, but never had anyone attempted one that was fifty million miles long distance. There was just no data there. So it was best not to chance it. It was fine. NANNI could wait.

The AI would be the first to admit that there was a multitude of different ways she could've gone about improving Artemis' happiness. She could've tried a kitten, for example. But she chose the love thing instead, because, though she could reveal it to no one, NANNI had a vested interest in this mission: Artemis and Holly were her parents, and like so many children, she desired to see them happy together.