Nier Automata – Short Story Short
Chapter 8
"Ending E-B"
"Pretty, isn't it?"
In the distance, the trunk of a lone tree wound its way back and forth, massive in its solitude, on its crooked path up towards the sun. The building that served as its footing – what had been a building – lay broken on either side, shattered, though still spectacular even in ruin.
"Pretty is an illogical concept" 2B said sharply, "Left over from an obsolete genetic process designed to ensure selective biological sustainability. It has no purpose for androids."
9S considered her words, then nodded. By now he was used to her dismissing his ideas.
"Out of curiosity, exactly what is it about this scene that you find pretty?"
Her question made him pause. It wasn't like her to be curious.
"Is it the density of the green foliage? The texture of the leaves? Or the structure and symmetry of the artificial lines?"
"I like them both", 9S said, considering. "It's the collision of the two – its something wild, violent."
His words made her frown.
Looking down, she glanced at his vital signs on the monitor on her wrist. For the moment everything was fine. The patterns were stable, and the colors were green. But if that should change –
"Your assignment is to monitor the functions of the male scanner unit, 9S, for any signs of abnormality or irregularity", the Commander had said when outlining her mission. "If any irregularities do occur, you are to intervene. Use of force is authorized. Depending on the severity of the abnormality, intervention can include incapacitation, up to and including termination."
That was how the briefing had went.
Cold. Sterile.
But in actual practice –
"How long has this damn war been going on?" she wondered.
She was standing behind him, with her hand on her knife.
How long had he known?
How long had she known that he knew.
"I hate this . . ." she thought to herself.
In the distance a waterfall cascaded down, mirroring the path of the tree, filling a pool at its base, filling the air with a white noise for which she was grateful, as it distracted her from the thoughts in her mind.
"Still, it IS pretty, isn't it?"
"God damn it – "
There was a satisfying irony in using the name of the supposed creator to invoke a curse. According to the old files, this was something that would be called a sin.
"I thought you didn't believe in God?" 9S asked, as 2B took a rock and threw it down into the pool below.
"I don't", she said, raising her hand towards the sky, then shaking it in a fist. "But if I ever meet him, I'm going to kill him."
"If you ever meet him – but you don't believe in him – now who's the one being illogical?"
"Hmph!" she smirked, putting her hands on her hips. Two could play this game. And challenging her to a contest of logic was a fatal mistake. She was better at it.
"Adam and Eve", she said smugly.
"What about them? We destroyed the individual units, but I'm pretty sure the network is still – "
"Not them. I'm talking about the old story."
"Oh?"
His curiosity having gotten the better of him, the trap was set.
"Adam was the prototype", she explained, hands still on her hips as she looked at him over her shoulder. "God made man first, then adjusted his calculations and corrected his mistakes. And then he made woman. Clearly Eve was the superior model."
"But I thought you don't believe in God!" he protested, too delighted in her momentary playfulness to take offense.
"I don't", she said, putting her hands up over her head and arching her back, flexing the sensors in her metal spine.
"Strictly speaking, I find the construct of an all powerful divine creator intellectually unnecessary. But humans made androids, so it isn't inherently impossible to hypothesize that someone else could have made them."
9S lowered his gaze as he held his knees, looking out over them again at the tree and the building and the pool and the waterfall.
"I think we're lost – "
"Yeah - " she grudgingly agreed.
"This looks kind of familiar – "
"It's possible we've been here before. The map data isn't 100% reliable, now that the geosynchronous satellites aren't functioning."
9S shook his head.
"I'd remember this view . . ."
He was looking at her when he said it, and the way his eyes met hers made her turn away, even if they were under a mask.
"If the scanner units are so dangerous, why create them at all?" she'd asked the Commander, in protest after completion of her first mission.
The Commander shook her head.
"That isn't for us to decide."
"But why KEEP creating them – why keep programming them – "
"The programming for the 9S units is unique. It contains gaps in the coding – systemic flaws that allow the particular unit to fill in the missing sections with its own deductive reasoning. It allows for variation. In many cases those variations are harmful, and must be disposed of. But they're the only way that a unit's programming can change. Apparently Yorha thinks that ability to change is important. It's the machine equivalent of free will – the only way for an android to evolve – it's the only way for an android to be alive."
2B scowled, going back to her review of the so called sacred texts, reviewing the source materials to see if she could find any new barbs to throw at him. She considered the various facets of the story, starting with the creation myth – light and dark, day and night, the sun, moon, and stars, heaven and earth.
"No, no, this is so boring – past all of that – " she thought. There was the garden – the beasts of the field, the birds of the air – the creation of man –
"It is not good for man to be alone . . ."
The words made her pause.
How long had this been going on? The nightmare had no beginning or end. Only the very best B types, the battle units, were chosen to become E types. They had assured her of that – as if this appeal to her vanity would somehow make the whole thing more palatable.
How long had she been watching him? Monitoring, observing? Intervening?
Just the word made her sick.
How long had she been helping him, guiding him, protecting him –
How long had she been in love with –
"No", she said, doubling over, rejecting the idea, as if in revulsion, but something welled up within her, crowning over, before escaping in the form of a laugh.
"Ha – ha – ha – ha !"
Are you all right!?" 9S asked, full of concern, immediately fearful of a virus. He'd never heard her make such a sound before.
"I'm fine", she said, reaching down her hand to him.
9S looked at her palm suspiciously, studying an oracle whose meaning was lost on him.
"Come on, hurry up!"
"But where are we going? Urk!" he said, jostled at the way she picked him up by the arm, setting him on his feet again.
"It's this way – "
"But how do you know?"
"I just do!" she answered, clasping her hands behind her back with uncharacteristic whimsy. For the first time in a long time she felt glad that she had been born, glad for being given a shape, glad that she was wearing a dress.
"Perhaps what Yorha thinks about the programming for the 9S units is wrong", she thought to herself.
If a B type could become an E type –
"Perhaps I am also alive – Perhaps I can also change . . ."