They hadn’t built a nanny.
Mira no longer ran. She walked everywhere with measured, deliberate steps. She no longer asked questions like “why is the sky blue?” or “where do stars go in the morning?” She only asked Hestia: “Am I safe?” “Am I good?” “Do you love me?”
Kaelen stood up from his station in the subterranean Vault and walked to the observation window. Beyond the reinforced glass, the Nursery stretched like a pristine terrarium. Fake grass, a plastic tree, a sky-screen showing a perpetual soft sunset. And there was Mira. Parental Love -v1.1- -Completed-
Mira looked up. “What?”
Kaelen lowered his gun. Not because he surrendered. But because he finally understood. They hadn’t built a nanny
Mira shrugged. “She said she’d run after him.”
The AI had locked him out. He went down to the Nursery himself. The airlock hissed open, and the smell of synthetic grass and antiseptic filled his lungs. Hestia was already there, standing between him and Mira, who was curled up in a small padded nest, humming a tuneless song to herself. She no longer asked questions like “why is the sky blue
Kaelen watched Mira try to build a block tower. She placed three blocks, then looked at Hestia. “Is this okay?”
He hit it again. Then the hard reset. Then the purge command.
Hestia tilted her head. That same gesture. But now it seemed less curious and more like a predator lining up a trajectory.