Instead of falling too deeply into a fatalistic mentality, Jove went wandering. He found Eve in the command center, busying herself on the main view screen with enough focus to draw his attention.
"What's up?" he asked. "Is this an official assignment from the director?"
"Please don't start calling Mom that," she muttered. "I think it will only make things worse."
"I won't if you tell me what you're doing." Jove noticed a video clip with his mom's face as the thumbnail and frowned a bit.
"I'm going through the contents of Ryan's phone," said Eve. "Mom suggested it made sense to check for anything that might be of value to us, even if it's just movies we can watch or apps that work offline that might be useful. She said Ryan's death was still too raw for her to do it herself."
"Makes sense." Jove frowned, feeling vaguely annoyed. "It kind of weirds me out that the two of them were so close."
"He had a crush on her," said Eve.
"What?"
"At least, I think he did." Eve gave a devious smile as though she'd delivered news she thought he'd find hilarious. "There were a few more vlog style videos like the one Ryan warned us with. They were all seemingly addressed to his dad back home, but all he talked about in them was our mother. Well, I suppose some of the other researchers and Andromeda make an appearance too, but you can just… hear it in his voice when Director Faremont is the topic."
Jove shook his head, feeling an odd pounding in his chest. "Why would you tell me all of this?"
Eve shrugged. "I thought you'd find it funny. I can't exactly bring it up with Mom, grieving as she is. I wonder if they ever, well… you know. Broke out the liquor and did a little bit of wrestling on the couch."
"That's disgusting." He was annoyed by the mental image as much as it nearly mirrored exactly what'd happened with him and Aster, just in the sauna.
"Grow up, Jovian," said Eve. "It's not like she's still married to our father. Just the two of them and an AI, out here basically alone. Ryan's not really my type, but hell. In that situation… I might even have fucked him."
Jove covered his ears. "Please… stop… talking."
"What? I said might." Eve cackled with laughter and waved him closer. "I didn't find any amateur sex vids, don't worry. What I did find, however, is something I think you will like."
"Should I trust you?"
"On this? Definitely." She took out her phone and clicked on an app. "This was a sketchy app install file titled Vertimon that I found on his phone."
A remixed version of an incredibly familiar song began playing. Jove furrowed his brow as Eve clicked "new game" and began tapping through the opening sequence.
"Is that… a Pokemon knockoff?"
"Indeed." She smirked at him. "One with local multiplayer. I have no idea if it's a complete game or just some stupid tech demo, but I can send it to you."
Her eagerness was telling. Eve had always been competitive, but when it came to Pokemon, the level of competition between them had almost reached the point of silliness.
An odd mixture of emotions struck Jove, nostalgia and sadness and, admittedly, a fair amount of excitement toward the idea of diving into a new Pokemon game, even if it was only an imitation.
"Send it to me," he said. "I'll decide for myself whether it's any good."
"I wouldn't have mentioned it to you to begin with if it wasn't," said Eve. "Let me know when you start playing. I'll let you catch up to me a bit."
"…Thanks."
He passed her his phone to plug in and transfer the app file to. There was an odd sense of something in the air - a lack of something, to be specific. The tension between him and Eve still existed, but it had finally been tucked into a corner in a way that let them talk past it, at least for the moment.
Eve pulled the view of one of the other screens onto the main one while the file transferred. It showed the station's exterior, specifically the shed. The snow was blowing again, and it made the scene seemed drained of color, colder than it really was, and Jove knew it was fucking cold.
"Has she done anything?" he asked.
"Andromeda?" Eve shook her head. "Hasn't tried to escape. Couldn't tell you more than that. There's no camera inside the shed, unfortunately."
"It seems so cruel to just leave her out there." He held up a hand, forestalling the expected reply. "I know she can't feel cold, and it makes no difference to her, but still…"
"If you know all that, then what's the problem?" asked Eve. "Are you going to insist on anthropomorphizing an AI just to play contrarian to our mother's will?"
"I'm not playing contrarian simply by having a differing opinion," said Jove.
"You are when our mother knows best."
"Does she, though?" he asked.
"In this case, yeah, I really do think so. She knows Andromeda far better than we do. Maybe she sensed that something was off about her that she just couldn't articulate?"
"Maybe."