Jove walked over to the ice drone, crouching to examine the damage. Eve was already there and gave a small shake of the head.
"Most of the bullets went right through the main processing unit in her chest," she said. "Well, in its chest, I suppose."
"Andromeda is still perfectly alive and well back at Termina Station," said Kira. "So to speak. This was just a copy of her which she would have deleted after copying the memories from anyway."
"I suppose," muttered Jove.
It still didn't feel quite right with him, the idea that they had just watched an instance of their friendly AI companion gunned down right in front of them. Could a being that claimed to not be conscious in the same way humans are be described in terms of life and death?
He could only make sense of it through her absence, the fact that they wouldn't have her knowledge to identify any new fish they caught, or her experience in the terrain to confidently lead them back to Termina Station. Or just her friendly and patient presence, in general. It was a loss, regardless of whether it was a death.
He walked over to Aster, who was standing next to the box. She smiled and came close, briefly stepping into a side hug. Jove sensed that his mother was watching them and stepped a safe distance back after a second.
"What do you think is inside it?" he asked.
"Only one way to find out," she said, with a grin. "I love presents. Though it's a bit of a dangerous kind of love when it comes to the ones given by all-powerful and genocidal AI agents."
"Abacus isn't all powerful, though I suppose you could make an argument for genocidal," said Kira. "Let's bring the box into one of the tents."
"Are we seriously going to open it?" asked Eve. "That's what this AI clearly wants. Why play into its hands?"
"I mean… curiosity?" said Jove. "Seriously. Imagine what could be inside. A crazy powerful weapon? Nanotechnology? Maybe even another smaller box?"
"A nesting doll box," said Aster. "Who knows? Maybe Abacus has a sense of humor."
Jove carried the box, which was made of plastic with a metal frame at the edges, into the tent he shared with his mother. He tried to get a sense of the weight as he might have felt out a present on Christmas morning. It was decently heavy, but not enough to strain his arms.
He set the box down a short distance from the hole in the ice and glanced up at his family. Eve was the furthest into the tent, standing next to the cots. Jove froze as he followed her gaze downward to a pair of panties, still wet from the illicit purpose they'd been set to, laying on the insulated floor.
Jove felt his shame yanking him in an uncomfortable direction as though it was stabbed through his back like a meat hook. He pretended to take his boots off next to Eve, setting them down atop the horrible evidence of what he and his mother had gotten up to earlier that night.
"Would anyone like to volunteer to do the honors?" asked Kira.
Jove waited a second, a bit surprised when Eve and Aster didn't volunteer.
"I'll do it," he said.
He walked over to the box. The lid had handholds with triggers on either side to release the seal, almost like a Tupperware container. His mother set a hand on his shoulder as he started to lean forward to undo them.
"Don't… stand right over it," she said. "Just in case."
He nodded, heart pounding increasingly harder in his chest. The metal felt cold against his fingers as he set them into the handholds. He crouched, putting his head out of the potential line of fire, as he triggered the mechanisms and pulled up.
Inside the box was a sleeping cat.
"…What?" muttered Jove.
The cat was larger than a kitten but small enough to likely still not be fully grown, with orange fur and a white belly. It wasn't moving and didn't react to the sudden change in its environment. Jove's first thought, in all honesty, was that it might be dead.
"That looks like a cat," said Eve.
"That is most definitely a cat," said Aster.
One of its ears flicked. Jove and the others flinched backward as though it had pulled a gun. With the slowness and indulgence of a feline, the cat stood up, stretched, and hopped up against the box's edge to peer outside.
"I don't understand," muttered Kira. "There has to be something more here."
The cat climbed out of the box, yawned, and walked over to the ice hole. Kira picked up the box and examined it as though there might be something else hidden in one of the corners. Jove crouched next to the cat, noticing the grey collar with a nametag around its neck.
"This little guy is apparently named Mango," he said, with a chuckle.
"This little guy is actually this little gal," said Aster, examining its hind quarters.
"Don't touch it," said Kira.
"A little late for that." Jove was holding out his hand for Mango's inspection, and the cat gave one of his fingers an exploratory lick.
"I'm not sure how I feel about this," said Eve. "What's this AI's game?"
"To spy on us, maybe," said Kira, with a shrug. "Though if Abacus already knows where we are and has access to our satellite communications, you'd think it might choose a less conspicuous method."
"Could it be some kind of weapon?" asked Eve. "Maybe it has a bomb installed inside it? Or it's been genetically engineered to secrete poison from its claws?"
"Yeah, definitely gives off such overwhelmingly dangerous vibes," said Jove, with heavy sarcasm.
Mango was sniffing the water hole. The water had risen to be almost level with the ice. The cat tried licking some up, but apparently found it too cold, instead opting to dip a paw in and lick the moisture from its fur instead.
"Are we all in agreement that we should leave it here?" asked Kira.
"What?" snapped Jove.
"We have nothing to gain from bringing it back to Termina Station and potentially everything to lose," said Eve. "It's too risky."
"It's a cat," said Jove. "If it looks like a cat, walks like a cat… "
"Darling, please," said Aster. "You're being a little disingenuous, don't you think? Given the circumstances?"
"We can't just leave it here," he said.
The others exchanged an uneasy glance.
"He's always had a thing for cats," muttered Eve. "Remember Candace?"
The comment prodded Jove in a place he'd forgotten, an old wound that was healed but still raw and vulnerable.
"Candace?" asked Aster.
"It was the cat we had when Jovian and Eve were children," said Kira.
"Jove cried for weeks after what happened," said Eve.
"Fuck off!" he snapped, a little surprised at his own anger. "What I remember most about Candace is how you wouldn't even help search for her after she ran away! Only Mom and Dad helped me look. You just stayed in your room and watched TV."
Eve let out a mocking chuckle that cut even deeper.
Kira looked uncomfortable. "Jovian… God, why is this conversation still so hard to have properly? The reason Eve didn't help you look isn't because she was heartless. Candace… didn't exactly… run away, so to speak."
The betrayal was shocking, powerful, and unsettling, despite it being in regard to something that'd happened when he was a child. Jove shook his head, mad most of all at the way Eve seemed to be amused by his reaction.
"You were so close with Candace," continued Kira. "Your father and I didn't want to break your heart. We thought it would be a little less hard on you if you didn't have to have her death thrust into your face."
"A little less hard on me," he said, with a sour taste in his mouth. "Whatever. I'm over it. I'm also not leaving this cat here."
"I should have known that he'd react this way," said Eve.
"Fuck off, Eve."
"Jove, please," said his mother. "Think this through carefully and logically. Abacus has to have an ulterior motive. Do we really want to invite potential danger into our home unless it's absolutely necessary?"
Mango had apparently taken a liking to Kira and was trying to nuzzle against her leg as she made her point, forcing her to awkwardly try to avoid the feline by stepping from foot to foot.
"I'm not denying the AI has an ulterior motive, but the obvious ones have far more immediate solutions," said Jove. "Like you said — if the AI wanted to spy on us, it wouldn't need a cat to do it. If it wanted to kill us, well, you saw the guns on that drone in action. What if it wants to test us? Or protect us, even?"
"Why, little brother, would you expect that a rogue AI with opaque motivations wants to protect us?" asked Eve.
"The seed vault," muttered Kira. "That… could be it. It's possible Abacus has a purpose for the samples within it. It might want us to serve as caretakers for the vault, as was part of Termina Station's original mission."
"Why wouldn't Abacus simply take the vault immediately, then?" asked Eve. "Why even bother with us?"
"He's still at war with this other AI, Tchaikovsky," said Jove. "Maybe the safest place for the vault is exactly where it is right now."
"You think the cat has some kind of secret defense capabilities, then?" asked Aster.
"I don't know," said Jove. "What I do know is that I'm not leaving it here. That's not the kind of person I feel like being right now. If any of you have a problem with that, you can head back without me, too."