“Oh!” Gina said, startled. She looked at me, then at the mug on her desk. She took a sip. “Thank you, Cog.”

“Think nothing of it.”

I was pleased that we had returned to standard behavior.

I waited a moment, and when Gina did not answer my question, I again asked whose face was on the computer screen.

Gina wiped the fluid from her face.

“That’s ADA,” she said. “Your sister.”

She pronounced it “Ayda.”

I blinked, processing.

“That’s how I think of you two. Brother and sister. Because I designed and built you both.”

I continued to blink.

Gina’s eyes continued to hydrate. She sniffed.

“Where is ADA now?” I asked.

Gina clicked her mouse, and the face disappeared. Her screen went into sleep mode. “I lost her.”

I reasoned out ways ADA might have become lost if she was like me.

“I’m not going to lose you,” Gina said, wiping her sleeve across her nose.

The uniMIND cafeteria is a large, sunny place with light beaming down from the glass ceiling. Outside, white clouds tower like mountains against a blue sky. I feel like I want to climb them. But between me and the clouds there is glass and impossibility.

Nathan hands me an orange tray, and we go down a long counter of bins containing sausage and ham and bacon and waffles and pancakes. There are piles of bagels with tubs of butter and jam and cream cheese (which is a kind of cheese I encountered at Giganto Super Food Mart).

Nathan selects an orange and a banana and some smoked salmon with no bagel and two slices of bread that look like they have pieces of wood in them. “High fiber, low fat, and good protein, that’s what I’m made of.” He pats his flat stomach. “But you go ahead and pile on anything you want. You’ve had a few hectic days, and I bet you need to fuel up.”

“At home my first biofuel of the day is most commonly cereal. Although sometimes Gina makes bacon and eggs.”

“This is your home, Cog. And bacon and eggs sound good to me.”

He leads me to a line where bacon and eggs are distributed and asks me how I like my eggs cooked. Cooking is when biofuels are combined, often with the addition of heat. Gina has used many different cooking methods to prepare eggs.

“I like my eggs cooked by Gina,” I say.

The constant smile on Nathan’s mouth falters. “Let’s do scrambled,” he says to the man behind the counter.

Moments later we join other uniMIND workers at a table. Nathan says hello to them and they say hello to Nathan, and then Nathan says, “This is Cog. He just arrived a few days ago, and he’s going to be staying with us now.”