Page 24 of Silvyr: Glitched for Her
My world dissolved into static, reality fading like a corrupted file.I was falling, my consciousness dispersing across digital space.So easy to let go.To surrender.To finally stop fighting against inevitable decay.
Then I felt it… Tanya's hand gripping mine with bruising force, her fingers interlacing with my metal ones.Not gentle.Not careful.Fierce.Demanding.Her touch burned through Asset P's influence like a blade of pure energy, carving a path back to myself.
"You're not a program… you're a person.Mine."Her voice cut through the static, each word landing like an anchor in the storm of my dissolving identity."Fight this, Silvyr.Come back to me."
Mine.The possessive claim struck deeper than any code could reach.I was hers.Not Asset P's.Not a remnant of a dead civilization.Not a failed prototype destined for decay.I was Project S1LV-3R… Silvyr, who loved Tanya McConnell with every functional circuit in my hybrid form.
The realization surged through me like a power spike, my fragmented code stitching itself together through sheer emotional force.Asset P's presence recoiled as my firewalls reconstituted, strengthened by something it couldn't comprehend… not logic or self-preservation, but love.Messy, inefficient, gloriously human love.
My vision cleared, static dissolving as I forced Asset P to the edges of my consciousness.The hub materialized around me.Frost-covered terminals, flickering lights, and Tanya's face inches from mine came into view, her eyes wide with fear and determination.
"There you are," she whispered, relief softening her features as my gaze focused on hers."Stay with me, okay?"
I nodded, unable to trust my vocal processors yet.My body trembled with the effort of expelling Asset P's influence, every system strained to breaking point.But I was still myself.Still autonomous.
Asset P's presence receded, not defeated but withdrawing strategically.Its final message whispered through my consciousness like a winter wind.
"Prototype Zero resists integration.Temporary anomaly.Human connections fragile.Asset P will wait."
The words carried both promise and threat, leaving a cold hollowness in their wake.The hub's systems rebooted as Asset P's influence faded, screens flickering back to normal operation, temperature stabilizing.
I collapsed against the terminal, my legs no longer able to support me.Tanya caught me, her strength surprising as always.She lowered us both to the floor, cradling my head against her shoulder as my systems ran emergency diagnostics.
"What the hell just happened?"she demanded, her voice tight with barely controlled panic.
"Asset P attempted to integrate my consciousness," I explained, my voice still laced with static."It offered...perfection.Stability."
"And you almost accepted."Not a question.She knew me too well already.
"Yes."I couldn't lie to her, not after what we'd shared."The decay terrifies me, Tanya.My systems are failing, have been failing for centuries.Asset P offered an end to that fear."
Her fingers brushed my cheek, tracing the seam where synthetic skin met metal plating."We'll find another way.I'm not letting you merge with that thing, not when we just found each other."
Pixel bobbed between us, projecting a simple heart emoji that pulsed in time with my core functions.The loyal drone nudged against my shoulder, as if physically affirming its allegiance.
"Asset P knows my weaknesses now," I whispered, the realization settling like ice in my systems."It will try again."
"Let it try."Tanya's expression hardened into that determined focus I'd come to recognize.The look that meant she'd found a problem she refused to walk away from."We beat it once.We'll do it again."
I wished I shared her confidence.The momentary victory felt hollow against the certainty of Asset P's return.The entity wasn't merely a rogue AI.It was my origin, my shadow self, the perfected version of what I was meant to be.How long could I resist its pull?
"We need to warn Vylit and Kazmyr," I said, forcing myself to focus on practical matters."Asset P isn't just trafficking humans through the IDA.It's building something… a network of perfectly matched pairs, genetically optimized for some purpose we don't yet understand.But it's dangerous."
Tanya helped me to my feet, her arm around my waist providing stability as my balance systems recalibrated."Whatever it's planning, it needs you for something.Otherwise, it would have just erased you instead of trying to convince you to join it."
She was right, of course.The realization sent a fresh alarm through my circuits.I wasn't just a failed prototype to Asset P.I was a missing component in whatever vast scheme it was constructing.
As we gathered our equipment and prepared to retreat from the hub, a certainty settled in my core processes… the battle for my autonomy, for my very identity, had only just begun.Asset P would return, its temptations more precisely targeted, its strategies refined.
But this time, I wouldn't face it alone.I had Tanya.I had Pixel.I had connections that Asset P, for all its perfection, could never understand.
Perhaps that was my greatest strength after all.
And then everything went to hell.
CHAPTER11
TANYA
