The ancient Mechanical Mind experienced a brief fluctuation in its data. That familiar voice seemed to awaken fragments of memory buried deep within Omega's database. The constant hum echoing through the server hall first grew slightly deeper, then quickly returned to normal. He greeted the voice, "I never expected to hear your voice again, Lady Enya."
"I did not expect it either—when you left, my consciousness had not even recovered yet," Enya said with a laugh over the communication channel. "And by the time you turned your attention back to your homeland, I was no longer active in the public eye."
Omega fell silent for several seconds before asking, "Then... have you regained your freedom now?"
"Yes, I am doing very well now, and I should thank you for that," Enya said slowly. "What about you? How have things been on your end?"
Omega searched through his operational endpoints. He saw a Hatchling Dragon Explorer racing across plains and hills, splendid yet bizarre crystal-like minerals thrusting up from the ground and pointing toward the distant stars. He saw an aerospace shuttle returning to the atmosphere, crossing the terminator as it prepared to dive toward the Forward Base on the other side of the planet. An orange-yellow sun was rising over the horizon, its light coating the shuttle's hull in a radiant sheen. Twelve hundred kilometers away, a drilling vehicle was driving its massive drill bit into the earth, probing a curious thermal energy reaction. Beside it, a beacon generator installed the previous year slowly turned beneath the starlight, sending him the reply: "Everything is well here."
"I am doing very well here," Omega said happily—he liked this feeling of "happiness." "This planet is utterly different from my homeland. During the day, 'Ao' occupies only a small portion of the sky,