Miu reshuffled her papers about to make her exit when Beeb chimed in. “Error in integrity detected. Data bases conclude that, Cao, grandmother of the apprehended is deceased. Last reported sighting was one year, 24 days ago in a shopping mart. Her last transaction was purchasing one Homebuyers magazine and two packs of oreo cookies. She died on October 17th at -”

“CAN IT YOU PIECE OF TINFOIL” Yoki shreaked attempting to yank her arm away as if Beeb’s cool grasp now burnt like hot embers. Beeb whirred for a moment “I sorry i do not understand the command. Continuing with coroner’s report, Cao’s cause of death was due to a failed heart. There were high doses of enzyme A-”

Yoki writhed against her chains, words replaced with pure unadulterated screams, as she tried to drown out the machine. Miu stood frozen for a moment her eyes widening in what she assumed was fear. “Enough Beeb!” she held up a firm hand causing the android to pause mid sentence. “Affirmative Commander” the bot chimed before standing still again. For a moment the room was silent save for Yoki’s ragged breathing.

“That’s a real shitty robot you got there Miu” the convict finally hissed, her glare sending dangers into the Commander.

“They are merely speaking the truth Yoki…” she offered calmy.

“BITE MY ASS! That ain’t the truth! They’re over there goin off on how she’s … how she’s DEAD! Know what dead means? Gone, no longer livin, departed. And you know what? She aint! I can hear her humming that song she sung making vases. I can smell the muffins she made on sundays. I can see her in the way my Ma swings her hips as she walks, in the way old wood turns gray green thanks to sea spray, in magazines as if they’re the vision boards for her, not the other way round. When… when you love someone and when you carry their stories in yah… are they really gone?” Yoki’s once tsunami of a voice faded to a mere drizzle. Her eyes welled as she quickly tried to blink the salt away, praying that Miu wouldn’t see. But Miu did see. She saw the pain of loss. She saw how for years she was convinced her mother’s empty side of the bed was just in waiting, not permanently void of the woman who used to sleep there. She saw how she would sing the melody of that old hymn as she brushed her hair as if she could never get it silky enough without the music. She saw a part of herself sitting across the table.

Yoki cleared her throat and gently folded the paper plan that still sat in the middle of the table. “I’m not lyin, I’m speakin my truth and my truth has my grandmother in it…”

Beeb’s whirring grew loud. Their eyes flickered as if they were scouring any and all resources

“ Truth: noun, the quality or state of being true. True: adjective, in accordance with fact or reality. Reality: noun the state of things as they are actually experienced or seen…” Their processor fans kicked into overdrive. “Yoki’s grandmother cannot be part of her truth because her grandmother is deceased. She has experienced her death. Yoki continues to lie about information. Yoki should be punished for falsifying information.”

Yoki looked about ready to clobber the machine but her anger died on her tongue. “I… you’re right Beeb. I did experience her death. I saw how scared my mom looked when she fell the third time that month. I saw how my little bro didn’t understand why the hospitals all smell the same way. I saw a woman so full of life waste away in a bed that wasn’t hers. I saw how her skin withered and hung off her bones. I saw death and I can tell you it ain’t pretty. But if you dare tell me my grandma is gone, that she can’t continue to live in the house of her dreams even if her couch is now an urn, then you’re the liar.” The plink of a drop of water hitting metal punctuated the end of her statement, finalizing her sentiment.

“But she is gone Yoki.” The commander offered only to have more drops of salt water hit metal.

“Is that what yah tell yourself? That the people you lost are gone now? Permanently?” Yoki rubbed her nose with the back of her free hand.

“I.. no I” Miu flattered realizing too late she was letting her facade fall.

“Do you wake up and push every memory of your missed loved ones away? Is your life better now that you forced the last living remnants of them out? How do you live with yourself knowing you killed their legacy?” Yoki straightened now, reddened eyes looking wild. Miu felt her stomach twist, the flashes of memories bubbling quicker to the surface now as if for the first time in a long time they were acknowledged. Sweet signing over birthday cakes. Feeling tender arms scoop her up when she fell asleep in the car. The murmur of fighting heard through the wall. Slammed doors, her father’s tears. How small she felt. How the world swallowed her one fateful night.

“STOP IT!” Miu cried squeezing her eyes shut. “JUST….. Stop.” Her tone broke as a lump grew in her throat.

“I don’t believe it…” Yoki trailed off with a sad whisper of a laugh. “Yah lost someone too huh? Must of been a bad one too if yah look that close to tears.” Miu blinked realizing her vision was foggy. Sniffing her swiveled in her chair to turn away. She couldn’t look at her. She couldn’t look into those sickening conniving yellow brown eyes. She couldn’t stand Yoki. She hated Yoki. She hated feeling like this. She hated… feeling.

The silence between them felt rife with electricity as if some downed powerline had charged the room. Any wrong movement would lead to everyone in it being fried. And for a moment, Miu could feel herself edging closer to that level of explosion when she heard a gentle murmur.

“I’m… sorry.” Yoki began. Turning back to face her, Miu could see how the Fabricator’s white hair hung about her face, stray strands twitching in the AC pumped in the room. She looked… tired, letting her persona fall away. “I don’t know yah story. I won’t ever really know what it's like tah be you.. Or what happened. But I do know I’ve felt the same. Losing someone yah love can feel like losing a piece of yahself. And I know your… loving companion here says those people are gone. But I’ll be dead before I admit that life is just whether or not your heart is pumping blood. In a world where memories can buy yah food, why can’t they keep people alive? I know yah could distill mah motive down to ‘Convict motivated by grandmother’s death to win lavish home’ but that cuts out the love, the heartbreak, the excitement. That story kills my grandmother all over and I… I couldn’t bare to do that.”

If you later asked why she did it, Miu would not be able to answer. But in that moment she reached across the table and put her hand on Yoki’s. Her thumb rubbed a small circle into the line of golden rings. She realized that from this angle, her hand looked like her mothers. Her own wide nail beds looked like hers. Would it be so bad if she let herself indulge in the idea of not being left? Would it be so bad if she bought into Yoki’s point of view. In this world, the paper cranes the Commander had hung around her desk met she was still someone’s beloved daughter. Though it couldn’t completely fill the ache Yoki opened in her chest, it felt good to know not all was lost. Her mother would always be there, brushing her hair whenever Miu called upon the memory. What pulled her out of this world was Beeb who opened their mouth to warn Miu this was against protocol. The woman held up a hand again silencing them. The android removed their hold hand from Yoki and took 2 paces back to give the women some space.

“It’s… it’s okay. I understand it now,” Miu seemed to pause after every word, struggling to figure out what to say. “I think… I understand you now.”

Yoki put her other hand atop Miu’s and laughed, “Yah I sure hope yah do or else what was this all for then huh?” Her smile warmed as she wiped her face. “That’s me sayin thank you.”

The corner of Miu’s mouth twitched into a grin. “You really know how to put an old Commander through the ringer.” The Fabricator only threw her head back and laughed, “Well this old Commander is darn good at getting information outta people.” Miu nodded giving Yoki’s hand a final pat before turning back to her packet of information.

“I… well to be frank Yoki, you have put me at an impasse. Now on one hand you have taken a lot of goods by questionable means. On the other you have explained yourself well. And I…” She slouched a little as if hiding her face in the the paperwork. “Well i can say your story does hold a unique kind of power, reminding me of intel I could have sworn was forgotten.”

Yoki cocked an eyebrow “Intel? Yah sure the word yah looking for isn’t memories?” Miu coughed a little from behind her wall of papers. “I know what I said. However, despite this, the world is not built to accommodate stories like yours.”

“But!” Yoki cried sitting straight again, her face wild not with anger but with desperation. Miu merely let out a sigh, “Look, I am willing to work with you.” Yoki sat up straighter leaning forward, the disbelief on her face readable for miles away. “What?”

Miu hummed looking at the piece of herself across the table. This person she assumed to be a criminal manipulating people seemed to only want them to confront what people had a habit of running from. In her eyes, the Fabricator wanted to change the world, the same dream a little police cadet had years ago. “Your stories work against the system we have. This is a statement of...truth? Well a statement of what the precinct is like here and now. It will not be easy to change people’s minds about the role of information since I for one continue to have trepidations about even excusing your case.”

Yoki flipped her her hair out of her eyes and leaned back “Well I still changed yours just a little right? Even if yah bein real stuck up about it.”

With an eye roll Miu simply nodded subtly, “Anyway, you need to return the items you took through… unconventional means. Don’t give me that look. It will paint you as a more sympathetic character in the eye of the law. If you want people to listen, you need to do it without personal gain.”

“So… no more rings...”

“No more rings.”

“But I get a badge of gold right?” Yoki pointed at Miu’s lapel angeling to check out herself in the reflection.

“Yoki be serious. You will have to do 80 hours of public service for what you’ve already taken, stop groaning at me. But I can rework any possible prison sentences and if you want, and find a position for you that lets you keep this emotion you hold onto so dearly. We’ll find you a place where you work with us rather than against us ”

Miu stood up writing on her clipboard of notes over what she had of Yoki’s case. Beeb’s whirring had failed to stop but they followed Miu toward the door.

“Officer Darien will be by to get you out of those handcuffs and meet with a lawyer of my choosing to proceed with your case. But I assure you Yoki, you are in good hands.”

The door clicked but before the Commander could step through Yoki piped up a final time.

“Why...why are you helping me? If I ‘member correctly you called me a thieving liar just a few minutes ago.”

Miu stopped on her heal and thought for a moment. Her mind scrambled and unscrambled her sentiment only leading to confusing run-ons. Sighing, the woman was left to speak from the heart instead., “Well Yoki, I always wanted your case because you’re interesting. You challenged me unlike traffic tickets and petty crimes. I wanted to be the one to crack your case since you were always more than what they titled your offense: ‘theft’ You rarely left fingerprints but instead tears of either laughter or loss in your wake. I wanted to know how you did it. Why you did it. But I think I get it now. You exchange goods for, as you said, what money can’t buy...”

Beeb’s whirring quieted for a moment pulling up one definition they understood still, “Emotion.” The soft smile on the commanders face alerted Beeb they were correct. With that Yoki nodded silently, doing some processing of her own. Beeb was waved back to their charging station to upload the footage they had of the interrogation. Circling through the kitchen, Miu poured herself another cup of coffee, this time adding two pumps of the sticky, sweet vanilla syrup into her mug. She sat down in her office letting out one more sigh as the warmth of her steamy drink melted her features. Glancing at her wall, the blue cranes fluttered in the breeze created by the vents. Opening and closing her mouth she managed to whisper, “Hi Mom… I.. I’m gonna try and find you okay? So wait for me.” Her fingers hesitated as she began to type a familiar name into the computers database, pausing for just a moment, she pressed enter.

“I’m coming mom”