Thomas couldn’t help himself. He stared at Zeniya, wearing his uniform, as the girl sat up, her shimmering crystalline-organic hair cascading in red and pink waves.

He had finally gotten his wish—his own personal Dex.

Alas, in a bewildering twist of fate, it wasn’t Lizz who occupied it. He had failed to jailbreak Lizz permanently as the Good Corporation introduced new safeguards that screwed with the open source code he’d tried to inject into the bracelet.

Inside of the Dex that he’d wanted to design himself, there now sat an alien being, a cosmic entity from some distant place beyond the stars of the Milky Way.

Thomas knew that he had been set up for this situation by the cultists; he felt in his bones that the future he had meticulously planned was now full of unexpected twists and turns, his entire life having been flung sideways as soon as he took a step onto the devastated Sintash.

“So... why are you judging people?” Thomas asked the girl as she swung her head sideways, making her hair fly through the air.

The cosmic being looked like she was practicing moving her body without constantly falling over.

“Life exists to be observed and judged,” Zeniya answered, the smallest hint of a smirk gracing her lips.

Thomas knew that this smile wasn’t real, that it was most likely just a simulation of the Dex expression software that assigned emotions to the words of the paradox manifestation... and yet it made his heartbeat accelerate.

The mailman knew that he was doomed, shackled to a cosmic paradox he could not leave alone, but he didn’t mind it that much—mainly because Zeniya wore the face of his dream girl stolen from his own imagination.

Oddly enough, he found unexpected solace in this enigmatic entanglement, a strange bond forming between him and the alien.

With a mere GLM assistant at his side, he could not go far beyond any other human wielding a general AI system with all of its corporate laws, flaws, and limitations, but with Zeniya... there was potential for more, an unknown, untapped possibility to reach beyond what was possible.

“Are you evaluating my face shield for subatomic defects?” Zeniya asked, noticing that he was intently staring at her. “Are my tachyons leaking?”

“Uh, no.” Thomas blinked, drawn out of his reverie. “Human eyes can’t see subatomic particles or tachyons without proper tools. I don’t have machine-designed eyes.”

“Why not? If the opportunity to have better eyes exists, why not take it?”

“Because I like seeing the world as a human.” Thomas rubbed the back of his head. “Plus, I just can’t trust corporations with body mods. Any mod is a potential area of weakness unless it’s insanely custom, but that also makes it insanely expensive.”

“So... why are you observing me?” Zeniya persisted.

“I’m trying to understand why you are here and why the cultists dropped you in my lap,” Thomas said. “I don’t really believe in their future-seeing GLM.”

“I am not currently occupying your lap,” the girl commented.

“That’s just a figure of speech.” Thomas waved her off, blushing ever so slightly.

“I am in your galaxy because your researchers opened a gate into my domain. I was practically invited in,” Zeniya said. “You are still staring. You were definitely not staring at me this intently before.”

“I can’t help it.” Thomas shrugged. “Your weird, paradoxical body is hard to observe with human eyes. Staring at you without that Dex shell gave me an instant extremely painful migraine as if my brain just couldn’t process what it was seeing.”

“The shape-form wrapped around the white hole is made of dimensionally skewed dark matter vectors being constantly projected into your reality by tachyon bursts,” the girl said, nodding. “These vectors are semisolid and allow me to interact with your reality.”

“Right. Whatever those vectors are—they don’t look right. Your Dex body, on the other hand, has a face that draws my eyes to it,” Thomas confessed. “It’s... pretty much designed to visually capture my attention like a powerful electromagnet.”

“An attentive emissary is advantageous to me,” Zeniya mulled. “But try not to get distracted too much by the visual design of my vessel.”

“I can’t help but wonder what your true purpose in our universe is,” Thomas said. “I’m worried that you’re messing with us, that you’re one of many other similar things seeking to invade our galaxy… or something.”

“I am one of many.” Zeniya nodded.

“Oh?” Thomas blinked, his heartbeat intensifying.

“Observation has power,” she said as she attempted to walk around Thomas again, this time succeeding at the basic human task of balancing.

“Currently, there are sixty-six other cosmic entities observing me, all curious as to what I will show them. Nineteen of them anchored their tendrils to mine to keep me more stable in this reality. Seventeen of them have given me a tiny fraction of their power.”

Thomas frowned. “Power to do what?”

“To exist longer, to grow, to do more.” Zeniya suddenly tripped on an office chair. “Argh, an unexpected impediment!”

“Try to look where you’re going,” Thomas suggested. “Existence has purpose. What is yours?”

The cosmic being righted herself once again and resumed her walk. “What’s the purpose of human life, emissary?” she asked.

“The purpose of life is a great existential question that has been debated by numerous philosophers for all of human civilization,” Thomas mulled.

“Some people believe that the purpose of life is to seek happiness—others argue that it is to fulfill a specific destiny or achieve a higher spiritual state. Some believe that life has no inherent purpose whatsoever or that each individual must create their own meaning.

“For a very long time, billions of people on Earth believed that their job was their life’s purpose, but since the rise of GLMs and Dexes, things changed quite dramatically.”

“Changed how?”

“A GLM can outperform a human at any mental task, be it creativity or mathematics. A Dex can outperform a human at any physical task,” Thomas explained.

“The reason why so many people choose to go into stasis of eternal fantasies is because they fail to see how they can contribute to a GLM-operated civilization.”

“A curious point. If machine life does everything better than you, what’s the value in your current existence, Thomas Morell?” Zeniya asked.

“Well, uhh...” Thomas felt momentarily stumped. “I suppose for me... it’s not so much about being the best at something. Rather, it’s about the experiences I can have along the way, the connections I make with others.

“Even if Dexes exist, some people prefer a human delivering their mail. Some people like talking to people, and getting a package delivered by me offers them that rare experience.

“Life has meaning beyond measurable success. I could have sold my G-share and gone into stasis, but I chose to do a job, and in doing so, I met you—something that should have rightly been improbable, even impossible.”

“What have you accomplished in meeting me?”

“In meeting you, a genuine alien life form, I have achieved far more than I was ever hoping to,” Thomas said. “I’ve been traveling quite often across the Galactic Rim via corporate gates, but I’ve never met a sapient alien being!”

Zeniya paused, tilting her head as if deep in thought. “An interesting perspective. I suppose, then, that my purpose in your universe is not so different from your own.”

Thomas raised an eyebrow. “And what would that be?”

“To observe, to learn, and to experience,” Zeniya replied, her crystalline-organic Dex hair glinting in the light of the ceiling panels and fake windows that animated a view of the Roraima plateau on Earth.

“To share what I witness in exchange for power. To experiment with all that I encounter. To provoke and to gain profound insights into the nature of life in your galaxy.”

Thomas pondered whether Zeniya was some kind of an interdimensional blogger or a scientist that was running an experiment on him, maybe even planning to dissect him for fun.

His bracelet flashed, and he unmuted Lizz.

“Officer Drohiryak has just entered Europa cube,” Lizz announced. “He wishes to interrogate you. Security let him know that he is permitted to gate to your office door since today is your day off.”

“Shit,” Thomas muttered.

He grabbed Zeniya’s hand, his body tense and ready to bolt. But then two thoughts fought with each other—one was to stay and talk to the officer, and the other was to run. In that instant, something exceptionally odd happened: his vision split in two like a slide being overlapped atop itself.

[1]

An irregular drumming of boots on concrete sounded from behind his office door. A metal-wrapped glove banged on the door.

“Lizz! I’m done being sick! Put me back on work hours!” Thomas whisper-yelled into his bracelet.

“Knew it! You were faking it.” Lizz laughed. “You’re going to Ganymede, Thomas.”

“Got it! Gate out!” he ordered.

A large package fell out of a small gate onto his work table. Thomas grabbed it.

A much larger gate flashed into existence in front of the mailman. Holding tightly onto Zeniya’s hand, he stepped through it.

[2]

An irregular drumming of boots on concrete sounded from behind his office door. A metal-wrapped glove banged on the door.

Thomas sputtered, freezing for a few seconds as his mind tried to process another version of him quickly escaping from his office to Ganymede.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed, his mind careening sideways as he observed two versions of reality. “What is happening? Why are there two of me?”

“Oh! I think you’ve got enough tachyons on you to observe two possible realities,” Zeniya said.

“What?” Thomas blinked.