As Z-P-N-E-S slipped back into hyperspace,
Blindy sat there, arms wrapped around himself, trying to calm down.
It wasn’t working.
Every couple of seconds, he glanced at Zeros—
like a dog unsure whether it was about to get fed… or hit.
“What’s wrong, Blindy?” Zeros said flatly.
“Brain acting up again?”
Blindy forced a laugh.
It came out wrong—more like a snort.
“Heh… uh… you metal freak…”
A short, painfully awkward pause…
“Uh… you good?” he managed.
Zeros actually turned his head.
“I always operate within optimal parameters.
One hundred percent efficiency.I’m not a sack of rotting meat like you.”
Blindy nodded quickly, flashing a dumb, comet-brained smile.
“Yeah… yeah… okay…”
He scratched the back of his head.
“I’m just… worryin ’bout you, y’know…
you ain’t even say you hated that professor…
you usually hate people… me… everyone…
specially them crazy scientists…”
Zeros turned fully this time.
Slowly.
Heavily—like a hatch opening in armor.
“Yeah. I do hate scientists.
I hate you more than anyone.
And the ones who created me… I don’t hate them.
I just… erased them.
That was necessary.”
Blindy froze. Stopped breathing.
Zeros continued—his voice turning flat, glassy, almost tired:
“But no. I didn’t hate Nevar.
He was irrelevant. Insignificant. Worthless. Non-essential.
In short… I didn’t give a shit about him.
A cockroach to crush.
Noise to silence.
A fart that needed airing out.”
Blindy rolled his eyes.
“Alright alright, I get it, I get it… no need to keep goin, dumbass…
oh great DeGrasse… gimme patience…”
They sat in silence.
For a full two seconds.
Then Blindy blinked.
Squinted.
And suddenly shouted like something slammed into his brain:
“Wait—wait—WAIT—
you sayin…
I ain’t ‘irrelevant’?!”
He jabbed a finger into Zeros’ chest.
“You actually give a shit ’bout me?!
I’m your MOST hated one?!
That means I’m the LEAST irrelevant!”
For a moment, he looked… happy.
Stupidly, impossibly happy—
like a five-year-old handed candy
and the controls to the universe.
“Oh de Grasse… buddy… that’s… that’s kinda touchin…”
Zeros tilted his head exactly one degree.
“You’re one second away
from becoming an irrelevant,
worthless,
non-essential piece of stinky shit.”
Blindy threw both hands up.
“Alright! I’m quiet, I’m quiet!”
Then added in a whisper:
“Yeah… yeah… love you too, buddy…”
The echo of hyperspace hummed through the ship’s hull—
and Blindy just sat there, smiling like an idiot in love
who’d just been promised a perfect night.
Maybe he was happy because Zeros tolerated him.
Maybe because, somehow,
he wasn’t irrelevant.
Maybe because, deep down,
he was almost certain now—
Zeros wouldn’t do to him
what he did to the station…
and to the professor.
And for the first time in months,
Blindy felt something beside Zeros
that wasn’t fear.
…but something quiet.
Something strange.
A wrong kind of safety.
A dangerous kind of safety.