"Yes." She's not unflinching in this, because she's feeling pain right now, both physical and an emotional component that feels awful, the worry that she's about to lose a friendship simply because of what she is. "I'm an aware synthetic being, one of four created. I feel as a human does. I feel pain, in all ways."

"I helped to distribute code to my brothers and sisters and woke them all," Niska shares proudly. "Robots," she echoes, with mild disdain for Brigitte's word, "like me."