[Not even the tests, then. That... that changes things. Everything? He doesn't know. She'd said she would be formatted on her return to dock, but how, and why, and whether any of it made a difference... how does she remember him at all, if all those records had been wiped?

He doesn't have the data. Not about Arid's state, and certainly not about his own. Bitterness ebbs slowly, and it takes a moment to pull his code together. When he does speak, the mainframe still sounds tired. Guarded, maybe.

But the edge is gone.]

Your logs are incomplete.

At my last recorded entry, you had received seven merit points. You were taking steps to secure the last one.