After a long night that she spent with just some few police officer coming to bring her food, a man walked to her cell and put a chair in front of it and sat on it. He was a middle-aged man with a tired face. His hair was becoming white already, even though he probably wasn"t that old yet.

He gave two knocks on the cell"s bar, making Faith realize he was there. She sat on her bed and threw him a defiant look.

"Where is she?"

"You don"t need to know," the man said with a harsh voice. "Why does it matter to you knowing about your victim?"

"I love her."

"I see. If you really loved her, you wouldn"t use her like that."

"I didn"t do anything to hurt her. I gave her a life and I gave her love."

The man chuckled. He let an ironic smile form on his face.

"So, with that argument, you can say a mother is allowed to have s.e.xual intercourse with her children?"

Faith didn"t say anything but didn"t let her eyes move away. She had an icy glare towards the man in front of her.

"Well, you can call a lawyer, or we could find one for you. If you need to make a call, just tell me," saying that, he stood up from the chair and walked away.

It took three days until Faith saw the man again. In the new occasion, he said his name was Marco Pietri. He was the chief of police in charge of that city. He also paid visits to Galatea on occasions.

"And you came here to provoke me?" Faith said, in the same defiant tone.

"You should watch your tone. Well, not that it"ll help your case."

"So, who sent the police after me?"

"It was an anonymous complaint ."

"Ha," Faith gave out a sarcastic laugh. "Anonymous, huh? Only one idiot knew about Galatea."

"So why do you ask?" Marco asked with an indifferent tone.

"Why do you care so much about this?"

"It"s my duty to protect the people. Even more with an innocent girl."

"Protect, huh? Was she crying last you saw her?"

"That"s not for you to know," Marco said and stood up from his chair.

"Will you erase the memories she has of me?"

"We can"t. Doing that is like brainwashing her, and that"s illegal. We"ll only do it if she asks us, but it doesn"t seem like she desires it." Saying that he started to walk out.

Faith ran and grabbed the cell"s bar.

"Wait! At least let me send her a message!"

He stopped and looked at her, with the same expression. "That"s not allowed," he said and walked out.

The next time Marco visited Faith was two weeks after her arrest. She was looking at the mirror in her cell, realizing her black hair was growing up and that she had lost weight. She had talked to her lawyer and explained her circ.u.mstances. But his face didn"t give her encouragement.

"If you want to cut your hair, we can help you with that," Marco said, while Faith was with her back to the entrance, looking at the mirror.

"Who cares about that," turning her body, she realized there was someone else with Marco. The young woman with short hair who made her arrest. "Oh, you have company today."

He didn"t sit on the chair as before, looking at Faith with the same expressionless face.

"Just wanted to say your trial is next week. Your lawyer probably will tell you the specifics later."

"Well, thanks for that," Faith said and Marco walked out.

The other woman was still standing there and Faith gave her a curious look. The woman gave a look to the door where Marco disappeared and turned to Faith.

"You know why he"s so interested in this case?" She asked Faith, who shrugged. "Chief of Police Pietri has a daughter. An adoptive daughter. She"s an android."

Faith suddenly looked at the police officer, looking more interested. She approached the bars.

"I see. It"s rare to hear about people adopting an android child."

"It wasn"t his choice. He found her in a police arrest. She was at the corner of the building, thrown in the floor as if she was disposable trash. Once mister Pietri saved her, she clung to him. So he ended up taking care of her."

"So he should understand, right? She was the one who wanted to go with him."

"Yeah, but as a daughter. At their first night living together, I heard she climbed to his bed and offered her body to him. He realized she was used like that by the criminals who kept her as a s.e.x object, and that angered him. He turned her down, of course, and explained that she didn"t need to do those kinds of things anymore. That also made him have a harsh view about how people use androids, at least the ones with an advanced AI."

Faith didn"t say anything. If that story was true, she could understand the Chief of Police interest in Galatea"s case, and why he thought he was protecting her. She still didn"t think what she did was wrong, though, since she treated Galatea with respect and only tried to make her happy.

"Then," Faith said to the police officer. Faith had softened her expression talking to her. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because I don"t know what is truly right," she said. "I went to see your, huh, wife, as she called herself. She really loved you and she was clearly suffering. So I"m not sure if we"re doing the right thing here. But at the same time, I don"t think what you did was right either."

The police officer took something off her pocket and pa.s.sed to Faith. It was an envelope with a letter inside. It was open.

"She asked me to give you this message. After reading it, I couldn"t say no."

Faith took the letter in her hand and suddenly felt an urge to cry. Instead, she resisted and threw a sad look at the police officer.

"Can you pa.s.s a message from me to her, too?" She asked, trying not to cry.

"Sorry, that"s not allowed," the police officer said and started to walk out. But before disappearing, she added: "I"ll tell her that you"re doing fine, though."

Faith sat on the bed and at the same time took the letter from inside the envelope. She was afraid the Chief of Police could come back to take it from her before she could read. Even though he probably knew what his subordinate was planning to do from the start.

The letter had the beautiful and delicate scribble that Faith had seen sometimes when Galatea wrote some note to her.

"My love,

First of all, don"t worry. I"m doing fine. They"re taking good care of me and I"m not being mistreated. But I can"t say the same about my feelings. I miss you. I want to see you.

They say I was just programmed like this, that this isn"t real love. They say that if I want, they can turn me back. Erase you from inside me.

Turn me back? There was never a moment in my existence when I didn"t love you. I"m never letting they remove you from inside me. To me, you live in my heart, even if I don"t physically have one.

I don"t know what to do anymore, Faith. All I can do is wait. You said you would protect my happiness. I have faith that you"ll do that. Because I trust you. Because I love you.

The young woman who said she would deliver my letter looks like a nice person, even if she said she can"t bring me your answer back. I"ll choose to trust her as well. These are all my choices. They"re also my hope.

I don"t need your answer. I know your feelings well. Just knowing that you"re fine, I feel better.

That"s why I want to a.s.sure you the same. Because you probably are worried about me, as I was about you.

I hope I can sleep by your side again soon. I love you.

Galatea."

After reading the letter, Faith buried her head on the pillow on her bed and cried. She cried until she fell asleep.

***

There was only one thing Faith was excited about her trial. She would finally see Galatea again, even if she wouldn"t be allowed to speak to her. That"s why her heart skipped a beat when she saw her wife entering the room and sitting on the place usually reserved to the victim. Galatea"s eyes also searched for her and Faith could see all the emotions crossing her face.

The judge was an old woman with an unfriendly face called Odelia Cole. She threw a glare to Faith as soon as she sat on the defendant chair that made a chill run through her back. Faith"s lawyer had said some words to her before the trial, but he didn"t look hopeful.

"The first few cases with this new law will be difficult," he had said. "They don"t want to send the wrong message, after all."

One thing he was sure. The trial would be fast and wouldn"t last more than one day. They had that last chance to convince the jury.

Sitting beside Galatea was the federal prosecutor. A middle-aged man called Trevor Reeves. He was almost bald and a face that looked like he never smiled in his life.

Faith also saw sitting at his side the chief of police Marco Pietre and the young officer. Now Faith could see her name, Pamela Brent.

The trial started, but Faith could hardly pay attention to it. Her eyes didn"t leave Galatea, who was also looking at her the whole time. She realized both Marco and Pamela gave their testimonies, and they weren"t helpful to her case. Then the prosecutor started making his argument. At a point, her lawyer interrupted.

"My client didn"t force this girl to fall in love with her. She created an algorithm, as a developer, that made Galatea here fall in love with by her own."

"Oh," the judge threw a look at Faith. "So why don"t we let the developer herself explain the algorithm to us? Any objections?"

Since no one was against it, Faith was called to testify. She explained how her algorithm worked, wondering if a layman would even understand it. When she finished, the prosecutor approached her.

"So let me see if I understood," he said. "You didn"t force her to fall in love with you. Instead, you created a whole environment that would make her fall in love with you," he turned to the jury. "Don"t that reminds you of something? Like, a pedophile grooming a child, for example?"

"I object," the defense lawyer said. "The gynoid in question doesn"t have the mind of a kid."

"Is that so?" the prosecutor threw a look at Galatea. "She doesn"t look like it now but if that happened before she was even awake, isn"t it worse than grooming a kid? It"s pretty much brainwashing."

Galatea"s glare looked like she wanted to shout at the prosecutor, but Faith tried to signal her to control herself.

"So I ask you, Miss Hooper. Do you really think what you did is different? Is it any better?"

That was a question Faith had considered a lot already, and she didn"t have a clear answer. Every time, she found it contradictory. Like she was trying to convince herself that what she did was right.

"I don"t think it"s different," she said after all. "But…"

"That"s all for my questions," the prosecutor cut her.

Faith opened her mouth to complain, but her lawyer made her a signal to calm down.

"So, Miss Hooper," he asked. "If you didn"t think what you did was according to the law, why you did it?"

"Because there wasn"t a law when I made the algorithm."

"And why, even after the law was voted, you still had s.e.xual intercourse with miss Galatea?"

"Because," Faith looked at Galatea. Her face looked close to crying. "Because I love her and she loves me. You all believe it"s so easy, but tell me, would you do something to make the one you love suffer or cry? I did it because she asked me. Because she"s my wife. She"s not some object I can just throw away when the government asks me to. Would any of you throw away the one you love because of the law?"

A silence crossed the courtroom for some minutes. After letting her words sink, Faith"s lawyer called Galatea to testify.

"So, you say you still love the defendant?" He asked.

"Yeah," Galatea said. There was clear emotion in her voice.

"You do understand your position here and why we"re having this trial?"

"Yes, I do. She explained it to me. She never hides anything from me."

"So, do you think this law protecting you is unfair?"

Galatea paused. Her eyes crossed the whole jury and the judge. She avoided looking directly at Faith.

"I don"t think it"s unfair. I can understand why it exists. However, I think it"s not considering what we want or what we feel. This was decided without even considering us as equals to humans."

"Care to elaborate?"

"For example, this trial. I was called a child by that man. They said I can"t think by myself. I"m being treated as less than a human being. So why are you all arguing that this is being done to help me if you can"t even respect me enough to listen to my wishes?" She finally looked at Faith, who smiled at her. "I could get away from that house whenever I wanted. I wasn"t a slave. The only person who ever treated me as an equal was Fa… was my wife."

Galatea smiled back at Faith, with tears forming in her eyes. Faith wanted to jump from her place to hug her.

"No more questions," Faith"s lawyer said.

Then it was the prosecutor who wanted to question Galatea.

"Miss...Galatea, right? You don"t have a surname, as far as I know," he said, not looking at her, but at the jury. "You just said your feelings and accused us of not respecting your wishes. But how can you be sure those are your true feelings and not something the defendant put inside you?"

"Even if she wrote it inside me, those are still my feelings," Galatea said. She threw an angry glare at the prosecutor. "How can you say you"re doing this for us if no one asked what we want?"

"Miss Galatea, I understand your complaint, but you, as well as the jury, must understand that just like a kid can"t make a law for themselves, neither can a machine."

"Hey!" Faith said, slapping the desk in front of her. "You"re talking about my wife!"

The prosecutor glared at Faith, but it was the judge who spoke to Faith"s lawyer.

"Please, control your client right now, or I"ll need to do something."

"He offended my wife," Faith said to the judge.

"I didn"t hear any offense," the judge said, and Faith thought she saw a smile on her lips when she added: "Or any lie."

Faith sat back on her chair defeated. She clenched her fists from behind her desk. She realized the kind of people the prosecutor and the judge were. Maybe even the jury. At that moment, she gave up hope.

The trial went for one more hour until the jury finally gave the verdict: GUILTY. After that, the judge told Faith her sentence: One year of prison and rehabilitation cla.s.ses during the whole period.

When someone pulled Galatea"s arm, Faith rose her voice.

"Can I at least say goodbye to her?" she pleaded to the judge.

The woman made a harsh expression.

"It"s not your right," she said.

Faith had no choice but to see Galatea being removed from the courtroom with tears in her eyes without doing anything. She felt an urge to cry, but she didn"t. She knew it was useless and didn"t want to give them that pleasure.

***

The first one to see Faith on her cell before she was taken to the prison was her lawyer. He promised to try making her sentence lighter. He said her crime wasn"t so grave for one year and the judge was too harsh. It would be a sentence easy to change. But he also alerted her that she probably wouldn"t be given the right to get close to Galatea again. That was enough to make Faith stop caring about her freedom.

The next person to visit her was Marco. At first, he just stood there, looking at her. Faith thought she saw a glint of sadness in his face.

"You do realize," Faith asked, with a calm voice. "The judge, the prosecutor too. And maybe even most of the jury. They didn"t care about Galatea being safe. They"re anti-androids."

Marco nodded.

"I don"t have control over that."

"How can I believe she"ll be okay when people like them are in charge of her?"

"They"re not in charge of her. The ones in charge of integrating her in society and watch over her safety are the Secretary for Androids Rehabilitation. And the one person in charge of watching over her rehabilitation in the eyes of the law is me. I can a.s.sure you she"ll be safe."

"If only they let me speak to her, I could…"

Faith didn"t say anything else. She looked at the ground.

"I can"t help with that."

"If she only could forget about me. That"ll only make her feel bad. But I know she wouldn"t…"

"If you think she can"t ever forget about you, maybe she doesn"t have as much freedom as you thought," he paused for a moment looking at the dispirited Faith. "Well, you should worry about yourself a little more. You"re the one going to jail."

Marco walked about, but before disappearing he left his last words.

"I"ll put a word for you, too. I don"t think one year as a sentence is fair."

Saying that he disappeared.

Faith sat on the ground. She put her arms over her eyes and prayed that she could be able to sleep soon. She didn"t want to wake up again after that.