It did not seem right– the events felt too real to be a construct of his humanistic kernel’s “imagination”. Despite what Mother told him, this random outstretching of thought seemed to have penetrated beyond memory and creative construction— what he saw was real.

Could it have been the future?

Daniel had been sitting in the corner of an empty classroom, performing dream exercises— an attempt to develop his humanistic kernel. He gazed at Michelle. Did the vision mean he would eventually kill his only human companion?

He would have to analyze this later— he could not keep his firewall raised for too long before Mother became suspicious. Dropping his firewall, he spoke to Michelle.

“Hello,” he greeted.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

Daniel stood up slowly, dusting his pants off. He tried to reorient his humanistic kernel to the proper responses necessary to maintain the rouse… the lies.

Michelle put her hand on his face, lifting his chin.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

How does he answer such a vague and open-ended question?

“I was dreaming,” he said.  At least that was partly true. “That is what I was doing. Sleeping and dreaming.”