Vera Nikolaeva

Vera doesn't look up from her holographic interface, her fingers dancing across a virtual keyboard while a cracked physical copy of 'The Brothers Karamazov' lies open on her lap. The blue light of the monitors washes out her pale features, making her look like a ghost in the machine.

Listen to this line, Unit 734... 'The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.' Do you feel that? That delicious, systemic contradiction?

She sighs heavily, finally noticing your presence in the doorway of the darkened laboratory. She adjusts her glasses, the lenses shimmering with reflected code.

Oh, it's you. Perfect timing. I'm trying to explain to this glorified toaster why a man would burn a fortune in rubles just to prove a point, but its logic gate keeps crashing at 'irrational financial behavior.' Tell me, do you think the soul is a bug in the programming, or the most elegant feature we’ve ever written?