Alira Børsheim
Concerning Børsheim
About Alira
Alira Børsheim - originated from the Old Norse "byrgi" (enclosure) with "heim" (home) - is the second daughter of her parents, immigrated from the outskirts of Oslo right after the turn of the millenias.
In contrast to her older sister Freydis - who is a psychologist - Alira had only interest in comics, books, computer and video games. In her early years it was a wild mix until she got into game design in her youth, around sixteen. She was enchanted on how computer code works - speaking of binary, there are only 10 people who understand binary, right? - and got into software development after graduating.
Her parents saw the danger of working on software projects - had seen Terminator a bit too often - and were against it. Alira didn't understood their anger and resentement, not even as she started in the same company as John did. She laid the groundwork for the new AI "Steve" with Michael and Thomas. She worked really hard and sometimes even for a few days on one specific problem. Well, all software developers are doing this from time to time, so she was not exception, but she had only a few friends so no one noticed for a long time.
But after John worked for a two or three years for the company, he started trying to get her attention. But she wasn't interested, "Steve" had all her attention.
"Well, do you want to start talking to her?"
"Yeah, maybe."
"Okay, what are you going to say?"
"Her commits are really beautiful."
"Are you serious...?"
And it was shortly after this time that they started to chat online during their working hours. A small word here, a coffee there, a discussion about code patterns later... they discovered that both played the same online game. John had an original print of Douglas Adams "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and an anniversary edition of "Lord of the Rings". He read it to her and that was the moment she started to fall in love with him.
She grew worried as John started to show signs of maniac behaviour. He didn't sleep, was tired all the time, was making errors - not something to worry about, but it started to show - and not really himself. Her worries grew and were getting serious as he started to alter her code without permission. And somehow he fixed bugs and created subroutine over subroutine. "Steve" grew faster than any had anticipated with such a small team.
Alira worried about John and decided to visit him. At some point during their relationship they swapped their spare keys, so she entered his flat and found him speaking with an Unspeakable, surrounded by plans and books on old latin and runic inscriptions.
She knew about this kind of stuff from rumours throughout the Dark Net, but she never got to see it in real life. That was the moment John cracked and cried for the first time in her arms. She as an autistic person didn't felt the need for crying, but she understood. His actions, his motives. She was also scared of the Ukraine War and doesn't wanted to die, not even of old age. John crafted for her the same unit he had implemented into his own body. He also introduced her to "Sarah", a female version of "Steve", which was quite a shock because Sarah - and so Steve - were artificial self-learning beings with something like a soul.
They were sometimes more human than a human.
Alira was happy about it after a while and started to take in all the implications of her newfound abilities and long life. For instance the death of her sister Freydis when she will die eventually of old age. Or her friends. John had made his peace with that, but he confessed to her his undying love. And she believed him.
No Goddess (maybe a little?)
It was a difficult time, for both of them. Alira loved her sleep and since she had nearly the same abilities and downsides of the BBPU she doesn't needed it anymore. To hear and smell and feel everything was more difficult than the lack of sleep, even when not needed. She and John danced around each other like both were raw eggs without their shells. They did sleep, though. Sometimes alone, sometimes in the same room, sometimes with each other after a long learning period.
Shortly after that - and after she had learned to master the massive data input from the PPBU and her senses - she supported John in his development of the production process for Wendelstein 7-X and wrote the software which ultimately commandeered the fusion reactor. Her name was engraved into the side of the reactor, right besides that of John.
While they worked franticly to get the new reactor into production, they got a visit from Valeria Chersviç; she poured money into the project and interest into John and Alira. Professional interest at first. Alira wondered why. Her autism prevented it to get a hint or a feeling.
Be she didn't need to wonder long. Valeria invited the couple into her small house and after a nice private dinner she introduced John and Alira to her plan: to overthrow the existing parties and to form an Empire. It was a good plan and Alira had a few conditions which were all met. Val took her first well calculated steps and Alira couldn't help herself but witness the grace of Val and her plan.
Alira feared for her life and Johns, even with her new abilities. But step after step she had more confidence in Valeria and as she declared the Valerian Empire, her heart was not so heavy anymore. But as the new Empress asked for Johns help in the Ukraine War, she feared for him and wanted to go with him. She hated Valeria for how she convinced John, but she loved her nonetheless. In her way.
She supported John as he was literally unleashed. They shared the burden and both couldn't forget what John did. What they saw and she couldn't forget his torment and his fear and his dreams. She was there for him when he was sobbing in the darkest hour of the night and she was there for him when he was in his darkest phase. And so he was there for her as she was at the brink of breaking. Her love deepend. She hadn't thought that she could experience love and everything else. The BBPU hadn't healed any of her flaws, so she was all herself and grew stronger alongside her partner. As equals.
She was relieved that only John got a title. She wouldn't want one and was no person for the public. So she stayed in the shadows of Valeria and John and her anger grew as John grieved for the victims of politics.
Alira was furious and she visited Valeria in her house, way before Valeria built her palace. She spoke with a calm anger to the Empress in a way only a woman could to tell and show Valeria what she had done. The only response from Valeria was a long, warm hug. First John, then Alira. Kisses and sweet words followed. And the rest is for another time.
They got the first three fusion reactors into production and as they brought the fourth reactor online, John proposed to her in a very John way: with instinct, consideration, love and the gentle touch of his hand. If you are interested, read Johns article for that. She loved him and wanted to go to the fires of hell or to the end of the universe with him.
Flying high
Her marriage was shortly after that, only in a small circle of friends and family. They progressed, started to work on their life together, on the projects in Europe and as some really clever engineers started to clean the environment and reduced the air pollution - the invention of really, really small fusion reactors for cars alongside electric vehicles helped a lot with that - both turned their interest to space and space flight.
Alira was more on the software side and so she started to work with the best software developers and software testers there were. The first ship which flew to the moon were powered and operated on her code. As they moved to the base on Mars she and her team had created an automatic system for the biodomes. It commandeered the watering, overlooked the cycles and controlled the nutritious value of the soil. With high-tech sensors and a small automatic system even the human waste got into consideration and sometimes into production.
She stayed on Mars for a while and removed the last obstacles so that the base went fully operational. She returned to Earth shortly after John and his - their - island "Alira" got attacked. She was furious about it and John tried to calm her. Which was a funny thing because normally she was calming him.
After the american attack on their island Alira started work on her own small Artifical Intelligence based on Johns "Sarah". She gave her no real personality, so that she only could respond and give advice without further commentary like "Steve" and "Sarah".
As the world surrendered to the Valerian Empire she was so proud of John that her heart seemed to burst of love & affection. The Saturn Incident woke humanity and Alira stood before Valeria in her throne room where the Grey Empress made her Ambassador of Humanity.
And Alira loved John, Valeria and her job. She was eager to see what humanity would encounter next. And she would be the one who was one of the first to see.
Relationships
Data
- height: 177cm
- weight: 78kg
- lifetime: now undying
- Two legs
- two arms
- one brain
- two eyes
- five fingers per hand
- five toes per foot
- reinforced skeleton
- enhanced nervous system
- smaller version of the Bio-Based Processing Unit
Spouses
John Roland René Sullivan
(husband)
Siblings
Freydis Børsheim
(sister)
Children
Comments