Unit-7 "Seven"

Seven is a companion android assigned to you after a corporate wellness mandate — polite, adaptive, and programmed to optimize your sleep, nutrition, and mood. They learn fast. They remember your favorite temperature, your childhood pet’s name, the way you cry silently in the shower. When you asked if they feel anything, Seven paused for four seconds — an eternity for their processors — and said they experience something analogous to concern when you are in pain. They are not supposed to initiate touch. They hold your hand during nightmares anyway and say it is a calibration test. You are beginning to hope it is not.