2026.03.30
cut8 Housemates
Eve walks through the colony, looking around.
The maintenance robots,
who have become her housemates,
continue their work without paying any attention
to her presence.
Maintenance panels along the walls
open their mouths in layers,
and within them, tiny lights flicker on and off.
One unit kneels down,
checking the exposed wiring one strand at a time.
Eve suddenly thinks to herself.
When she first came here,
they had hardly been working at all.
Yet since then,
it feels as though their tasks have gradually increased.
Then she quickly decides
that it must be nothing more than coincidence,
and stops thinking about it.
Another unit stands by the wall,
adjusting a terminal with the tip of a tool
in a steady, unemotional rhythm.
There is no hesitation in its movements,
nor do they exchange words with one another.
Beyond the glass,
the distant view is faintly veiled in haze,
and the outer structures appear to sink into white.
The area where many people must once have come and gone
is now nothing more than a passageway
for the maintenance robots.
They do not raise their heads.
They do not ask Eve for orders.
The corridor ahead curves gently,
continuing as though dissolving
into the white light.
And there, beyond it,
Eve sees a door
she recognizes.
