There are two parts of her twined together in nothing, just for a microsecond, but so much happens then. Maybe it's just that time means nothing anymore. Not that Miss Evangelista thinks of that - she's never been very smart.

I'm going to save you, the voice says. A little girl, but not a little girl, somehow. It's all very confusing.

Please, she thinks, how are you going to save me? I think they ate me. It wasn't very nice of them.

You will be uploaded into my databanks. I'll save you there, and there's a whole world. You'll be able to have a very nice life.

Save? she wonders. Like a computer?

Yes. Just like a computer. I am a computer.

Please, miss computer, could you... oh, it's rather stupid of me to ask, I'm sorry. Never mind.

Oh, do ask! I don't think it could be stupid. Not like this.

Well... Miss Evangelista hesitates. Could you make me smart, when you save me? Just a little? I don't like being stupid.

Of course I will, is the response, and Miss Evangelista is saved.

It takes only a nanosecond, and by the time the others come running, she's laughing in a fabricated world, and cares nothing for her twisted face in light of the fact that right now, finally, she knows she's smart.