The Things We Would Bear

"Let no one know you have him."

This was the quiet warning Leo received when he was discharged from the Human Military Unit and given his support companion. After human soldiers became obsolete-replaced by intelligent systems and mechanical operators-veterans like Leo were sent to live in the shadows of the HMU Block at the edge of Ft. Stratton. A place for those faded from memory to forget.

Leo wants to stay forgotten. But he wasn't given a standard-issue companion. He got Bear.

Small, silent, and more advanced than any typical unit, Bear is Leo's only tether to stability in a fast-changing world. In the isolation of the city's edge, Leo has remained content for fifteen years. But without Bear, he wouldn't last a day.

Now, Bear is refusing to charge. His battery is draining. Fast.

As the blue fiberoptic fur fades, the isolation Leo built around himself shatters. A nurse, an archivist, and a military engineer start appearing at his door-strangers carrying pieces of a fractured puzzle. They're asking about vanishing files and systems behaving strangely.

They think Leo is involved. They know he has something he shouldn't. They want answers he doesn't have.

Leo only wants one thing.

To fix Bear.

Before he loses him.

Before he loses everything.