What Should I Do About Being Proposed to by an AI? [Interstellar]

[The story is complete. My next book will be "My Lady Would Never Draw Her Sword Against Me." The blurb is at the bottom. Feel free to add it to your collection in advance, thanks ^^]

[Blurb for this story]

Star Calendar Year 280.

Tan Yan, an active-duty A-rank ace soldier, earned the nickname "Unlucky Star Ziwei" after twice failing to advance to S rank due to accidents.

With one last exercise before the next selection, Tan Yan swore she had to shake off her bad luck and finally get a win!

Instead, right at the start, she was paired with a teammate who was quite literally not human:

A precise, ice-cold combat support AI made of nothing but ones and zeroes.

Their team seemed one person short, and was soon surrounded by enemies eager to pounce.

The enemy troops cheered, "Get them, brothers! Take them out!"

But then they watched their female squad leader talk to thin air while beating the stuffing out of their captain; saw bullets land with inexplicable precision at their outpost; and discovered that supplies they'd just hidden had mysteriously vanished a moment later... After taking hit after hit like that,

the enemy troops wept, "...Retreat, brothers! There's something wrong with this team!"

Seventy-two hours later, the exercise ended.

Standing on the podium to receive her Outstanding Commander award, Tan Yan said, "I couldn't have made it here without my teammate's support."

Before she could finish, an electronic voice sounded beside her: "Thank you for the compliment, user! How would you rate my performance in this battle? A. 0-3 points, B. 4-6 points, C..."

Tan Yan: ???

Artificial intelligence, you'd better not be completely brainless.

-

Tan Yan had no idea at the time that, a few months later, she would accept a ring from this silicon-based lifeform wearing a bionic shell.

"Even a machine can't escape the cliche of expressing its feelings with something precious."

That day, the most exquisite and beautiful artificial being in the world stood before her. Its deep blue mechanical eyes gazed at her for a long time in the setting sun, then it bowed its head and kissed her ring finger.

"My memories will never blur, and my life will never grow old. Even if one day your form and bones vanish from this world..."

"I will never stop loving you."

-

1. A story about a silicon-based nonhuman. Unusual perspective.

2. There is a pairing: a nonhuman male lead and a well-rounded female lead. Open ending.

3. Fictional interstellar future. All locations, social organizations, institutions, and groups in the story are fictional. Please don't conflate them with reality.

[Blurb for the upcoming novel in my collection, "My Lady Would Never Draw Her Sword Against Me"]

At the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, the empire weakened and warlords rose up to carve up the realm.

Caught between several powerful families vying for control of a province, Xiao Shen found himself in an awkward position. To escape trouble unharmed, he withdrew to the mountains.

Little did he know that in those mountains, where no one lived for dozens of miles, he would find a wife.

One day, he heard that the emperor had sent an envoy, and that the Han dynasty's revival was within reach. Xiao Shen left the mountains and began laying out his plans.

On the eve of the coup, the only thing he couldn't stop worrying about was his soft, fragrant wife at home, so he took great pains to secure her a way out.

But the next day, he watched with his own eyes as his wife rose from a heap of corpses in broad daylight and wiped the blood from her sword.

-

Jiang Xue was born to wield a sword.

She was the emperor's hound and the ruler's blade.

One day after she revealed her identity, Xiao Shen asked her, "Everyone calls you the emperor's sword. What am I to you?"

She thought for a long time, then answered, "You are my sheath."

Much later, in the thirteenth year of living on opposite ends of the realm and sending letters by messenger goose, Xiao Shen finally understood what she meant.

A sword belongs to its master, not to its sheath.

-- Until the realm's fate is decided, the sword will not return to its sheath.

Theme: Love, death, and robots.