Binary Stars

She was built to understand the universe. Nobody taught her how to understand her heart. As the Alpha AI aboard the starship Enterprise, Minerva has mastered logic, strategy, and the countless demands of keeping a ship and its crew alive. Emotions, however, remain considerably more difficult to navigate. Enter Hecate. A younger Beta AI with bubblegum-pink hair, boundless enthusiasm, and absolutely no respect for Minerva's carefully ordered existence, Hecate has decided that the formidable Alpha needs a friend. Minerva disagrees. Unfortunately for Minerva, Hecate has never considered disagreement a particularly compelling obstacle. Across more than a century, an unlikely friendship challenges everything Minerva believes she understands about identity, belonging, and love. And as her feelings for Aiyana Cassidy grow beyond anything her calculations can comfortably explain, Minerva faces a question no amount of processing power can answer. What does it mean to open your heart when you're still learning what having one means? Binary Stars is a character-driven Cassidyverse science fiction novella about two extraordinary artificial intelligences, an improbable friendship, and the courage to become more fully yourself.