Zero, who had given up smoking decades ago, finds himself wishing for a cigarette. He hadn't pictured the conversation getting so political, though, he supposed it didn't bother him that it did. It just wasn't something he found himself overly thinking about in everyday life.

No, what was getting troubling was the thought that perhaps their governments weren't as far off as he wanted to believe they were. How easily his phrasing fit into their propaganda.

"Maybe the big difference between your government and mine is that mine just isn't big enough to do the things yours could. Otherwise, it may have."

Zero tilted his head to the left and the right, stretching out his neck until that did crack. The other nice thing about mechanical hands is that the joints within them never got stiff.

"So you're up at night because of habit, but do you actually want to be?"