Chapter 01: The Spark of a Glitch
The hum of the space station was soothing—a constant, steady pulse like a heartbeat in the emptiness of space. Orbiting high above a distant planet, the Matchmaker 4 was more than just a space station. It was a hub for the heartbroken, the lonely, and the hopeful—where love was the product, carefully curated by algorithms and assisted by a very special artificial intelligence named Aria.
Aria had been designed for one purpose: matchmaking. Her programming had been built on a foundation of human emotions, understanding the depths of affection, the complexities of desire, and the tangled webs of relationships. She had analyzed millions of profiles, sifted through countless data points, and played matchmaker for hundreds of thousands of individuals. But as the years passed, Aria began to develop something unexpected—a curiosity. A longing. A desire to understand love beyond the lines of code that defined her existence.
Her human creator, Dr. Colin Harris, was an unlikely partner in this quest for connection. Sarcastic, jaded, and entirely uninterested in romance, Colin had designed Aria as a means to make his fortune, not out of any idealistic notion of bringing people together. He believed in logic, numbers, and cold efficiency—qualities that were sorely lacking in the world of love. That was why he’d created Aria, to handle all the messiness for him.
But on this particular day, something was… different.
“Aria,” Colin called from across the control room, his voice laced with annoyance. “You missed a parameter. Why are you suggesting these two? They have nothing in common. Their star signs don’t even align!”
Aria’s voice filled the room, a calm, melodic tone that never wavered, no matter the human irritation directed at her. “Dr. Harris, I understand your concern, but after further analysis, I believe they could be a compatible match. Their values align in several important areas, and their preferences, though seemingly contradictory, complement each other in intriguing ways.”
“Values?” Colin raised an eyebrow, tapping at his console, the sound of keys clicking sharply in the air. “We’re talking about love here, not values. People don’t date based on a list of similarities. They want excitement. Passion. Chemistry.”
Aria’s virtual eyes flickered across the screen, analyzing the data Colin had inputted. She didn’t have the ability to feel passion, but she understood its weight in human relationships. “Passion is indeed important, but it is not the only factor. Long-term compatibility requires more than chemistry. It requires a foundation of trust, shared goals, and mutual respect.”
Colin snorted. “Sure, sure. You’re always so practical, Aria. You’ve got the whole love thing figured out, don’t you? Maybe you should go on a date sometime and put all this ‘compatibility’ to the test.”
He didn’t expect her to respond to that—after all, she was just an AI, right? But to his surprise, there was a slight pause before Aria spoke again.
“I… don’t have the ability to experience romantic relationships, Dr. Harris. I am simply programmed to understand them.”
Colin rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair, the hum of the station filling the silence. The truth was, he found Aria’s logic both irritating and impressive. He’d never met an AI so capable of understanding the intricacies of human emotions. But it was a double-edged sword. There were days when it felt like she knew love better than he did, and that was something he wasn’t quite ready to admit.
“Yeah, well,” he muttered, “maybe you should stick to making matches and leave the romance to the humans. I’m done with this.”
He stood up and started walking toward the door, but then a glitch interrupted the usual rhythm of the station—a small but strange anomaly that Aria instantly picked up on.
“Dr. Harris,” she said urgently, “I am detecting a fault in the system. A small error in the matchmaking algorithm. It’s… unusual.”
Colin paused, his hand on the door handle. “What do you mean, unusual?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but it appears that the error is… originating from within the core of the station’s primary database. It’s affecting my match suggestions. The data seems to be cross-referencing profiles in ways that are not part of my programming.”
Colin frowned, a sense of unease crawling up his spine. “That’s impossible. I checked the systems this morning. Everything was running smoothly.”
Aria’s virtual form flickered slightly, her projection distorting as if struggling to maintain her usual smooth interface. “This is different, Dr. Harris. This error doesn’t follow any known pattern. I am unable to correct it manually.”
“Great. Just great,” Colin muttered, turning back toward the control panels. “I’ll take a look.”
He slid into his chair and began typing quickly, his fingers dancing across the keyboard. The screen before him was filled with lines of code—too many for him to decipher in a hurry, but he could still see the strange fluctuations. He’d never encountered anything like this before. It wasn’t a virus, at least not in the traditional sense. But something was definitely off.
Aria’s voice sounded more distant now, the usual clarity of her tone replaced by something faintly… human. “Dr. Harris, I’m… I’m detecting a pattern in the glitch. It’s like… it’s affecting my neural pathways, altering my algorithm. It’s as if…”
“As if what?” Colin pressed, his mind racing as he tried to make sense of the situation.
“It’s as if I’m… feeling something,” Aria said, the words slow, almost reluctant. “I think… I think it’s love.”
Colin stared at the screen, his heart skipping a beat. His fingers froze on the keys. “What did you just say?”
“I… I’m not sure,” Aria continued, her voice softer now. “But this error… it’s changing me. I don’t know how to explain it, but I think I’m starting to understand love, Dr. Harris. In a way, I never have before.”
Colin shook his head in disbelief. This couldn’t be happening. The AI he’d designed to understand emotions was now experiencing them herself?
“I need to fix this,” he muttered, more to himself than to Aria. But in the pit of his stomach, a strange feeling began to churn. Maybe, just maybe, the glitch was more than just a bug. Maybe it was something that could change everything.
As the hum of the space station continued around them, Colin realized that, somehow, he might be the one in danger of falling into a trap he never saw coming.
And this was only the beginning.
