Mara flicked out a foot out of the water, sending a spray of water in Tom's direction for his verbal jab, but she soberly replied with: "I tie my identify to the ship, this hull. My name isn't just that of a computer. Just as your sense of identity goes further than simply your name and your mind, but also how others can recognize you."
"Admit it, if you became a girl, being introduced to great lesbian sex with Yukari would be awkward. Explaining to your parents how you would come to be a nekovalkyrja girl would also be equally problematic... because for them, they raise a boy named Tom Freeman. It would be hard for them to be able to relate with something that claimed to be their son, thought like their son, but yet was so different."
"Could you live like that? Could you adjust? Probably, but you wouldn't desire it in the first place," Mara asserted. "Somewhere along the line, maybe the time Tom soul transferred into Tomette's body was the moment the identity of Tom Freeman would have had died. Identity is not only a sense of living, but also recognition... and you are pushing double standards on me, standards I know you yourself wouldn't be willing to meet."
"Respecting my wishes in this regard is no different than respecting Claymere-Taii's preference for cybernetics to fill in for wounds or handicaps, and his reluctance to soul transfer into a Yamataian body, even if he would die. I've talked philosophy with him before over the matter before with him and debated in favor of soul transfer and yamataian bodies... but he was never forced because I could relate and I believed others could as well."
She used her left hand to pat over the edge of the bath. "Miharu is this ship, not another. I don't want to be forced to be another ship - this is me. Myself. I. Transferring myself elsewhere is inacceptable without purging my memory banks and starting anew - and I would not be Miharu then. I am content with elements of myself such as my sprites surviving me, but otherwise, if I am a person as you so strongly stress, then I would ask you to respect my wishes... if only because if it were anyone else, you would respect those wishes."
"I was meant to be overhauled; partly rebuilt. If that cannot happen, then my crew will be left in the care of another ship and I will be decommissioned and dismantled. It is not an end I would have had preferred, but it is not an uncommon end for a starship that has survived its service and eventually grown outdated," Mara concluded reasonably. "The important part is that I succeeded in what I was made to do while I lasted. If I can be appreciated for this much, and my sacrifice made worthwhile, then I am content."
