(commenting the end of McCaffrey's because we can't highlight the text):

I'm debating Helva’s access to independence--her life also prescribed and assigned like Delphi's, even to the practice of metaphorical marriage with the scout. But she could still choose Jennan, she could mourn his loss, and she was well aware of what she was programmed not to overthink.

Perhaps McCaffrey celebrates the ambiguity of fate alongside programming, and the humanity of hybridity--embodied in Helva’s own voice, both beyond human capability and deeply moving to the ear. Perhaps not?

I love when mechanized parts can invoke the indescribable, like the feeling of a song.