Plot

An intimate relationship between a human and an android tests the boundaries of human nature.

Ederlezi Rising is an exciting science fiction romance set in near future about the pioneering space mission to Alpha Centauri undertaken by the multinational Ederlezi Corporation. Ederlezi recruits Milutin a Slav cosmonaut trained in the newly reformed futuristic Soviet Union and accompanies him with Nimani, a female android programmed to fulfill whatever he desires.—NoName

In a socialist Dystopia in the not-too-distant future of 2148, the capitalist system has exploited every known corner of the planet. Socialist controls are brought to bring balance to the human condition. The largest corporations start to look beyond the planet for the continuity of the human race. The Ederlezi Corporation undertakes a space mission to the Alpha Centauri star system. The corporation selects Milutin (Sebastian Cavazza), a trained cosmonaut. Milutin has previously been to Mars. Milutin had no intimacy issues during the journey, and he admits to putting the mission success over everything else. In the new mission, Milutin will be expected to establish a colony on a habitable planet of the Alpha Centauri system and bring the socialist ideology to the new colony.

The corporation demands that he accepts Nimani (Stoya), an android designed to respond to the cosmonaut's desires and to monitor his performance on the ship. Milutin dislikes the idea as he has had poor experiences with women in the past but implicitly accepts when he asks what she would look like. Nimani's programming is adjustable, and she has over 500 modes of behavior. She also has the ability to learn and modify from her experiences with Milutin. She follows Asimov's laws 100% and can complete any given task. She is a person, without being one. Nimani's external attributes are designed to resemble Milutin's mother. With her voice patterns, looks and even reactions to specific situations.

Nimani is activated during the trip on day 19. Milutin experiments with her programmed scenarios and loads the intimate setting. He finds her to be too artificial and submissive, unlike the human women he has experienced.

Day 41, and Milutin gets bored and creates a scenario where she acts as a young first-time lover, in which he sexually assaults her. Milutin discovers that Nimani has a parallel operating system based on experiences shaped by interactions with the user. Day 298, during a communication window with base, Nimani reports data on Milutin's performance on the mission, and his relationship with Nimani. She reports that Milutin is sexual with her, but his maintenance of the ship is solid, even though he does not care too much about the protocols laid down by the Ederlezi Corporation.

He also learns that he can remove her Pre-programmed constraints and cache memory if he can get advanced access, which is denied by the ship's on-board computer (Kirsty Besterman). The on-board computer has 3 modes: default (where the computer has full control), custom (where pilot has more control, but with safeguards from the ship's computer where needed), and advanced mode (where the pilot can override the on-board computer's recommendations and protocols). Advanced mode can only be activated with security clearance from the Ederlezi corporation or in case of an emergency.

Milutin has to undertake regular space walks to perform maintenance tasks on the booster engines of the ship. He can only stay out for a limited time before the radiation exposure is fatal. The two become romantically entwined, and after Milutin starts an argument scenario, he finds that she is beginning to act beyond her routines and reads in emotion in the interaction. Milutin wants to know if Nimani's reactions are Pre-programmed or real.

The ship's computer says that if Milutin deletes Nimani's operating system, she would still be boot-able due to her parallel operating system that is evolving as per her experience with him. But her performance would be undermined as the main operating system controls her battery performance, powers her interface, her obedience of Asimov laws and stores her Pre-programmed behaviors. If the operating system is deleted, Nimani will become what Milutin made of her.

Milutin realizes that he is in love with Nimani when her processor overheats and she has to reboot, almost giving him the impression that she is dying. Determined to find out if her feelings are real or programmed, he forces the ship into a tailspin, which makes the ship's computer grant him advanced access.

He deletes the software embedded in her and rather than being grateful for freeing her from her limitations, she violently reacts to his deletion of the Pre-programmed and of his treatment of her while under the program and denies him sex. Milutin fades into a depression after Nimani rejects his advances. In order to maintain the mission objectives, Nimani tries to befriend Milutin and expresses her understanding of Milutin's goal to create new life and to make her more human.

She determines that she needs to self-destruct in order to improve Milutin's mental state. Milutin is surprised to see her crying prior to self-destruction and is told by the ship's computer her crying response prior to self-destruction was not a Pre-programmed response but was natural.

He is devastated but is told that he can revive her by charging her internal battery, which requires exposure to the space outside and possible radiation poisoning. Milutin is able to charge the battery and successfully reactivate Nimani but dies prior to seeing Nimani wake. Nimani embraces the dead Milutin as the ship continues onward.