Nancy patted her hand, her eyes full of sympathy. “Of course, it feels good. Thank you for telling me. And don’t worry,” she turned Erin’s hand over and traced her palm. “You have a long lifeline. I think you’ll die an old woman, warm in your bed. There no way you’ll perish on this old ship, or any other for that matter.”
Wiseman shook her head and pulled her hand away. “Thanks,” she said, smiling dryly. “Too bad I’ve never been superstitious.”
+++
Android Home Base, Orion Sector
Captain Blackfriar’s private quarters were buried some dozen stories beneath the airfield they’d initially landed on.
Shango nearly got lost following the twists and turns he had to take through pristine corridors to get there. The further he progressed, the more the taste and flair of the decoration evolved. The artwork on the walls progressed from simple portraits to immersive masterpieces of landscapes and battle scenes, and the plants went from small ferns to exotic items that Shango had never seen.
Loco kept pace with him easily as he moved. “I don’t like this much,” he grumbled. “I don’t trust these androids as far as Olofi could throw ‘em, especially not alone behind closed doors.”
“That’s why I brought you along,” Shango pointed out. “If anything goes wrong I’ll just shout. These walls may be fancy, but they’re not soundproof.”
Loco reluctantly grunted his agreement. As they approached their destination he hung back in the hallway next to a large potted tree with shiny wax-like bark. He crossed his arms like a security guard in one of the bars they’d frequent.
“Don’t start any fights,” Shango chuckled when he saw his friend’s posture. “You’re just here as backup, remember.”
“Right. Because any of those tin can men who cross us won’t be getting back up,” he returned.
Shango snorted quietly at the terrible play on words, and rapped on the door.
A moment later it whisked open and a smiling female greeted him as he entered the spacious outer office. She had such demure, delicate dimples hiding in the lee of her cheekbones it was difficult to believe she hadn’t been born of a human mother.
“You must be Captain Shango,” she said. “Right this way please, Captain Blackfriar is expecting you.” She stepped back and beckoned for him to follow as she flowed deeper into the room.
She had to be one of the newer models, not that it mattered to Shango, though the soft pale skin and peachy blonde hair was rather appealing to look at. She ushered him through another automatic sliding door where he found Blackfriar seated in a polished marble chaise next to a large, humming computer console. A spiny plant that looked suspiciously carnivorous sat in the corner beneath a painting of a great spire bridge. Beyond that the room bore little decoration, other than a large closet door set into the back wall.
“Thank you, Jolene,” Blackfriar told her in a very respectful tone.
“You’re very welcome.” She smiled and left them alone, the door whispering shut behind her.
Shango just about managed to keep the disapproval out of his voice. “You sent for me, Blackfriar?”
“Have a seat, Shango,” Blackfriar told him, bowing his head slightly and waving at a nearby seat. He waited until his guest sat down on a long padded bench, clearly intended for visitors. It was interesting to not have a desk between them, but then the android had no use for one. He could interface directly with his machine via a mobile uplink rather than use a keyboard or other control system.
“I have some upsetting news,” he continued. “Bentley is missing.”
Shango frowned. He and Loco had been playing a game of low-gravity tetherball when he’d received the summons. Everyone else from the Chesed had been there watching. Suddenly he was regretting not paying more attention to her whereabouts.
“How exactly does one go missing from a locked and secured room?” he asked, leaning forward in concern, hands resting on his knees.
“It seems Svend took advantage of my trust. He came to me asking if we would look into Bentley’s “so-called” coordinates, and he seemed quite alarmed when I informed him that she had been detained.”
“You let one of your own people take her?” Shango demanded, suddenly more agitated. “While you were responsible for guarding her?”
Blackfriar steepled his fingers and raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t going to bring this up, because frankly, it’s embarrassing for all of us. The security footage demonstrates that young Bentley, with Svend’s help, escaped beneath our very noses.”
Shango scoffed. “Me and my people are a little more alert than that. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to show me this footage?”
“Of course.” Blackfriar gestured at the wall beside him, which quickly became a screen showing an image of the common area assigned to the crew of the Chesed. In the video, Shango saw himself eating with Loco, Jade, and Olofi. He remembered the setting well. A moment later, Svend entered the frame. Some conversation passed between them, the android performed his trick, and as the crew responded a blur flitted by the bottom of the camera.
“What was that? At the bottom of the shot.”
“Take a look at this feed from the hallway, a moment later,” Blackfriar gestured again. The image on screen changed to the hallway outside the crew’s quarters. Bentley crawled into frame and stood up, and a moment later Svend joined her and they raced off toward the elevator.
“Well I’ll be slow roasted by a supernova,” Shango shook his head. “My apologies, Blackfriar. It seems you were right. I can’t believe I was tricked so easily.” He stroked his beard, thinking. “What tipped you off to all of this?”
“Svend’s demeanor when last we spoke. His poker face isn’t quite what the rest of us androids can do. His heart-”
The door whisked open and Loco barged in. “I wasn’t aware you lot had hearts!” He was grinning despite the bad news.
“It was a figure of speech,” Blackfriar said with an accommodating gesture, “Please do join us. Is my assistant- ”
“She’s fine.”
“-Conscious?”
“More or less.”
“Where is she?”
“Back in her quarters.”
“Because?”
Loco blushed. “No reason.”
Shango rubbed his forehead with the heel of his palm. “Loco, tell me you didn’t…”
“Hey!” the dark haired lwa shouted, “you’re the one who dragged me to this backwater robot colony. What was I supposed to do?”
“We’ve been here what, one night?” Shango groaned.
“Oh, dear,” Blackfriar commented, “I do hope you used protection.” He and Shango shared a quick glance and then broke eye contact.
“Protect- wait, what? What do you mean? She’s a robot.”
“We keep telling you not to confuse the two, Loco.” Shango shook his head, shaggy hair swaying. “Androids aren’t machines, they’re artificial life forms. Designed to mimic humans in every way. What do you think that means?”
Loco’s face turned purple before he figured out how to turn his air into words. “I don’t… I just… I was…”
“Yes,” Blackfriar said in a concerned voice. “And Jolene has been known to be rather promiscuous. I do believe I heard her talking about a bad case of cyborgorrea.”
Loco went from purple to pale in a heartbeat. “That sounds… bad…” he whimpered, and then he caught a familiar flicker on Shango’s face. “Hey! I know that damn look. You two are jerking my chain.”
“Poor choice of words,” Shango winced.
“Never mind,” Blackfriar sighed. “Jolene is free to make her own mista… choices. I’m afraid that while Bentley’s escape is a problem, we have more pressing matters to address.”
CHAPTER NINE
Pod, Deep Space
The days passed quickly aboard the pod as they zipped through the endless blackness of deep space. Bentley and Svend got along well, which made the journey easy and pleasan
t. For the first seventy-two hours they passed the time with idle conversation when Bentley wasn’t eating food provided by the autocook, or exercising at the fold out elliptical machine. Svend did not appear to require exercise or sustenance, but he did need sleep, and so they shared the bed by night.
With the lights low in the pod and Svend’s warm body only inches away, Bentley had trouble keeping her mind centered on the mission. She had been so determined to get on her way to finding Legba that now that they were en route, she didn’t know what to do with herself. That was why she put so much energy into her daily exercise sessions. She needed some kind of outlet to escape from the pod life.
The elliptical machine hummed beneath her as she moved her arms and legs, watching the woodland scene pass by on the wall in front of her. Her limbs pumped in time with her blood and her breathing, generating a heat which the pod’s air conditioning whisked away. Svend was up in the cockpit. He had taken to going there whenever she put in a workout. In a way Bentley missed his company when he was gone, but a part of her was relieved by the lack of pressure alone time provided.
With no breaks for footfalls Bentley felt almost like she was a machine, rolling through the forest. A machine programmed to move forward and do nothing else. She just kept flowing, kept moving her arms and legs against the simulated resistance, in time with an internal rhythm only she could hear.
“Is that fun?” Svend asked. He had come into the main room. “I don’t require exercise, but I suppose it might help pass the time.”
“Svend!” she exclaimed surprised by his sudden re-appearance. “What are you doing in here?”
She staggered off the elliptical, her legs like jelly at first. Svend instinctively moved in to catch her in case she fell. The young woman felt a hot flash trill through her body and waved her hands in the air warding him off.
“I’m fine,” she gasped as she staggered to the couch and sat down. “What are you doing in here?”
She was being a little silly. While the shorts and T-shirt she wore were a little more revealing than her ordinary clothing, they were hardly skimpy. They had been fabricated by the pod, after all, and were as square and utilitarian as anything she’d ever worn.
“There’s…” he gestured towards the cockpit. “There was a comet visible out the starboard side, I thought maybe you’d have liked to see it. It's probably gone now, we’re moving pretty fast.” He backed away uncertainly. “I’ll go back to the cockpit. Sorry for interrupting you.”
“No, it’s fine.” Bentley stood and forced herself to walk normally to the autocook. “I was just finishing up. Can you fold that thing away for me?”
Svend pulled a few collapsible pins and pushed the elliptical into the wall while she punched a simple command line into the automated kitchenette and waited for it to slosh her recovery drink into a cup. She opened the beverage cupboard and grabbed the vessel and took a sip so she’d have something to do with her mouth and hands.
Ew.
The drink contained all the electrolytes she needed after a mild workout, but other than that it was composed of basically the same thing as her meals; rehydrated proteins, carbs, and fats. There seemed to be an attempt at some form of a citrusy flavor, but it failed to override the grittiness or the familiar taste of old shoe.
“I wouldn’t exactly say it’s fun,” she answered, responding to his question. Svend was watching the still moving woodland scene on the wall. “But it does help to pass the time. Makes me feel like I’m doing something. Maybe even accomplishing something. Give it a go.”
“Hey, we are accomplishing something.” Svend stepped toward her, but then thought better of getting too close. Her cheeks were still flushed deep red. “We’re pursuing the coordinates Legba gave you. Nothing could be more important, right? That’s why we had to escape from the others.”
“Right,” Bentley’s voice lacked her usual conviction. “I’m going to get changed.”
“I’ll be in here.” Svend sent the woodland atmosphere to the pod’s main screen and sat on the couch to continue watching it.
The young woman padded into the bathroom barefoot as usual because there was no use for shoes or socks in the pod. The floor conformed to their body heat and was soft, almost spongy. She stripped off her sweaty garments and threw them in one end of the washer, and then pulled her fresh outfit from the other end.
Sometimes she wished she’d been wearing something prettier the day of the feast. Since it had been so unexpected, she’d just had on the normal utilitarian overall suit that she wore around the ship. Being stuck with Svend for so long, it might have been nice to put on something sleeker. But the pod’s fabricator didn’t have much fashion sense, and they couldn’t exactly stop at a clothes market.
After a quick steam shower, Bentley combed her hair and got dressed. She took a deep breath, fighting her body’s instinct to blush at the idea of returning to Svend’s side.
He’s just a person, she told herself, but she knew that wasn’t true.
He’s just like any other guy, she insisted to herself, but that felt even more false. Svend was special in every way, and she felt she was the only one who truly saw it. No one else could appreciate him like she could.
She smiled as she stepped back into the main living space, but Svend’s attention was still on the screen. He loved nature as much as any of his people. It seemed like such a strange, but beautiful contradiction. His perfectly sculpted blond hair waved at her as he turned toward her arrival.
“Any word from Jelly Bean?” she asked, standing just outside the doorway.
“Nothing for days now,” Svend reported. “We must be getting close though, I would think.”
“Hope so. I wish we could know for sure.” Bentley sighed and crossed the space between them to sit next to him on the sofa. It felt like a giant step, a leap of faith, but she made it. “Svend, can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Why did you help me?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. Why did you believe me when no one else would? Why did you risk yourself to break me out?”
“Because I think you’re right.” He smiled and touched her arm. “It’s as simple as that.”
“Is it, though?” Bentley managed to contain a contented sigh. She didn’t want him knowing the impact his touch had on her. “What makes you think I’m right?”
Svend took a deep breath. It was such a human action. She could see the stress weighing at the corners of his eyes, see the gears turning inside his mind as he sought an answer. Why was the truth so difficult to come by?
“Well, I was there, remember?” He hung his head. “I was the one who hooked you up to the machine that nearly fried your brains. It’s my fault you were hurt, but I didn’t see anything that would have led to you having false memories implanted in your brain. And I believe you’re sane enough to tell the difference.”
Bentley took his hand in hers slowly, feeling every millimeter of contact with his synthetic skin. “It wasn’t your fault, Svend. And while it may have brought on some problems it brought back my other memories, so I can’t say I’d be mad at you even if it was your fault. Just don’t blame yourself, okay?”
He nodded, and lowered his eyes. Bentley folded the hand she was holding between both of her own. “Was that all?” she asked. “Was that the only reason you believed me?”
“Well maybe…”
Was that a hint of a blush coloring his cheeks? Was that even possible?
“Maybe I wanted to believe you simply because I couldn’t stand the idea of your brain being scrambled. Not just because I felt like it was my fault, but because I care about you.” Their eyes met in electric contact. “I care about you more than you can know, Bentley.”
“Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea,” she said distantly, and leaned her head on his shoulder. Could it be possible that he felt the same about her as she did about him?
“Right, of course,”
he muttered, “I didn’t mean to say - never mind.” He shook his head at himself and looked away. Then he looked back at her, changing the subject. “How are you doing? I don’t know if I’ve asked recently, but I know you were under a lot of pressure until we escaped, especially with being locked away like that.”
“I’m doing better,” she said slowly, still holding his hand. “Actually, ever since we left it’s like the pressure has lifted. I even stopped having those weird dreams. I figure that means we’re headed in the right direction. Or maybe it’s just…” Her voice trailed off.
Not only had she stopped having the dreams about Legba and the coordinates, the sword had stopped communicating with her as well. She didn’t feel ready to share that part though, not even with Svend. Not yet.
“Maybe it’s just what?” Svend asked.
“Pardon?”
“You said maybe you stopped having the dreams because we’re headed in the right direction, but maybe it’s something else?”
“Oh, right.” She blushed, “Nothing.”
“Come on, Bentley.”
“Alright.” She felt as though the heat from her face would burn the pod to ash. “I was going to say that maybe it’s just having you next to me. It’s, I don’t know, comforting, I guess. I like being close to you.” She smiled into his shoulder. “If that isn’t already obvious.”
He shifted and put his arm around her, allowing her to pillow her head on his chest. “I like being close to you too.”
Even though they’d been sharing the bed, this was the most time they’d spent touching one another. It was a new experience for them both.
After a few minutes of silence, Bentley spoke again. “I have another question.”
“I am capable of answering a wide range of questions.”
Bentley giggled quietly. “You haven’t been eating since we’ve been on board. But I saw you eating real food at the banquet. So, is that a part of your upgrade?”
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