by Robin Roseau
“She is,” Jasmine agreed. “My point is that we know this setting is quite unusual for the two of you, and it is best to put things on the table.”
“Thank you for that, Jasmine.”
“So, before we begin, is there anything either of you wish to discuss unrelated to robotics?”
“Do you have a proposed plan today?” Felicia asked.
“I imagine it’s been a long time since breakfast,” Jasmine said. “And it’s coming to our dinner time. We thought we could have a working dinner in about a half hour. We’ll discuss the problems and then show you the robotics lab and the new avatar. Eventually someone will take you to the resort. We’re going to suggest you let the visors help you sleep tonight. That will help you adjust to the local time zone. Amanda, what is your plan?”
“I am available any way I can help,” Amanda replied. “But I imagine there isn’t much I can do.”
“You were hoping to be a beach bunny?”
“I came because I had the option to come, Jasmine,” she said. “It’s not something I’d turn down. If there are things I can do to help, I will.”
“Did that answer your question, Felicia?” Jasmine asked.
“It did, thank you. That’s all I have for now.”
Jasmine turned her focus to me. “Taisha, how about you?”
“I’m good,” I said.
“So, no questions?”
“About five hundred, I’m sure,” I said.
“But you’re a junior member of the team and don’t want to serve as a distraction?”
“Ask three,” Amanda prompted. “Get a few out of your system.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously,” she said.
I paused, then nodded. I turned to look Jasmine directly in the eye. “What would I have to do to spend serious time with one of you?”
“Be more specific. One of whom?”
“Any of the aliens.”
“Do you have an agenda?”
“None at all.”
“Male or female?”
“I’m not sure how much that matters,” I said. “I bet you’ve seen my test results.”
“I have,” she said. “Only one of us?”
“If I had a choice? I’d spend as much time as possible with as many of you as were interested.”
She offered a gesture with one of her tentacles. I had no idea what it meant. “That’s not all that unexpected a desire. We’ll make opportunities.”
“You will?” I asked. I could hear the noob hope in my voice.
“Yes,” Jasmine said.
“If you’re making opportunities,” Amanda said. “I think you might have three women interested in them.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘no’,” Felicia said. “But at the same time, I’m dying to get a good look at Muriel’s avatar.”
“I imagine you are,” Jasmine replied. “I’ll make opportunities. Does anyone wish to be more specific?”
“Not me,” I said. Felicia and Amanda agreed with me. Then I said, “I don’t want to ask any other questions right now, but could I say something?”
“Of course,” Jasmine replied.
“Touching seems to be an interesting topic around here,” I said. “I just want to say anyone may touch me if she wants.” I turned to Bay. “I won’t touch you without permission, but maybe before I go, you’ll give permission.”
Bay chittered for a moment, but he inclined his head. “You do not mind if I touch you?”
“However you want,” I said.
“You shouldn’t say that,” Audra said.
“Why not?” Felicia asked. “I was about to say the same thing.”
“The aliens are just as curious about us as we are about them,” Audra replied. “Now, it’s entirely safe with Bay. But a lot of the aliens have literally never touched a human more intimately than a handshake, and they’re deeply curious, especially about the body parts that they don’t have themselves.” And she gestured to her chest.
“They’d get grabby?” Felicia asked.
“This falls under the category of conversations we must have regarding ignorance,” Jasmine said. “We share the list of human taboos with everyone who comes here, but most of us find humans very confusing. You blatantly violate your own taboos, but so many of you are deeply offended when someone else does so.”
Amanda snorted a laugh. “People are people.”
“People are people,” Jasmine repeated. “Quite so.”
“What should I say if someone asks to touch?” I asked.
“I usually tell people they may touch bare skin,” Audra said. “If I typically cover it, then they should ask before touching. Even that can turn into a conversation, but at least it’s an easily-defined limit. It can be confusing in the swimming pool.” She laughed. “Skye needed to be rescued one day.”
“Oh, no,” Amanda said. “Was she all right?”
“Yeah. There were a couple of Ardents there, and it only took one raised voice before they waded in and took care of things. No one was hurting her, but a couple of male hobbles had her backed into a corner. Hobbles are usually very polite, but these two had watched some movie the night before.”
“Which ones are Ardents?” I asked.
“The ones that look like tanks,” Muriel said.
I nodded and turned to Bay. “You may touch me if you like. Bare skin is safe.”
He gave a little chitter and inclined his head.
“Me, too,” Felicia said. “Any of you. And I’ll take any Catseye hugs that are offered.”
“Get in line,” Audra muttered with a smile.
I raised my hand. “Where’s the line?”
There were several snorts.
“All right,” Jasmine said. “You know most of this, but let’s review. Muriel interfaces with her avatar through strictly alien technology. Her bed is specific to her and is quite advanced, even for us. We began with one of our moderate medical units. It sees to most of the needs of her body, although there are limitations. But we’ve enhanced it with our most advanced virtual reality technology.”
“Alien magic,” Muriel said. “It makes everything else bearable. I can forget my body. When I am in my avatar, I see the world as if I were riding inside a battle suit, perhaps. But I spend most of the rest of my time in a virtual reality world. That is where I am when I program. I can slip back and forth readily. The hardware is all alien, but it interfaces with human computers.”
“Which you program,” Felicia said.
“Yes.”
“You will have no access to that particular technology,” Jasmine said. “Although I’ll come back to that in a minute or two. Muriel’s avatars are a mix of human and alien tech, which is why we were able to incorporate your technology.”
“I’m Intel Inside,” Muriel said with a little laugh. “My control systems are Linux.”
“The power technology is entirely our tech,” Jasmine said. “Bay, what else?”
“Power, communications, and the touch sensors,” he said. “I can’t show you my construction methods, and portions of the skeleton involve materials humans do not use. Muriel’s avatar is lighter than the devices you create. But I use human technology when I can.”
“Bay,” Felicia said, “Are we going to learn anything we can’t actually use ourselves? Are you using anything proprietary to other companies?”
“Many of the components are off-the-shelf,” he said. “Seeing it here is no different than if you buy them yourself and reverse-engineer them.”
“I don’t want to get into some sort of trouble if I see you’ve done something clever, and I take it back to work with me,” Felicia said. “How are we going to prevent that?”
“We’re not,” Jasmine said. “The alien technology is sealed. You will not open them. You’re free to try to learn what you can from the outside.”
She laughed. “Good luck with that?”
“That’s right,” Jasmine said. “We don’t think you could ste
al it, even if you could, well, if you could steal it. We use manufacturing techniques you don’t have yet. Even if you understood how it worked, you wouldn’t be able to duplicate it.”
“So, you’re not worried,” Felicia confirmed.
“No, as long as you treat us honestly.”
“You’ll be clear if we’re to leave something hands off?”
“Yes.”
“All right, then. Good.”
“Okay. Muriel, do you want to describe the problem?”
“It’s exceedingly inconsistent,” Muriel said. “But the stability system is failing and forcing an overload of several other systems.”
“Fuck,” Felicia said. “It shouldn’t do that.”
“No shit,” Muriel said.
“I mean it doesn’t make sense, at least if you’re using our hardware.”
“We are,” Bay said.
“Short of something truly catastrophic, the sort of thing that would cause smoke, it shouldn’t be possible for our system to have any effects on any other systems,” Felicia explained. “Are you sure you aren’t overdriving the power voltages.”
“I’m sure,” Bay replied. “Five volts to the sensor and control module. We’re not using your mechanical systems.”
Felicia stared at him, but then Amanda set her hand on Felicia’s arm and whispered something into her ear.
“Right,” Felicia said. “Keep going.”
“Wait,” Jasmine said. “Felicia, you don’t think it’s your system.”
“Discounting catastrophic failure, I don’t know how we could possibly cause anything to adversely affect your other systems. It is not possible for us to overdrive the control systems. And it’s a simple communications bus to the rest of your system. I shouldn’t be able to feed anything down that bus that would cause trouble for you. I’m not saying I’m not sending you garbage; I’m saying it shouldn’t matter what garbage I send you. We only have five volts available, so we’re certainly not causing overvoltage problems.”
Bay, Muriel, and Felicia looked back and forth between each other. It was Amanda who broke the stalemate of silent finger-pointing. “Felicia, I’m not your boss.” Felicia turned to her, and Amanda continued. “I would appreciate it if you would assume that somehow our system is contributing to the problem.”
Felicia paused and nodded. “Of course.” She turned to look at Muriel. “We’re here to figure it out, whatever is happening.”
“Thank you,” Muriel said.
“What else can you tell us?”
“Quite a bit. We have not been able to reproduce the failure in any sort of controlled environment. It is happening randomly during real usage, and that is the only correlation we’ve seen. It doesn’t happen in our lab here.”
“It’s happening to this unit?” She gestured to Muriel’s avatar.
“No,” Bay said. “This unit has performed flawlessly.” He sounded proud. I didn’t think I blamed him. “I made a new one. It’s much more advanced.”
“What are the differences?”
“We use your newest control module,” he said. “The skeleton and mechanics are identical. Except for some cosmetic differences, I could take this frame and retrofit with the new devices. The devices built into Muriel’s bed are updated.”
“But I’m using it just fine with this avatar,” Muriel said. “It gives me a better virtual reality experience and is needed for some of the advanced systems.”
Felicia nodded. “What do the new systems do?”
“Sensory input,” Bay said. He chittered. “We have a long way to go, but the new system is much better.”
“When it’s not sending me to the medical bay,” Muriel muttered.
“What?” Amanda exclaimed.
“The first time it happened,” Jasmine said, “it set off about half of the monitoring systems built into the bed. We thought she was dying.”
“Oh, god,” I said.
“It felt like my body was exploding,” Muriel added.
“I forbid her from using the new avatar until Bay went through a complete set of diagnostics,” Jasmine said.
“No,” Muriel said. “You wouldn’t let me use the VR system, either.”
“Only for two days, when we confirmed it was caused by the avatar, and wasn’t anything inherent in the devices in the bed.”
“I couldn’t do a thing,” Muriel said. “They kept me in one of the other beds and let me watch television. And it was three days and would have been longer, but we agreed my old avatar wasn’t the cause, and we didn’t think it was the new systems from the Tutors.”
“Tutors?” Felicia prompted.
“The race that designed the mind-reading system,” Muriel said.
“Mind reading?” I asked.
“Well, it sure seems like it,” she replied. “It’s hardware. I don’t do hardware.”
I snorted, and Felicia said, “That’s why we’re here. So. It’s almost definitely related to the new avatar. We don’t know what’s triggering it. How often did it happen?”
“Three times before I forbid her from using it again,” Jasmine said.
“Delay between failures?”
“Weeks,” Muriel said. “But that may be because we kept it in the lab for weeks, and it refused to fail.”
“How long did it take once you ventured outside the lab?”
“Three days.”
“This is going to be fun,” Felicia said. I could hear the sarcasm. “If Muriel can’t drive the avatar, how are we going to test?”
“We’ll have to take volunteers from our supply of far healthier humans,” Jasmine said.
I turned to Audra. She was already looking at me. “Did she just volunteer you and me?”
“Yes,” Audra said.
“Sounds like fun,” I declared.
* * * *
We turned as the door opened. A cart appeared, pushed by tentacles. Another Catseye entered, and then a human holding the hand of a child Catseye, several tentacles wrapped around the human’s arm as well. Behind them were two more aliens and then another human pushing a stroller. “We decided to make a party of it,” said that human. “Bluebell and Violet will be here shortly.”
At that, it was as if there was a race. Audra and Posey both leapt from their chairs and hurried to the stroller, each of them trying to pull the other back to get in front. It looked both practiced and good-natured. I thought Posey cheated, though, as she had far more appendages to apply, and she held Audra back while reaching into the stroller to extract a squirming mass of more tentacles.
My jaw dropped, and it took a moment to realize that yes, it was a baby, but it was a baby Catseye. The infant wrapped around several of Posey’s tentacles, and one large Catseye drew one much smaller Catseye to her.
Audra didn’t seem put out. She and Posey both began speaking, and it wasn’t English. And then Audra moved back to her chair, Posey following after her. One of Posey’s tentacles released the tie of Audra’s dress, and then she set the infant into Audra’s arms.
Yes, I stared, although the tentacles covered everything.
Audra’s expression was absolutely clear. “You’re a mother,” Amanda said. “Audra, I didn’t know.”
“She’s two months old now,” Jasmine said gently. “And every bit the joy of her cousin.”
“Bay,” Felicia said. “You have competition for the cutest person in the room.”
“My wife usually wins that competition,” Bay said. “But we do not mind if you feel little Callaia comes out ahead. She is a darling, although she does not care to be held by a Loris.”
“It’s the fur,” Posey said without taking her eyes from her daughter.
“Bay and I have discussed starting our family,” said the other Loris. “But we do not wish to detract from these two lovelies. We’re going to wait until Skye and Audra each have had their second. Andie and Jasmine have not indicated when they will have their first.”
“You shouldn’t have to wait,” said
the human holding the toddler.
“We do not mind, Skye,” said the loris. “If we wait long enough, then Dahlia can babysit for us.”
Skye laughed. “I imagine she would enjoy that.” Then she knelt down, and her daughter said something into her ear. Skye nodded and said, “You can ask.”
And so, the little Catseye released her mother and walked over to Bay. “May I sit in your lap, Bay?” It was said in a little girl voice, and with an odd accent, much like that of the other Catseye, but it was clear, and a complete sentence besides. I gawked. Again.
“Yes,” Bay said. He held out his arms and helped the youngster climb up. She turned around, and then she squirmed until she was settled. The other Loris pulled a chair over and cuddled closely. She was rewarded with a few tentacles wrapped around one arm. The child seemed quite content.
“Well,” Jasmine said. “I think we’ll do this informally, as much as it pains me. As you have guessed, the new Loris is Cedar, Bay’s wife. The little one in Bay’s lap is Dahlia, Skye and Violet’s first born.”
“Is there a second born?” Amanda asked.
“Not yet,” Skye said, but she set her hand on her stomach. “Eight more months.”
“Congratulations!” Amanda said.
“Skye is my big sister,” Audra said. “You probably figured that out. Violet is Posey’s older sister.”
“Got it,” I said.
“And this is Callaia.”
“I’m Andie,” said the human who had been pushing the stroller. “Jasmine is mine.” She paused. “Jasmine, I don’t want to wait much longer. Do you?”
“No,” Jasmine said. “I don’t, but we’ll need to coordinate.”
“You can go next,” Audra offered. “Cedar, are you sure you don’t mind waiting.”
“Have your next child,” Cedar said. “We’ll wait a few more years, and then we’d like ours.” She turned to Amanda. “Catseye produce one at a time. We produce something you might call a litter, but modern medicine gives us much control over the size. Bay, I think we should leave that to nature.”
“This world can use many more Lorises,” Bay said. He turned to Amanda. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Absolutely,” Amanda said firmly.
Jasmine finished the introductions just as two more Catseye entered, along with two aliens I didn’t recognize. They were blue and quite exotic in nature, but what wasn’t exotic about all of this. Between the four of them, there were two more carts, one clearly with plates, bowls, and the like, and I thought food on the other.