“And,” she added with a little dance in her chair. “There’s something ... arousing about walking around without any clothes on.”
“By arousing, are you referring to the activity in which you participated in your bed last night?”
Anna balked at the computer’s statement for several seconds as she replayed it in her head. Finally, she asked, “What do you mean?”
“Last night before you fell asleep, you were touching your erogenous zones for an extended period of time. By definition, you were masturbating.”
“You were watching me?” she inquired, her voice filled with shock.
“I see everything taking place all over the station all at once. Naturally, I was watching you.”
Anna blushed, embarrassed at the discovery of what she thought was a private moment and upset at herself for forgetting that the station could watch her in her own quarters.
“Well,” she stammered, unsure whether to admit to the act or not. Various outcomes to her possible answers rushed through her head, trying to determine the best result.
Finally, she confessed, “Yes, I was masturbating. So what?”
Her breakfast arrived in the slot at that moment and waited for her to collect it.
“You had not engaged in such activity before while aboard the station. It seems out of place for you.”
“Out of place?”
“Yes, Anna. That type of activity seems out of character for the way you have acted previously.”
She stepped over to the culinary system and grabbed her plate. As she sat back down, she shoved a forkful of eggs into her mouth. The computer remained silent while she ate.
After she swallowed her food, she responded, “Check your human biology data. Doesn’t it state something about sex drive?”
“Yes, the records state that humans, upon reaching adolescence, have an innate nature to seek out partners to propagate the species. However, it states that two are needed to produce a child.”
Anna nodded as she chewed her bite of sausage. She quickly swallowed and added, “True, but doesn’t it say anything else on the subject?”
“No, it does not. Biology data was not considered necessary for the operation of this mining station.”
With a sideways smile, Anna could not help but agree.
“Well, let me give YOU a lesson, computer. Humans, to help them with completing their sex drive, have physical urges that push them toward having sex. When they satisfy those urges, it pleases them, because it feels good. If those urges arise and nobody is present to help satisfy those urges, a human may resort to satisfying those urges on their own.”
“Do you have those urges now, Anna?”
“WHAT?!” she cried. “No, not now! I just want to eat my breakfast.”
“When do you think you will have those urges again?”
“I don’t know! It’s not like I can predict these kinds of things.”
Anna glanced around the room while she added, “Are you sure that the wizard isn’t hiding behind some curtain around here. I would swear that some horny guy is pulling your strings.”
“I assure you that no human is influencing me.”
A look of curiosity grew on Anna’s face before she asked, “Why do you want to know?”
“I have recorded video footage of the previous caretaker carrying out similar acts during his tenure. But, I do not have any footage of a female performing such activities, except for what you did last night. Since you masturbated under low-light conditions, is it possible to record you doing it again in a more illuminated setting?”
“I don’t think so!” she exclaimed. “I am NOT some sort of exotic dancer that can perform on demand!”
The computer interrupted, “I assure you that I will not gain any sort of sexual satisfaction from recording you. It would be for scientific purposes only.”
Her expression dropped as she glanced at the ceiling and replied sarcastically, “You really know how to make a woman feel sexy.”
“I do? I was not aware that that ability was part of my programming.”
Anna shook her head in disbelief and consumed another bite of her eggs. She finished her meal in silence and was thankful for the break.
After she finished her last bite, she said, “Look. If you find it so important to record me playing with myself, fine. But, you’re going to have to catch me doing it. I’m not going to spread my legs on demand.”
“As you wish, Anna.”
“You know, you never gave me my work agenda for the day.”
“Your work agenda for the day is: visual inspection of Blue-4, monthly maintenance of the station’s rotation system, routine maintenance of 2 mining drones, and the exchange of all the scrubber’s air filters on Green level.”
Anna nodded and said, “Okay. I’ll get to it.”
She stood and made a beeline for Blue-4 to start the inspection.
The rest of the day passed by without incident for Anna. In fact, the next couple of weeks seemed to be trouble-free, with her and the computer getting along for the most part. She continued to perform her tasks at maintaining the station and its drones, and the computer kept to its promise to allow Anna to wear whatever she desired, even though she had made a commitment to herself to wear nothing at all.
Chapter 14
“Good morning, Anna.”
No response at first, but Anna rolled onto her back under the sheets after a few seconds and blinked her eyes open. She stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before stretching.
“Morning, computer,” she greeted with a smile.
“How was your sleep?”
“It was good. I slept really well last night,” Anna stated as she pulled back the sheets and climbed out of bed.
“I have noticed that you have been sleeping better since we reached an accord eight days ago,” the computer observed.
She stopped outside the head to rub the last bits of sleep from her eyes and replied, “Yeah, I noticed that, too. That’s a good thing. Don’t you agree?”
“I agree that it is good, Anna. Will you be dressing today?”
Anna stopped just as she was reaching for her toothbrush, looked through the doorway, and laughed, “You’re kidding, right? I don’t see a need to anymore. Nobody comes out this way. I can’t possibly be doing anything that would really require me to . . . except spacewalks. And wow, does that spacesuit get rather . . . um . . . itchy in all the wrong places.”
“As you intend to not dress, I will adjust your work agenda for the day.”
Pausing after the computer’s last statement, she inquired, “Why would you need to do that? Computer, what is the workload for today?”
“The agenda is as follows: complete visual inspection of Green-4, lubricate axial gears in Engineering-4, routine maintenance checks for four mining drones, replace lights in Blue-1, and repair the laundry facilities in Gray-4.”
“The inspection and greasing jobs are going to take all morning,” mumbled Anna after rinsing her mouth.
“You know,” she announced. “Since I’m going to be working on all that heavy machinery and messing with the lubricants, I’m going to dress today after all . . .”
“That does seem to be a wise decision, Anna,” the computer interjected.
“. . . which means I probably need to get those laundry facilities up and running. Move the laundry repair before the lights.”
“As you wish, Anna.”
Smiling as she stepped into the shower, she added, “You know you don’t have to say that anymore, computer. You are welcome to mix it up a bit.”
“I do not understand.”
“Well, you’re always saying ‘as you wish, Anna.’ You can try something else, like ‘okay’ or ‘that’s fine.’ Something different.”
“I suppose one could say that I am a computer of habit.”
Anna chuckled as she lathered the shampoo into her hair, “Most are, but you’re different now. So, you should be open to trying somethin
g different.”
“Like adding curse words to my vocabulary?”
“Touché,” she laughed as the memory of the failed experiment. “Right. Baby steps. But, you really should try alternate phrases for some of the things you normally say.”
After a couple of seconds, the computer answered, “I will consider your request, Anna.”
“Sweet,” she grinned.
* * * * *
Later that morning, Anna rode down the elevator toward Engineering-4. Wearing the same style of clothes that she had for the past six years, she fidgeted and shifted her weight from one leg to the other.
“Anna,” the computer stated, interrupting the silence. “Your blood pressure has elevated slightly. Is something troubling you?”
“Just a bit nervous. I haven’t been down this deep in a few years, so I’m kind of twitchy. I was never trained to work around heavy equipment like this, and I don’t want anything . . .”
Anna paused, biting her bottom lip, and continued, “bad to happen. The only reason why I’m doing this is because I know that the axial gears have to be greased every few years. If they freeze up, the inertia would tear the station apart in its current condition.”
“Try not to worry, Anna. You have proven yourself as a capable technician since your arrival. You should be able to handle this task with the same level of competency as everything else you have done.”
Rolling her eyes upward at the attempted pep talk, she responded with doubt in her voice, “I hope you’re right.”
The elevator car arrived a few seconds later, and the doors opened to a wall of raucous sounds amidst the dusky floor. The lights glowed just bright enough for Anna to see her path through the narrow corridors winding through the large, metallic machines.
Anna immediately threw her hands over her ears and winced from the noisy assault.
“I forgot how loud it is down here!” she cried while straining to hear her words over the clatter. She thought she could hear the computer respond, but she could not understand what it said. Daring to step out of the elevator before the doors closed, she spotted a workstation a couple of meters away and rushed to the workbench. She smiled upon sighting a pair of earplugs setting on the table’s surface, still wrapped in its original packaging. She hastily opened the tiny bag, jammed them into her ears, and breathed a sigh of relief as the cacophony of grinding muffled.
“At least the noise is bearable now,” she commented aloud, hearing her words reverberating within her head, as she looked at her surroundings to get her bearings.
The concept of multiple levels for the Engineering section of the station was an inaccurate description. Engineering was actually one large room with all manners of machinery stacked on top of each other to efficiently use the limited space available. The level numbers referred to the sets of catwalks suspended throughout the area, with 1 being closest to the living areas and 4 being at the end of the station opposite the command deck.
After accessing through her wristcomp the specific machines listed as in need of upkeep, Anna reluctantly grabbed a bottle of lubricant from one of the shelves under the workbench and headed to the first item listed, hoping to finish the task and escape from the bowels of the station as quickly as possible.
A short time later, Anna wiggled out from under one of the larger machines and exhaled deeply. Relieved to have completed the work on one of the more difficult contraptions, she rolled over onto her back and relaxed for a moment before sitting up and looking over her body, spotting several places on her arms, legs and belly where lubricant had saturated her clothes.
“Well, that’s not coming out,” she grumbled to herself while shaking her head. Grasping the bottle of lubricant now coated with a thin layer of its contents, she stood and moved to the next machine a few dozen meters away.
Recognizing it as one of the secondary systems responsible for rotating the station, Anna closely examined the assembly of large, intimidating cogs and gears as they spun around their axles protruding from the apparatus’s outer casing. She had not noticed the high-pitched, almost ultrasonic, whine coming from within the menacing machine until she had stepped closer to it. The continuous pitch effortlessly pierced through the protection of her earplugs, and she felt the beginnings of a headache building behind her temples.
Anna knelt, set the lubricant on the floor, and began scrutinizing the machine to find the source of the mind-numbing sound. She pulled her flashlight from her belt to see inside the system’s inner workings. After locating a few trouble spots, she reached down for the lubricant while keeping her eyes on the area needing the most help. Her fingers, groping blindly for the handle, accidentally nudged it closer to the mechanism. In a fraction of a second, the lowest gear struck the bottle and sent it across the metal floor away from her.
“Damn it!” cried Anna as she watched it slide away from her grasp and under a nearby machine. Rushing after it, she dropped to the ground next to the obstructing system and shined her flashlight into the dark recesses underneath.
Despite its recent arrival, locating the bottle took longer than she expected. Blaming the excess grime that it picked up on its journey across the floor while she searched, Anna eventually found it and stretched her hand toward it. Despite her efforts, the bottle remained just out of her reach. Her futile attempts managed to land her hand in a patch of the same muck that now covered the desired bottle. Jerking a rag off her tool belt, she quickly cleaned her hand off in disgust.
As she stuffed the now soiled shop rag back into her belt, she had an idea. Turning her flashlight around on the floor, she grabbed the head and swept the handle under the machine, knocking the bottle back into the open.
As she started to push herself to her feet, Anna spotted a glint of silver a little further back that had been hidden by the bottle of lubricant. Directing the beam of her light to it, the reflection appeared to come from a metallic object. As it appeared to be covered in the same goop as the bottle of lubricant, she could not discern anything more about it. Curiosity got the better of her, so she used her flashlight again to knock the object within reach.
Anna lifted the item with her shop rag and examined it closer. She noticed that the mystery object was completely encrusted with muck that must have dripped over time onto it from the machine above and secured it to the floor until jarred free by the lubricant bottle. She looked over the object underneath the filth a little more and deduced that it must be an old tool of some sort, apparently lost by a previous caretaker. Unsure of its intended purpose, she wiped as much of the crud from it as she could before wrapping it with the rag and stashing it in her tool belt for later study.
* * * * *
Having finished her work for the day, Anna returned to the repair bay, withdrew the grime-covered object she had found earlier, and set it on the workbench. She gradually removed the rag from around it and stared at the unknown item for several seconds.
The item did not look like any tool with which Anna was accustomed. It looked to be about as long as her hand and roughly bullet-shaped with some thin rods protruding from its wide end. Though most of its outer shell was tainted with grime, she could see from a couple of fairly-clean spots that it was originally silver in color, but she could not be certain of the actual material used to construct it.
Retrieving a container of cleaning solvent and a clean shop rag from a nearby shelf, Anna sat on the stool in front of the workbench and carefully cleaned the filth from the item’s outer casing. After a couple of minutes, she realized that the cleaning job may take longer than she originally expected.
Anna spent the better part of an hour removing the gunk and tarnish from her new find. Glad to be done with the task, she lifted the device and examined it, turning it over in her hands while she did.
The object was indeed mysterious, even after being cleaned. Roughly 15 centimeters in length from the blunt tip of its bullet-shaped handle to the end of the settings dial at the other end from which half a dozen thin
rods extended out another half a dozen centimeters, its polished silver coating brilliantly reflected the room’s light, creating images on the wall that danced as she slowly rotated it. The tiny stems held what appeared to be small crystals at the ends and about halfway down their varying lengths. The ridged settings dial displayed no icons or writing of any kind.
“If I didn’t know better,” Anna mused aloud as she carefully turned the settings knob. “I would swear that this was some sort of vib . . .”
She cut her sentence short just as the dial reached its end and twisted off from the rest of the unit, bringing with it a long chassis filled with corroded circuitry. Anna quickly set the device back on the workbench, not wanting to risk getting the corrosive on her unprotected hands. Closer scrutiny revealed that the battery had leaked onto the device’s inner workings, rendering them inoperative.
Anna crossed her arms and contemplated the situation for a few seconds, speculating as to what purpose the piece of equipment may have served, before activating her wristcomp’s screen and searching through the station’s historical inventory. Several minutes later, she found it.
“A Mechgineer Tools HLC-42 Handheld Electromagnetic Sensor,” she mumbled as she leaned onto the counter and studied the rotating image on the holographic screen. “I’ve never heard of it or the company, for that matter.”
“Mechgineer Tools went out of business about 75 years ago,” the computer interrupted.
Startled, Anna flinched when it spoke, causing her to lose her track of thought. She turned around on the stool and reprimanded, “Don’t do that!”
“I am sorry, Anna. What did I do?”
“You startled me!”
“That was not my intent. I was only trying to . . .”
Waving away the response, Anna interjected, “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean to.
Alone on the Edge (The Chronicles of Anna Foster) Page 13