Errant Contact

by T. Michael Ford

  “How long have you been watching me?” I asked.

  She turned away from the desk in a corner and graced me with a dazzling smile. “I am always watching you, Kodo. Technically, I have been watching you for over a thousand years, and I don’t plan to stop now. And with our current situation, my job is more important than ever. So you best get used to it, because I’m the first thing you’re going to see when you wake up for the rest of your life.” The seriousness in her voice at the end there made it perfectly clear that she was not joking around one bit, and it was a little creepy. I let it pass, though, in order to gaze at her a little longer. “Now, come on, our guests will be up soon and you have much to do today. You know what? I’ll even be a good girl and tell the dispenser to make something to help with that hangover of yours. How does that sound?”

  “Amazing, actually.” At this point, I would do almost anything to get some pain meds or something to help me get through all this.

  “Good, now get dressed and get your butt to the dining hall.” I watched and waited until she left the room before I got out of the bed. I know it doesn’t really matter, but I still felt a little self-conscious about changing in front of a woman. Not that it mattered anyway; these rooms are filled with cameras and monitoring systems as are almost all places on this ship. She would simply have to look if she wanted to. Another creepy thought, now that I think about it. Why did I put that in the ship designs again?

  I hurriedly got dressed and went out into the hallway. No one else seemed to be out of their rooms yet, but I could hear some sounds coming from Max’s room; sounded like the fire alarm actually. Well, I’m sure Kalaya is making sure that his morning goes just as well as his night probably went. I entered the dining room and found Kalaya sitting, legs crossed attractively, on one of the high stools along the wall, back from the main table we used last night.

  Except now, everything was clean and the dishes were gone; definitely not the mess I remembered leaving this place in. She motioned to the steaming cup of nectar that was being poured by the dispenser and then to the stool next to her. I carefully picked up the hot mug and perched myself next to her as she demurely took a sip from her own cup.

  We sat there silently for a few moments, just enjoying our morning Zaarel bark tea fix, but the sounds from Max’s room were getting louder and louder.

  “Set off his fire alarm, huh?”

  Without batting an innocent eye, she took another sip and looked happily down the hallway. “Yep, he smashed the bed’s alarm so I had to come up with something. Right now, he’s trying to find the source of the noise to destroy with his crowbar. Too bad it’s coming from everywhere.”

  I took another sip as I considered ordering myself some breakfast. She must have slipped something in my tea as my head was clearing and I felt much better than I had any right to. “And all night?”

  “Chirping sound every three minutes or so from a random location.”

  “Oh, that’s just evil.”

  She turned from the door and grinned at me. “I know, evil makes an interesting hobby, don’t you think?”

  I nearly snorted the tea out my nose. “Hobby? More like an obsession, are we forgetting that I worked with you for several years already?”

  “Oh, I remember, trust me. You were always a tough one to crack, always in complete control of your emotions. I never truly found out what button to push to ‘get your goat’ as the humans would say.”

  I silently prayed that she never did. “And if I recall, your button-pushing caused three space dock masters to go insane.” She waved that off as if it didn’t matter.

  “Who knew they were all so weak-minded? I consider it a civic duty to expose leadership that could crack under a high-pressure assignment like the one we had. Those three would never have held up past the keel-laying stage, much less actual construction. Besides, only one was admitted for psyche rehabilitation; the other two were just removed under the heading of ‘unfit for further duty.' Totally not my fault,” she asserted.

  “That’s not what the tribunals’ findings claimed. You were brought up on charges, what was it, five times? Three of them petitions for dismissal from the project,” I chuckled.

  She opened her mouth to say something undoubtedly snarky and then closed it to rethink her reply. Finally, she turned to me and pinned me with those blue eyes. “Yes, and each of those five times, you stood up in front of the Assessor Generals and defended me. Once you even threatened to walk off the project altogether if I was released. Why? I always thought you considered me a nuisance.”

  I shook my head. “Those incidents were all early in the project; I knew there was some risk involved in hiring a green recruit. However, I needed you. Initially, I was astounded that someone with your abilities would even agree to sign on for a job like this. It was like the best possible gift I could ever imagine, well worth enduring a few personality peccadilloes. Besides, you eventually mellowed out once the workload picked up and you got used to my crew. Now, I can’t imagine life on board the Aurora without you.”

  Her mug shattered on the floor as, squealing, she wrapped her arms around my neck and happily pressed her lips to my cheek. At that instant, Drik walked through the doorway. For a moment, he looked confused, as if he was contemplating backing up and leaving us to our privacy. Finally, he stepped forward and cleared his throat.

  “Umm, I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

  Kalaya sat back in her chair, the mug of tea reforming in her hand. But I doubt Drik noticed, as he was obviously caught up in staring at her outfit as I had been. To his credit, he recovered more quickly than I did.

  “You must be Kalaya.” He held out his hand as he did with me, but she simply smiled and stared blankly at his hand in confusion like the actress she was. “Right, you don’t shake hands. It’s a human thing, I suppose.”

  “I’m glad you understand, I’ll be sure to remember what to do next time,” she said brightly, flashing him a megawatt smile. Remember what to do? She’s the one who told me what to do. I chuckled to myself as she glanced in an annoyed fashion at me. Drik didn’t seem to observe that, but he did notice what we were both holding. “Please tell me that’s coffee.”

  “Nope, and no, you can’t drink it either.” This was in no way good for humans.

  “Poisonous?” he asked.

  “Not exactly,” answered Kalaya. “But it is incompatible with your digestive systems. You would be sick for weeks; but on the bright side, you wouldn’t be sleepy anymore. Projectile vomiting profusely, yes, but totally awake!”

  He sighed, “Freeze-dried coffee, it is. That is a real bummer. That stuff smells great and I would love a cup.” He started unpacking some of his gear still stowed on the far side of the room. Kalaya and I wandered over and watched from a safe distance as he made two cups of a foul-smelling brown liquid.

  He looked up and noticed our disgusted expressions. He looked from us to the liquid and back to us again. “Yeah, I know it smells terrible; but just trust me, the real stuff is excellent. Unfortunately, this ersatz freeze-dried crap is all we get on these missions. Sadly, it tastes worse than it smells.”

  “Then why do you drink it?”

  “Well…it starts out as an acquired taste, but then you soon find that you’re addicted to its charms and can’t go a morning without it. And now we’re stuck drinking this swill because it’s the closest thing we can get.”

  “That’s disgusting,” we said in unison.

  Chapter 10

  Laree

  I have to admit that I slept quite well last night; the bed was fantastic. And to think I would have had to sleep in a bedroll on a cold rock somewhere had we not met Kodo. I looked around and found what had awakened me. A tinkling bell sounded from the bed right under my pillow but stopped once I tried to find where it was coming from; alien alarm clock, I guess.

  I was mildly surprised when I didn’t hear anything from Kalaya as I was getting dressed, but I suppose she can’t be stal
king my room all the time. Even in my bedroom, I could hear noise coming from Max’s room across the hall so the others must already be up and about.

  When I entered the hallway, the noise was louder than before. I tried the door to his room, but it wouldn’t open. The word “locked” flashed across the key pad. Well, I guess I’m not going in there without Kodo to open it. Moving on, I went back to the dining hall and was very surprised. Three people were waiting for me, and one was a woman!

  The woman turned as I entered as if she knew I was walking in right at that moment. The first thing I noticed were her blue eyes that seemed to glow behind her short blonde hair. I found her outfit to be a bit odd; it looked like something very old-fashioned. Definitely not something I would ever wear, but I have to admit she wore the hell out of it, and she definitely knew it. Her boots added a few inches to her height, making her slightly taller than me.

  She smiled warmly and in a very friendly manner. “Good morning, Laree. I take it you slept well?” Her voice was a dead giveaway; this was definitely Kodo’s mysterious partner. I have to admit that she did not look at all like I thought she would. Then again, how could I imagine a person’s appearance just by hearing their voice?

  “Yes, I had a excellent night, thank you.”

  “We were about to sit down for a meal; would you care to join us?” she asked, motioning to the table we had used last night.

  “That would be wonderful, thank you. But might I ask what is going on with my brother’s room? I can’t open the door.”

  She smiled again. “Ah, yes, nothing to worry about. The ship is just experiencing some unavoidable bugs after the system reset I performed last night. The fire suppression system was one of the affected systems; naturally some rooms are experiencing false alarms and lockdowns. The alarm will automatically time out after a half hour and end the lockdown. The best thing to do is just wait for everything to run its course,” she said, leaving the stool and sitting down at the table.

  I eyed her suspiciously. Is that even a possibility? I mean, I’m no mechanic or anything, but that didn’t sound right. But nothing about this ship is readily explainable; did that make it untrue? However, there was one thing I was sure of, she believed it was the truth; no one was that good of an actress…were they?

  We sat down at the table that already had a few plates of food set out. I looked them over and selected a tasty-looking bun that smelled of cinnamon. Before I took a bite, I looked at Kalaya. “Is this safe for me to eat?” I asked, a little intimidated by the beauty next to me.

  She nodded. “Of course. I took the liberty of erasing almost all of the menu items that could cause you distress. Once Kodo moves back to his regular room, I’ll delete the rest of them. But for now, everything on the table is safe except for our drinks,” she said with a nod to her mug. “This would be very bad for you.”

  “Death?”

  “No, not death, but you might wish for it afterward.” Kodo and Drik joined us at the table and Drik passed me a mug of our own freeze-dried coffee. I sighed sorrowfully as I held the warm drink; this stuff was nasty.

  “So tell us about yourself, Kalaya,” asked Drik. “Kodo is obviously an engineer or technician, but what it your area of responsibility?”

  “Well, I used to be in charge of what you would call distribution at the shipyard where the Aurora was constructed. I handled the ordering and delivery of materials and labor. I made sure that everyone was where they needed to be at all times and that they had the tools and supplies they required to do their jobs.”

  “Sounds like a challenging job.”

  “Oh, it was, but the hard part was doing the same thing for the three thousand shipwrights and drones working on this ship at any given time; got to be quite the handful.” Ok, now that’s actually very impressive. “But now my role has changed quite a bit. Now I run…well, basically everything on this ship since there are only two of us left.”

  I suppose they couldn’t exactly have well-defined roles right now. I don’t know how well I would be able to handle a situation like that. I like the way my life is, always knowing where I am and where I need to go. These two don’t have that sense of security anymore; they don’t even have the ability to go back to the way things were. Drik interrupted my thoughts with another question.

  “How is it you found yourself on board the ship, instead of staying on at the shipyard?”

  Kalaya glanced at Kodo then back at Drik and explained, “Our society encourages its people to work on projects that inspire them. It’s unusual for anyone to do the same job for their entire career. Rather, we see a void and move to fill it. I could have stayed at my old position at the shipyard certainly, but after investing so much of myself in her construction, I felt that I couldn’t be separated from the Aurora and her mission. Besides, the guys on board were all cute!”

  Kodo ordered more food as Kalaya turned back to the door as if someone was about to walk in. “Lockdown has reset,” she said absently. Moments later, Max stumbled into the room in his pink jumpsuit; the poor kid looked exhausted. Thankfully, he wasn’t yelling like last time, but he still was a sad sight.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Drik questioned, looking him up and down. “You didn’t drink near as much last night as the rest of us.”

  “I didn’t get a wink of sleep! Not a wink! There’s some kind of vicious space cricket in there or something; the stupid thing just wouldn’t shut up. I tried to find it, but it kept moving from one spot to another chirping! Then that goddamn fire alarm went off for the last half hour...whoa! Who is she?” he said, eyeing Kalaya with interest.

  Crap! Now we’re going to have to deal with this again. Every time he runs into a pretty girl, he always tries to win her over with his charm. Unfortunately, my brother doesn’t have any charm, so it never turns out well.

  I leaned over and whispered to Kalaya, “Watch yourself around him, he considers himself quite the ladies’ man.”

  She beamed at the concept, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth so she could whisper back sotto voice. “Then he will be sorely disappointed.” I should have known, a woman like her is way, way out of his league and probably wouldn’t even give a fool like him the time of day. I love my brother to death, but dealing with women is not his forte.

  Max was fully awake now. He even walked up to Kodo and slapped him on the back. “Why didn’t you tell me your partner was such a beautiful woman? I have a new respect for you, man.”

  “Save the brown-nosing till later, Maxwell. Just sit down and eat so these two can get to work; I’m sure they both have plenty to do today,” I interjected.

  The five of us sat down and enjoyed our meal with simple conversation. By that, I mean the three of us asked Kalaya questions as Kodo observed silently, always listening, always analyzing. I found myself constantly watching him. Are the two of them an item or are they just friends? However, I gained nothing from him; his emotions were hidden behind his calculating mind. Kalaya, on the other hand, was slightly easier to read; she always watched him. Even when she was fully engaged in conversation, her attention was on him. Her behavior towards him was more like that of a guardian than a lover. Like he was going to be in danger at any moment.

  After everyone had their fill, I wanted to make myself useful. So far, all we had done was intrude on these two for the past day and that’s not how I wished to spend the next couple of weeks. But what could I do to help? I’m a scientist, not a welder or mechanic that they probably needed. And everything science-related was probably so far over my head that I would be more of a burden than an asset. I looked around and saw that the room was a bit of a mess. Well, I might not like it, but I could help make sure we didn’t leave it too untidy. I started picking up a few of the plates and other dishes, bringing them over to the sink on the far wall, or at least what I thought was a sink.

  “Laree, dear, don’t worry about all that, I’ll clean everything up later,” Kalaya spoke kindly from the other side of the room
.

  “No, I’ll take care of it. You cleaned up last night; the least I can do is to help today.” She looked like she was going to object but stopped just short, seemingly giving up. When I got to her empty coffee cup, the only thing she had actually used, I couldn’t pick it up. My fingers simply passed right through the handle with only a tingle.

  Drik noticed, and was equally baffled. I looked over at Kalaya, but she just smiled shyly at us. Kodo didn’t help either as he just nodded in smug confirmation. What does this even mean?

  “Um, Kalaya, mind telling me why I can’t touch your coffee mug?”

  “It’s decaf? No? Didn’t think so,” she sighed. She silently walked over to me and picked up the cup with no trouble at all. She presented it to me in the palm of her hand, and then it suddenly vanished in a blink of an eye.

  “How did you…?”

  “Shh,” she said, with a finger to her lips. She held her other hand out to me as if she wanted me to take it. Cautiously, I reached out and touched her outstretched hand. I was stunned to see that my hand passed right through hers as it did with the mug. She smiled at my disbelief, even giggling at me.

  “You’re a hologram,” Drik said in awe from beside me.

  “Don’t be silly, of course I’m not.” Well, that’s a relief. “I’m just using a hologram.” Wait, what?

  “So you’re using a hologram because you’re on the other end of the ship?”

  “Yes and no. Yes, I am at the other end of the ship, but that is not the reason I’m using a hologram.”

  “You’re not human, are you?” asked Drik.

  “No, and neither is Kodo. But I know what you mean; and again, no, I am not.”

  “You’re artificial intelligence?”