by M. D. Cooper
“That’d be a bit rich for my blood,” Tanis replied and noticed Liz giving her a funny look.
Liza reached a pair of oaken double doors with the number 1300-2 emblazoned on them, and smiled over her shoulder. “Here we are, Commander Richards, your suite.”
The doors swung open to admit them, and Tanis’s breath caught as she gazed at the sight before her.
The suite’s main room was over fifty meters across. In its center lay a seating area sunken into deep carpets so white they shone. The depression was filled with holo tables, several waiting automatons, and a hot tub, as well as what looked like a mud bath.
To the right, a large kitchen with automatons ready to prepare any meal took up another twenty meters of the suite, and to the left stood a well-stocked bar. The doors beyond led to what Tanis assumed were the private rooms.
The outer rim of the suite did not possess windows; instead it stretched out onto a wide balcony and an infinity pool that wrapped around the perimeter of the suite.
A diving board hung out over the end, and Tanis realized that thrill seekers could leap off into the lake a hundred meters below.
A bit tempting, she thought.
The luxury didn’t end there. The walls were draped with golden sheets that appeared to be laced with diamonds, and the roof was covered in the shimmering silver crystal—once found near the core of Mercury before the planet was mined away.
“Woooow,” Tanis finally managed to breathe the utterance. “This may be the most expensive room I’ve ever stepped foot in—excluding the engine room of a starship.”
“I have to admit,” Liz said as she set Tanis’s duffel down beside the door into the private rooms. “When I saw you dressed like that, I thought there must be some mistake, but Mr. Leonard seemed to think you were important.”
“Oh, I’m not.” Tanis shook her head. “An AI friend, on the other hand, well, she seems to have some spare credit.”
“You know AIs with this kind of money?” Liz asked.
“Uhh…no,” Liz stammered. “I guess I just never thought about it.”
“Umm…OK, well, you have the room, and the automatons can do whatever you need. I see you have a dinner reservation at 1800 hours; should I send an escort down to fetch you?”
“Dinner?” Tanis asked.
“Um, no, no escort will be necessary.”
“Very well.” Liz gave a winning smile before she walked to the door. Once there, she paused to incline her head politely as it closed.
Finally alone, Tanis let out a long sigh before sinking into one of the deep, white couches.
“Darla, I owe you big time. You really didn’t have to do this.”
“Gonna be real hard to get used to my quarters on the Kirby Jones after this,” Tanis said.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, smelling the pleasing scents from the flowers that filled vases throughout the room. It was intoxicatingly peaceful.
“Wait!” Tanis sat bolt upright and looked down at her clothes. “I can’t go to some ridiculously fancy restaurant in the resort! I don’t have anything to wear!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tanis asked. “I always thought I put together a very clean look.”
Tanis had to admit that the warm, bubbling water was inviting. She glanced at her duffle, knowing that no swimming clothes were within.
“Ah, what the hell, I’m the only one here,” she said, and quickly stripped, tossing her clothes on the sofa, where they were scooped up by one of the automatons and taken to a sanitizer.
Tanis lowered a toe into the hot tub’s churning water, testing its temperature, which felt perfect. She lowered her foot into the pool, and then walked down its shallow steps until she was up to her neck in the glorious warmth.
“Oh, I haven’t had a bath in over a year, Darla. This alone is almost too delicious to bear.”
Tanis pulled her hair out of the tight ponytail she typically kept it in and let it spread around her in the water. “I’m starting to get the feeling that you’re living vicariously through me.”
“A likely story,” Tanis murmured as she sat in front of a set of water jets, letting them massage her back.
Tanis spent fifteen minutes moving languidly through the water before she decided it was time to cool off and wake up. Rising from the hot tub, she accepted a towel from an automaton before walking to the infinity pool at the suite’s outer edge.
She dipped a toe in the crystal clear liquid, and found it to be cool, but not cold. She dropped the towel, which had completely dried her in the few seconds she’d worn it, and slid into the welcoming depths.
Tanis walked to the rim, where the water flowed over the edge and down toward the lake below, collecting in lazily drifting streams by ES fields.
Aside from the fact that it appeared as though there was absolutely nothing between her and the cold vacuum of space, the view of the lake below was astounding.
A ring of beaches and boardwalks, with restaurants dotting the scene, surrounded the water, which was still and clear enough that stars, planets, and space traffic could be seen through the lake’s clear bottom.
The effect made it seem as though the beaches were floating in space, and the people swimming were drifting languidly amongst the stars.
“I could get used to this,” Tanis whispered as she settled on the submerged ledge that ran around the perimeter of the infinity pool, closed her eyes, and drifted into a light sleep.
NEON
STELLAR DATE: 01.17.4084 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Suite 1300-2, Grand Éire Resort
REGION: Vesta, Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
Tanis scowled at the wardrobe as though it were an enemy combatant.
“Seriously, Darla? Neon?”
“You know…after mentioning that you’d like a human body so you can be your own dress-up doll, I’m starting to worry that I’m the prototype.”
“I think Colonel Higgs has it in for me,” Tanis mumbled as she picked up the neon pink dress, noting that it subtly changed in hue and texture under her t
ouch. “This has to be at least the third ring of hell.”
“I’m not tense,” Tanis shot back. “I’m just…ready.”
Several pithy comebacks came to mind, but Tanis bit them back as she researched the styles of the wealthy sorts that frequented the Grand Éire Resort.
I suppose she’s right. If I show up wearing something more muted, I’ll either look like I’m in my last decades, or I’ll stick out like a stubbed toe.
“Fine.” Tanis uttered the word of agreement like it was a dire threat as she pulled down the dress’s fastener and stepped into the garment.
It was a snug fit, so Tanis hiked it up onto her thighs before sliding her arms into the three-quarter sleeves and raising her hands above her head to pull the dress into position.
Why do I get the giggly AI? Tanis asked herself, careful to keep her thoughts private. Aloud, she retorted, “I do not. This is how you put it on.”
Tanis rolled her eyes, and was readying a snarky response when Darla giggled again.
“Stars, you are messing with me,” Tanis groaned.
“Your human?”
Tanis had to admit that she’d heard plenty of humans refer to AIs with possessive pronouns. Darla seemed legitimately put out about the issue, so she decided to let it drop.
She gestured to one of the suite’s servitors, and it approached to pull the fastener up the dress’s back. Tanis arranged her breasts in the cups, then whistled at her image in the holomirror.
“Well…yeah…but I was whistling at how high this hem is. I’m going to have to sit with my legs crossed the entire meal—I’ll probably be tugging it down every time I breathe too deeply.”
Tanis spun the holomirror, looking at herself from all sides. She had to admit that the image portrayed looked fantastic, but it didn’t feel like her. She was a commander in the Terran Space Force, not some wealthy socialite.
“I—” she began to say, when a servitor pulled something off one of the hangers.
Tanis felt a bit bad. The AI seemed genuinely distraught that her human wasn’t going to play along. She reached for the white cloth the servitor held, and saw that it was a pair of shimmering white, high-waisted leggings.
Without saying a word, Tanis pulled the leggings on and then slipped her feet into the low boots. She turned, ready to leave, but saw a servitor holding out the hoop earrings.
A comment about anachronistic styles was on her lips, but she held back, allowing the servitor to attach the gleaming white circles to her earlobes.
“We’re not going to go through this every time I go out, are we?” Tanis asked, failing to hold back the annoyance in her voice.
“I love the mutual respect we’re starting off with. You said there was one more thing?”
“So I can chew on the ends when my AI is causing me undue stress.”
Tanis could tell that she’d best subject herself to the remainder of Darla’s ministrations, or she’d not hear the end of it anytime soon.
She sat on a stool and let the servitor pull her hair free and brush it out before styling it to sweep back and fall to her shoulders.
The robotic assistant also added a touch of color to Tanis’s lips and cheeks, which she bore with surprisingly good grace—at least she thought so.
Once the servitor rolled back, Tanis stood.
“Do I have your permission to leave the suite now?” she asked Darla.
Tanis shook her head, chuckling as she walked out of the walk-in wardrobe and left the private bedroom.
“You realize that we’ll be spending more of our years together on starships where I’ll just be wearing a uniform, right?”
Darla made a groaning sound.
“Having your way with me? That’s a bit suggestive.”
Tanis wondered for a moment if her AI really was trying to live vicariously through her, or if perhaps Darla actually got some sort of non-organic pleasure from dressing and toying with a human.
It was an aspect of being paired with an AI she’d never considered: that the being in her head may intentionally mess with her.
Tanis considered the implications and hoped she could both trust Darla not to be subversive in any way, and trust herself to pick up on what the additional sentience in her head was up to.
Surely the TSF carefully screens the AIs they embed with humans, Tanis thought as she walked to her duffel and opened it up.
With a flourish, Tanis pulled out her lightwand. “This!”
“I stay safe by staying armed,” Tanis replied, looking down at her outfit for a good place to secret the lightwand. When turned off, the hilt was only eight centimeters long, and two in diameter, but the dress and leggings would show it no matter where she tucked it.
The boots were low slung, and Tanis knew the wand would be visible or uncomfortable—or both—if she placed it there. Under her breasts would merely be uncomfortable.
She tucked it in place, gave herself a quick once-over, and walked to her suite’s door. As she crossed the threshold, she resolved to enjoy herself, in spite of the gleaming pink monstrosity Darla had confined her in.
DINNER AND A SHOW
STELLAR DATE: 01.17.4084 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Chez Maison, Grand Éire Resort
REGION: Vesta, Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
As Tanis walked down the corridor to the Chez Maison restaurant on the hotel’s 812th floor, she caught sight of herself in a mirrored pillar.
If it wasn’t for the fact that her ass cheeks practically shone as she walked, Tanis would have been impressed as well. Instead, she felt more than a little embarrassed that her rear
end looked like a pair of alternating strobe lights.
OK…it actually is rather impressive nanotech. Probably expensive, too, Tanis mused.
If Tanis hadn’t already been concentrating on her walk—trying to keep her hips from swaying overmuch in the heels and clinging fabric—the sum may have caused her to stumble.
Cheeks reddening, Tanis found herself wondering how much more the AI in her head was paid than she was. A part of her wanted to ask, but the rest of her really didn’t want to know the answer. It was becoming abundantly clear that Darla was more than a little well-off.
If she had a body, she’d probably swim in pools of hard currency.
I should get her to take me weapons shopping. That would be a good use of her fortunes. Not dresses that make my ass look like polished glass.
She reached the entrance to Chez Maison, marked by a wide portal set amidst a double row of colonnades. A man in a simple but well-cut black suit stood on one side, a holodisplay floating in the air before him.
His only nod to the prevailing fashions was a neon-green scarf tied around his neck and tucked into the front of his jacket.
Tanis thought it gave a rather unpleasant sickly cast to his face, but with his upturned expression, it was hard to say whether or not he would have looked any better without it.
“Ah, Madam Richards. It is most excellent to have you with us this evening,” he said as Tanis approached, still not looking her directly in the eyes. “I have your table prepared, if you would just follow me.”
“Thank you very much,” she replied.
The man passed under the portal, and Tanis followed, noting that for being in such a posh resort, the Chez Maison was almost austere. The floors were a deep blue, and the tables black, barely visible in the dim lighting, except for where the glasses and silverware gleamed.