by Nathan Jones
Her gaze drifted towards the sun sinking towards the horizon, and Tycho took that as the cue that they were finished in the gymnasium. Sure enough Callista had already called Bruce to bring a ground car around to pick them up. Which he was grateful for; leisurely walks through her gardens lost some of their appeal when he was sweaty and tired from his tumbling.
Back at the manor they parted ways to get cleaned up, and Bruce led him to a facilities room to walk through a sonic cleanser. The companion was waiting to take Tycho's cleaner but not quite spotless clothes for disposal, handing him a set of brand new ones similar to what he usually wore that fit him perfectly. Eva had likely passed along his measurements and fashion preferences.
“Miss Ensom will be waiting in her sunroom for dinner when you've dressed,” Bruce said. “I'll return to lead you shortly, or the house AI can give you directions.”
It didn't take long for Tycho to dress and make his way through the manor, following the AI's directions to the sunroom but also taking the time to look around the rooms he passed through. There were a few rooms that strongly reflected the passions she'd already shown him, such as the art exhibits and galleries and surprisingly large libraries. But even for the more mundane rooms with simpler functions the décor seemed to fit Callista's love of art, including some pieces he was surprised to find had her name inscribed on the descriptive plaques as the artist.
She was decent, by the looks of it seeming to prefer the contextual hyperbole style that had grown in popularity over the last few decades. Tycho paused to admire a few of her more inventive pieces, dawdling long enough that Bruce found him again and informed him dinner was ready.
“Sorry for making you wait,” he told Callista as he followed her companion into the sunroom. Unlike his own solarium it was a curving, flowing place with tinted windows to provide muted colors, fountains and indoor streams meandering over a polished stone floor, and a few decent sized trees whose leaves filtered the light of the setting sun. “I got caught up in admiring your tasteful decorations.”
“I suppose that makes up for the fact that I still haven't given you a tour of my home.” His host had changed into a subdued but elegant evening gown of dark blue, her hair hanging loose like a shimmering waterfall that reflected the fountains and trees around them. “But plenty of time for that, assuming you'd like to visit again.”
“You know I'd love to.”
She seemed pleased by the response as she turned and motioned to a simple table situated near one of the window walls. It was laid with a full roast cooked with root vegetables that filled the air with the delicious scent of savory spices.
They settled into their chairs and Bruce served them, the silence companionable as they began their meal. Although after a while Callista looked up at him with mild curiosity. “So I saw you're looking for other humans to meet in person,” she said in a conversational tone, mock pouting. “Am I not proving good company?”
In spite of her bantering demeanor Tycho had a feeling she was at least partly serious. “Only the best,” he assured her. “You know I've been searching for what's missing in my life, and the only thing I can think of is other humans. So I want to visit as many as possible, get the whole experience. I'm convinced other people can offer something more, something better, than we get from just companions.”
“Well if you're talking about sex I can assure you companions provide a better experience in every way.” The silvery-haired woman winked. “Believe me, I know from extensive research.”
He fought a blush at the implications, although it wasn't anything he hadn't already been aware of. “I'm not sure that's the experience I'm looking for with humans. Or at least not just the superficial gratification.”
Callista reached across the table and trailed her fingers idly across his arm, raising goosebumps on his skin. “Good, because if it was I'm afraid you'd be disappointed.”
That stood to reason. Companions were specifically designed to give their humans exactly what they wanted and needed. No human could boast such specialization when it came to another human. And Tycho was inclined to believe the woman knew what she was talking about.
Even so this news irked him slightly. It was at least one avenue where humans couldn't provide him with whatever it was he was looking for. Perhaps it was that annoyance that sharpened his tone. “If humans are an inferior experience then why do you still seek us out?”
The silvery-haired woman looked slightly abashed. “I didn't mean to insult you or get your spirits down,” she said quietly. She took his hand, squeezing it gently. Her fingers were cooler than Eva's, and slightly clammy.
He squeezed back, a bit guilty at his harsh response. “You didn't. Maybe I just didn't respond well to the news.”
“Shooting the messenger and all that.” She laughed softly and released his hand. “Anyway humans do provide something companions don't: novelty. Each experience with a human is unique. And not in the way companions keep things spicy with variation, either. Each one is like your first time all over again, with all the uncertainty. There's also a lot more fumbling and trying to guess on both people's parts than there ever is with a companion.” She winked again. “It's actually really fun once you learn to ignore the awkwardness.”
Tycho felt his face flushing again at the unbidden mental image of fumbling with Callista. It did sound incredibly awkward, but no less enticing for all that.
He cleared his throat and looked away before his imagination got away with him. “Anyway, back to our previous topic of conversation. I'm just confused as to why I'm the only person on the entire allnet who currently wants to meet other people in person for anything besides sex.”
Thankfully Callista also let the uncomfortable subject drop and took his comment seriously, frowning as she thought it over for a surprising amount of time. “Do you think it's an issue of trust?” she finally asked.
He shrugged dismissively. “Well that seems fairly obvious. With real humans there's always the risk of an unpleasant encounter you'd never have with companions. Maybe even violence.”
The silvery-haired woman waved that away. “No no no. I don't think anyone's really afraid of getting punched in the face or anything like that. Our companions would prevent that sort of thing. I suppose the chance of getting into an argument and being shouted at or called names might deter a lot of people, but I think for most the reason goes much deeper.”
Tycho leaned forward, eager to explore this topic; she might've stumbled on some of the very answers he was looking for. “What do you think it is?”
Callista hesitated. “The only person most of us ever meet in real life is our custodial parent,” she finally answered. “Assuming either of them want custody of us and we aren't shipped off to be raised by companions from birth.” For some reason she sounded bitter as she said that. “But even if a parent does want us, they almost always send us away before we reach the age of ten. Usually much younger than that.”
Realization dawned. “Trust,” Tycho said. “You think people aren't afraid of meeting in person because it might be unpleasant, but for the exact opposite reason?”
She nodded. “What if the meeting turns out well? Very well, even? What if you enjoy spending time with that person, like them, even come to love them? Except the only other person you ever knew abandoned you for their own selfish reasons when you needed them most, and what would stop this person from doing the same?”
Tycho hadn't even considered that his own aversion to meeting other people in person, at least before the life-changing events of his excursion to the Southern Preserve, might've been because of the deep hurt of his mother sending him away that he'd buried all these years until it was nearly forgotten.
“You may be onto something,” he said slowly.
Callista gave him a wan smile. “Well I've talked it over extensively with Bruce.”
That seemed to hint that the woman bore her own deep hurt over her experiences with her custodial parent, which he supposed
was no surprise. It seemed strange in a way that companions did their utmost to protect humans from the slightest physical or emotional pain, and yet they offered no protection against the pain of being sent away by a loved one.
Perhaps there were some things not even companions could protect them from. Sharp edges of the real world cruelly piercing the sensory deprivation bubble they built around their humans.
They finished their meal in silence, and Bruce brought out lava cakes for dessert. Callista hurried with hers, then pushed it away only half eaten and dabbed daintily at her lips with a napkin before standing. “Sorry to rush, but I wanted you to see the gardens. They're beautiful this time of evening.”
Tycho glanced out the window at the fading light. “How are they beautiful if it's too dark to see them?”
The silvery-haired woman laughed easily, taking his hand and pulling him out of his seat and towards a glass door in the glass wall. “It's like art, darling. Some beauty is enhanced when the details are obscured.”
He saw the truth of that almost immediately once they'd left the lights of the manor behind, and the first proof of it was Callista herself: in the darkness her metallic silver hair turned to obsidian, gleaming down her back and twinkling with starlight and brief flashes from the glowing insects that drifted through the nighttime garden.
Tycho felt a sudden urge to run his fingers through that inky waterfall, see if he could feel the starlight that seemed to shine from within her. But such an openly romantic gesture at this point in their relationship seemed too premature, so he restrained himself.
Instead he simply enjoyed the feel of her soft hand in his as they meandered along the darkened paths, his host showing no sign of having trouble seeing where they were going. The perfection of the garden around them had given way to dark outlines, some no more than muted blurs and some surprisingly sharp and distinct.
Callista was right that there was a different sort of beauty to the sight. He had to admit it might've frightened him, the potential for danger lurking out there unseen waiting to pounce igniting his most primal instincts for fear. But his new friend at his side and the knowledge that their companions and other AI watched over them kept such fears at bay.
“Where are we-” he began, but she gently cut him off.
“Shh. We're not going anywhere so much as experiencing this. But listen, they're about to start.”
Tycho was about to ask who “they” were, then recalled she'd asked him to be quiet. In any case he didn't have to wait more than a few minutes before he heard a distant sound, faint and forlorn, quickly fading then sounding again, and again, like clockwork. It didn't seem to be mechanical, probably something coming from a living creature, an insect of some sort, but he didn't recognize it.
The insect continued its lonely call until another joined it. Then several more in quick succession, until in no time at all the night was filled with dozens of them, their irritating noises shivering their way into his ears until he wanted to cover them to escape the racket.
Tycho squinted into the night. “What is that?”
Callista kept listening for a few more moments, a whimsical smile barely visible on her softened features in the darkness. “Crickets,” she murmured.
That's what he'd thought; he'd heard the sounds the Homeworld insect made in fantasy worlds during full immersion dives, part of making nighttime settings seem more authentic. And maybe they did, but that didn't stop the little things from annoying the blazes out of him.
“Pests?” he asked, surprised the maintenance bots hadn't dealt with them.
The silvery-haired woman laughed lightly and looped an arm through his. “Sometimes. The bots repair most of the damage they do without too much trouble, and it's worth it.”
Tycho stared at her in surprise. “Wait, you have them on your estate on purpose?”
Callista shrugged a bit defensively. “Of course. They're chirping to find a mate, you know, calling out into the darkness for someone to be with them. A companion through the uncertainties of night. There's nothing more romantic than wandering these paths in the dark with the sound of crickets chirping all around you.”
That did sound awfully romantic, although the sentiment was hard to appreciate with that obnoxious blanket of noise pushing down on him. He shook his head. “Annoying's the word I'd use. I didn't realize fantasy worlds modulate the sound to make it less irritating.”
She pulled her arm back, pouting. “Imagine we're on Homeworld, a hundred thousand years ago. Lovers strolling arm in arm through a peaceful garden, serenaded by the music of crickets as they bask in the warm glow of their feelings for each other. That's why I so dearly love walking arm in arm with Bruce along these paths at this time of night.”
“Except we're not exactly lovers,” Tycho pointed out. “And didn't you tell me most of your intimate visits with other humans were pretty much just a bit of sex and then they left again? Have you ever shown this to a real human before?”
The silvery-haired woman threw up her hands. “Actually no, I haven't! As it turns out I like to indulge in romantic notions that I've never had the courage to let anyone else in on. Maybe because, I don't know, I was afraid they'd mock me for them!”
Tycho felt a surge of guilt. Callista was opening up to him, exactly what he'd hoped would happen between them, and he was doing his best to make her regret it. “It's a charming idea,” he said apologetically.
“Yes, it is,” Callista said tightly. “With all that talk you kept filling my ears with about things being better with real humans, I wanted to try out some of my most cherished experiences with you. See if you might be right about there being more to human interaction than what we get from companions.”
His guilt doubled. Not only had she wanted to share something precious with him, but she was taking his search for what was missing in their lives just as seriously as he was and had been trying to join him in it. “I just wasn't expecting it.”
“Yeah well in case you haven't noticed we humans have our own tastes. We don't cater to each other like companions do.” Callista clapped sharply, and with jarring suddenness the crickets stopped.
He spun to look through the darkness, feeling a moment of alarm. “You didn't just, um, have them eradicated, did you?”
His host laughed, although there was an edge to her amusement. “Audio dampening field, set to the specific frequency range of cricket chirps.” She gave him a sheepish smile, little more than a flash of teeth in the dark. “I get annoyed by it too sometimes.”
An awkward silence fell between them as they continued walking. After a few moments Tycho tentatively looped her arm through his again. “I kind of liked the setting you described,” he said hesitantly. “It makes the chirping more, well, romantic like you said.”
Callista looked up with a hopeful smile. “You mean that?” He nodded solemnly, and her smile widened to light up her face. She clapped again and the crickets' music resumed.
After they'd strolled arm in arm for a few minutes she hugged his elbow a bit closer and rested her head on his shoulder. Tycho stiffened, unsure how to respond to the gesture, but when she didn't say anything he chose not to either, and simply enjoyed the moment.
“Look at those stars,” she murmured after a while.
He followed her gaze up to the night sky, an endless expanse of tiny twinkling lights clustered randomly so some places seemed dark and empty, and others brilliant and crowded. “They look so close together,” he observed. “Hard to believe the incomprehensibly vast distances between most of them.”
Callista nodded against his shoulder. “Like humans.”
Tycho blinked, having trouble following this shift in thought. “Humans?”
“So many billions of us, all within easy reach on the allnet to give the illusion of being close together. But in reality we're scattered across our estates like these stars, and the odds of us ever meeting are equally remote.”
“So what are we?” he teased. “A stellar col
lision?”
He saw the flash of her teeth as she smiled up at him again, her voice becoming a throaty purr. “I prefer to think of us as a stellar merger.”
Tycho coughed to clear a suddenly tight throat, but couldn't think of anything to say. They continued on in silence.
All too soon their nighttime walk ended as the route Callista had led him on took him by his waiting ship. “Unless you want to stay the night,” she murmured as she reluctantly stepped away from him.
Tycho was sorely tempted to, and could think of no rational reason why he should refuse. But there was some fear, perhaps linked to his newly remembered pain at being sent away by his custodial parent like Callista had spoken of earlier, that held him back.
That warned him that if he rushed with this fragile, precious thing he was creating with this incredible woman then he might stumble and irreparably break it.
“Plenty of time, as you said,” he answered quietly. “Thank you for the enchanting evening, Calli. I hope to see you again soon.”
He turned to ascend the ramp, but before he'd gone a step the silvery-haired woman darted forward and caught his shoulder, turning him back to face her. Tycho gave her a puzzled look, but his question faded away unspoken when she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down towards her, lifting her face to passionately press her lips to his.
He stood stunned, not having the presence of mind to return either her embrace or the kiss. His thoughts swirled with the sensations of her soft lips parted slightly against his, her hands in his hair, her lithe body pressed against him.
Then he finally recovered from his surprise and kissed her back, his own lips parting slightly. He enfolded her in his arms and ran his fingers through her long hair, luxuriating in its silky softness, then parted the inky waterfall to rest his hands against her back, the smooth texture of her evening dress and the warm flesh beneath it, drawing her closer.
After a few moments that lasted an eternity Callista broke the kiss and stepped back. “Plenty of time,” she agreed breathlessly. “The sooner the better.”