Embarkment 2577 (21 page)

The doorman was big. Good. Mika filled
in, “Come with us to the room, and we can go to the casino tomorrow.”

We hauled Adam out of the car, and he
tried to go to the casino anyway. His legs wouldn’t carry him, and he had
little choice but to follow when he hung between us. He protested when we sat
him down on the bed, but didn’t try to wrestle free. I said, “Stay there.”
Seconds later, he was engulfed in studying his shirt again.

Mika grimaced. “Will you be alright? I
can probably stay?”

“It’s so sweet of you to ask. He won’t
get far, but it would be great if you could come by in the morning.”

“Are you sure? It’s no trouble, really.”

I wasn’t sure at all, but I nodded
anyway. “If he regains his sense of balance and decides to go somewhere, a
whole army of us won’t be able to stop him.”

*****

Letting Mika leave was a mistake. As
soon as the door closed behind her, I realized how lonely I was. I wanted to
cry, or throw up, or both. Was this what a panic attack felt like?

“Can I get up now?”

Interesting. I had told him to stay. I
had not expected him to obey. I swallowed hard and tried to keep my voice
steady. “No. I want you to stay there for now.”

He sounded like a sulking child. “But I
want to go do something. I’ve been sitting here forever.”

I took a seat beside him. “We’ll do that
later. For now, I want you to run a sleep program. Can you do that for me?”

It was the only thing I could think of
to keep him still.

“Okay.”

A second later, he lay across the bed
with his feet still on the floor, deep in whatever void holds an android in
stand-by mode. I kissed his forehead and whispered, “We’ll fix this, I promise.
I don’t know how, but we’ll find a way to fix this.”

Finally, no one could see me anymore. I
curled up in a little ball and cried. If he didn’t snap out of this on his own,
he might be lost forever.

I didn’t notice drifting off to sleep,
but I must have. I woke from the first rays of sunshine peeking through the
blinds. Normally, Adam would wake if I wiggled a toe, but this morning he
didn’t stir when I got up. Panic time. What if he wasn’t just sleeping? What if
he was dead?

“Adam.” I ran a hand over his arm.
Nothing. “Adam, wake up.” I shook him. Still nothing. “Adam, please wake up. I
don’t know what to do without you. Please be okay and please wake up.”

He didn’t even twitch. I sank down on
the floor, pulled my knees up to my chin and pressed my back against the bed.
His neural network might be destroyed beyond repair. What would I do if he
never woke up again? I was alone, in a world that wasn’t mine. Unthinkable.
Unbearable. I had to try again. If he didn’t come to and my friends on the Bell
couldn’t fix him, I would have to track down his mother. That alternative
wasn’t high on my Christmas list, but I might have to do it anyway.

Deciding to act made me feel a little
better. I sat up on the edge of the bed again, grabbed his shoulders, and shook
him. “Adam. Adam!”

This time, he opened his eyes, only to
squeeze them shut again in an almost human fashion. “Why is it so bright in
here? Why are you crying?”

He sat up and squinted. “I’m
experiencing problems with calibrating my visual cortex. There is also an error
in the circuits controlling equilibrium of…”

I stopped him through patting him on the
shoulder. I needed a few moments to make sense of all the big words. “Let me
guess, the light is much too bright, all noises are much too loud, and the
world is swaying around you?”

He sounded distant when he answered,
“Correct. I’m clearly malfunctioning. I have a number of burned out memory
circuits and there are significant disturbances in my neural…”

I once again interrupted him. “You’re
hung over. You got drunk, or high, or something, and now you’re hung over. Adam,
I thought you died.”

“Oh. Well, that’s… How interesting. That’s
not supposed to be possible. I must initiate self-repairs and attempt to
restore my databases.”

At least he was talking properly again.
“English, please. Are you going to be okay?”

Meeting my eyes and lifting an eyebrow,
he looked almost like his normal self. “Yes.”

Someone knocked on the door and he
winced. “That’s so loud.”

“What colour is my hand? If you say
rainbow, I will cry.”

He groaned, sounding very human.

Mika found it all hilarious, and now
when I knew he’d be alright, it was pretty funny.

When Adam and I returned to the Bell, I
stared at the large ship. “I didn’t think I’d ever say this about a spaceship,
but it’s good to be home.”

I expected him to shrug it off, but he
reached over to brush his fingers over my cheek. “Yes and no.”

I had forgotten about all the routines,
rules, and night shifts. Suddenly the ship didn’t look all that good. “I’ll
miss this too. I don’t know how I’ll sleep without you.”

The speakers crackled to life, and a
voice said, “Welcome home, Commander. Permission to board.”

Adam landed smoothly as always. “You
know… Once the ship is fixed, maybe we can take some shore leave. Go somewhere,
just you and me.”

“That would be so great.”

He took my hand and kissed my fingers.

Anya waited in the docking bay. She came
running and threw her arms around me. “Alex, I have wonderful news. We’re
almost at GA22, and John will be there! Just a few more days.”

John? Oh yes, her pirate. I had forgotten
all about him. I whined over Adam working while she was separated from her love
for longer periods of time than I could imagine. Months? Years?

A quick grimace of disapproval flew over
my husband’s face. He probably didn’t like pirates… He still sounded amused
when he asked, “Can you guess what GA stands for?”

“No clue. Some mysterious Confederacy
code?”

Anya clapped her hands together and
bounced. “Ooh, the Golden Arches. I’ve heard they were all over in the old
days. Is it true?”

“I… what? Are you talking about
McDonalds?” Well, if they named starships after Taco Bell and KFC, why not name
a space station after McDonalds. “Do they have fish sandwiches?”

She frowned. “Do they have what?”

Adam smirked, shook his head, and
reached his hand out to me. It was time to go home.

*****

I ogled GA22 through the windows when we
arrived. I thought the Bell was big, but the station dwarfed our ship. I
couldn’t see any golden arches though. Seeing a huge M float in space would
have been fun.

The radio chirped, and Anya’s voice
said, “I’m on my way up to you. Meet me in the corridor, we’ll save some time.”

Save time for what? I loved all my
friends, but trying to follow their lines of thought sometimes made me feel
mentally challenged. “Sure… Okay…”

She came running through the corridor
when I stepped out the door. “Come on, Alex. Hurry up.”

“Where are we going?”

“To the station to meet John, of course.
Time’s a wastin’!”

“How can you leave the ship?”

She had trouble standing still while
waiting for the lift. “Oh, I transfer all of me to the mobile emitter. It’s a
little risky, I might lose data if I run low on power and don’t have another
computer to jump into, but I have spare chargers.”

The doors opened and revealed my husband
standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. He lifted an eyebrow when
Anya pulled me in. “Where are you two going?”

She sounded breathless. “Station.”

“You’re taking my wife to meet a pirate?
I’m coming too.”

“That’s fine, as long as you hurry up.”

He rolled his eyes and I flashed a
smile.

Anya and I walked arm in arm through the
long corridors of the station. Adam followed with a serene expression on his
face. I tried to seem unimpressed, but it was difficult when walking through an
indoor city.

We eventually reached a bar that would
have to be the right one; Anya squeezed my arm, squealed, and ran up to a man
hunched over it. Adam put a hand on my shoulder and sighed. “Why did it have to
be a pirate?”

“Oh, you hush, just be happy for her.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Only because you
say so.”

“That’s good enough. C’mon, let’s go say
hi.”

John held Anya in his arms and spun her
around. They were so cute together. Were Adam and I that cute?

When he put her down, she turned to us
with a million dollar smile. “Alex, Adam, this is my boyfriend, John. John,
meet my best friends.”

He smiled, but when his gaze wandered
over us, an expression of pure surprise flew over his face. I dismissed it: I
thought
he
looked and sounded familiar, but it had to be my imagination.
There was no way I could have met him anywhere.

John shook our hands. “Pleasure to meet
you.”

He led the way towards a booth with his
arm wrapped securely around Anya’s shoulders. Adam rolled his eyes and I nudged
him. “Play nice.”

My husband bent closer to me and
murmured, “You’ll owe me. After this I expect you to wear a sexy nurse suite
for a week.”

That was so unexpected I burst out
laughing. He looked very happy with himself.

It was a matter of minutes before the
Captain found us. He nodded to John and me. “I need to borrow my officers for a
minute.”

What could possibly be so important they
couldn’t settle it on the ship? Oh well, it might have something to do with the
repairs. I shrugged it off and looked at the man next to me. He played with his
glass.

John glanced over at the little Confederacy group and
slammed the drink. “I guess the kid turned out alright, huh? I’m glad to see he
has a good girl.”

Who? What? The Captain? John filled his glass and
chuckled at my blank face. “You don’t see it, do you? That’s good. If
you
don’t, no one else will either.”

If I didn’t see
what
? Warm hazel eyes evaluated
me from a handsome face. Hazel… Adam had hazel eyes. My imagination took a
few years off the picture, removed the beard and a couple of inches of hair.
“Oh my God!”

No wonder he looked familiar. How could I not have
seen it? John shook his head and answered with the dry humour I’ve come to know
so well in his son. “I don’t think God had anything to do with it.”

“So you’re… you’re… Does Anya know?”

“I don’t think so. I hope she never will. His mother
is an evil megalomaniac bitch.”

He was drunk already, and had problems with the word
megalomaniac, but it came out right after a couple of tries.

“John Smith isn’t even my real name. Have you ever
heard such a fucked up stereotype? But she never found me, so I guess it’s
working.”

Adam’s dad was Anya’s boyfriend, and no one knew. This
was a lot to take in at once. “Did you love her?”

That might not have been the most tactful question, it
just jumped out of my mouth, but John didn’t seem to mind. He frowned and
stared at his glass. “I thought so. Maybe. She was a beautiful woman. Now I’m
not so sure. Do you love my boy?”

He could probably see the answer on my face, but I
said it anyway. “Oh yes. He means the world to me.”

“Good. That’s good. And you’re Anya’s friend. I guess
all is well.”

I wanted to ask if he loved
her
, but by now, my
brain worked again and I was afraid to. John smirked, as if reading my mind.
“The first time I saw her, my life changed.”

We were out of time; Adam and Anya were on their way
back and I slid closer to John on the sofa to make room for my husband. Now
when I knew, it was impossible not to see they were copies of each other. How
did I miss it?

Anya sat down on John’s other side, and he threw his
arms around us. “My girls!”

We both giggled, and Adam lifted an eyebrow.

I didn’t notice how much time passed. John was funny,
and it was good to spend some time with a normal person not biased by the
Confederacy’s view on everything.

A stream of John’s acquaintances stopped by our table.
Most hurried away when they saw Adam’s uniform, but some stayed to chat. I was
especially fascinated with the Rinirions. At first, I thought the beautiful
women were twins. They had a vaguely human appearance, and funny enough, John
called them both Píreé. Why would parents give twins the same names too?

One of them went to the bar and the other to the dance
floor, and Adam leaned over a little against me. “People on their planet have
several bodies controlled by one mind.”

“What? No way.”

“Yes. Way.”

The words sounded funny coming from him, and I
giggled. It would be practical to have many bodies. One of me could nap while
another worked and a third one partied… “How far apart can they be and it
sill works?”