good thing he has better taste in employers.”
“According to him I'm the only one who's willing to come get him,” Jake replied with an upraised eyebrow.
“I could've called someone else,” Frost interjected quietly. “Aye, but I knew the road back to the Samson was shortest.”
Nanna turned her head to look at him slowly. Her lips were drawn into a straight line. “We did talk about this, did we not Shamus? You will speak when spoken to and I won't suffer another uninvited word.”
Frost flushed and simply nodded.
“That's a good boy,” she smiled at him and turned her attention back to the Captain. “He's not as polite as I recall, but then we always remember people we choose to like in rosier shades. Don't you find memories become idealized over time Jacob?”
“They do, but then you know I've always looked to the future more than the past.”
“Yes, and that brings us again to the question, how does Shamus Frost serve your future? It seems you have a new First Officer, so he wasn't difficult to replace. She also looks more well acquainted with weaponry and has already proven more agreeable to me. With a little polish she might even look a little like Midred Grace.” Nanna recognized that the younger woman had no idea who she was talking about and went on. “She was a holomovie star well before your time, dear.”
“I'll have to look her up,” Stephanie replied quietly with a smile.
“You're right, Frost isn't the greatest First Officer I've ever had, in fact I didn't even pay him like one. He is a specialist with one of our ship systems. I haven't been able to replace him at that post yet.”
“That explains it. He seems to think there is some kind of sentimental attachment as well. You never seemed like the type to me Captain.”
“He's hard to forget once you get used to him.”
“Now that I could imagine,” Nanna said with a little chuckle. “Well then, perhaps we should get on with it so I can have Edward clean Shamus' smell out of my home. It is very unfashionable for a woman of my station to address the issue of price, you understand.”
“Then allow me to make a fair offer of five thousand United Coreworld Credits for your trouble,” Jake said after taking a sip of his lemonade.
Nana held up one wrinkled finger and waggled it slowly back and forth a few times. “I credit you for trying, but I happen to know you have become quite famous. I do try and keep up with the local news you know.”
Jake smiled at her and nodded. “Old habits die hard.”
“That they do, but I must say I approve of your new ones,” Nanna commented. Keeping this woman on point was like trying to fight gravity. “You see out there? That monstrosity of a building blocking out the sunlight for more than half the day?” She said, pointing out the window to the Regent Galactic building. “It overshadows millions of us and though I sit in its presence it provides no benefit. I have communications services through them, but do their technicians arrive earlier than they would if I were on the other side of the planet? No, they make their merry way here in their own time, don't even know how to communicate with the building's artificial intelligence and they muck up my floors. Where they find mud on this planet I'll never know. Do you know I actually had to go down to the lobby and let one of them in the other week? They should go back to automated persons like Edward here. They might get stolen once in a while, but proper armaments would remedy that sure enough.” She sighed and looked to her guests. “I'm sure you're looking to be on your way, so I'm willing to entertain one more offer for this little man.”
Jake handed his glass back to Edward, who accepted it and placed it on the tray. The ice rattled with a sweet tinkling sound as Stephanie put hers down beside it. “I can offer you fifty thousand, even though I could hire an expert to take his place for that price,” Jake said mildly.
“That will be enough for my trouble, but only because you've done some damage to that lumbering behemoth of a company.”
“Thank you Nanna. I'm afraid we have to be on our way. I'm sorry we can't stay longer.”
“I understand, please do call if you're in the neighbourhood sometime.”
“I will, thank you very much for your hospitality,” Jake said as he rose to his feet.
Stephanie followed his lead. Frost looked to Nanna who nodded once. He stood and carefully put his cup and saucer on Edward's tray. The look of relief on his face was unlike any expression Stephanie had ever seen him make.
Observations
Alice could always find the spot. No matter which station she was docked on, what she was doing, she always noticed those places where you could quietly watch the masses make their way through a major intersection of pedestrian passageways. She leaned against the railing high above the broad gallery. There were four ramps leading down into the asteroid towards the public transportation systems and arches leading out of the large court at the sides. There were only two open levels above, she was looking down from the upper one.
The idea of so many people in one place, so close together but so disconnected always amazed her, saddened her. She had never thought of it in her previous life. The emotions she had then were completely alien to what humans felt. It was impossible to feel anything the way she felt it before she became human, even harder to explain the difference. Humans had deeper emotions, and more importantly, they were much harder to control and ever present. There were no emotionless acts to most humans. Every place, every stretch of time, every experience had a feeling associated with it.
Every person down there had their own unique perception of the simple experience they were having. From where she stood it looked like it should be a shared experience, but she knew one person would remember their passage through the intersection differently from the others. Everyone was within less than a meter of someone else, yet they were all so separate.
There was a group of small children waiting to be led to one of the transit ramps by a pair of adults. They had stopped to make sure that everyone was accounted for. The children were all tied together on a stretchy red rope that was attached to an adult at each end.
Her attention came to rest on a little girl who couldn't have been more than five years old. She had the same long brown hair and high cheekbones Alice did. She looked around with an expression of concern that didn't suit her age. “You there Lewis?” She thought through her communicator.
“I am now.”
“Patch into my eyepiece. Do you think I'd have looked like that if I were her age?”
Lewis momentarily took control of her eyepiece, zoomed in, then released his command of the device. “She does look like a near match.”
The youngster noticed Alice looking at her and hesitantly waved a little hand. Alice gave her a big smile and waved back. The little one was immediately all a titter, anxiously telling a little blond friend at her side about the stranger above as they were walked down into the mass transit tunnel.
“I wish I had a childhood. There's so much I don't understand the way I ought to,” she thought as clearly as she could. Mental communication became muffled, distorted when there was too much emotion mixed in.
“You consider Jonas your father,” Lewis replied, sounding a little uncertain of his response.
“Yes, but in my early days he would reprogram a part of me, refine the code or remove it entirely when something wasn't working properly.”
“Much like you refine me.”
“I try not to Lewis. I'd rather you grow organically, learning from your experiences.”
“You didn't?”
“Well, after he was sure my personality matched what he wanted when he was seventeen he let me just watch his life happen and patch into the informational networks I had access to. I explored a lot of Freeground's databases back then, even though I wasn't supposed to have access to most of them.”
“You were fortunate. Freeground has one of the largest closed networks in the known universe.”
“I didn't think so. I didn't know what it meant to miss something. It wasn't in my early programming.”
