“Okay,” Lana said absently, staring at the bed. It didn't look particularly comfortable, and since she felt like she'd just woken up she didn't think she should be tired. But she was; her eyelids kept drooping, and it was hard to stay on her feet.
“I'll want to monitor your diet for the next few days, make sure you're getting the proper nutrition. And I would strongly recommend regular moderate exercise . . . at least every other day, but if more often then with sufficient breaks to let your body recover. Studies have shown that for people confined to an enclosed space, such as even the largest starships, a sense of being closed in, even feeling claustrophobic, is common. Exercise will help with that, as will regular forays into open full immersion environments.”
“Okay,” she said again, more impatiently. She was tired enough to barely even be curious about what full immersion was; she could ask after she woke up.
The companion continued speaking in spite of the subtle hint to leave. “Once you've rested and eaten I'll give you a proper tour of the ship, show you where to find the exercise room, the full immersion hookups, and also point out where everything else is. When you wake up you can page me with that intercom near the door, by pushing this button here and saying my name.”
“Thank you.” Lana waited, hoping Ali would leave soon. She had a lot of things to absorb about what had happened to her, the situation she was in, and at the moment none of this talk about exercise or full immersion seemed important.
The companion rested an understanding hand on her shoulder. “I can see you're ready to be alone, but one last thing . . . I know it may seem silly, but it's important for your physical and mental health that you notify me if you're having trouble sleeping, suffering a loss of appetite, or experiencing any other small discomforts or inconveniences that may be indicators of a more serious issue.”
“Why would that be silly?” Lana asked, furrowing her brow.
The companion paused, then smiled ruefully. “Many humans hold the stubborn belief that complaining about issues they consider minor, even to their medical practitioners, is a sign of weakness. It's not a wholly unreasonable perspective, evolutionarily speaking, but it can be carried too far, to a person's detriment.”
She patted Lana's shoulder, then thankfully finally left. “Good night, Lana. I'll see you in the morning.”
Glad to finally be alone, she plopped down on the bed and awkwardly pulled the blanket up around her, getting slightly tangled in a sheet; she knew what they were, and they seemed simple enough, but to her embarrassment, it took her a few seconds to figure out how to use them.
The bed turned out to be surprisingly comfortable, if a little small. She wondered how someone taller like Aiden put up with it, then wondered if being captain meant he had a better bed. Then she wondered what made her think that would be the case and finally spent a few minutes morosely probing at the empty hole where she felt like her memories should be.
Ali had said her memory loss was permanent. Did that mean there was no way to ever get them back? She had to assume that if the empathetic companion hadn't even bothered to bring it up, there wasn't much hope of good news there. That this was just how her life was now, and she'd have to get used to it.
Lana was still sunk in those gloomy thoughts when she finally drifted off to sleep.
* * * * *
After being genuinely asleep for several minutes, long enough to confirm she would probably be left alone for the night, the Blank Slate abruptly sat up. With swift, efficient movements she pulled down the shelf that provided the cabin's desk surface and activated its terminal. Her fingers flew across the keys with expert familiarity, face blank and eyes moving swiftly over the information scrolling across the display.
She worked mechanically, with no indication of stopping anytime soon. But no matter how long her efforts took, when she woke in the morning she'd assume she'd had a full night's rest, and would have no memory of any of this.
Nor would she leave behind any trace of what she'd been doing.
* * * * *
It didn't take long to settle back into routine after a battle. In fact, with androids and the gunner taking care of most maintenance, there was surprisingly little to do whenever they weren't taking enemy fire.
It was almost boring. Especially when Aiden was impatiently waiting for Ali to finish getting their new passenger settled in so they could get to their post-battle routine.
Barix was currently plotting them through a series of rift jumps, so small that Aiden barely felt the mind-bending effects as they temporarily left spacetime and then returned to a different place. The Ishivi would be at that until his shift ended several hours from now. Then in most instances, assuming Ali wasn't busy, she'd take over for him.
Tonight, though, since Aiden expected to still be occupied with his adult companion at that time, Belix would take over for her brother, showing up on the bridge for one of her rare visits when she knew Aiden wouldn't be there.
Aiden had a feeling the engines officer would be plotting rifts for a full shift for once, so he and Ali could make up for lost time while she'd been busy with the ship's new guest instead of attending to him. It had been a surprisingly jarring break from routine, one he could've done without.
Not that the pathetic taking of the Fleetfoot had been particularly stressful.
Thankfully, Ali showed up on the bridge not long at all after Aiden left her and Lana in
