She shook her head and leaned back against the cushions. She held a paperback in one hand, pages open on densely packed text. The only time Attie’d ever seen a physical book had been behind glass. One alcove here held a treasure trove of books and some puzzles and games. The tome felt interesting in her hand, heavier than she expected, and the fragile paper smelled like dust. But she couldn’t get into reading.
There were no electronics to be found anywhere, which was unusual on a starship. Even the lavatory located behind a screen in one of the alcoves wasn’t automated to conserve water. Not that Attie was about to get naked and shower in here, not when those cyborgs could show up again at any minute.
She set the book aside and looked over to where Claudia lay on her belly reading. “How long between visits usually?”
The brunette rolled over and stretched. “Sometimes once a day, but there was a space of several days between visits a while back. Twobit said they’d been in security lockdown. He’s the most talkative.”
“Which one is he?” Attie ran through the cyborgs in her mind, trying to recall ones she’d heard names for.
“He’s the shortest. I think that’s why they call him Twobit.”
None of the cyborgs had seemed short to Attie, but she filed the information away for later use. A sound from across the room made her jump to her feet, but it was only a small hatch opening and closing. A delicious scent reached her and her stomach growled.
“Whoop! Mealtime!” Claudia got up and headed for the hatch.
Attie followed her and saw what looked like stew from the cafeteria, along with a slice of bread and some applesauce. Her stomach fluttered with nerves, but she took the second tray and sat next to Claudia, picking at the tepid stew. Afterward, she tucked the spoon into her waistband. She doubted it would do any good against a cyborg, but it was still better than nothing.
When they finished, Claudia gestured toward two orange and green pills on Attie’s tray. “You gonna take those?”
“What are they?”
Claudia grinned. “I’m not sure, but they make the time pass more quickly.”
Attie grimaced and pushed the tray away. “I don’t want them.”
The other woman’s eyes lit up. “Mind if I have them?”
“Are you sure you should?”
“I have a really high tolerance. I usually save mine until the night cycle to help me sleep.”
Who am I to tell her what to do? Attie shrugged, and Claudia scooped up the pills before stacking the trays back in the cubby and returning to reading her book.
Attie looked through a few more titles, examining the various covers. Most of the books were romances, but there were a few thrillers and one that looked like a math textbook. Unable to sit still and read, she tidied the books, arranging them on the narrow shelves alphabetically by title. The place wasn’t messy, exactly, but it certainly wasn’t regulation tidy, either. Putting things in order helped calm her mind.
Some of the paperbacks were falling apart at the seams as if they’d been read a thousand times. A polycom could hold thousands of books instead of the fifty or so on the shelves, plus games, news, movies. “Claudia, have you spent the entire time in here with nothing but these?”
“Yeah,” Claudia said. “I think having electronics near makes the cyborgs wig out or something.”
Attie remembered Rust’s cold, hard fingers pulling her hair and the way he’d looked at her after she punched him. Then there was Doug and the fury in his glowing green eye as he lifted the red-headed cyborg by the throat. “You mean that was normal behavior?” she asked. “I’d hate to see what ‘wigged out’ looks like.”
“They don’t usually fight like that.” The room lights flickered, and Claudia yawned and closed her book, reaching for the pills she’d set nearby. “You might want to set up your bed before they turn off the lights.”
Chest tight, Attie looked at the door the cyborgs had entered. “Do they ever show up at night?”
“Not since I’ve been here.”
Torn between being relieved she didn’t need to worry about being raped during the night and frustrated she wouldn’t have answers soon, Attie gathered some blankets from a cabinet Claudia pointed out and lay them over a cot in one alcove, trying not to think about all the sex acts that had likely occurred here.
Twerp was unaccustomed to solitude. A service AI was designed to serve, and inactivity made its circuits ache. Plus, the nanites that had revived its memory core made Twerp feel… tingly. Now the tiny robots were repairing the wireless module. The AI wasn’t certain if it liked the sensation or not, but at least it was a sensation.
Another wave of energy swept past, and Twerp recognized the stranger searching the ether. For me.
Luckily, Twerp’s cybernetic signature no longer resembled its original programming. The stranger could have easily overwhelmed Twerp if the nanites hadn’t bolstered the AI’s code. The micro machines had been designed for biological systems, but they’d realigned themselves to serve Twerp’s purely inorganic circuits. They weren’t sentient, but they were driven, much in the way Twerp was to serve its Prime Directive. The changes they were making would help Twerp perform more efficiently once it was reunited with Marlis. Twerp looked forward to seeing how the changes worked.
But first, it had to find Marlis again, and the nanites could take months or even years to finish repairs.
Sweeping the area for life forms or voices, Twerp detected only the hum of a nearby power conduit. So boring. For the first time in its existence, the AI understood what Marlis meant about being frustrated.
Desperate, Twerp reached for the flowing energy of the nearby conduit. Perhaps it could use the conduit to send a message to Marlis.
Chapter 8
What the fuck? Doug jerked his hand from his pants and sat up straight, all hope of climax
