Deadly Betrayal (7 page)

When I woke up the next morning, Adam didn’t move. He didn't even stir as I slipped out of his arms and left the bed.

Odd.

Maybe he was still purging his databases, whatever that meant. We had been together for many years, but I only had a dim understanding of how he worked. It had never seemed like a problem; I didn’t know how a human worked either.

I went about my morning, took a shower, and found fresh clothes. Adam still didn’t wake up.

“Adam.”

I ran a hand over his shoulder.

Nothing.

I shook him.

Still nothing.

Swallowing hard did little to keep brewing panic in check.

He
had
told me he wasn’t fully functional. He told me he needed to sleep, or power down, or whatever his data cleaning stage should be called. Maybe it hadn’t been enough.

Had I re-found him just to lose him after one night?

I would have to ask John for help.

Fantastic. This might not exactly be my fault, but I felt like I broke him. I was supposed to take care of him, it was the one thing John ever asked me to do, and I broke him.

I rested my hand on his shoulder and said, “I’ll be right back” just in case he could hear me.

John’s door slid open when I came close to it. I hadn’t even considered what time it might be and that he might still be sleeping, but he sat in a chair with his feet up, reading a book.

He had probably stayed up like that all night, making sure to be awake in case I needed help. So many did so much for me and I had so little to give back.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think he’s dead.”

“Again?” He came over to me, put a hand on my back, and pushed towards my room. Once there, he looked at Adam and frowned. “What did you do to him? He was fine yesterday.”

“I didn’t do anything. He said he was going to purge his databases and that he needed new memory circuits because they were radiation damaged.”

When John didn’t answer, I added, “Can you fix him?”

“I don’t have circuits for him stored in the pantry, Hon.”

I gave him a blank look. Adam was his son. At some point in time, he built androids. Was it
that
farfetched to think he might have spare parts?

“You’ve fixed him before.”

He looked at me and sighed. “Yes. On the Bell, with Jia’Lyn. You know I like to tinker. Cheryl and I, it was a team effort.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t look so disheartened. We’ll take him back to the Bell. Jia’Lyn and I will get him going again.”

“I hope so.”

Way to go, sounding mousy.

Going back to the Bell meant meeting Anya. It would be more awkward for him than for me, but still awkward. She would know
everything
that happened and everything that almost happened
.
She’d know before we were even on the ship.

John shook me out of my thoughts. “You said radiation damage. That might have ruined his power cells.”

Power was good. Necessary.

“Can we check that?”

“Not in here.”

At least Adam looked peaceful.

Maybe he used up his last ounces of energy in getting to us.

John put a hand on my shoulder. “Go to sickbay and get a gurney. We might as well run some tests.”

When I stepped into the corridor I couldn’t remember where sickbay was. Then, my feet took over and led me in the right direction.

I met John when I headed back; he must have tired of waiting for me. He carried Adam hauled over his shoulder.

I knew he was strong, but I didn’t know he was
that
strong.

John dropped Adam on the gurney and chatted as we walked. It was his way to keep me calm and distracted, and I was grateful.

“Did you learn anything more from him?”

“He mentioned Debana. I think she teleported him out, but I don’t know how. Or why. Then she hid him in a cleaning closet, and I think he was there for a long time. Months.”

“Debana? Orange hair and color-changing eyes? She brews some foul booze.”

That’s not what I expected him to say.

John opened a hatch in Adam’s head to attach a data transfer cable, but paused before plugging it in. “Oh,”

I had done my best not to look. Seeing cables stick out of my husband’s head made me queasy at the best of times. Now I went over to take a little peek, more because I felt obliged to than because I wanted to see.

“I don’t remember it looking like that.”

The circuits were charred, as if he’d had a blaze in his head. Some appeared to have melted.

He said he had reached the limit of self-repairs and needed replacement circuits. It must have been the understatement of the century.

“That’s because it has never
looked like this.”

John grimaced and attached the cord. Then, he pulled Adam’s shirt up, opened a hatch on his hip I didn’t know existed, and attached a multimeter.

“Only one power cell still works and it’s down to three percent. I can replace these, but we’re not equipped to handle the other damage. It will require a lot of work and a lot of parts.”

“I wonder why Debana didn’t do something about it.”

“She’s a great chemist. I doubt she knows much about cybernetics.”

Fair enough.

Staring at Adam’s open head made the components blur together.

John’s hands squeezed my shoulders. “You’re pale. Sit down.”

“It makes sense.”

“I know, or I wouldn’t tell you to do it. Sit.”

Stop messing with me.

“No… I mean, when we met, Adam made me a part of his base programming.”

John pushed me down on the chair. “His prime directive would have been to reach you. That explains why he didn’t bother with anyone on the Bell.”

When everything else fell apart, getting to me would have been the only thing important to him. He would have searched for me until he succeeded or died trying. I decided to believe him just in time.

John grabbed a handful of fresh power cells and pressed them into slots in Adam’s side.

“They look so small. Are you sure they’re sufficient?”

“For him, normal use, these could last a thousand years. They’re made to be backup power for starships.”

Please, please, please let him wake up and be okay.

It would be too horrible if he made it this far and died on the finish line.

Adam’s eyes popped open seconds after attaching the new power source. He blinked and looked around. “My processes were unexpectedly terminated due to a malfunction in my power grid.”

John stifled laughter into a cough. “We know, son. I’ll be right back. Don’t touch that cord. Both of you.”

As soon as the door closed behind John, Adam said, “I’m sorry if I scared you. I thought I would have time to recharge. I miscalculated.”

Miscalculated.

He had never miscalculated anything in his life.

On the other hand, his head had never been a charred mess before either. Was this equivalent to a human with brain damage?

“Scared me? I thought you died. Again.”

He didn’t answer.

“Is that why you missed the dinner too?”

“Yes. My remaining power cell glitched. You were gone when I woke up.”

It was a miracle he woke up at all. He could have died right there and I would never have known.

He must have had opportunities to replace the cells along the way, but as long as he thought he could keep going it wouldn’t have been a priority.

John returned with an apologetic look on his face. “I thought I had some parts, but we must have used them for something.”

His ship had been through a lot just during the few years I’d known him.

Adam looked at his fingers and waited in silence as John unplugged him from the computer. He fulfilled his mission and reached me, and now he probably didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

“I am currently operating on twenty-eight percent of optimal capability.”

Better than zero percent, but definitely not good.

John sighed. “I’m starving. Let’s go have breakfast.”

“I like making breakfast. Can I make breakfast for you?”

I hadn’t expected him to have an opinion on food, particularly not one that was adorable. I reached out my hand to him.

“I think we would both like that very much. Let’s do it together.”

*****

Breakfast was always one of my favorite times a day.

Breakfast with John was great, because he was funny and had a huge appetite for both food and life. Breakfast with Adam was also great, but in another way. He was introspective and could spend extended periods of time examining food, dismantling a croissant and tasting some of the flakes.

Breakfast with both of them was a rare treat even when life was easy. At a time like this it was fantastic.

John had brought fresh fruit, coffee, and milk from the station. It tasted wonderful and my family was back together. Only Anya was missing. Hopefully, she’d forgive us.

That
was too much and too complicated to linger on. Life right here
was complicated enough, thank you very much. Returning to our friends and old way of life might not even be possible.

Adam’s voice returned me to the present. “You two have been traveling alone for a long time.”

“That we have.” John sounded calm as ever.

“Mind telling me why?”

My all too handsome father in law shrugged. “We’re family. Should I bring your shuttle aboard?”

Were we still docked with the station?

Adam said, “You can. I disabled the tracking chips.”

“Someone might still spot it, but I’ll stow it away well.”

John left and I looked down on my plate. Adam watched his fingers again.

I said, “If you ever die again I will kill you.”

He glanced up with a smile. “Sounds fair.”

Adam definitely wasn’t himself.

By now neither John nor I doubted it was him, but he had unnerving gaps in his memory and struggled with concepts that normally wouldn’t pose a problem. One minute he seemed perfectly normal and the next he reminded me of a lost puppy.

Any sign of affection made him look both happy and relieved, and I made sure to be extra gentle.

John said, “He follows you because you’re a part of his base programming.”

I had never bothered finding out what that really meant. What a model wife.

John sipped his beer and smirked at my blank stare. “It means he put information about you in his hardcoded routines. He knows how long his legs are and how to walk. He knows English and how to talk. He knows how hard he can hold something without breaking it. All the basic instructions that make him work.”

I still didn’t get it.

My father in law’s voice was almost as patient as Adam’s used to be when I didn’t understand something that was self-evident to him.

“See it like this. You breathe without thinking about it. You can move without having to think about
how
you do it. You
think
without thinking about how you do it. It’s the same for him. He stored his information about you in the same way, amongst all the other basic stuff he needs to function. That means you’re the last thing he’ll forget, and the first he’ll remember.”

“Oh.”

That was a more romantic gesture than I could ever have imagined. I had no idea.

John went to get another beer and offered me one, but I shook my head. I needed to think, and drinking wouldn’t make me any smarter.

“If we were able to replace the parts, would he return to normal?”

For all I knew, the information could be gone forever. Maybe he’d have to relearn a lifetime of knowledge, and remake a lifetime of memories.

“I don’t know. He
should
be able to rebuild the databases, but it would take time.”

This was a good time to bring up my current main concern. “Do you think it’s wise to bring him back to the Bell like this?”

John leaned back in the chair. “Since you’re asking I guess the right answer is no.”

“I was just thinking, Debana hid him for a reason.”

“What do you want to do? Leave him like this?”

He didn’t sound accusing, more curious.

“No, of course not.”

Poor Adam needed spare parts, just like I had needed medical attention so many times and he made sure I would get it. The Bell had spare parts and engineering geniuses, but if it were that easy, Debana would have taken him to Engineering instead of hiding him in a closet. We wanted to fix him, not get him killed again.

John looked thoughtful. “I could probably replace the parts, we just don’t have any. I’m not even sure the Bell carries everything we need.”

That was definitely a problem. Adam was unique. We couldn’t go to Android-Shack and buy spare gadgets.

“There is one place…” He sounded reluctant.

“What?”

“I’m just thinking, there’s one place where we might be able to get what he needs.”

As averse as he sounded, the place must be awful.

“You look like you don’t want to go there.”

“I certainly do not.”

The puzzle finally came together in my mind. He was talking about the planet where Adam and Eve were built. Cheryl made two androids, and there might be parts there for more.

It sounded like a good idea to me and I was curious to see John’s home and Adam’s birthplace. I could probably learn a lot about my two favorite people in the world from visiting.

“From what I have heard it’s a desolate planet. The place is probably empty.”

He gave a slight shrug. “We don’t know that. I haven’t been there for over a decade, there might be vindictive androids everywhere.”

Adam and Eve might have siblings. Why didn’t I ever think of that?

I was useless. Adam would protect me, but he wasn’t in shape to think of any brilliant plans. If we went there, everything would be up to John. As if asking him to return to the place where everything went wrong wasn’t enough.

John said, “It’s not far from here, should just be a couple of days. I’ll set the course.”

*****

John kept Adam busy with fabricated ship repairs most of the day, but when evening turned into night, all three of us sat in the lounge.

I yawned. “I need to go to bed.”

John smiled. “Good night, honey.”

This was going to be weird. It didn’t matter how I turned, it would be weird. Last night things just happened, not that
much
happened, but now it involved a conscious decision.

The sofa that had been my bed for so long,
our
bed for so long, had to return to being a sofa. I needed to stop thinking about this as my bedroom.

I headed for the corridor. Adam didn’t move.

John said, “Go with her.”

I waited by the door. To be honest, I didn’t want either of them to follow me, there was too much to figure out and I could do so better in an empty room, but Adam
was
my husband, and he was so damaged. He had gone through so much to return to us, to
me
.

He crossed the floor with a couple of long steps. “May I come with you?”

“Of course. Come.”

I felt like I spoke to a pet and the thought made me feel guilty. John’s mouth twitched and he clearly had a hard time suppressing laughter, so maybe he heard it too. He shook his head as he met my eyes, and allowed himself to grin when Adam couldn’t see him.

Once we reached the relative privacy of the corridor I said, “I’m so sorry you had to be alone for all that time. If I had known, I would have come for you.”

Being locked in a closet alone, without even being able to move, sounded awful beyond belief.

“I know you would have. I wish I could have reached you. You thought I was dead and that’s worse than being alone and broken.”

Broken. What a cold word for such a warm and caring person. I reached my hand out to him and felt a wave of relief when he took it.

“How do you feel?”

“I feel…” He frowned. “Down to twenty-six percent. I know there are many things I
should
know and care about, but I don’t. I try not to think about it.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I hugged him and he held me carefully. This, at least, remained.

Once we reached my room he stretched out on the bed with all his clothes on, just like the night before. Probably more because he didn’t have anywhere else to go than out of a wish to lie down.

When did life become this surreal? Had it always been and I just didn’t notice?

I sat down with my back to him and lifted my hair to the side. “Would you please unzip me?”

“I don’t know how to do that.”

I glanced back to meet his eyes. He didn’t look like he was joking.

“You know how to fly a spaceship and you were able to track us across the galaxy, but you don’t how to open a zipper?”

“I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologize or be sorry. I’m just surprised.”

I squiggled and managed to reach to pull it down. I got the dress
on,
so getting it off wasn’t impossible, just tricky. When I pulled it over my head, Adam stared at my underwear. Or maybe at the skin surrounding the underwear.

Flattering, but a bit unnerving.

“You’ve seen this before.
Many
times.”

“Sure.” He didn’t sound convinced.

“Adam, focus. Look here.”

My skin and underwear were soon forgotten for the miracle of a zipper. He pulled it up and down with an intrigued look on his face.

Great.

The smartest man I ever met had become easier to amuse than a toddler.

If anything, his mental faculties seemed to decline now when he no longer had a goal to focus on. I didn’t have to be a math genius to know that twenty-six percent functionality was less than twenty-eight.

I pulled on my favorite nightie, took the dress away from him and tossed it over a chair, and stretched out next to him.

“This is weird.”

Adam sighed. “I know. You’re used to sleeping with
him.
”

It was a statement of a fact. How did he know?

“Well, sleeping with him, not
sleeping
with him. He saved my life.”

“I know.”

“You were dead. For a long time”

“I know.”

He stared up at the ceiling. What could I say? Nothing would make things better.

“Can I… Would it be okay if…”

“Of course.” The time of miracles wasn’t over; he understood my incoherent attempts at forming a sentence, stretched out his arm, and invited me to come closer. I hurried to curl up with my head on his shoulder before he could change his mind.

“This is nice. I’ve missed this.”

He ran his free hand over my hair. “I did too.”

I nudged myself as close as I could possibly come and draped my arm over his chest. In a way, this was the first time I truly relaxed for almost a year.

Adam’s voice whispering, “I love you” wooed me to sleep.

*****

A bad dream woke me in the middle of the night and for a moment imagined horrors lingered with me. I needed several seconds to recognize Adam’s shoulder under my head and his arms holding me.

I whispered his name and nudged myself closer.

“Nightmare?”

“M-hm.”

He ran a hand over my hair and the gentle touch scattered the last echoes of the dream.

“I didn’t think you’d still be here.” I could count the times he spent a full night with me.

“I’m here.”

I pressed myself closer to him and he kissed my forehead. “I know bad dreams have traditionally been more on John’s work description than mine, but I really want the job if you’d be willing to consider me for the position.”

It was true, John had stayed with me many times Adam couldn’t or wouldn’t, but his words were still funny enough to make me chuckle.

“You got it. You don’t even have to interview.”

With his arms around me it was a matter of seconds before I went back to sleep. He was there. We might not be perfectly alright, but we were safe.

The next time I woke it was from Adam freeing himself from me.

“Where are you going?” My mumble barely even made sense to myself.

“To make you breakfast.”

Why? I wasn’t even awake. Was this some form of android joke?

“Can it wait? It feels really early.”

An uncertain expression flew over his face. “I don’t know. I think I always do it at this time, but I don’t know why.”

Oh. It must be 6:02 AM.

“Lie down again and I’ll tell you.”

He obeyed.

I said, “What do you remember from the Bell?”

“It’s a spaceship. We live there, and I’m fairly sure I work there.”

Fairly sure? He knew about it when he arrived.

Not good.

Where were we now? Twenty-four percent? Twenty-two?

I pushed the thought to the side.

“You do, and you’re very good at it. You command the ship every night. Sometimes it’s from midnight to six, but more often from ten in the evening to six in the morning. When you’re done, you come home and wake me up with breakfast. That’s probably why you think it’s supposed to happen at six.”

Unless the ship was on fire, John would
not
be awake at six in the morning, and I had adapted to his rhythm just as I once adapted to Adam’s.

“So you don’t want it?”

“Maybe you could stay here for a bit first. We can…”
snuggle
“talk. Or go back to sleep.”

“You know I don’t sleep.” This time he sounded amused.

“Yeah, well,
I
sleep.”

I curled up next to him just like my body’s memory claimed it should be. He held me and for a moment, everything felt just like it used to be.

My body pointed out there were other fun things to be done with a husband than just cuddling, but my brain told it to be quiet. It had waited this long and could wait a little longer.

Adam’s hand wandering over my back revealed he thought along the same lines, and my body considered it
fantastic
.

No harm could come from kissing him, right?

Making love would increase the voltage in his neural net and overload it. In his current state it would probably kill him.