Embarkment 2577 (17 page)

He sounded
calm enough, but there was no mercy in his usually warm eyes. Adam’s fingers
closed around Enoch’s throat. Good. Give him a dose of his own medicine.

Enoch hit the
android hand and produced a reasonable facsimile of a nod. Adam lifted an
eyebrow and allowed the man’s feet to touch the floor. “I couldn’t quite hear
you. Was that a yes?”

“Yes… I
intercepted a transmission from Earth. The Bell will be ordered to rendezvous
with the Kentucky. They’ll bring her back to HQ.”

“Why?”

“How would I
know? I guess she’s had enough time to recuperate. The woman’s a living,
breathing artefact. Imagine all the information she has in that pretty little
head, having lived a life time on pre-alien Earth.”

Adam released
his grip completely, took a step back, and raised the force field again. His
face showed no emotion, and I tried to appear as cool as he. Unfortunately, my
emotions didn’t come with an off switch.

Adam didn’t say anything on the way to
the lift, and I was too afraid to ask. I wouldn’t set foot willingly on a
spaceship named after fried chicken, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going. I would
be separated from my lover and my new friends, taken away from my new home,
turned into an object for study. The mere thought made me want to throw up.

“Deck one.”

Why were we going to the top floor? It
was an alien world to me, intimidating, and completely dedicated to work.

Once the lift started its long ascent,
Adam lifted his communicator. “Send a medic to the bridge.”

He shrugged and glanced over at me, “I
can always break his bones again if he causes trouble.”

I couldn’t answer.
My eyes were brimming with tears, and I struggled to hold them back.

“Don’t worry. Even
if he wasn’t lying, I won’t let anyone take you.”

I wanted to believe
him, but in this strange new world, who knew what might happen. I threw my arms
around him and buried my face against his chest.

“Let’s go get to the
bottom of this, okay? He’s probably just lashing out in the only way he can.”

When I still didn’t
answer, he pried a finger in under my chin and made me lift my head. “Alex, no
one will take you anywhere against your will. I promise. I would rather steal a
shuttle and run away with you than let anyone
take
you.”

His hazel eyes were
calm and confident. This time, I believed him.
“That’s
good, because I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Blake frowned at the news. “I’ve heard
nothing of the kind, but the Kentucky
is
close. It’s scheduled to go
back to Earth, and this does sound like something Command would come up with.”

He seemed to talk more to himself than
to us, and pulled up data on a holographic terminal. The way the information
flowed by in three dimensions made my eyes cross.

“I take it you don’t want to go?”

I didn’t have to answer; he saw it on my
face and nodded. “Alright. At least something good came out of this Enoch
business then. We have some time to prepare. Give me an hour to investigate and
see what our options are.”

*****

I curled up on our new sofa. It was a
nice piece of furniture and I could have gotten used to it. Just how dumb was
I, thinking I could call a spaceship home? If I didn’t belong with Adam on the
Bell, I didn’t belong anywhere. Deeply depressing.

My lover brought me a cup of tea and
took a seat next to me. How strange it was that this enigmatic man who wasn’t
really a man chose me. He had plenty of options, girls hit on him all the time,
and he
still
picked me. The thought was encouraging.

“Did you really mean that you’d run away
with me?”

He didn’t even blink. “Of course. We can
go now if you want to leave.”

I shook my head and managed a smile.

Adam’s communicator chirped and a young
voice said, “Commander, this is Ensign Starr from computer control. We could
use some help with purging the navigational databases.”

Panic rose up. I wouldn’t be able to ask
him to stay, that would sound too needy, but I did
not
want him to go.

“Not right now, I’m busy.”

He broke the transmission and I mumbled,
“Thank you.”

“If they call me to say the engine room
is on fire, I might have to go.”

Fair enough.

Minutes ticked by and we sat in silence.
I couldn’t think of one single thing to talk about that wouldn’t make me cry,
so I cupped both hands around the mug and stared at the tea.

“Remember how people in your time
thought nothing could travel faster than light?”

What? “I… Yeah, I guess.”

“We do and we don’t. The warp drive
creates a bubble in front of the ship, and another, smaller bubble behind it.
Space moves around us, and we almost stand still.”

Good neutral subject. A little weird,
but the idea was sound. I managed a smile. “I don’t get it.”

By the time Blake knocked on our door,
we had holographic sketches all around us. Adam’s explanations made sense, but
I didn’t understand the details. It didn’t matter. He had chased my demons
away.

Our Captain looked around and lifted an
eyebrow, but didn’t comment on the warp drive lesson. He took a seat on the
sofa, and the frown between his eyes made my heart sink.

“There is an order for us to meet up
with the Kentucky. They’re scheduled to transport Alex back to Earth.”

“Why?” Adam’s voice held no patience.

Blake shrugged. “There are probably
several reasons for their curiosity, besides the obvious.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but
closed it again.

“I contacted Admiral Rice for advice.
The Confederacy legal systems are complicated, but he knows his way around
them. There’s a fairly easy way out of it.”

He glanced down at his hands. I knew him
to be extremely straightforward and darting around an issue wasn’t his style.
Was he
embarrassed
? “And what might that be?”

“Go through a bonding ceremony with
someone on the ship. More than half of the Confederacy species have some form
of pair forming, and all member species have the right to call upon it. Command
wouldn’t have the power to separate you.”

He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Alex, since
you’re not technically from this century, you might be exempt from the rule. On
the other hand, Adam’s rights have already been settled in court.”

Adam didn’t say anything. Blake stared
at him. “You’re under my command. I can fight any order to transfer
you.
You’re
much too important to the ship. If Alex were to leave, no one could deny you
the right to accompany her.”

Holy Moly! It explained all the
civilians moseying around on the ship, but this wasn’t right. Adam didn’t have
a stellar history of relationships. Wasn’t it bad enough to have been created
as a substitute for one woman’s husband, and then have to flee from a forced
relationship with what would be his sister?

“You two think about it, but don’t think
too long. We’re supposed to intersect with the Kentucky the day after tomorrow.
I would be happy if we were only to transfer the prisoner.”

He left, and I could almost poke the
silence in the room. Adam sighed softly and I went over to the replicator. A
glass of water might help me swallow the lump in my throat.

The machine didn’t help. It gave me a
sulphurous liquid that must be from Lupe’s home planet. One more try resulted
in a bar of chocolate. Good choice, but it wasn’t water… I squeezed my eyes
shut and tried not to curse.

I didn’t hear Adam walk up next to me,
not until he murmured, “I don’t know if the replicators love you and want to
tease you, or if they hate you.”

When
he
asked for water, the
machine produced a glass of crystal clear liquid with three ice cubes. “Thank
you.”

He rested his hands on my shoulders. “I
won’t hold it against you if you don’t want to, but maybe you should do it
anyway. If you meet someone else later you’d rather be with, I wouldn’t try to
stand in the way.”

“What are you talking about?” I
understood the words just fine, but this had to be some complicated chain of
logic that only made sense in his head.

My all too handsome lover answered as
unemotionally as only an android, or possibly a man, could, “I wouldn’t try to
talk you into a thing like this if it wasn’t logical. I don’t know what their
intentions are with you, but I am sure you’re better off here.”

Better off… Too much. This was the
last straw. I wanted to flee into the bedroom and slam the door behind me, but
these doors didn’t slam. “Sometimes you’re impossible. If this is a proposal
it’s the worst ever. If you think I’m hesitating, it’s only because I don’t
want
you
to be forced into anything.”

Not my best line ever, but I still
marched away. Maybe I could lock myself in the bathroom and get some peace and
quiet.

“Alex, wait.”

I didn’t stop, but he caught up with me
with a couple of long steps. It was easy for him to turn me around to face him,
and I had no way to hide the tears that streamed down my cheeks. He pulled me
close. “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

Could I struggle and get free? Not
likely. Besides, he’d let me go if I asked him to, so fighting was pointless.

“I don’t know how
to do these things, I’ve never thought about it before. You know I love you,
right?”

Maybe his emotions
weren’t exactly the same as the ones humans experience, but in his own way, he
loved me. I nodded and mumbled, “I love you too.”

“I already belong to
you, you know that. I’d say with heart and soul, but I’m not so sure I have
either.”

It was meant to make
me smile, but I wasn’t in the mood for android puns. I still nodded, and he relaxed
his grip on me.

“Look at me, Alex.”

I didn’t want to,
but I lifted my eyes anyway. He smiled, carefully as if trying to judge my
response to it. I couldn’t help but smile back. I imagined he had a setting for
“charm,” and it was turned to the max. A woman made of marble wouldn’t have
been able to resist him.

He led me back to
the sofa and teased, “Can you sit here for five minutes without being attacked
by anything?”

I stuck my tongue
out.

*****

Adam remained in his
office, and as curious as I was to what he might be doing in there, I also
wanted to sulk. During the past few hours I’d almost been raped, murdered, and
deported from my home. It was
not
a good time for android ineptness.
Maybe I should go hide somewhere and mope in peace?

The door slid open
and he took a seat next to me. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know.”

“Logic doesn’t
always serve me well. Let me try to do this better.”

Do what?

My heart almost
stopped when he sunk down on one knee beside me. “I needed to study up on this.
Alex, you are the only woman I’ve ever loved. Would you do me the honour of
becoming my wife? To love and to hold and all that, and to never have to leave
me to go to the other side of the galaxy unless you choose to?”

He paused and
grimaced. “Yes, I’m sure, so don’t even ask. I’m sorry I screwed this up
earlier.”

How did he always
know what I was about to say? “Adam, you mean the world to me…”

“Don’t say
but
.
Say yes.”

“Yes.”

He kissed my
fingers. “Good choice. I’m sure I can make a good husband.”

I never doubted
that.
”How do you know I won’t make a crappy wife?”

“You are a treasured
part of my base programming.”

This was new. An
android version of dirty talk? “Only because you put me there.”

“I put thorough
research into my Alex code. Would be a shame to waste it… My research showed
me you’re supposed to get one of these.”

His hands surrounded
mine for a moment, and a glimmer of gold appeared on my finger. “Where did you
get that?”

The replicators
weren’t supposed to make jewellery, but with Adam, one could never know for
sure.

The ring looked good
on me, but was I really getting married? To
Adam
? Sure, it was a
convenient solution to all my problems, and I was pretty sure I couldn’t live
without him, but what about the long run? I would grow old and grey, and he’d
stay just the same.

“I have some things
to do, but I should be back in a couple of hours.”

I ripped my eyes
away from my hand. How did he get to the door so quickly? Logic probably
suggested all problems were dealt with and life must move on, but I was still
worried. I bounced to my feet and threw my arms around his neck. “This will all
work out, right?”

“Of course it will.”
He probably didn’t interpret the question in the same way as I. My mind was
still on the more distant future and not the immediate threats, but I was ready
for any reassurance I could get.