Embarkment 2577 (20 page)

I imagined us picking up some form of
device and being on our way, but reality wasn’t quite as easy. There were
endless tests to be done. Adam picked our shuttle apart to run assessments on
its artificial gravity, and we spent the rest of the time in a dark little room
filled with computers, keyboards with mysterious symbols, and monitors showing
endless amounts of gibberish. Boring…

The chair was too hard and made my back
ache. I didn’t want to explore on my own; I had seen enough science fiction and
horror movies to know something
always
happened to the person wandering
off.

“So… This is really useful, right?”

Adam paused the stream of data. “Yes.
From what I can tell, their invention works. It will be valuable. We can test
it when they replace the Bell’s Tokamak, but we’ll need to make a full scale
experiment too.”

“Like, with a real, big black hole?”

He flashed a smile. “They’re all real,
but yes, with a big one.”

Why would anyone in their right mind go
anywhere near a black hole?

The door swung open and Mika came in.
She wore a huge smile and clapped her hands together. “I hear there has been
progress. This is truly delightful.”

“Yes. All my readings look really good.”

“We should celebrate. Tonight I’m taking
you to a bar to show you our traditional drink. It is most spectacular.”

Show
us a
drink? Maybe it was a lingual problem.

Adam and Mika chatted on, and I zoned
them out. What might Anya be doing right now? Did they miss us?

“You have no idea how lucky you are. You
can wear that uniform everywhere.” I hadn’t brought a lot of clothes. The idea
of official dinners and gatherings never crossed my mind when we left the Bell.
To make things even better, I let most of my stuff sit on the shuttle instead
of bringing it to the hotel room Adam and I shared in the little town. Now, I
had nothing, and no time to do anything about it.

He smirked. “If you want one, you can
always enlist for service. I doubt you’d enjoy it, but the possibility is
there.”

Good point. I’d hate it. “I just want to
make a good impression…”

“Don’t worry about it. You look fine.”
His eyes twinkled. “Some things never change. No matter the year, beautiful
women will always worry.”

I didn’t feel beautiful when we left the
room, but as we walked down the street arm in arm, he made me think I was.

“Are you sure this is the place?”

It was an oddly shaped dilapidated metal
shack. Adam widened his eyes and brushed a finger over the rough surface. “This
is fascinating.”

Sure. If you like deteriorating steel,
or whatever it was.

“It’s amazing. This must be a part of
one of the first settler ships. Can you believe they travelled all the way out
here in this?”

“Umm… No.” I had a very rudimentary
idea of where we were. It was far from Earth, anyway. “You look like you want
to make love to it.”

He laughed and wrapped an arm around my
waist. “Don’t be jealous of the poor old spaceship, sweetheart.”

The inside wasn’t too bad. Thick
oriental rugs hung from the walls, and the old ship décor mixed surprisingly
well with colourful lamps and thick, bright silk. “Okay, I yield. I like it.”

Mika waved from the bar. “I have taken
the liberty of ordering for you. We will have Rajahstani Thali.”

The what and the what? Oh well, I would
know soon enough.

I took a seat and leaned my elbows on
the counter, until I realized it was an old navigational console. “Wow.”

Mika trailed her finger tips over an
ancient dial. “My ancestors came here on this ship four hundred years ago. I’m
glad we’ve found a use for it.”

If I hadn’t died, if things had gone
according to plan, Adam would have stayed on old Earth with me. I would have
grown old and died, but there was no telling how old
he
could become.
Would he have travelled out to a colony on a ship like this? Helped establish
settlements? Maybe he would eventually have met up with the Bell again, filled
with almost six hundred years of new experiences while they thought he’d been
gone for a couple of days…

I reached out to touch his arm, and he
glanced over with a little smile. “What?”

“Nothing. I’m just glad to be here.”

The food was amazing; a number of spicy
small dishes, rice, vegetables, and bread. Adam usually left all the eating to
me, but on this planet he had sampled everything, to be polite. I was happy for
him. Food was an important part of my life, and at least he got the experience
of trying something new.

Mika asked, “Do you like it?”

“I love it. I wish I could save this
moment and return to it later.”

“I suppose you’re wondering what I
wanted to show you.”

Not really. I had forgotten all about
it. “Sure.”

She waved to the bartender. He brought
over a tray with three crystal glasses filled with a bright blue liquid. When
he put the glasses down, he tapped the edge of each one, and the centre of the
liquid glowed. Small flashes of energy made the drinks twinkle. “Oh wow. I
could never have imagined a thing like this.”

“It is a very special experience. All
that energy sparkles in your mouth.”

“I bet.” I had no wish of containing a
miniature thunderstorm in my mouth. A heroin addict would probably claim the
first hit was a special experience too. That didn’t mean people in general
should try it.

Adam teased, “You have to taste it. It
would be rude to deny our host the pleasure of sharing her culture.”

“If you want it so much, you drink it.”

Mika laughed and Adam rolled his eyes,
clearly trying to show how silly I was. He grabbed his glass, downed it, and
blinked a couple of times. I could have sworn I saw a flash of light in his
eyes. “That was unexpected.”

“What?”

He took my glass too. “What a peculiar
burst of energy.”

Mika lifted an eyebrow. “Want another
one?”

Adam looked at the glass with a frown.
“Sure.”

Enough of sparkly drinks. Fireworks
belonged in the sky. “Is there a ladies’ room?”

“Absolutely. I’ll take you.”

By the time we returned, I knew all
about Mika’s failed marriage and her sorrow of not having a child. She knew
everything about me, at least from the day Adam crashed on my world.

The table was empty and a young woman
picking the last plates up nodded towards the bar. “I think your friend has had
one too many. I’m just saying.”

“What?”

“People really shouldn’t drink if they
can’t hold their liquor.”

I was about to say ‘what’ again,
repeating myself like a parrot with a one word vocabulary. Mika pulled on my
arm, and I finally saw my tall husband leaning over the bar. I couldn’t hear
them, but Adam held the bartender’s arm, and the man shook his head.

“Lover dearest, what are you doing?”

Adam turned his head, and his eyes
flashed with that eerie light. This time, I was sure I didn’t imagine it.
“Hello beautiful!”

Mika whispered, “Did you see that?”

I nodded and took a few steps closer.
Adam grinned. “I missed you.”

He tried to emphasize the word ‘you’ by
poking me with a finger, but miscalculated and almost fell off the stool.

“I guess you did.”

Once he regained his balance, he stared
at his hand and flexed the fingers. “This isn’t working right.” He shrugged and
gestured to the bartender. “I need another… another…”

This time, the bartender kept his
distance. “No man, you’re not getting any more.”

It would have been funny if I hadn’t
been so scared. Something was very wrong with him and we were weeks away from
home. Without him to fly the shuttle, we were stuck on the planet.

Even if we could get back to the Bell,
what were the odds of someone there knowing enough cybernetics to fix him?
Would he be like this for the rest of his life? I loved him, but I didn’t think
I’d be able to take a life time of it.

“Is he drunk?”

“No.” I supposed the man he was modelled
after was quite a drinker; Adam’s mother had made sure nothing like that could
affect him.

I closed my eyes for a second, wishing
we were home. It didn’t work. “Adam, are you alright?”

He didn’t answer. From the looks of it,
he didn’t even hear me. Mika squeezed my shoulder, “I’m so sorry. I had no idea
this would happen.”

“What’s in that stuff anyway?”

She shrugged, and the bartender babbled
a list of ingredients that meant nothing to me. My husband seemed encouraged by
my sudden interest in science. He provided an incomprehensible chemical
description that wouldn’t have been understandable to normal people on the best
of days.

Leaning forward, I looked into his eyes.
They still twinkled with small bursts of light. Maybe his circuits, or whatever
he had in his head, were overloading.

Mika said, “Maybe it will wear off when
the energy fades.”

“I hope so.”

I fought down an urge to shake him.
“Adam, it’s time to go back to the hotel.”

He arranged his face into a smile with
some difficulty. “Do you wish to engache in seucksal ackivilies?”

“Sure. Whatever makes you get up and
come with me.”

Mika giggled.

“It’s not funny. Well, maybe a little
funny…”

Adam slid off the tall stool, on to his
feet with an arm around my shoulders, veered to the side, and fell over. I
wasn’t strong enough to hold him.

I planted my feet firmly on the floor
and pulled on one arm. Nothing. He just lay there, staring up at the ceiling. I
might have to leave him there. Unbearable…

Mika helped pull on the other arm, but
he still didn’t move. The bartender had to help us lift him up and support him
out to Mika’s waiting car.

“I’m so sorry. This won’t happen again.”

The man grumbled, “Damn right it won’t,
because you’re not coming back here.”

Ouch.

Adam looked at his fingers with
childlike awe. As soon as the bartender went back inside and he could reach me,
he grabbed my hand and stared at it. “What are you doing?”

He didn’t look up; he kept his eyes
fixed on my fingers. “Yours look like the rainbow too.”

That
couldn’t
be good. My hand looked exactly as it always had. No rainbows there. Was the
icy feeling in my chest a heart attack, or just grief?

I patted him on the shoulder. “Yes, I’m
a happy little rainbow, but you have to let go of me so I can get in the car.”

“No. I don’t want to.”

“The car is taking us back to the hotel.
You have to let go of me, so I can get in. Otherwise I’ll have to run beside it
all the way. I might not be able to keep up. You don’t want that, do you?”

He loosened his grip, and I climbed up
in the front next to Mika. I wanted to cry.

“We don’t know much about androids, but
we have brilliant mathematicians. Do you want me to try to find some help? Or
call for your ship?”

“Not yet. Maybe I can make him run some
self-tests, or power down for a bit. If he doesn’t snap out of it, I’d be
eternally grateful for help.”

In the back seat, Adam started to sing.
I mumbled, “Alex, the next time someone asks if you want to try something, you
say
yes.
You never, ever tell
him
to do it.”

When Mika pulled up outside the hotel,
Adam smiled from ear to ear, scrutinizing the buttons on his shirt. He pulled
one off and bit it. “No… Honey, no, we don’t eat buttons.”

Great. My husband acted like a three
year old. If his databases were corrupted we’d really have a problem.

“Do you have a… uh, backup or
something of him?”

Good question. “Of course not. He’s a
person, not a robot pet.”

“Of course. I’m sorry.”

Mika and I sounded about equally
convinced. The Indian food formed a heavy lump in my throat, and I swallowed
hard.

She squeezed my shoulder. “He’s heavy.
I’ll go see if the concierge can help us get him up to the room.”

“Okay. Thanks.” I leaned into the car,
trying to get Adam’s attention. “Hi honey. Do you remember me?”

He gave me a wounded look. “Natullary.”

Good enough. “I’m happy to hear that.
Mika will be back here in a minute with a nice man who’ll help us up to the
room. I want you to help him as much as you can. Okay?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Sparks still danced in his eyes, but he
made an effort to talk straight. “We should go over there.”

Oh crap. I hadn’t even seen the big,
blinking sign that said Casino. Behind me, an unfamiliar voice laughed. “Oh no,
son, you’re in no shape for that today. You’ll lose both your clothes and your
wife.”