Embarkment 2577 (33 page)

He gave a lopsided grin. “If we live
that long you and I will be old and gray and they will be young. It’ll be alright.”

Was it that easy? Back on old Earth I
often thought my friends’ families were growing complicated. People had so many
children with different fathers and the extended families intertwined and grew
so big it was difficult to remember who was related to who. They had nothing on
us.

“We’re a strange family, aren’t we?”

“We are, but it doesn’t matter.”

True. We all cared for each other, and
in the end, wasn’t that what made a family?

“I used to be a real womanizer. Can you
believe that?”

I didn’t expect anyone to be able to
make me laugh the way I felt, but that did it. “Yes. Yes, I can. You can’t help
yourself.”

“I’ve been wanting to surprise her. Get
her something. I can’t think of a single thing.”

“Anya? She adores you. Get her anything,
she’ll love it.”

“Do you think she’d marry me?”

“Of course she would.”

“Her mobile emitter should be charged by
now. I think I’ll go get laid.”

The way he said it made me laugh. “I
hope it works out for you.”

“Usually does. I just turn on the old
charm. C’mon, I’ll walk you to a room. You’re too pretty to sit on a dirty
floor.”

*****

It seemed like a very long time before
we reached the Bell. I rested, but didn’t feel a bit better. Every breath was
hard work, and my heart raced. Once we docked, John watched me with a frown.
“Do you want me to carry you to sickbay?”

“No.”

I followed him and Anya, doing my best
to look healthy. I was tired of needing rescue and having people haul me
around.

When the heavy door opened, revealing
the shuttle bay, I stopped and stared. Adam stood waiting, but he looked like
something out of a nightmare.

Now was a good time to show I cared for
more than the outside. I got my feet moving to meet him and wrapped my arms
around him. “What happened?”

A little more than half of the flesh on
his face was missing, and the jagged edge looked charred. I’d never seen his
metal cranium before. It was a dull titanium, filled with small servo motors
and wiring. His left eye was completely gone, and the dark socket where
electronics and the covering eye should have been creeped me out.

Most of his hair was missing, and the
right arm had been stripped down to the metal structure with hydraulics and
microchips.

He held me, very carefully, and the
embrace was strange. I wasn’t used to feeling cold, hard metal around my waist.
“It looks worse than it is. Ima and Jia’Lyn are working on some parts and new
skin.”

Small diodes blinked when he spoke, and
I pressed my hand against his metal cheek. “Eve?”

“Yes… How are you? I’ve been worried.”

Trying to avoid the question wouldn’t do
me any good. “I don’t know. I’ve been better.”

Complaining about my own adventure
seemed petty when he missed vital parts.

Anya placed a slender hand on my
shoulder. “She’s been shot. She needs to go to sickbay. The sooner the better.”

John interrupted the reunion. “What
happened to the megalomaniac bitch?”

Adam sounded troubled. “She lured us
into a cloud of nanobots. They were small enough to get through the shields and
rebuilt both the ship and themselves.”

“The ship?
This
ship?”

It looked like they did some work on him
too.

“It doesn’t matter. She’s dead.”

Anya lifted her perfect eyebrows. “Are
you sure?”

“Yes. I disassembled her myself.”

The wave of adrenaline from seeing Adam
hurt was wearing off and my legs wanted to buckle under me. I was queasy and
couldn’t breathe. My husband kept talking, but his voice seemed very far away.

John rumbled, “Son, I’m no fan of the
cat-doctor on this ship, but your wife needs to see her.”

“Of course.”

He had a hover-round, and sitting down
in the little vehicle was a relief. I could barely hold my eyes open, but what
I saw of the ship looked almost as bad as Adam; there were weird metallic
constructions protruding from the walls.

I wanted to go home, but it was out of
my hands, and I was in sickbay in less than two minutes. It was crowded and Ima
nodded towards a side room. At least I got to lie down while waiting. When Ima
fussed around me I watched her through my lashes. Her tail whipped Adam’s
behind. “Haven’t I told you to take care of her? There’s serious neurological
damage and there will be a time when I can’t heal her anymore.”

Pausing to stare at him, she snarled and
showed her fangs. “You’re supposed to wear the entire uniform. Where’s your
shirt, Commander?”

He only had his tank top on, and now when
she mentioned it, it was unlike him. “I know. I look like a horror movie. The
sleeve gets stuck in the arm when I move.”

Her expression softened. “Well, this
will take a while. Go find something to do. I’ll call for you when she can
leave.”

Ima hated having people in her way, and
Adam exceled at
being
in her way. I wanted to ask him to stay anyway,
but I didn’t need to. He stood to the side and leaned against the wall. “Not
this time.”

“Fine.”

She pulled a console down over me. It
made my chest feel warm, and breathing came easier.

“How many times were you shot, honey?”

Funny how she could switch from angry to
soothing in a split second. “Three.”

My friend drummed her claws against the
console. “I can’t fix this.”

Adam straightened up. “What?”

“Well, I
can,
but not right now.
Those cursed nanobots modified most of my equipment. It’s useless. You need to
get us to a station, Commander.”

“Guys… I’m right here.” Being weak and
dizzy didn’t mean I wanted them to talk over my head.

Ima sighed. “Your artificial heart is
damaged. I’ve stabilized it, but you need a replacement. Everything we have is
as useful as scrap metal.”

“My what?”

Adam crossed the space between us with a
couple of long steps and grabbed Ima’s white coat in his metallic fingers. “Why
does my wife have an artificial heart?”

She attempted to shake him off, but he
didn’t let go. “Because hers was destroyed the
first
time you got her
killed. I transferred all the memories and with normal use, this would have
lasted a hundred years.”

Air was hard to come by once again. All
this excitement and horror didn’t agree with me. I gasped, “Why didn’t you tell
me? And what memories?”

This time Adam released her when she
swatted his hand. “I didn’t tell you because you had amnesia and bigger
problems. The human heart has memory tissue much like the human brain. It
stores likes and dislikes.”

“What else inside me isn’t me anymore?”

“Not much… Liver, kidneys, most of your
intestines were damaged by those primitive bullets. They all seem to work
fine.”

Great. Maybe I was more like my husband
than I realized. She might give me an entirely new body and I’d never notice.

Was I going to die? I was too afraid to
ask.

“I would like to keep you here, but
we’re crowded and I know how stubborn you are, so you can go home. No physical
activity. No unnecessary walking around. If you feel worse, call me at once.”

Her gaze fell on Adam. “I will inform
Blake we have a medical emergency. If it gets worse I can put her on life
support or in cryo sleep, but I think we’d all prefer not to. Try to take care
of her this time.”

Adam swept me up in his arms. It was
strange to feel his metal frame against my back. I murmured, “I’m sure I can
walk out the door.”

“I’m sure you
can
, but you don’t
have to.”

I watched his metal jaw and all the
little motors that would normally allow him a facial expression. This would
take some getting used to. Was I so shallow I only cared about his looks? Maybe
not. Seeing a human’s skeleton would also creep me out.

“You never see anyone but me being carried
around this ship.”

That made him smile too, in spite of
all. It looked eerie with so much of his face missing. “That’s because no one
else is you.”

I rested my head against his shoulder
and he murmured, “It can be our secret. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.”

I whispered, “You’re so sweet,” and was
surprised at his answer, “No, not really.”

He put me down in the hover-round and I
tried to get the focus off of me. “So… What happened to you?”

“We can talk about that some other day.
Are you sure you’re up to going home?”

I really did not want him to leave me in
sickbay. “Of course. Please take me home.”

Worst case scenario, it would be filled
with new robotic constructions courtesy of Eve. It didn’t matter; I still
longed for home.

Adam looked at me with his remaining eye
and frowned. As much as I tried to breathe normally it was hard to hide just
how difficult it was.

*****

Our rooms looked exactly like they
always had. Not a trace of Eve or her minions. Adam put me down on the bed and
took a seat on the edge. “Do you want me to ask John to keep you company?”

Did I look
that
bad? John and I
shared much just by being human. Adam would never admit he felt left out, but I
still knew. Lately, John had been there for me so many times when Adam
couldn’t, and offering to get him for me had to sting. “No.”

I wanted to ask why he hadn’t come for
me, but it seemed petty. He still looked doubtful and I reached for his hand,
clutching metal fingers. They were cold and strange against my skin. I’d better
get used to it… “I don’t know what time it is. Can you stay a little?”

Holding my hand very carefully, he
smiled. “Yes, I can.”

“Wanna tell me what happened to you?”

He ignored my question and reached over
to touch my hair. “Maybe I should call for Ima? You don’t have to go there; she
can come here.”

“No. You heard her. I’ll live.”

The look on his face was very close to
human exasperation, but he dropped the subject. “Can I get you anything?”

I shook my head a little and closed my
eyes, just meaning to blink. When I woke up again, the room was dark and I was
alone. The pillow next to me held a little note, written on real paper. “I love
you. Call me if you need anything. /A”

“Computer, what time is it?”

“It is 01.47.”

I decided to get up and fetch a glass of
water. With any luck at all, the replicator would let me have it and not give
me some undrinkable slush.

I woke from Adam pressing his fingers
against my neck, feeling my pulse. “Why am I on the floor?”

The human half of his face looked
worried. “You tell me.”

I struggled to sit up and he supported
me with the metal arm behind my back.

“I think I wanted water. What time is
it?”

“It’s two thirty. I wanted to check in
on you.”

Fourty minutes gone. Not good.

“Come here, sweetheart. Time to go back
to sickbay.”

“They can’t do anything anyway.”

“Maybe not, but they can at least keep
an eye on you so you don’t die on me.”

He scooped me up in his arms and the
time to protest was clearly over. “You’ll come see me, right?”

“Alex…”

He sat down on the sofa with me still in
his arms, fixing his remaining eye on me. “I wanted to come for you. You have
no idea how much I’ve worried. I’m still worried.”

Compared to what he must have been
through, I
really
shouldn’t whine, but I had to tell him something. “For
a moment, I thought John was you. I was so disappointed.”

A shadow of a smile flew over his face.
“I get off my shift in three and a half hours. I’ll be there. I promise.”

I snuggled my head against him. “If you
don’t come I won’t have sex with you for months.”

He laughed. “Fair enough, but I’m not
worried, because I’ll be there.”

There were enough people still in
sickbay after Eve’s attack to warrant a nurse on night duty. The brightly
yellow alien yelped when she saw us. Adam was quite a sight.

He put me down on a bed, explaining what
happened, and the alien ran webbed fingers over my wrist. “I’m Nurse Isaac.
You’re Alex, right?”

It was a matter of seconds before Adam
got in her way. “Commander, please try to stay to the side. I have the
situation under control, and perhaps it would be best if you returned to the
bridge.”

A sympathetic ripple flowed through her
thick skin. “I’ll take care of her.”