Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

10. Adrift

Amy Larson sat at the table in the galley of the Blackstar, one leg pulled up, her head resting on her knee, watching Rutherford float around in front of the kitchen counters. The android had left his docking station and had affixed his arms - two sleek appendages with three joints that ended in hands with three fingers - to his body. For some inconceivable reason, he had also found it necessary to put on a chef's hat, which rested uneasily on top of his spherical, headless body as he prepared breakfast for his human captain.

The scent of scrambled eggs with bacon attracted Ensign Darwin who entered the room with an accusing meow that seemed to ask why he hadn't been invited. He jumped up on the counter, startling Rutherford. The dark line that ran horizontally around the circumference of his body lit up in a traveling ripple.

"Ensign! I must insist that you climb down again," Rutherford demanded, "This is inappropriate behavior for a crew member of your rank!"

The cat hissed in response. Null, in control of the body, smiled and got up to pick up the cat, who was as reluctant to follow orders as her, it seemed.

"Don't blame him, Rutherford. I kept him up half of the night by thrashing around in my sleep. No wonder he's grumpy. But I'm sorry, Darwin, that's my food," she explained to the cat as she put him down on the floor.

They hadn't eaten anything in about fourty-eight hours, ever since they had disembarked the Blackstar to pose for dead in a derelict space ship with a faked beacon signal to attract those raiders. After their return, they had ordered Heisenberg and Rutherford to take the Blackstar as far and fast away as possible. Lars had disabled all systems on the Butcher's station, but the raiders might still find a way to come after them and give them a piece of their mind for killing the Butcher and stopping their lucrative business. They had wanted as much of a head start as possible. While the androids took care of the ship and their new cargo, their captain had gone straight to her cabin and slept twenty hours - more or less restfully.

When Amy Larsson had emerged from her cabin again, she had looked like a walking corpse, but inside, Lars and Null felt, for the most part, at peace. The Blackstar was adrift in space now, somewhere halfway between two small systems, a smooth, black vessel on a pitch black sea. There was a certain comfort in the peaceful nothingness that surrounded them here, and they took the time to take care of some long overdue tasks: taking a lengthy hot shower, cleaning dried blood from their clothes, and now feeding the body.

"Here you go, ma'am," Rutherford said, placing the plate loaded with food in front of them.

She dug in immediately, despite the growling and rumbling of their stomach, which probably would have preferred they went a bit easy on the cholesterol.

"My, you seem to have appetite for two today, ma'am," Rutherford remarked as she silently shoveled the food into her face. "Should I prepare seconds?"

At his words, she froze, and scowled at him across the table.

You know, Null, there really is no reason why they shouldn't know, Lars spoke inside their mind, trying to subtly get her to ease the tension in their neck and shoulders again.

"No thank you," she replied to Rutherford, but really probably addressing both of them.

There's plenty of reasons, she concurred, returning her attention to her breakfast.

They wouldn't judge. They're AI themselves. Heisenberg would probably not really understand it... Higgs would be fascinated. And to Rutherford it wouldn't really make a difference. But it might be better for you – us - not to keep such a secret from them, he suggested.

Nobody can know, ever, she insisted. Anybody who knew would become a liability. Just one wrong word, a misplaced expression, a spreading rumor... Imagine what they might do to us if they found out.