The Watcher [Alien Nation #1]

Chapter 9

"Please tell me you didn't embarrass yourself by challenging Akhilf to a fistfight again. My schedule is too full to worry about repairing that kind of damage to your processors."

Avery blinked against the harsh white light of Dr Anderson's office. She groaned, pulling her hoodie down over her eyes as she curled up into a ball on his examination table. She'd stopped drinking as soon as Julia Trentino had entered Nebula and tried to drag her boyfriend off to a besieged planet, but between the amount she'd already drunk, a night spent tossing and turning between rare moments of sleep, and the early hour, she felt like shit. There was no other way to put it. Anderson's message at seven o'clock that morning to schedule a surprise update to test the new version of Lexicon had only darkened her mood. "Wasn't that bad." The last time she'd been drunk she'd challenged the folna bouncer to a fight over some squabble they'd both since forgotten, and they'd cheerily sent her flying over the bar with a solid punch to the gut. Nuah Kishu had almost had an aneurysm.

Anderson had his back to her as he typed out a few lines of code on one of the huge screens that jostled for space on his desk. "Did you ignore the alerts regarding your blood alcohol levels? Do I need to give you a tune-up again?"

Avery instinctively curled her arm around her stomach. She was in no mood to have Anderson poking around her internal plumbing. "It's fine. I just really wanted to get fucked up, that's all."

She heard his footsteps coming towards her, and squeezed her eyes shut as he pulled up a chair at her side. It squeaked as he lowered himself onto it. "Avery, is there anything you need to talk about? Is something bothering you?"

She lifted her hood up to peek out at him. He sat with one leg propped up on his knee, head tilted as he gazed at her, almost affectionately. He looked far more put-together than normal. His tie was straight, hair soft, wavy, and tangle-free, and the ever-present shadow on his cheeks was gone. Even his office was tidier.

When she didn't reply, he pushed her more. "Are you having nightmares again? Is it work? Boys?" He took his glasses off to clean them on the hem of his shirt. "Girls? Who's that ex of yours-Cora?"

"It's Khora," Avery corrected, flinging the first syllable from the back of her throat and adding a slight trill to the 'r'. "And no. She's my best friend. Well, as well as Erri and Akhilf." She sighed, pulling her hood back down over her eyes. "You seriously have no idea what could possibly be upsetting me?"

"Earth," said Anderson, in a tone that suggested he'd known all along. Of course he did, Avery thought with thought with more than a hint of bitterness. He knows my mind as well as I do. He built the fucking thing.

She sighed through her nose, strands of lank blue hair fluttering in front of her face. "Yeah. Earth."

"How about you talk to me while I install this?" he held up a small datachip the size of her little fingernail.

She narrowed her eyes at it. "Is that the Lexicon update?"

Anderson shrugged. "And some tweaks to your infrared vision, the layout to your visual analysis overlay is more streamlined, as well as Lexicon. It's nothing major, but you might black out for a few seconds."

Avery sat up, hood still pulled around her face. "Why?"

"Your visual analysers will need to reconfigure to incorporate the new software. Hood down, please."

Avery sighed and lowered her hood, closing her eyes as Anderson unscrewed her skull plating. She felt a jolt along her spine as he inserted the chip, then her mind faded to static.