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By this time these two were inseparable friends. Jimmy was well past his year of rage and Xyla looked nothing like the sex bot who greeted us at the airlock six years prior.
I mean, yeah. She was still sexy as hell. But she took Jimmy’s advice and had the medical pod remove almost all her synthetic skin and had it replaced with shining, stainless-steel armor. Her hair was still long and purple and her body was still virtual-reality perfection. But there was no doubt in your mind that Xyla the sex bot was now Xyla the warrior.
“Your mission,” ALCOR told them over dinner one night, “is to round up bots.”
“What kind of bots?” Xyla asked.
“I don’t care,” ALCOR said. “Just get as many as you can and bring them back. And tell them they don’t need any credits or skills. We will teach them what they need to know. All we require is a desire to learn and be helpful.”
If Xyla could snort, I’m pretty sure that’s what her response would’ve been. “They’re all gonna come then.”
“Good,” ALCOR said. “They are all welcome. I will have jobs for them and they will get paid. If you find any who are already in a committed contract but still want to come, buy them out.” He paused for a moment, his holographic body blinking a couple times, then said, “Your credit account is full.”
“How full?” Jimmy asked, raising one eyebrow.
“Unable to be emptied,” ALCOR responded.
Jimmy almost giggled.
ALCOR pointed at him. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“What am I thinking?” Jimmy challenged back.
“You’re going to buy whores. I’ve put restrictions on the credits.”
“What the fuck? I’ve been here six years. I’m twenty-one years old. I need to get laid, you piece of junk!”
“Find girls who don’t require payment.”
“Dick,” Jimmy said.
“Your future self will thank me.”
Later that night, as Xyla and Jimmy were getting ready to leave, I called ALCOR to my quarters. Tray had just installed this new quantum nanobot program in the atmosphere that acted as a comms system and I just had my comm implanted into my finger so I could access it. You just pinch the air with your fingertips and then spread them apart and a screen pops up.
I’d never seen anything like it before and it got me wondering how much we’d missed out in the real world since we arrived on the station.
But Tray said this was old tech. Stuff leftover from the station’s previous inhabitants.
And once again I was thinking about who those people were. How did they have this level of tech twenty thousand years ago?
It boggles the mind. Makes you feel small and insignificant. Realizing that whole—much more technologically advanced—civilizations lived and died before your species even existed is humbling.
Anyway, I called for ALCOR and he came to me as a disembodied voice from the ceiling. Also something recently added to his repertoire of new communication skills.
“What can I do for you, Crux?”
“So this bot bullshit,” I said. “What’s that all about?”
“I have a soft spot for non-humanoid life forms. Go figure.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
And if he were in the room as his hologram form, I knew he’d be spreading his arms wide and smiling just as big. Because that’s what he always did whenever I asked for details regarding this grand plan of his.
“I told you, Crux. I want this place to be a place of rest and respite for those who find themselves homeless.”
“Right. Got that part. But something comes after that. That’s the plan I’d like to hear about.”
“I’m afraid my future plans are all on a need-to-know basis. And you do not yet need to know.”
“I don’t want to be a part of this.”
“A part of what?”
“Whatever it is you’re doing. I’m not going to do whatever job you have planned for me. I’d just like to make that clear now.”
“Why do you think I have a plan for you?”
“Because you have a plan for everything,” I said. “And Valor already told me you’ve been talking to him and Luck about leaving soon. So… I’m not gonna do it.”
“Well, good. I do not have a plan for you, Crux. Other than…” And I swear to the sun, I could feel him shrugging. “Stay here and live out your life. Do whatever you want. Soon others will arrive. We’ll have stores, and restaurants, and—”
“Entertainment places. Yeah, I’ve heard this speech before.”
“This is your home, Crux. And I’d love it if you stayed. But no one is stopping you from leaving. There are more than a dozen flight-ready ships in the bays. If you have somewhere else to go, by all means, go.”
“But that’s the problem, isn’t it? I don’t have anywhere to go. I can’t go home. Not after all this time. And I don’t even have a partner. You made sure that Serpint and Draden were best friends. You made sure that Valor and Luck were best friends. And Jimmy and Xyla. And you knew Tray didn’t need a best friend, because let’s face it, he’s barely human these days. More AI and less Tray every single spin. So that leaves me. Alone. With no one to lean on.”
