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“There is one other viable option. If I were to connect my power source to the ship, I would give it enough power to reach Esmuna.”
I frowned. “Drain your battery? How much would we need?”
Andy finally looked up at me with his unblinking eyes. “All of it.”
Julia’s jaw dropped. “Are you saying it would kill you? Absolutely not.”
Andy swiveled his chair to face her. “It would not be killing me. It would merely be draining my power reserves. I would remain inert until such time as I could be recharged. It would not kill me. It would appear to you as though I was sleeping indefinitely.”
She didn’t seem convinced. I rubbed the back of my neck. “Are you sure there are no other options?”
“Yes.”
I sighed and nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll recharge you as soon as I am able.” Androids had specially made battery cores that were designed to run for years without needing to be recharged. As such, recharging him wouldn’t be as simple as plugging him into an outlet, but that was a problem to figure out once we were safe again.
Andy nodded back and got up to leave the cockpit. Julia frowned at me. “What? You’re going to let him sacrifice himself?”
Andy paused to tilt his head in confusion. “It is not a sacrifice. I will merely be powered down, like a computer when it is turned off. Besides, I am not human. It is not a sacrifice.”
She blinked and watched him walk away. She looked at me questioningly, and I shrugged. “He’s right. It’s not the first time I’ve seen him powered down. He’ll be okay.”
“This is weird.” She rubbed her arm. “He’s an android and I know it. He isn’t human. I didn’t even like him before. But it feels like he’s going to his death.”
I understood where she was coming from. “You thought of him as a computer until he saved your life, until he helped you and tended your wounds. Now, he suddenly doesn’t seem like a computer anymore. He seems like a real person with a real personality and feelings.”
“Kinda, I guess.” She sighed. “It’s stupid.”
“No, it isn’t. I used to feel the same way. I’ve been traveling with him for a while now. I’ve gotten used to him. It’ll be okay. He’ll be okay.”
I could see him at the end of the hallway, pulling open a panel. He would have to connect himself manually to one of the power cells. “This is what he was programmed to do: put the needs of humans before his own.”
After a slight hesitation, Julia nodded. “I understand. I just wish we weren’t in this position.”
“I feel the same way.” I rested my hand on her shoulder. “Now listen, we still have a few hours before we reach Esmuna. You need to rest. Once we reach the ground we’ll have to move. We should have a plan ready to go.”
She nodded wearily. “Yes. You’re right.”
“What’s your plan?”
“It’s a long shot, but I might know someone on the planet who can help us. There’s no guarantee he’ll be there, but if he’s there I know a place where we can find him. First, we’re going to need new clothes, so we don’t look like war refugees. And we need money. Once those men get off Cadium, they’ll figure out we went to Esmuna. They’ll track your ship down and figure out who you are from that. We need to get cash once we land and then get far away from wherever the ship is docked. We’ll find my friend and barter a trip off-planet.”
The plan sounded straightforward. “And if your friend isn’t on the planet?”
“Then we start asking around until we can bum a ride off-world.”
I didn’t have a better idea, so I nodded. “Okay. Right now, you should go back to bed for a little bit.”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
I slipped my arm under her shoulders and helped her stand. She could walk on her own, but I didn’t want to chance it. If anything happened to her stitches, I couldn’t stitch her back up.Maybe we should see a doctor while we’re on Esmuna, too.
We made our way to her room. I pulled the covers back and helped her into bed before checking her dressing. It didn’t look as though she was bleeding again, which was the best I could hope for. “I’ll be right back.”
I went into the lab and started looking through the medical kit. There had to be something in there that could help speed up the healing process that didn’t have any pain medicine in it. I should’ve had a more sophisticated medical kit, but I never thought I would need one. Treating a gunshot had never made my list of possible emergencies I could encounter. And it wasn’t like I could afford those expensive nanobots that could heal anything.
Instead, I managed to find a serum that was supposed to decrease the healing time. I’d never used it before, but I figured now was as good a time as any to try it. I took that and got Julia a glass of water before I went back to her room. I helped her drink before I handed her the medicine to look over. “It’s a serum. No pain medicine. I’m not even sure how much it’ll work, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.”
She looked it over before nodding. “I’ll try it.”
