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But it wasn’t.He’d never received compliments on his appearance before.He found he liked them.
“Thank you for sending help today,” she added.“That means a lot to me.To all of us.”She inclined her head toward where the amphitheater was filling up with her people.
She looked like she wanted to say more, perhaps about her initial reaction to the cyborgs, but she looked over the assembling crowd instead.“Let’s get started,” she said quietly and jumped up on the edge of the stage without waiting for him to offer his help.He did likewise, albeit more easily.
She took off her hat to better see everyone.For the first time, RH103 saw how her braided, sun-bleached brown hair shone in the late morning light, a sharp contrast to his shorter and more practical style.Her skin was deeply tanned, unlike his, which had hardly been touched by sunlight.Remembering that she’d noticed his hair, he felt warm all over again.
RH103?
There was SP29 again, his internal voice curious.RH103 shut down his internal link, to better protect his thoughts and physical reactions.
The crowd was more subdued this morning, and he wondered if any of them had slept since the excitement a few hours earlier.He remained quiet, letting Hannah start the meeting.
“So, I think everyone knows about our new roommates,” she began.
Roommates?That sounded promising.Why did it sound promising?
“They’ve been forthcoming about what they’re able to offer in exchange for living here,” she continued.“I woke up this morning and found some of them harvesting food, which is a huge job that I’ve been dealing with mostly on my own.”
A murmur rippled through the crowd.Evidently, working under the sun was unpopular.
“I’ve also been informed that our new friends have the ability to clone livestock,” she said.“We all know that we’ve been short of protein-rich foods, and this technology could help us get back to better diets.And there’s other technology too.”She looked at RH103, dark brown eyes wide.“We should’ve sat down to talk about that,” she muttered, quiet enough so only he could hear.
RH103 stepped forward.“We can help rebuild your infrastructure,” he announced.
“How long would that take?”someone in the crowd asked.
That was an encouraging sign.“We would have to make a full assessment of all the damage,” he replied.
“We have no power,” the same voice said.“We haven’t for two years.No running water in a lot of the houses anymore, either.Not all of them have pumps.”
“It’s bad,” said Hannah quietly.“And we’re short of people who know how to do things like keep a power station running.”
“We can do that,” RH103 said.Louder, to the rest of the town, he said, “Our people started from scratch many years ago.It took less than eighty days to build a colony on a terraformed planet.This will certainly be faster, especially since the planet is already habitable.”He looked down at his fellow cyborgs, lined up in front of the stage, as if they were a military unit of old.“We will need places to live.We cannot stay in our cruiser permanently.”
A young woman stepped forward, about the same age as Hannah.RH103 remembered them speaking the night before at the amphitheater.Her white-blond hair was held back from her face with a pair of metal combs lightly tinged with rust.“There are empty houses available,” she said, voice wavering.
RH103 understood why they were empty.
“Some of them are sound, and others will need to be repaired,” the woman added.“I don’t see why you couldn’t live in them.”
That comment earned another wave of discussion, with some people opposed to the idea.Hannah looked at them as their voices rose, then at RH103.
“Not in my uncle’s house!”someone shouted.“That washishouse!”
Hannah pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers.“I’m doing this all wrong,” she muttered.
“There was bound to be some dissent,” RH103 replied.
“You’re right.You need somewhere to live, and we have some places available, although not enough for all of you to have your own house.”
“We don’t mind living communally.”
“The number of vacant houses that are actually safe to live in is very few.I think some of you will either be living with us or will have to stay on the cruiser.I don’t know.”She clapped her hands and then, louder, said, “Okay, let’s talk about this!”
“I don’t want strangers in my house!”The same man who had spoken about not wanting cyborgs in his late uncle’s home gave pointed looks to them now.
“Then you don’t have to,” Hannah said tiredly.“Ollie, you don’t have enough room for someone else, anyway.Anyone who has a spare bedroom and doesn’t mind a new roommate, please raise your hand.”
