“There’s beer?” Loco yelled, nearly choking.
“The green jugs,” Olofi laughed. He heaved a sigh and went on in a lower voice. “I can tell how worried you are about Bentley. You’re not the only one.”
“Shame that having both of us worry doesn’t lighten the burden,” Shango chuckled, picking idly at some of the vegetables on his plate.
“It is concerning though,” Olofi admitted, “how obsessed she’s become with the idea that Legba’s alive. Do you think she could be right?”
“Honestly? Of course, I do. Disappearing, faking his own death, and then communicating through the memories of an amnesiac sounds exactly like something Legba would do. But I don’t think we should get our hopes up. I especially don’t think Bentley should get her hopes up. Even if, somehow, he is still alive, it doesn’t mean Legba is going to help us.”
“Fuck. I hadn’t even thought of that.” Olofi took another sip of his fizzy drink. “I’m sure all of that is going through Bentley’s mind. Do you think she’ll be able to let it go and focus on the task at hand? I wish I could think of a way we could help her.”
“Well, I suppose there’s a chance that Loco’s right, and she just needs some time to herself.”
They looked across the table at Loco, who held a massive chunk of bread in one hand while chugging a jug of beer with the other. Droplets of the amber liquid spilled down his cheeks, but he was in heaven.
“No, I don’t think that’s it.” Olofi shook his head. “Maybe we could humor her a little? Would it be the worst thing in the world if we spent some time looking for Legba?”
Shango shrugged. “Probably not, but that’s not what’s on my mind. What I’m more worried about is the way her brain interacted with that scanning machine. If that’s where these thoughts came from, we wouldn’t just be going off on a pointless hunt, we’d be ignoring our crewmate’s needs.”
Olofi raised an eyebrow. “Do you think we should be keeping an eye on her?”
“I don’t think she’ll do anything foolish.” Shango pushed his plate away. “That said, it wouldn't hurt to check in on her a little more than usual.”
Loco grabbed Shango’s unprotected plate and dumped the contents atop his own. Peas and corn spilled off onto the tabletop. “You two still on about stowaway girl number one?”
Jade looked up from her plate of salad in disgust. “You think of us by numbers?”
Loco grinned, kale hanging from his teeth. “’Course not, number two.”
+++
Android Home Base, Orion Sector
“You ape!” Jade pushed back and stood up. “How could you say something like that?” she hissed. “You’re absolutely insufferable, Loco!” She went to storm off but turned back to grab a buttered corn on the cob and a napkin, carrying it in front of her as she strode away with her nose in the air.
“Seriously,” Loco scoffed. “What is it with these girls? Does food make them emotional?”
Jade slowed her pace and nibbled kernels off the corn cob as she exited the chamber through its arched doorway and rounded the corner in the hall. She wasn’t upset by Loco’s comments, she had just been looking for an excuse to leave, and blaming Loco was always a convenient one. She wanted to go after Bentley. Let the men sit back and talk about her like she was some puppet in their game. Jade actually cared about her friend and wanted to figure out a way to help her.
She found Bentley seated with her knees to her chest in a padded C-shaped alcove and sat down facing the older girl. Shadows flickered down the hallway from the light show, and the music echoed distantly. Beyond her a window displayed an outdoor flower garden, and as the sun sank behind the treetops a gossamer winged insect landed on a flower’s petals to drink of its nectar.
Bentley did not look up.
“I just came to see if you wanted some corn!” Jade gestured emphatically with the cob, splattering warm butter on her friend’s shirt.
“Jade!” Bentley exclaimed, “You’re making a mess!”
“I am? Sorry!” the younger girl gasped innocently.
They stared at each other for a moment and then dissolved into a mutual fit of giggles.
“I’m sorry.” Bentley licked her lips when the laughter subsided, “it’s just, I mean, you believe me, don’t you? We need to go, Jade. We need to go.”
Jade took her time settling on the padded bench and then looked her friend square in the eyes. “I hope you know how much I care about you, and that I’ll always be here for you, but Bentley, you just told me days ago, at Thralldom, that you were done trying to run away. That you’d accepted your place with the crew. There doesn’t always have to be a chase.”
Bentley’s face grew pink, her cheeks radiating heat. “That’s not what this is at all.” She took a deep breath and her blush receded slightly. “I appreciate you so much Jade, but I just don’t feel like you trust me. Legba is out there, and he needs our help, and that’s more important to me than some stupid party.”
“If you say so.” Jade shrugged and chomped on her corn cob. “The truth is, Bentley, you were the only one to have my back when I first came aboard the Chesed, and I’ll never forget that. You could be claiming that you know where to find the last pink unicorn, and I’d still be on your side. I will always be there for you, even if I’m not wanted. I’m going to go back to the feast. You should come with me.”
“That’s it?” Bentley asked. “That was a nice speech, and all, but now what? You’re just going to leave me here?”
“Well, didn’t you say you want to be alone?” Jade cocked a hip and leaned on one leg, pointing an accusatory cob at her friend. “You’re being awfully difficult to read you know, Bentley.”
Bentley frowned. “I’m sorry. You’re probably right. You go have a good time. I’d just bring everybody down.” She slumped back into her previous position in the alcove. The padded seat beeped as if in agitation. It was supposed to automatically adjust its temperature according to her body’s requirements, but it seemed it must be broken. She shifted uneasily.
Why is so much of the android technology geared toward human comfort? Why do they need heated seats, or comfortable cars, or secret underground bunkers for plants for that matter if this is such a Utopia? It almost felt like they’d been expecting their human visitors, or like they needed them somehow.
Jade sighed and bit her lip, seeing Bentley was clearly lost in thought. She noticed the bench beeping again and knelt on the floor next to it. She followed the little LED light to a control panel, pried it open, and found a small but simple puzzle impeding her way. She held the corncob in her teeth, juice dribbling everywhere and down her chin, and rearranged several metal nodes and the panel opened. Once inside she was able to discover a loose fastening and prop up the appropriate wire to take the stress off the connection, and then closed it back up with the light turning green and the bench warming.
Bentley didn’t even notice the impressive feat. She was still hidden behind a thousand-yard stare, gazing out the window as if the darkening android city contained all the answers to life’s mysteries.
Jade crouched down so her face was only a foot away from her friend’s. “I’m going back to join the others,” she said again. “You should come with me. Everyone cares about you, and everyone wants you to be there.”
“Loco doesn’t.”
Jade laughed. “Well if only people Loco wanted showed up, it’d just be him. And maybe one or two of those android women, ha!” When the joke failed to get a rise from Bentley, the younger girl’s face fell. “Alright, well you know where to find me.”
She turned and headed back for the feast. She found a composting wastebasket to chuck the cob in on her way there and resumed her original seat, digging into a large pile of what seemed like warm coleslaw. It was not what she was used to, but it was better than anything the autocook had ever produced. It seemed the topic of conversation at the table had not changed in her absence.
“Did you speak with Bentley?”
Shango asked, “We’re all concerned about her.”
Jade took a deep breath. She knew that what she said next would be important. The others would listen, and it would make a difference. She thought about everything she and Bentley had said to each other.
She turned her big eyes up to face Shango. “I’m wondering if maybe she has a point.”
CHAPTER SIX
Android Home Base, Orion Sector
The feast wound down and the android drivers ushered their human and lwa visitors back into the land vehicles. The drive through the gathering night was smooth and relaxing; the dusty roadway well-lit, and the androids sure of hand. They arrived back at the squat airfield building and had to go through the individual decontamination process again to get back to their assigned quarters.
Everyone except Bentley was sleepy and bleary eyed, wandering zombie-like into their rooms and thanking their android hosts.
Bentley stretched and yawned like the others, in case someone was looking, as she entered her room. There was a short folding screen for the very modest to change behind, a dresser, a collapsible stool with a woven seat, a water closet, and a large bed with no blankets. The young woman shirked the sleepwear the androids had provided and climbed onto the bed, fully clothed down to her shoes.
The reason for the lack of blankets became quickly apparent as the bed adapted to her body temperature, somehow keeping her from feeling too warm or too cool. The lights in the room grew gradually dimmer the longer she stayed supine, and before long she dozed off despite the paranoid thoughts racing through her mind.
She tossed and turned her way through broken dreams, often waking up with a single thought seared into her brain.
“QX849-LF.”
Bentley panted as something, she couldn’t quite say what, woke her from her sleep. She repeated the digits a few more times to make sure she wouldn’t forget them, and then rolled over to stand up. She paced up and down the room a few times, taking deep breaths and rolling her shoulders, trying to relax and stop thinking. It didn’t work, and soon the fatigue of the late hour pressed her back to the heated mattress. Her thoughts lingered on the numbers and letters.
Those aren’t coordinates. Jelly Bean’s words echoed in her mind. At least, none I’ve ever heard of. There aren’t enough digits to define a point in 3D space, even if it was some kind of code.
Bentley punched her pillow and rolled again, growling beneath her breath. Jelly Bean couldn’t be right about this, and yet, Jelly Bean was almost always right about everything.
It is a code, she told herself, repeating the digits in her mind. It’s a special code Legba created just for me and it’s up to me to find him. Maybe Jelly Bean and I need to work together on the code, or maybe Svend could help, or if she just had more time…
She slowly fell into a disturbed half-sleep, curling her legs up against her chest and clutching them as she whimpered the coordinates. In her mind, in the lucid dream she could control, the rest of the crew was on her side. Jade was looking up to her and being her friend again. Shango and Olofi were proud of her and impressed. Even Loco showed begrudging respect as they located Legba and brought him in.
Bentley smiled and finally drifted off, falling fully asleep for the first time that night with the thoughts of being reunited with the enigmatic lwa.
+++
Android Base, Orion Sector
“How come you got the big suite and I was stuck with a dinky little room?” Loco growled as he inspected the chambers the next morning. “And how do you keep your place so clean?” His voice boomed through the shared living space, no doubt disturbing anyone in the other rooms that might still be sleeping.
Shango raised a furrowed brow. “Loco, we’ve been here exactly one night. How much of a mess have you managed to make in your room?”
“What? Nothing. No mess.” Loco turned away and examined a glass figurine balanced on the fireplace.
“As to the size,” Shango gestured blankly, “maybe they thought I deserved the extra space since I’m captain of the Chesed.”
“Yeah, about that…” Loco muttered, turning the crystalline dragon over and over in his heavy hands.
“That was more or less our line of thinking,” Blackfriar confirmed with a nod of his shiny dome. The three of the them stood in a neat semicircle with Jelly Bean and Olofi in the living area of Shango’s considerable quarters.
“Jelly Bean,” the graying lwa turned to his ship’s android, “how are you doing with those numbers she keeps repeating?”
They were all facing one of the walls in Shango’s quarters, which was also one of the walls in Bentley’s quarters. Blackfriar had made the wall temporarily transparent, at least from their side. They could see and hear everything the young woman did.
“This feels like such an invasion of her privacy.” Olofi shook his head at the thought, “I don’t know if I can be a part of this.”
“Ahh, shut up you smooth-cheeked minstrel,” Loco chortled. “But do hurry up,” he added to Jelly Bean, covering a yawn. “I should still be in bed.”
“You mean, you wouldn’t be busy trashing your room?” Olofi shot back.
“These numbers can’t be coordinates,” Jelly Bean insisted. “I’m running them through all the known data charts I have access to, but so far nothing’s turning up.
Shango nodded his thanks and then spoke to the group. “My main concern is her wellbeing. At this point, I’m afraid she may try to leave the base and seek out Legba on her own, which would almost certainly lead to her death or capture, with the forces pursuing her.”
“She clearly needs rest,” Blackfriar offered. “I’m able to access the readouts from her slumber pad. Her cortisol levels remain elevated even in a resting state. Unless she’s on some very wrong, strong prescription medications, I take this as an indicator of acute stress. Based on what you told me about her interaction with the scanning device, we may also want to give her an MRI.”
“An MRI?” Olofi interrupted, “Is that really necessary? What do you expect to find when you look inside her head? That sounds like it’d just be another bad dream for her.”
Loco clapped him on the back. “Hey, just ‘cuz you’re afraid of doctors doesn’t mean girl number one is.”
“No one likes going into an MRI machine,” Olofi pointed out.
“It might be necessary.” Shango pursed his lips and blew a long sigh that ruffled his mustache. “Let's wait and see how she behaves in the morning. We can determine then if she needs the scan or not. Blackfriar, I’ll follow your counsel on that one, just take her emotional wellbeing into consideration, please.”
“Of course, of course.” Blackfriar clasped his hands across his front. “May I also suggest that we detain her for the time being? For her own safety, of course?”
“What?” Olofi exploded, his hairless cheeks reddening. “You want to lock her up?”
“Not at all,” the android captain lifted his palms placatingly. “Perhaps I misspoke. I merely wish to contain Miss Bentley in her quarters, temporarily, in order to keep her from leaving the base. After all, now that she knows our location she could potentially endanger us all.”
“I still don’t like the sound of that,” Olofi said, crossing his arms. He squared his feet, ready for an argument.
“If locking her up doesn’t work for you, I could go in there and tie her up,” Loco chuckled, stroking his stubbled chin.
“Jade was right about you,” Olofi sneered, “you’re an ape. And a pig. A pig-ape.”
“I agree with Olofi,” Jelly Bean piped up, “about keeping her from leaving the base,” she added quickly when Loco glared at her. “I don’t think it’s right to hold her against her will, and yet, I see the logic in Blackfriar’s position. She could be a danger not just to herself, but everyone on this base.”
Blackfrair’s expression was solemn. It clearly wasn’t a decision he was taking lightly. “It’s really a simple matter of disabling the door to her quarters from the outside.
I promise you, your crewmate will have everything she could possibly need while being detained here. We can even arrange for someone to go in there with her, in order to explain the situation and help her process her feelings. It would only be until we’ve had time to explore our other options.”
Olofi shook his head vehemently several times, but then relented and nodded, uncrossing his arms. “Me,” he said, “I’ll go in. If she wants to hit someone, it can be me.”
“No, it should be me,” Shango countered dusting his hands. “I’ve developed a strong rapport with her from all the training we’ve done together, and I’m the one who owes her the explanation. You stay out here and keep an eye on things, Olofi.”
“I would be willing to go in as well,” Jelly Bean offered tentatively. “Bentley may find my presence more calming than either of yours, as I am more of a neutral party.”
Olofi frowned. “You think she’ll blame us and not you?”
“It seems probable.”
“I think Bentley’s a little more reasonable than that.”
“She may in fact blame both of you equally,” Blackfriar pointed out. “Especially when she learns that you both participated in making this decision.” A silence fell over the crew of the Chesed. Olofi blushed and glanced at Jelly Bean, who was not capable of blushing, but had the grace to lower her eyes in embarrassment.
Shango cleared his throat. “What would you suggest then, Captain Blackfriar?” He raked a hand through his thick graying hair and then combed his fingers through his beard. “Would you like to have the honor of explaining all this to Bentley?”
“Oh, no,” Blackfriar chuckled, “I had someone else entirely in mind.” He turned to the door of Shango’s quarters, and beckoned Svend into the room. He must have arrived as they were talking.
“I had thought that our young prodigy Svend could talk to her. He seems to have a connection with her that I’m not at all above exploiting.”
Shango sighed and looked through the wall, and then turned away and nodded. “Fine. Do it.”
Resistance Page 5
