“Roomie, cute,” Alice said, ascending the ramp.
“You can rename me however you like,” Roomie replied.
“It’s okay for now. Do all officers get housing like this?”
“Your model is designed for service people who are expected to serve dynamically in the military. Since you have a ship of your own, the hangar and vessel management features have been added. A personal shuttle will be delivered as soon as you choose a design. That is a unique offering to you because the Clever Dream has been on loan to the fleet for so long.”
“So they’re giving me a loaner until I get it back.”
“The shuttle is yours to keep,” Roomie said, almost too happy to deliver the news. “You are also being granted extra luxury credit because the Clever Dream has been on loan. That has not changed the type of apartment you were given, however. Upstairs you’ll find accommodations that Haven Shore designed and built to suit your current lifestyle and tastes, while being adaptable to many life changes. Using luxury credits, you can expand your home as well, the walls can reconfigure and grow enough for two more rooms. Any more expansion would require extra modifications, and there is a waiting list.”
Alice tried to control her excitement as she emerged into the main apartment through the hangar and balcony entrance. A few steps up took her to the main room, where there was a circular sitting area set around a low table. The curved sofas and thickly padded chairs made her want to invite all her friends and family over. She kicked off her boots and stepped onto the blue carpet. Its fibres were silky on her bare feet.
Light from the floor to ceiling windows behind and in front of her flooded the space, and as she neared the centre of the space, she saw that the roof was transparent, letting even more sunlight in. “This is amazing.”
“The windows are all one-way blind, meaning that you can see out, light can pass in, but no one looking inside can see you or your guests. You can also use the windows to view whatever video playback you like, or block light entirely.” As a demonstration all the windows began displaying a vista as though the home was resting on the beach, the sounds of the waves made the visual seem even more convincing. It switched to a view from Tamber orbit then, and again it was perfectly convincing. Alice took a moment to take it in before telling Roomie; “You can switch back to the real view; I get the feeling I’ll be seeing plenty of space.”
The windows became transparent again, and the sight of the jungle walkways on one side, the open sky and beach below on the other appeared again. “Walls without windows are linked to the aquarium system, which is also a vegetable garden,” Roomie said.
Every wall without a window became transparent then, revealing tropical fish that leisurely went about their business. A shelf door above raised, revealing the top of the aquarium where new green sprouts were piercing a layer of black soil above the water. “I didn’t plan on doing any gardening, but this is incredible.”
“The varieties of fish in the tank feed off the nutrients that drop from the soil, and enrich it while keeping the water clean. Any of the fish you see are available for consumption. You can prepare them yourself in the kitchen or the automated system will catch them for you and do it using state of the art preparation systems. This system also keeps your living space at an optimal temperature. The gardening system is automatic, so you don’t have to maintain the forty-two square metres of garden space built into your walls unless you’d like to.”
“What happens when I’m away? What if there’s a harvest?”
“The vegetables and berries are sent to the central food distribution hub. Nothing is wasted. Would you like to leave the walls open so you can enjoy the garden and aquarium?”
“Just the aquarium system for now.” She moved on, discovering a kitchen she supposed two people could work in at once. She used the drink dispenser to create a peach and orange smoothie before moving all the way across the apartment to the opposite rooms, rubbing her feet along the carpet the whole way. Her bedroom was lit from the corners with soothing yellow light. There was a fully adaptable bed larger than any she’d slept in with an intelligent membrane instead of a mattress. It was piled high with pillows and blankets. She put her drink down on the dresser and leapt into the middle of the bed with an excited squeal. Everything was soft, inviting and warm. One thick blanket especially wrapped around her and gently held her whole body, leaving only her face free of the nearly overwhelming comfort. “That adult sized swaddling blanket is a gift from Ayan, originally made for babies, the Haven Shore Civilian Design Branch has created a full sized version for adults that adjusts to the comfort needs of the user or couple.”
“So comfy…” Alice sighed. When her eyelids began to lower a few moments later, she sat up. “Now I can’t wait for bed, but we press on!”
“Ayan put a modest clothing order in for you, and your belongings have already been unpacked in a predictable fashion, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding anything.”
Alice looked around a little more, finding a fully equipped bathroom that included a deep bath that her and a friend could submerge in, her things in the closet and dresser, and finally, a few new outfits.
As she picked up the first, a long dress with a slit part way up one leg made of light, shimmery dark blue cloth, a message from Ayan played; “I don’t know what kind of style you would like, but a mutual friend of ours suggested this one, just in case you needed something for a night you’d like to dress up. The others are outfits I thought you’d like, enjoy.” Alice remembered that she had a dinner date sometime with Titus then and wondered if the dress was too much. It was modest enough, baring her back with a crossover design in the front that flowed well into the lower half, but it looked more like a formal gown. She put it back and looked at the rest. There was a comfortable, long loose dress that was made of soft material, and a sleeved green dress with a short skirt made of stretchy cloth. In one of the drawers there was a variety of tops and bottoms including some intelligent clothing that could be reshaped, which rounded out her wardrobe. There were more clothes there than she remembered owning, but the dresser and closet were still mostly empty.
“There are three shops open on the promenade at the moment, with more opening soon in case you don’t like anything you have,” Roomie said.
“I like everything here, it’s just…” she ran her hand over the smooth green cloth of the more casual dress in her closet. “I don’t remember the last time I took time to think about what I wore.” Alice took the comfortable looking long dress out then slipped out of her uniform as she walked to the shower.
A long shower later, she was in the casual dress her mother chose for her. “I’m guessing this is the kind of thing she lounges at home in,” she said. It was comfortable, and when she sat on the sofa, she could curl up in the loose material and cover her feet.
“The common use for that is as a stay-at-home comfort garment, so you are correct.”
Alice looked at the gold, silver, brown and rainbow coloured fish lazily roving around in the largest section of aquarium. It was a floor to ceiling area that divided her bedroom from the living room. “How is the sushi the automated kitchen prepares? I’m sure it’s fresh, since I could point at my victim and have it a few minutes later, but is it good?”
“Testers have rated it with an overall score of two point eight out of five,” Roomie replied. “Improvements to the system software will be made.”
“Are there any places delivering yet?” Alice asked, curling up against an inner curve on the sofa.
“There are several, what kind of food would you like?”
“Is there sushi?”
“There is the Orient and Mama Chu’s, both deliver,” Roomie replied.
“Can you bring up the menu for the better rated one?”
Holograms of recently prepared sushi rolls and dishes appeared in front of her with prices and preparation times beneath them. “Mama Chu’s is more highly rated today by point two-five stars. It takes
an average of eighteen minutes for them to deliver. You have one hundred forty-seven thousand and twenty-one luxury credits available to spend today. That represents one tenth of your total luxury credits.”
“Is that a lot?” Alice asked, realizing the answer to her question as she looked at the mouth-watering images of sushi rolls. She could buy six cucumber rolls for half a credit.
“Relative to most military service people, you are amongst the wealthiest, but that is mostly due to you leasing your ship, and the fact that you have ignored your finances entirely for the whole time you’ve been on Tamber. The new economy favours savers, as they say.”
“I guess I’m not very materialistic,” Alice selected several rolls, added an order of salad, vishri ramen, and vegetable tempura.
“That is a large order for someone your size,” Roomie cautioned.
“Shush, I’m feasting. Look away.” She placed her order, which cost nine and a half luxury credits.
“Now, bring up Noah Lucas’ Iora file. I need to figure out how I’m going to approach this if I’m going to finish my report in five days.”
Part Fifteen
Alice looked at Carnie’s record stretched over a holographic timeline. It surrounded her as she picked at sushi rolls on the sofa. Most of the information she hadn’t reviewed had video footage attached, something she knew would slow her down, but she was grateful for it all the same. There was still narration throughout, which would make figuring out what was going on from one minute to the next easier, but there were no summaries, no guide post moments that told her what she could skip. She did pass on a couple days of Noah Lucas scavenging through the complex. It was easy enough to use a piece of software to figure out what his personal inventory looked like, what he dragged back to storage and hid. The report assist software she used did its best to summarize what Noah said, but she couldn’t help but get a sinking sensation when she reviewed the results. “I’m missing something,” she said before popping a vishri roll into her mouth. The delicious rice roll fell apart in her mouth, and the vishri – a plant that had been engineered to have the same texture and similar nutrients to shrimp – popped as her teeth crushed it. Noah Lucas had a talent for telling his own story his own way, and the summaries weren’t doing it justice.
“This is going to be a long report,” she said as she closed the sushi container. It would keep the leftovers fresh until later. The ramen and half a dozen rolls she ate was a filling feast, she still had over a dozen rolls left. Alice looked around at the holographic representation of his report, there were a hundred or more images strung along the timeline. She hadn’t gotten through a quarter of it, a fact that was both discouraging and reassuring. While the report was something she wanted to finish on time, she also didn’t want to stop listening to him, to run out of story. With a gesture she highlighted an image of Theo sitting in his chair with a pair of large power cells in his lap. There was narration and the computer had marked it as one of the turning points in the events on the timeline. “Roomie; Start playback here, life sized holograms, focus on main action.”
The transparent parts of her apartment walls shifted to block all light and, aside from the section of sofa she was curled up on, the room became Theo’s storage closet. The battered android sat in front of her as though she was standing at the door. His head was down; Theo was still charging.
Noah Lucas began to speak, it sounded like he was talking directly to her from behind.
“When most of us are young we have an idol. I guess for most of us it’s an older brother, sister, or some cousin or uncle. I guess the luckiest of us have a mom or dad we think are the coolest people in the universe. I was eight when I met Devin Hale. He was a pilot – of course he was a pilot, that’s probably where I got the idea that flying was the best thing anyone could do – and he was the coolest guy in the universe.
“You know what, kid?” he said to me once when he was coming back from a patrol. He put his helmet on my head, it felt huge, then knelt down and told me; “I bet you’ll be better than me someday. Keep hitting the sims when you don’t have anything better to do. Always pick matches against people who can kick your butt, dogfights with anyone else are a waste of your time.”
I remember following him to his bunk with that helmet balanced on my little head. He showed me a few pictures of ‘his girl’ and I don’t remember her name, but he kept saying that he’d earn enough platinum to get back to her someday. Maybe it’s just the embellishment of memory, but ‘his girl’ was this killer beauty with a smile that shone through the screen. It was like I was looking at an angel.
Over the two years or so he flew a fighter for us he imparted a few lessons I’ll never forget while he fed me toffee and we listened to ancient music from earth, all of it rock and roll, and now that I think of it, he looked more like a musician from the twentieth century than a pilot from our time. “You find something or someone you want to follow, you find a way to go after it and keep up,” was one of his gems. I think he told me that one the most. In hindsight, I think Devin probably lost more opportunities and friends than anyone I know. He had so many stories about pilots he’d flown with while he was with one defence force or another, but he was hired alone. Maybe he wasn’t so good at taking his own advice.
I did square up with him in sims more and more, and he put me in my place over and over. I tagged him a few times, but never scored a kill on him, just a few virtual holes in his hull. I look in the mirror these days and I see a little of him there. The heavy armour jacket that looks like old black leather that I picked up along the way, the messed up, sorta long hair, and a bit of the swagger I only notice when I catch a reflection of myself walking past a shiny bulkhead or big mirror. Then again, I think most of that swagger comes from all the walking I did on Iora. When you walk long enough, far enough, you find your way. Your body wants to walk a certain way, and you only learn what that is after walking for a long time, long enough to think that it’s what you’re made to do more than anything else. I’m getting ahead of myself.
Anyway, Devin Hale eventually left. He wasn’t my caretaker or anything, someone else gets the credit and the blame for that, but like I said before; he was the coolest hombre I ever did know. I didn’t believe he was leaving us until he knelt and looked at me with that crooked grin. “You take care of yourself, kid. I’ve gotta move on, I can’t go where your caravan is going, the law doesn’t like me much there.”
“I want to go with you,” I told him. The first of a bunch of tears started running down my face. There would be buckets worth.
“You kidding?” he said, surprised. “You’ve got so many friends here, friends like family. That’s the best, bud, don’t be alone unless you’ve gotta be. You know what the real secret to a good life is? Make friends wherever you go, bud, even if you’ve got a lisp, a stutter and are as nervous as a cat in a rocking chair factory, just say hello and see what happens. You do that enough, and you’ll have a hard time getting lonely. Keep flying kid, I’ll see you out there.”
A lot of people missed him for a couple years, but like many of the hires that came and went in our travelling carnival, most people forgot Devin Hale. I still look him up every once in a while, but other than a couple arrests and an escape from Blackwell that looked pretty insane, I didn’t hear much. One thing that sticks with me is that I never saw good news about Devin, and I never saw a pic of him with that girl of his. Maybe he earned enough to get back to her and they’re together somewhere, that’s what I’d like to think. I expect he picked a fight he couldn’t resist with a better pilot though, and he got slagged, that’s more likely.
I do try to make friends wherever I go, though. That stuck, and it served me pretty well most of the time. That’s why, when Theo woke up after a long charge cycle, I made sure he had a couple full power cells that I scrounged up. I didn’t explore too much, but I did see enough to realize that a lot of the systems in the middle of the complex were still working, or rebooted and recovered. Mos
t of them were locked down tight, but I knew if I could get Theo to help me out, I could make use of something there.
I watched from outside the service room as his system emitted a ping and he raised his head. “Good morning, good morning,” he said cheerily. It was an automated wake up message, something I would learn he said every time he finished charging or turned on.
Before he noticed me in the shadows outside, he saw the power cells in his lap, each glowing with their charge meters in the nineties. He picked one up and looked it over. “It’s perfect, I could run for a month on one of these.”
“I didn’t know how to connect it, sorry,” I said. “Otherwise you would have woken up with a full tank.”
“An extra tank,” he said. “You found these in the lower levels?”
“Mid-levels,” I said. “I didn’t want to go down without a guide. Do you think we could connect one or two?”
“My extra power ports were damaged when I was set on fire. I know how to replace them, but I am not allowed to take parts from any other robot or service myself. Something about job security.”
“I’ve got a bunch of bots in the cafeteria, they’re in pretty good shape except for getting zapped by the pulse. I don’t know how to fix you, or to get the right parts, but maybe you could show me? We could work on your bum leg at the same time.”
“Bum leg? How can my leg be a…” he thought for a moment then laughed; “Ah, I understand. As much as I dislike the notion of cannibalizing robots, as long as there are no memory circuits in whatever we salvage, it should be all right. I would appreciate your help very much.”
“You got it. Let’s get up there and put you back together,” I told him. “Then maybe we can see if the emergency communications are working.”
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10.5: Carnie's Tale Page 9
