Binary Pair

by Michael-Scott Earle

“Yeah. I’ll get a closer look. You four stay here,” I said before I crept away from them and took up a position at the end of the alleyway.

  The day was beginning to age, and while I didn’t know exactly when the sun set, the light was turning a reddish hue, and the shadows from the buildings were stretching long across the street as if they were bars of a jail cell.

  The target building was a bit of a lighter shade of gray than most of the other buildings around it, but all of the buildings we passed were various shades of gray, so the paint didn’t really seem to jump out at me that much. It was across the street and three buildings to my right, so I dashed across the pavement and then took cover in the entryway of the first building I came to. I checked both directions on the street, didn’t see anything, and then moved down to the next building. There was still no movement from anything in the city, but my nerves felt a bit raw when I finally made it to my destination.

  The door was made out of the same thick dark glass we had seen on the other buildings. I pushed on the handle, but it didn’t budge. Then I noticed a small keypad on the top underneath the wide lever. It was just a simple ten-key pad, but there was a plug on the side of it, and a tiny red light blinked on the side.

  I glanced both ways down the street and gestured for the women to join me. As they ran, I kept my eye on the street, but there was still no movement anywhere.

  “There is a keypad,” I said to Z as soon as the women reached me.

  “Ahh good. I get to be useful,” the hacker said as she leaned down to look at the number pad.

  “You are always useful,” I said.

  “Thanks.” She turned from the keypad, and her blue eyes sparkled as she gave me a half smile. “Let me get this thing open. I’ve got a jack that will fit in this hole.”

  Z dug around in the small computer pack she carried on her hip and pulled out a handful of various cords. She found one after a few moments and plugged it into the datapad.

  “Is that safe?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” Z had paused before she put the other end of the cord into the metal plug on her skull.

  “You don’t know the computer, and it plugs into your head. Aren’t there computer viruses?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but that’s part of the job. I’ve got software loaded that will keep me safe. Worse that happens is I have to shut down the interface connection and reformat everything.”

  “I’ve meant to ask you about the hardware,” Paula whispered as she leaned down to look at Z’s skull. “I’m guessing you’ve got a nanochip array in there with neuro-link connections?”

  “Kind of,” the hacker answered. “I’ll show you when we get back to Persephone. I can eject the port, and you can take a look at it.”

  “Ohhh,” both of the twins said with delight.

  “After this though!” Z laughed and then inserted her cord into the slot.

  No one spoke for thirty seconds while Z worked. Her eyes were closed, but her lips twitched between half-smiles and half-frowns.

  “Boring. The code is actually the location written on the building. I think who ever locked this wanted us to be able to open it easily. I didn’t even need to hack it,” Z said as she opened her eyes. The keypad made a soft beeping noise, and the hacker pulled her cord out of her head.

  “Kasta, keep some drones out here to watch the street. Bring the rest inside,” I ordered.

  “Got it,” she said.

  “I’ll go in first,” I said as I nodded for Eve to open the door. She did, and I stepped into the building’s entrance with my rifle ready.

  The interior was dark, but my eyes adjusted to the lack of light quickly. The space was carpeted with a blend of surprisingly bright green and yellow lines. The walls were painted with a mural of flowers, and the ceiling was decorated with hanging decorations of feathery birds. I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn’t imagining the decorations and turned around to where my friends stood. They were still there.

  “Looks clear. Turn your suit lights on with the switch on your left sleeve,” I said, and the women followed me inside of the lobby while the lights glowed from the outlines of their bodies.

  “Some dust in here, but not much,” Eve said as she pointed her rifle at a set of couches on the right side of the room.

  “Fuck, this is creepy,” Z hissed as she let the door close behind us. There was a loud clicking sound, and the five of us turned to look at the hacker.

  “Did it just lock?” Paula gulped.

  “Uhhh. There is a button on the side here to open it,” Z let out a thankful sigh as she pressed a button on the handle. The door made a clicking noise as it unlocked.

  “Keep it locked,” I ordered, and Z pressed the switch again.

  “Send out your drones,” I said to Kasta.

  The woman nodded, and three of the little dragonfly-helicopters turned on their front lights and drifted quietly through the lobby and down the hallway ten meters from us. The rest of us held our positions, but we all kept our eyes on Kasta.

  “Elevator is right around the corner, but there is no power going to it,” the android said as soon as the drones drifted into the hallway.

  I nodded, and Kasta continued to stare toward the hallway. I briefly thought about what it must have looked like for her to view out of the drone’s visual sensors. Did she see through them as if it was her own vision? Did she have small screens semi-imposed over her own vision like my old battle-helmet? Did she see them all at once like a bug with multiple eyes? I was curious, but now was not the right time to have the conversation.

  “Doors on the left and right. Hallway goes back another fifty meters. All the doors are closed, and floor numbers are etched on them. End of the hallway is a door marked ‘stairs.’ What do you want me to do?” Kasta asked as she looked at me.

  “You all wait here, and I’ll check the hallway,” I said.

  “I will come with you; I know when you want me to stand or shoot,” Eve said, and I nodded before we walked to the hallway.

  The bright colors and wall murals continued in this hallway, and even the doors to the elevator were painted to show a rolling hillside landscape.

  The first door was on the left, and I motioned for Eve to try to open it while I prepared to sweep the inside with my rifle. It was locked, and we waited a few moments to see if anyone would open it from the inside. No one did, of course, so we moved to the next door on the right.

  This was also locked, as was the next. We finally made it to the end of the hallway where the drones hovered and tried the doors there. These were unlocked, and Eve flung the right one open before I leaned inside. I expected a concrete stairwell, and that was what I got, but the murals on this wall were painted an ocean blue, and the artist had gone to great lengths to detail dozens of different sea creatures. Some of them looked similar to the fish and whales I had seen in videos of Earth, but others looked completely alien, and I wondered if the artist made them up, or if they swam through the ocean waters of this planet.

  “It is beautiful,” Eve whispered.

  “Yeah. Whoever did this is talented. I wonder if he or she did the hallway and the lobby.”

  “I could look at it all day. This is the legacy of someone who dreamed of beauty when they closed their eyes,” the vampire said.

  “Stairs look clear,” I said as I glanced up and down the center shaft. “Z, Kasta, and Paula, you three can come join us.” I spoke to the drones and guessed Kasta would tell the other two women they could come.

  One of the drones dove down the stairs, and the other floated up. I waited for the other three women to join us in the stairwell, and they shared our wonderment when they saw the ocean mural that our suit lights illuminated.

  “There are no open doors on the floors above us,” Kasta said, “but the door below us is ajar. There is a paint brush wedged in the jamb to keep it from closing.”

  “Let’s go down,” I said as I took point again. The women and other two drones followed me,
and we quickly moved down the stairs. This door was painted with the ocean mural, and I squatted next to the paintbrush that was keeping it from closing. The brush was covered with dried and flaking blue paint.

  I carefully pushed the door open a few centimeters, saw that the other end of the brush was not attached to a wire, and then opened the door halfway. Then I glanced through into the hallway beyond and saw more of the mural on the left wall of the hallway. These looked to be more apartment doors, but the murals ended on the third one on the left.

  “I think that is our destination, but let’s check these other doors first,” I said as I stepped into the hallway.

  The next doors were all locked, but the one surrounded by murals had another paint brush keeping it open a crack. I pushed it open more with my boot, checked for a trip wire, and then stepped inside the apartment.

  “Wow,” I said as I cleared the entry and stepped through the hallway into the main living area of the apartment. Every square centimeter was painted with a beautiful scenery. There were trees, planets, suns, stars, grass, water, and sensual women in various state of undress. The painted women were the most beautiful of the works in the room, but their half-naked, or mostly naked appearance didn’t seem incredibly sexual, the poses looked more peaceful and sensual.

  “Damn. This is talent,” Z said after she let out a long whistle.

  The other women agreed with silent nods, and I moved to the side where the kitchen was. There was a small fridge, sink, stove, and cooking utensils, but there was nothing inside of the fridge or the pantry. I tried the faucet, and I was a bit surprised when water actually came out.

  “This looks like the bedroom,” Paula said as she opened the door on the opposite side of the room.

  “Wait!” I hissed, and the woman froze. Then she backed away from the door, and I moved to take her position.

  “Just to be safe,” I said as I pushed the door with my rifle. “I heal easily.”

  “Got it,” Paula said.

  She’d been correct, the door opened to a room five meters wide by seven meters long. Closest to me was a small bed made with sheets folded with military precision. On the far side of the room were shelves neatly organized with paint bottles, brushes, wood frames, and rolled canvas. There were more paintings of women on the walls and ceilings, but the women all pointed to the opposite side of the room by the shelves.

  “You see them pointing?” I asked my friends as I gestured to the naked women painted on the walls and ceiling.

  “Yeah,” Z said, and then she stepped across the room to the shelves. “There is a screen here. Looks like a television type device. There is some sort of media player attached.”

  The rest of us moved to her side as she pulled a blank square canvas off the shelf. It had concealed the screen and the camera that attached to the top of it.

  “Can you get it to play the video?” I asked her.

  “Hmmm.” Z reached through the shelf and then pressed the buttons on the block device connected to the screen. Nothing happened, so she poked her head deeper into the shelf to see what was wrong.

  “Maybe I can help?” Paula asked.

  “Naw. I got it,” Z replied.

  “It might be a problem with the pow--”

  “I got it,” Z interrupted as she reached one of her arms into the shelf between the cans of paint. “Adam, can you move this shelf out of the way? The screen is actually mounted on the wall.”

  “Sure,” I said as the hacker pulled her head out of the shelf and stood back.

  I handed Eve my rifle, squatted near one end of the shelving, grabbed it, and then lifted it away from the wall without much effort. Z stepped around me as soon as I finished, and she began to look at the wires connecting the screen to the black box.

  “The power is off,” she said after a few more minutes passed.

  “Will another power source work?” I asked.

  “No-Yes,” both Z and Paula said at the same time.

  “No,” Z clarified as she looked at the long-haired blonde woman. “It plugs into the wall. We’d have to--”

  “Re-wire it to another power source. I can do it. I brought some small tools with me in case I had to repair a drone,” Paula pointed to one of the pouches on her belt.

  “Yeah, alright, but we need power.” Z shrugged. “The door lock has a battery, but I doubt it will be enough to get both the screen and the player going.”

  “Can we take it back to Persephone?” Kasta asked.

  “The screen is mounted to the wall,” Z said as she leaned her face close to where the screen touched the mural. “Paula, do you have a screw driver that will fit these screws? They look weird.”

  “Hmmm,” the engineer said as she leaned in with Z to study the back mounting area of the screen. “I don’t have one on me, but I do in my collection back on Persephone. I think there is also a full set of tools in her engine and drone repair rooms.”

  “We can go to the ship, get the tools, and return,” Eve said.

  “And then take the monitor off and go back? Going to take forever,” Z groaned.

  “We can take one of the cars,” Kasta said.

  “Like hotwire it? Do you know how to do it?” the hacker asked.

  “No,” said the android.

  “But Z, you are smart and great with computers and software. My sister and I are skilled with machines and programming. I’m sure the three of us could figure out how to steal a simple automobile.” Paula smiled at Z.

  “Uhh. Yeah. Thanks, I guess that is one option,” Z said as she returned Paula’s smile.

  “Perhaps there is another source of power nearby?” Eve suggested. “Maybe one of the other apartments had a battery or power cell we could use on the device.”

  “Ahh!” I gasped as I looked at the weapon in my hand. “This rifle uses a power cell to feed bullets through the system. I have spares in here.” I reached into the ammo belt and pulled out one of the packs.

  “I dunno,” Z said as she took the square cell from my palm and turned it over in her hand. Then she glanced at the twins and held the battery out to them. “What do you think?”

  “We can try. Let’s pull out our tools.” Paula reached into the pack on her belt and pulled out a roll of thick nylon. Then she moved to the floor underneath the screen and unrolled the fabric to reveal an assortment of tools. Kasta and Z crouched next to Paula, and the three of them began to discuss how they could connect both the screen and the playing device to the power source.

  This is good. I thought I might have to step in and speak with you about Z and our new crew members, but she is starting to feel less threatened.

  I turned to Eve and gave her a puzzled look. I didn’t know why Z felt threatened about the twins being onboard. The two of them helped us back on Queen’s Hat and paid their way. They were also talented engineers and had already proven their usefulness a dozen times in the few days since we left the station.

  It is more nuanced than that, my love. Z feels vulnerable. Every man she has cared for betrayed her or tossed her aside. Now she has feelings for you, and they are the strongest she has ever experienced. She knows you love me. She knows you love her. She knows I love her. She didn’t expect any of this, so she doesn’t know what to think. Now there are two brilliant women on our crew who are amazing with machines and computers. That was her role on Persephone, and the thought of not being of use to you terrifies her. I understand why you have pushed her away these last few days, but it has only compounded her fears that the twins will replace her on the crew. Paula and Kasta are also bolder sexually, and Z fears they will offer themselves to you before you accept her as your lover.

  I took a deep breath and nodded at Eve. I didn’t know what to do about my feelings for Z at the moment, but the least I could do was tell her that she didn’t have to worry about me kicking her off the ship. I knew Paula had to be incredibly skilled with computers to be able to program Kasta and Byron, but that didn’t necessarily mean either of the
twins could break into a computer system as well as Z.

  It wasn’t just her skill with computers either, Z’s patented blend of humor, sarcasm, intelligence, and snark was alluring. She made me laugh, and her willingness to admit that she cared for me, and was afraid of those feelings, drew me to her even more. I didn’t want to have these emotions because of the way I felt about Eve, but I couldn’t deny I had them.

  Even if loving two women made me feel dishonorable, and I definitely wouldn’t complicate matters by sleeping with the twins.

  Z is not worried about being kicked off the ship. She is more concerned about Paula and Kasta outshining her. The relationship she has had with men have only hinged upon finances and sex. Since you haven’t taken her as a lover yet, she is anchoring your relationship on what she contributes to the crew. However, Paula has guessed at Z’s fears, and she will try to ensure that there is no competition between the three of them for crew responsibilities.

  I nodded again at Eve and felt a bit of relief pour through my shoulders. I didn’t want to play politics with the crew about job roles. Everyone was valuable right now, and I was thankful for Kasta and Paula’s presence.

  “Captain, do you have another one of those power cells?” Z asked.

  “Yeah,” I said as I pulled another out of the ammo pouch and handed it to her. I only had three total, but I heard that each of the packs lasted for thousands of shots before it needed to be recharged. I probably could have left the two spares back in the armory.

  The three blonde women went back to work on the play device, and I saw one of the twins carefully lift a small pair of scissors off the tool roll. Her back was to me, so I couldn’t really see what she did with the shears, but I guessed she was cutting some of the power lines. A good five minutes passed, then another, and then they all glanced up at the screen on the wall.

  “This should work,” Paula said.

  “Or we’ll fry the thing with the power cell and have to take it back to Persephone to see if we can recover the drive,” Z said with a shrug.

  “Then you can make dinner,” Eve said with a smile.

  “Fuck yeah. I’m getting hungry.” Z laughed and then looked at the twins. “Let’s fire ‘er up.”