I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not. I can’t decide if this station is trying to kill me or save me.
I can’t make any decisions right now. I just know something is wrong.
“I can’t move.” Delphi laughs. “I swear I’m gonna fall over if I try.”
“I got you,” I say in a soft voice. Then I pick her up in my arms and carry her inside, walking straight to the bedroom, where I lay her gently on top of the covers.
Her eyes are closed. She might even be asleep already.
“Delphi,” I whisper.
“Mmm,” she moans, turning over. Simply exhausted.
“Sleep, then. OK?”
“Mmm.”
I’m exhausted too. But it’s the other kind of exhaustion. The kind where there’s a buzzing under your skin. The over-tired kind. Where all you want is sleep, but you know there’s no way in hell you possibly could.
So I sigh, deeply, and leave the bedroom, closing the door behind me.
My thoughts are whirling around inside my head like a fucking cyclone. Or pink and gold gases filled with stardust, trying its best to coalesce into a sun.
I shake my head to pull myself out of the dream world we left behind in that forest. So many questions right now.
What the fuck was that? The planet. The sex. Hell, the whole fucking ride. Almost no time passed. I don’t think Real ALCOR could pull something like that off.
I try to sit down and relax. Put the whole thing out of my mind.
But I can’t.
So I get up and pace the living area, anxiously walking back and forth in front of the window. Palladium bot hovers outside, just waiting for us to leave again.
I tap the screen of my wristband and call up Dicker.
“What’s uuuuuuup!” she answers, obviously having a better time here on Mighty Minions than I am.
“I think we need to leave,” I say. “Fuck the water generator. I’m not going to the biogenetic station. I think we should just go home.”
“O-kayyyy,” she says. “Is something wrong?”
Like… where do I even begin? “No,” I lie. “Not really. It’s just… I think I need to get off this station. And Delphi is coming with us. So… how long to get home, do you think? Can we go without water?”
“We could get water on Blue Sand Beach. Probably a new generator if we want.”
“Did you get a hold of Xyla?”
“No, sadly. I think her wristband is turned off.”
“It can’t be,” I say. “She promised to have it on the whole time.”
“Well, she’s not picking up then. Because I haven’t been able to reach her.”
“Then let’s just leave her there. Let’s just go home and we’ll come back for her when her vacay is over.”
“Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”
“Did you get some bottled water? And how long do you think it’ll take to get back to Harem?”
“That was your job, remember?”
“Shit,” I say. “OK. I’ll go grab that. I have to get Delphi’s little bot out of lockup, anyway.”
Dicker just snorts at that new revelation, then says, “I could get to Harem in half a spin if we push it. All those new upgrades after that shit show at Bull Station should keep us fairly comfortable if we go the fast route.”
“Good,” I say, sighing with relief. “I’ll be at the ship in an hour. Get ready, OK? We need to leave.”
“Jimmy,” she says. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. I just… we just need to leave.”
I cut the connection and open the balcony doors. Palladium bot chirps something at me but I put up a hand and say, “Stay here. Do you understand me? Stay here with Delphi and do not let anyone into this room. I’ll be back in an hour.”
It chirps happily. I don’t speak this bot’s language and my wristband is telling me it doesn’t have a translator program, so when I get back on the lift and leave him behind, I just have to trust that’s an affirmative chirp and not some pre-programmed condescending happy denial, like the way the ambassadors always reply when they say no.
It takes me a while to find the bot lock up, and to my surprise, Flicka isn’t actually locked up when I arrive. She’s being held in the bad bot version of Mighty Minion resort, having a pretty good time with the other bad bots from the way she’s buzzing around. Which is nice, I think. For a station that creeps me out and seems to be overly concerned with rules and regulations, the fact that it respects the bots enough to give them their own space to enjoy once they’ve been deemed unsuitable for general access to the park makes me feel just a little bit better.
Because… that’s more my style. I am probably the biggest bots’ rights advocate in the galaxy.
She buzzes around excitedly as I try to talk the lockup ambassador into letting me take her with me without shutting her down.