Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Feelings Sneak Up On You

It took Alexis and I some time to find the way out of the lab. Apparently, the lab wasn’t in her records at all and she was a little surprised she was able to project herself within it at all.

“His Lordship was obsessed with classified projects that the ‘normies’ weren’t allowed to know.” Alexis’ tone could have taught deserts a thing or two about dryness. “I’m assuming that is what happened with that tank you fell into, there was definitely SOMETHING in there but it was already gone by the time I got to you. Hopefully that will pick up on your medical scans.”

I shrugged, not overly concerned. Sure, I had fallen down quite a distance, but honestly I felt fine. Better than fine, great even. I hadn’t felt this way in awhile, having grown used to some of the aches and pains you get as a person in your thirties having grown up under end-game capitalism, but I couldn’t feel any of those aches right now. I wondered briefly if the fall had pushed some things back into alignment or something, like a very aggressive massage. 

 

It took me far too long to realize that Alexis was no longer speaking to me and was giving me a funny look. I stopped in the entrance hall of the tower and met her gaze.

“Sol, are you ok? You’ve gone rather quiet. Now, if I’m annoying you, just let me know. It's been...a long time since I’ve had anyone to talk to and I imagine I’m a bit much.” She looked away and tensed a bit, awaiting my response. 

 

“No no, you are fine, Alexis. I have a tendency to get caught up in my thoughts sometimes. Selene teases me about it all the time. Makes me good at engineering, not so great at socialneering.” I grinned up at her. Wait, up? “Alexis...have you always been taller than I am?”

Ignoring my brilliant wordplay, she looked at me with concern. “Err, no, checking my records from our first encounter I should be about the same height, maybe a little smaller. I’ll run some diagnostics, some of my hologram protocols are subroutines that run themselves, maybe they are on the fritz a bit. Still...we should get you to your ship soon.”

Thunder rumbled through the sky and I could see some rainfall in the distance, on the cliffs surrounding the basin. Shelter shouldn’t be a problem though the storm might slow down my exploration and getting the comms online. And I wasn’t sure how Alexis could stay in contact without her hologram emitters. I called up one of the construction drones I had held in reserve; the construction model had its own hologram emitters (thought sadly lacking in hardlight capabilities, would have to pester Alexis about that later) and most importantly it had networking capabilities outside of the closed drone control system that the scout drones relied on exclusively.

“Alexis, I have a drone on the way that you should be able to interface with. I’d like you to come along with me to the ship, in case the med system needs input and I’m unable to run it. Plus, I do enjoy your company.” I flashed her a slight, but sincere smile. Who wouldn’t be thrilled to spend time with a fully sapient AI, much less one as intriguing and comforting as Alexis. I found myself daydreaming for a moment about her bridal carrying me around...wait what was I thinking? Cmon Simon, you’ve known her for not even an hour and already wanting her to be your servant? I grimaced. Selene kept telling me that I was always harsher on myself than anyone else was, but I just didn’t want to come off as a creep.

Oblivious to my descent into self-loathing, Alexis gasped with delight. “Oh I would love that! I’m eagerly awaiting access, do you need my Ethercoin ID to connect?”

“Ethercoin??? What the hell is...nevermind. This might be a bit trickier than I thought, I assumed your networking capabilities would be standard but I guess the colonies just had to be special. Do you have a terminal or some other kind of interface where I can check your systems? Nothing too deep, I just need to figure out if your network controller has any commonality with mine so I can jury rig something.” I let out a small groan at the thought of dredging up my old networking classes. Hadn’t used those in years.

Alexis graciously showed me a spot near the reception desk of the main hall. I fired up the AR (Augmented Reality) visor in my suit and started fiddling with the holographic controls. It took a lot longer than it should have, my memory wasn’t the greatest, but eventually I was able to get a connection working. Turns out Ethercoin was built off of the same basic network control systems as my devices, they had just slapped a whole pointless crypto mining layer on it and charged people for the privilege of connection...with the currency the miner generated. Have I mentioned how much I absolutely loathe capitalists and their love of screwing over everyone to make a buck? Well, it’s a lot. 

 

Huh, my mind was all over the place today, just running a mile a minute. Oh, I guess I didn’t have a headache for once, that might be doing it. Hadn’t felt this alive in ages. 

 

“Alright that should have done the trick. The construction drone should be getting pretty close now, so you should be able to connect to it.” 

 

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Alexis sat back in the air, floating with a look of deep concentration on her face. After a few moments, I heard the thrum of anti-grav and saw a humanoid drone slip into the tower. The drone floated up to land lightly in front of me. I stifled a giggle at how the drone immediately stood in a pose I had seen Alexis make constantly. Wait...a giggle? I was in an oddly good mood today it seems.

“This feels...so strange. The drone has limited sensory inputs, but still the feelings! The sensations! Oh this is wonderful. They never let me connect up to a humanoid body at all, it was always microdrones if anything. Thank you, Sol. Truly. If I could cry, I would. You have no idea what this means to me.” Alexis overlaid her hologram on the drone and her smile hit me like a truck. My face felt wet and I wiped my eyes with a sniffle. Looking down at my hands, they were glistening with tears.

“Why am I crying? I never cry.” I stared as drops fell off my face and hit the ground. Shaking my head, I tried to compose myself. “I’m really happy for you, Alexis. I truly only expected to find pain here and I’m glad that instead I’ve found you.” Her response was to give me a tender look and then wrap me in a big hug. I couldn’t stop the sobbing this time, it felt good to be held. 

 

We stood there for some time until I felt a wave of fatigue hit me out of nowhere. All of the incredible energy I had been feeling just vanished. I crumpled into Alexis’ arms and she started carrying me while making soothing sounds. 

 

“You’ve had a long day, Sol. Now that I’m capable of it, let me carry you back to your ship and you can get some good rest; how does that sound?” 

 

I nodded and let myself be lulled by the steady rocking of her movement as we left the tower and set out for the ship. The drone had access to the map of the colony my network had been building, so Alexis would have no time finding it. I let myself let go of the stress I had been holding on to and sunk into a peaceful slumber.