time as possible in her room, because it’s cramped and smelly (and unfortunately, doesn’t seem to give her any awesome hallucinations), so they have fallen into a routine of eating on the beach. Well, Myrha eats. Lynne watches.
“Do you believe the lights Fossam saw were a natural phenomenon that occurs on Lieval or a product of human interference?” Lynne asks.
Myrha slowly sips her soup as she unravels that sentence. Myrha doesn’t know if it’s just something that androids do, but she thinks Lynne takes great pleasure in making her sentences as complicated as possible.
“You mean, like fireflies versus radioactive glowing trees because of the research facility that was here?”
“Lieval does not have anything resembling fireflies,” she says promptly.
Right. So that rules that out.
“How do you even know that?”
“Do you not research the destinations you visit?”
Um. ‘Beaches, babes and barbeque’ was all she had really needed to know. She doesn’t say that, because it seems important to not appear stupid in front of a very intelligent machine.
“Well, I don’t look up if they have fireflies. Besides, a lot of this island is unexplored. Maybe Reedy Voice, uh, Fossam, found a new species.”
“I was thinking it might have something to do with Spinner.”
“Well why didn’t you just say so,” Myrha sighs, exasperated.
“I wanted to know what you thought.”
“I honestly don’t really care if Spinner has gotten lost, or if Fossam found dancing lights. All I care about is the damn shuttle.”
“You very are single minded.”
“Sure.”
Lynne stands up and cocks her head to the side in a considering manner. Myrha wonders if that sort of behavior had been programmed into her, or if she had picked it up somewhere as she studied and copied human behavior.
“I think we should investigate.”
“We…investigate…huh?”
Lynne nods in affirmation as if Myrha had strung together a coherent question. Myrha can do nothing but turn in her beach chair as the android strides to the jungle.
“Wait!” Myrha shouts in a half-panicked gulp, “What if you get lost? Or run into trouble?”
“Myrha,” and it’s the first time the android has ever said her name, all drawn out and amused and that’s kind of hot, “those are the risks of exploration.”
Fuck.
She’s met Turobeck in hot android lady form.
And she realizes she never asked why Lynne liked Turobeck, why he was her favorite, why she even read poetry. It doesn’t strike her as something androids do. But here is she is, like Turobeck reincarnated, and the reasons she could like Turobeck seem startling clear.
“Is exploring even part of your programming?” she blurts out.
“If you are afraid, you may stay behind,” Lynne says very patiently.
But there’s a wicked smirk on her face and suddenly Myrha’s jumping up from her seat and poking a finger at Lynne.
“Let’s go,” she says.
“If you touch the bark, do not lick your fingers afterwards,” are the first words of advice out of Lynne’s mouth.
They’ve been walking for nearly an hour and Myrha thinks it was a phenomenally bad idea to go exploring with a machine that is possibly not programmed to feel fear.
“Thanks ever so,” Myrha grumbles.
Lynne doesn’t rise to the bait; she’s too busy checking the ledger that denotes access to the campsites. They’re stopped at campsite four and it seems that Spinner didn’t touch this place either.
“He has not checked in at any of the first four campsites.”
“Well good for him, he wants to make a new one.”
“Then he should have at least left tags on the trees so that others could follow his path, in case something did happen.”
Lynne begins to lead the way to campsite five. The entire jungle smells completely disgusting, and Lynne carefully tells her which plants to avoid touching (“that one causes painful blisters on human skin”), and what creatures to look out for (“if you hear a sound resembling chimes, quickly cover your ears; that is the sound of a bird of prey that puts its victims to sleep with its song, and then eats them where they lay.” “That’s messed up.”).
Everything is bright green and red and orange and the bark looks slick and sticky. She has pants and an elbow-length jacket, so she watches her wrists to make sure no strange bugs decide to land on her and eat her skin. Myrha’s wishing she wore gloves. Or maybe she should’ve just come in a complete protection suit.
There’s a trail between the campsites, however, something Myrha’s grateful for, though she wasn’t expecting it.
“I thought this place was all about solitude and isolation and exploring new frontiers?” Myrha asks as she tramps along the flattened ground, “Don’t trails and campsites defeat the purpose?”
“This is also an island that has been relatively unexplored and has been the site of past chemical contamination. The hotel must conform to safety standards of course, for insurance purposes, as it owns some of the land and rents out equipment. When venturing into the rest of the preserve, explorers should heed safety procedures.”
“Wait, preserve?”
“Yes. After the ban was lifted and colonization efforts failed, Bartin campaigned to make the rest of the jungle, and indeed the rest of the island, a preserve for wildlife and exploration. The only part of Lieval that is allowed to be colonized now is the south beach strip, where the refueling station and hotel are.”
“When you say you do research…you really do research, don’t you?”
“It is part of my job to know as much as possible to better inform passengers of their destination.”
“You didn’t say any of this on our flight!”
“No one asked.”
Myrha gives her a shrewd glance, “But wouldn’t it be more efficient to anticipate the needs of guests and mention some of this during the flight? Especially the part about the chemical contamination?”
“How would I know what information to impart and what to keep to myself? I have a wealth of information; to recite all of it could possibly take hours.”
She’s not sure if androids have ‘common sense’ or not, but they can surely judge the importance and relevancy of certain types of information. Can’t they?
“You know, that sounds suspiciously like a load of shit. I think you like to learn just because you’re curious. It’s not about being knowledgeable for guests at all.”
“Believe what you want,” she says loftily.
“I will, thanks.”
When they get to campsite five, the ledger reveals that Spinner hasn’t been there either.
“Since Fossam was staying at campsite six, it seems he was right: Spinner has just…disappeared.”
Myrha doesn’t think it’s as dire as all that, “Maybe he went to take a leak and got lost?”
“Then we should attempt to locate him.”
“What are you: a rescue droid?”
“It is my duty to ensure the comfort and safety of all guests.”
“Yeah, on the shuttle.”
“Then I will stop pointing out dangerous life forms to you.”
Myrha gapes at her, “That’s not what I meant!”
Lynne’s already walking down the path to campsite six, and Myrha doesn’t even ask why they’re going there, just scrambles to keep up.
“I mean, you should keep telling me these things,” she says, “about the dangerous life forms. Like the snake that disguises itself as an exposed root.”
“Yes, you did almost trip over it, didn’t you?”
“See! You need to keep telling me this stuff.”
“Oh, I thought since you weren’t on the shuttle it wasn’t my duty to ensure your safety any more, isn’t that right?”
“No, you definitely should. Because you like me.”
“I do?”
“Ye
s. I am extremely likeable and very pretty. You want to keep me alive.”
Myrha’s sweating and panting, but she does her best to throw Lynne a rather sexy, convincing smile.
Lynne glances at her out of the side of her eyes, her stride not pausing.
“You are attempting to flirt with me.”
“Whoa, way to kill the mood.”
They walk a few more paces and then Myrha sputters, “Wait, attempting?”
“We are at campsite six,” Lynne announces.
Myrha follows her as Lynne double-checks the ledger. No Spinner.
“What do you mean ‘attempt’? I was flirting with you. Didn’t it work?” Myrha puts her hands on her hips.
“As a stewardess, I have been on the receiving end of many such attempts, and yours was pathetic at best.”
“Well,” Myrha plants herself in front of the android, “that’s because I wasn’t giving it my all. If I was going to flirt and seduce you, you wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Is that so?” Lynne raises an eyebrow and says each word slowly.
“Yeah,” she gives her a cock-sure grin, “I spend most of my free nights seducing humans and alien visitors.”
“Yes, you’ve implied you’re rather promiscuous.”
“I even snagged an alien at the port.”
“Am I supposed to be impressed?”
“Yes. You’re talking to an interstellar playgirl!”
“I’ll be sure to be wary,” Lynne says dryly and steps around her.
Myrha twists her torso to watch her, “Where are you going?”
“I am going to search for Spinner.”
“Right, but he could be anywhere. Don’t you need like, supplies? Clothes? A map? Something?”
Lynne gives her a look that says ‘android, remember?’
“My internal positioning system will track my steps. I will be able to find my way back to this spot very easily. If that