Did that make him more human, or less?
His holo beeped. "They will land within an hour," he said after he glanced at it. He stood. "I must get my team ready to greet them."
I felt a lump of panic rising in my throat. "Christophe?"
He paused at the door. "It will work out fine, Jacob."
He turned and left. I took a deep breath and told myself he was right. It would work out fine. Now, if only I could get myself to actually believe the words...
I swigged down the rest of my coffee and headed out of the station to wait in Ashnahta's room. Her bed was a mess. The nurses were under strict instructions not to do any housekeeping at all. That was part of my punishment. I got the fresh bedding from the cupboard and stripped out the old. Like yesterday, there was a fine, green powder over the used sheets.
"She's shedding," the Bradley bot had told me when I brought it to his attention.
"She's not a dog," I said, getting offended.
"We all do it, Jacob. We lose old cells for new. She has just come through a biologically traumatic ordeal. I would not be surprised to see an extra level of hair loss." He got a blank look, the one any bot gets when they're processing data. "Actually, perhaps it is normal. The mesh clothing she wore would have excellent exfoliatory properties. Perhaps it is necessary for their species." He blanked again for a millisecond. "Yes. I shall examine that hypothesis further and we shall have our answer."
I rolled up the dirty linens and put them in the container that would send them down the chute to the chemical baths that would clean and sanitize them. I sprayed the bed with the disinfectant I was instructed to use, even though Ashnahta hated the smell. I flapped at the bed to get as much of the odor away as possible, then put the clean sheets on. Next were the few dishes on the table. I took them out and across the hall to the little kitchen area all the doctors, scientists, nurses, and guards on this closed ward used and slid them into the racking. I pressed the button and held it while the lid dropped over the whole thing and the high pressured air hissed. The light turned green, and I pressed the next button to spray the disinfectant. When that turned green as well, I released the latch and put the clean dishes back in the cupboard.
I went back in the room with the mop the service bots usually used. Not that there was any dirt. There never was any dirt in this unit. But I mopped for germs. Once that was done, I ran the disinfecting cloths over every surface Ashnahta would touch. Since Bradley hadn't figured out what her immune system was susceptible to yet, it was safest just to protect from everything.
Everyone but me wore a mask. And I didn't only because Ashnahta had thrown an absolute fit and screamed at them in Qitani when they tried to make me. Bradley was furious, because I could have picked up anything on Earth. Christophe pointed out that it was far too late for that to matter. If I carried any germs, I would have already exposed the entire ward.
The bots even wore masks. I thought that was inane, since they can't get sick. "Any germs will die in them in seconds!" Christophe tried to explain that as a dopple, Bradley was still half convinced he was a human and not doing as the other humans did was unheard of. I had sighed and rolled my eyes. It's so stupid. And such a little thing that I guess it doesn't matter. But my god, I have never met such a temperamental bot! It made me hate bots all the more.
I checked the clock. They would land soon. I sat down, then couldn't stand the feeling, so I stood back up. I paced. I checked the clock again.
Ashnahta was rolled in. They insisted on using a chair for her, even though they were also trying to encourage her to walk more. She was glaring at me without a single thought coming through. She was mad at me for asking her to be quiet. I sighed and lifted her up and out of the chair, then placed her gently into her bed. She had already forbade the nurses from doing that themselves.
"See? That didn't hurt a bit." I pulled the fresh blanket up over her legs and she wrinkled her nose and sniffed. I glanced up, but she was still simply glaring at me. "And I think that's all for today, isn't it nurse?"
"Aside from afternoon conditioning, yes." The nurse gave a nod, then turned and left.
I sat next to her in my usual chair. "So how was it?" Narrower eyes was my only answer. "Well, I've had them myself dozens of times and I know for a fact it wasn't that bad. Glare at me if you want. All of this is to help you."
"I do not need help."
"So you can speak!" I grinned at her in spite of the flood of venom I felt when she opened up and let me have it full force. "I thought we'd have a silent afternoon."
"Is that not exactly what you want? You should be happy for all of your days if I did not speak another word."
I sighed. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. But you've got to admit, you've done a lot of complaining."
She made an offended look, but inside I felt the insecurity. I touched her hand. She snatched it away quickly, but in less than a second put it back. The Qitani have very little physical contact. It's a new experience for her and I find it highly amusing that with one touch, I can get her flustered.
"You would complain."
She was seeking reassurance. I laughed. "Oh yes, yes I would. And did. They haven't really done anything to you they didn't do to me, you know. And I bitched and moaned just as much."
Then you are a hypocrite.
I grinned. "Yep."
She scoffed and tugged her hand, just a little. "I am hungry."
Good. Very, very good. She was starting to respond how I hoped. Through trial and error, we were testing the available foods. I chose the ones I liked first, as they tended to be close to the Qitani diet. Lots of green vegetables, or what passed for green vegetables on Utopia after they had been highly processed in order to last for years. Those were okay by her. She enjoyed the protein mash. I remembered that her people did eat meat when they were desperate or broke or sick or old. If she liked it, she needed it. We were starting to formulate for her an acceptable diet. It would take weeks to be sure, but so far we thought we were doing fairly well.
"I'll get you something to try. Today I've got for you...fruit." I went out to the kitchen and opened the little cooler. There was the fruit I had ordered earlier. It had been dehydrated then rehydrated, of course, but it didn't look too bad. I brought it back in and handed her the plate. "Today we're trying pears, peaches, pineapples, and grapes. I think. They look like grapes."
She took the plate and looked the food over. She always did that. Looked at it like she was half certain that it would jump up and bite her instead of the other way around. I sat down and waited in anticipation. There is not much sugar in the plants of Laak'sa. Vegetation like you wouldn't believe. So many vegetables I couldn't possibly remember their names. But hardly any fruit. She took a small square of pear and put it in her mouth. She was trained her whole life to not show emotions. She was trained to almost not have any but anger, in fact. She couldn't hide her reaction from me, not inside. She liked it. A lot. She quickly ate another, then another. She then tried a peach and in an instant, it was spat across the room.
I couldn't help but laugh. "No peaches. I'll remember that."
What will be the conditioning today?
Another handy thing about inspeaking; you can talk and eat at the same time. "I'm not sure." It was time to tell her. "Um, we're going to have some visitors today." She looked up quickly at me. She knew what that meant, who that meant. I could tell she'd been prying. I sighed. "Seriously? I can't have anything to just myself?"