“She saved us. Remember that,” Tripp dropped Bonnie’s legs onto the seat as Jaycee pushed her against the backrest. “If it wasn’t for Anderson, we’d be sitting ducks. Sitting, suffocating ducks.”
“Hang on a second,” Jaycee looked at Jelly and squinted. “Did Anderson just open the N-Vigorate door for us?”
Tripp looked at the passed-out Bonnie, somewhat amused by Jaycee’s surprise. “Yeah, I think she did.”
“But, how—”
“—As I said, she’s the only one who could have engaged the thrusters. We think we went through the pink wormhole thing on Enceladus.”
Jaycee nodded at Jelly. “She did that?”
“Yeah.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Well, we must have gone through Enceladus,” Tripp tightened the strap on Bonnie’s lap, “We’re not in our solar system anymore. We must be somewhere else.”
“Meow,” Jelly held up her right paw and yawned.
Tripp winked at Jelly and held his right hand up at her, enacting a cute high-five, “Manuel hasn’t the first clue where we are,”
“Manuel is an idiot,” Jaycee crouched and held his hands out to Jelly. “Who’s a good girl, then?”
She ran into the giant’s arms and purred. He picked her up and watched Tripp grab a fistful of Bonnie’s her hair. He held it up to reveal a small tattoo-like text behind her ear that read: Manning/Synapse.
He sighed, quietly, and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Bonnie.”
“What’s up?” Jaycee asked, allowing Jelly to purr away in his arms. “Everything okay?”
Tripp took the end of a chunky cable from the console and lifted the cap away, “I just feel sorry for her, that’s all.”
“Why?”
Tripp slid the back of her neck open and plugged the cable in.
“We all know the Series Three is relatively new technology. But for a while, there, I forgot she wasn’t human.”
“You can’t let those Androgyne things get to you, my friend. She’s a droid. She’ll be fine.”
“I know that,” Tripp locked the cable and released her hair around her neck, “But you’d have thought USARIC would have been more sensitive to its needs.”
“Sensitive? USARIC?” Jaycee let out a sarcastic smirk, “Since when did a corporation care about anything other than its bottom line?”
“It’d be funny if it weren’t true,” Tripp yanked the lever on the console. It fired to life, along with the rejuvenation cable. Bonnie’s eyelids lifted up, revealing two pink retinas. “At least N-Vigorate is working.”
Tripp peered into Bonnie’s lifeless face and eyes. Lifeless, of course, to a point. Everyone except her knew she wasn’t a real human being but, damn it, her visage was extremely convincing.
“Okay, that’s her taken care of. She’ll be fine in a few hours.”
“Tripp?” Jaycee ran his gloved fingers over Jelly’s head. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Are you ever going to tell Bonnie?”
“Tell her what?” Tripp asked, knowing full well what his colleague was referring to.
“That’s she’s not human.”
“God, no. No, we can never tell her. You know what happens when an Androgyne finds out it’s not human.”
“But she’s a series three model. That doesn’t apply to them, does it?”
“Hey, you saw how she behaved a few minutes ago. Not exactly a shining endorsement of mental well-being, is it?”
“No, but—”
“—It’s not worth the risk, Jaycee,” Tripp insisted. “We need to find out what’s happened, and the last thing we need is Bonnie, of all people—”
“—So to speak,” Jaycee interrupted jovially.
“—Very funny,” Tripp tried not to smile. “The last thing we need is for her to do run rampant and causing more problems for us. Besides, she’s human to us. And that’s all that matters.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Jaycee nodded. “But if I chose to argue with it, I’d win, because I’d just kick your ass all around this room.”
Tripp shook his head and smiled. “Have you ever heard the saying ‘if you resort to violence then you’ve lost the argument’, at all?”
Jaycee thumped his fists together so hard that it shook the ground, “Uh, no.”
“Fair enough.”
Tripp gave up his attempt to educate Jaycee. Instead, he offered Jelly his hand. She swiped at it, playfully.
“Did you see Wool, or our two Russian friends, on your travels?”
“No. I woke up and found you and Bonnie. I’ve seen no one, yet. Other than you, Bonnie, and Jelly, here. The two Russkies should be in N-Carcerate where we left them.”
Tripp rubbed Jelly’s head and turned to the door, “They’d better be. Let’s go and find them.”
“Did Manuel run a sit-rep?”
Tripp walked toward the door in haste. “Manuel is, uh, experiencing some technical difficulties.”
“Technical difficulties?”
“Yeah. I shut him down till we figure out what’s going on.” Tripp pressed his palm to the panel on the wall. “How are you feeling, Jaycee? You look okay, but it’d be remiss of me not to ask.”
Jaycee bounced Jelly in his arms and kissed her on the head. “I’ve never felt better.”
“Is that pink stuff still coming from your eyes?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t hurt. In fact, all my usual aches and pains are gone. How about you?”
“I’m fine.”
The door slid open. Tripp took one final glance at Bonnie in the chair. The poor woman – something of a prisoner in her own mind. A product, or victim, of the Manning/Synapse company – feelings be damned. Destined to be confused for the rest of her existence.
“It’s just not right, you know,” Tripp whispered a bit too loudly for comfort.
“What’s not right?”
“What they’ve done to her.”
“Bonnie?” Jaycee smiled and tried to console his colleague. “Don’t worry about her. She’s a fighter. She’ll be fine.”
“I guess,” Tripp walked through the door. “Promise me one thing, though, Jaycee.”
“What’s that?”
“If I die, make sure they don’t turn me into one of those things.”
CHAPTER THREE
Wool ar-Ban lay unconscious across Jelly’s medical bed. Fast asleep, her breathing extremely slow. Her radio sat on the desk beside her under a picture of Jamie stuck to the wall.
A pink patch of liquid fell from her closed eyelids and bleached into the fabric of the mattress.
Three beds away from her lay Haloo Ess. She’d died before Opera Beta had ventured into the wormhole on Enceladus. Jaycee had attempted to revive her.
The issue wasn’t so much the revival but what had caused it. Like everyone else, Haloo had caught the bug brought back onto the ship. Her reaction was unlike the others. She’d developed an allergic reaction and fell into a cardiac arrest.
The heart rate monitor continued to emit the sound of a flat line. The wires from the unit were still attached to her breastplate.
Haloo wasn’t breathing, her face gaunt and pale. The stench was undeniable – not quite enough of a pungent aroma to bring Wool out of her slumber, but certainly strong enough to hit Jaycee and Tripp as they entered the chamber.
“My God,” Tripp clocked Haloo immediately and ran over to her. “What happened to her?”
Jaycee released Jelly onto the floor, offering her the chance to run around and make a bee line for Wool. “She didn’t make it, Tripp.”