Stupid humans. His boss would dock him a night of credits if she caught him flying instead of walking to do his rounds, but it was the only way he could make it to the check point on the other side of the resort to scan his card in time. He scanned his card and, since he was already breaking the rules, flew to the row houses in the middle of the resort. He landed in the shadows just in case no one had seen him and reported him yet, then walked around to the front of the houses to door 616. The house was completely dark. There wasn’t even a glow from any of those robots humans couldn’t seem to live without. He should wait until he brought the female and make her knock on the door in case she was wrong about the address, but he wouldn’t be able to snoop if she was with him. Besides, he could always pretend he was worried about her and just trying to find her father-in-law.
He knocked, waited, then knocked louder. No lights came on and he couldn’t hear anything behind the door. He made of show of stepping back to inspect the top story just in case any of the neighbors were awake, then knocked one more time before trying the door. It opened easily under his hand. No alarms went off and no red lights pointed his way, so the security system was off too. He walked inside while formulating the reason he was going to use on his report. Concern for the female’s father-in-law should work.
Not a single personal item sat upon the nondescript, utilitarian furniture that came with the house, but that could simply mean the human was very neat, although he hadn’t observed any neat ones yet. The human probably had a cleaner robot. Amith stuffed himself into the moving box humans used to change levels and pushed the only button inside. The door slid shut, leaving him encased in white. He hated these things. He knew the box was not going to kill him, but the longer he had to stay in one, the more wrong it felt. At least this one moved fast and the ride was short. He stumbled out into a mostly dark, empty hallway and shook his head both at his ridiculousness and to encourage his feathers to stand down. He moved quietly at first in case the father-in-law was sleeping, but it was quickly apparent that not only was no one there, no one had been there recently either. The beds and cloths-holding boxes were bare and there were no personal items or towels in the bathing room. Back downstairs, the food storage boxes were completely empty too.
The woman had lied, but why? Maybe she just had the address wrong. She’d seemed very certain though – perhaps too certain. Rotten eggs, he’d left her in the clinic unsupervised. She was likely filling her pockets with supplies. Wouldn’t she be surprised when she couldn’t get out of the room and he showed her the security video.
He shut the door behind him, making sure it was locked, and walked toward the main office. If someone did notice the lights go on, they wouldn’t be able to complain that he’d been flying.
Once back inside the building, he kept his claws from hitting the tiled floor while he moved down the hall toward the glass door of the clinic so the human wouldn’t hear him coming. As he expected, the female was no longer in the patient chair, but she wasn’t frantically trying to find a way out either. No, she was scrolling through something on the main screen, looking up resident records perhaps? He scanned his card and pressed the right buttons. When the door opened, she sucked in her breath and pressed her palm under her throat, but released a gust of air when her eyes fell on him.
“Oh, it’s you.”
“I told you I’d be back soon.”
“Yes, you did.” She went back to the list of words she was scrolling through.
“What are you looking at?”
He was surprised when she moved aside so he could see. “I ran a blood test to see how low my hemoglobin was and the computer detected some strange compounds in my blood. I was trying to figure out what they were. One is from Tsorian saliva. They use it to numb the bites so their victims don’t feel anything, which is why I suppose my neck doesn’t hurt, but this other one, I’ve never heard of it before. Hyoscyonna?”
He shook his head.
She tapped the screen and looked at him expectantly. He glanced at the lines of symbols, then back to her.
The furry strips above her eyes shifted and she tilted her head. “Can you read?”
They’d been trained on which buttons to push to do their jobs but not what the long lines of symbols meant. He’d studied them, hoping it would help him find a way to defeat the humans, but he had yet to figure them out. “Not that.”
“It says it’s from a plant native to Llameria and that it’s toxic in high doses. It’s odd because I haven’t eaten anything since I arrived. Do the Tsorians use it?”
“Not that I know of. They wouldn’t need to. Their saliva not only numbs, it puts their prey to sleep, then they eat as much as they want.”
“Well there’s not enough there now to do me any harm. It must be rapidly metabolized, or the Tsorian sucked it all out of me.” Her mouth stretched wider, giving him a glimpse of white teeth.
His translator was going on about bodily reactions and the conversion of food to power, whatever that meant. The only other human that ever used words that confused his translator was the V-doc.
“Are you a doctor?”
Her mouth stretched even wider. “No, I’m a nurse. I was deemed too caring to be a doctor.”
“Was your husband a nurse as well?”
Amith really had no idea how human relationships worked. He’d heard of them having mates but he hadn’t seen any mated pairs. Most of the people who lived in the resort were old and if they did have someone with them, they were either servants, nurses, or very young men or women too young to be their mates. The older people didn’t treat the younger ones as mates or even children, but more like servants, if they spoke to them at all. If they were servants, he wasn’t sure what they did. They seemed to prefer to lie around the pools of water behind some of the bigger houses completely naked, or nearly so.
Her mouth was back to normal. “No, he was a patient. He had a viral disease that the doctors couldn’t cure.”
Amazing that with all their technology, there were still things humans couldn’t do. Maybe there was hope for his people yet.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said very solemnly.
“It’s all right. I didn’t know him well and we were only married for a day before he died. He did seem like a very nice man though. I would have liked to know him better.”
“You mated with a stranger? Why?” he blurted, then chastised himself. Being rude to a guest was sure to get his pay docked.
Her cheeks turned red. For a human, she looked almost cute with her short, brown wavy hair that just covered her odd human ears and her soft brown eyes, kind of like a young pronged one. “Not mate. We didn’t mate. We married. It means we agreed to be partners and form a family. I never touched him.”
“I don’t understand. How could you make a family if you couldn’t touch him and he was dying?” He needed to shut him mouth but he also needed information and for once, a human was actually offering it.
Her cheeks turned even redder. It took her a moment to finally answer. “I lost a husband, but I gained a father.”
“Don’t you already have one?”
“No.”
“Oh.” He couldn’t imagine not having a father. His father was always there, sometimes when he didn’t want him to be. “So you married him so you could have a father?”
“Not really. I married him because he was worried about his father and he wanted someone to care for him and I’ve never been on a planet before. He bought me a ticket and made me his benefactor so I’ll have something to live on when I’m done here.”
“You will inherit all his money?” Amith asked after the translator explained. She’d married a man simply to travel and take his money. So like a human.
“Well, I will receive the compensation from his employer once his claim is processed.”
“Compensation?” Amith asked.
“Money to the family in the event a worker dies due to work they did for an employer.”
He sat down at the desk and poked the recording icon on the attached screen. “Can you say your name for my report?”
“Oh, yes. Mercury Hildax Sb368.”
“That’s your name? That sounds like a residence number.”
“Well, it is, kind of. I guess you don’t need the last bit. It’s the number from my birthing pod.”
“Birthing pod?”
“Oh, that’s right. You probably don’t use birthing pods here. All the organisms on Llameria come from eggs, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, humans naturally carry their babies inside until they are ready to be born, but thanks to technology developed several centuries ago, babies are now mostly grown in pods, rather like eggs, actually.”
“You carry your children inside of you?” He’d never heard of such a thing. “Humans must have very tiny babies.”
She crossed her arms and tilted her palms up like she was holding something. “Not really. They’re about this big. I’ve read it is quite painful to push them out. Things can tear. My mother doesn’t even know I exist. She died before I was born. She was a front-line explorer. The ones who work dangerous jobs like her leave eggs behind in case something happens. Something happened.”
“Eggs? You just said humans don’t lay eggs.”
“We call them eggs, but really they are just single cells that are missing half their DNA.”
He had no idea what that meant and his translator must not either because it was talking about twisted chains of acids.
“They don’t have shells and they are really tiny – so tiny you can barely see them,” she continued. “And they are inside.” She pointed to her stomach.
Was she lying to him? Why would she though?
“Wait, you said you didn’t have a father. Can humans have babies without mates?” That would explain why he’d never seen any.
“No. Well technically, yes, but you still need to get the DNA from somewhere. I did have a father – a man who supplied sperm – but he was already dead too. I’m named after my parents. Mercury was my mom and Hildax my dad. I’m not even sure they knew each other.”
It sounded very strange to him although there had been cases of fledglings hatching after both parents were killed, but the egg had already been laid. “Who raised you then?”
“A very nice old lady named Maude and a robot named BERTHA.”
“A robot!”
One of those mechanical things that cleaned the streets or served people food? No wonder humans were messed up.
“Yes,” the woman continued. “BERTHA’s job was to make sure we were all fed and clothed and went to bed on time. Maude was our mother.”
“Our?”
“Yes, me and my pod-mates. There were five of us born about the same time. They’re like family, kind of. We were sent to train for our different roles when we were ten, but I hear from them sometimes.”
“You don’t know any of your real family members?”
“No. My parents’ families were all gone by the time I was born.”
She said it nonchalantly. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to not have a family. He had so many aunts and uncles and cousins he’d lost count long ago. He almost felt sorry for her.
She started poking at the V-doc screen again. He clicked on the security camera icon and set it to play at 3X speed, making sure his screen was turned so she couldn’t see. He opened up a report form too but he felt strange recording it in front of her. Since she seemed occupied with the V-doc, he focused on the video. While he was gone she’d explored the room and took things off the shelves, but he didn’t see her keep anything. Maybe she knew she was being watched and planned to come back later?
“Amith, look at this.”
He jumped, then tried to hide it with a shoulder shrug. “What?”
“You asked how big a human baby was. I found a picture of the gestational development. A uterus does look much like an egg, but inside.”
He paused the video and moved closer so he could see. The woman in the picture changed from slim to fat like some of the older humans, except her face stayed smooth. “Your stomachs stretch that large? Do they stay that way?”
“I saw a pregnant woman once at full term. She looked even larger than that. Her stomach started shrinking after the baby was born.”
“How do they come out?” he asked.
She opened another picture and started nonchalantly describing the parts. He felt his skin getting hot under his feathers and turned away. Maybe humans liked to look at their unmentionable area but his kind just didn’t do that.
“What’s wrong?”
He waved his hand at the screen without looking at it.
“Oh, sorry. I forget some people might find this disturbing. I guess I’m used to it.”
She turned back to the pictures and started tapping again while he went back to his screen. Had she distracted him on purpose?
“Are you ready?” She asked brightly a few moments later. “I hope Mr. Phillips isn’t mad that I’m back so late.”
Did she really think he was that dumb? Still, it might be interesting to see her reaction when she found the house empty, or maybe she’d realize it was the wrong one.
“Are you capable of walking now? The car is one of the rentals. It’s paid for by the hour, so you’ll probably want to return it before you go back.”
“Oh! I didn’t know. Let’s do that. I am feeling much better now. It goes into slot 11B.”
“Shall I drive?” he asked.
“Yes. I think I’ve had my fill. You know, that was the first time I’ve ever driven a car. It was fun, what I remember of it.”
The hairy strips above her eyes came together and she turned back to the screen. He took the time to quickly finish scanning the security footage. Nothing.
“I don’t believe it.”
He jerked his head up to see her still looking at the screen. “What?”
“The only way I could have gotten enough Hyoscyonna to put me to sleep in the car was to ingest or inject it and the only thing I ingested was the tea that Mr. Phillips served me. It tasted strange so I didn’t drink it all. Why would he do that?” She sounded hurt.
“Maybe he didn’t know what it was,” Amith offered.
“That could be, or maybe he has trouble sleeping and gave it to me on accident. He was very nice. I can’t believe he would give me that on purpose.”
Amith didn’t know what else to say, so he shut the security camera video and stood. “Let’s go.”
He let the car park itself, then climbed out and waited for her. Instead of moving to stand beside him, she walked up to the charging station in front of the car and started examining it like she’d lost something.
“What are you doing?”
“I wanted to make sure it was parked correctly. The light didn’t change.” She tapped the large green circle that indicated when the car was properly seated.
“What do you mean it didn’t change?”
“It was green before we parked. Is that normal? See, that one over there is red.” She pointed to an empty slot several spots away.
He walked to the front of the car and checked the bracket now connected to the bumper. “It’s fine. Maybe the light malfunctioned. I’ll tell the maintenance man in the morning.”
“Make sure they know what time we brought the car back. I don’t want Mr. Phillips charged more than he should be.”
“Sure.”
She was laying the innocent act on thick and slowing them down. It was almost time to scan his chip on the other side of the resort again. He started walking quickly down the hill toward the resident houses. He didn’t have to look back to see if she was following. Her footsteps were loud even in the grass and her breathing was even louder.
“I have a confession to make.”
She was going to admit she was nothing but a fraud? He turned around and found her bent over, holding her side.
“What’s that?”
“I never exercised like I was suppose to when I was on the station. Can you slow down a little? I feel like I’m about ten times heavier right now.”
“What do you mean?”
She straightened and opened her mouth, then went completely limp and fell forward. For a moment, he thought she’d been hit with an arrow but he hadn’t heard the twang or the whistle of one and there was no one about that he could see. He squatted beside her. Still breathing. No obvious wounds. He tapped her cheeks. He’d never felt a human cheek before. They were very smooth and warm, but not slick like scales. At the sixth tap her eyelids fluttered. He’d never noticed that humans had hair along the edge of their eyelids either.
Her eyes opened, and after a moment, she smiled up at him. “So that’s what it feels like to faint. I’ve always wondered. Lucky I was in the middle of a soft field.”
“Yes, lucky.”
Had she faked it? The look on her face had been real enough, plus she had lost a lot of blood earlier. “Can you stand?”
“Probably, but I rather like it here. I’ve always wanted to lie in a field of grass. It’s nice.”
“Until the bugs start biting you,” he agreed.
“Bugs? Right. That not something I usually have to worry about, except for space roaches, but they don’t bite.”
He offered her a hand and helped her sit up. She put her fingers to her head.
“I feel exhausted. I think my day just caught up with me.”
“Can you stand or shall I carry you? We are almost there.”
“I can stand.”
She did, but she didn’t look too steady. He put his arm around her and she leaned onto his side. Being close to a human wasn’t as repulsive as he’d imagined it would be. She was very warm and surprisingly soft. How was it humans could concur whole worlds while his own people with sturdy scales and the Rhanori with their thick skins were the ones being conquered?
He gave her several opportunities to choose a different house, but she kept insisting they were going the right way. He knocked loudly on the door of 616 to humor her, then knocked again at her request. There was no response.
“Maybe he’s a heavy sleeper,” Mercury said. “Do you think it would be all right if I slept here by the door tonight?”
“No. You were almost killed once tonight. Didn’t you learned your lesson?”
“But you’re on duty. They won’t try anything with a guard around.”
“I’m only one person and there’s a lot of ground to cover. There was a guard on duty earlier too.”
She slumped and if he hadn’t been there, he was certain she would have fallen. “I’m so tired.”
There was no helping it. He was going to miss a scan-in. Mrs. Ravenwood was going to be fierce. “You can sleep in the guard shack until my shift is over.”
“How far is it?”
He scooped her up in his arms. Maybe if he ran to the shack, he’d only be late by a few minutes. Knowing his boss, it wouldn’t matter.
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