Embarkment 2577 Read Online Free PDF Page A

communications’
panel could do anything from putting you in contact with someone to locking the
door, or why not launching a missile, or changing the gravitational constant of
the universe.
    I expected him to give a serene and
coherent explanation along the lines of, “Press the button marked with a
triangle to activate blah, blah, blah.” Instead, he burst out, “Why? Is
something wrong? I’ll be there in a minute.”

Chapter Four
    It took about three minutes before Adam
came in through the door, pulling Ima with him by a firm grip around her wrist.
I was still dressed in my towel and wanted to sink through the floor. This was
not my best idea ever.
    “What is it, Alex? Are you okay?”
    I pressed my elbows against my sides,
hoping whatever deity might still be around in this century would let the towel
stay in place. If it fell to the floor, I’d surely die. “I just wanted to talk
to her. No big emergency.”
    He leaned his head to the side and said
with a warm smile, far from the neutral expression he held in sickbay earlier
in the day, “Well, here she is. Go ahead and talk.”
    Ima rolled her eyes. “You’re always
overreacting when it comes to her. She’s fine. Besides, Commander , don’t
you have somewhere you need to be, like the bridge?”
    Her tail whacked Adam on the behind, but
he didn’t even blink, and she gave up on taunting him. She turned to me
instead. “What is it, sweetheart?”
    This wasn’t turning out as I imagined,
and android or not, discussing my body in front of this intriguing and handsome
man made me want to sink through the floor. They both watched me, and I needed
to say something. “I…”
    What could I possibly say? Adam gave a
slight nod and winked, and I could imagine his voice saying, “You can do it.”
    Yes, I could do it. I took a deep breath
and vowed to keep my voice firm. “Ima, what did you do to my body?”
    “Why, my dear, what do you mean? I
healed it. You don’t even have a scar.” For being a cat, she was bad at keeping
a straight face.
    “It… eh… it doesn’t look like it
used to. I liked it the way it was, and you shouldn’t have changed it without
asking me first.”
    Adam frowned and scrutinized me. He
couldn’t see through the towel, could he?
    After a few long seconds he turned
towards Ima and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why would you do that? Her old
body was just fine.”
    How did he know? Just how much of it had
he seen?
    Ima made quite a sales pitch. “But dear,
in this day and age everyone’s improved. Aren’t your boobs firm and perky now?
Just imagine how a pair of slacks will look on the cute little behind I gave
you. Why would you want to go around with your old body when you can have this
new one?”
    To make things even better, the bloody
towel was slipping. I too crossed my arms in front of me, to make sure I could
hold it. “That’s not the point. My body is mine, well, it was mine, and I liked
it.”
    Adam’s watch beeped, shaking us all back
to reality. It must be his communicator. A young voice reported, “Bridge to
Commander Adam, we’re approaching the Deneb system.”
    “I’ll be right there.” He eyed the two
of us. “You girls play nice now.”
    Ima shrugged and I lifted an eyebrow.
Adam shook his head as he left. Maybe he wondered what it was with biological
beings that made them so utterly illogical and difficult to understand. I knew
what Anya meant when she said I had fond feelings for him, but if we had ever
been more than friends, he was too tactful to mention it. Did he even… could
he…?
    Would an android taste funny? Kissing
him might be like metal and a sponge, or absolutely heavenly. The old me would
have wondered the same thing, and very likely found a way or an excuse to try
it out. It sounded like we had spent several days, maybe even weeks or God
knows how long together. How embarrassing not to know!
    As soon as the door closed, the doctor
sank down in a chair and sighed. “That man