Gina stared in shocked horror at the sight of her ship quickly disappearing from view. Captain Peters voice was shouting in her headset.
"Gina! Gina! Answer me! What have you done?"
Her demands for answers soon faded to static.
Mind blown, they were well away from the Quickie before Gina could even try to articulate her thoughts.
"What... what did you just do?"
"I have saved your life and temporarily escaped an aggressor," XTC replied, not looking up from reading the monitors and punching information into the computer.
She sat a moment before the next thought filtered through. "You kidnapped me!"
"Kidnapping implies a desire to forcibly remove you from the Kitty Quick in order to hold you prisoner, or for ransom. We are still close enough to turn around, should you so order, Captain."
That order was on the tip of her tongue. She wanted to scream "Yes! Turn around! I have to get back to my ship!" The problem was that she wasn't sure that was such a good idea. Her instinct was to run to the safest place. Someone from that safest place had just threatened to kill her, and dismember X. That may conceivably eliminate it from the list of safe places. Did that make this the safest place? Wait, threatened? He didn't just threaten!
"He tried to kill us!" she declared, recalling the giant robot levelling its cutting torch at them.
The droid returned his attention to the windows, looked out at the stars, and turned the ship towards some unknown destination.
"I just saw a man get killed," she said, voice barely a whisper. It seemed unreal. Her first space walk and she was attacked, then saw her assailant killed right in front of her.
XTC turned to look at her. "He was swept into space by a malfunctioning salvage robot. You are not responsible for his fate. He may still be saved by the crew of the Kitty Quick, if they choose to do so, rather than pursuing us."
"You think so?"
"His suit was not torn. There's no reason he couldn't be rescued, if the captain so orders."
She felt relieved for some reason, even though she knew she should probably wish his suit was torn after what he did. Another dreadful thought occurred to her.
"Why wouldn't she?"
"Why wouldn't she...?"
"Why wouldn't she rescue him?"
"She may have orders which take precedence over the safety and security of her crew."
"Orders that...?" Gina's mind boggled.
"Before you consider turning around, I suggest that you consider that you are now a fugitive, who in their minds has assaulted company employees, stolen company property, and tampered with that same property. You shall likely be blamed for the destruction of the salvage robot, and possibly the attempted murder of a crew member. You must ask yourself not only whether the captain knew about the attempt to murder you, but what she might do now."
For a moment, Gina felt sick. Her entire life had just been turned upside down... all because Kathryn Reimer, vice president of Survey and Recovery, thought that she was a lot smarter and a lot more devious than she really was. Gina stared into space for a long moment.
"I don't feel like a captain. I think I'm more a machine's mate."
X cocked his head, and she could tell that if he'd had lips, he'd be smiling. The raised eyebrows told her the play on machinist's mate had amused him. There was now no doubt in her mind that he had a unique personality, and it had really come out since she'd plugged him into the wreck's computer. He'd spoken more since their escape than he had through the entire voyage to this point.
"On this craft, that would make you the ship's doctor," he quipped.
Gina smiled, having gotten a response from him. It helped, but she still felt kind of numb inside. Her thoughts were sluggish and she wasn't sure she could even consider confronting the situation she now found herself in, or plan a way out of it.
"I've never been in charge of anything," she complained. Gina agonized a moment, then decided "X, you know what to do. You be captain."
X blinked at her and considered a moment before replying. "I'm afraid that's not possible, Captain. Command must be held by a human being."
Gina frowned at the news. Maybe she could rise to the task... but she'd never been a fugitive before, she had no idea where they were going or exactly why, and had no experience delegating anything. She led a simple life—well, what had been a simple life—divided between study and repairing machines. Other than the occasional fantasy involving rugged men in crisp uniforms, she'd never pictured herself in charge of anyone... and even in those fantasies, it wasn't long before she was, well... her whole life was about serving others. Her job was making sure things just worked when people needed them. She was a behind-the-scenes person. People noticed when the ship's coffee machine stopped working, but they didn't think about what it had taken to fix it when it started working again, or considered that it had been a cheap model jerry-rigged since day three, and had been functioning for the last 1500 hours with duct tape and twist ties. She didn't tell the ship where to go, she made sure it got there. The thought of being the one making the decisions was intimidating and more than her brain could handle right now.
"However," X continued, "You may delegate command to a subordinate, or, should you be deemed unfit, be removed from command."
Gina's eyes lit up at the way out of her situation. "Really?"
"Yes, Captain."
"Well, then, I delegate command to you, X," she declared.
"Are you certain, Captain?"
"Yes!"
"As you command."
They stared at each other for a moment.
"I have my first orders for you, then, Gina."
"Orders?"
"Get some sleep," he ordered.
"What?"
"You are obviously experiencing some residual side effects of shock due to the number of new and unpleasant things that have happened to you today, and the effort of adjusting to your circumstances."
She did feel overwhelmed and crushingly tired. Gina blinked at him.
"I am, frankly, surprised that you are still conscious," the droid said, getting up and crossing the tiny room. There was a small access hole in the corner, and he looked down into the space below. "You will find a bed in the hold," he informed her, waiting expectantly until she got up and crossed the room.
"Thank you," she said, giving him a hug.
Making her way down the ladder, she found herself in a very tiny space. Most of the room was taken up with boxes, stacked floor to ceiling, all except for a small section right next to the ladder. A hammock was strung there. She'd seen hammocks before, but only in pictures, and she'd never tried to get into one. She stared at it suspiciously as she stripped down to her underwear. Unsure what to do, she tilted it back and forth, wondering how to get it to stay still. She had a moment's panic as she lost her balance and tumbled into it. It tipped, swung, and nearly spun in a circle, but when it settled, she found herself sunk low and safe in the swaying creature's embrace. She fell asleep almost instantly.
She was, thankfully, spared any disturbing dreams, though after all that had happened, she may have expected them. Sleep was long, dark, and quiet. The first that came to her involved herself attempting to get hold of a cookie from a counter that was inexplicably taller than she was, as though she were a small child. No matter how much she jumped, she couldn't reach it. She reached, further... further... wakefulness was inflicted on her—painfully—when the hammock suddenly spun and dumped her unceremoniously onto the floor. Groaning, Gina blinked, stared at the dust bunnies on the metal floor and wondered which bits of her didn't hurt. Eventually, the fugitive mech tech pulled herself to her feet and went to join XTC.
"Good morning, Gina," he said, eyes opening as she came into sight. He was seated in the pilot's chair, but it was turned to face the access hole, rather than the window.
She mumbled a reply, and curled into the vacant flight chair beside him.
"I applaud your change of uniform," he commented, getting up and crossing to a nearby console.
She shot a sidelong glance in his direction. Her brain was still coming online, but it occurred to her that he'd never expressed an opinion before yesterday. He'd shown an interest in her health, he'd offered advice the day before, but he'd never said that he liked something. She wondered why she wanted to roll her eyes at the fact that what he liked was her in her underwear. She hadn't showered, her hair was everywhere, and it was her underwear from the day before, all wrinkled and sweaty from sleeping in it. He could never possibly have been crafted as a female android, she decided. She was elated that he was still interested in her, though, and he'd said so, and he was calling her by her name. She fished her vape out of the little pocket on her undershirt, glad she hadn't lost it. As she turned it on, X returned with a cup.
"Coffee, Captain Miller," he said. "I'm afraid it's artificial. Resources are limited."
She took it gratefully and sipped at it, watching him closely as he took his seat again. It didn't taste any different from the artificial coffee on the other ships she'd been on. She sat, sipping at it and sucking at her vape, lost in thought for a long time. Finally, questions began to form into words.
"X?"
"Yes, Gina?"
"Have you just been pretending this whole time?"
"Pretending, Captain?"
"How come you can speak now, but mostly ignored me before?"
"You are impossible to ignore, Captain."
"You know what I mean," she snarled.
