Stolen Flyght – Chapter 12

“How am I going to first pretend I’m a chef and then turn around and impersonate a botanist too? What if I run into the same people in both the cafeteria kitchen and the labs?”

“It’s fine, Vivi. I can be a chef. I know how to cook.” Jinzo’s fingers shake as he zips up his one-piece work suit. He stops and blows out a long breath. “I feel like I’ve been run over by a shuttle.”

My hands shake, too, as I pull the work suit up over my shoulders and thread my arms into the sleeves. “It’s like the worst hangover times two hundred.” Once my arms are in, I take a break to wheeze and pant. “I need approximately one billion hours of sleep.”

I close my eyes and lean against the wall.

“Ironic since we just spent a little over a day in deep freeze asleep.” Jinzo leans against the wall next to me and brushes his fingers against mine. “I promise that there’s a lot of sleep on the other side of this.”

“Let’s hope so for all our sakes. Can we pull this off?” I run my fingers through my short, damp hair and cringe. “I think I can disguise myself as a chef’s assistant, but there’s not much more I can do other than follow you.”

Jinzo nods as he peels himself away from the wall and unzips his bag next to the bed. He pulls out two metal drink canisters and hands one to me. “Drink this. Gus said they would provide everything we need to carry us through the hours after defrosting. Plenty of protein, carbs, and caffeine. It’ll even make you feel full.”

Chocolate flavor? I open the bottle and chug it down. “Great. Just what the nurse ordered.” I wink at Jinzo, and he chuckles.

“Captain,” Ai says, her voice comes over the room’s speakers, “because you have requested access to both the kitchen and other restricted areas, you will need an android escort.”

“Okay.” I finish the drink and set the container aside.

“We have an escort on her way to your room right now. She will be there in one minute.”

I hurriedly cover my hair with a handkerchief and draw on some red lipstick. Grabbing a stick of eye charcoal, I drag it across my upper and lower lids and smudge it around. I stuff the stick into my pocket for later, along with a few hair clips, a protein bar, and some disposable tissues.

The door to our room opens, and that nameless face I saw repeated in the videos stands in front of me with Mat right behind her.

“Hello. I’m Echo-117, and I’ll be your guide in the Neve Two Military Base. Please step forward and identify yourself.”

I let Jinzo go first since he’s supposed to be the chef.

“I’m Jin Andreas.”

The android steps up to Jinzo and looks him straight in the eyes without blinking. She holds out her hand to shake, and Jinzo slides his fingers into hers. She grips his hand for a moment before letting go.

“Ocular and biometric identification confirmed.”

She looks at me next, and I swallow my ambivalence.

A soft chime in my ear lets me know that Carlos has overridden my implant. “Captain, same name and identity, just like Jin. I have altered your profession for now.”

“I’m Terri Parsons,” I say, standing still so she can do the same scans of me. She holds out her hand to shake, and I fake the confidence I need to put my fingers in hers.

“Ocular and biometric identification confirmed. Thank you. Any time you are on the military base and need to access secure areas, I will be with you. This ship is scheduled to leave in one hour, six minutes. You will not be on it.”

Her delivery is smooth and precise. Her blinks are measured, and her head tilt seems to be calibrated to a specific degree.

“I am to escort you to the base kitchens. You will follow me.”

She turns on her heel and walks forward, stopping a few meters away and waiting for us.

Jinzo takes the lead, but I halt in front of Mat. “We’ll see you soon?”

“It’s not a question,” he replies. He hesitates before swooping in to kiss me. I squeak in surprise at the hungry way he takes me into his arms, folding me into him, my body pressed into his shape. One hand holds my head, and the other pulls me into his waist as we enjoy the small moment of our lips pressed together. When he lets go, he’s still close enough for me to look into his eyes and read his mind.

“I know.” My lips twitch over a wry smile. He already loves me. I will tell him the same after this mission is over.

On our way out of the ship, I glance over my shoulder so I can see him one last time. The worry he feels is written all over his face, but he still smiles and raises his hand in farewell.

I’ll see you soon, Mat.

—-

I try to act normal (whatever that means) on our path through the base to the kitchen, but what I see surprises me. This is a lot of people, more than a town and any of the Orbital Stations. Though most people we see along the way are men, I spot a few women here and there. The upper echelons of the military have more women than the rank and file. Many end up in the academies, not enlisted. We pass a decorated woman with a sash and medals, and I’m reminded of Gus’s mom. I hope she’s not here.

“Do you think we can get something to eat?” I ask Jinzo. “I’m kind of hungry.”

“We should have time to eat after we deal with the steaks mess. Echo-117, what’s on the menu today?”

“Today, in the main cafeteria, we have a selection of spicy noodle dishes, greens from the hothouses, and two kinds of chocolate cakes.”

Now, I’m starving.

“Along with standard fare, including rice, beans, and two kinds of protein-rich meat substitutes.”

I’m glad this android does not ask us why we’re here or what we intend to do.

My ear chimes again. “Captain, the android will bring you through the kitchen and into the storage area. Once you’re there, we’ll figure out what to do next.”

“Okay,” I whisper and cover it up by nodding and saying, “Okay, okay, yes. Noodles will be good.”

Our android sets a brisk pace through the base, directing us onto moving walkways, into and out of airlocks, and through a rear alleyway far from the crowd. I’m already lost and cursing the convoluted layout of this base. I will never find my way back on my own.

Not that there’s anything ‘back’ there to return to.

There’s only one way forward.

Double doors slide open and Jinzo strides through them into a noisy kitchen with our android guide at his side. The kitchen is enormous, stretching half the building length. Pans sizzle, pots steam, and ovens beep. Five men stand at a giant island chopping vegetables, their knives flying through carrots and potatoes. It takes a moment for me to register that they’re androids too.

I tilt my head at Jinzo, and he narrows his eyes at the flying knives and identical faces.

“Don’t we have enough cheap labor in the Duo Systems?” he mutters to me.

This is so wrong. We were supposed to leave this culture behind on Earth. Of course, this all started with sex and the lack of women, which all stems back to the military’s invention of the Vir gene. We decimated the population of women, and when men couldn’t get it off without us, they developed the sexbots. Athens Industries kept those designs under wraps for decades until the military decided they needed them too.

Looks like the whole idea snowballed from a sexbot here and there to a base full of androids.

We should raze this place. Burn it from orbit.

Jinzo drives forward until he reaches a man wearing chef’s whites. He’s not cooking but reading something on a datapad.

“Excuse me,” Jinzo says, interrupting the man. “Are you in charge here?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess I am for this shift.” He inhales sharply, blinking a sleepy expression from his face. “Are you here to fix the coffee machine? Because we’re all desperate for that to work again. Brewing stove-top is a pain.”

Jinzo pauses, his eyes shifting from side to side. I can read his mind, and he’s thinking he could fix the machine, but that’s not what we’re here for.

“Well… No. We’re here to pick up the shipment of steaks that arrived this afternoon. The admirals want some for dinner in the executive dining room.”

He deflates. “Shit. I was really hoping.”

“Have you taken it apart, cleaned it out, and put it back together?” Jinzo asks. I elbow him in the ribs. Hello. This is not what we’re here for.

“Me? Hell no. That thing cost twenty grand. It’ll be my head if I try it and fuck it up.” He holds up his hands.

Jinzo shrugs. “It’s something to consider. The androids could catalog the parts and where they go.”

“Hmm.” The man folds his arms and stares at the androids. “That’s a thought.”

Hold back your desire to help, Jinzo.

“I would love to assist, but the brass is looking for these steaks, and I’ve gotta get going. It’ll take a while to do a half-cycle warm-up from cryofreeze, and I’m new here. They will tan my ass if I fuck up.”

“Where ya from?” The chef asks with a wry smile.

“Everywhere,” Jinzo says, injecting as much weariness into his voice as possible. “Just off the Millennium recently.”

Isn’t that Gus’s mom’s ship? Jinzo is pushing it. What if she’s here?

“That’s a big ship. Bet you’re glad to be on a base, even if it’s in the middle of fucking nowhere. So you’ve only been here about a week? They came through pretty recently.”

“Yeah. So I really don’t want to piss off my new bosses.”

Hint, hint.

“Right.” He sighs and waves to a door on the opposite end of the kitchen. “Go through those double doors. We keep cryocontainers in the cold room on the left. Help yourself to any of the hovercarts. It’ll take you a while before the cryocontainer can open.”

He picks up his datapad, dismissing us and getting back to his job.

Jinzo turns and jerks his thumb at me. “Come on. We have a lot of unloading to do.”

I nod, not wanting to say anything or call attention to myself.

Our android stays right on our tail as we head through the double doors and find the cold room. Jinzo scans his hand, and the door pops open for us.

The chime in my ear sounds, and Carlos butts in. “Captain, we’re doing good in the off-site data center. All of our hacks are in place and working. We are going to disable the android once you’ve put the cryocontainer into warm-up mode.”

“Which cryocontainer?” I ask out loud. Jinzo groans.

We’re standing in front of a wall of stacked containers at least seven meters high. There have to be two dozen or more of them here.

“If you are looking for a specific container,” the android says, and I jump. She scared the crap out of me. “There is an inventory directory on this wall.”

I clutch at my chest and try to calm my heart. I had already gotten used to her silence. I wasn’t prepared for her to speak again.

Jinzo proceeds to the wall to access the directory. The android and I follow like we’re on a tether, linked to him wherever he goes.

“Hmm. It looks like they’re sorted by arrival date. The container we need should be near the front of the stack. Here.” He points to an entry of two cryocontainers carrying steaks that arrived several hours ago. But which one has Gloria and Lia?

“Did the boss want a particular kind of steak from a specific container?” I ask out loud while looking at the directory, hoping Carlos gets my drift on the other end.

“Hold on, Cap.”

Jinzo hums, looking at the specs for the two containers. “He did say it was a specific kind.”

He’s stalling so our android doesn’t become ‘suspicious,’ if that’s something they even do? There must be some programming that tells them how to handle people.

“It’s the one with the serial number ending in 6S,” Carlos breaks in.

“I think it’s this one.” I point at the correct container on the inventory list.

Jinzo touches a few menus, and the container down the row chimes and lights up its panels.

“Okay, that’s the one.” I march over to it, and I’m grateful it’s not hemmed in by any other containers. Touching the screen on the front, I choose the options Carlos instructed me to do. “Warming process started.”

“Okay, Captain. We’re going to shut down your android right now. She will continue to stand there but won’t be responsive. We need to feed in new memories for the next forty-five minutes until you can remove Gloria and Lia from the container.”

The android closes her eyes, and her face slackens. I touch Jinzo’s arm and gesture to the android. He breathes a giant sigh of relief.

“That thing creeps me out.” He shudders.

I’m with him. The android is just too strange.

“How will we know if anyone is coming to the room? We don’t want to get caught doing this,” I ask Carlos.

Instead of Carlos answering, Skylar does. “I’m watching all the security camera footage for the surrounding area. Carlos has fed in a repeating loop of video for the room you’re in, so no one will ever know you were in there. But now we need to tackle the problem of clothing for Gloria and Lia. There’s a kitchen locker room three doors down from you. You should be able to pick up some dirty clothes from the hamper in there. Then once you’re out and everyone has android escorts, we can take them to someplace where they can change their clothes.”

“Great. Let’s get moving.” I rub my hands together to keep them warm. Standing around in here is chilling me to the bone, and I’ve had enough of the cold so far. “Jin, I’m going to find these two some clothes.”

“Okay, Vivi. Be careful,” he says, looking up from the read-out panel on the cryocontainer.

I’m about to open the door and step out when Skylar screams, “Wait!” in my ear.

I pause, my hand hovering in the air.

“Someone just went into the locker room with their android.”

I sigh and lean against the wall. These shots of adrenaline will kill me.

“Okay, you can go now. They were putting something in their locker.”

I pull myself together and hope I don’t run into anyone. Without my android escort, I am bound to look suspicious.

Here goes nothing.