An Object Of Study

On Guard

Only a dozen of us had made it to Origae-6. A space travel over ten years in stasis was of course a thing… and space was dangerous, we had all known about the risk. But to finally wake up to see that only twelve had made it… twelve out of 2000 colonists… plus the whole crew dead… I was devastated to find out. Luckily our Guardian Angel Walter was still there… It was probably his merit alone that at least we happy few had made it. But whatever had happened, it also hadn't left him unharmed.

The pale skin of his handsome face showed scars and his left hand was missing. It hurt my engineer's heart to see this and I decided to repair him after he had put down the Lander. The others left us to go and explore the landing area, leaving us alone as first watch. Two of them would return in six hours to change guards.

"Walter?" "Yes, Ma'am?" "You… you are damaged." "I know, Ma'am." he answered coolly. I would never get used to the cool and emotionless way an Android was behaving and had to always remind myself that they were machines, not humans. But somehow Walter sometimes didn't seem to be a machine. His eyes and his voice could show kindness, gentleness… even sympathy. He had been so nice towards me after I had broken down, finding out that my husband hadn't made it.

"Yes… I mean… of course, you know. What… what I wanted to say was… would it be okay for you if I… if I'd try to…" I started to stutter when he looked into my eyes. His eyes were wonderful… big, blue, understanding… I admired the colleague who had created these wonderful orbs. He had truly created a piece of art.

"Try to restore me?" Walter helped me out, slightly tilting his head. I felt like a stupid child to stutter like this in his presence. And what was strange about that was that I had never felt like this before in an Android's presence. I worked damn often with them, liked to work with them because they were efficient, reliable and polite. And neither of them had ever behaved like some male human colleagues… Androids were no Machos…

I had already repaired quite some of them because damage could always occur when working with heavy machines, but never before had I actually felt… compassion for one of them. What was different about this Android that he let me feel like this? "Yes… I mean… well, if it is okay for you…" I stuttered again. Damn, what the hell was wrong with me?

"Why do you offer this, Dr. Scott?" he asked and I felt how I blushed… and how his words stung. "Not… not Dr. Scott, Walter. Dr. Scott was my husband. I'm… I'm only a simple engineer." I mumbled and bowed my head to not look at him… to not see the gaze of these wonderful blue eyes. I couldn't stand the pity in them… however it was technically possible that Walter looked as if he felt pity for me.

"And to answer your question, Walter… I'd… I'd like to… to return the favour." He tilted his head again. Of course he did. He was an Android. How should he know that I felt grateful for saving and protecting our lives, even if it was only his programmed duty to do so. "You… you guarded us so long… and you… you saved us, even if we are only 12 people left, but…" I stuttered, unable to look at him.

"You want to say that you want to… how do you call it? Pay me back?" he asked and I had to laugh about his choice of words. "Kinda… I want to do this for you because I'm grateful, Walter."
Again he tilted his head and looked at me with the eyes of a curious child. "I only did my job, Ma'am. There is no need for… gratitude." Whatever it was, he made me smile with this. "Well, if you only did your job, Walter, then let me do mine in return. It is part of my job to repair damages. And I'm good at repairing damages." He lowered his eyes and I literally saw him processing my words. Then he looked up again and gave me a small nod.
"I admit that I would be more efficient with a second hand, Ma'am." I couldn't help but crack up. "Did I say something funny, Ma'am?" he asked and I bit my lips.