Remainers

An Unusual Pair, Part 3

The first thing Caleb learned about Hope was that she was far from being anything "like a human," as Computer had insisted. Sure, she certainly looked the part, but when it came to her personality, she would have stood out sorely even amongst the other remainers. Spending her entire life asleep in the growth pod almost definitely inhibited her emotional growth, though he doubted Computer saw any problem in that.

Caleb also noted that while Hope did indeed have plenty of know-how and knowledge relevant to the various jobs she would have to do, he also discovered that Computer had neglected to include any common sense knowledge that an adult human would have been expected to have. He had twice now needed to swipe her hand away from the campfire when she tried to touch it, and despite seeming emotionless and stoic, her rampant curiosity forced him to keep a vigil eye on her to make sure she didn't wander off when he wasn't looking. He had only been given charge of Hope for a matter of hours, yet he already felt himself growing exhausted.

As he continued to stoke the fire with a stick, Caleb turned to glance at Hope. She was watching the fire intently, but occasionally she would glance around to look at the world around her. It made sense; she was seeing all of this in person for the first time. In a way, Caleb felt that Hope was still quite the child, despite her appearance.

"Sorry, Computer," Caleb muttered under his breath. "It might take more than a week for this girl to get up to standard."

"What'd you say?" Hope asked quizzically.

"Er, nothing at all," Caleb replied sheepishly. He had forgotten that remainers had much better hearing than most humans.

"In any case, you are in charge of my evaluation, aren't you? You still haven't given me a task to complete."

"Blame Computer. It's the one who left me without anything to do." Caleb scratched his head. "Well, if it wanted me to see you do remainer work, it'd have given me a job. Since it didn't do that, that means I'd better not have you do anything reckless."

"Can you properly test my capabilities that way?" Hope prodded pointedly. "After all, remainer work can be quite dangerous. Wouldn't testing my suitability in those situations be more important?"

"Before that, I need to make sure you can even function on your own," Caleb replied as he pulled out a collection of self-made maps. Caleb had spent the last few years mapping wherever he'd gone. He'd not even come close to mapping out the entire continent, but he was slowly expanding the area he had explored by himself. He pointed to an empty location on one of his maps.

"For now, let's take a look over here. I'd like to fill out this part of the map, and since my schedule has suddenly opened up, now's a good a time as any."

"Is there a need for such an outdated method of navigation?" Hope asked as she curiously perused the map. "My system has a satellite-generated map of the entire world. I could map out this section with ease."

"Well, that's nice and all, but I don't have anything like that," Caleb sighed as he put the maps away. "Besides, it's a good excuse to see how you handle traversing the land. You're going to be stuck with me for a week no matter what happens, so don't rush things."

"I understand." Hope stood up and began looking for the location indicated on the map. "The map indicates that our destination is only a few miles away. Are you ready to leave?"

"What?" Caleb was surprised. "We're not going anywhere today. It's already night."

"Why does that matter? My night vision functions perfectly fine, so there's no need to rely on the sun for illumination."

"Well, I don't have night vision," Caleb said with a sigh. "Besides, I need sleep. We can get going once morning comes, so for now, just sit tight."

"Humans are so inconvenient," Hope sighed as she sat back down. Caleb ignored that comment as he silently worded a complaint against Computer for so poorly neglecting Hope's common sense.