Your Wings Will Betray You

Chapter Four

"What's wrong? Don't you like your room?" Captain Aeron Clarke asked, leaning against the doorframe, letting the sensors know she was still there.

"I've never had my own room," Paika said, staring out the window at the fog-covered, vine-choked planet outside.

"Where'd you sleep on your old ship?"

"Pilot chair."

"They left you awake all night?"

"Pretty much."

Aeron entered the room fully, letting the door close behind her with a mechanical hiss. "I'm going to ask you this once," she said, sitting down on the bed and making it squeak. "Why did they throw you away?"

"I went berserk," Paika replied, facing the captain. She knew that humans felt respected when they were looked in the face during a conversation. "I made the terrible assumption that my crewmates were my friends, not my coworkers. I'd spent my entire life as I knew it with them, and they saw me as nothing more than a talking machine."

"So you glitched," Aeron said. "Older models are known to do that. Kind of fitting that the first emotion you developed was rage."

"I slaughtered them all and destroyed my android partner, Aquila," she continued. "I gave them all everything I was and in return I was treated like nothing more than dirt."

Aeron rubbed at her face, casting her gaze down at her feet. "Is there any risk of the same happening to my crew?"

"No."

"Prove it."

"Kiri and Sidsal played cards with me. They asked me personal questions. I've talked more today than I have in my entire artificial life. Sid- she said that she was excited to have a new friend on board. Jorim, he was very kind to me. Kiri told me nothing but the truth when I asked a hard question. This crew is more human than any person I've ever met. I want to stay. I want more of this."

There was a terrible sadness in the soft aqueous humor of the captain's eyes. "You're frighteningly human for a droid."

"Humanity is subjective," she parroted.

"I guess it is. I won't tell the others why you were trashed. That's your business to tell."

"Go ahead. I'm not hiding it. I want them to know who- what I am so they know what they're dealing with."

Aeron raised an eyebrow. "And what are they dealing with, exactly?"

"Someone with a history of murder. I won't force them to associate with me."

"We've all killed someone, Paika," Aeron told her.

"That makes this better, I suppose." Paika reached behind her back, itching to take off the ugly orange jumpsuit. Orange wasn't anybody's color, and certainly not hers. "Mind helping me get this off?"

Aeron got up and was by her back in two quick strides. Her fingers tugged the zipper down until it couldn't go any further. "There you go. I'll bring you something else if you'd like. We can incinerate this as well."

Paika shrugged, already stripping the jumpsuit all the way off. "Better to keep it," she said. "It's a good cover. Ragtag crew bringing in a rogue android. But I would like something for the morning. Not a fan of walking around in only synthetic skin. I'd go full metal before that." She turned and saw Aeron looking away, her expression peculiar. "Are you alright, captain?"

"I'm fine," Aeron said, her voice strangled. "I- I just want to preserve any dignity you have."

"I don't have any dignity," she said cheerfully. "If I did, I would've requested to be reassigned instead of resorting to murder."

The captain nodded and brought her eyes back to Paika's face. "My room is next to yours, since that's how it's supposed to be with pilots and captains," she said. "You need anything, knock. I'll be back around ten or eleven to show you how to use the flamethrower."

"Why?" Paika asked.

"Because you are going to prevent those damn vines from completely swallowing our ship in the night. Get me?"

"Got you," she echoed.

"Good." The conversation ended abruptly as Aeron nodded sharply and started walking out of the room.

"Wait."

The captain waited.

"Why is there a bed in here?"

"Don't androids fuck?"

"Probably. I don't know. I've never fucked an android."

Aeron chuckled. "You are an android. Same-species copulation or whatever."

"The technical definition of species is so loosely defined-"

"Loosen up and maybe I'll show you how to use that bed like a human does."

"What does loosening up require?" Paika asked seriously.

Aeron laughed, then gave her a strange look. "That wasn't an order, Paika. That- it was supposed to be a joke. I'm not seriously ordering you to loosen up. I don't- I'm not that kind of captain. I just have the most leadership experience." She shook her head. "I'm not giving you an order."

Paika opened a directive file and linked it to voice recognition. "Please say that again."

"I will not give you orders," Aeron repeated.

She closed the file and stored it. "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind. I will have to get used to all of this, though, so please be patient."

"Since you asked so nicely," the captain muttered, and left. The door hissed shut behind her.

Paika stared at the closed door for a moment, feeling a strange irritation bubble up inside her. "Androids fuck," she said, almost offended, though she wasn't sure why. "They fuck hard."

"That does not mean what you think it means," Kiri shouted through the metal barrier.

"Yes, it does! I know what fucking slang is! I'm not some geld-gen android! I was made by someone with a sense of fucking humor!" she shouted back. She needed to work on her impulse control and internal processing for sure.

"What-ever, robot bitch," Kiri said dismissively, still much louder than necessary. "Are you gonna stay in there all night or are you gonna come have drinks with us?"

"I-" She caught herself right before she said she didn't drink liquid. "I presume I'll meet you in the galley."

"I presume- lighten up, Paika! You're a criminal now! Act like one!"

She supposed she was about to get a whole collection of lessons from these people.