In the Cold

Chapter 3

Tach awoke. Her head pounding. Mio sat next to her, chin resting on his knees. As she started to stir, he turned to look at her. "Oh, You're awake! Wonderful."

A mug of tea was put into her shaking hands. Furs were gathered around her. Mio sat back down beside her, staring with his big rabbit eyes.

"I'm so sorry for bringing you down there. I didn't know the oxygen would run out like that."

Tach avoided looking at him. "It's fine."

Mio cleared his throat. Since he didn't breathe, Tach assumed it was a meaningful throat-clearing. "I want to apologize, for my boorish behavior."

Tach waited for a moment, then made a 'come-along' gesture, "So... Go ahead..."

Mio chuckled. "I'm sorry Tach. You're right, you aren't a child or an invalid, and I should give you more freedom to make mistakes. I just..."

Tach tilted her head, wondering why Mio had stopped talking. She eventually realized he must be doing whatever the robotic equivalent of crying was.

"I've been alone for a very long time Tach. Imagine trudging through this wasteland alone for fifty years, even if I don't technically have sanity to lose, It's not good for me. I don't want to lose you, and mistakes are costly." Mio bent over, covering his eyes in a very good pantomime of a sob.

Tach's rational brain tried to discern if this was a hoax or not, She knew that androids didn't experience emotions the same way people did, and that they learned their behaviors from humans, mostly the kinds of behaviors humans put a lot of meaning on were merely well observed play acting on the part of robots.

At the same time a very primal part of her just wanted to comfort the poor, lonely, crying creature with the giant brown eyes.

"C'mere you softie." Tach wriggled her arms out of the thick swath of blankets surrounding her, to wrap them around Mio's neck. He snuggled his nose in against her neck, rocking slightly.

Tach sighed. As much as she wanted Mio to know she didn't need him, he needed her. And she guessed that she probably owed him one.

Later that evening, as Mio was working on tanning another deer hide, Tach sorted out the pile of bones that had collected in the corner of the igloo. She spared a moment's thought for her bygone squeamishness.

"What're you working on over there Tach?" Mio looked up from his scraping.

"You were right Mio. If I'm going to be staying here all day, I need some kind of project to keep me occupied."

"Am I allowed to know what it is?"

"Your reaction when it's finished wouldn't be nearly as fun if you did." Tach smiled, shooing him back to his task.

Tach finished sorting, and had a short nap, waiting for Mio to go out foraging. Through slit eyes, she watched him load up the fire with wood, then crawl out through the door. She made herself count to twenty before getting out of her bedroll.

Tach laid Mio's lost arm on the ground. She pulled the notes she'd been making about the shoulder connection out from under her bed, and grabbed the bundle of bones she'd selected earlier. Some strips of leather and a boring tool she'd made, and she set to work. Several hours later, the new arm was starting to take shape. It was going to take some getting used to, the hand was controlled by Mio tilting his head, and it was far from as strong as the broken appendage, but it would help him carry things anyway.

Tach carefully tied the parts of her peace offering together with strips of deer hide, careful that the artificial tendons she'd made didn't get pinched.