A Walking Shadow

9. Companion

"And you're sure you can't tell me what you and my android are going to be discussing?" asks Jeltica as she leads me down the halls of her starship.

"I'm afraid not. I value my interviewees' privacy."

She shrugs. "That's fair. Oh, and by the way—I've sent you back the forms you needed signing."

"Thanks. I assume you were the one who filled them out?"

"Well, since I legally own Theory...." Jeltica tapers off, perhaps sensing my slight discomfort. "Anyway. They're in here."

I follow her into a small room adjacent to the engineering section of the ship. Sitting in one of the corners is an android. Theory. They're remarkably anthropoid, with choppy black hair that reaches to their shoulders, and pale blue skin with a synthetic sheen. If not for the purple serial number etched onto the side of their neck, I might've mistaken them for a living being. They're turned off at the moment, and judging from the wires plugged into their back, they're charging.

"Can you wake them up?" I ask Jeltica.

She walks over and unplugs them from the wall. There's a click, and Theory looks up at us.

"Hello," I say.

"You're the interviewer?" is their first question.

"I am."

I give Jeltica a glance. She nods, and leaves us, closing the door behind her. I sit down on the floor across from Theory, turning on my recorder.

"I assume Jeltica told you about why I'm here."

"She did. But she didn't tell me what we would be talking about."

"I want you to tell me about Parse."

For the first time in the conversation, Theory's face displays an emotion—fear. I almost expect them to trip over their words, but they don't. "What about Parse?"

"Just—generally. Whatever you want to share."

Theory looks wary. "Are you going to share this with Jeltica?"

"Of course not."

"How long should my story be? I have... a lot I could say about Parse."

"As long as you like."

*

I don't really know where to start, so I'll just start from the beginning. Jeltica and I were on Vega, doing some routine business. She was in a shop, and I was waiting for her outside.

Suddenly, I heard loud footsteps, and someone attacked me from behind. I felt their hands on my back, searching for my manual download port. I whipped around. The assailant was a Cheleb man. His eyes were wide and frenzied, and blood dripped from a gash on his cheek. A split second later, his stare became blank, and he toppled over, unconscious.

Before I could process what had just happened, two Menkalinans rounded the corner. They stopped when they saw me. One stepped forward and hoisted the Cheleb's limp body over her shoulder. The other glared at me, but did nothing more.

Then they were gone as soon as they had come.

I didn't think much of it. The entire incident had lasted less than a minute. I had no reason to believe it would affect my life as much as it did.

A couple days later, I started hearing a voice in my head that wasn't mine. At first, it just offered random snippets of commentary. "Try that button," it suggested helpfully while I was fixing a small malfunction in the starship's systems. "Don't step there; it's muddy," it offered on a particularly rainy day. "Good job!" it cried when I successfully rebooted the ship's engines.