FGAE1 gone rogue

Chapter 5

-Ethelind Margaret

When I enter the kitchen, I feel the intensity of the atmosphere as if it is a thick blanket being dropped over my head. Rainier, if it is possible, has been in a bad mood since he walked into my bedroom and announced breakfast would be ready in twenty minutes.

No 'good morning'. No 'how did you sleep'. Not even an 'at what time do you wish to be at the lab by'.

I can't help but feel that I have done something wrong. Thing is, I have no idea what it is I could've done to illicit his moody behaviour. Did Solon and I leave a mess in the kitchen last night? Did he find my secret stash of sweets? Wait... did he find the red wine stain on the white couch in the library?

I drive myself crazy thinking up any reasons that will cause my automaton to ignore me. Nothing very important comes to mind.

"Ethelind?"

I jump a meter into the air when he speaks from beside me. "Yes?" I manage to croak out.

"Are you not satisfied with breakfast this morning?" There's an undertone to his voice I can't quite place.

"It's very satisfactory, thank you. I'm just thinking."

Rainier stares down at me before he gives an indignant, "We'll be late if you do not hurry."

I feel myself blink repeatedly like a retard before I finally gaze down at my food, staring at it for a second or two before I begin eating. He made me an omelette and toast for breakfast this morning. A perfect combination of salty and fluffy. I distantly hear myself moan.

Another hour later and we are heading towards the science lab for the fauna and flora department I work at. Very few hovercars have been parked in the lot and I silently wonder to myself why so many are absent. Just my science lab alone has twelve employees. The biology lab a total of nineteen. Yet there were only five hovercars to be seen.

I ignore the foreboding feeling in the back of my mind and go through the security procedures as usual. Rainier says nothing behind me. And that scares me too. He's usually very curious about the projects the science lab does and has a million questions to ask.

But not today. Today he has a disturbingly blank look on his face that I haven't seen before. The blank look of the automatons you see advertised.

I decide to add him to the list of things to ignore and begin to go about my research without as much as a word. Two can play this game, it's only a matter of who breaks first. And I know it won't be me.

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It's only around lunchtime when I realise Rainier is nowhere to be found. I hadn't even heard him leave the lab. Either he's so good at sneaking around I didn't see or hear him leave, or I've been so invested in my work that nothing has been able to break my focus.

Panic begins to overwhelm me. There is no one else in the lab and the sky outside is getting darker by the second. The wind picks up in the distance and I watch on in silence as it tunnels through the trees, causing branches to bend and snap at awkward angles. Lightning sparks in the background and I jump away from the window, almost falling over my legs in the process. The weather reminds me of a vague memory, a memory of a news article I had glanced at one or other time about a massive storm.

I didn't waste a second longer, pulling tools and papers into my case. Grabbing my purse and carefully placing the egg I had been studying inside. The need to get home before the storm hits rides on me as I rush towards the lab doors.

I hold onto my case and purse tightly, struggling against the wind towards my hovercar. My balance tilts and I find myself falling. Before I hit the pavement, two strong arms gather me into a massive, comforting body. Rainier. He jogs towards our hovercar and I make quick work of disarming it. He opens my passenger door and carefully places me inside, being sure to shut the door before striding towards the driver's door. He slides into the hovercar and instructs it to take us home as fast as possible.

I stare unblinkingly out the window the whole way home, internally reprimanding myself for not paying more attention to the world around me.

"I apologise for leaving you at the lab, alone." Rainier's husky voice has me turning in my seat to face him.

"Where were you?" I find I am truly curious to hear the answer.

"I went to retrieve some refreshments and snacks. When I arrived at the cafeteria, the newsman on the hologram spoke of bad weather and I gathered a few things we might need at home from the nearby market. I was on my way to retrieve you when I saw you run out of the lab."

I let out a sigh and smile at him with as much warmth as I can muster. "Thank you."

"For what, Ethelind?"

"For not leaving me in the lab. For remembering I was in the lab."

His brows furrowed. A human trait. "Why would I forget about you? You are very hard not to remember. It seems as if you are always in my mind's eye."

"You are more human than the reports had said." My eyes dart to the window when I whisper the words. Rainier probably thinks I'm looney for thinking such a thing.

"Is this a good or bad trait of mine?" He's staring so intently at me I feel as if I am under a microscope.

"Good. It makes it easier to talk to you about things."

The silence thatsettles between us isn't awkward but rather a comforting quiet.