ALL NOVEL 55. Reviewed
There was a wide smile on my face again as I drifted awake. It had to be one of the best things ever, cuddling my big floofy fox tail to my chest while my girlfriend cuddled me against her chest.
I felt especially happy and contented after our day-date yesterday, and our evening was pretty much perfect as well.
"You awake?" Sarah whispered softly.
I nodded, "Yeah. Just woke up."
She asked, "Did you enjoy yourself yesterday?"
"I was just thinking to myself," I replied with a wide smile. "It was perfect. I hope you had a good day too?"
"Definitely." She held me a little tighter and sighed, "I'd love to do that again, but I doubt we'll get another chance today. Maybe next time we're on this world."
I sighed as well, "Yeah. We should probably get up and check in with Rebecca."
She agreed, but it still took us another ten or twenty minutes to actually get out of bed. Then we put on just enough clothing to be decent before we left the cabin, but we still had an arm around each other.
We found Rebecca and Jenny both sitting at the table in the ship's mess, our captain had a mug of coffee in front of her. And both of them bid us a good morning as we joined them.
"Good morning boss," Sarah said in reply. "And hi Jenny."
I greeted them as well, then Sarah and I finally let go of each other as we got ourselves some coffee. She took a seat at the table while I got started fixing breakfast for everyone.
"I hope you two had a good day yesterday?" Rebecca asked.
Sarah grinned, "It was great. Amanda was a little nervous driving the grav-sled at first, but by the end of the day she was handling it like an expert."
I blushed slightly, "I've known how to drive those things since I was ten. The adjustment was driving it in the city, with traffic around."
When the food was ready I served it up for the three of us, then joined the others at the table. It wasn't that fancy, we'd long since run out of all the fresh supplies. I did my best though, and I figured it tasted ok. Rebecca and Sarah both seemed to appreciate it too, which was the main thing.
After we all finished eating, Sarah asked the captain "How did things work out yesterday with Mel? Did you meet with him like you planned?"
Jenny added, "I'm curious about that as well."
Rebecca sighed and got herself another coffee before replying.
"I met with him, and we had a frank discussion about the situation. I'm not going to go into too many details since the stuff we talked about was personal. The bottom line though is he's not well and there really isn't anything they can do for him, even with the med-tech they have on this world. So he was interested in using Jenny's Re/Gen capsule."
She sighed again at that point, but continued after a moment. "I told him how it would work, what would happen. As you can imagine that was a big shock to him. Now he's going to think it over, but he hasn't made any decisions yet."
"That's understandable," Sarah stated.
I asked, "Do you expect to hear from him before we have to leave? We're only here for another day right?"
The captain nodded, "We have to ship out tomorrow morning, to make our next delivery on time. I'll follow up with Mel later today and see what he has to say. I already told him we can head back this way in another thirty or forty days. And we'll be back here for scheduled maintenance as soon as our contract with Lebeau is up."
"I take it his condition isn't immediately life-threatening then?" Jenny asked.
"No," Rebecca shook her head. "They haven't been able to give him a firm timeline, but the impression I got was there'd be at least another year before it got to that point."
She added, "I'm sure I don't have to say it, but I'd like you all to be discreet about this? Don't mention it off ship, and don't say anything around Mel or any of his staff ok?"
"Of course," I nodded, and both Sarah and Jenny agreed.
"Does he know that all three of us have been through it?" Sarah asked. "From the sound of it he's facing the same sort of decision both you and I had to make boss. I'm wondering if it might help him to know he's not alone, that we can talk to him about it if he wants?"
Rebecca shook her head again, "He didn't ask about either you or Amanda, and I didn't volunteer it. I'm sure he knows you've both taken advantage of Jenny's services, considering you both look eighteen but have a lot more experience than a couple teens your age should."
"I did tell him about my own past though," she added. "Now he knows I used to be that ex-marine he first met back when he'd just started working as a junior mechanic at his dad's shipyard."
"What did he think of that?" I asked.
"He was surprised," the boss replied with a faint smile. "But I think anyone would be, all things considered."
There were a few more questions, but that was about all she had to say about the topic. From the sound of it Mel had some big decisions to make, and he wasn't under pressure to make them immediately.
Eventually I got up and started to clear the dishes and tidy things up. As I did that I asked, "How did your studying go Jenny? Did you download all the courses you were interested in?"
Our AI crew-mate smiled slightly, "I did. I may have been a little over-enthusiastic though, in the number of courses I acquired."
"Oh yeah?" Sarah asked with a grin. "What sorts of things did you get? And have you actually started studying yet?"
Jenny grimaced, "I've got a few courses in programming, theoretical and applied artificial intelligence, some courses in networking and network security, a couple courses on advanced robotics, another in information security, one more in advanced digital communications technology, and finally a history and a geology course, to round things out."
She cringed slightly as all three of us were staring at her, but she added "And to answer your second question Sarah, I've started studying all of them. Though I believe I'll pick two or three to focus on until I've completed them, then move on to the others."
"Should we be concerned?" Rebecca finally asked. "Apart from the history and geology classes, there's a definite theme to the things you're studying."
Jenny shook her head, "Nothing to be worried about captain. My selections were based on curiosity, raised by questions both Sarah and Amanda have posed in recent days."
"Glad to hear it," the boss responded.
There was a mischievous grin on Sarah's face as she spoke up, "Speaking of advanced robotics, me and Amanda came across a very life-like humanoid robot yesterday. We didn't have enough money with us to buy it, but I'm tempted to go back today and get it."
I felt myself blushing as I focused on washing dishes and avoided the conversation.
"Oh?" Jenny asked, and she sounded very interested. "I was under the impression that while they had the technology here, they rather frowned on that sort of thing on this world. I'm rather curious to see this robot, where did you find it?"
"In the red light district," Sarah replied. "It had some ah, rather limited but highly specific functions. However, with all those classes you're taking I don't doubt you could reprogram or repurpose it pretty easily. Between the two of us we could probably figure out how to modify and upgrade it too."
There were a few seconds of silence, before Jenny sighed "Now I feel torn. I'm eager to get my virtual hands on a humanoid chassis to see what I can do with it, but I'm not sure I want to use a sexbot as the basis of a new physical avatar."
"Aww," Sarah teased. Then more seriously she suggested, "Maybe you should think about it though? We can head out and get it today if you change your mind. It was a bit pricey like I said, they wanted ninety-five thousand ecks for it. But according to the store employee it's worth every eck. What was it he said Amanda? Life-like warm soft polymer skin, realistic synthetic hair, advanced software with various erotic personality modules, and loaded with thousands of the best positions and techniques to satisfy the most discerning customer? He was really enthusiastic about the whole thing."
I was still blushing as I nodded and shrugged noncommittally. I glanced back at the others to see the captain with a very "I'm staying out of this" expression on her face, while Jenny actually looked like she was seriously considering it.
Then Rebecca spoke up, changing the subject slightly.
"On the topic of money, Mel and I also discussed the salvage yesterday. He's taken the three twin laser turrets, both missile launchers, and all the missiles. He's also taken the long-range sensor unit."
She continued, "The missiles were all ok, but the turrets and the launchers weren't in top condition. They all had varying degrees of damage, but nothing catastrophic. That affected the value slightly, but we knew that was a possibility. So the final price we agreed on for all that was two million, three hundred thousand ecks. That's after deducting our port fees and cost of fuel on so on."
"What about the Littlehammer?" Sarah asked. "That was the real prize, right?"
Rebecca nodded, "I thought so. Mel's not in the business of selling used ships though. He offered me three quarters of a million ecks for it, which was basically the value of the parts? That's what he'd be doing with it, just stripping the thing for spare parts. On the other hand, he also offered to fix it up for me so I could get a better price selling it off."
The boss paused for a sip of her coffee then went on, "I'm not really in the used ship business either, and we don't have the time to hang around here and wait for all that to happen. So we talked a bit more, and came up with an agreement. He's going to fix it up, get it fully operational, and have it certified by the local transport authorities, for two hundred and fifty thousand. I'm throwing in another fifty-thousand for him to act as my agent and work through a dealer here on Rolandan-2 to get it sold off at a respectable price. Probably another two million ecks. That'll be waiting for us next time we come back this way."
"That sounds like a good decision," Jenny commented.
I agreed, "So we're coming out of this with two million right now, and another two million next time around. That sounds pretty decent to me."
Sarah smiled, "Works for me. I'm glad you didn't go for the easy money boss. Considering the Littlehammer still flies, it'd be a shame to chop it up for parts."
"My thoughts as well," Rebecca agreed. "So our profit on this salvage job stands at two million, you three each get five percent which is another hundred thousand ecks. Or twenty bars apiece."
Sarah grinned as she looked over at Jenny, "Twenty bars, that's enough to buy that robot with a bar left over to spend on clothes. Or accessories. They had some very exciting accessories there, did we mention that?"
Jenny looked conflicted as she commented, "Or spare parts... Do you remember the name of the shop where you found this robot?"
"Sure," Sarah replied with a grin. She gave the name, and asked "Are you seriously considering it? I'll help out however I can, this sounds like a really fun project."
The AI was quiet for a few seconds, then she grimaced slightly. "I accessed their sales information and had a look at the detailed specifications. I've also downloaded the technical manuals and a schematic of the robot in question. Despite its intended purpose, with a few upgrades and modifications it would actually make a good general purpose android body."
"I'll leave that up to you and Sarah," Rebecca said as she got up from the table. "Like I said before, just don't get yourselves or the ship into any trouble."
Sarah had a wide smile on her face as she looked over to me, "What do you think Amanda? Want to head back into town for a little shopping with me? It's for a good cause."
Jenny added, "I'm compiling a list of other things I'll need, and where to find them. If you wouldn't mind taking care of this for me I'd appreciate it."
"Ok," I said as I forced myself not to look too embarrassed. After all, it wasn't every day your AI ship-mate asked you to go to the red light district and spend the equivalent of a quarter million credits on a glorified sex toy.
By the time Sarah and I were fully dressed and ready to go Jenny told me, "I've transferred my list of requirements to your datapad Amanda. Regarding the robot, there's actually a few different models so I've specified the exact unit I would like. The store's computer tells me they have it in stock so it shouldn't be a problem."
Then she addressed my girlfriend, "And Sarah, I've also specified the additional parts and tools we'll need to perform the required upgrades, along with where you can find them. I expect thirty bars will cover everything, but perhaps you should take thirty-five just in case. You know which strongbox in the secondary hold contains my funds, please help yourself."
"Sure thing Jenny," Sarah replied with a smile. "We'll be back as soon as we're done."
I just nodded quietly, and the two of us set out on our shopping expedition.
