5,001 - A Science Fiction Romance Short Story Read Free Page A

that AI personality I left
for you?”
    “No,” Caelen lied flatly. “I threw it
away.”
    “I’ve missed you.” His gaze was frank,
filled with pain. “I always have.”
    “Not enough to stay,” she tossed
back.
    He flinched.
    She got the hell out of there before she
said anything else.
* * * * *
    Devar looked out of place, standing on
the spatula in his fine clothes. Caelen looked around to see if
anyone else on the wall was paying notice.
    “Did you find your hacker?” Devar
asked.
    Caelen winced. Even if she couldn’t see
anyone, that didn’t mean they weren’t straining to hear every word
Devar and she said. “You’d better come in.”
    He stepped inside and the spatula shot
away like it was impatient. She could see Devar was sizing up the
tiny oblong space. “I’d forgotten how small they were,” he said,
almost apologetically.
    “You’d better see the rest of it.” She
moved over to the back corner of the room and tapped on the wall.
“Scrubby, it’s okay. Let me in.”
    After a moment, the wall cracked and the
door opened up. Scrub rolled backwards, his head tilting from side
to side as he took in Devar’s presence.
    “Hi,” Devar told him.
    “Devar Todd,” Scrub said, in recall
tone. Then he blinked. “Wow!”
    Devar looked around the laboratory. “The
Bridge lets you use two apartments at once?”
    “You won’t find it on any official
records,” Caelen told him, “but I own these three and the three on
top. Only the one you came through is my official residence. I’ve
been adapting them for years. These two are my workshop. The three
above are living space. It’s not the Palatine, but it works for
me.”
    Except that Devar seemed to be too tall
for the room. Too large. He made it seem shabby and miserable.
    “It wasn’t my choice that you stay
here,” he said.
    “Actually, it was,” she said crisply.
“But forget it. You were asking about a hacker?”
    He took a step closer. “You never would
let me explain it. My life was over when the game fraud charges
were upheld. No one has ever won an appeal against the Tankball
League. I would have been executed and recycled inside a month.
Then the Quickening Program offered me a child. Me and Miriam. I couldn’t turn it down, Caelen.” He pushed his hand through
his hair. “Death, or a child...” And he gave a shaky laugh. “We
always talked about a child--”
    “ Don’t !” she cried. “Don’t do
this.” She drew in a hot breath. “I suppose you’re here to tell me
how much you regret it?”
    “No!” he shot back, his tone strident.
“I don’t regret a single moment of every year Galen was in my life.
Not one. Raising a child is just as wonderful as they say it is,
and it saved my life. But I do regret what my choice did to your life.”
    “You’ve been researching me. I’m
surprised they let you get that cozy with a terminal.”
    “It was just an excuse,” he said flatly
and pulled his hand out of his coat pocket. He held it out.
“Here.”
    She picked up the ball. “What is it?”
Then she realized. “It’s a voice,” she whispered, shocked.
    “It’s not just a voice,” he said. “It’s
a whole face. If the ship mind is there, it will be able to see and
hear, instead of interpreting through AI interfaces.”
    “The risk you took! If they’d caught you
anywhere near codes....” She trembled. Devar didn’t have Galen to
protect him anymore. If they caught him coding, he would be
recycled without trial.
    Devar shrugged. “Think of it as my
apology.”
    “I don’t want your apology,” she shot
back, anger touching her.
    Devar looked at Scrub, who was listening
without shame to everything they said. “Your name is Scrub?”
     
    “My full name is Scrub Nurse. Neither of
us like it,” Scrub explained.
    “Scrub, sing me my favorite lullaby,”
Devar said.
    “Ring a ring of rosies, a pocketful of
posies, a-tissue, a-tissue, we all fall down.” Then he blinked.
“Wow, did I say