Nebula's Music Read Free Page B

company?”
    “No. There is a high probability they would collect me and terminate all my memories.”
    Angstrom shook his head. “Clean slate, huh? Well, you can’t do that. It’s out of the question. All the good times we’ve had… Well, they would be lost forever. Do you know how long it took to get you to laugh at anything I said?”
    Nebula smiled. “Are you saying I am hard to program?”
    Angstrom sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “No, what I’m saying is I don’t want to have to make friends with you all over again. It was hard enough in the first place.”
    Nebula knew he was teasing her to make light of the situation and refused to take the bait. The subject matter was too important for diversions. “There is more. I have been experiencing strange feelings lately, emotions that are not programmed into my schematics. These feelings are equivalent to anxiety, hurt and fear.”
    Angstrom looked at her like she’d taken her first steps. “Why, Nebula, that’s wonderful.”
    Nebula did not share Angstrom’s cheerfulness. She looked around, searching the room as if everyone at the bar may potentially turn her in. A couple sat across the room, eating breakfast and chatting about small talk and a fellow crewman snoozed in the corner, his glass empty. No one seemed threatening or even slightly interested in their conversation.
    “I am not supposed to have these feelings.”
    “I know. But I’ve heard reports of cyborgs experiencing certain degrees of such feelings. I guess it depends on how much of the body was used.” He studied her from head to toe. “Nebula, out of all the cyborgs I’ve seen, you look the most human.”
    Nebula’s central processor was fast at work. “And how many have you seen?”
    “At least a hundred. And I don’t need you to tell me the probability of that.” He squeezed her hand like a proud parent. “How much do you know of the person they made you from? Like what happened to her? How she died?”
    Nebula gazed beyond the sight panel, as if trying to access the answers from space. She shook her head. “Nothing.”
    Angstrom nodded. “I see. Makes sense they don’t want cyborgs going around with emotional baggage. You’d have too many of them searching for their previous lives. It would distract them from their duties. I wonder why no cyborg has ever expressed a reason or a desire to know.”
    “Maybe the engineers in the cybernetics company do not let them stay conscious long enough to find out.”
    Angstrom massaged his chin as if he were deep in thought. “Sounds dangerous, if you ask me. I don’t know, Neb. Do you truly want to know what happened to your former self? If it were me, I wouldn’t want any unpleasant memories. What if something awful happened?”
    She squeezed his hand. “Yes, but you must experience the good with the bad. What if it leads to something wonderful? I cannot pass this up. I have a great yearning to know where and from whom I came. These feelings are flooding my body like an addicting elixir. I do not want to have my memory erased. I have always sought truth. To let the emotions go would be to shun knowledge itself.”
    Angstrom stared at her like the words he had left to speak were the most important words in the entire universe. His voice wavered as if he’d swallowed a bad sip of juice. “Then don’t tell anyone you don’t trust.”
     

Chapter 3
    Radian
     
    Although Nebula had an inner clock ticking away, the seconds felt like minutes and the next shift trudged along like the very first mission to Mars, before the discovery of optimum flight speed. She worked on the main control deck, computing all the possible trajectories of the rebel freighter and the Gryphonite Warbird before their impromptu rendezvous. She sat between Angstrom and Oso as they did their own calculations in preparation for a course to Titus Three. Although they were both fully immersed in their tasks, Nebula’s orders took only a fraction of her