EL PARAÍSO RESORT, UR
Five disc-shaped pink patties, each a little wider than a drink coaster. Each as thick as a light novel. They were resting on a grid of stainless rods, balanced precariously over a pit of fiery coals. Flames lashed upward from the coals, gently caressing the undersides of the patties, preserving their juices while locking in the flavor.
“That’s disgusting,” said Luna.
Delfoy was taken aback. The spatula in his hand paused mid-flip. “What, hamburgers? You can’t be serious. They’re a bona fide classic, a tried-and-true staple of the barbeque experience. You can’t go wrong with burgers!”
The pint-sized support partner wasn’t impressed. “Cooking animal meat for consumption is so… barbaric. It’s uncivilized. I can’t believe you fleshies haven’t evolved past that nonsense by now.”
“Well
excuse me,” Delfoy replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “On behalf of flesh-and-blood beings everywhere, I sincerely apologize for this unsightly display. We are but slaves to our baser impulses, I’m afraid. Not to mention our taste buds.”
“Ain’t that the truth. Nothing but raging hormones and primal instincts, the whole lot of you.”
On the grill, the meat patties were turning a healthy shade of brown. Delfoy prodded one with his spatula. The metal spade cleaved into the hamburger, exposing its pinkish innards. Deciding it needed a little more time, he flipped it upside down.
“Alright, Little Miss I’m-Too-Good-For-Hamburgers. What do you normally eat instead?”
“The same thing CASTs do. Synthetic food specially designed to contain everything a healthy android could ever need or want. The solid kind provides energy to recharge our power cores. The liquids replenish our internal fluids. Best of all, no waste products! Everything consumed gets used. It’s efficient and environmentally-friendly. Much better than that stuff you call food.”
Delfoy finished flipping the last of the patties. “Okay, but does it
taste good?”
“I like it. You, on the other hand… probably not.”
“Then I’ll stick to grilling burgers, thank you very much.”
“It’s okay. Nobody’s perfect—except me, of course. But you’re not me, so I won’t hold it against you.”
Speaking of perfection, Luna couldn’t help admiring the view. She was smack dab in the middle of a tropical resort, surrounded by towering palm trees, dazzling swimming pools, and white sandy beaches. The artificial sun was slipping lazily towards the horizon. A few more minutes and it would be gone. Until then, the sky was ablaze with shades of red and purple.
Can’t let myself get distracted, Luna reminded herself. She had two missions to accomplish. Mission number one was discovering the contents of Delfoy’s oh-so-mysterious bag, the one he wouldn’t let her touch. It wasn’t even that important, but he had been overly cryptic about it, and that made Luna want to see it even more. Sooner or later Delfoy would leave the bag unguarded. When he did, Luna would be ready to pounce.
The second mission—and arguably the more important one—was getting back at Marten and Charmie for splashing her in the pool earlier. If Selena and Delfoy didn’t want to teach the brats a lesson, Luna would just have to do it herself. She had a rather juicy idea in mind, but it required the aid of a second person. A partner-in-crime, so to speak. Luna allowed herself a crafty little smile. She knew exactly who to recruit for a job like that. In fact, the partner in question happened to be walking past at that very moment.
“Hey, Rhosie,” Luna called, grinning from ear to ear.
The red-haired Caseal stopped in her tracks and looked down. “Yeah, what is it?” asked Rho. Her brow was furrowed in suspicion. She knew—rightly so—that a cheerful Luna usually meant trouble.
“I was wondering, dear friend, if I might trouble you with a teensy little business proposition?”
Rho crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “You want
my help? You must really be desperate. Or, more likely, you’re trying to keep it a secret from the others.”
Bingo, thought Luna. “What? Pssh, don’t be silly.”
“Aki’s going to find out eventually, y’know.”
“Yeah, but will she find out
tonight?”
“Not unless I tell her.”
“Then don’t. Let her find out later.”
“I don’t know… I’m trying to be one of the good guys now. And you, Shortstack, are definitely a bad influence.”
“Come on, it’s not even that bad. You haven’t even heard the details yet.”
“Okay, so tell me.”
“Later. After dinner. I’ll meet you in front of the condo.”
Rho held up her hands. “Hold on, I haven’t agreed to anything yet. If I do this, what’s in it for me?”
“Umm… I’ll owe you one?”
“That doesn’t sound very enticing. Like, at all. What could you possibly do to help me?”
“I don’t know. I’m not a fortune teller, I can’t see the future. You might drop something in a small space only I can reach. Or, um… what if you’re on fire and only my Barta can put out the flames?” Luna gave Rho her best puppy-dog expression. “Or maybe you just feel like helping out a poor support partner in need…?”
“Nah, I’ll pass.”
“Aw, c’mon Rhosie, please! You’re not going to make me beg, are you? I need this. I need it so bad! And I can’t do it without your help.”
“Still no.”
Frustrated but persistent, Luna decided to try another approach. “If you do this, I’d owe you. Wouldn’t you enjoy that smug feeling knowing I’m in your debt? Getting to lord it over me whenever you want?”
Rho considered that. Stroking her chin thoughtfully, she replied, “You’re right, I
would enjoy that. Alright, I’ll lend you a hand—against my better judgment, I might add.”
“Awesome! You won’t regret it, I promise.”
* * * * * * * * *
At a nearby picnic table, the rest of the gang was waiting for dinner to be served. Most of them were still wearing their swimsuits from earlier. At one end of the table, Ken Rauth was busy fiddling with his latest invention, a blue cylindrical device with a pair of arm-like extensions. Marten and Charmie watched in utter fascination.
“What is it?” Marten asked, openly curious.
Rauth set down the screwdriver he’d been using. “You mean the Clo-bot? It’s a robot that picks up and sorts clothing.”
“An’ you made it yourself?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s so awesome! How does it work?”
“There’s a power switch on the bottom to turn it on and off. See here? When it’s on, you can give it voice commands to start or stop working. It has a sensor in front, right here, that detects any clothing left lying around. When it finds some, it picks them up with its claw-grip hands. Then a slot in the canister body opens up to store the clothes until they’re ready to be folded and put away. It can be programmed to pick up other things as well. Pretty much anything, really. I just need to tweak a few settings first.”
“Cool. Can I try it out?”
“When it’s done, yes. I’m still working out a few bugs in its programming. Until then, you’ll have to be patient.”
“Aww.” Marten pouted but didn’t argue. Like the doctor said, he would just have to wait.
* * * * * * * * *
At the other end of the table, Aki02 was talking to her good friend Selena. The original Aki02 met Selena on Naberius during a particularly rough mission, one that nearly claimed their lives. Since then, they had shared a nearly-inseparable bond. The reborn Aki03, spurred on by her predecessor’s memories, spent an entire cycle looking for Selena when she went missing in the Rift, eventually finding her and Marten and bringing them back to
Ur. It was a debt Selena could never repay.
At the moment, she and Zero Two were engaged in a conversation about the past. The good times. The bad. All of it. A fair bit of nostalgia, a little regret, and plenty of laughs. Then the subject turned to those who were absent.
“Too bad Zero One couldn’t join us,” said Selena. “After everything she went through, she could have used a nice weekend getaway like this.”
Aki shook her head. “I think it’s precisely because of everything she went through that she didn’t want to come. What happened to Zero One was traumatic. Probably more so than any of us realize. But beyond that, she is still—what’s the expression?—‘beating herself up’ over it. She hasn’t forgiven herself for allowing Lee Okada to control her the way he did.”
“But that’s ridiculous! None of it was her fault. I mean, she’s the victim here. Surely she knows that.”
“On some level, perhaps. But knowing it and accepting it are two different things. Once someone has slipped into the shackles of guilt, it can be difficult to reach them with words alone.”
“She still refuses to use the recharging alcoves with you?”
The Caseal nodded somberly. “It’s how we share our experiences. Zero One doesn’t want to ‘infect us,’ as she put it, with those terrible memories. I told her there was no need to shoulder the burden alone, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“Do you think she can get through this?” Selena asked, concerned.
“We started out as copies of the same Aki. Fundamentally, that hasn’t changed. I know my sister as well as I know myself—or at least, as well as one person can know another. So yes, I believe she can get through this. But it’s going to take time.”
“And until then?”
“Until then, we have to be patient.”
Selena opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted by the arrival of a newcomer—their host and owner of the El Paraíso Resort, Tommie Santura. As usual, the man was full of energy. Also as usual, he was boasting an infectious smile. “Howdy, folks! Glad to see you’re all settling in nicely. I hope you’ve been enjoying your stay so far. We have some after-dinner activities planned at the beach if you’re interested. Also, a reminder that the big raffle will be held tomorrow at noon. If you need anything else, anything at all, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
Everyone nodded and offered their thanks. Still smiling, Santura took his leave. A minute later Delfoy called out, “Dinner is served!”
* * * * * * * * *
- Two hours later -
“Wh-What happened next?” Marten asked nervously. He and Charmie were huddled together on the bed, practically shivering with fright.
Perfect, thought Luna.
I’ve got them right where I want them.
The support partner brought the flashlight up to her face. In the darkened bedroom, its pale beam cast her features in a ghastly light. She continued her tale of terror, saying, “The Caseal waited for her maker to return. She waited day after day, night after night. But no matter how long she waited, her maker never came back. The Caseal wanted to go out looking for him, but he had given her strict instructions to wait for his return. Not wanting to defy him, she continued to wait. Weeks passed. Months. Entire cycles. Maybe even decades. In all that time waiting, alone, she started to go… crazy.”
“C-C-Crazy?” Marten’s teeth were chattering. He looked like he might wet his pants at any moment.
Almost there, thought Luna. The setting was perfect: a dark room at night, a story designed to play into the imaginations of gullible children. All she had to do now was spring the trap.
“That’s right,
crazy. No one knows exactly how long it took, but eventually the Caseal’s mind started to crack. Her programming went haywire. She began pacing up and down the halls of the laboratory, calling out, ‘Come baaaaack. Come baaaaack.’ Everyone who lived nearby heard those sad, mournful wails. Then one day, they just… stopped. A brave neighbor went to check and see if she was alright. But when he got there, the lab was empty. The Caseal was gone. Vanished without a trace. Since then, no one has ever seen her. But some say that if you listen very closely, you can still hear her pacing up and down the halls, calling out for her long-lost maker. And that if you do, you will never be seen by anyone… ever… again.”
With dramatic flourish, Luna shut off her flashlight. The bedroom was immediately plunged into darkness. The boy and bird clutched each other even tighter.
At first there was silence, sudden and absolute. And then…
Creak. Creak. Creak.
The sound of metal feet on wooden floorboards. Faintly at first, then louder. Then fainter, then louder.
The footsteps stopped. No one moved. No one dared to make a sound. A moment later, a woman’s voice could be heard echoing down the hall: “Come baaaaack… Come baaaaack…”
The handle on the bedroom door began to turn, slowly. Thirty degrees. Sixty degrees. Ninety. The handle stopped. The door itself creaked open with the same absurd slowness, a few centimeters at a time.
Standing in the now-open doorway was the darkened outline of a Caseal, her hands held out like some sort of Frankenstein’s monster. “Come baaaaack…,” she moaned at them.
Marten and Charmie completely lost it. They let out a terrible shriek, dove off the bed, and ran right out of the room—directly past the shadowy Caseal, who didn’t bother chasing them.
Luna watched them go. When they were safely out of earshot, she burst into a fit of raucous laughter. She rolled around on the floor clutching her stomach, tears streaming down her cheeks. Too good. It was all too good.
That’ll teach those brats to splash me in the pool, she thought with delicious satisfaction.
“Nice going,” said the mystery Caseal—in actuality, Rho. “You scared those poor kids half to death. Are you happy now?”
Luna climbed to her feet. “Correction,” she replied. “
We scared those kids half to death. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Rho shook her head in dismay. “I can’t believe you talked me into this. Aki’s not gonna be happy when she finds out I terrorized her friend’s kid.”
“That’s your problem, Rhosie, not mine. You know what they say: Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”
“Aki’s going to know it was your idea. She’s going to know everything I know. That’s how the memory sharing process works, y’know.”
Luna waved away her concern. “I’m the lovable but mischievous scamp, remember? People expect that from me. You’re the one who’s trying to be all goody-goody. You have a reputation to live up to now. Standards to maintain. I guess you should’ve thought of that before you teamed up with me.”
Rho’s shoulders sagged. Like it or not, she knew the support partner was right. “Just remember, you owe me one.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
* * * * * * * * *
Rho was on the way back to her condo when she nearly bumped into an anxious-looking Selena. “Have you seen the kids?” asked the green-haired Newearl. “I can’t find them anywhere.”
Rho considered her options, decided to play it cool.
Real cool. “The kids? Oh yeah, the kids! They’re, um… they’re fine! Super fine, even. I just saw them a few minutes ago. They looked totally, super fine then. Like, so fine you wouldn’t even believe it. I think they were heading off to play by themselves. You know how boys are, always doing stuff without asking. I definitely, totally wouldn’t worry about them. Not at all.”
“Oh? Well, alright,” Selena frowned. “I mean, as long as they’re okay.”
“Really, totally, super fine and okay.”
“Thanks.”
Selena turned to leave. Rho, however, couldn’t help herself. She had to say one more thing. “Selena, wait.”
The Newearl stopped.
“About earlier,” said Rho. “When we were checking in, you sorta left in a hurry. I’m not sure if I said something to offend you, but if I did, I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”
A sad look crossed Selena’s face. She offered Rho a tight-lipped smile and replied, “You didn’t offend me. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”
Once again, Selena turned to leave. And once again, Rho felt compelled to speak up. “It’s just that, well, I was hoping we could be… y’know, friends. Or something. It’s important to me.”
The two women stood face to face in the moonlit courtyard. No one else was around. The resort had gone quiet for the night. Even the majestic stone fountain was at rest, its waters still and calm.
Selena’s golden eyes shone with a cold intensity. There was bitterness in them. Resentment. It was a look Rho had never seen from her before. “Why?” asked Selena. “Why do you care?”
“You and Zero Three were friends before she, well… you know. I just thought—”
“You thought what? That you would take her place, is that it?”
“N-No, that’s not—”
“Let me make one thing clear,” Selena snapped. “We’re not friends. Aki03 was my friend. You may look like her, you may sound like her, but you’re not her. Every time you open your mouth is a painful reminder of that fact.”
This time it was Rho’s turn to feel bitter. “Hey! What happened to Zero Three wasn’t my fault, y’know. I didn’t ask for this.”
“But it’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Right from the start. The first time we met, you were trying to take Aki’s place. To steal her life and make it your own. Well, congratulations, it looks like you finally got your wish.”
Selena stormed off, leaving Rho alone in the darkness. The words bounced around endlessly in her head, their intent as sharp as razor blades.
But it’s what you wanted, isn’t it?
The Caseal stood frozen in place, paralyzed. A humanoid statue. Her only sign of life: a single, unobstructed tear rolling down her cheek.
* * * * * * * * *
When Selena returned to her condo, Delfoy was there waiting for her. She told him the whole story and burst into tears. He put his arms around her, then sat her down on the bed.
“I… I thought I could handle it,” she sobbed. “But every time I see her, I just… I can’t. In my head, it’s like watching Zero Three die all over again.”
Delfoy gently rubbed Selena’s shoulder. “Hey. It’s going to be alright. If you want, we can leave in the morning. Okay?”
Selena shook her head and sniffled. After taking a minute to compose herself, she said, “I know it isn’t Rho’s fault. Of course I know that. But she’s here and Zero Three isn’t. I can’t help thinking it’s not fair, and then I get so… so angry inside. That my friend is gone, and someone else is walking around in her body.”
She started crying all over again, but quieter this time. “I said such awful things to her. I’m a terrible person, aren’t I?”
“You lost your best friend. You’re allowed to be upset. But… you should probably apologize to Rho, too.”
“I will. In the morning.”
“Right,” Delfoy agreed. “In the morning.”
TO BE CONTINUED
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