Alien Outpost - Chapter Two

Chapter Two

I felt like I was getting shaken and tapped. I opened my eyes and looked around. Everything was out of focus and I could hear the sound of water. Along with the sound of water I heard a female voice. It was Hira. As my vision adjusted, I looked at Hira.
“Wha, what is it?” I looked at my wrist chronometer. “Good stars girl, its 0600.. What is it?”
“Your android is in the shower,” Hira said. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at me. I looked up at her and then around at the rest of my surroundings. Jenny’s blue jump suit lay folded in a corner just outside the door to the bathroom. Hira’s hair was all over the place and she looked tired.
“So.. I guess androids need to shower too. At least I have the only computer on board that cleans its self,” I said. Really, if the android were dumb enough to short circuit on its own, it wasn’t my problem. I just wanted to go back to sleep. I yawned and stretched. “Wake me up later.” Before I could close my eyes, Hira shook me again.
“Look, we all need to stick to a schedule. Just get her out of there okay?”
I opened my eyes and looked at Hira again. “What could you possible need to do at six o’clock in the morning. We were up since 22:00 last night, we need at least one more hour of sleep.”
“Jake, get her robotic ass out of my shower,” Hira said.
I rolled my eyes and got out of the bed. I stood up and looked at Hira as I undressed. I might as well get a shower since she got me up. Hira looked at me as I stripped and threw my clothes in an unorganized pile next to the perfectly folded flight suit at the entrance. I was happy to know that Hira was interested at least. Her eyes wandered. I turned and stepped barefoot from the carpet to the tile. I walked over to Jenny while she stood under the stream of water. There was an extra shower nozzle next to her that I turned on. The android looked at me. I tried my best not to look below her neck but I was extremely curious how well someone designed her. I kept myself from looking below her neck and thought other thoughts.
“Hmmm.. Nothing can wake me up better than a nice hot stream of water,” I said as I leaned back into the stream. I heard the familiar sound of a knob being turned. Next thing I knew was jumping out of the stream when the water got too hot.
“Ouch!” I looked behind me and could see that the water was steaming now. “Jenny! Don’t do something like that without asking me first.”
“I am sorry. I was trying to make you feel more comfortable. You provided hints that you would feel better if I...” Jenny stopped talking as I began laughing again. I heard the sound of Hira laughing as too. Jenny and I looked to see that Hira was naked and in the shower as well. I turned my head. Think other thoughts.. Other thoughts..
“Which on of us did you want to mate with?” Jenny asked.
“What? No! Noone,” I protested. I could hear Hira laughing.
“He’s just never been in a shower with two girls before Jenny,” Hira said. I looked over to see the Japanese girl adjust the knob on the shower and drench herself. My goodness, they were both so beautiful.
“Just one girl. I am a machine,” Jenny said.
I walked over to them and shared the shower with Jenny.
“Do you consider yourself a person?” I asked.
“If you want me to consider myself a person, I will. Yes.”
“Okay, I think you should. I’m not going to walk around calling you a machine all my life,” I said.
“Will that change whenever you stand sitll?” Jenny asked. I could hear Hira laughing again. I was getting used to these sorts of questions but Hira was finally beginning to understand what I was going through. I grabbed the soap and began running it through my hair. The questions and the cleaning did a good job of keeping my mind off my hormones.
“Its another figure of speech. I mean that I would much rather like the idea of us all thinking of you as a person, you included.”
“I understand now, thank you,” Jenny said. “As a note, I would like to say that I do enjoy looking at you this way.”
Hira laughed again, “Looks like you got a admirer.”

Jenny, Hira, and I finished our showers together. Hira and I suited up for the day while Jenny attempted to find another jump suit in the drawers that would fit her. There wasn’t much to do. We all had a full day to freely walk about the ship and get to know everyone. I knew that Jenny would be attached to me like a lost dog. West was right about how lucky I was. How often does someone get to shower with two beautiful women. I laughed at the thought. A screen on the wall activated. I read it. Incoming transmission from Talon Prime. Banner: “Hey Justin, its Kara.” I sat down at the edge of the bed and accepted the transmission. I was so excited to see her! Kara appeared on the screen. She had long dark brown hair, green eyes, and tanned skin. I smiled at her the moment I saw who it was.
“Kara! I missed you!”
“What happened to your two weeks of leave you told us you would get?”
“I.. Got sent on a mission. They needed me. After this mission I will be able to come back down I promise,” I said. I could tell that she was going to give me a fit about something. I was just starting to get used to it. We never argued until recently.
“Jake.. You still have another four years ahead of you and I really don’t want to be stuck down here without you. You’re never there for me. You have to get stationed on the planet so we can see each other occasionally!”
“I’m trying. Talon Prime just don’t have any need for star ship computer technicians. That’s the big problem.” I could see Kara was about to say something else when Hira walked by with her wet hair. Now Kara looked concerned. I was almost relieved to see that she was concerned about it but I wasn’t going to let her know.
“Who is that?” Kara’s eyes widened even more when Jenny sat down next to me with nothing on but her tee-shirt. I closed my eyes and turned my head away from the monitor.
“Kara, they roomed me with a female. She’s got a boyfriend. Nothing to worry about,” I told her.
“There are two girls in there! What about the half naked girl beside you!”
“Kara...” I sighed, “She’s not a girl.”
“I’m a person,” Jenny said. My god, I told her to think of herself as a person and that’s great but talk about horrible timing! Before I could explain, the transmission closed. I couldn’t get mad at Jenny for it. How could she have known? I laid back against the wall and covered my face with my hands.
“Oh damn.. I’m ruined!”
I could hear Hira’s giggle. “She doesn’t trust you very much does she?” Hira asked. I didn’t feel like saying anything more. I shook my head and muffled the words no through my fingers.
“We’ll sort it out later. Come down to the observation all. I’m going to meet up with West. It’ll be fun! I promise!” Hira said. I looked over to her and smiled.
“Alright, I’m going to help Jenny out, attempt to call my girlfriend, and after that.. I’ll be right down. I promise.” I looked up and saw that Hira was smiling at me. She walked over and gave me a kiss on the cheek before heading out the door again. I crossed my arms and looked at the floor. What am I going to do..
“You are stressed,” Jenny said.
“You catch on fast.” I laid my back against the wall and sighed.
“Its in my programming to.. Catch on”
I smiled at her. It was true. In one night she changed so much. It was so obvious that she was a computer and now her questions seemed more human and less like a database asking for instructions.
“What were you having trouble with?”
“My bra,” she said.
“Oh,” I mumbled. “I uh, only know how to take them off. Never learned how to actually work one. Why don’t you just zip the flight suit up over your tee-shirt and no one will notice.”
“You are right,” she said. Some of her questions made me glad that Hira was around so much more than I already was. I grabbed my pocket computer and put on my shoes. It only took a few minutes to find this observation bay. The doors opened, the view taking me by surprise. The stars didn’t zoom by like so many entertainment shows that I’ve seen on hologram, but they slowly drifted from one spot to the next. Jenny tried to take my hand but I refused it. I didn’t want all these people to see me holding someone’s hand. I would have to explain this all to her later. I found Hira with West and that other guy that Yuri spoke so highly of.
“What was that short Private’s name again?”
“I do not know,” Jenny said.
“Oh yeah, sorry. You weren’t there. Oh damn! I have to tell you what we’re doing!”
“Standing at the top of three steps Jake,” Jenny quickly said.
“I’ll tell you later, come on.” I told her to follow me and we sat down next to Hira, West, and the other man.
“Hey, how are you?!” West asked.
“I could be better,” I said.
Hira leaned over and whispered in West’s ear but it was still loud enough for everyone to hear her say Girlfriend Problems. I gave a half smile and West looked at me and chuckled.
“Ah, don’t worry. Plenty of fish in the sea.”
“Bomb fishing! That’s what I miss,” the short man said.
“Hi, I forgot your name. I’m sorry,” I said.
“That’s alright. West did the same. Only Hira remembered. Private Kiril Primin at your service. You have a problem, I’ll blow it up for you,” he said.
“Its nice to meet you,” I said. “So you’re an explosives expert?” I allowed myself to lean back in the chair and get comfortable. Jane looked around with the wonder of a child. Hira seemed to be fixated on her. I didn’t give it much attention because I was too interested in Kiril at the moment.
“I’m a devolutionist. If someone fucks with us, they call me in and I re-arrange with a can pack of whopass,” Kiril said. Everyone at the table laughed except for Jenny.
“What is a whopass?” Jenny asked. I noticed that she managed to get her hair spiked up the way it was the other night. It looked really good on her. Maybe I should get have gotten my mind off of that and let Kiril know why she asked such a question.
“It is true what they say about blondes,” Kiril said.
“Oh sorry. My mind wandered,” I said. “Remember, she’s the android.”
Kiril smiled and nodded at her, “Oh, forgive me.”
“Its fine.. Don’t worry about it,” I said.
One of the ship’s galley men took our order as if we were in a diner and we all ordered a few soft drinks. I was surprised to see that even Jenny could drink. She explained to us all that she needed to replenish the fluids in her body the same way a human being would need to. The only difference is that she puts all the substances to work without any waste.
I ended up enjoying Kiril’s company and I confirmed that West was a very nice guy. It was obvious that Hira and I got along great. Everyone else was still a mystery to me but I only need a few friends. A ship like this is all I could ask for. A brand new ship at that. Its possible that I might be able to spend the remainder of my four year tour with these people and never have to re-locate. I could deal with that. My thoughts drifted to my girlfriend back home again. What would I do? I thought. What is she going to do? I relaxed and sipped my drink. There was nothing I could do right that moment.
“What do you think we’re going to run into at the facility?” Kiril asked. West put his drink down and leaned over the table.
“I remember about a year back,” West started. “I was a Sargent aboard the CTV Billiards. We intercepted a vessel in that region of space. We set down on the planet and found absolutely nothing. We were positive that it was a raider ship but there was noone aboard. We searched every single deck of that crashed ship. There was blood splattered along the walls, evidence of fights, busted down doors. It was the scariest shit any of us had ever seen. We were on a limited time block so we couldn’t stay long enough to find the bodies.”
I looked up at west. I needed to swallow but nothing would go down.
“West, what do you think happened?” I said.
“Something.. Something not human got them. One of the door imprints we found looked like it resembled a clawed hand or something. Our commander told us to keep quiet about it. They sent in another team. That team later went on to develop the infamous Outpost Eight that we’re headed to right now,” West said.
“Sounds like something out of a horror movie,” Hira whispered.
“It was creepy I tell you. I never wanted to go back there again.”
“I’ll bring extra whopass with me in case we need it I’ll tell you that right now!” Kiril said before grabbing his drink off the table to quench his dried throat.

I planned on sneaking away from the festivities in the observation bay so I could sneak in a private call to Kara but Yuri was right about the android sticking to me like glue. I decided it would be alright for her to view anything I do as long as she stays out of the camera’s view while I make the call. I sat down on the edge of the bed and sent the call in. And I waited.. And Waited.. No answer.
“Damn it,” I said. I plugged the card in again and the screen activated. It looked as if she were reaching to turn the communications system off and she hit the wrong button. I could see another man in the bed behind her and she had a bed sheet wrapped around her. I looked at her as she sat down in the chair.
“Oh no...” She whispered. I felt as if I had been hit in the chest with a baseball bat. I just looked at her. Waiting for her to say something while a glossy layer covered my eyes.
“I’ve,” Kara paused. “I didn’t want you to find out like this.”
“You said you’d wait for me. No matter what!” I choked the words out.
“This is all your fault.. Just.. Forget it. Its over,” she said. The communications screen went black. I yanked out the com card and let it drop to the floor. I curled up in the bed and tried to breathe. I should just hold my breath and be done with it I thought. I felt a set of hands on my shoulders. I knew it was Jenny. Machine or not, I needed to feel touched at that moment. I motioned for her to lay down with me and she did so.
“I can almost anything you would want me to do to please you,” Jenny offered. I looked up at her with tearful eyes.
“You can hold my hand now,” I said.



*

Six hours passed and I still didn’t feel any better. Hira and West had found out and they all expressed their sympathies. We took our seats in the same row. Hira sat to the left of me and Jenny took her seat to the right. West sat on the other side of Hira and Kiril sat over from Jenny. The lights dimmed once the last of our platoon found their seats. Commander Yuri Ambrose stood in front of a large screen. He leaned on a podium and looked around the room.
“First things first.. Does AR-15 have a name yet?” Yuri looked to me.
“Yes sir. AR-15 is Jenny.”
“How are you Jenny?”
“Can you be more specific?” Jenny asked. We all chuckled at her response.
“Its safe to say you are an android,” Yuri chuckled.
“Would it not be safe under another circumstance?” She said. Even I laughed along with everyone else.
“Its fine Jenny. Please stay quiet and hold all your questions you have for me until after the briefing,” Yuri said while smiling. I held her hand and smiled at her to let her know that I was not laughing at her. Or was I? I would hate to think that I was. She’s a very interesting person. Yes, I called her a person. I looked to Hira and smiled before looking forward.
“Okay,” Yuri started. The screen behind him showed a schematic of the space elevator that led up to the space station in geosynchronous orbit above the planet. “Our plan of action is as follows. I need our machine gunners to always be up front. Machine gunners, raise your hands.” I looked over to see West raising his hand, the older Sargent in the front, Rito raised his hand as well. Yuri continued. “No matter what happens. Do - not - stand - in - front - of these men. It takes three seconds for the A5B machine guns to warm up, and it takes an extra three seconds to quit firing once the bullets begin spraying! This means they cannot stop firing if you run out in front of these men. They will fuck you up and turn you into grinded meat before they can say holy shit.”
Yuri took a breath, “And will my Sniper raise her hand.” I looked over to see the Sargent raising her hand in the air. “Sargent Lila Chambers will save your ass if you get into trouble on the ground. Do not ask for her assistance unless you are planet side. She carries the 186.5 Railgun. It is a sniper rifle that can see through and shoot through walls, brick, metal, various alloy’s and has an infanite maximum effective range when placed on a steady tripod. If you are planet side and bogged down, you call on the radio and ask for God, give your location and she will take care of you.” Once again, Yuri didn’t look at Lila directly. I could definitely sense the tension between those two.
“Private Jake Reeve, you are my technology man. If a door doesn’t open Kiril blows it up. If a computer don’t work, Kiril blows it up,” Yuri continued while everyone chuckled at the repetitiveness. “You have the authority to attempt to access everything we try to get through first before Kiril blows it the fuck up.”
“A team effort,” Kiril spoke in a comedic dismissive tone. This even got my android to smile. I nearly had a heard attack from the belly laugh these men gave me but I did manage to nod at Yuri.
“Yes sir!” I said in-between a chuckle.
“Everyone else will act as light infantry. You will all be issued your standard sidearms, medical kits, and tactical assault rifles. The only time you are allowed to fire your weapons is if I give the command or you feel that you are in personal danger. Understood?” The entire room save for myself and Jenny responded with a unanimous Yes Sir. Yuri smiled and continued.
“The planet’s atmosphere is too unstable to land a craft at the moment. We have been ordered to take the sky elevator to the surface. This means we have a six hour ride ahead of us. There are six shaft’s, so we will be taking two elevators. In the event the elevators do not work, we will take oxygen tanks and repel the shafts.” I listened as Yuri spoke but I had to stop him.
“Yuri,” I said.
“Yes Private?”
“Repel the shaft?! Do you realize we don’t have that much rope, or strength, or...” I was stopped by a group of people laughing again. Yuri smiled at me and laughed.
“I’m glad to see someone took me seriously,” Yuri said with a chuckle. “I’m joking of course. In the event that these shafts do not work, there is a ladder but we won’t be using that either. In reality, we will have to wait for the weather to clear. Once on the surface, we will divide into two groups. Now Jenny..”
“Yes sir?”
“We’re giving you a gun too. Your programming does have your offensive and defensive files am I correct?”
“You are correct,” Jenny said. I looked at her with a lifted eyebrow.
“What’s this about guns?” I asked her.
“I know how to use a wide variety of them,” she said.

After the briefing, Hira, Jenny, and I headed back to our quarters for a mandatory lights out. We stepped into our quarters. Hira made a point to hug me. Jenny did the same.
“How are you feeling?” Hira asked.
“I’m fine. Yuri made me laugh, and you all made me feel better. I’m going to live,” I said.
“Or so you think.. The mission starts at 1500 tomorrow. We have all this time until then though. Its only what?” Hira wondered what time it was.
“It is 1520 right now. We have eight hours to get ready,” Jenny said.
“Oh, by the way,” Hira said. “There’s no shame in making love with your android. She is bound to you.”
The thought confused me. I didn’t know what to say. I looked back at Hira as Jenny smiled at me. “Hira.. I don’t want to see Jenny as some piece of property. I don’t love her at the most she is a friend and life long companion. I’m not going to use her.”
“I would like to fall in love with you if it is okay. You are cute,” Jenny said. I ignored what Jenny said at first and continued with Hira.
“Plus, she’s a machine. Sure, she’s a person too but there can’t be....” The thought of what Jenny just said to me crossed my mind now. Did she just say that she would like something? Hira and I both looked to Jenny in silence.
“Jenny,” Hira asked. “Did you just say that you wanted something. As in.. A personal feeling?”
Jenny looked to Hira and then back to me. She nodded. My mouth dropped so quickly that I didn’t have time to realize that it was opened until the air rushed to my tongue.
“Holy shit..” I uttered.
“A sacred what?” Jenny asked.
“No.. Jenny, forget about that. Tell me what you said about you loving me,” I said. I think both Hira and myself needed to hear it again so we could believe it.
“I said I would like to fall in love with you if it is okay. You are cute,” Jenny said. “You are intelligent, I enjoy learning from you and Hira. I feel negative things when you tell me that there can be nothing else between us. Now that you are emotionally untied from your previous mate, I thought it would be natural to choose me,” Jenny said to me.
“My stars, Jake.. She’s in love with you,” Hira chuckled.
I smiled a little. I didn’t know what to think. Human or not, I needed to get to know her just as well as she needed to know me. It’s a strange possibility. Either way, it’s a girl that won’t leave me. I never thought about it that way.
“Wow.. Jenny. You’re with me forever anyway right?”
Jenny nodded, “Can’t function without you.”
“Lets take this slow. Give me some time to think about it.”
“Time happens, how can it be given?” She asked. I could hear Hira giggling again.
“Its another figure of speech Jenny,” I said.
“Well, who’s up for cards?” Hira said.