Jacob was glad to be rid of the civilians. While it had been his idea to bring them, the more entrepreneurial ones were starting to get on his nerves. He could respect their hustle, but he felt like an idiot when they asked him questions, and he didn’t have an answer for them. He was only able to answer about a quarter of their questions, which certainly didn’t reassure them. If he had gone to Earth with the intention of bringing people back, he would have planned better.
Jacob pushed that annoyance to the back of his mind as he, Dr. Tanaka, and Bob entered the medical center.
Dr. Tanaka’s gaze landed on the strange medical instruments and machines, while Bob just scanned the room with the same interest as he had in everything else.
“This is the medical center for this section of the station. There are six others, but they are all identical, so I figured you would want to utilize the one closest to any people.”
“This is all well and good,” Tanaka said, “but I have a concern.”
“What sort of concern?” Jacob asked.
“I’m a neuro specialist, not a generalist. I haven’t actually practiced medicine since my residency. I can treat people in a pinch, but I don’t think my knowledge extends to aliens, even if they look similar to us.”
“Ah, I should have led with that. The station’s medical centers are mostly automated. They are also already tuned toward eiraxin physiology, so no worries there. As for the other aliens, I’m sure I can get updated medical information on them.”
“And what of getting humans added to those devices?”
“A bit tougher, but I did grab as much medical data from Earth as I could. It will just take time to format it to work with the machines. Getting actual human scans might help as well. So, when you aren’t studying the neurological effects of the merging process on humans, I would like you to scan each human. I know you don’t understand any of the machines, but I can’t wait for you to learn old-eiraxin on top of Trade Common, so I just converted all the medical center controls to English. There’s a user guide for each over on that terminal.”
Dr. Tanaka looked to where Jacob was pointing and nodded. “I suppose I should get to it. Bob, don’t forget to come see me this afternoon.”
“Okay, doc,” his friend said absently as he followed Jacob out of the medical center.
“You okay?” Jacob asked as he watched his friend pinch his arm and wince.
“Yeah, sorry. Still taking it all in,” Bob added, trailing off. “I keep expecting this to be a dream that’s going to turn into a nightmare before I wake up.”
“I should have killed everyone involved in scrambling your brain,” Jacob spat.
Bob snorted at that. “When did you become so bloodthirsty? You should just let it go; I have.”
“How can you after what they did to you?”
Bob shrugged as he followed Jacob through the hallway. “I guess it’s easier because I don’t remember what they did. What’s done is done. Killing them won’t fix that.”
“It might make me feel better,” Jacob replied.
“Doubtful,” Bob said as he shifted uncomfortably. “Let’s drop the subject, it’s starting to make my anxiety spike again. Where are we going anyway?”
“To the control center. I wanted you to see everything.”
“Man, I still can’t believe you got abducted by an alien AI. That would have been like a dream come true for me.”
Jacob decided not to mention that Bob had been Melody’s target from the start.
As soon as they stepped into the command center, Bob whistled. “Now that’s what I call a screen. Could you imagine playing Omacron Six on that beauty?”
Jacob wanted to roll his eyes at that, but he got an amusing idea instead. He pulled the Omacron Six recreation from his mind space and linked the program to the three-story display inside the command center.
There was no sound, but all of the security feeds switched over to the game’s title screen.
Bob’s eyes went wide when he saw that. “Holy shit! Can you actually play it like that?”
“Eh,” Jacob replied, waggling his hand back and forth. “I made a virtual recreation of the game, but there aren’t any actual controls for it. What you see is just a video feed.”
“Still pretty cool,” his friend said as they stepped into the elevator to the mezzanine above.
As they exited the elevator, Jacob was surprised to see Katherine at one of the terminals.
“Katherine, I didn’t disturb you with my little demonstration, did I?”
The woman’s drone looked up. “Huh?” Then she turned to the screens, which were still showing the title screen animation for Omacron Six and snorted. “No. I was watching security feeds from my virtual space. I can access them from anywhere, but I still find it easier to pull them from the control center. And is that Bob?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Wait, how did she know Bob? She had returned to the station long before Jacob rescued his friend.
“You know me?” Bob asked. “Wait, your voice does sound familiar… Katty?”
Jacob could practically sense the woman’s wince at being called her streamer name. She had done a lot to distance herself from it after he woke them up.
“Uh, yeah,” she eventually replied.
“I didn’t know you got abducted as well.”
“Yeah, Me, General Yao, and Franky D.”
Bob winced at that last name. “Is Franky still a dick?”
Katherine’s drone shifted slightly toward Jacob. “He was the last time I spoke with him. So how are you doing? Been a while since we last spoke.”
“Oh, you know, trying not to lose my mind,” Bob chuckled awkwardly.
Jacob looked between the two as they chatted and realized something. Katherine was flirting with Bob. She must have realized that he knew what was going on because he felt the equivalent of a digital kick. He popped into his apartment and found Katherine standing there, glaring at him with her arms crossed.
“Don’t you dare tell him.”
“Tell him what?” Jacob smirked. “That you have a crush on him?”
“I mean it,” she said, her face going red.
“Fine, I won’t tell my friend that you have the hots for him. I don’t understand what the big deal is, though. You both know each other, which surprised me, because he never mentioned knowing you.”
She sighed. “That’s because I told Bob not to mention me. Look, when Omacron Six first came out, I was shit at the game. I looked up good players and found Bob’s streams. Watching him helped, but I was still missing something, so I reached out to him, and he agreed to train me. He never asked for anything in return, or got creepy about it like so many other dudes. He even congratulated me when I passed him on the leaderboards. He was so sweet and helpful that I kind of grew a crush on him. Unfortunately, I was afraid that someone would find out and dismiss all of my hard work as the efforts of someone else, so I asked to cut ties and keep our interactions private, and he agreed.”
Jacob blinked in surprise. “Bob, sweet? I don’t know about that.”
Katherine rolled her eyes. “I know how boys can be with other boys. That doesn’t make Bob any less sweet.”
“If you say so,” Jacob said with a shrug. “I still don’t see why you don’t want him to know.”
“What purpose would it serve?” she said with a sigh. “It’s not like we can get together or anything.”
“If he can merge, you could.”
Katherine shook her head. “It’s not the same. Please just drop it, okay.”
“Alright,” he said, returning to the drone in the command center.
“Well, it’s been good catching up,” Katherine said, “but I have to check in on the eiraxins.”
After she hurried off, Bob turned to Jacob. “Was it something I said?”
Jacob shook his head and patted his friend on the shoulder. “No. Now, let’s go get you registered and see if there is something you’d like to do.”
Bob nodded, but his friend’s gaze lingered on the elevator Katherine had taken. It seemed like Katherine wasn’t the only one with a crush.
***
Getting Bob registered was a straightforward process since he was flesh and blood. Finding him a job was a bit harder.
“Sorry, Jacob, but I don’t think I’m ready to take on any sort of responsibility yet.”
“That’s fine. Take your time, recover, explore the station, and make some friends with the aliens. Heck, if you want, I can introduce you to a few that I’ve come to know.”
“Yeah, I think I’d like that,” Bob replied.
They made their way to Sha’la’s shop. Bob was sweating profusely and out of breath by the time they arrived.
“Why does this station have to be so large? I’m not used to walking so damn much. Isn’t there a better way to get around?”
“Sorry about that. I guess I don’t really notice since I walk around in a drone. There is a tram, but it’s currently offline because it has no cars. I’ll see about getting it up and running to make traversing the station easier.”
“The sooner the better,” his friend said.
Jacob waited for his friend to recover. “So, don’t get freaked out when you see Sha’la. She sort of looks like the short grey aliens, but she’s really nice.”
“If you say so,” Bob said, finally straightening.
The pair headed into Sha’la’s shop, which had a few eiraxins working inside.
That was fast.
“Greetings,” a slightly older eiraxin woman said. “How may I assist you?”
“I was looking for Sha’la.”
“And may I say who wishes to speak with her?”
“Tell her Jacob is here.”
The woman nodded. “Please wait a moment while I tell her.”
It didn’t take long for the smiling tiyau woman to appear.
Bob stiffened next to him. “Holy shit, those eyes are creepy.”
“They’re not all black,” he whispered to his friend. “Her species just have huge irises.”
“If you say so,” Bob muttered.
“Jacob, good to see you. And who is this with you?”
“This is my friend Bob. He’s a human, like me.”
Sha’la’s eyes widened at that, showing the whites, which actually made Bob relax slightly. “So this is what your species looks like,” she said as she examined Bob. “If it weren’t for the skin tone, I’d say you were eiraxin. How strange.”
“Why do I feel like a piece of meat being inspected?” Bob whispered out of the side of his mouth.
Jacob snorted at that.
“What did your friend say?” Sha’la asked.
Jacob told her, and the woman laughed.
“Please give him my apologies. I did not mean to be rude.”
He relayed the woman’s words to his friend, which made Bob relax even more. He was taking the whole situation quite well.
“So, did you come by just to show your friend around?”
“No,” Jacob admitted as he pulled out a tablet and handed it to Sha’la. “I have a new list of items to purchase and was hoping you could handle the orders.”
She paged through the list quickly. “Hmm. Some of the materials will be easy to gather, but others will be more difficult. I’ll see what I can do.”
Jacob thanked her and led Bob back to his quarters, which were much nicer than the ones he had provided for the other civilians.
“Well, it’s not the Taj Mahal, but it will do,” his friend said. “Although I feel kind of isolated being so far from everyone else.”
“Sorry about that,” Jacob apologized. “I wanted to find you a room closer to the medical center so you wouldn’t have as far to go to do your daily checkups with Dr. Tanaka. If you want a room closer to the rest of the civilians, I can move you.”
“It’s fine,” Bob brushed off the concern. “It just means I’ll get more exercise.”
Jacob decided to change the subject. “If you need anything for your room, just use the terminal here. I’ve added English to the selections. Your available funds are at the top. I’ve given everyone a small starting stipend for necessities as well as a weekly payment to cover food. The food’s not great, but it’s compatible with human digestion. That being said, the MRE’s that General Roberts asked me to pack aboard are probably going to be more appealing.”
Bob grimaced at that. Everyone who had come from Earth had become intimately familiar with the MRE’s over the last month.
“Thanks,” Bob said. “I think I just need some time alone to process all of this.”
Jacob nodded. “If you need anything from me, just say my name. I have the AI listening in, and it will ping me if you call.” With that, Jacob left.