Page 361 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Akri

Jenny decided on a closed and darkened diner to break into and rest for the night.

It was an establishment located in the business district, a section of Akrod City where skyscrapers domineered, filled to the brim with offices.

This was a much finer location than the place I’d found Jenny in, but that didn’t mean their alarm system posed any obstacle to me.

I’d set the force field to raise again behind us so all would look normal from the outside; it would also obscure any lights shining from the windows.

I didn’t think Jenny knew that; she told me not to turn on any lights as we hurried through the door.

That was fine; we didn’t need much to see anyway, and she had a clear purpose in mind.

I had learned the limits of this body better and knew that I required sleep.

Jenny probably needed it even more—she was human, her body not built for endurance the way mine was.

Then I felt that hollow little rumble, and I realized I had an even more pressing need: I was hungry again.

That wasn’t odd, considering that it had been hours since we’d escaped from that bar—hours since my last meal, which meant it was probably even longer since Jenny had eaten anything.

Jenny was ahead of me, walking between the empty chairs and tables with confidence in the semi-dark.

She was drowning in my coat, and I found the sight of it oddly appealing.

Why did ill-fitting clothing make her look so good?

Or was it not so much that the clothing didn’t fit as that it was my coat that she was wearing?

I needed more data if I wanted to understand this.

When I returned to the Vagabond, I should ask my gladiator friends if they had experienced this phenomenon too.

She ducked around the counter and then through two folding doors into what I assumed was the kitchen.

It still smelled like food in there—savory and mouthwatering—with that strong, pungent smell of the stimulant the people of Ov’Korad liked to drink.

The kitchen had no windows, and Jenny confidently turned on the lights and started rummaging around.

She was pulling out bread and cold cuts, so I assumed that she, too, was hungry. Good, that saved me from having to ask.

“So, where are you from, Akri?” she asked as she set down some plates and started making sandwiches with the food she’d found.

I watched avidly as she worked. So far, I had always bought food when I felt hungry.

It would be a good skill to acquire; making my own food could save time.

I often just ate ration bars too, but I strongly disliked how they tasted.

I liked watching Jenny’s agile hands as she performed this simple task; they were graceful, and she had a little freckle on one knuckle.

Her question was a difficult one to answer, mostly because I didn’t know myself; that was what I was trying to find out.

Since people often asked complicated questions but didn’t actually want a truthful answer, I struggled to figure out what she expected me to say.

“Hey, Earth to Akri, you still there?” Jenny said, the sound of her voice embodying the smile on her face. She’d dipped her head slightly to peer into mine from an angle. I was standing across the counter from her, staring at her hands, and now had no choice but to look right into her eyes.

She made it sound like she was talking from one ship to another when she said that; I liked that, so I went with the truth.

Maybe Jenny would understand. “I was built on Lacerten as a small planet hopper with stealth capabilities. Then I was transferred to a Star Class Cruiser called the Vagabond, which is the ship my friends live on. Most recently, I inhabit this body.”

Jenny’s eyes had gone huge in her face. “Whoa, that’s quite the story…

So you lived on a Star Class Cruiser? Is that one of those cool long-range scout ships?

Aren’t they usually military-owned?” She didn’t understand what I meant, that I once was the ship.

I opened my mouth to correct her, but then closed it again.

Did it matter if she knew? I preferred to be truthful in everything, but being a truly sentient AI was outlawed nearly everywhere; it was considered too dangerous.

If Jenny discovered that I was created, not born, would she fear me?

“You are from Earth,” I said, though it wasn’t a question.

I was supposed to ask questions if I wanted to keep a conversation going.

Struggling to come up with a good way to keep her talking, I ended up with, “What year were you stolen from?” That wasn’t a good question—it could be traumatizing to talk about her abduction.

I’d worked hard to improve my conversational skills; why was it so difficult when speaking with Jenny?

She laughed, shoving a plate in my direction with a rather lopsided sandwich on it. “Sorry, I’m a terrible chef, but it should taste all right.” I didn’t care; I was so hungry that I’d eat anything by now. Besides, I had faith in her skills.

“I’ve learned to say the start of the third millennium.

I was a country girl, so finding myself stuck in Akrod has been…

life-changing.” She grinned as she said the last, a joke, then.

“It hasn’t been too bad. Drova won me at a Klepto game before I’d been through anything traumatic, then he just put me to work in his bar.

I’m certain I got off light, all things considered.

” She smiled again, but I was certain it was a little more forced this time.

She made it sound like what had happened to her wasn’t bad, but it would have still left marks, even if they weren’t visible.

This was when I was supposed to distract her.

I was fairly certain that’s what my friends would advise me to do.

I could imagine Ziame saying something comforting before changing the subject, or Abigail joking about things on Earth they had in common.

I racked my brain to find a good subject and suddenly found myself spouting off statistics on Akrod’s port.

“Did you know that more than a million shipping containers leave Ov’Korad’s atmosphere each day?

Those fill the holds of 997 long-hauler freighters. ”

She pressed a hand over her mouth, head shaking.

I heard the noise of that strange, hiccuping laugh that had bubbled out of her earlier.

Not the intended result, but good enough; I deemed her sufficiently distracted.

“Thanks. I’ve always wanted to know that.

” I was certain she was speaking sarcastically, a kind of lie that was not meant to be a lie.

I found that confusing, but I liked it when I figured it out. It was kind of like a puzzle.

“I know. I wanted to distract you in case I made you remember something unpleasant. My friends are all former gladiators…” I trailed off, unsure how to explain what I meant. I just wanted her to know that she was safe with me; I wanted very much to protect her, to keep her safe.

“Oh, were you a gladiator too?” she asked, her eyes roving over my body, lingering along my biceps and dipping down along my chest. I felt the sudden urge to flex and only barely managed to restrain myself from doing so, another sign that I was losing control of this body.

I had to find data on this species; I had to figure out what was going on, or I had no choice but to find a way to re-upload myself into the Vagabond again.

The problem was, I wasn’t sure if I wanted that.

Touching my left wrist, I rubbed at one of the many faint scars that littered this body.

“This body was a gladiator before I came to inhabit it,” I said.

Jenny’s eyebrows went up, which I thought was amazing.

I tried to mimic the expression with my own, waggling them back and forth when it worked.

It made her laugh, and the sound of her mirth made my head tentacles twitch, reaching for her across the table.

“Ah, I see you’re experiencing another malfunction?

” she teased. She surprised me by lifting a hand to reach for them, allowing both tips to curl around her palm.

I felt heat surge through my body in response, a sense of acceptance mixed with excitement.

A lot of that heat was pooling in my groin, and my pants started to feel too tight, constricting me.

“I am,” I said, wide-eyed. Dropping my gaze to my crotch, I could tell my cock had swollen beneath the fabric until it couldn’t swell anymore. “I believe I have inexplicably grown erect. This body normally only does that in the mornings.”

I didn’t think what I said was funny, but Jenny started laughing.

Dropping her hand down to the table, she forced me to lean forward when my tentacles refused to let go of her.

“Akri! You don’t say that stuff out loud!

We just met.” Oh, that’s right, those were private things.

I’d been told I couldn’t mention those in conversation.

Reaching down with one hand, I tried to adjust myself so it wouldn’t pinch quite so much.

With my other hand, I started to try to pull my unruly head tentacles from Jenny’s hand.

She had her palm open and facing up, the left one partially curled around her wrist and thumb, the other around her fingers.

“My apologies; I won’t mention it again,” I said to her while she was still giggling.

At least it didn’t seem like I’d offended her; she seemed to think my discomfort was funny.

Once I had my tentacles freed from her slender fingers, I made sure to keep them snugly behind my back while I continued eating, and Jenny did the same.