Page 91 of Pets in Space 10

She thought it spoke, though the only word she caught was the word “Walker.”

Walker? What did that even mean?

When she didn’t respond, the head of the creature turned — not the body — just the head. It stared at her, its eyes changing color twice, not unlike the lights on a data system.

“Oh,” it said. There might have been a humming sound. She wasn’t sure, but when it spoke this time, she understood it.

“You’re not Doctor Walker. That’s most unfortunate.”

Walker was a name? Lira lifted her weapon again. “How?”

There were more questions, but all she was able to produce was the single word. Now its body turned, though not completely. It appeared to be tethered by a wire of some kind. It was attached to a port in a panel. It lifted its hands.

“I am not going to hurt you. I’m programmed to protect human life.”

She half lowered the weapon again, not sure she felt comforted by this statement or more freaked out. “You’re a…”

“I am a robot. My name is Harold.”

A robot. A robotic humanoid. Again, not a field of research she’d looked into, though she’d been on teams that used drones for dangerous explorations. Maybe she should keep better track of what was happening outside her fields of interest.

“Did my father…build you?” He must have, unless the robot had arrived in that flyer outside.

She frowned. Had it driven the flyer? That actually made more sense than her father suddenly becoming a roboticist. But a robot driving a flyer?

Did that make sense? She tensed. Was it alone?

No, she reminded herself. Somewhere here there was this Voss person? Thing?

“No.”

Harold seemed quite definite about that.

“Did you and,” she hesitated, “the Walker person… arrive on that flyer outside?”

“Yes.”

“To meet with my father?”

Something about the look in its eyes made her think it was trying to process her question. Finally, it spoke.

“No.”

Only this time it didn’t sound that certain.

She heard the scuff of a footfall and spun around, her weapon coming up again.

A man stood there, an actual human man, half in gloom, half in pale light, his hands also lifted.

“Oh dear,” he said.

***

Miles studied the woman, trying to figure out what to say, what to do.

Don’t make first contact, they’d said and now here he was, making first contact, or was it second contact since she’d been talking to Harold? Was it a loophole he could use? That it was Harold’s fault?

“This is,” Harold began and then stopped. “I don’t know your name.”

Miles blinked and then realized Harold was talking about the woman. He looked at her. She studied him the same way he looked at a rock sample. He wasn’t sure he liked it. Of course, he wasn’t a rock.

Like him, she wore what appeared to be gear designed for the weather, but she had a bird sitting on her shoulder.

It was a pugnacious looking bird, white, with feathers standing up around its little head and a beak that looked like it would be able to do some damage some day.

A band of orange gave its eyes a bandit look and its expression kind of mirrored the woman’s. It felt a little rude.

“I am Lira Taan.”

The translation program in his suit was pretty effective. The pause was almost unnoticeable. Lira Taan. That was probably a name.

“Miles Walker,” he said. Lira. The name suited her, he decided.

She had what he’d call practical good looks.

She was medium height, with a sturdy build, and her brown hair was pulled away from strong, clean features.

Her green gaze was both clear and direct.

He wished she wasn’t still pointing her weapon at him, but other than that, he liked what he saw.

He was pretty sure she wasn’t reciprocating that feeling.

“Are you here to see my father?”

Her tone remained suspicious. Clearly, she was also intelligent. Their presence here was suspicious, he reminded himself, even as he tried to come to terms with her father living here. If her father lived here, why had they registered no life signs?

“Your father?” He repeated her words to stall for time. It didn’t help. He glanced around him. “I haven’t seen anyone since we got here. Have you seen anyone, Harold?”

“No.”

The look she gave him was one he totally deserved.

“So, you just walked in?”

“The door wasn’t locked.” Her brows arched and he added, “There’s not really anywhere else to go around here, is there?”

Her lips quirked slightly, and he gave her a hopeful smile.

“Fair point.” She glanced around now, somewhat uneasily, he thought. “I’m surprised he hasn’t heard us.” Her gaze tracked to Harold. “Are you a roboticist, Dr. Walker, was it?”

The bird made an odd sound.

“I’m a geologist,” he said. Had that word translated correctly? As if to help him out, a tremor started, making him stagger once before he managed to catch his balance. He noticed she rode it out like a champ. That was some good balance.

He waved a hand vaguely around. “I study seismic activity and stuff.” He could have mentioned all the various geologic things he studied, but it all seemed moot now. And she hadn’t yet asked him what they were doing here in a place where this was the only habitation.

“Oh. Interesting,” she said.

Was it? She didn’t sound interested.

She hesitated for another long moment, then stowed her weapon. “My father is usually in one of the old labs. It is this way.”

As she passed him, he caught a whiff of something clean, something planet-bound from her. He’d missed planet-type smells, he realized. She moved smoothly, confidently ahead of them. He exchanged a look with Harold, who shrugged and pointed to the connection between it and the computer.

“Catch up when you can,” he said, and headed after Lira.

***

There was something different about him, Lira mused as she walked with his footsteps padding after her.

She might be surprised she’d let him follow her.

Turning her back on a stranger wasn’t the brightest move, but she sensed that he was as uneasy as she was with their meeting.

If they hadn’t come to see her father, why were they here?

And why didn’t she just ask him that? Why didn’t she want to know?

She kind of, Lira admitted, liked the look of him.

His brown eyes were a bit vague, as if his mind were on other things, but they were also…

kind. It almost made her smile, because his eco-suit was trim and fitted, but she still had the feeling that he was normally rumpled.

In fact, he reminded her a bit of her father who was the original rumpled man.

She almost sighed then. Her father was brilliant, absent-minded, distracted by multiple ideas until he’d locked onto something and then he was unrelenting. Her father was also kind when he remembered and as chaotic as the seismic disturbances he so desperately wanted to understand.

He was also very hard to live with. And very hard to live without, she added with a slight smile. Her steps quickened some at the thought of seeing him again. He’d stare at her for a moment, his gaze unfocused, then his eyes would light up and his arms would go out. The welcome hug was the best.

She’d arrived like a mother—or possibly like her mother—to deal with a recalcitrant elder and instead of an elder, she felt reduced to child status. Maybe that was the real reason her brothers didn’t like to do this.

He had charm, her father did, or something better than charm, perhaps. But her heart quickened at the idea of seeing him. It had been too long. How easy it was to let the days slip away, to get locked into thinking she was too old to need him and then just like that, she was desperate to see him.

She wanted to hear him talk about what he was working on, even if it was about aliens.

And she really wanted to hear about the earthquake that had caused so much damage.

There were signs of it everywhere. Cracks running up the walls and across the floors.

Some signs of rubble in the rooms. Thankfully the hallway was still clear, though there seemed to be a lot of dust being stirred up by their passage.

He’d set up in one of the smaller labs toward the back of the facility.

The equipment he’d set up always puzzled her, too, but again, not her area of scientific expertise.

The door was ajar and T'Korrin jumped off her shoulder and ran forward.

He loved her father, a fact that puzzled them both.

Maybe what T'Korrin really loved was annoying him by loving him. In some ways he was like a cat, latching on to the one person in the room who didn’t like cats.

By the time Lira reached the door and pulled it wider, T'Korrin was drooping on a tabletop. The bird did sad very well. He gave a mournful chirp.

“He’s not here?” She tried to hide her dismay from the stranger. Miles Walker. She knew T'Korrin wasn’t wrong. She could feel the emptiness of the room, but she walked forward anyway, looking for signs of…something.

There was damage in here, she noted, but none of the equipment could be damaged unless something fell on top of it and then it usually could be repaired. They made everything very resilient.

Dr. Walker followed her in, but he headed directly toward a table covered with rock samples.

That was new.

She had to admit it was kind of…cute the way he picked up and studied each sample. At one point he pulled out a small device and used it to study a rock. Then he began to hum and sing. Something about a blueberry hill.

Harold made a sound and Dr. Walker looked up.

“You are singing,” Harold said.

“I am?” Dr. Walker gave her an embarrassed smile. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she said. It had been kind of nice. She knew what thrill meant but what was a blueberry hill?

He resumed his study of the rocks. Clearly, they told him more than they did her. He picked up a white rock, one with facets. He turned it over in his hands and then held it to his mouth and licked it.

“Dr. Walker,” she began.

He looked at her. “It’s salt.” He held it out to her.