Chapter 9 #2
“Or a houseplant,” he adds, repeating her chastising words. “I realize that. It occurred to me that the Brain Dumps might be useful in determining how effective my outing strategy was, but the entries are not flattering.”
“Let us see,” Tommy prompts.
When Res6 has the app pulled up on his large screen, he opens her most recent entry. Lextr and Tommy lean over his shoulder.
Dear Reader,
Help! SOS! Call in the troops.
Remember how I referred to Res6 as an inept pervert? I realize now that might have been a little harsh (though he might have a Red Room of Sex, or Death—that’s a whole other story). The thing is, I don’t know what I did to deserve this. Deserve what, you ask?
Dates! As in, I think I’m accidentally dating a future man.
He keeps taking me on these classically romantic excursions and calling them outings.
I’ve read enough from this time to understand dates are still something people do, so he can’t be confused.
Well, not people/people dates, but ones with people/manupartner couples.
Not that I would mind dates, under normal circumstances, and admittedly, they are doing a good job of cheering me up.
Plus, I’m actively learning about future people.
But this is the inventor of sex clones we’re talking about!
It makes no sense why he would try to date me.
He doesn’t like me, or real human women for that matter, and we’re obviously not compatible.
Do you want to know what’s worse? I think he watched a bunch of romcoms from my time and is trying to replicate the activities from them.
“DumBot?” Tommy asks.
“DumBot,” Res6 confirms.
“Red Room of Sex?” Lextr asks.
“I believe she’s referring to the spare room I’m using to conduct the Jerme trials in. I forbade her from entering.”
“You should try locking it,” Tommy suggests.
“Obviously. The problem is she’s curious, so I explicitly stated the rule, which seems to have backfired because now she’s more curious.” He clears his throat. “Keep reading.”
Thank heavens he’s never read my books. Who knows what types of ideas that would fill his mind with?
He’s already taken me on a rowboat, which I’m pretty sure he got from The Little Mermaid, horseback riding, which I can’t place in a specific romcom, and to a class where we learned to build structures with food.
Again, I have no idea about that one, and I’m pretty sure the instructors were paid actors.
I guess bonus points for creativity. You should have seen him when his tower of crispy potatoes toppled into the ketchup river, splashing a big red blob onto his pristine tan jumpsuit.
Talk about controlled frustration. The poor man is clearly repressing some serious emotion—
Res6 closes the window. “Well, that’s enough for you to get the point.”
“Oh, I have an idea!” Tommy offers, perking up. “You told me she was a fiction author in her past life. Read her books. Surely that will give you insight into how to deal with her.”
“They’re alien romances,” Res6 grumbles. Granted, it’s not like he hasn’t opened the audio files, hovering his thumb over the play button in a moment of insistent curiosity. “I think that will only reinforce her idea that I’m unsuccessfully trying to date her.”
Lextr crosses his arms resolutely. “If you will recall, I recommended decommissioning her.”
Tommy huffs, shaking his head disapprovingly. “But you agreed to keep her for the scans.”
“Which have not happened yet,” Lextr reminds him.
“They will, and she will be useful when we successfully activate Jerme.” They both raise their brows. “She’s a perfect companion for him. The exact thing he needs to . . .” Well, this he didn’t plan on sharing. “. . . keep himself busy.”
Lextr clears his throat. “I’ve reviewed the data from this morning’s scan. It doesn’t look promising. We should consider moving forward with an organic sample.”
Res6’s stomach sinks. “If we burn through the organic samples now, we eliminate the only guaranteed anchors to original NAM fidelity. We just need to optimize the sequencing pattern.”
Lextr frowns, breezing past his weak argument. “Pull up the scan and I’ll show you.”
He thought the scan looked fine, so he opens it as requested. Lextr taps the particle pane. “See this overreplication signature?”
He squints, studying the nucleotide sequence. “I see what you’re saying, but I’m not sure it’s significant. Perhaps we should continue the activation just in case.”
Lextr sighs, as if he’s overcome with pity or exasperation. “If you insist.”
Res6 shuts his eyes, inhaling. When he opens them, he rescans the replicated codon section, noting several loops.
Lextr’s right—it’s enough of a mutation tied to cortical patterning and NAM retention that the unit might not even wake up.
His hopefulness caused him to overlook it.
“You’re right. It’s disappointing, but expected.
” Stay positive, Res6. There’s already a fourth trial ready to go.
No reason to tap into the organic stores yet.
He plasters on a fake smile. “I’ll consider what conditions need to be exhausted prior to moving to the organic samples. ”
He’ll need to come up with some valid conditions or Lextr will think he’s being emotional, which of course he is.
He has a small, finite number of chances to get his brother back.
They could burn through them in a matter of weeks, then he’ll be back where he started, alone.
Well, there’s Lextr and Tommy, if they even count, and now Electra, who thinks he’s an inept pervert.
His stomach swirls, though he’s not sure if it’s fear or anticipation at the thought of seeing her in a few short hours.
“So, you’re not going to attempt to activate the failed unit?” Lextr prods.
He clears his throat. “No, I’m not. I’m set to take Electra to the theater tonight. After that, we have a holographic tour of the Empire State Building, so my unit will be vacant for several hours.”
Understanding, Tommy says, “I’ll arrange for the specimen to be collected and decommissioned.”
“Excellent,” he says. “I’ll take a new activation pad and start the fourth trial when I get back to my unit. Unfortunately, that extends my Electra problem another week.” He gestures to the screen and her damning words. “Any suggestions?”
“I’m truly flabbergasted.” Tommy tugs at the tips of his spiked hair. “You’ve never had an issue charming the manupartners or the public. What’s different with her?
He’s right. Part of the reason CHOICElover became as successful as it did stems from the ease with which he partook in social activities with a manupartner on his arm. It was excellent advertising. “I don’t know.”
“It’s because she’s from the past and not supposed to be here,” Lextr says, crossing his arms.
Ignoring Lextr, Tommy grins encouragingly. “What techniques do you use when you do publicity, sir?”
Res6 presses his lips together in a tight frown as they await his answer. Finally, he offers, “I pretend whoever I’m talking to is a manupartner.”
Tommy jumps, clapping his hands together.
“There’s your solution. Just pretend she isn’t real.
As far as you’re concerned, she’s a manupartner.
And when you guys bring Jerme back—don’t take this as my approval—you can pass your responsibility off to him!
Then we can stop having these little Electra problem-solving sessions. ”
Res6 stares dazed at his screen. “Pretend like she’s a manupartner. Easy enough.” That, however, doesn’t explain the sudden lump in his throat.