Page 3 of Adrift!
She’d left Earth because she’d been so off course. But not likethis.
He must’ve registered her dismay, because he extended one hand toward her, not touching this time, though she swore she felt a hint of heat. From the augments extending down his fingers? “Why don’t you choose a door.”
“Does it matter? Felicity said they are all the same.”
“The same features, but different aesthetics. These rooms weren’t supposed to be open for this outing, but I looked around before we launched. Should I choose for you?”
She shrugged, then remembered he might not understand all Earther gestures. Ugh, now her body felt all weird, second guessing every movement. Hard to believe there’d been a time when she’d been so sure of herself that she’d belted out her deepest feelings at the top of her voice to total strangers. “Go ahead.”
He took her literally and walked in front of her a short way down the corridor, past the taken rooms. “I think…this one.” When he palmed the lock, the pocket door whispered open. “What do you think?”
Not risking that strange tingle, she edged around him to peer into the room. She’d stayed in plenty of two-level one-off motels and multi-story cookie cutter chain hotels, but obviously none of those had a viewport to the blackest night of space.
“Why are there no stars?” She hated the way her voice wobbled, and this time she couldn’t blame her poor choice in footwear.
“There are always stars.” Passing her, he went to the screen in the far wall. “You only need to know how to look.”
On the panel next to the viewport, he made some modification. The screen blurred then focused again, this time with a distant scattering of tiny bright jeweled dots connected by delicate rainbow threads.
“The starsarefar between in this sector,” he said, “far enough that Earther visual acuity struggles to perceive. Does this calibration help?”
Remy let out a slow breath. “Is that real? I know astrophotography sometimes uses false color. But that seems like…cheating.”
“Just because your eyes can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
Which was true enough, but still stung. “Is that how you see it?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she winced. “I didn’t meanyouare cheating.”
“Because my eyes aren’t like yours?” His smile took on an edge. “Or is this also an Earther joke?”
Was it too late to choose an airlock instead of a bedroom door? She’d eject herself into space to chill her flush of awkward embarrassment. She’d never suffered stage fright and didn’t want to start now. “No joke. If I was looking for more of the same, I would’ve stayed on Earth.”
Oh great. Instead of an insult, now that sounded like an invitation.
But he didn’t react, his expression utterly still, as if he were all cyborg, even though she’d watched him interacting with the other passengers in the lounge, sometimes using Earther expressions.
Maybe he didn’t like her. But then, she certainly hadn’t tried to be friendly.
“Thank you for showing me to my room,” she said, trying to echo the pleasant tone he’d used before. “This night has been a little weirder than I expected.”
“For all of us.”
She dredged up a chuckle. “I bet you wish you had some real alcohol hidden away somewhere for a situation like this.”
“It might make things more troublesome.”
She sighed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Can’t say as I’ve ever made better choices when I was wallowing in my feelings.”
His silvery gaze swept her once, and she wondered uncomfortably what he might be seeing with those enhanced eyes. “Speaking of which, where is your feelings button?”
“Right where it should be: buried deep out of sight.” Then she paused. “I guess that was sort of a jokeanda deflection.”
“Ms. McCoy, if I might ask you—”
“Remy,” she interrupted. “Formality seems silly when we’re all stuck here together.”
“Remy.” Though their universal translators were amazing, parsing with both dictionary precision and idiomatic flexibility on the fly, the way he said her name with a hint of exotic inflection reminded her how far she was from home. By choice, but still. “In the public part of your IDA profile, you mentioned that you used to work as a musician. Since we are all stuck here together, as you say, would you be willing to take part in some entertainment for the other guests?”
She tilted her head, not quite smirking. “Another sort of deflection?”
