Behind Closed Doors

Cycles Go ‘Round [Chapter 4]

New assignments had yet to cease in their ability to make me sweat through my suit. At the very least, I managed to get a full night’s rest and a shower in one of the pod hotels in Zexa station, the tab courtesy of the company. I was still paying for my own meals there in the food court, but you can’t win every battle. When everything was fueled, myself included, I shoved myself back into the cramped cockpit to head off to the next stop directed by the company’s whim.

The autopilot kicked off when I arrived at the foretold asteroid belt, forcing me to maneuver through the debris on my own. I expected that the company ships were covered for any possible damage, being owned by an insurance company and all, but I didn’t dare to test it. At the very least, the idea of my craft and myself being impaled and imploded by unsuspecting space rocks shifted my anxiety from one distraction to another. At long last, though, I spotted the destination.

Grep had told me that the client that had filed the claim was an older researcher type, living way all out here on their lonesome. With the low gravity of the asteroid belt, it would be perfect for someone of an advanced age, especially with their old joints, I thought to myself. The landing platform molded into the rock below looked as if it hadn’t seen a visitor in some time. Despite the layer of decayed rock and dust on the pad, the still-working sensors synced with my guidance systems and helped me down.

When I was back on my feet and in the environ suit, I realized the reason why the client hadn’t seen or even needed a visitor in some time. The brightly lit biodome was lush with neat rows of crops and a handful of trees laden with fruit or something of the like. I proceeded to the airlock, engaging the comms system to make contact with the person inside.

The doors allowed me inside before I even got a response. Hoping to make a good first impression, for whatever reason, I took off the helmet in the conditioned dome and fixed my hair. Inside was a house, or more accurately, a home, constructed of wood with a metal roof layered with solar panels. A sole figure stood in the doorway.

Despite what dispatch had told me, the young-looking female was rather well put together, perky, with tanned skin and rich, neat curls. Her tight, casual clothes were not those of a scientist or researcher either, but I had made up my mind quite recently to not judge by appearances.

“Welcome, you must be from Cycles Go ’Round,” She said, leaning against the open door. Come in. Leave your suit anywhere you’d like.”

I zipped down and stepped out of the leggings, setting the bundle down just outside the door. “Thank you. My name is Anna, and I hopefully be able to help you today. Your name was Stael, I was told?”

The home beyond the front door was comfortable, with more hearty wood. In the space was a manageable kitchen, a bedding area, along with a nook with a sole chair, a bookshelf, and a lamp. At the far end was a half wall, guarding a more sterile and pale area with lab equipment and several banks of flashing computer equipment.

“That’s right. I certainly hope you can, Anna.”

I nodded. Grep had said that the comments on the claim form sounded more desperate, but once again, the cover of the book did not properly portray the content of the pages. “You said something was stolen from you here, correct? The coverage you have through us should be plenty to help you get back on track. Can you describe what was stolen, and its approximate value?”

“Oh, dear,” Stael held her chin and took one of the two seats from beside the kitchen’s dining table. “A creation of mine. She is nowhere to be found, I can assure you. There can be no other explanation that she was stolen.”

“She?” I puzzled, taking the opposite seat.

Stael looked up and me and stared from across the table. “A personal assistant, friend, companion— that I created myself.”

“Oh, like an android?”

The woman clicked her tongue. “Android… that word only applies to you Terrans, males to be exact. A biomechanical being, yes. In my own form, mostly. I mean, I am not the perfect form, but I am the only subject around, unfortunately.”

I felt the conversation trailing off from the company script I had practiced on the way over. “And… as far as some sort of report from sector security? Did someone land and sneak in while you were asleep?”

Stael shrugged. “No report. And no people here, other than yourself just now. I would know if anyone had landed and entered.”

I nodded and tapped at the screen of my tablet to fake filling in details to the case form. “Well, if I were my mom, I would say that things don’t just grow legs and run off, but… that isn’t quite the case here, is it?.”

Stael pushed her face into her hands and let out a low moan. “Guh! Why would she do that? We got along so well. And how? There’s… no place for her to go.”

“Of… of course. Let me… get back to my ship and… grab my gear to get a scan of this… scene. For my records.”

Her face remained in her hands as I stood, making a line for the door. Back in my suit on the landing pad, I opened up a channel back to dispatch. “Grep? Grep, you there?”

“What’s the matter, Anna? How’s it look there with the client?”

“There’s no security report or anything like we usually require.”

“Well… to be honest, no surprises there. Pretty far out place, and those types generally rely on themselves. The client’s been with us a while, I don’t think she’s out to defraud us now. Just do your due diligence in making sure the stolen items aren’t being hidden somewhere.”

I sighed and glanced back at the dome. “The… thing she says she’s missing… could be quite expensive. As in… one of a kind.”

“Hum…” I heard Grep, for the first time, speechless. “Her coverage is fairly comprehensive. If you need to negotiate a payout… then that’s what you need to do. The main office will just have to bite the bullet.”

“I guess I have no choice, do I?”

“That’s an affirmative.”

Back inside, I found Stael in the same place, albeit slightly more perked up. “Can I offer you anything to eat?” She asked, turning up to me.

“I couldn’t…” I said with a shake of my head.

“Fair enough. I know you’re working. Me, I’ve been so worried about this whole situation, I don’t think I could even look at something to eat.”

I glanced about to hopefully pick out anything strange. “Your crops and other plants are quite impressive, though.”

“They are a chore to keep that way, but that’s how I keep fresh food on the table, you know. And Frey… that was her name… she was learning to help maintain them with me, as it got harder for me to constantly be out there and move around.”

“I see,” I said, trying to scout about more without seeming conspicuous. “Well, I certainly want to help you sort this out, at least to get you reimbursed for your lost… creation. Just without a report, I have to make sure that I’m thorough and make sure that it is… indeed missing.”

“Sure thing. I understand,” she said, plating her face against her hands. “I know nothing will ever replace Frey, but maybe I can get the materials to make… some sort of replacement, even if I can’t see anything new to completion at this point.”

I stared at the table in front of me. “If you don’t mind, I have a few more questions before I have a look around.”

Stael groaned and covered her face. “Of course. She was free to do whatever she wanted, within her programming of course. But like I said, there’s nowhere to go.”

“No, no, of course not. It’s quite impossible to run off here, isn’t it? Especially without a ship. Where was the last place you saw Frey? And when?”

“Best I can recall… I was out in the garden, Frey was there too. After a while, I found myself back inside, and she was nowhere to be found. That was three days ago.”

I stood at the house’s window and glanced out toward the clear dome. “She maybe didn’t… go out through the airlock? Would Frey have needed an environ suit if that were the case?”

“Not that she needed air… but I told her that the outside wouldn’t be good for her. It wouldn’t have made much of a difference, to be honest, but I didn’t want her to go out there. She was getting very smart, you know. Like a child of my species. I mostly didn’t want her to get hurt. Solar radiation and all that. The buzzer for the airlock would have sounded anyways, just like it did when you came and went just now.”

“I… see,” I mumbled, looking about once more. “I might as well have a look around the garden, then?”

Stael nodded and stood up. “I can show you where I was. But I don’t think I have the energy to help out much, I’m afraid.”

I glanced out the window and then shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, then. It will just be a moment.”

Stael stood at the door for a moment as I walked across the fine, green ground foliage and to the garden. The rows of crops were neatly planted in perfect furrows, sprouting leafy greens and pushing down tubers. I looked for anything that may have been freshly dug up as if something had been buried and hidden, but the soil was mostly settled in place.

Further back, there were stalks of a plant climbing a wooden stake. The neat line where they had all been driven betrayed one plant out of place. It looked as if it had been yanked over by something heavy. The soil was turned up and stirred about as well. I pushed at the loose dirt with the tip of my boot, but at the lowest point, I found nothing but the hard surface of the dome’s concrete floor. “Who could bury someone… or something here?”

More soil was tracked on the grass from the planting bed there. I followed, looking for wherever it led. The streaks devolved into a series of uneven footsteps, finally ending at a back door to the home.

I found it unlocked, as I assumed was normal in a place with no visitors. It opened to the rear of the house, just outside of the lab space. Stael stood from the kitchen and turned my way. “Was there anything to see? Perhaps not, I assume.”

The metal floor of the lab was marked with more dirty footprints. I pointed to them as the not-so-old lady joined me. “Just a mess of dirt.”

Stael rocked her head back and forth. “Strange. I never bring my garden shoes inside. Frey knows not to make such messes either. And to think, into the lab… Broom, where is the broom?”

I nearly followed, but Stael gave no signs of wanting to pause and allow me my search. “I really must search here too, if that is alright. In the case you still want to complete the reimbursement process.”

The woman shuffled back and forth. “Let me show you where she… slept, if you want to call it that. So that you know there was truly someone else actually here.”

Still keeping track of the dirty footsteps, I joined her. At the far end of the lab was a mechanical door, with a taped-on paper sign labeled with neat print. Frey.

“She charged here,” Stael said, pushing on the controls to open it. Cold air whooshed out from behind. There was a form inside, much like the woman herself, but somehow more fragile-looking. “Frey— no. That’s…”

The curly hair of the person inside was matted to one side with green-tinted blood. A faint smell of rot came to my nose, and I stepped back.

“Bathroom. A mirror—“ Stael said, pushing past me. I came to her in the side room, mumbling to herself, leaning close to the reflective surface. “Thank you, Anna. I will not need any aid finding Fray, now. She is… here, after all.”

“Stael?”

Her young eyes turned towards me. “I hadn’t been in here to look because I had not needed to. An artificial body doesn’t have those needs. I remember now, I took a fall in the garden. At least the falling part, I recall. Frey must have gotten me to the lab before I had gone cold.

I was… working on a way to map one’s brain waves to an artificial organ. That’s… how Frey… came to life, borrowing some of my consciousness. As I got older, I played with the idea of mapping one’s awareness entirely to an artificial brain. Of course, Frey would have been my only subject, but at that point, I would have been taking away her own natural development. I didn’t want that for her. So I never tested it. I guess… Frey took it into her own hands, realizing that my body… my existing consciousness… wouldn’t have made it.

There are plenty of things that Frey didn’t possess because I figured them unnecessary. Like the ability to cry. At… at the very least, I can tell you thank you for coming here and trying to help.”

I couldn’t help but look at the floor. “What are you going to do… with yourself?”

“I… would have wanted my body to end up as nutrients for the plants. And to keep them tended to. This body will last a long time. Enough time to maybe find Frey in here, and give her… Herself back. Once again, thank you Anna. If you’re hungry, feel free to take anything you like. I won’t need them, unfortunately.”

I reached out to Grep as soon as I was back sealed in the ship. “I’m setting off, dispatch. Where next?”

“Hold on, what happened with the client?”

“Just… an old woman misplacing something of hers. We won’t need to move forward with the claim.”

<– Previous Chapter | Next Chapter –>