She Who Woke Among Eternity

“So I’ve been meaning to ask,” Scevi started, “is the reason you picked that golden color for your eyes because that’s what Eternity looks like?”

“What the actual fuck are you talking about?” Avalyn asked from her seat on the bus across from Scevi and Gramps.

“I’ve been wondering that too after meeting her,” Gramps added. “It’s a perfect match. Then again, what you did with the astrolabe was the same color, and you didn’t seem to be picking that.

“What do you mean? This was just the color of the eyes. Are you telling me I can change the eye color of this body?!”

“Yes,” Gramps and Scevi said in unison.

Avalyn just stared at them for a moment. Then she searched her understanding of how this body worked and then found the setting. “Motherfucker, it really is a setting.” Though there was no way for her to physically tell her eye color was changing, she knew it was as she scrolled through the rainbow. Her eyes eventually settled back on the color they had always been. “Did Heather just pick this color?” Avalyn shook her head. “No, that woman was red all the way. How the fuck did they end up amber?” Sure, her heart had taken control of the automaton, which she still didn’t know how exactly that happened, so maybe it had picked that.

“So you didn’t pick it?” Scevi asked.

“No. I would have picked green. My favorite color is green.” There’s no way in hell she would have chosen this if she had a choice from the beginning.

“Then why are you still keeping them amber?” Gramps asked.

“I don’t know. It feels weird to change it now.” The color green was something she truly loved, and the ability to have green eyes sounded wonderful, but… There was something special in the amber color her eyes had naturally taken. It was inherited. A physical trait she had truly inherited from her mama. The only physical trait she had inherited. “I do like the color.”

The bus stopped, and a small flood of people stepped off, who were all quickly replaced by new patrons, all eager to take seats as fast as they could. Eyes wandered over the already seated crowd, and most landed on the one thing all of them could agree on: an automaton shouldn’t be taking a seat that a real person could be using. It wasn’t but a second before someone put themselves in front of her. “Move, automaton.”

“Not an automa—”

“You disagree with this statement.” The man said as if he was just tired of the world and wanted to get on with his life. That and maybe mixed with a little nausea.

“I’m not a fucking automaton,” Avalyn said a little too forcefully for how tired this man had said his words.

“It’s a medical device,” Gramps’s voice called out. “She was in a crash.”

Though half of that sentence was true, it didn’t make Avalyn feel good. There was some part of her that also had to admit that in some non-organic being mindset, this body was a medical device. Her medical needs just weren’t flesh and blood. They were steel and wire. She didn’t like any of it though, and felt like she was taking away from people who truly needed medical devices.

The man looked confused for a moment, but then slight horror crossed his face. Quickly he turned back to apologize, but Avalyn stopped him by standing up. “I don’t have feet that get sore anymore.” Reaching up, she grabbed the railing above her to keep steady as the bus jolted into motion. The force of which sent the man falling down into the seat he had just tried to take. Though starships might have inertia dampeners, the bus sure as hell didn’t.

“Alright, how much further till our stop?” Avalyn asked, doing her best to ignore the new stares that glanced her way from those who had overheard the brief exchange.

“Three more stops,” Scevi said.

That meant three more stops of people pushing her out of the way to get to a seat. “Great…” Maybe going out into public wasn’t the nice reprieve from ship repairs she had been hoping for. That feeling was only exemplified when they finally reached their stop; people pushed and shoved their way past her to get out. Then, as if it were some cruel joke, before she could get off, the group now climbing on pushed her back in as they shoved their way to seats. The doors suddenly closed, with her still on the bus while Gramps and Scevi stood outside it. Their eyes locked right before the bus jolted forward and almost sent Avalyn tumbling down into another patron.

“Meet us at H—”

Gramps’s voice was cut off by the patron Avalyn had landed on screaming, “Watch it, automaton!”

Getting back to her feet, the servos in Avalyn’s fingers audibly ground hard enough to almost strip themselves as she stared out the window, watching Gramps and Scevi shrink into the distance. “Motherfucking gods damn stupid organic shits. I just wanted to get off this fucking b—”

“Are you alright?” The man from three stops ago asked. At first, Avalyn almost didn’t hear it over the chatter on the bus, and when she registered it, she didn’t assume he was talking to her. “Are you?” Now she turned to find that he was looking at her.

He was human, or at least looked close enough to one to pass from Avalyn’s perspective. Though he wore a very nice outfit, he looked disheveled with his brown hair a mess. More than that, he just looked tired. “I’m just frustrated,” Avalyn said.

“Shut the drak up, automaton, no one’s talking to you,” another patron so kindly said.

“I’m not—” Avalyn said quietly, only to be cut off

“You disagree with this statement.”

“I’m not a fucking automaton!” Avalyn screamed, causing the entire bus to go silent. For four whole seconds everyone sat quietly with all eyes on Avalyn. Instantly she had a better understanding of why Mama chose to wear a mask. Even without a true face Avalyn now had a much deeper desire to have her own mask.

Though the bus had no wheels to screech as it was flying 70 feet above the streets, it sure did its best as it slammed to a stop. Avalyn, along with a few other standing patrons, fell to the ground and/or on other people. Luckily, Avalyn wasn’t one that landed on someone because that surely would have hurt that poor soul.

“Sorry for the sudden stop,” the driver’s voice came over an intercom. “There appears to be a traffic jam.” Even if that was the case, it was clear to hear in the driver’s voice that he knew he could have handled the stop better. “Dispatch is saying we’ll be delayed by half an hour.”

“Are you draking with me!” “I’m going to be late!” “You didn’t need to slam on the breaks!” “Watch where your going!” “My wife is going to kill me if I miss our kid’s birthday again!” The voices of the patrons made themselves very well known as most got themselves righted in their seats or stood up again.

“I’m sorry, but we are surrounded on all six sides,” the driver said. “We’re stuck until the surrounding vehicles can move.” There was another volley of clear displeasure that berated the drive. “Please bear with us while we work towards mending this error. If you are able to inform others that you will be late to events, please do so at this time.”

“My luck is total shit,” Avalyn grumbled as she righted herself. Thankfully, there was no damage to her body, but even if there was, it wasn’t a big problem.

“Shit?” the man asked.

“Huh?” Avalyn asked as her attention was drawn back to him.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I couldn’t tell if you were being sarcastic or not.”

Avalyn sighed. Maybe a conversation could at least fill the time before she figured out how to find Gramps and Scevi. “It’s my way of saying giff.”

“Ah. Well, I’ll have to say, I don’t think you’re the only one.” In one smooth motion of reaching out and pulling his arm back in, he successfully moved his sleeve out of the way of his watch to look at it. “I was already running late; now I’m going to be even later for my meeting.”

“Missed your original bus?” Avalyn asked.

“Only just landed on planet from a very rough journey and had to spend too long getting reacquainted with my breakfast before I could get out.”

“Rough flights suck. Maybe one benefit of this body is I can’t get nauseous anymore.”

He chuckled. “I knew what I was getting myself into, so I only have myself to blame.” He leaned back in his seat and took a deep breath, perhaps steadying himself from the memory of his bad travels. “Who knows, maybe missing that meeting will be a blessing in disguise.”

“All clouds have silver linings.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “A saying from my species. Means that even in something bad, there’s always a little good.”

“What species would that be?”

Avalyn didn’t have any cultural knowledge to know if that sort of question was appropriate or not. Then again, Avalyn was in a bit of a unique circumstance of not looking like her species. “Vysven. You’re human?”

He nodded. “Can’t say if I’ve ever heard of Vysven before.”

“We’re new to the Alliance. As far as I’m aware, only my mama and I have been to your space.”

“Welcome to the Alliance,” he said with a smile. “I hope we’ve made a good impression.” Avalyn’s gaze shifted down to the patron who had most recently tried to shut her down. “Oh…”

“Only two people I have met in the Alliance haven’t tried to shut me down upon first meeting me.” Turning back to him, she found the smile wiped clean from his face. Now he looked worried and ashamed. “Just my shit luck to be in that damn crash and get stuck with this body right before meeting a civilization with a vendetta against anything that doesn’t look organic.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, it’s just frustrating as all hells.”

“I can see how that would be upsetting.” His head hung down a little in shame, and Avalyn could almost see the memories of him trying to shut her down playing behind his eyes.

Avalyn sighed. “I don’t fault people for how they feel about automatons; I just wish they wouldn’t take it out on me. Not that they would ever know the difference just by looking at me.” Maybe when she got her mask, it would help. She could even wear a hood, then maybe people wouldn’t automatically assume she was an automaton.

“I can’t imagine how angry that must make you.”

“I can’t deny that I’m angry about it on some level, but it mostly just makes me sad. I lost everything and I just want some semblance of a normal life again, but the fates are cruel, I guess.” She looked down at the floor. “I had to start crying in front of a librarian just to get a damn library card.”

“That’s…” The words got away from him, and he never finished that sentence.

“The shitty thing was I wanted to go out today and see more of the city.” Looking up from her feet, she stared out the window again. “I thought it would make me feel better after being cooped up for the past week, but now I’m stuck on some bus with no idea where Gramps was telling me to go, nor with anyway to get in contact with him.”

“You don’t have a companion?” He asked.

“That’s what we were going out for.”

“Well, you can always use a com terminal.” Those were apparently the pay-phones of the alliance according to Gramps.

“I also don’t have any money to pay for it.” She should have asked to hold onto her allowance. “Even if I did, I don’t know how to use one, nor if there’s any information I need to be able to get in contact with him.” There was always the option of commandeering the terminal enough to bypass the need to pay, but that was probably considered breaking the law. It also wouldn’t provide her with the information she needed if she did, in fact, need some prior knowledge. “This can’t be worse than being stranded on a starship for half a hept, and at least this time I have the means to get myself home.”

“That… that does sound a lot worse,” he admitted.

Avalyn made the sound of taking a deep breath and sighing. “Will every planet in this Alliance treat me like this?” she asked herself, still looking out the window at the city. Surely there had to be a place where it wouldn’t be like this.

“Uh, I’m sorry to say, but probably. People really don’t like automatons.”

“Well, shit.” Turning back to him, she said, “Don’t suppose you know of a way to find someone’s contact information?”

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his own companion. “Um.” He tapped the screen a few times. “Oh, drak me.” He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “I’ve been so busy the past few rotations I haven’t had time to charge it.”

Holding out her hand, Avalyn said, “I can charge it.”

His eyes fell back on her, and maybe for the briefest of moments he looked worried. “How?”

She gestured to her body. “There are some very minor benefits to having an automaton body. One of those being that I’m a portable power bank. How does it charge? A plug or does it charge wirelessly?” She actually had no idea how companions charged, or how most of the alliance’s tech charged. With her unlimited power and commandeering capability, she didn’t need to know who stuff charged.

He looked to be casually contemplation her question, but for some reason Avalyn felt there was something bigger and more complex that he was contemplating under the surface. “Wireless,” he finally said, but he didn’t hand it over. “You’re not about to do anything funny with it, are you? It’s a company companion, and my boss will… well, I’m not going to imagine what he’ll do if something happens to it.”

“Nope, only charge it, but I understand if the boss is too scary to let some stranger charge your companion.” She pulled her hand away.

Nervously he reached out and handed her his companion. “Well, you’re not plugging yourself into it or anything like that.”

Avalyn shook her head as she held it flat on top of her open flat hand. This was worse than plugging it in, but she didn’t have any nefarious plans. It wasn’t a second before she had commandeered through the case and into the coil on the back. She didn’t go any further as power started running through the companion. Charging like this was definitely slower than it would be to just commandeer the battery, but she didn’t want more control over this than she needed.

While she did this, he checked his watch, and his eyes went a little wide for only the minutest of moments. “Any idea how long it will take?”

“I’m not plugged into the phone to know.” She tapped the screen, but then realized something. “Fucking hell, I forgot touchscreens don’t work with these finger.” She groaned. While it hadn’t been too much of a problem so far, the few times she had interacted with touchscreens Gramps had changed the settings to register her touch.

“There are setting to accommodate stuff like that,” he said. “Could you change your fingers to work with touch screens?”

“I know, but I’m not planning on upgrading this automaton body, because it goes with the ship and the circuit would want it to be original too.” He looked confused. “It’s a ship show thing. This body goes with a ship.”

“Oh.” He seemed satisfied with her answer.

When the shows were over she could always swap out her hands and fingers. “How long does it normally take to charge?”

“Twenty minutes.” Well, she had no idea how charged it was, but she was pushing the coil to its highest possible safe limit, so it should be going a little faster than normal. “But that should be enough to at least get me to a place I can properly charge it.”

“You sure?” She asked, now a little worried he would look at the power percentage to find it more charged than it should be. Before she could act, he had already grabbed the companion from her. In a mild panic, she quickly uncommandeered it so he wouldn’t see it was still charging while not in contact with her. “Everything okay?”

“All good,” he said with a gentle smile. He tapped the screen. “That’ll get me to my meeting place. Alright, who am I trying to look up?”

“Vestan Rys. Owner of the Rys Yard on Melst Avenue.” He nodded and started tapping away. “Oh, I’m Avalyn Rys by the way. I’m sorry I never asked your name.”

“Des. Des Matthews.”