Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) (28 page)

Six had taken her to lunch too—a little
side street vendor which served
garn
that actually had flavor. It had
tasted to Mei-Li like chili-cherry-mango flavored polenta—not something she
would have sought out on Earth but it was so much better than the bland
paper-paste taste of regular
garn
she had eaten every bite. Six had even
given her his credit card—or cred-chip as he called it—and told her to get
anything she wanted. Z4 wasn’t much of a tourist trap but she had found a few
little trinkets to give to Claudia and her father (who she hoped wasn’t worried
sick about her) once she got home.

The sights of the city were further
enhanced when she used her new lenses. At first Mei-Li had had to concentrate
to get them to work but more and more she found she was using them
automatically. When she wanted to see fine details of the intricate carvings of
the ancient Zeagans at the museum, she simply looked closer and the tiny
details came into view at once. And when Six was pointing out some distant
landmark or building in the city, all she had to do was stare at it to
"zoom in" on it and see it as clearly as if it was standing next to
her. After years of having terrible vision and being limited by her glasses,
Mei-Li found the new experience exhilarating.

But it wasn't just her new vision she was
enjoying. Though she never would have believed it would be possible due to his
taciturn manners and forbidding outer appearance, she found everything about
being with Six was fun and exciting.

Walking down a deserted side street after
visiting the spice market, she had taken his hand without even thinking about
it. Then she realized what she was doing and started to pull away. But Six had
looked right at her and interlaced their fingers.

“Is this all right?” he asked, raising an
eyebrow at her.

“Well, yes…I guess.” Mei-Li had tried to
laugh but it had come out sounding breathless.

She knew she ought to be keeping her
distance but she told herself that holding hands wasn’t the same as kissing. It
was just…nice. Comforting and surprisingly sweet, especially coming from the
big Kindred who claimed to have no emotions.

So they had strolled through the strange,
robotic city hand in hand and she had marveled at the alien sights around her.
Holding Six’s hand, his big, warm fingers enclosing hers, she felt safe—
protected from the strange inhabitants and the threatening laws against
emotion. Even the bleak urban landscape with its metal streets and looming
buildings that blotted out the sun seemed to have its own kind of austere and
desolate beauty.

“Where did you learn to hold hands?” she
asked at last, when they came to another deserted street.

“I didn’t. This seemed the natural way.”
He pulled her gently towards him and suddenly they were facing each other.

“Six?” Mei-Li looked up at him
uncertainly. His warm scent washed over her, making it hard to think.

The big Kindred leaned over her, cupping
her chin lightly with his fingertips. His gaze flickered over her face and then
held her eyes. “This seems right and natural too,” he murmured. And then his
mouth was coming closer and closer to her own.

Mei-Li held her breath, her heart pounding
as she stood on tiptoes to meet him. God, she could almost feel the press of
his lips to hers, could almost taste the sweet, dark chocolate flavor of his
mouth. She could feel herself melting against him, his muscular body
surrounding hers. Right here in the middle of this forbidding alien world, she
knew she was falling in love…

No, don’t be stupid!
You haven’t known him long enough to feel that way. And you’re not
going
to
know him long enough. You leave here in just a few days—barely more than a
week—well, an Earth week anyway. And then you’ll never see him again—don’t be
stupid! Don’t give in to emotion, especially when Six doesn’t have any emotions
to give in to. You’re just begging for a broken heart…

Mei-Li couldn’t ignore the little voice in
her head. At the last minute she turned away and let him kiss her cheek
instead.

Six had pulled back, frowning. “Is there a
problem? I wish to taste your lips again—to ‘kiss’ you, as you call it.”

“I want that too,” Mei-Li had said. “But I
can’t. I told you—I can do the friends with benefits thing but I can’t let my
heart get involved. Kissing is just too…too intimate.”

“You said that before. What do you
mean—‘friends with benefits?’” Six had asked.

“Just what it sounds like—we’re friendly
with each other, we enjoy each other’s company and as per the Claiming
Contract, we also do…physical things.” Mei-Li had shrugged uncomfortably. “I
just don’t want one of those physical things to be kissing. That’s all.”

“So I am destined never to taste your lips
again?” He stroked a strand of hair out of her face, his gaze fixed on her
mouth. “Ever?”

“I’m afraid not…” Mei-Li bit her lip
feeling self-conscious. “Look, Six, I’m really fond of you…I just don’t want to
get carried away.”

“Fond? You are
fond
of me?” Six
frowned. “That word denotes a mild liking, does it not? It is scarcely an
emotion at all.”

“Okay, yes I admit it—it’s an
emotion
,”
Mei-Li had found herself getting defensive. How could she tell the big Kindred
that she was growing much more than “fond” of him? Answer—she couldn’t. If she
did, he would accuse her of forming an emotional attachment and even if that
was true, she didn’t want him knowing about it.

“One can be fond of anything,” he said,
dropping his hand and stepping back. “A particular dish you find tasty…or a
domestic animal you keep as a pet. Is that how you see me, Mei-Li?”

“No, of course not,” she had protested.
“I…I’d like to see you as a friend.”

“A friend. It keeps coming back to that.”
He looked away.

“What’s wrong with being friends?” Mei-Li
had asked, mystified. “A friend is someone you like to spend time with—someone
you have fun with. Exactly like we’ve been doing today.”

“A friend is not someone you have deep
emotions for, though. A deeper kind of caring. Is it?” He raised an eyebrow at
her.

“Do you mean love? Like romantic love? No,
you don’t,” Mei-Li said shortly. “So don’t worry—you’re safe. I promised you I
wouldn’t get emotionally attached during the time we’re together and I’m
keeping
that promise.”

“So I see,” Six had said tersely. “Come.
It’s time we were getting home.”

He had been silent the rest of the walk
home and Mei-Li had been at a loss to know why. Did he think she was getting
too emotionally involved, despite her promises otherwise? And why had he wanted
to kiss her in the first place? Just because he liked the physical sensation?
Or was he showing emotion he didn’t feel, just for her as Mr. Metal Teeth from
the med barge had suggested?

She had no answers.

It was really too bad the way things had
ended, she reflected now. Aside from the whole kissing incident, everything
about the whole day had been perfect—well, aside from the weird scene in the
spice market. What had the old man been babbling about when he said she was
part of a prophesy? Mei-Li had no idea and if Six knew, he wasn’t telling.

At least they hadn’t had far to go in
awkward silence. The Serlix market was within walking distance of his
apartment—or domicile as he called it. Mei-Li had thought about asking him
again about the old man and had decided against it. He seemed troubled enough
as it was and back at the market he had appeared to get positively jealous. She
told herself she was just reading her own feelings into his reactions but there
was no doubt about it—Six seemed much more possessive and passionate than he
had when she first met him. He was beginning, in fact, to seem almost…human.

That’s a stupid idea.
He’s an alien—an alien with no emotions. You’re just projecting your own
feelings onto the situation. And even if you’re not imagining things, he’s
probably showing things he doesn’t feel. You need to stop mooning over him or
you’re going to get all weepy when you have to leave here. Find something to do
and stop moping.

Deciding to take her own advice, Mei-Li
went out into the living area with its huge screen that dominated an entire
wall. This wasn’t a television or movie screen although Six had told her it
could be used to view informational documentaries and reports—pretty much the
only kind of program they had on Z4. Its primary use, however, was as part of
the nature emulator which was, in fact, sort of a video game.

The hulking black metal cube in the corner
was another part. It was mounted on the ceiling on a rolling track so it could
be easily pushed into place in front of the screen, despite the fact that it
literally weighed a ton.

Once positioned in front of the screen,
the cube unfolded itself into a cross between a harness and a suit. The
operator climbed inside the suit, which fit itself to his (or her) body
automatically, and then chose a program from the list that popped up on the
huge screen.

Six had explained all this quickly when he
was outlining things she could do during his absence but Mei-Li hadn’t really
taken the idea seriously. The nature emulator, as he called it, just sounded
like another video game and she had never been terribly interested in those.
Probably because her college boyfriend had been completely addicted to them.

Now, however, she decided to give the
nature emulator a try. It was better than moping around the house, anyway.

Putting her shoulder to the cube, she
shoved it and watched as it glided smoothly and silently into place. It unfolded
and she climbed up into it, feeling like Ripley in the second
Aliens
movie
wearing her metal fork-lift/loader machine to fight the queen Alien. As soon as
she was in, the metal suit adjusted to fit her, despite the fact that she was
tiny compared to Six, its usual user. Then she stared at the screen and waited.

Nothing happened.

“On,” Mei-Li said. Still nothing. “Up.
Power. Programs,” she tried in succession but with no results. She was about to
give up in frustration when a cool, robotic voice came over the living room
speaker.

“If you wish to access the nature
emulator’s programming, you will need to speak the password.”

It was Ter, the artificial intelligence
she was beginning to think of as Six’s snooty robotic butler.

“All right—so what’s the password?” Mei-Li
asked.

“I am not authorized to tell you that.”
Was there a hint of smugness in the mechanical voice? Mei-Li thought there was.

“Yes, you are,” she argued. “Six told you
to give me access to everything.
Everything.
And he told me I could use
this machine—he must have just forgotten to give me the password. So you can
tell me now.”

“I do not think that would be advisable,”
Ter said frostily.

“I don’t care
what
you think.”
Mei-Li was beginning to lose her temper. “The fact is, Six told you to give me
access to the house and everything in it. Now either you tell me the password,
or I’ll tell him once he gets home. I don’t think he’ll be very pleased with
you if he finds out you were being a jerk while he was gone.”

“I do not understand your colloquialism,”
Ter said loftily. “And being without emotions, I am immune to threats.”

“Here’s a threat for you—back on Earth
when he was first claiming me, Six broke a man’s arms and legs when he attacked
me. Today at the marketplace he looked ready to beat up this other guy just for
kissing my fingers.” Mei-Li glared at the speaker. “How long do you think it’ll
take him to reprogram you or rip out your wiring or circuitry or whatever makes
you run if I tell him you’ve been annoying me?”

“Six would never do such a thing. I have
served him faithfully and well for many years.” But was there a slight hint of
uncertainty in Ter’s robotic voice? Mei-Li thought so and she pressed her
advantage.

“You sure about that? Want to take a
chance?”

“Fine.” Ter sounded positively sulky now.
“The password is “Kaylee”.”

“What? That sounds like a girl’s name.”
Mei-Li frowned. “I thought there weren’t any girls or females of any kind on
Z4.”

“I am authorized to give you the password,
not
the meaning behind it,” Ter said snippily. “I suggest that you use
it if you wish to access the nature emulator and
amuse
yourself while
Six is gone.”

“Fine, I will,” Mei-Li snapped back. God,
she knew it was silly since Ter was just a mechanical voice but the snooty
artificial intelligence
really
got on her nerves. “Kaylee,” she said,
looking directly at the screen.

At once it lit up in a brilliant
aquamarine, brighter than anything she had yet seen on Z4. A dozen or so
options popped up on a list that scrolled across the vast screen, almost too
fast for her to read.

Thanks to the translation bacteria Yipper
had given her, Mei-Li found she could understand the words she was seeing even
though they were clearly in an alien language.

“Let’s see,” she murmured. “Let’s try…Depths
of the Argoth Sea.”