The Space Spoon novel Chapter 68

C1313 heard Tejeda’s approaching heartbeat before he peeked over her shoulder at Jackeye.

“Are you awake, buddy?”

“I wasn’t sleeping.” Jackeye brushed his blonde curls backward to clear his face. “Tell me, how should I feel when my privacy is being invaded over and over again?”

“I would be pissed as hell.” Tejeda chuckled and pushed C1313 forward. “You can have payback by invading her privacy and knowing you aren’t the only one having that issue. Do you feel up to the task?”

“Maybe. Can you ask nicely?”

"Nice men ask nicely. You should have understood by now that I am not one of them." Tejeda frowned and tilted his head to the side, mimicking C1313. "Do you really need an official invitation and a red carpet to get into the head of a beautiful woman?"

The light gleaming over Jackeye’s golden eyeballs emphasized his death stare.

“Good.” Tejeda chuckled once more. “I take that as an agreement. Take care of her!”

E00's voice rang out throughout the room as Tejeda made his way to the exit. "Tejeda, we have company."

“Who?” he asked, without stopping.

“Fellow officers with the Interplanetary Police. They requested permission to come aboard and speak with you.”

"I'm filthy, exhausted, and bored. These guys seem like they're going to bring me more boredom. So, no, please. I'm going to take a lovely, warm bath and sip some Zondarian horra if I can get some. I haven't looked yet." The doors in front of him slid open. "Tell Shayla to greet them and find out what this is all about."

Jackeye rose from the bed and came next to C1313.

“Okay. If you really want this, let’s do it. Where is your entry port?”

“I don’t know.”

His eyes narrowed. “You have never connected yourself to a console for any upload or d******d?”

“Not from what I can recall.”

“Hmm… weird.” He stretched his hands toward her collarbones. His fingers stopped midair before reaching their destination. “May I?”

The contact was more intense than she had anticipated. His fingers rubbed against her skin, searching for a way to open her up. She had no idea her skin receptors in that location were so sensitive. While she had no saliva to swallow, she felt compelled to gulp. Maybe after all of this, she should do a complete system check.

"Here’s nothing. Can you show me your back? Some models have the means to open the body for manual override along the fake backbone."

C1313 closed the uniform around her torso and then pulled her hair over it.

“Take a seat.” Jackeye pulled a chair in front of the console. He took a connector and plugged it inside the computer. The other side had to come inside her. With a move of his hand, he flipped her hair over her shoulder to reveal her nape.

She grabbed his hand in which he held the connector. "What if what I find out is bad? What if we find a deep underlying primary directive that drives me to do bad things and activate it by mistake?"

"There will always be a plethora of what-if scenarios. It's your body, your life, and your decision. Whatever Tejeda says, I'm not going to do anything if you don't want me to. Of course, there are more than two options. Everything in between exists."

“My algorithms rely heavily on if-else structures. Do you mean I’m flowed?”

"No. You have the power to overwrite and alter your own code. This means you can have the option to create nested if statements and open up as many choices as you like. You’re limited only by your imagination, just like a living, breathing creature."

“And I get beaten up worse than a living, breathing creature.” C1313 sighed as she remembered the events on Larva 5. “Kirian used an electrical discharge from his coils to reverse the flow of energy inside my body, depleting all my reserves.”

“Yeah, it makes sense.” Jackeye nodded. “I mean, that could happen to any battery.”

Was he really comparing her to a battery? What was the deal with the men on this crew? Were they all idiots, or was she much too rational for this ship?