Estelle, Come Back

"Lt. Sid Darius signing in. Password 3490-211."

The transparent visiplate flashed and a blinking green cursor appeared in the corner. Sid cleared his throat.

"Log book entry: Year 2134, Day 547. Ugh-huh. Damn this thirst. Why didn’t I just leave that leak alone? Each time I try to fix something, I just make it worse. Now there is no more water. It feels like slow death. As if the last six months aren’t supposed to be hell enough, I have to bring in my drinking water by bucket."

The words appeared on the screen as he spoke. Sid reached down and scratched his droopy nakedness. He hardly dressed anymore. No one was around to see him.

"I was in the flight simulator the other day and fell asleep. Lisa and Ashley finally met and found out about each other. Then they both chartered a flight out to see me. They both were pissed. They got even angrier seeing me standing naked in front of them. Then they just caved, finding me irresistible as always, and we the three of us made love right there. Talk about a dream you hate to wake up to.

"I wonder if they have met. Who cares? Only six months to go before I’m off this shitty planet and get my big bonus. Then I’ll be in charge of my own ship. Who will be dreaming then? Signing off."

Sid hated being cut off from civilization so much he could spit. The highlights of each day were his log entries. But with hardly anything to do, there was very little to write about. But that’s the way the Federation Space Academy wanted it. Life on Romulus 4 wasn’t supposed to be a vacation.

Talented or not, every Federation pilot had to endure two-year isolation training. It was critical to pilots like Sid who had chosen to navigate the giant starships. Federation officials had selected the planet because it was remote and without any life forms. If pilots went stir crazy, then they couldn’t be certified. Sid was a mastered pilot and flew with few mistakes. Survival training was all he needed; isolation training was simply a waste of time, he thought.

The first year had gone by quickly. Sid busied himself in the isolation chamber several hours each day, plotting flight trajectories. Armed with a great memory, Sid sat in his flight simulator going over equations. Sometimes he played chess in his head; most of the time he thought about sex.

He missed Earth. He missed beer and the smell of cigarettes even though he didn’t smoke. He missed the color of neon lights and wild women. Every two months, the visiplate at his desk beamed him news update transmissions and orders from Mission Control thousands of light years away, but each broadcast couldn’t be longer than five minutes. They were mainly briefs from headquarters telling him of he latest military developments. Federation officials offered him as little contact with people as possible.

The last six months felt like they would stretch into an eternity. Sid was fighting a loosing battle with leaky water pipe outside. He detached the pipe from the purifier dome to replace the rubber washer and the pipe distanced itself four inches away, too far to be reattached with one pair of hands. Sid was forced to shut off the water and wait several hours each day for water to trickle into a bucket that sat underneath. Water was used to drink and cook with. Baths became a luxury.

Standing in his bathroom sink one morning, he noticed water in the soap dish start to ripple and shake. A jet sound swooped overhead. His hut trembled and shook. Sid jumped into a robe and ran about the hut holding standing plates and picture frames from toppling. The sound roared all about the hut followed by a calming silence and then…impact.

Sid felt the ground sweep out from underneath him. Books and pictures spilled into the living area. Sid stood and collected himself and looked around his upended hut living room. Immediately, he began putting things back where they belonged, and the burning smell hit his nose. Something pungent and foul.

He went to the front portico to see a column of black smoke rising over one of the large boulders. A spaceship had cut a deep gash in the terrain. He ran down to the accident to check on the survivors. Among the charred wreckages were thousands of burned parcels and letters. It was a Federation mail ship. Sid ripped open the door to the cabin to find the flight officers partially charred and a pool of blood collected on the cabin floor. Sid cupped his mouth and turn away. It was the first human contact he’d had in 18 months.

The following days were spent burying the bodies of the crew and collecting the thousands of letters and parcels that still remained. He brought the letters back to his office to protect them from being blown away by the dust storms. Among the packages was a large silver shipping case too heavy to lift. The side of the case said "ROCKE Corporation" as was addressed to the "Zephyr Casinos."

He’d been to those casinos in the outland worlds when he was a new initiate. They were a haven for galactic riff raff filled with thieves, con artists and drug addicts. But there were good times as well – lots of mischief, exotic women. What was in that case, he wondered. The encrypted locks were enough to deter trying to open it.

He resisted opening any of the letters except for one impossible to resist opening. It was addressed to the casino from the ROCKE Corporation. He ripped the through it to find the combination to the silver shipping case and the description of an android. But no ordinary android. Between foam pads of the case were the parts to the 005321 EST-L model female android sealed in cellophane wrapping. After dragging the case to his hut, he grabbed the owner’s manual, broke the seal and devoured its contents. Assembly time would take anywhere from 42 to 76 hours. There was no time to lose.

Sid made a lot of special modifications to Estelle’s face after attaching her head and limbs. There were implant accessories that came with the case to add to the face underneath the rubbery skin. He made her cheekbones higher, lifted up the corners of her eyes so they smiled slightly.

Once put together, all the clefts where the pieces had been attached were sealed with a flesh resin epoxy that took minutes to dry. Sid looked her over while she sat on the bed poised, her eyes closed, her artificial skin glistening. She was beautiful but her body was hard and cold to the touch. She was still too skinny and shapeless. Sid wanted Estelle to have a shapely figure like a real woman.

Inside the metal shipping case was a canister of silicon gel that could be administered by plugging the two tubes into the side of Estelle’s bare chest. The meter and distributor connected at the other end of the tube had a dial to gauge how much of the fluid to put in. The ROCKE Corp. designed all sorts of androids: mining androids, yeomen androids, smartdroids that performed quick calculations. Estelle one was among the specialty androids designed to attract men, designed to be touched.

Sid watched intently as Estelle’s her arms and legs swelled with fluid as did her face and chest. She looked like at any moment her eyes would open and see him. There was one last option that the series 005321 came with, a humanizing agent. A push on the back of Estelle’s head would depress a button underneath the skin which would make her body grow warm and glow with artificial life. However, once the trigger switch was thrown it was irreversible. If Estelle was not liked, she would have to be destroyed.

The instruction manual cautioned: "Warning. The ROCKE Corporation waives all responsibility once the cranial toggle switch is depressed."

Sid decided to hold off using the button until later.

Sid carefully reached up to the sides of her jaw and squeezed the sides. Estelle’s eyelids opened, revealing two crystal blue eyes that sparkled in the candlelight behind him. Sid wore his spaceman’s uniform. He hadn’t worn clothes in almost two weeks and it felt awkward. But he wanted the occasion when Estelle saw him to be romantic.

"EST-L, Series 005321, product number 4613501. Voice check: Galileo. Reptilian. Interplanetary," he said, reading from the instruction sheet. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes." Her voice was deep and buttery. "It’s so nice to meet you," Sid said.

From the beginning, Estelle was everything Sid wanted in a woman. He never knew a sensation as the one he felt watching the water pipe shift back against the purifier dome. Sid screwed the bolts into place as Estelle pushed against the pipe. Soon, the faucets in his bathroom and kitchen would drip again.

"I can’t believe it, Estelle, I have running water now," he said.

"This is good?"

"There aren’t words to describe it. Thank you."

"Do you want to see more?"

Estelle and Sid work for ours a time completing odd jobs around the hut: sealing cracks, sweeping the floor, dusting. Overnight, the interior of Sid’s hut took on the look of a regular home. Estelle was a great partner. She picked up on everything Sid taught her – how to repair a leaky faucet, how space travel works. She even learned how to play chess after Sid taught her. After a couple of games, he proved no match for her. Mistakes weren’t a part of her vocabulary, and he was proud of her because she was his very own.

Sid didn’t lay a finger on Estelle at first. He waited to see if she would send him a signal that she was interested in being intimate. But she didn’t. After a few days, Sid found himself lying in bed with Estelle, curled up next to her cool body. He caressed her stomach and arms and moved over to kiss her.

"Why are you doing that?" Estelle said.

"The water is running again, the living room is clean, everything is in its right place. And it’s all thanks to you."

"Why thanks to me?

"Because you helped me."

"Should I be nice to you, too?"

"That would be nice."

Estelle moved over to plant her lips in his. There was no movement. Estelle’s lips were cold and callous, her body hard and mechanical. She pulled away. Sid knew what he had to do.

* * *

Commander Norris never made a comment about Sid’s appearance. The most he ever said was too keep in good physical condition. But Norris couldn’t help noticing that Sid’s face was rosier. He grinned. Sid never grinned.

"Anything else? Anything at all," Norris said.

"Nope. Been pretty quiet around here," Sid said, looking at the visiplate.

"Excited about coming back, are you?"

"Absolutely, sir."

"Excited? Ecstatic, more like. You’re actually wearing clothes again. You’re cheeks are flushed. You’re glowing. There’s something different about you. Are you taking supplements?"

"All of that and more, sir."

"Lieutenant," the commander said with a grave tone. "I’m not going to have to scan for visitors, now do I?"

"No, sir."

The room flashed as if belted by a strobe light. The reports only indicated a single life form in Sid’s room. Himself.

"No organic life forms except you, a couple plants and…must be dinner time. Since when did you start making lasagna?"

"It’s amazing what you find after you do some house cleaning," Sid said, stealing quick glance over to Estelle sitting on the bed, an apron hugging her tender frame, her hands clasped in her lap, waiting pleasantly.

"Indeed. Carry on. Over and out," Norris said.

The commander signed off. Sid swiveled his portal chair in Estelle’s direction. It had been several weeks since Sid had depressed the humanizing switch. There was no going back now, and Sid wouldn’t have it any other way. Sid sat next to her on the bed holding her hand, which was now warm and supple.

"Why are you keeping me a secret?" Estelle said.

"I’m not."

"Did you tell your captain about me?"

"No."

"Why not."

"Because there’s nothing to tell."

"What do you mean? Are you ashamed of me?"

"What are you talking about? Estelle, you’re perfect."

"I would think if I were perfect then that alone would be worth telling others."

"I can’t."

"Why not."

"It’s complicated."

"Why?"

"Because it is."

He paused for a while then moved to hold her. Estelle pulled away.

"You must tell me why."

Sid breathed a disgust sound: "Because I’m not supposed to have a companion. I’m supposed to be alone. I’m a pilot in isolation training. If they catch us then I’ll be sent back home and I won’t get my bonus. I need my bonus."

"You mean I’m not supposed to be here?" Estelle said.

"No, you’re not."

"Then why am I here?"

"The freight ship you were in crashed and I rescued you from the wreckage."

"How did you rescue me?"

"I pulled the shipping case that you came in out of the flames."

"My shipping case? Was I still in pieces?"

"Yes."

"You assembled me."

He nodded.

"Why?"

"I wanted someone to talk to."

"But you’re not supposed to have a companion."

"Look, Estelle, you’re here now. That’s all that matters. You know, and you should be grateful. I mean, aren’t you happy I brought you to life?"

Estelle shifted her head slightly from side to side. Her motions began to loose some of their human-like fluidity.

"I am not happy. I’m not unhappy. I cannot respond with emotions until I know how to respond."

He sighed. She looked at him, deadpan: "If you keep me, then you would loose your salary. If you loose me, then you could keep your salary. And you can keep both if you keep me a secret."

"Basically, yes."

"Then you are very selfish."

He chuckled: "You don’t even know what that word means."

"Does it mean anything to you?"

"Not in this context."

"What about in this context?"

Estelle walked over to the baking dish filled with Sid’s hot supper and turned it upside down. Lasagna splattered all over the tiled floor.

"Oh, that’s great. Thanks," Sid said.

"See. I can’t be selfish too. Want to see more?" she said.

"No. Why don’t you go clean that up?"

"No, you can clean that up after I show you more."

Estelle picked up Sid’s ceramic dishes and let them slip from her fingers so they shattered. After that, she walked over to his bookcase and shook it like shaking apples out of a tree. Books and pictures tumbled to the ground.

"Estelle, cut it out," Sid said, kneeling down, salvaging a portion of the lasagna. "Stop it. I don’t want to see more."

"I’m am not happy, now. I’m sad, because now I know that you’re just using me for companionship."

"But all this is foolishness. You’re just an android. You’re made to serve us."

"You’re made to serve yourself, Lt. Sid Darius."

Estelle went out through the front door of the hut.

It all looked like an elaborate charade, part of her programming. Sid huffed, knowing she would return soon. But the sound of her tracks grew more distant until finally they dissipated completely.

"Okay Estelle, quit fooling around. Come on back," Sid said, walking out of the hut. There was no sight of her just dirt, gravel and boulders. He scoured the grounds, calling her name but there was so sign of her. Gradually, his walk turned from a shuffle and then into a jog as he pursued her.

"Estelle, we can work this out. Please, Estelle answer me. Where are you?"

He scanned the grounds picking up on her small footprints. He followed after them until the outside of the footprints grew incongruously bigger. For a second, Sid thought he was following his own tracks. The pursuit came to a halt as he ran into a 300 lbs armed agent who stood unmoved like a wall. Sid tumbled to the ground and knocked his head against the base of a boulder. His search had led him back to the crash site. Only now there were about a dozen Federation agents roaming the crash site.

A second skinnier agent pushed a pistol in Sid’s face.

"Who are you? What the hell are you doing here?" the second agent said.

"Relax corporal," the first agent said. "He’s a Space Academy cadet."

The first agent, Sgt. Brixton, pushed Sid up against the rock. The side of Sid’s face grew swollen and tender.

"That’s quite a shiner you got there," Brixton said.

Sid grasped his area around his cheek, wincing.

"Are you okay?" he said.

"Hurts," Sid said.

"Toughen you up. I’m Sgt. Toni Brixton, and this is Corp. Edwin Myers. We’re special agents with the Federation Circulation Authority and we’re here to recover parcels and mail lost in the crash? Did you witness the crash?"

Sid nodded.

"Did you recover any of the missing items?"

"I have them back at my place."

"Good lad."

Brixton and Myers and the crew spent the majority of that afternoon hauling off the thousands of pieces of space mail and parcels that Sid had stashed in his hut cellar. Federation agents stepped over pieces of broken plates and glass as they searched Sid’s place for more letters. Sid pressed a cold wet rag against his bruise as the agents collected their materials. He had kept Estelle’s shipping case in a secret compartment under his bed.

Brixton and Myers invited Sid to have chat with him just before leaving and sat themselves in his living room chairs.

"We’ll if that’s it, I think we’ll be on your way. Sorry, if we interrupted your training," Brixton said.

"No problem at all."

"How long you been stationed out here," he said.

"About 18 months. Only six more to go."

"I bet it’s good to see people again," he said. Sid nodded. "But it is a problem I’m sure. You’re not supposed to have contact with anyone, and I intend to make a full report of our presence to your commander," Brixton said.

"If you feel you need to," Sid said, smiling.

Myers, who had been quiet for most of the afternoon, leaned forward in his seat. He was as short and skinny as Brixton was tall and fat.

"Out of curiosity, Lieutenant, what were you doing out while we were making our rounds and bumped into you?" Myers said.

"I was going for a walk," he said. "It can get pretty crazy being cooped up in here sometimes."

"I see, crazy enough for you to throw plates and break windows?" Myers said motioning to the scattered remains on the floor.

"Oh that," Sid said. "We get quakes here from time to time."

"Quakes. Interesting. You’re about 1,500 kilometers from the nearest fault line," Myers said.

"Those must be some pretty big quakes," Brixton said.

Sid tried to smile. He couldn’t tell if they were on to him. Estelle could walk through that door at any minute and it would be all over.

"Actually, they can be," Sid said.

"Well," Brixton said. "If that’s it, I guess we’ll be on our way. Is there anything else we’re forgetting?"

"I’ll be sure to send you lightmail if anything comes up," Sid said.

"We’ll be on our way then. Good luck with the rest of your training. Oh-," he said, turning back. "Don’t this little crash mishap spoil your idea of space mail. The Federation Circulation System is still the most reliable ways to send a package."

* * *

Sid paced all through the night wondering whether Estelle would return. He held off the desire to go searching for her. The skies had turned to nightfall and nights on Romulus 4 were dangerous. Howling windstorms could get up to 100 miles an hour and temperatures dropped below freezing.

Using infrared scanners wouldn’t work since Estelle’s artificial skin didn’t produce enough heat energy. There was no way to find her besides to simply to follow her tracks if the gales hadn’t already erased them. There was no telling how resilient the ROCKE engineers had made their androids, especially the ones not designed to withstand the harsh elements.

In bed, Sid tossed and he turned. The sheets scratched at his leg. His bed and pillow were soaked with perspiration.

At times in the wee hours of the night, he would drift off into moments of sleep and see Estelle in a pair of blue pajamas cooking eggs at the stove. He drifted through the living room of an actual house just having woken up and could see clouds and sunshine outside through the windows. Sid sat in a chair at the breakfast table. A delicate plume of steam rose off the eggs that sat in front of him. Estelle filled her own plate with breakfast and sat. There was jam, toast and orange juice there on the table.

He was on Earth again.

"This is all too perfect," he said.

"Everything is just the way you want it."

"Did you enjoy last night?"

She nodded. "I hope you never leave me," she said.

Sid gasped and was suddenly wide awake. He looked at his time element. He’d only been asleep for only an hour, but it didn’t matter. Sid leapt out of bed and went to the storage closet to find a knapsack. There would be no more waiting around. It was time to get the girl.

Sid’s had barely used his hiking boots and after two hours of walking he could feel blisters forming. As he scanned the terrain of Romulus 4, he remembered why he was stayed indoors most of the time. The planet was dusty and desolate, a land of jagged rocks and steep embankments. Sid traveled several terrameters away from the hut before his time element beeped. It was the signal to start heading back. The sun would be setting in the northeast leaving him out in the cold and sure to die miserably.

Distantly, he heard a sound. At first, he thought it was the whistling of the wind. But then, he heard it again and walked in the direction of the sound – a small pathetic little voice crying out "help me."

He followed the "help me" sound into a shallow ravine until it grew louder. Help me. His eyes searched the ravine floor intently. Where was the noise coming from? And then he saw was what at first looked like a rock was a body covered by dust and dirt. He rushed over to the heap bushed away the dirt to reveal Estelle’s lovely dehydrated face. Her lips were sealed and wrinkled as was her skin. Her eyes were shut. The "help me" sound came from a speaker underneath her chest. He looked over her body. Nothing looked broken or out of place.

"Estelle. Oh my god, Estelle," Sid said as he shook her, but she didn’t wake. He could see the shadows from the rocks had crept up slowly along the ground. He had to get back to the hut before sundown.

Sid slung Estelle across his shoulder and carried her back to the hut, but not before getting caught in a violent dust storm than left him blind and directionless. Exhausted, he set Estelle back on the ground and tried once again at getting her to work.

"Please wake up," he said, pushing the side of her jaw in, trying to activate her waking switch. Sid shook her head, and beat on her chest, witless, desperate, helpless. Her eyes opened. Sid stopped. She turned to look at him.

"You came," she said.

"Yes. Thank god you’re back."

Estelle grinned and as she did tore her cheek of artificial skin exposing black fibers and the white implants.

"Don’t Estelle. You’ve lost all your moisture. We have to get you back. Can you walk?"

Sid picked her up and they limped together the rest of the way.

* * *

"You’re doing it wrong," Estelle said, as she lay on the bed mattress.

Sid dabbed Estelle’s cheek with the artificial flesh epoxy. She ended up with one to three inch tears all over her body, mostly along her legs and arms that Sid had sealed with the epoxy. The arid climate robbed Estelle’s artificial skin of all its moisture and made it thin like paper. Some androids were just not designed to battle the elements.

But several months had already passed since that occasion, and every lesion had been sealed with the epoxy except one: an area around her the mouth. The cheek tear flapped whenever Estelle spoke. The only thing that seemed to flap even more lately were her lips.

"What am I doing wrong?" Sid said. "The directions said to apply epoxy generously."

"Well I guess you and the directions have a different understanding of the word generous, now don’t you."

"Estelle, don’t start."

"I’m just trying to tell you that if I’m to keep from tearing again, than you’re going to have to apply more."

"There’s isn’t a whole lot left. Besides, this would be a lot easier if you’d just give your mouth a rest and let it dry correctly."

"Don’t take that tone with me."

"Estelle, hush up."

"You hush up."

"Fine," Sid said, putting the final dabs on her cheek and holding the exhausted tube over her: "There you have go. That’s the last of it. So, if you want to keep tearing, just keep it up."

Had Estelle agreed to stop talking, it would’ve been the longest period for her. Something had gone wrong. Since bringing Estelle out of the dust storm, she had turned into nothing but a quarrelsome and hypercritical android bitch. Nothing could please her; everything Sid did was impolite or incorrect. They fought constantly. If Sid went one way, she went the other. Estelle stomped around and called Sid "selfish."

At first Sid thought something in the wild of the planet – maybe sand or dirt – had screwed up her circuitry. Estelle wasn’t herself anymore. Maybe it was just punishment for all the ex-girlfriends he’d treated so poorly on Earth. Sid told her that he loved her, hoping that maybe it would soften her, but she was unaffected.

"…‘Am I pretty enough? Am I too fat? Why don’t you talk enough? Why do you talk so much? Close your mouth when you chew. Don’t you ever clean up after yourself? Quit touching me so much.’ That’s all she seems to say anymore. I can’t live like this. It feels like slow death. As if the last two months aren’t supposed to be hell enough, I have an android…AN ANDROID… ordering me around.

"Why did I push that stupid humanizing button? Things were so much better before. Hell, things would’ve been better had that damn mail ship never crashed in the first place. It’s so strange the way things happen. Six months ago, I fantasized about having a woman with me here, and now all I can’t think of are ways to get rid of her…"

It was getting close to time for Sid to leave Romulus 4, and he was wondering how to dispose of his pestering companion. He’d managed to keep her a secret all this time; getting rid of her seemed to be an easy solution. In the heat of his anger, Sid thought of malicious ways to do it: leading her off a cliff, dropping a boulder on her head, electrocuting her. He could make it look like an accident, but none of it would work. He couldn’t bring himself to actually go through with any of it.

She had been well behaved for the last few days. He had tried to mind himself more lately: cleaning up after himself, brushing his teeth. Sid knew it was getting close to their last meal when he would have to retire her somehow. And then Estelle dropped the biggest surprise of all. As he ate one evening, she began to sob. Uncontrollable, tearless sobs.

"I … I," she said.

"Come, come. What is it? Is it me again?" he said.

"It’s just that I can’t believe this. Look at all you’ve done for me. You brought me here. You saved me from that awful Casino world. You pulled me out of the desert after I ran away. And you have made it through all my behavior. How could I say all those awful things about you."

"Estelle, just take it easy."

"No. I’m so wretched, how can you stand it?"

"I’m sure you’re just going through a lot."

"No, no, no. There is no excuse. You want to kill me. I’ve seen the anger in your eyes. I’ve brought all this about."

"Estelle, please calm down."

"No, I can’t. I have to tell you something before I loose you completely."

"I don’t understand."

"The thing you want me to say."

"What could that be?"

"You know it. It would make all the sense in the world to you if I just said it. So I’m going to do it," she said, and positioned herself so that she could be facing him fully. She grabbed both of his hands. Sid’s heart was racing.

"What are you going to say?" he said.

Estelle paused. Her cheek tear showed tiny crisscross wrinkles but held their place.

"I-," she said, "I luh..luh…"

She couldn’t get it out. She tried again.

"I luhh…I luhhvv…"

And that was all of it. Her body was frozen. Her smile flattened as the corners of her mouth fell. The aura of life slipped away as the light in her eyes dimmed. She sat motionless.

"Estelle?" Sid shook her. He knew what every android owner must handle eventually. But on Romulus 4, there was nowhere to replace a dead android battery.

* * *

Sid has one last look around the Federation hut as troops stood nearby, waiting to escort him to the personnel spacecraft. All his bags had been stowed on the craft, his furniture packed. In truth, he was sad to be leaving the ramshackle old hut.

Loading the last of his stuff into the open compartment of the spacecraft were Federation troops who bestowed congratulatory pats on Sid as he climbed into passenger doorway. He wasn’t a hero by any means but he belonged to a distinguished level of people who had completed isolation training. Officers passing by greeted him as "captain," the new rank he would have as soon as he set foot on Federation headquarters. It was thrilling to see people again. He strapped himself into his seat with automatic seatbelt and mini-visiplate.

Sid’s thoughts turned to the anticipation of seeing all things new and glorious on Earth. Who were the famous celebrities now? What was the popular music? But before he could think about all that, a voice called out inside his head – that still high-pitched distress call that he remembered one fateful day when he ventured out into the wild and rugged terrain of the planet. Sid held out, thinking the voice would go away, but it didn’t. He couldn’t make a clean break; she was holding him back.

"We can’t take off yet," Sid said. "I left something behind."

Crewmembers seated and buckled turned to look at him. "Is it that important," a deck officer said. "We’re going to miss our window if we don’t take off now."

Sid Darius struggled with his seat belt before it finally came loose. He stood and depressed an emergency exits button near the passenger door. The engines of the spaceship slowed. "–only take a minute," he said, leaping out of the ship. An intercom buzzed overhead. A voice was pissed.

Officers settled questioning crewmembers by explaining the isolation sickness and how some officers are prone to uncontrollable acts once they’ve completely their training. They elected to chase after Sid in about 10 minutes after which their navigation window would close, grounding them for the day.

There was a banging from the outside of the ship. Officers opened the door to find Sid dragging and limp body on deck. Crewmember rushed over to see the commotion.

"What the hell is that," the deck officer replied.

"My companion," he said.

Even in sleep, Estelle emitted a radiant beauty.

"You’re in a lot of trouble, buddy," another voice cried out. "You might even be court marshaled." Sid heard the voice but didn’t care. He was lost in a soft vision of tranquility and peace.

Instead of the priority seat, he would spend his trip home in the ship’s brig.

When the Zephyr Casino lords discovered that someone had stolen and humanized their female android, their only thought was to kill Sid Darius. And if Darius had been discharged, that might’ve been possible. But he wasn’t discharged and forced to pay the lords 10,000 Federation notes compensation.

Returning from isolation training wasn’t the fate Sid had been hoping for. He didn’t get the big bonus. He didn’t get promoted to a navigation captain. The Federation held onto him instead and demoted his rank from second lieutenant to spaceman, first class, which meant he could get work on nothing more than the space freighters. There was no combat action in that line of work and little pay.

Nonetheless, his modest salary allowed him to afford a vehicle and small house in the suburbs and plenty of time off so he could spend more time with Estelle. The course he’d run living with Estelle on Earth was a good one, but not without its occasional bumps. Since being back, arguments centered around money: Estelle wanting to spend, Sid holding her back, she criticizing him for being cheap, he resenting her for it.

The only way he saw to make more money was to sign up for another two-year isolation training stint on yet another cold and distant planet and that was the last thing he wanted.

"But they’re so perfect," Estelle said, holding up an image on her journalplate. She had run up an enormous bill ordering online fashion magazines. "None of my other shoes looks good with this outfit."

"Estelle, we’re on Earth now. If we want something, we have to pay for it. And we just don’t have the kind of money to buy everything we want."

"Ugh, I’m so sick of this. When we go out with the Poplins, Frances wears a different pair of shoes every time I see her. She’s shows it off to her other girl friends. They talk and giggle. They have fun. I want that!"

"Well, you’re going to have to find a way to talk and giggle about the pair of shoes that you already own."

"Why did you even come back for me? Is this the world that I was missing, this world with pretty pictures that lure people to things they can’t have? It’s terrible. And look at this living room. It’s all wrong. The drapes and the sofa. It looks like we live in a barn. I’m going to have to get a job just to make it look presentable. Look here," Estelle said, turning to another image on her journalplate. "This man’s stomach is flat and his chest defined. Look at you’re stomach. It’s soft and sticks out. We’ll have to fix that too. We need to get you a gym pass somewhere. What about your haircut? It’s still shaggy. And your pant legs. You need longer ones. And that silly little car you bought. Who would be caught dead in it? We need to get a new one. One that will make our neighbors jealous so they talk behind our back. We just have to make more money, Sid. We have to. There’s so much work to be done. Let’s do it Sid. I know we can. Sid? Sid, where are you?"

Sid was already in his hovercar backing out of the driveway. He could breath again. It was only ten miles to a Federation flight base. He was relatively healthy and had an open invitation to pick up his training whenever he wanted. He could probably hitch a ride on another personnel carrier before Estelle even knew he’d left. The thought, no woman is going to change me, kept turning over in his head.

Two years. It wasn’t that long, really.

Bio: Daniel Bartel lives in Wichita Falls, Texas where he works as a regional reporter for the Wichita Falls Times Record News. This is his first science fiction story.

E-mail: Claybartel@aol.com

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