Page 23 of Cozy Prisons
A wafer appeared between her face and the desk. She snatched it and popped it in her mouth, ignoring the way it tasted. She knew from experience that the strange flavor would go away soon and her head would feel much better right after that.
“Thanks,” she said, looking over to where Daxus was crouched next to her.
Daxus reached for an empty vial she’d left on her desk yesterday at the same time she lobbed it into a corner full of bits and pieces she meant to take to the reclamater machine. “Oh, sorry.”
Daxus sounded a rumble of amusement. “Can I assume that pile is refuse?”
Thanks to the medication, the headache was already fading. She gave him a rueful smile. “Yeah, I’m lazy. I haven’t been good at keeping my place clean.”
“It’s perfectly clean,” he argued.
She raised both eyebrows at him. “You can’t mean that. There's no floor space, only paths around piles of junk.”
“It’s clean but not tidy,” he explained.
She huffed out a laugh and sat up straight and turned in her seat so she wasn’t twisting her neck to look at him. “I don’t think there’s a difference."
“There is,” he insisted. “This place isn’t dirty or unsanitary, it’s simply full of items.”
“I like that description," she said, looking around again. “It makes me sound a lot less pathetic."
“You are in no way pathetic,” he said, emphasizing his words with a rattle of affirmation. “You’re dedicated and busy. All you need are some shelves and bins, and then you could be clean and tidy. I can help with that.”
As much as she liked the idea of him staying with her all day, she shook her head. “I thought you were assigned to set up the land-based array?”
“That is one of my duties,” he agreed. “But I can’t start until they finish clearing and grading the spot where it’s going to be installed. That’s Utharium’s duty. I have a few rotations until my work begins."
The reconstituter dinged. Daxus stood up with a happy rumble. “That’s your tea. Let me fetch it.”
He leaped gracefully over a pile of items and landed on the other side right next to the reconstituter.
She thought of all the times she’d stubbed a toe on random edges of bots. “I wish I could do that.”
“Once I'm done, you won’t need to,” he said as he made his way back to her with one of the thick-walled, stone cups the Talins liked.
After she accepted it, he went back to the food preparation area and started putting together a tray of food. It looked like it was only enough for her. That wasn’t surprising, Talins only ate one meal a day. For a species that didn’t eat often, they were obsessed with humans getting at least three meals a day, if not more.
It made her think that Talins had a tendency toward a food fetish they lived out through the humans around them!
The door display chimed, making both of them look to the front of the domicile. Before she could call out, the familiar voice of Rami spoke through the display.
“If you’re not awake, just groan,” Rami said cheerfully. “We’ll go away and come back later.”
“No, Mama!” Ula said with a little whiny wail. “I’ve been waiting foreeeeveer! I need to show her now!”
“Ula,” Illea said with a clear warning.
“Zaza, this is important,” Ula said. “Mama doesn’t understand but Nataly will!”
Nataly winced, remembering that she promised to see Ula’s new programmed trick the other night. She’d completely forgotten.
She called for the door to open. Ula ran in, followed closely by a bot with a small body on top of long legs. They were usually used to do land-based surveys, but this one didn’t have the range-finding assembly on the top of its round body or the extra appendages for taking soil samples.
Nataly had put it together for Ula not long after they arrived. There were no other kids her age, so the bot was her best friend right now. She’d named the bot Iffy because Nataly had casually told Illea that the bot’s charge holder had an “iffy lifespan” and to bring it back if it failed.
“Watch, watch,” Ula shouted. Nataly was grateful the medication had already taken effect, otherwise Ula’s high-pitched voice might’ve sent her headache into the stratosphere.
“I’m watching!” Nataly assured, turning in her seat and focusing her attention on the bot. “What have you programmed Iffy to do?”
