O'ryan heard a commotion outside. Something had fallen, or stumbled against the side wall. Gibble was inspecting more ice cream as he ate it. The door to the cafeteria opened again, Dr. Mirati walked in, and quickly spotted them. She was followed by a rather tall man that O'ryan's eyes would notice but fail to focus on. O'ryan's head tilted forward in her direction and his jaw hung loose slightly, dumbfounded. He quickly gathered himself, heat was rising to his face as he felt self consciously embarrassed. Dr. Mirati was not a perfect ten as he had mentioned to Larry, at that point he only saw her from the neck upwards. Dr. Mirati was off the scales.
There were a handful of others in the cafeteria, and all talking momentarily halted.
"That must be her now." Gibble said plainly, not looking up from his food.
Dr. Mirati was wearing the same sort of professional business suit as in her profile, put off only by the weirdly shaped magnetic boots. It was uncommon to see anyone in normal clothing out and about. Additionally, her clothing was not normal in a different way. Her suit was nearly form-fitting. Her suit fit the form of a nearly impossible doll-like body. She was petite in size but her sexual proportions were nearly too much. Gibble moved his plate over, and made room for the other two on his side of the booth; now there were three facing O'ryan. Mirati was rather short. Or it may be that it only seemed that way next to the lofty height of Bill. Or it may be that she was leaning forward and her breasts were too large, as they claimed for themselves a space on the table. Mirati spoke, and O'ryan looked at her face. O'ryan realized that he had shifted his glance to do so when she spoke, and felt more heat come over him.
"I see you've been acquainted with Dr. Gibble, I'm Dr. Mirati, this is Bill."
O'ryan shook both of their hands, now for the first time taking in the details of Bill. He looked enormously comforting in a very odd manner. His face was formed into the most kindly wrinkled eyes and the most pleasant closed smile that O'ryan had ever seen. Bill looked like he worked in construction, but had a movie star face with thick brows and thicker head of hair, he must've been in his twenties. His arms were also hairy, and his hands were uncommonly large. Bill had twinkling eyes. O'ryan focused on them a bit more, and imagined that they literally twinkled. Looking at Bill momentarily broke the shock O'ryan had experienced with Dr. Mirati. He gathered himself. "Welcome to Luna Prime." he said with faux professionalism. "I didn't expect there would be another coming along." he looked at Bill. "I hope you're okay with following Dr. Mirati, as I can't make time today for new trips." Bill, still holding his perfectly kind face, nodded. Mirati turned her head slightly toward Gibble, who was bent over his food, and they exchanged a sideways glance. O'ryan did not notice this, as his own gaze had shifted, and when Mirati turned back to look at him, he blinked and jolted his head upwards.
'This can't be happening.' he said to himself.
"Perhaps we should talk on the way, we're falling behind schedule slightly… for the tour." O'ryan said, pulling his chair back slightly, hoping to encourage departure.
"Oh. But I did not know the cafeteria had such good views-" Mirati said, looking past Gibble out at the globe of Earth. "-and Leo is still eating, I could use a bite myself, why don't we skip seeing the primary terminals? That would only bore Leo anyway."
'Leo?' O'ryan thought.
Gibble held a thumbs up.
'Leopold… right.'
"I… I guess that's fine." O'ryan sighed, now they would be here another hour or more. He worried that his fond ideations of the cafeteria would be tainted forever by whatever was happening here now. Mirati said something to Bill in a whisper, and he nodded again. The three of them got up while Bill remained behind. O'ryan wished they were in the bar right now, as he needed a drink. When they sat back down, O'ryan tried to look at Gibble, so that he didn't have to look at Mirati, but Gibble was always eating now. He was probably taking advantage of the extra company to excuse himself mentally. O'ryan noted that Gibble's second plate was as loaded as the first one. How is he so thin?
O'ryan was conflicted. His previous thoughts of being outside of the inside joke were returning to him. He was simultaneously confused and embarrassed and still feeling like he must maintain a level of professionalism that was not compatible. Something had to give.
"I don't want to sound rude…" he said, and Gibble piped up: "You won't."
Mirati let out a soft giggle. O'ryan paused to look at Gibble, who did not return the gaze. This only added more stress to his conflict, and O'ryan continued on.
"It appears that everybody on Luna Prime knows who you are except me," he said "and that something is going on here. And I don't know either of you very well, but I can't be expected to act like a representative of Luna Prime under these conditions. Bill isn't even supposed to be here. There was no third person on the charter. No offense Bill."
"None taken." Bill replied in a calm tone yet loud projection that stilted O'ryan's flow, there was something off putting about the sound.
"Do they really?" Mirati said in a coo with a smirk.
"Really what?" O'ryan asked.
"Know about me? Everybody?" Mirati said.
"It certainly seems so to me!" O'ryan raised his voice slightly, and Bill shifted his stance.
"And why are you doing that!?"
"Doing what?" Mirati said: leaning forward, tilting her head to the side, placing her elbows on the table and her hands under her chin, exposing more of her cleavage.
"That! You look… you act…" O'ryan could not bring himself to say it.
"Like a pornstar!" Gibble said with a half mouth of food.
Mirati laughed. O'ryan looked at Gibble again, now meeting his gaze. Gibble rolled his wrist to say 'get on with it.'
"I was going to say escort," O'ryan said, slumping into his chair.
"That's sweet," Mirati said with a coy grin.
O'ryan's mind started calming again as pieces fell into place. Dr. Mirati must do some kind of pornography work, or otherwise sell herself, and she must be very popular. Did Larry assume that O'ryan indulged? There are always hundreds if not thousands of well-known sex stars out there at all times to fulfill the demands of the body. Having these new facts he unconsciously lost all embarrassment and gained a questionable sense of moral justification. He stared unflinchingly at the details of Mirati. There must be something else going on with her, if half of Luna Prime knew her. Was it that she was too perfect? There was a tiny sense of adjustment about her body. She clearly knew how far was too far and towed the line expertly. Or was it her professional background? Appealing to some kind of vain notion of technical kindredness, trying to make nerds think they might have the slightest chance with her because they also like computers? He lost his sense of time momentarily in his observations. He did not speak, and let a lull enter the conversation.
"It's not so serious!" Mirati finally said. "I was only teasing. I find it's best to get this out of the way. It's so difficult to be technical if everyone is being awkward around me."
"I can imagine." O'ryan said dully, allowing another lull. Now Mirati waited for him to speak again.
"You don't find it too difficult? I mean, you seem to be a pretty big deal in your field, doesn't this make it harder to be in public works and make connections with stodgy professors or something, how did Green Dawn even organize you to be here?"
Dr. Mirati smiled, narrowing her eyes slightly and assumed a normal sitting position.
"Once you're necessary you can do whatever you want." she said with a smirk. Her eyes looked up at the small black domes surveilling the cafeteria. She raised her eyebrows and spoke to them distantly. "And I'm fairly sure my presence here simply won't be in the news at all."
O'ryan assumed as much. There would be zero chance that Luna Prime would put a figure like Mirati on stage for the public to draw associations with, especially while the Mars cadets were training here. So they'd bar her from certain people and censor her from content distribution. Gibble would likely be lumped in as a matter of insurance. That's an awful lot of effort for something the base gains nothing from, since they can't advertise or reference it. O'ryan thought there must be a large amount of bribing going on.
Gibble held up his hand and gestured at rubbing money together. "She does it for the big bucks."
Mirati looked at Gibble, smiling "It's not only for the money."
"You mean it's not only for your money," Gibble said. Mirati rolled her eyes.
O'ryan looked at the two of them and asked the obvious. "What do you mean? Who's money?"
Mirati shook her head while looking at O'ryan. "It's always about money in the end isn't it? To get things done? I want to see my babies thrive. What good is science without technology? Without industry? We need markets to move up anywhere."
Gibble took over; "Sometimes it's enough to just know things to know them, you know."
"Not unless you want to know more and can't get there due to a lack of means," Mirati retorted.
"We haven't even explored what we have!" Gibble said.
O'ryan could sense that he'd fallen into a prior discussion. Mirati looked at Gibble now with a tilted head and lowering her tone.
"You're one to talk, you're here aren't you? Do you think you'd have this opportunity still looking in your backyard for toads? After all we've found-"
Gibble's eyes widened and he looked sideways at Mirati, who stopped herself mid sentence. They both looked at O'ryan, who was confused again. Mirati cleared her throat but O'ryan spoke out of habit to clear the tension. "You said your babies? Do you have kids?"
Mirati and Gibble both laughed. "You could say that, yes." Mirati said.
"Bill here is Mirati's son," Gibble pointed. Bill was unmoved.
O'ryan looked at the three of them in turn. "But… I thought Bill was your boyfriend?"
"He's both!" Gibble said, still laughing.
O'ryan knew she was some kind of outcast, but this was too far. He must have displayed the shock he felt, as Mirati quickly chided Gibble.
"Don't say things like that." Mirati pulled Bill's arm onto the table and looked at O'ryan. She pressed on two parts of his forearm. O'ryan saw a slight seam appear on Bill's skin. Mirati grabbed it and pulled the skin from Bill's elbow up to his thumb, inverting it like a glove.
O'ryan exclaimed and flinched.
"Bill is an Android, O'ryan. True to the name," Mirati winked.
O'ryan looked at the exposed arm. It was clear with tints of blue and had a weave-like texture that was soft enough to dimple at Mirati's touch. There was a blurry image of something dark colored under the fleshy substance; O'ryan assumed it was something more structural. He was stunned, looking from Bill's face down to his arm and back again while he attempted to process this information. The idea that someone he thought was human and treated as human, was actually a robot, angered him. His hands clenched unconsciously, and he removed them beneath the table for hiding, also unconsciously. How was this possible? He recognized the strangeness about Bill, but it had not been sufficient to sway his mind. Have robots really come this far? He hadn't seen anything like Bill in the public sector. All those "android" robots on television were gimmicks. There was always something: special angles, limited movements, hidden fuels, scripted performances, unmanageable upkeep, or a working lifetime measured in minutes or hours at best. He didn't follow the android scene, but he knew there wasn't a robot out there that could perform like Bill just did without giving it away.
"I don't believe it." he said.
Now Mirati was interested. Her face lit up as she looked at Bill with pride and her face was beaming.
"Believe it! He's entirely artificial."
"Someone's remoting in."
"Nope, forced silence while on base, your base's own protocol."
"How much longer does he have left, an hour?"
"Oh, I think he has at least eighty left at this rate."
"Impossible."
"Sit and wait if you'd like."
O'ryan did wait a little. Mirati began explaining the advancements of Bill as if she had given this speech hundreds of times and was always looking for new reasons to give it. Clearly Bill was a unique and singular construct of passion and specialized access to new technologies. Batteries for bones, power delivery in the flesh, photovoltaic self seaming skin. The power delivering elements of the flesh were also structurally batteries, similar to organic muscle. Bill was a singular weight of batteries and charging elements.
Every material served multiple functions, but O'ryan stopped paying attention. His mind wandered. Boyfriend? Pornstar? Why did Bill look like he does? He started to feel sick.
O'ryan pushed his chair back and stood up abruptly. Gibble stopped eating, and Mirati stopped talking. They looked up at him.
"I apologize, I need to use the bathroom real quick, I'll be right back." O'ryan left, and the two looked at each other.
***
Absent-mindedly the two guests lowered their voices.
"Why didn't you tell him about Bill before I got here?"
"I thought it'd be funny."
"It was funny, but look at what you've done."
"What I've done? You were going along with it this whole time!"
"He'll never trust us now. He was the only one we had intel on, and we were blessed to have him as a tour guide. This is bad."
"He won't trust you now, I think I'm in the clear."
"Well we need him to trust me, not you."
"It was shot for you from the start, he's robo-racist."
"You don't know that."
"Oh contraire, I have a knack for this sort of thing, a racist radar if you will. While you were going on and on about your lovechild, I was paying attention. He's been discomforted by Bill this whole time."
"I didn't catch anything. There is no way that I didn't and you did."
"I think you've been around robots too long- And who cares? There are other boat specialists onboard, let's relax."
"This isn't a vacation."
"It could be if you'd relax, we'll find someone. We have plenty of time."
"Don't mess this up for me."
"I keep telling you, they won't replace you, it's in the contract."
"I keep telling you, it's the implied contract, something you don't seem to understand."
"You clearly have a spy fantasy, that would be a wonderful porn hook."
"Please shut up."
***
O'ryan was physically shaking in the bathroom as he looked at himself in the mirror. He never knew why this topic always made him upset. It was so bad he simply avoided the subject. He had suspicions that he didn't want to answer, but wouldn't be able to shake. He took out his tablet and accessed the public internet. With a brief search, he started to feel dizzy, and had to sit down in a stall. Dr. Mirati was not just a pornstar, or a scientist, but a leader in the movement of robot pornography. And not any robot porn, but a rare and extremely expensive sort that involved a paying customer remoting into the performing android in question, to do as they wish with their favorite star. She must have been a multi-millionaire, with an Android as sophisticated as Bill and underground fame like this. She was extremely prolific despite ungodly costs. O'ryan thought he might pass out. He thought about a scenario where he couldn't tell androids from humans without a device. He thought about scenarios of doppelgangers and imposters. He thought about humans deciding to travel through remote robots instead of their own bodies, because they were better. Who would know after a robot can last longer without a charge than a human can survive without water? Most importantly, why did he care? O'ryan breathed in heavily and put his tablet away. He exercised in the bathroom until he felt stable. He was determined to head out and get these tours over with, to forget they ever happened, and go back to repairing Peregrine 12 systems.