Each night Coren slept in the tent, swaddled in blankets while Alina kept watch. Alina didn’t think per sleep was very restful. She could hear per tossing and turning in the cold.
"With greater caloric intake, I could keep you warm," Alina commented on the fifth morning. "I can generate external heat."
"If you got more to eat, you mean," Coren said, per breath frosting as per tugged the sled over a frozen obstacle.
"Yes."
"I can’t make more food appear out of thin air, and I’m giving you as much as I can. What we’ve got has to last until we get to where we’re going."
Alina continued, "I’m also programmed for sexual activities. Those can raise your body temperature, if you please."
Coren stopped walking. "What did you just say?"
"During my stasis, someone uploaded operational knowledge of several sexual activities. I don’t have most of the equipment, but I have two hands, a mouth, a waste port—"
"Okay, stop!" Coren snapped, per face turning red. "I’m not going to start using you like some sex toy. That’s disgusting."
Alina tilted her head to mimic curiosity. "Humans have long used mechanical devices for sexual gratification, haven’t they? The technician Scott used me for sexual pleasure approximately nine times, according to my databank. Mr. Crowther kissed me. Mrs. Labonte would shower with me and bring herself to—"
"Stop talking!" Coren said. "People shouldn’t be doing things with a pregnant robot."
"But it made them happy. Isn’t happiness a priority?"
"No. Not with everything. It doesn’t mean people have the right to just do anything they want to you."
"Humans often used machines to make them happy," Alina said. "Do you find me unattractive? I was told that I was beautiful."
Coren’s cheeks flushed even deeper. "Yes, you’re pretty. It’s not that."
A shout from somewhere down the road interrupted their conversation. Two figures in bulky gray parkas were coming their way. As they drew nearer, Alina saw that they were both six feet tall, wore cross-country skis, and had rifles slung on their backs. One raised his hand. "Hey there!"
Coren said, "Let me handle them," and put on a blank expression. Alina mimicked it.
The strangers stopped several feet away. They were both bearded men, Caucasian, perhaps in their mid-thirties. Larger than Coren. Stronger, too. Their clothes were dirty, but in the past someone had patched the elbows of their coats. They smelled like people who had not had the luxury of a bath or shower in a long time. Coren smelled the same way.
"I’m Gordon and this is Lewis," said the one who had hailed them. He was slightly shorter than his friend, with darker hair, not smiling, but friendly enough. "You ladies passing through?"
Alina wondered what they saw in Coren to address her as female. Lewis remained silent, but his gaze swept from Alina’s face to her boots and back up again in a way that remind her of Scott the technician.
"Passing through to meet up with some family," Coren said, per gaze frank and voice flat. "How’s the road?"
Gordon replied, "Passable. But the barometer back in town’s dropping. Won’t be safe to be sleeping outdoors tonight, not with a storm on the way."
"We’re prepared for rough weather," Coren said.
"Sure you are. But we’ve got twenty men, thirty women, bunch of kids, some extra space to bed down," Gordon replied. "Bunch of folk trying to get by. Trust me, no one’s after your virtue."
"I’m sure that’s true," Coren said. "Thanks, anyway."
Lewis was still eyeing Alina. She considered the possibility that the town had food supplies that would benefit Con Leche, or that they might have communication equipment that would reach Dan and Mark. She knew that evaluating honesty was a gap in her programming; how humans judged deceit was a mystery to her.
"Is your town far?" Alina asked.
Coren’s shoulders tensed. Gordon turned his gaze toward Alina, eyebrows lifting a little. "About a mile. We don’t have much, but we share."
"Share or barter?" Alina asked. "Give freely, or take something in return?"
"Doesn’t matter," Coren said firmly. "We’re fine on our own."
"Not unless you plan to turn into a popsicle," Lewis said, his voice rougher than the other man’s. He stopped looking at Alina and instead stomped his boots in the snow. "Last storm killed a man and his woman heading south. We found their bodies in their tent, frozen together."
Coren shook per head. "We’ve got supplies. Thanks again for the offer."
Per tugged the sled back into motion and started off. Gordon caught Alina’s arm and said, frowning, "Don’t be foolish. You’ll die out here, just because your friend is stubborn." He seemed sincere, but his presumptions were wrong.
"I won’t die," she said. "Please release my arm."
"Idiot women," he muttered, and let her go.
As she walked after Coren she listened for any sounds that the men were following. That was a lesson that Professor Sauter had impressed upon her. As the physically weaker sex, women had to always be prepared that a stranger could be a threat, and that even familiar men could suddenly turn violent. But no footsteps followed them, no hands grabbed out. When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw that Gordon and Lewis had continued up the road.
"Why didn’t you trust them?" Alina said when she caught up to Coren.
Coren snorted. "Never trust anyone. Their ‘town’ might turn out to be nothing more than a shack, and we’d be dead or worse by sundown. They might keep you around, all pretty and indestructible, but me? Slit my throat, if I’m lucky."
By early afternoon, however, it was clear that the men had not lied about the weather. The temperature dropped fast as the promised storm rolled in. Coren stopped their hike early. They had just finished setting up the tent when the first fat flakes of snow started spitting down. Dinner was hurried, more tinned meat and hard biscuits, and when Coren crawled into the tent per said, "You better get in here with me. Don’t want the wind blowing you away."
Once inside, the only practical thing to do was for Alina to crawl into a nest of blankets with per. They both kept their coats and boots on, and Coren used a thermal blanket to make a protective peak over their faces. It was still daylight, though the light had dimmed with the steadily increasing snow. The temperature dropped rapidly, like invisible ice water flooding over them. Alina felt Coren shiver.
"Are you okay?" Coren asked.
"My womb is keeping Con Leche comfortably warm. How are you?"
Coren’s gaze went beyond Alina’s shoulder to the wall of the tent. "You could have gone with those men. I couldn’t have stopped you. Maybe they did mean well, maybe you could have more food for the baby."
"I know. But you are taking me to Dan and Mark, and that is an important priority."
"I’m not—" Coren didn’t finish the sentence. Per shivered again. "It’s like ice in here."
Alina studied per thin eyebrows and pointed chin. In all the days they’d been hiking, Coren had not needed to shave per chin or lip line. Alina said, "They inferred you were female. You didn’t correct them."
"Doesn’t matter what I am," Coren said.
Clumps of snow began to weigh down the roof of the tent. Alina took it upon herself to periodically thump it free. She was careful to not nudge the blankets and let the below-freezing air into Coren’s cocoon. The wind started howling, a long ceaseless wail, and Coren broke open one of their remaining chemical packs. The heat didn’t last long. As full darkness came on, Alina calculated the outside temperature and Coren’s chances of survival given the resources they had. The odds were not in per favor.