“We’ll make it worth your while.” His guest smiled now, with feral completeness. “You can be sure of that, doctor. Cost isn’t a concern for us at this moment.”
Now the doctor smiled, tapping the toes of his space boots together under the desk. “Given that, we’ll find the time and talent, director. You know that’s how that goes.” He lifted his tea cup and the director mimicked the motion, as the station rotation moved them into the light and the windows automatically filtered the glare.
“To success, doctor. For both of us.”
**
A soft knock came on the top of her helmet. NM-Dev-1 put the program on hold and ducked out from under it, blinking a little to bring her eyes back into normal focus. “Hello, proctor.” She said, surprised to see him there.
“Hello, Dev.” The proctor sat down next to her. “How are you?”
Dev quickly arranged herself on the bench, sitting up straight and tucking her boots under her. “Doing well, proctor. I finished the first advanced program, and I’m looking at the second one now.” She answered confidently.
“Great.” The proctor shifted his body a little, and looked at her. “Dev, I came to talk to you because the administrator has asked me to bring you to his office. He wants to speak with you.”
She watched his face, seeing the tension there. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No.” The proctor answered immediately. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Dev. It’s just that some people have come to us, and asked us to do a special job for them and the administrator thinks you can do that job.”
Dev was momentarily silent. “I’m getting assigned?” She asked, with a small intake of breath. “Really?”
The proctor’s brow tensed. “Well.” He shifted again, clearly uncomfortable. “These people.. they want us to give you some special programs, Dev, and then we’ll see if you can do what they want.”
“Oh.” Dev murmured. “Is it hard?”
“It might be.” The proctor admitted. “It’s not like anything you’ve done before. But we’ve tried to give you things that stretch your abilities, and this will be something like that again.” He watched the young bio alt in front of him, seeing the thoughtful look on her face.
He had his doubts. NM-Dev-1, though an experimental prototype that the name indicated, was not a type he would have ever considered for something as radical as this. She was a little below medium height, and slender, with a pleasant, friendly face and sandy colored hair.
Though she’d had the usual physical training, she didn’t look anything like what he supposed an Interforce soldier should look like, and the idea of her in those stark, gray surroundings made him truly rather uncomfortable.
He liked Dev. As much as one could like a bio alt. She was good natured and relatively clever, able to hold a conversation and even come up with an idea or two of her own once in a while. She smiled a lot, and was always eager to learn new things.
He just wondered if she’d enjoy learning what she’d have to in order to fill the order. Would Dev enjoy being set to operate the weapons systems Interforce used? It seemed very wrong for her type.
“Will I go somewhere” Dev asked, unexpectedly. “I mean.. out of the crèche?”
‘Yes. You’ll need to go downside.” The proctor told her. “Are you ready to come talk to the administrator? He’ll tell you more about what you’re going to do.” He stood up. “When he’s done, I’ll take you to the programming center so they can start giving you the programs you’ll need.”
Dev felt a little apprehensive. “Will you tell me what the programs are?”
The proctor put a hand on her shoulder. “I think it’ll be better for you if you just take them, Dev. Not think about it too much before you go.” He released her. “Let’s go now. The administrator is waiting.”
Dev followed along as he turned and started towards the big central grav stack, at this time of the shift filling with techs and minders heading to quarters, and at the outside edges, bio alts assigned to the station making their way to the dorms.
Dev saw familiar faces, and she lifted a hand to wave, getting a timid response as the eyes shifted to the proctor next to her, and the little separation between them and the crowd. She had thought she was going to spend a quiet night in the dorms, after the night meal and maybe have a game of stones with a few of her crechemates before sleep.
Now, who knew where she’d end up sleeping if she did at all.
It had started out such an ordinary day, too. A new set had come into the dorms, and there was lots of showing around to do before gym, and then the daymeal, and after that her studies. She’d almost been done before the proctor had found her.
Now, she really didn’t know what was going to happen. The thought of being assigned made her happy, but the look on the proctor’s face, and the way he’d spoken made her think there was something wrong with this assignment, at least to him.
They left the tube and walked along the outside corridor of the station, the transparent walls giving a full view of the earth orbit they were in. Dev smiled a little at the stars, and let them distract her as she traced their patterns in their endlessly fascinating variations.
It almost made the walk too short. She followed the proctor though as he turned inside a doorway and put his palm to a lock, waiting for the door to slide open then gesturing her inside.
Restricted zone. Dev had never been inside it. She glanced at the silver toned walls as they walked, passing office after office, now darkened for the day. At the very end, in the corner was a taller more impressive door, and that’s where the proctor led her.
They stood inside the entrance. “Gigi, can you tell the administrator we’re here?” The proctor asked the admin behind the desk.
“Sir.” Gigi pressed a button, looking up and exchanging the briefest of nods with Dev.
They had something in common, and in fact, Dev was familiar with Gigi from the crèche. They were both something of an experimental set, though Dev’s programming had started out from the beginning to be advanced while Gigi’s added skills had been a recent development.
They were both different. She had daymeal with Gigi sometimes. The rest of the sets tended to stick together and while no one was unfriendly everyone knew the more skills you were given, the better your chance of getting a really good assignment.
So there was jealousy. Dev had talked to Gigi about it, and they had thought that maybe this was just a little indication of how parts of them were still like the natural born around them because no one was given a jealous program. You just had it.
Just like the natural borns just had it. Dev had told Gigi though, that they shouldn’t talk about it.
Gigi had agreed. She was part of a small set, only six, and Dev.. well, Dev was just one. No sense in upsetting people when you didn’t have a group around you and it wasn’t nice to make a big thing of things you knew or could do that others couldn’t.
The door in front of them opened and she followed the proctor in. The administrator’s office was very large, and it had pretty white and blue carpet and a lot of clear glass ornaments. Dev turned around and stared at it for a moment, amazed by the tall ceilings, and the sense of light and air.
“Well, hello there NM-Dev-1.”
Dev turned, and looked at the administrator. “Hello, sir.” She said. He still had his lab overlay on, and with his curly hair in constant disarray he never seemed that threatening.
Another man was there, a tall, gray man and he was watching her. She looked at him, and saw the crease in his face, and the uniform. He was looking very intently at her and she felt like moving away from him.