Still, the outside rust of the vehicle made him feel grimy. No Cyborg liked being near old technology for long; it was the encroaching decay that every machine would one day go through. That one day he’d go through. It was too much like climbing into a cadaver.
Reid knew it was still operating, or else she wouldn’t be here, but he also knew it probably shouldn’t be.
He grabbed her bags with a small protest from her and led Clara back into the facility, through reception, and in the direction opposite his office. They passed several locked doors where he had her scan her fingerprints for future access and entered the currently unused residency section of the building.
“This is your room.” He unlocked her door and held it open. She walked by him again and her nearness made him stiffen.
Reid followed her in, leaving the door open behind him, and placed her bags on the bed. Clara did a three-sixty and looked at the space. He tried seeing it through her eyes.
There was one large white bed, an alcove with a food replicator and some adjoining appliances, one round corner table with three chairs, empty wall panels, an open door to the bathroom, and one large mounted television wall screen. Everything was in shades of cold and colder greys. It was industrial, clean, and as far from comfortable as possible.
She faced him with another unreadable expression. He wanted to know what was in her head.
“What now?” she asked.
“Settle in, get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow you’ll have reconstructive surgery. Don’t eat anything tonight.”
Her eyes widened and she glanced down at her belly.
His need to pry amplified with each passing second.I have to leave.He didn’t want to leave. The part of him that was a shepherd wanted to stay and guard, protect, and bond. His fists clenched at his sides despite his need to close the distance and continue to sniff her.
“So soon?”
“Yes. Do you have any questions before I go? I assume you know how to work the amenities in here?”I need to get out of here.I need to leave. Now. It wasn’t his place.
She briefly looked around the room again. “Can I leave the room?”
“You can go anywhere you want that allows you access. If you have it, the doors will open as you near,” he said, with strained patience. “Some rooms are locked, other living spaces, the laboratories, my office... but you can go outside as far as the first security checkpoint. If you choose to go beyond that point, an alarm will sound, and your contract will be forfeit and you’ll be fined for your time here.”
Clara licked her lips and he watched, wanting to lick them himself.What’s wrong with me?
The need to bond with another being had never been so demanding before. She was dangerous because of it, dangerous to him. Berries continued to spin through his systems; images of strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries were in his head.
“All right...”
Reid turned to leave but before he closed the door behind him, she stopped him again.
“Wait! Where is everyone else?”
“There isn’t anyone else.”
“Why? What happened? I thought there would be so many... I expected a wait list, selection... I thought this entire process was going to be so different than what it has been.”
“Nothing happened.” His hand tightened on the door handle. “We don’t get many applicants here. We don’t need them. CBF stopped advertising years ago and the main facility is now on Gliese.”
“So... I’m alone?” her question came out warily. He couldn’t blame her. He would be concerned if he were alone as well... alone and with a strange man, a Cyborg she disliked, no less.
“We get temporaries here occasionally.” He felt the need to reassure her. “Applicants from Gliese that are transferred here for further testing. It’s the nature of the beast—of science—the equipment installed here, well, can’t be moved without an extreme amount of effort. This facility has become more of a laboratory than anything since the war. Can you imagine trying to transfer the hadron collider into space? Some machines—labs—aren’t meant to move.”
“Oh...”
“Goodnight, Clara.” Reid closed the door and made his escape, filtering out everything about her from his systems: her smell, her mannerisms, even the few interactions they had that had softened him, and buried it all under a mountain of code.
By the time he reached the parking lot he had stripped out of his suit and was surging forward into the vast grounds and setting sun.
What better way to tire out a dog but with a long run in the fading desert heat?
