She would love a full, plush chair to sit in and relax. Even a bench would feel wonderful.
She moved closer to him. "I suppose I should thank you for not leaving me in the ocean."
"It is I who should apologize for you. My piloting skills landed us in the water in the first place. Are your feet well?"
She blinked. "My, uh, feet?"
"You have no coverings on your feet. I was concerned about them as we walked."
"A little sore, but better. This floor is much more comfortable than the dirt." She smiled, a practiced grin she used most of the time. She sipped on her tea, hesitant, but was pleasantly surprised at how soothing it felt.
"This is a lovely tea."
He met her gaze, at least, she thought he did. His head turned her way. It gave her a good look at his eyes. They were all white, with a slight variation where she would expect his iris to be. It was both captivating and a little intimidating. Made him seem even more robotic.
"Your smile does not reach your eyes," he said.
Freya froze, holding her cup halfway to her mouth. "Pardon?"
"Humanoids do not always smile with their full face. It means they are hiding something. What do you hide?"
She blinked, unsure what to say to that. Because certainly, she hid things. Who didn't hide something all the time? Part of the life she lived.
"I don't know what you mean."
He blinked slowly, then stared at her with those white eyeballs. "Your voice raised in a way that signals deception."
He truly was a robot, wasn’t he?
Peace was going to be harder than Caoimhe assumed if these robots could detect falsehoods so easily.
Freya put her hand on her hip. "Because I do not smile big enough for you, I'm suddenly a liar? What about you? I know nothing of you. Why should I reveal anything about myself for you to take advantage of?"
"I do not take advantage of anything."
"How do I know that?"
"You do not."
"Exactly. So, understand, I will hold back anything and everything that I don't think is important to get through this situation."
He made a non-committal noise and continued with what he was doing on the panels. One of his arms was plugged in, and his other hand swept in different directions through the data.
She got closer, looking over his shoulder to figure out what he was engrossed in.
The information moved by so quickly, it almost blurred. It looked like manifests of people, but she couldn't be sure. It was too fast for her to process.
She sat her tea down and continued unhooking her hair, and piled her pins on the console. Jerking the pins was more like it.
The boldness of him.
How dare he accuse her of lying?
Because her smile didn’t reach her eyes? What did he know about anything?
He was a dumb, stupid—
“I have offended you.”
