Chapter Nine: Restless Nights — Part 1

Due to stress and insomnia, Orchid slept a good part of the next day. She spent most of the night pacing and considering, as always, what had just happened to have Bamboo and herself stuck with such important matters on a planet as backwards as Earth. She had been outmaneuvered, she was certain, by some deeply twisted ploy. Amber was at the center of it. After collapsing into a dreamless sleep, Orchid felt the sun on her face, its gentle warmth unlike any she had ever experienced before. It reminded her of a time when she had woken up to a lover’s breath on her cheek. Waking quickly, feeling almost as if she hadn’t slept at all, Orchid considered her options for the day. As the early afternoon approached, it became apparent that Nikkei would need more time to recover, and so Orchid first roamed the manor, getting familiar with its lay out. Once this bored her, she decided on doing some travel. Her plans, however, were promptly interrupted even before she could put her bender suit on.

“Miss Bizaar.” Yap began, looking in on her as she dressed, “Repairs have been made to the manor from the previous disagreement with Master Yoshi, and Nikkei is recovered and drinking mulled wine in the study. Master Bamboo and Jun are in the gardens with her father, discussing matters lacking importance, and my previous Mistress has requested that you have lunch with her. Nikkei has prepared a briefing, when you are ready to hear it, on how best to deal with this visitor.”

Orchid sat up, cracking her neck, and put on a robe. Spunky, a little menace forever at her side, rose off the tabletop and hovered, more or less, by Orchid’s shoulder. Yap, smiling carefully, led her to the study, where Nikkei, her bobbed hair done up in a towel, sipped on hot wine, reading a comic book of Japanese origin that detailed the interactions of scantily clad men and women with martial arts abilities and odd sexual fascinations. Nikkei set the comic down, finished her wine in one scandalous swallow, her eyes brightening at the sight of Orchid. Orchid realized for the first time that though Nikkei had little or no body hair, she was also lacking in physical endowment. The poor girl had the chest of an athletic twelve-year-old girl, not what one would normally associate with a woman so otherwise beautiful and mature. Orchid sat down across from Nikkei in a plush chair. Nikkei looked over her reading glasses, purple lenses trapped in silver metal frames, small ellipses cut in half so she could see over the top of the lenses without having to focus through their magnification.

“There is a talent among my family line that Amber sought out, a specific kind of Sight that looks backward and not forward, but only along the consciousness of one individual. Are you familiar with the different traits of Sight?”

“Touch telepathy is rare, and from what I hear, burdensome.” Orchid said.

“Yes, but I am gaining some control over it.” Nikkei admitted. “For instance, I can transmit without receiving now, and I know how to see behind the denials of the person whom I have touched.” She paused, taking off a glove. “The gloves don’t always keep me from getting my glimpses, but they help. Ten years ago, when Yap first came to us, her master came for her some months after the fact, demanding from Amber payment for the android’s services. I inadvertently took Elec’s hand and was overwhelmed with the history of the woman. When I came to, three days later, Yap sat at my side. She has been at my side ever since.”

“I will stay at her side forever.” Yap said affectionately.

Before Orchid could question the complications of such a relationship, Nikkei continued. “As you are about to meet with Elec, I would like to share with you what I discovered, so you can understand the history behind Elec and Yap, and perhaps find a solution amicable for all affected parties.”

Nikkei and Orchid gingerly put their fingertips toward each other until they touched over the table. What had at first seemed to be a wall between them shattered and a wave of thought violently flooded Orchid’s mind. Yap gingerly put her hand over Nikkei and Orchids, holding them together, smiling all the while, looking at neither of them, but focused intently on the sensations of three hands touching. Orchid, though her eyes were opened, though she stared straight into Nikkei’s beautiful golden brown eyes, saw and felt nothing. The wave of experience completely overwhelmed her.

There was considerably more depth to Orchid’s experience than a normal single conscious perspective could provide. There were details that had been filled in, apparently by Nikkei’s skill and Yap’s second-hand information, the entirety of which seemed to grow dark or light in places based not just on the emotion of the experience, but on the lack of direct personal experience. It was as if Orchid were in a dream, not watching herself, but not unaware of her separation from the perspective of her dream, either. The story and all its experiences slipped through her mind, leaving her forever conscious of the overlapping sensory details.