“I won’t let anyone use me.”
He shook his head. “You stay in the room, human. I must go now. We’ll finish this later.”
He turned his back to me, and he went. The wall swallowed him up, and then I was all alone in the room, though I could still smell him.
I was still too tired to get up and to do all those little things you had to do in the morning to get ready and start your day, but I wasn’t too tired to wrap the covers around myself like a robe, get up, and scurry over to the door to see if it really wouldn't open for me.
It looked like the doors in the rest of the scion’s quarters, but unlike the others this one did not magically melt open when I got near it. I tried the wall too, right where Thuliak had gone through. It remained perfectly hard and solid. I pressed my palm up to it. It was cold and hard. I pressed harder. Still it gave no hint of opening or even starting to melt.
“Door,” I said, “open.”
Nothing.
“Ship. Open your door.”
I sighed.
“Room. Let me out.”
Nothing worked. So Thuliak really was just going to lock me in here while he went off and worked on “seeding” my planet. The sex was mind-blowing, and I’d give up pretty much everything else if I got to do that every night, but I wasn’t certain I’d keep feeling that way forever. Ideally I’d be able to have great sexandnot be locked in a few rooms alone all day.
Was he being paranoid? Was he the kind of leader who thought he was like Julia Caesar, the woman from Earth whose own sisters stabbed her in the back? Would his paranoia mean that he’d lock me away forever, never bending or budging because of “safety?”
I sighed. I’d talk to him. It would be fine. I was probably the one being paranoid. I drifted in and out of sleep, until finally my hunger got the better of me.
When I stood up, the room started talking to me.
“What would you like to wear?” it asked.
“Why didn’t you talk to me before, when I was trying to get out the door?”
“Thuliak instructed me to leave you alone until you were well rested. From your shrieking and angry pounding, you didn’t seem well rested enough to me, so I didn’t respond.”
I rolled my eyes, but the disembodied voice had no face to roll my eyes at. I’m sure it still saw me do it though.
“Give me normal clothes,” I said.
“Normal for Eden?” it chirped back at me. The voice was male, but it wasn’t male like Thuliak. It sounded more womanly—and then I realized it must be ahumanmale voice. It was chillingly similar to a woman’s voice, but still nowhere near as masculine as Thuliak’s.
“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging, “what are my other options? Is dressing like I’m from Eden going to somehow make me look stupid?”
“I doubt it,” the room said, “because no one will see you, as per Thuliak’s orders.”
I rolled my eyes again. “You know what? Do you have normal Earth clothes?”
“What time period?” It asked, “My most recent Lexikon entry is from 2131.”
“So I can pick any period before that?”
“Yes, Airlock.”
“Can you call me Eve?”
“No,” it said, “Thuliak expressly forbade that.”
I scoffed, but started laughing. “He would.”
“What time period?” It asked.