Suddenly, Rommie, Andromeda's avatar, the ship made flesh, stuck in her head. " What's going on? I thought things were a little too quiet in here!" For her to register anything tha resembled human emotion, Harper had to install various sub routines into her programming. One of the side effects, however, was that if the decibel level rose above a certain level, Rommie would assume the stance of an avenging Death Angel. A night at the Disco was generally not a good idea.
Harper was so insensed, that his voice wanted to shatter glass. It didn't improve the situation that he had also sent a monitor crashing into a bulk head.
" Well, I guess we can say that Love in The Afternoon just hit the Wall of Shame," Tyr howled.
" So I leave the juvenile delinquents alone for five minutes, they tear the garage apart," Rommie screamed. At this point, the noise level was so high, that her magnetic rheo fluids stiffened and she was bent in the middle, like a human spinal spasm. The only locomotion that she could manage was the opening prance to the ballet, Copelia. " Harper," she screamed. " Adjust me!"
" He did it! He didi it!," Tyr roared, clutching his sides.
" Oh that's right. The mercenary wants to make me the bad guy. That's rich," said Harper.
" No one's the bad guy," said Rommie, her fluids stiffening her base metals tighter.
" He is!" Trance pointed at Ty
" Tyr thinks it's a hoot, that my ex wants my eyeballs for alimony even if she's in the cast of the Windy Nebula," said Harper.shit
" Oh spare me, " said Tyr, annoyed. " It's a load of over acted Viking shit, passing for monkey porn. "
" I'd ask how the anti biotics are coming, but I have other issues," said Rommie in a helium voice. " Fix me fast. Fix me now. Just fix me!"
" There," said Harper. " All better. Happy Valentine's Day! I need to be off by myself. Tell the Captain that I flound the flux problem, but I need parts." Slump shouldered, Harper left the engineering bay.
" Oh yeah?" Trance screamed after him. " I found the flux problem. Moi! Not you!. " Turning to Rommie," she sneered, "So what did you want, you glad bag full of axel grease and silicon?"
Rommie flashed a viscious smile that chilled for all its oilinessand artificiality. " Sweetie. Moi. AI. That's French for 'I have'. I have intellegence and you don't. Get it?"
Tyr broke his amazed silence. His dread locks stood on end. He cou;dn't fathom why, but he felt he had to get Trance out of Rommie's hair, and quickly. " Trance, why don't you do a space walk and go talk to your penecillan."
" Like Renfield on a fly!" Trance stuck out her tongue." Later meet me out on the starboard and I'll fix you up with some rats, Nietzchie Psycho Man!"
" I handled that badly," said Rommie to the opposite wall.
" If you say so," shrugged Tyr, gingerly trying to bow out of a bad situation. " I may surf cyber space. I'm sure there's a revolution brewing with my name stamped all over it, somewhere."
Rommie was alone. She picked up Harper's tablet. Loktar was chatting with some strange fellow, named Jason. " Hm," Rommie mused. " Why does he seem familiar?"