Star Lass. Paul Kocourek

When we first arrived from the Teleport, though I had lost most of my ability to interact, I was desperate for your safety, and did manage to throw out sensors to record as much of what was going on as I could. Let me play back something I picked up.

      A man's voice, a pleasant one, said, "Oh, man, is she gorgeous!"

       It would seem you have an admirer. These people are human enough, at least in their appreciation of feminine beauty. He was holding a small electronic device with an optical lens, so I assume it is likely a visual recording device of some kind.

      Lassandra's eyes widened. "I can see him holding it!"

      You can? came the surprised voice of the AI. That is impossible!

      "No, I really can see him! He is an older man, easily old enough to be my father, even older. Tall and still handsome, he has light skin like mine, short gray hair and mustache and small chin beard; he's wearing a white shirt over his chest, and some heavy blue fabric pants over his waist and legs with a brown belt at his waist, and shoes on his feet. The little optical device is a metallic red color."

      Extraordinary! exclaimed the AI. Your Highness, no AI sub-vocal neural field for direct brain communication has ever been able to transmit visual images before, only words. Incredible! If I can impart this visual record to you, then it appears that due to our merger I myself have changed a good deal more than I had thought.

      "Why don't we go find him?" she asked, the weight in her heart a little lighter.

       First, let us do some tests. We don't know the political or scientific environment here. Projectile weapons may not hurt you, but that doesn't mean other weapons and forces won't. If the rulers here take exception to your presence, they may attempt to do you harm. I'd rather know just how resistant to harm you are ahead of such a possibility. I'll also have to work out how to use you as an interface, so that among other things, I can bring back my force shield ability to protect you.

      "Out of curiosity, which part of me is your interface?"

       All of you, your entire body, near as I can determine.

      "Wow," she replied. "All right, those are all good points you've brought up. We could do a little test here," she said, studying the woods all around. "I could slap that tree. If it stings my palm, well, so much for invulnerability."

       That is safe enough. First, let me scan the tree for toxins or other unpleasant surprises… it is safe enough. Quite sturdy, as sound as any tree on Arista.

      She walked to the tree, eying it up and down, its trunk as thick as a large man's chest. It looked like any tree of Arista. She drew her hand back, opened her hand, and slapped her palm hard against the tree's trunk.

      CRACK!

      The tree snapped through, the top-heavy branches and leaves falling with a crash to the ground.

      "Oh, no! What happened?" she wailed, aghast. She had not meant to harm it.

      Scanning… a quarteron force shield is proof against most material effects. On a local scale, it is quite impenetrable and very static, totally immovable. However, your very atomic structure is interlaced and permeated with a quarteron force shield effect, and as you move your body, the otherwise stationary shield effectively moves with you. Since the shield cannot give way, the material object had to. This effectively makes you strong, Highness, with strength of whose upper limits we can only speculate. However, as I said earlier, Roby cautioned, your interlaced structure is not a pure quarteron force shield, and so you may not be as resistant as one. We need to be careful.

      She nodded, absently. "It didn't hurt at all," she said, wonderingly, looking down at her hand.

       May I suggest you don't strike any people? You don't want to smash them like the tree.

      "Please, keep reminding me." She shook her head. "Now that we have gotten around to tests, what happened back there when I fled that projectile weapons barrage? I mean, I… flew… didn't I?" She couldn't believe she was saying that.

       Apparently your link to hyperspace supplies you with the ability to propel yourself through the air. Yes, you flew, and I wouldn't wonder if that ability to fly would also extend to doing so in the vacuum of space. Of course, in that case there are other problems, among them being the problem of breathing.

      "Speaking of tests, what about you, Roby? You said that I am your interface now. Can you explain that further?"

       My interactions with the world now emanate, not as before from the gold Star of Arista on your belt, but apparently from your entire body. This is as new to me as it is for you. However, I think there may be some unexpected advantages to our merger. We already know that humans employ intuition that jumps past logic. When I threw out those scans to monitor the vicinity when we first got here, I not only picked up the readings I did, like that man who employed the optical recorder, but I also instantly absorbed from the various people present this region's main language, something called English, plus several others called Spanish, Polish, German and Chinese spoken by individuals present in that structure. Apparently my neural overlay field has become stronger and reads more deeply. Your humanity somehow, because of our merger, enabled me to get from the people information not directly available via ordinary scans. And because of our merger, if you search your mind, I think you may find you instantly learned those languages as well as I did.

      She rummaged through her mind and found herself astonished. "Wow, that's spooky. Mind-reading?"

      It astonishes my logic circuits. The royal AI paused. I have never been confused before now. I wonder if this is inherited from your humanity also, this ability to feel overwhelmed?

      The Aristan princess' brows rose. "Well, take it easy. Don't overload yourself. We've both gone through a lot today."

      Mothering me, are you? Roby chuckled.

      "I suppose I am!" she laughed, amazed that she could laugh. "Now, can we go find that man?"

       Perhaps we ought to wait until dark? It looks to be evening soon. We ought to keep your presence here a secret. There are too many unknowns.

      "Um, are you forgetting we appeared in the middle of that structure quite publicly, and they tried to blast me, and that man had an optical recording device, and all that? How can my presence be kept a secret?"

       I mean, we should find a way to keep your current whereabouts a secret so these people cannot find you unless you want to be found. Just because some of them employed physical projectile weapons does not mean they do not have powerful energy weapons like our blasters that could perhaps harm you, if not outright incinerate you.

      "Okay, I'll go with that. Waiting for night is fine. You wanted to see the stars anyway to get an idea of our location," she nodded. Then, seeing the broken tree, she added, "Maybe we should move away from here, though. Who knows what the destruction of a tree may mean to them?"

      I agree. Scans detect no humans in that direction. There is a sheltered dip in the land that should shield you from curious eyes.

      She took to her feet and within two steps, lifted from the ground and flew to the dip, marveling at the ease with which she coursed effortlessly through the air. It thrilled her to fly! She arrived at the target location, and then she and her AI began their wait until nightfall, talking and speculating, but realizing there were as yet too few answers.