Unleashed by the Defender (Brides of the Kindred #25) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,45
She didn’t put in anything about the two assassination attempts because she felt that now that she and J’are were in a public place, they were safe.
She didn’t want Commander Sylvan to worry and think he had to send in some kind of extraction squad, which she knew would complicate the Kindred’s political relations with Yonnie Six. So she only said there had been some “complications” and that she hoped she would be finished and ready to leave Yonnie Six very soon.
“How long do we have until our court time?” J’are asked, as she finished sending the message and put away her tablet.
“Um…” Imani looked at her watch. “Plenty of time still—four and a half hours before we have to be there.” She looked around the restaurant. “I don’t really want to sit here for that long but I think it’s better to stay in a public place so I guess we’re stuck.”
“But we’re not stuck in the restaurant,” J’are objected. “Why don’t we go swimming?”
“Swimming?” Imani asked. “In the, uh, the anti-grav pool thing you were talking about?”
“Of course. Haven’t you ever been in an anti-grav pool before?” J’are asked, raising an eyebrow.
Imani shook her head.
“Nope. All our pools on Earth most definitely have gravity—that’s what keeps the water in the pool. Why—is it hard to swim in a pool with no gravity?”
“It’s fun.” J’are’s eyes glowed with excitement. “I haven’t been since I was a young one. Do you want to try it?”
“Well sure—why not?” Imani smiled. It had been a long time since she’d been swimming herself. “Oh, but I don’t have a bathing suit,” she added, frowning. “And neither do you.”
“That’s all right—we can buy them in the changing room. They have a bot that specializes in fittings.”
Imani wasn’t sure about that, but the swimming did sound fun.
“All right,” she said. “Let’s try it.”
“Okay then—come on.” J’are grinned. “I think you’re really going to like it.”
Twenty-Four
They rented a locker and two changing rooms—which turned out to be wooden booths in a long row of identical stalls. But of course, before they could use the stalls, they had to have something to change into.
“This is the suit bot,” J’are said, taking Imani to the front of the locker area where a silvery droid sat. It appeared to consist of three parts—a round, bulbous head, two long, skinny silver arms, and a squat rectangular box, all sitting on a wide counter and connected by long wires.
“Um…how does it work?” Imani eyed the droid uncertainly. The bulbous head had glaring red eyes which made it look kind of scary in her opinion.
“You just let it scan you and then it prints out the perfect sized suit,” J’are told her. “Watch—I’ll go first.”
He stepped directly in front of the bot and said, “Scan,” in an authoritative voice.
The round red eyes lit up at once, shooting out twin beams of red light which scanned J’are completely, starting at the top of his head and ending at his feet.
“Male, extra, extra, extra large,” the bot said in a mechanical voice. “Working.”
The rectangular box sitting beside it began to chug and after a moment, it spat out a white piece of cloth. Before the cloth could fall to the ground, the skinny arms with their skeletal silver hands caught it in long fingers and presented it to J’are.
“Please enjoy your anti-grav bathing attire,” the bot said. “And please do not forget to wear a mask for your safety.”
“A mask?” Imani frowned. “What’s that all about?”
“It’s just a device you put on so you can swim safely in the anti-grav environment,” J’are explained. “Once you’re in the middle of the pool and entirely surrounded by liquid, you couldn’t breathe without one—because of course you’ll die if you inhale too much water. So it would be really foolish not to wear one.”
“That makes sense.” Imani nodded. “Where do we get the masks?”
“They have them as you’re entering the pool,” J’are told her. “But first we have to get you some bathing attire.” He smiled at her. “Your turn.”
“Okay, I got it.”
Heart thumping, Imani stood directly in front of the suit bot, just as J’are had done and said, “Scan,” loudly.
The twin beams of light shot out of the bot’s red eyes. Imani halfway expected to be incinerated, they looked so much like evil laser beams from a scifi movie. But she didn’t feel a thing as the red light passed harmlessly over her, scanning her from top to bottom just as it had scanned J’are.