Charade and Radiance both find surveillance boring, and both are able to cope with it anyway for their own reasons. For Charade, it’s training. For Radiance, it’s a chance to talk to her friend, or to think ahead to future conversations.
Alycia thinks of me as a robot first, a girl second. Leo saw me in about equal measure. Nono sees me as a girl - she doesn’t really process the robot part, I think. How does this would-be activist for robot rights view me?
Despite her embarrassing conversational missteps with Alycia earlier, the question isn’t about vanity or emotional interest in a boy. It affects how she’ll interact with him, how she’ll teach him about herself, what she should try to learn about and from him, and much more. If he’s so wrapped up in her identity as a machine, he might fall prey to the same bias he’s worried about in others. But if he doesn’t acknowledge her as knowing herself better than anyone else, he might listen, but he might not learn.
Her thoughts are interrupted by Charade, silently signaling. There’s activity inside the Halcyon Aerospace Museum. Maybe it’s harmless, maybe not.
The pair approach quietly - Charade much more so, Summer notes ruefully to herself. They’ve already left a service door open, with one of Radiance’s butterfly remotes on guard, and now use it. The museum interior is dark, but both girls have technological aids to compensate.
Radiance’s butterfly drones fly on silent wings, sampling and reporting back. There’s activity in the Grand Hall, and they converge. The drones can’t get near enough for a video feed without exposing themselves, and neither girl wants to tip their hand yet. They settle for the darting shadow they see retreating from the main hall.
The pair pursue, and find signs of their quarry. One of the unisex bathroom doors is swinging shut, probably behind someone. “Stay,” hisses Alycia, and sprints noiselessly down the hall, then back and round the other way. “No sign,” she concludes. “They must still be inside.” After a moment, her eyes go to the ceiling, and the ventilation ducts. “Alley-oop.”
Summer plants her feet and laces her fingers together immediately, and Alycia takes advantage of the improvised stepladder to vault the distance and tug the covering panel free. As she shimmies into the vent, the panel falls into Summer’s waiting hands.
Alycia could have easily gotten up there herself, Summer reflects with a smile. Once, she would have insisted on it, to prove herself independent. Now, she’s trusting enough to silently solicit her partner’s help.
A few minutes pass. Summer waits patiently at the door, tensing when the door opens again. But it’s Charade, still in costume. “No sign,” she whispers, still glancing around.
“Invisibility? Teleportation?” Summer guesses. Charade responds to the speculation by pulling a handful of metallic dust from a pouch at her belt, tossing it into the room, and pulsing an electric charge through it as it falls. There’s no yelp of pain from an invisible intruder, and the two girls shrug at each other.
Back at the Grand Hall, the pair look for clues. After a few minutes, Radiance spots an anomaly, and Charade follows up on it by waving her back and getting closer. Someone propped up a maintenance ladder against the wall nearest Comet King’s cruiser. Part of the exhibit has been tampered with. The girls check tensely for explosives or other traps, but find nothing. Charade snaps open a forensics kit and grabs samples, just in case.
With nothing else to go on, the pair decide to leave drones behind and call it a night. Once back at home, Summer turns her phone back on, and spots a series of incoming messages. They’re from the newest number in her contacts list.
Hey
Nobody asked you to disappear and nobody will
That’s right
But, then, so would we all.
