The lifts, as it turned out, were more helpful than any map: Brianwen spoke her destination, and the little moving rooms took her right to it. Or, anyway, within a few hundred yards from it. Getting to the hotel was simple, though checking in was quite a bit more complex. Getting to her room in the hotel was simple, and with all the luxury there-- she'd really picked well, though the bill would probably be painful-- it was actually difficult to get herself moving again. Getting to the Automaton Emporium was also simple.

However, she really didn't know what to do, once she got there. She'd never bought a friend before, much less bought one that came in a box. Walking in, past the rows of chrome animals on display, with her real animals trailing after her, she felt decidedly silly. Still, there was no harm in asking, right?

The only person at the shop was... not a person. It was a little hovering sphere, brightly copper-colored, with a single blue "eye" in the middle of its head and a pair of four-clawed tentacles, neither of which seemed to be doing anything. As she approached, Brianwen discovered, with some discomfort, she could not sense a mind in it, at all. Was it... some kind of computer? She'd never actually used a computer before, though she'd seen them. This thing didn't really look much like the computers she'd seen, but you never knew....

"Welcome to the Automaton Emporium," a voice said boredly-- sounding, actually, like it was coming from the little copper sphere.

Then she realized how stupid she'd been. All around her were the inactive chrome-colored cyberbots, and among them were things that looked just like the little spheroid. Only not copper. This, then, must be what an activated, custom cyborbot looked like! Apparently, on top of being impossible to sense, lacking an organic mind, they spoke. Well, that would be helpful.

"Um, hello," she said, approaching the counter above which the copper bot floated. "I'd like to order a cyborbot. A custom one."

The bot tilted a little, as if moving a head up and down to let the single "eye" look up and down her body, taking in the plethora of animals already around her. Including Bandit, who Brianwen discretely pulled back from his examination of one of the nearest cyborbot boxes with a foot, before he could get into trouble with it. This, apparently, did not impress the bot. "Got credit?" the it drawled, rotating again to turn its big, blue "eye" on one set of claws, reminding Brianwen strangely of a teen-ager boredly examining her fingernails. The voice, at least, was female-sounding.

Then she remembered the question. And discovered that no, she didn't really have any credit that wasn't already pledged to the hotel... just a couple coins, and probably not enough to pay for a custom bot, if the prices on the regular bots were any indication. Certainly not and still eat. "Er...."

"Got a name?" the bot asked after the pause.

"Brianwen Lykshain. Not that you really would know who I am, I suppose--"

"Somebody in particular send you here?" the bot interrupted, sounding a little curious now. Brianwen wondered briefly if she should be thinking of it as an "it" or as a "she", given the voice sounded female.

"Well, actually, a fellow named Tavarez.... Why?"

The bot zoomed back a little, then floated briskly over to a nearby computer terminal. "Just checking. He left you a gift-custom, as long as it's not too expensive."

"He... did?" Brianwen followed, Bandit meandering after her and Westling chirping from her shoulder. Glorielle was busy staring at the bot, apparently entranced by the shiny colors. That was yet another "pet" Tavarez had provided her with.... 

"Surprised?" the bot asked, sounding sardonic. "You can pick out what you want, over here. Or do you not know what you want, yet?"

"Well, I was sort of hoping to look at some examples... like a catalogue." Brianwen was proud of herself; she actually had used catalogues before, just not for this.

"Sure, we've got one of those in here, too. You've used a computer before, right?"

"Ummm...."

Though it only had one "eye", and was basically just a sphere, Brianwen still got the impression that this bot had just rolled its-- her-- eye in exasperation. Still, she showed her how to use the computer, which was nice of her. It. Her. Whatever.

It was a good thing, Brianwen reflected as she left, having chosen a miniature xenoflit bot and requested a pattern to it like a gray fox, that Marquis hadn't come along. He probably would have tried goring the poor bot for being rude. Brianwen just thought that if she was stuck behind a counter all day, like that, she'd be rude to customers, too. Besides, she hadn't exactly been rude, Marquis just probably would have thought so: he, after all, seemed to think most people were being rude!

With her bot chosen, there was only one official thing left to do: visit this Abstract Destiny, which Tavarez had "suggested" was actually docked to the station rather than part of it, and see just what he had meant by "interesting".

Brianwen's Story

Chapter Four

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