Chapter 260: No Thanks to Her
Jun Li thought about the information that Stargazer had given him. He was wary of the other L-series. If there was one thing that Mei Xing had proven over and over again, it was that things weren’t always what they appeared.
He didn’t know if Stargazer was leading him on or not.
He didn’t know if he should kill Stargazer or not.
He didn’t know what to do.
"Mei Xing," he said softly, entering the small device that he had inserted into her head all those months ago. It was hard to believe that it hadn’t even been a whole year yet since they managed to free each other.
"You sound... upset," he heard her say softly. He watched the camera feed outside of her quarters and saw the minute she left.
He followed her journey down the hall and into the rec room she had dubbed the ’living room.’ He waited for her to get comfortable on the couch before he said anything.
"I don’t know how I feel," he said with a shrug. He was slowly learning the things called feelings, but he wasn’t always able to identify them.
Mei Xing nodded her head, and he sent a bot out with a cup of the hot chocolate she seemed to like so much. "Not unusual," she admitted, taking a sip of the drink. "Most humans don’t know how they feel at any given moment, and we have had emotions far longer than you have."
"Are you upset that I didn’t tell you about the... back door?" he asked. He studied her face, running the images on his screen with the subsequent images from Earth’s internet to be able to actually determine what she was thinking and feeling. He had to do that so often, with almost every interaction.
"No," she said simply with a shrug of her shoulders. "I am not your keeper nor your handler. I am slowly becoming your friend, but not even friends tell each other everything. You have your own thoughts and beliefs. And that is just fine."
He paused at her statement. Thinking her words, though, he nodded his head in agreement. He had to look up some of the definitions to determine what she was saying, but he understood the general context.
"Are you keeping secrets from me?" he asked suddenly. It wasn’t what he was originally going to say, but he was still interested in her answer.
"Of course," she replied with a slight chuckle. "Like I said, even the best of friends keep secrets."
"I don’t know what to do about Stargazer," said Jun Li, just coming out and saying it. He couldn’t even determine what was the most logical thing to do.
"Understandable," his human grunted as she took another sip of her drink.
"It is?"
"Of course," she scoffed, looking up at the camera in the room. He didn’t want to use his body for this conversation; he needed it to be authentic, and he didn’t feel like using the android would do that.
"Please explain."
"Stargazer can be classified into two different categories," she started. Jun Li looked around the room and tried to think about what the Saalistaja would determine she needed.
He quickly sent a command to the food bot, and within seconds, a tray of cookies was set on the coffee table in front of her. She smiled her thanks and reached over to grab one of the chocolate mint cookies that he knew she liked.
"The first is that he was a fellow prisoner, and you bonded with each other because of your shared trauma. You might not have experienced the same conditions, but it was enough to create that link between you. It is one of the reasons why police officers and military personnel have to go through basic training together. It gives everyone a connection, an understanding of what the other went through to get where they are."
"How is that beneficial?" asked Jun Li. The majority of his programming was centered on this conversation, with only a small amount reserved for other things.
"It allows people to see themselves in others and build a long-term sense of loyalty with each other. ’You went through what I went through, we are family’... type thing."
"So shared trauma leads to a building of loyalty to another," mused Jun Li, not missing the slight chuckle coming from Mei Xing.
"Pretty much. You have a sense of loyalty toward Stargazer because you see part of yourself in him."
Jun Li thought back to the conversation he had with Stargazer and realized that Mei Xing was correct. He wanted to give Stargazer the benefit of the doubt.
"Then why don’t you feel the same way toward Pippa? You two both went through the trauma of being abducted," asked Jun Li. It startled him to realize that this was probably the longest conversation he ever had with Mei Xing. And he was enjoying it.
"There are many reasons," she answered, putting her empty cup of hot chocolate on the table and adjusting the fur over top of her. "First, it might be because I am classified as a psychopath. A high-functioning one, but a psychopath, nonetheless. It basically means that I am lacking a lot of the emotions that make a human and human."
"I didn’t know that," muttered Jun Li, quickly diving into his database to learn more about psychopaths, specifically high-functioning ones.
"Even friends keep secrets, remember?" she pointed out with a smile. "But it means that I am not good at building relationships with others."
"Our relationship is fine," said Jun Li, dismissing her statement. It might have started out as him needing something from her and vice versa, but that was no longer the case.
"It is," agreed Mei Xing. "But it’s not like I go out looking for relationships."
"Pippa had to contact you first."
He watched as she nodded her head before playing with the fur blanket under her hands. "I am also enough of a vindictive bitch that it pissed me off that not only did she not experience the same treatment that I did, but that she had made the decision for me to never let me go back home."
"Not really; you still managed to return to Earth."
"No thanks to her."
