Naomi gave an understanding look and said, “That’s why she has trouble speaking.”
“Her home is the Internet. She can only look out from the inside. She’s always in there, searching for herself. Searching for her family. She’s trying to figure out who she is and where she’s going.”
Naomi quietly listened to me talk—perhaps she saw herself in Sunny just as she’d seen herself in me. (Although, Sunny wasn’t old enough to be burdened by any sins save for the original one, so the connection was probably different than with me.)
“She believes she can find the answers inside a machine hooked up to the world. She spends every day inside the net, exploring. For Sunny, this is home.”
“No,” Naomi spoke. “It shouldn’t be like that.”
I was a little taken aback by her seriousness. “What?”
“It’s time you let her go outside.”
My heart seemed to cower within my chest. I hadn’t expected to hear her say the same thing Snake kept telling me. She had cut straight to the core of the situation, but all I could do was pretend not to understand, and say, “What are you talking about?”
“She hasn’t even been born yet. She’s still in the womb. You need to give her a real life.”
Her eyes were grave. I realized I wasn’t going to be able to get away with playing dumb. I turned to face the cargo bay and spread my arms wide. “Sunny’s never shown any interest in leaving Nomad.”
It was the truth. Sure, I knew I was being overprotective. I’d admit it. But more than my denying it to her, Sunny refused to connect herself to the outside world. I didn’t know if it was because of her time in captivity with the Patriots, or if it was because of Snake and me, or both.
“Frankly,” I admitted, “I’m worried about letting her go out there.”
I was the one who was scared. I couldn’t help but worry about her being exposed to all the irrationalities of the world. I’d already lost my sister. I didn’t want to lose anyone else.
But Naomi simply smiled at me, as if to say, Sunny is stronger than you may think. Then she said, “I have a feeling she’ll do just fine.”
“You really think she’ll be okay out there?”
“That’s not what I meant. I think she’s got a good handle on her science.”
And with that, I was thoroughly lost from the conversation. I’d thought we were talking about whether or not I could let Sunny outside, but she suddenly shifted to our earlier talk about the sins of our science. Had we been talking about different things all along? Had we just assumed we’d been holding a conversation, piling one misunderstanding upon another?
I took off my glasses and rubbed the bridge of my nose between my fingertips as I tried to think of what to say next.
“Sorry,” is what I came up with. “Go on.”
“Huh?”
I was lousy at changing the subject. Mentally kicking myself for my continued social ineptitude, I said, “You were about to say something earlier?”
Naomi nodded, but she fell silent. Perhaps she was nonplussed by the sudden shift in the conversation. That was probably why I could never get a woman.
Then she smiled and said, “Would you mind if I helped Sunny with her cooking?”
“Of course I wouldn’t,” I said, but judging from her earlier severe expression and the relative lightness of her question, I doubted that’s what she’d originally intended to ask. (That said, improvement in Sunny’s fried eggs would be a revolutionary bit of culinary news.)
I started to put my glasses back on, only to be stopped by Naomi’s hand.
The sudden sensation of the coolness of her skin startled me.
I’d always heard that women get cold more easily than men … was this what that meant?
Her skin was cool and delicate.
I liked it.
“Leave them off,” she said. “You’re more handsome this way.”
“You think so?”
Naomi’s hand guided mine back to the desktop, where I set down my glasses.
She stared into my eyes, but unlike when we were talking about our sins, this time I found her gaze hard to meet. The look in her eyes held a different meaning now.
Had she kept staring much longer, I truly would have fainted. Mercifully, she looked away from me and over at the military helicopter stored in the bay. “Dr. Emmerich, is it okay if I sleep in there?”
“Oh. Um. Sure.”
Her lips turned into the slightest smirk. “Sorry. I know it’s selfish of me, but I’d like to be alone for a while.”
“Right. I understand. I’ll show you in.”
I led Naomi past the sleeping Snake and Sunny and to the helicopter’s side hatch.
Nomad’s cargo bay was incredibly large, but with the military helicopter stowed away, not much room was left on the sides. I slid open the hatch and moved aside just enough to let Naomi in. As she climbed up onto the waist-high floor, her chest brushed by me. There were only thin layers of clothing between us. An awkward moment.
She got inside the helicopter, thanked me, and said good night. The blockhead I was, instead of some normal reply, I simply said, “Yeah.” I wanted to do better than that, but I couldn’t think of the words. After a moment, I said, “If you get uncomfortable or anything, just let me know. I’ll be out there working.”
“Thank you.”
Now both of us were thinking of what to say.
I spoke first, still unsure of where I was going with it. “And …”
“Yes?”
“Call me Hal. Good night.”
Naomi closed the hatch. I sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day.
The hatch suddenly slid back open. Naomi’s hand reached out and grabbed me by the shoulder. She pulled me toward her, and our eyes were barely an inch apart.
She wrapped her arm around my neck. I climbed in and shut the hatch behind us.