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The symposium had been quite well-attended; the reception afterward just as much. Kendrix scanned the crowd, eyes finally settling on an unmistakable flash of red hair. She cut across the room toward it, catching the other woman’s attention with a wave of her hand and a shout of her name when she got close.
“Kendrix!” Hayley’s face lit up with recognition and she greeted her old friend with an enthusiastic hug, “I’m so glad you could make it. What say we go surprise the guest of honor?”
“Best idea I’ve heard all night,” Kendrix replied with a grin.
Said guest was easy enough to find, and they managed to catch her in between rounds of schmoozing with other guests. Kendrix snuck up on her from behind.
“Congratulations, Doctor Fairweather!”
Angela spun on her heel, expression registering first shock and then delight when she saw them both, “Hayley! And Kendrix? I thought you were still on Mirinoi!”
“I usually am,” she replied, “I also happen to know a few people who own spaceships and owe me favors. No way was I going to let a few light years keep me from seeing your big moment.”
“Don’t tell me you came all the way back to Earth just to watch me lecture at a cybernetics conference.”
“I could tell you that,” Kendrix said with a smirk, “But you know I’ve never been a terribly good liar.”
Hayley reached out to squeeze Angela’s shoulder and added, “Don’t be so modest. This is a really big deal! Your designs are fantastic. And what’s the point of having old friends if they’re not around to shower you with well-earned congratulations?”
Still blushing slightly, Angela couldn’t help but relent to Hayley’s logic, “People have been congratulating me all day, but I suppose I could suffer through a few more.”
“You deserve them,” Kendrix said, “Actually, as much as I hate to turn this into a business trip, I’d love to consult with you about some potential systems modifications for the colony.”
“You may have to get in line, Kendrix. I overheard the SPD reps talking about getting her to consult with their tech team about upgrading their service robots.”
“You’re kidding. SPD wants to hire me?”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Kendrix reasoned, “It’s not every day those guys can come to Earth and find a top cyberneticist who also has experience with Ranger tech.”
“True, but most of the work I did for Lightspeed is still considered classified…Hayley. What did you do?”
Hayley replied with a little smile and an innocent shrug, “Call it networking?”
Kendrix laughed, “I guess some things never change.”
“I guess not,” Angela agreed, “Even though it’s been…wow, at least ten years since all three of us have been face-to-face?”
“Don’t say it that way,” Hayley chided, “You’re going to make me feel old.”
“She’s right, though. I think the last time we were all together was right after Angela got hired by Lightspeed and I got selected for Terra Venture.”
“Oh god, do you remember that night when we were helping her move out of her apartment – “ Hayley started.
“ – And the wall!" Kendrix finished, laughing. "I thought for sure I was going to get thrown in jail, and then they’d never let me go into space!”
“Hey!” Angela interjected, “You two swore we were never going to speak of that again!”
“It’s been ten years,” Hayley said, eyes bright with mischief, “What’s the harm in a little reminiscing?”
***
Angela Fairweather took a look around her now mostly bare apartment. She’d been living there ever since she started grad school, and it was hard to believe that in just two days she’d be leaving it forever. Tomorrow, the university would present her with her degree, and the day after, she’d be moving her belongings into a government base so top-secret that her new boss hadn’t even given her an address yet. It still bothered her a little, to be leaving with just a master’s instead of a Ph.D., but opportunities like Lightspeed didn’t come along every day and she wasn’t about to miss her chance.
Kendrix and Hayley were still boxing things up in the bedroom. They had volunteered to help Angela move – or perhaps more accurately, Angela had bribed them with pizza and wine. There were empty bottles and takeout boxes strewn about the otherwise neat kitchen, and as Angela attempted to rectify the situation, she was starting to suspect that someone had accidentally packed her supply of trash bags.
Her search was interrupted when she heard a commotion in the bedroom and went to investigate. She found both her friends rummaging in a large box with great interest.
“What in the world are you doing?” she asked.
“Well, considering that this is your apartment, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but we just found a robot in your closet.”
Angela frowned and approached for a closer look.
Inside the box was the dusty shell of a mechanical quadruped, roughly the size and shape of a bobcat. She smiled at it fondly, “I had forgotten I still had this. It was a prototype I came up with my sophomore year of undergrad. Never did get it working quite right.”
“It seems like it’s in pretty good shape to me,” Kendrix mused, “Maybe it only needs a couple adjustments.”
Angela had her misgivings about the whole thing. But with a few power tools and another bottle of wine involved, one thing led to another. By around three in the morning, the three of them had what looked to be a functional robot. All that remained to do was test the thing.
Perhaps testing it in the living room was not the smartest idea they had ever had.
As soon as the robot was activated, its engine started making an unholy whine. The thrusters activated themselves and it took off on something between a run and a flight, headlong into the living room wall.
When the dust cleared, there was a window in the apartment that had not been there before, and the robot had vanished into the night.
“That…wasn’t supposed to happen,” Kendrix said.
“We should maybe go out and find it before it breaks anything else,” Hayley suggested.
Angela said nothing, staring at the gaping hole in the wall, the stray bits of pulverized brick and sheetrock on the floor, in stunned silence.
***
“…And the two of you made me help you chase the darned thing all over town until dawn,” Angela scolded, “I was exhausted. I slept through half of my own graduation ceremony!”
“It was your robot,” Hayley reminded her.
“But it was certainly not my idea to rebuild it in the middle of the night and switch it on without proper testing!”
“No, but you didn’t stop us, either.”
“I still can’t believe we didn’t get caught," Kendrix said. “I still can’t believe your landlord bought that nonsense about what happened to the wall. What was it you told him, again?”
“Meteor strike.”
All three of them burst out laughing.
Angela sighed, recovering her composure. “Those were good times,” she admitted.
“They were,” Hayley agreed.
Kendrix looked thoughtful for a moment, “You know, maybe we could make some modifications to that prototype you brought to the conference. For old time’s sake.”
Some of the other guests turned toward them in curiosity as Angela and Hayley shouted out in unison “NO!”