It would not be inconceivable to think that being one of only five humanoids in an entire galaxy would ensure a person with a certain amount of time to themselves. Of course, the unexplored territory could reverse that particular statistic, if other humanoids were to be found, somewhere out there. Astrid couldn't care less, one way or the other. But she did feel that every time a moment came when her inspiration had sparked, her progress had momentum, there was some irritating factor nagging at her from which it seemed impossible to escape. One of the main reasons Astrid had taken the posting on the forsaken voyage was because she wanted to be left alone. Because she didn't desire interaction with other humanoids. Because being within reach of only a few, despite whatever imagery was being piped back to their home galaxy, was far more preferable than suffering amongst masses.
And yet, here was yet another notification bubble floating around her periphery. This one contained a live, holographic feed from just outside her lab, the view of which was dominated by a human male, one Jason Itztli. Astrid resisted the temptation to roll her eyes. She swished the bubble away once or twice, she did not keep track, doing the action almost unconsciously. It wasn't until A.L.I.C.E. came into view beside the bubble that the woman took notice.
"Jason Itztli wishes to gain entrance to the engineering compartments," the V.I. plainly stated.
Astrid smiled and titled her head to look upon her creation. The programmer designed not only many of the key functionalities but also the visual representation of the V.I. interface. The program more or less ran the ship, with input, updates, and grand decision making being the only real purpose of the ship's crew. As for the interface itself, Astrid had modeled the image after her own self-image. Though the two were not exactly similar, due mostly to Astrid's slight disposition against what she saw as a fault in her beauty, A.L.I.C.E. and Astrid did share many similarities, despite Astrid's being physical and A.L.I.C.E.'s being holographic.
"Did he send you to tell me that?" Astrid lilted. In some ways, it felt like speaking to a little sister, one that would never argue, be disagreeable, or jealous, or any other number of completely irrational emotions.
"No," the interface gave a plain response.
Astrid raised an eyebrow when no further explanation was offered by the interface.
"I was obliged to notify you due to Jason being ordered here by the captain."
"Aahhh," Astrid purred. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jason working at his datapad to try and hack the door open. "What would you wager his chances of success at breaking my encryptions?"
A.L.I.C.E. hardly skipped a beat in its calculation. "At his current pace and strategy: 10.3 % in 9 minutes, 31.1% in 24 minutes, 46.5% in 37 minutes, 67.7% in 41 minutes and after that the encryption keys will recycle and he will have to start from scratch again."
"Hmmmm, let's see just how much you can do, Jason." Astrid said, quite softly.
Why she insisted on keeping the door locked was beyond him. She could've been sleeping, he mused peevishly while he checked the time and continued working his way in. About twenty minutes ago he'd begun putting serious efforts into the hacking of the door instead of continuing his lackadaisical button-mashing approach. He suspected she was playing hard to get quite literally. Probably teasing him and having a good laugh about this right now behind this metallic door. He dropped his hands, his data pad in one hand by his side and he leaned forward towards the camera. He knew the angle would make him seem a bit... impressive, so as suave as he could he angled so she'd see his jaw and eyes, but not up his nose and gave her his best beseeching, simmering look.
He dropped his voice an octave, "C'mon, babe, won't you just let me in? The encryption keys are about to reset and I'd much rather maximize time spent with you rather than without." When the door suddenly opened he thought he'd scored and was quick to slip through before she changed her mind. However, he saw one of her trademarked bots roll just a little ahead of him. Quick-footed, he caught himself before he tripped over the little bugger. Leaning over, he took the drink from it, "I'll take it from here, champ. Rest your little appendages."
Then he stepped around the corner and into Astrid's workspace. "Good afternoon, sweetcheeks," he called out cheerfully. He held out the beverage container to her, waiting for her confirmation that she had a grip on it before letting it go. Rather than heading directly to the engineering spaces, he decided to linger to chit-chat with her.
"Hello there," Astrid responded to with the slightest grin on her face. She looked down at the little robot that had incidentally opened the door for the man. She would have to write a new subroutine into the programming for her companions to prevent such accidental entrances for future circumstances. The cute little thing hopped up and down behind Jason with two clasps outstretched, as if pleading for the drink back to finish its assigned task. Astrid delicately removed the drink from Jason's offering hand and then bent over to pet her metallic creation. Astrid gave the robot a big smile, her eyes squinting in the process and said, "Thank you," with a little giggle added for good measure. The robot whistled a few disapproving tones in Jason's direction but several "I'm happy you're happy" tones back to the woman. It scuttled off to some other odd place in engineering, out of sight.
"I'm sure you must've missed me so while you've been cloistered up in your office," he said, convinced. Astrid was their resident bombshell and certainly someone he wanted to spend more time around if she didn't always seem to be too busy for him. He made a mental note to make more effort to stop by.
She stood slowly back upright. Had she been wearing something more revealing, Jason would most certainly have had a clear view down her shirt. Unfortunately for him, she was wearing a rusty red colored, almost form fitting, turtleneck under her white lab coat. But Astrid was sure he would look anyway. She relaxed her big grin from the one she had given her cute pet back to the slight grin she had worn when greeting him. [/b]"Of course, dear,"[/b] she said, taking one very slow step in his direction, crossing one leg in front of the other without separating her thighs, feeling out where general space ended and his personal space began. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" she asked in sultry tones, though A.L.I.C.E. had already given her the answer before he managed to enter.
***With a guest writing appearance by the incomparable Kessa***