There was a knock on the door.There was a knock on the door. Startled, I went to answer it. It was my warden. "May I come in?" she asked. "I suppose, don't see why not." She entered and leaned against the wall of the closet. "Are you upset that you're here?" "Upset? No, not really. Why should I be? I'm alive, after all." "That's not funny, Ken. Don't be bitter." "WHY THE HELL NOT? The most precious and personal decision one can make is to take their own life, and when the time in my mind came for me to exercise that right, you take that power away from me and imprison me somewhere on my own homeworld? My warden is a beautiful young women who won't answer any of my questions, impossibly claims to not be a Pendorian, and won't tell me the way home!" "I didn't say I wasn't Pendorian." "You said you were nobody I worked on, and you weren't the child of anybody I worked on. The only way that's possible is if you're Oenone, and you are so out of character with her, you don't even smell like her. You're a human, that's obvious, and you aren't any sort of android I know, your scent is too perfect. You aren't Pendorian." "I am, trust me. Just nobody you ever worked on." "Okay, say that you are, it's a stupid argument. You still won't tell me how to leave." "You could walk." "Oh, great. And how far away are we from the nearest town or village? That distance could be measured in light-minutes!" "Actually, the nearest town or village would involve a considerable swim, walking in either direction. |