I'm excited to bring the first excerpt of Kicking Ashe, the last book in Project Enterprise/Garradian Universe series (at least for now!). When we left Ashe as the end of Steamrolled, she'd landed somewhere and somewhen. In this excerpt, she learns about the challenges of first contact--in the past:
“How thoughtful.” Ashe produced the fake smile, saw this scientist note it. She took the packet, turning it to study its contents, too weary to wholly conceal that it puzzled her.
“Fresh soap, shampoo, a hair comb, and of course, a toothbrush and toothpaste.”
“Right.” Lurch had to explain everything but the comb. Ashe blinked, then smiled politely. “How quaint. And kind,” she hastened to add, before Lurch could chide her. “Very kind. Really…kind.”
“Quaint?” Calendria’s scientist look went turbo. “How do you brush your teeth?”
Ashe blinked. The swing between high and no-tech was a bit much. “They are self cleaning.”
“And is your hair self combing?”
“No, but I usually use my fingers,” she admitted, fluttering the free hand’s worth of them as a sort of demo. An Earth hair stylist who specialized in vintage hair design had showed her the technique, since carrying a purse was not an option for a time tracker. And even when she could, weapons were always a higher priority than hair combs.
Calendria’s attention, not unnaturally, shifted to Ashe’s hair. Since she had headgear hair, Ashe was unsurprised when Calendria reflected Ashe’s mock-neutral tone back at her with an, “Interesting.”
If Calendria had more questions, she kept them to herself. “Shower, washing basin, and commode are through there. You’ll find towels on a shelf. There are robes in the changing areas. Dirty towels and robes are stowed in the laundry basket there when you finish.”
Ashe studied this laundry basket with some interest. It seemed very small to be a laundry unit for so extensive an encampment. “Interesting. May I examine?”
Calendria blinked. Twice. “Of course.”
Ashe approached it and waited.
“You lift the lid,” Calendria said, her tone hitting somewhere between amazed and dry.
“Oh.” Ashe lifted the lid and found it about half filled with discarded attire. “How do you trigger the mechanism?” When Calendria did not respond right away, Ashe looked at her. Found her blinking again.
“One of my staff removes the clothes to the laundry when it gets full.”
Ashe decided to return the blinking favor. And it gave her time to think of a not rude response. She hoped. “Oh.”
You should have thought a bit longer.
I didn’t call it quaint.
It was implied.
She began to understand the challenges of first contact. In some ways, it was much harder than Time repair. After another pause, Ashe produced a smile she worked to erase incredulity from, not easy at her current level of depletion. She lowered the lid on the primitive device. “I will be sure to deposit my used bath items in this useful place when I am finished.” Better?
He didn’t say meh, but it was also implied. Lurch was so pissy sometimes.
© 2012 Pauline Baird Jones All rights reserved.