Riordan sat on the bed and thought long and hard. He didn't realize Kyle was there, looking at him, as much as a bot like him could do that. "Stop staring, dude," he groaned once he noticed that Kyle stood in front of him, without moving.
"I wasn't staring, Master Rio."
"You so totally were," he contradicted the bot.
"Maybe a little," Kyle accepted to confirm that. "You're thinking of something that's troubling you. What is it?"
Riordan ran his hands through his hair. "Is it true what Tasha says? Are Xenos scared that one of their boys is falling in love? Not that Xana is doing that. They're stupid even to consider that their cold reptilian souls could feel something like that. Shit, I'm not feeling it, and I'm human."
"You're a very bad liar, Master Rio."
Riordan groaned and fell on the bed. He stretched both his arms and legs in an effort to see if there was a way for him to take out all the surface. Nothing even remotely close. "If even you could tell, I'm in deep shit. No, no, don't even try to picture that."
"I don't."
"You totally were doing that. I know you."
"Maybe a little."
Riordan pondered for a little while. "Do bots work with 'maybe's'? I mean, you used the word twice already."
"There can be situations when probabilities need to be calculated," Kyle explained.
"Can you, like, run a simulation? Based on things you know."
"Yes. What would you like me to simulate?"
Riordan took on deep breath and tried to put his thoughts in order. "Let's say Xana falls in love with me."
"He's already in love with you, Master Rio," Kyle dutifully supplied.
"Stop interrupting. Now, let's assume that all the snakeboys on this planet get scared shitless because they don't understand feels."
"I cannot see how they can get scared shitless."
"You kind of have an obsession with shit, Kyle," Riordan said, a bit annoyed with the interruptions. "Something of your childhood you feel the need to fess up?"
This time, Kyle managed quite a good rendition of an almost-human laugh.
"You're getting good at it," Riordan commended him.
"Thank you, Master Rio. No, what I meant is I don't see how Xenos can get scared, shitless or any other way. They don't normally feel fear. It's what makes them fearless."
"Well, apparently, they cannot feel love, either, until they do. Not that I say that Xana is in love with me. Write that down, so that you don't report some stupid stuff when you need to inform Xana of everything we talked."
"I'll keep this conversation private. I cannot do the same with the one you had with your friend, though, because his bot surely registered it."
"Right. Okay, thank you for keeping this one a secret. Now, let's assume that Xenos are troubled – see, I'm not using the word fear anymore – that there is something happening to one of them and they cannot explain it. What will happen? To Xana, I mean?"
Kyle remained silent for a while. "There is a probability of 67.4% that his political career would end. Rulers of Xeno must display 100% capability of their logical skills. If anything skews this capability in any way, he will be deemed unfit for office."
"Shit. Okay, so snakeboy gets an early retirement. Maybe he'll pick up golf." Much to his surprise, Kyle laughed again. Riordan shook his head. "You're really getting good at this, Kyle. Well, it's not very bad, not that it's good, and I don't see Xana playing golf. However, I suppose that there are other things he can do, even if he's not into politics, seeing how he's pretty smart. Now, there's still a probability of 32.6% that he won't be forced to give up on his counselor position, right?"
"That's not what the 32.6% is about," Kyle informed him.
"No? What is about then?"
"That's the possibility that Master Xana will get terminated."
"What the fuck? Terminated? Like in killed?"
"Yes."
Riordan checked the bot's interface for any chance that Kyle had some weird idea about pulling a joke. "You're not joking, right?" he asked in a whisper.
"No. This is the result of the simulation," Kyle replied in the same even tone. "Xenos evolve by conquering other planets. They don't evolve by experiencing feelings."
"Oh, fuck. Feelings bad, being bloodthirsty conquerors of the universe, good. Just how fucked up is that?"
"On a scale of 1 to 10? Or 1 to 100?"
Riordan waved like he couldn't bother to answer that. "Shit. I need to make sure Xana doesn't get himself in trouble over his schoolboy crush on me."
"How will you do that?" Kyle asked. "You cannot control Master Xana's feelings."
"No shit. Just watch me," Riordan said.
Not even to Kyle could he admit how that thought made him feel. But it was a harsh world in which they lived, and Riordan feared the 32.6% in Kyle's calculations. It wasn't even that big a surprise. If Xana only faced being removed from his position in the council, that was a bummer, but hell, termination?
Kyle's tricorder or whatever the fuck that was started beeping.
"What the hell, Kyle? Stop scanning me," Riordan protested.
"Your heartbeat is too fast. And you're sweating. I'll prepare treatment."
"Don't," Riordan said through his teeth. "I'm not ill."
"You're not."
"No. Just scared shitless. And please, don't check if that's true."
***