"I guess that's why they answered you so quickly," I replied with a sigh. I mean, what company would leave the leader of the free world waiting for a reply?
"I also used his account to pay for it," said Jun Li and I am sorry to say, it took me a second to realize that he was being serious. Shaking my head, I realized that it was a good thing that we weren't going to be here for long.
"All right," I answered nodding my head. As far as I was concerned this was not my problem. "But you are having them build it exactly to your specifications?"
"Yes, they said it wasn't going to be a problem at all," boasted Jun Li. "But they also said that it would take about a week to be finished and ready for delivery."
Honestly, I had no idea if a week was a long time or a short time to be able to build a human robot. Hell, a lot has changed in the 6 years since I was last here. It could take them a matter of hours to create a fully functioning human body for an A.I.
"You did get them to make it look human, right?" I sighed as I left the library and went to the command bridge. I needed to look up more than a few things for myself online, plus grab groceries and other supplies.
"You'll see the finished product after I have downloaded a part of myself into it. I am actually excited. At least, I think I am excited."
"You probably are," I mused with a smile. I mean, as far as I was concerned, he was a living being without the whole living part. But anyone with the ability to process 10,000 things at one time would also want the freedom of being able to be in multiple locations at once and interact with other species without the fear of being killed as a result.
"I hope you will like it," he said shyly.
"I think that the only person who needs to like it is you," I said as I looked at the camera in the control bridge. I was almost nailing getting to and from different places on two levels now. "On a completely different note; how did you guys manage to abduct me in the first place?" I asked.
I mean, if I didn't have to go out and get my own groceries, toiletries, furniture, rugs, bedding, blankets, or any of that other stuff, then all that much better.
"The Sisalik have the ability to cloak themselves and become invisible. It was another thing that they took from the Saalistaja," admitted Jun Li. I blinked a few times at his response.
"So, you mean to tell me that I can become invisible, go down to Earth, and just take whatever it is that I want?" I asked, just to make sure that we were both on the same page.
"Yes," he replied quickly. "I am sure that your armor has the exact same capabilities," he continued causing me to let out a frustrated breath. I was this close to dripping a liter of my blood onto the stupid collar just to make this thing work for me. But when it did… oh it would be so sweet!
"So what do I do if I can't get that function working on my armor?" I asked. "It's not like whatever suits that the lizards were using would fit me."
"May I suggest getting delivery then?" replied Jun Li with more than a hint of sarcasm in his tone. I was going to be happy once he got a body and I could slap him upside the head when he took that tone with me again.
"And where should I have it delivered to? Space? How about the Country M Space Station?" I responded with more than a little sarcasm of my own.
"You guys have space stations? Is the shopping good there? Should I have my body delivered there too?" asked Jun Li clearly not understanding things.
"Our space stations are nothing along the same lines as your space stations, I imagine. For us they are used more for gathering information on our planet and taking pictures," I replied not sure if I was really understanding what we used the space station for anyways. Studying the bones of people who have been murdered or died was a long way away from caring about astronauts or space stations.
Then again, if I knew I was going to be abducted by aliens, maybe I would have prepared more.
"That's true. The barrier that keeps most of the sentient species off of your planet is still firmly intact. There is a hole in it that allows for entrance and exits, but that one is heavily monitored."
Taking a deep breath, I went to go sit in the oversized captain's chair as I tried to process what he was saying. "What barrier?" I asked as I rubbed my forehead. This had nothing to do with getting supplies and yet, it was the most important thing on my mind right now.
"The barrier, you know… the barrier between your world and the universe," said Jun Li more than a little confused. And I can't blame him. I was more than a little confused.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," I rebutted as I closed my eyes and leaned back against the back of the chair.
"Give me a second," replied Jun Li, and less than a minute later he came back. "You guys call it the Ozone layer. Ooh, and it looks like you are creating more unsupervised holes in it. You know, if you keep doing things like that you will have nothing keeping the 'aliens' off of your planet."
Once again, I was left feeling incredibly dumb. "You are telling me that the thing we call the Ozone layer is actually an alien built… barrier… to keep the inhabitant of Earth… safe?"
"Yeah, I mean, didn't you think it was weird that there were only 11 of your kind taken from your planet? I mean, there were probably more, but the others were smart enough to put the lesser species back where they found them."
"Lesser species?" I screeched. "Did you seriously call humans lesser species?!?"