Cat's spirits lifted when she heard that Bentley would be helping her. There was something she liked about it--him. He seemed to her so much more... human. Strangely enough, for someone who thought robots were the result of perverted science, Catherine anticipated seeing Bentley in a very real way. He didn't represent humans. In his way, he was separate from the race of sentients that hated her. He was neutral and it attracted her. She needed affection. She needed warmth and Bentley was human enough to help her.

He would also be the same as time went by, providing a constant in her cryogenic hell. Something to latch on, to anchor her to reality before her situation drove her mad. This first jump in time was unsettling enough, she couldn't imagine what the other two would be like.

Oh God, what had she done? She had dismissed the idea of being out of her time trivially. What a fool she'd been. Twenty years had been like twenty months physically for her. That meant that she was 22, almost 23. While everyone else around her was twenty years older. If she saw Bentley again. He would be the same. His appearance unchanged. She knew she was being shallow, but it was all she had. She was grasping at straws to keep sane.

She heard Bentley enter the room and looking at his smiling face, Catherine felt herself relax. Yes. Bentley could be good for her.

"My savior." Said she.

"Always a pleasure." He replied. He looked at Tiffy and nodded. "Sister."

She nodded back and replied. "Brother."

He offered his arm to Cat and helped her to her wheelchair. He went around, squeezed her shoulder and pushed her out of the room.

"We have a vehicle waiting for us." Tiffy said unnecessarily.

The vehicle turned out to be a limo. The ride to the cliffs was much smoother than her last visit. Bentley drove the big vehicle with competence. Tiffy was silent. One good thing with robots, thought Cat. They don't chatter unnecessarily. She observed the sun as it went down behind the nearby mountains. The blue-purple sky was lined with white vapor trails made by air breathers. The planet was busier than she remembered. The road had also changed. Buildings, fences and lights were everywhere. She barely recognized the road she had traveled with Jab twenty years ago. The small dirt road was a paved two lane affair with light traffic. By now, Catherine had her nose glued to the window. The big car turned smoothly into a big parking lot next to an inn of impressive size built on the cliff next to the sea. The same cliff Jab had dumped her sorry ass in the sea below twenty years ago.

Bentley went out and got her wheelchair out of the trunk. He opened her door and helped her sit in it. He then resumed his job of pushing her with Tiffy leading the way.

"This way brother." Tiffy hurried ahead and told Bentley to wait for her as she went inside to get Jab.

"Miss Tiffy Bossy Pants." Said Bentley under his breath.

Cat heard every syllable with her enhanced hearing. She couldn't help but laugh.

Bentley looked at her surprised. "You heard me?"

"Huh... yeah. Peacekeeper serum. It gives me better hearing. You must be used to it, Jab's got the same abilities you know."

"She doesn't share that kind of information with me. She doesn't gives hints as to her abilities. I wonder why she never said anything. She must have heard me complain about my sister a million times."

"So your sister, she's bossy huh? Afraid you'll tarnish robotkind's good name?"

"Something like that." Said Bentley amused.

"Won't last long. She'll see what a great person you are. She has to. If Tiffy doesn't, then that damned toaster is blind." Cat said.

"I wish I could blush right now. Pity." The robot said.

"So, why am I here?" Cat asked him as she observed the huge building before her.

"To tell you where they're going to put you for the next twenty years, but mainly, the creator wanted you to relax after your ordeal with mister Kozlov."

Bentley came around the wheelchair to place himself in front of Cat. He bent his knees and squatted to be at eye level. "You like me?"

Cat smiled. "I do. I don't know why but I do. You're easy to be around with."

"I got one fan at least. Mother teaches me like a drill sergeant. Tiffy watches over me like a hawk. I'm surprised she let me be alone with you."

Cat laughed. "If you kill me, it won't be a great loss."

"Don't say that miss."

"You can call me Cat if you want."

"Cat. I like it. Catherine. So many permutations. Can I call you Kitty?"

"Ah, well, that's what my sister used to call me." She looked at his earnest face observing how lifelike this humanoid robot was. "Okay, but you'll be the only one who will. Nobody calls my Kitty."

"Then, I'm glad we'll have something to link us."

"Like a friendship pact." Cat took his hands in hers.

"I... don't have friends. Not real friends." Bentley said his eyes downcast.

"Sure you got friends you big ninny." A voice said suddenly from the stairs. Jabrina was coming down to meet them. "He's such a drama queen. No friends indeed. What are we?"

"You guys are family. That's different mother."

"And don't go around calling me 'The Creator'. It's downright creepy." Jab said to a sulking Bentley.

"But, you ARE my creator." He said in a little voice.

"Come around this way to the back. I've arranged our little picnic behind this building nearer the edge of the cliff. For old times sake." Jab winked at Cat mischievously.

"As long as you don't call them 'good times'." Cat said, joining Bentley in his sulking.

"At least, I helped you get rid of those side-effects didn't I? Taku (Jeez), so ungrateful." Jab said.

"And I'll always be grateful for it." Cat seemed to think carefully about her next sentence. "Sometimes when people annoy me, I still have vivid daydreams about hurting them. It's uncanny, they're so strong that I blank out. I wake up from them staring at nothing, perfectly still. It's very unsettling. I think the side effects are still there but muted somehow." Cat said.

"Maybe not, I think that they're gone, but your system is purging the leftover emotional turmoil of your excessive violent moods you used to have. You visualize them but you don't feel compelled to act on them." Bentley offered.

"Very good son. Yeshua would be very proud." Jab said.

They rounded the last corner of the building and Cat could hear the sea crashing against the cliff below. Nearby, an enormous blanket was laid out and a sumptuous array of various foods was laid out in the center. Zack was waiting for them standing near the edge of the blanket.

"You're doing this to torture me aren't you? All this food and I can't eat. I can only ingest this vile liquid. This must have cost you a fortune." Cat observed dryly.

"This is my establishment." Jab said, matter-of-factly.

"You own this place?" Cat said impressed. "Why here?"

"Why not? I always liked the place and it reminded me of you in a small way. The only good thing I could do for you. Has the alien entity awakened?" Jab asked Cat.

"Not a peep. Cryosleep is probably slowing it down. I can't say that I'm in a rush to share my headspace with someone else."

They reached the picnic and Bentley helped Cat to sit on the ground. He sat next to Cat but had to get up when Jab, displeased, told him to get up and stand with Tiffy a few feet away.

"Isn't it snobbish not to include them?" Cat asked Jab annoyed at Jab's curt dismissal of the robots.

"They don't mind. They don't eat remember?" Jab said.

"Long time no see. I'm glad to see you again Catherine." Zack said.

"As I you Zachariah." Cat said smiling. She turned her attention to Jab again. "You have a short memory span. Have you forgotten that Tiffy used to ingest her lube with us in the cafeteria? Why do it at this particular time if not to have a sense of belonging with the rest of the tribe? Didn't we infuse their characters with human traits?" Cat asked.

"Of course, they are human creations after all. How could they not be influenced by human behavior?" Jab countered.

"What is this about dear?" Zack asked Jab.

"It's about the robots staying apart from us for the duration of the picnic." Jab told him. "It's always so. When we eat, they do something else. Since they don't need to eat, they occupy their time in a more efficient fashion than watch us eat." Jab said to Cat.

"Yes, more efficient but it give them a feeling of alienation that you might not be able to undo easily. The greater this disparity between you and them get, the lesser they will feel related to humanity. Aren't you afraid of the day they grow bored of us limited humans? Aren't you afraid of them dismissing us as we do with insects?" She paused and looked them all in the eyes. "I say, be kind to them Jab, because one day as they leave us in the evolutionary dust we'll look like the obnoxious gnats that we are and I sure don't want them to stomp on us. I want them to guide us to be better. I've been shown the path of war all my life and look at what I've become. A monster. Imagine if I had been guided by the safe and steady hand of a wise sentient friend. A friend we created. A friend that evolved at a speed we never could match, for we are very different creature at our cores. They will evolve at a speed that will render them masters of our fates. The question is: Do you want benevolent masters or cruel ones?" Cat said, thinking about Bentley all this time.

"Well put Catherine, Bravo!" Zack clapped his hands. "I never thought about it quite this way. I always saw them as sophisticated appliances I'm afraid. You have opened my eyes. Tiffy! Bentley! Would you join us? You could ingest your lubricant with us. It's been so long since you joined us at the table."

"Certainly" Bentley said, sitting next to Catherine with a smile.

"If you insist." Tiffy said, rather stiffly.

"I don't insist my dear Tiffy, I merely stated that I would enjoy your company." Zack said.

"As would I." Jab said. "It's been too long."

Tiffy gave a rare smile. "I would be glad to join you."

They all sat and ate. The robots eating their lubricants and Cat eying enviously the humans eating their sumptuous food, drank more liquid nutrients. They talked about the last twenty years. Esperanza joined them an hour later. She had a little boy in her arms.

"This is Alejandro."

The squirming little boy could barely contain himself. "Aunt Tiffy!" He wriggled his way out of his mother's arms and ran to the robot who waited for the little boy with welcoming open arms.

"Alejandro!" Cried Esperanza embarrassed.

"It's okay Espe-chan. Alejandro and I are old friends, aren't we little squirrel?" Tiffy said.

"He always goes to you first because you spoil him." Jab said pouting. "His old oba-chan comes to see him and he favors the Barbie doll."

"Hey!" Tiffy exclaimed, the little boy laughing in her arms. "What can I say? Espe-chan and Ale-kun always had a special place in my heart. Well, fusion reactor anyways."

Esperanza went to hug Tiffy. "Hey mom number two. I missed you."

"As I. You grow more beautiful every time I see you." Tiffy said.

"Liar, liar, pants on fire." Esperanza said.

"Mommy, who the lady?" Alejandro asked.

"Her? That's popsicle lady. Remember the paintings I did of her? She's frozen most of the time but she thawed just in time to see you darling." Esperanza said hiding her smile.

"Is that true?" The boy asked Cat.

"Yeah, what your mom said." Cat said with another very artificial smile on her face. It was becoming a specialty of hers.