Free The Island of Hope by Andrei Livadny

glanced at her gloomily and nodded. He found absolutely nothing amusing or strange therein. She attempted to smile. "Come with me, I'll make something for you."
    He didn't object. The hunger pangs had already subsided; the cramps in his stomach weren't so bad anymore. Still, the mention of food made him feel weak.
    Yanna took him by the hand and guided him to the exit. Simeon's whole being focused on the warm and slightly damp palm of the girl. He had never thought that it felt so good to sense life.
    A short corridor led them to a landing with five closed hatches in its walls. An air generator rustled overhead, releasing a cool, life-bearing jet of oxygen.
    The room they entered was the smallest of all, but still far more spacious than his shack. It could comfortably seat, say, five persons.
    Simeon sat down in a cozy armchair by an oval table and looked round with curiosity. Apart from the familiar shape of a nuclear thermostat, he noticed a number of other devices which remained alien to him.
    In a few practiced motions, Simeon unzipped his sealed light suit and stepped out of it, leaving it in a heap on the floor. He watched the girl manipulate a shiny machine. Two cylinders were connected by means of a set of hoses to a power generator and a transparent sphere on the base of which he read:
     
    INLET CHAMBER OF FOOD PRODUCTS SYNTHESIZER
    OPERATE ONLY WHEN SHELL CLOSED!
     
    Finally the machine's bowels began to murmur. Simeon watched anxiously as lights flashed on the control console, but Yanna paid no attention to them. She was busy pressing buttons, putting out plates, cutting something, all the while furtively glancing at him until he felt dizzy with the abundance of all kinds of food and the unusual odors floating in the room.
    Yanna sat down to table and took a fork. She barely touched her food while Simeon was helping himself. She couldn't take her eyes off his gaunt face. He was taller and evidently stronger than herself. His skin had a strange bronze hue. Yanna didn't know this was common space tan.
    “Where are you from?” she couldn't help asking.
    Simeon’s hand stopped in mid-air. Where are you from , she'd said. He realized he couldn't answer her question.
    Yanna brushed off a strand of blond hair and said, “You came in through the main airlock. But I don’t know what’s behind it. I’ve never left this place.”
    Simeon nearly dropped his fork.
    “You know... I cannot.” Yanna struggled to find the right words. “I’m glad you’ve come.”
    Tears flowed down her cheeks, but she was smiling at the same time.
     
    ...
     
    Those who are happy never notice time go by. Neither he nor she could name what was going on in their souls. Time had stopped. They enjoyed the very possibility of seeing and speaking to each other which was already a source of incredible joy for both after the loneliness they had experienced, even though the girl hadn’t known one hundredth of the hardships that comprised his life. They would speak, sometimes struggling to understand each other, as though they were two beings from different worlds.
    Any other time Simeon would have given it some thought, but now he felt as if the stern world of the steel sphere was distancing, rapidly becoming unreal.
    Yanna rose from the table and began removing the plates when the hatch rustled open behind the boy's back.
    He felt electrocuted. Simeon jumped to his feet, swinging round, and froze. An icy horror filled his heart.
    A robot stood in the doorway.
    It resembled a man so much it sent shivers down your spine, but the boy could not be fooled by the likeness – this was a machine .
    He reached for his gun but his fingers closed around thin air. He'd left his weapon in the room where he'd seen Yanna first. Thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind and disappeared, soaked up by his brain, leaving only one,
    'They got me. The weapon! I left it behind. So stupid. This is death. I must kill. KILL!'
    "Morning, Andor!" Yanna's voice