by Ginger Booth
“Hey!” Wilder barked at him. “No woman’s ever complained of my fine service. And that’s more than we can say of you, Cope!”
Thankfully, Clay extracted her from Wilder’s arms. And Sass quite enjoyed Cope decking her ex dance-partner while she at last side-stepped with Clay. The right height, great build, model-quality face, and goofy Fed suit and tie. They pranced along a promenade to the left, and a swirl, then a one to the right. Sass’s neck whiplashed to watch the continued pummeling of Wilder versus Cope.
Those two so loved to dance. She and Clay liked it, too.
“Cope,” Eli complained, “you still haven’t explained what you’re trying to accomplish.”
Ben offered, “He’s trying to get Wilder in an arm lock.” And he looked like he might succeed. But then Wilder bashed the stretch engineer in the hip, knocking him loose.
“Not that,” Eli replied. “He ran in here and demanded Sass start dancing!”
Sass dearly wanted to hear Cope’s explanation. He might have missed the question though, absorbed in blocking a vicious cross, kick, undercut combo from Wilder.
Ben stuck two fingers in his mouth to emit an ear-splitting whistle. “Wilder! Stand down! Fight’s over!”
Wilder half-grinned and shook his head. “You’re not gonna sucker me again, nerd!”
“Wilder!” Ben demanded. “That was an order!”
Wilder shuffled backward, fists still on guard against Cope. “Alright, fine. You give, geeky?”
“Sure, cap said we’re done,” Cope agreed. Wilder nodded and dropped his fists. And Cope slammed him with a full front kick to the gut.
Ben stepped between them, arms spread. “Not nice, chief.”
“I quite enjoyed it, cap!” Cope attempted to sidestep him for better access.
Ben spun to face and track his husband, staying between him and Wilder. “Stand down, Cope! That’s an order. Wilder, you moron, why are you still in this room? Go! Now!”
“Aw, cap, it was just gettin’ good!” Wilder moaned. He tried snapping a quick punch at Cope on his way past, but Ben blocked it.
Laughing, Sass smoothly stepped into the next song with Clay, who never missed a beat while he enjoyed watching the fight with her. “C’mon, Cope,” she wheeled, “tell us why we’re dancing before we’re exhausted.”
“Kinda rather not.” Cope wiped the sweat from his face with a napkin. “Hey, cap, is someone watching the spaceport?”
Ben’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, as Clay draped Sass over backward on his arm. “Watch for what?”
“Uh, Loki might be a little pissed at me right now,” Cope allowed. “Still working that ‘characterize the problem’ agenda-like thing.”
Ben stomped to the display end of the dining table and grabbed the controls, muttering, “Buddy, it’s a bad sign when you revert to talking street hood. Hello.”
Flung from Clay’s arms in mid-twirl, Sass spun past the display. “Two-step a bit, so we can watch.” Clay was just as curious as she was, and readily complied once he had her in his arms again. All these endorphins were doing Sass a world of good. Her face flushed and her heart pounded, and Clay’s hands felt about a million times better on the small of her back than Cope’s or Wilder’s. Cope didn’t much like women. Sass didn’t like Wilder.
“Computer, slow song,” Clay demanded. The music smoothly segued to give them a better view of the screen while still dancing.
Eli and Cope converged at Ben’s shoulders. Quire slipped away at the first sign of the fight. Out on the spaceport, a flock of pole-robots skirted the Sass Statue. Ankle-high mechanical cockroaches scuttled downward toward them. Seam-cracks now appeared on the statue, perhaps a hand-span wide.
“Is that thing moving?” Ben asked suddenly. Three heads tilted left. They tilted right. Ben’s head straightened in decision. “I’ll be on the bridge, chief. Whatever this is?” A flap of his hand encompassed the dining room. “Fix it. Now.”
“Aye, cap,” Eli and Cope acknowledged in unison.
Ben departed, already issuing orders. “Wilder, Zan. To the hold and suit up. Bring your favorite toys.”
“Well, that’s distracting,” Eli allowed, still mesmerized by the golden statue creeping toward them. Granted it wasn’t moving quickly. Perhaps a meter toward them so far.
“But what is it moving on?” Cope wondered. “Are those rails? Why would anyone put a ten-meter steel statue on rails?”
“Why do you assume it’s steel?” Eli asked.
“Gentlemen,” Sass cut through this. “Turn off the display. Ben’s problem.”
“Right,” Cope acknowledged sheepishly. He plucked up the control wand. He stood frozen just another few seconds before he followed through and clicked the display off.
Finally bereft of games around her, Sass tried laying her head on Clay’s shoulder. She hadn’t been with him for weeks. It felt good. OK, maybe this flush and heavy breathing were a bit more than she’d get from her morning jog. And her man’s hips were casually bumping into hers more than accidentally.
“Your theory,” Eli prompted.
Cope confessed, “I don’t want to tell her too much, or I might jinx it. But there’s something…physical…about Sass, that got trapped back in the machine after Loki started his copy of her running again.”
Clay’s breath and whisper tickled her ear. “Libido chakra.”
“And that…slut in the machine,” Cope continued. “She was really a full copy of Sass, all her memories and directives. Except Loki diddled with her prime identity to deactivate the parts of her that were unhappy being his sex toy.”
“His –!” Sass growled.
“Shh, baby,” Clay crooned, and swung her hips a little more. “Listen first. And feel the dance.”
“Was?” Eli prompted.
“Well, I got her turned on again. I mean, remembering she’s the girl from Upstate again, not Loki’s lap dancer.”
Sass’s head whiplashed to glare at him. Clay’s hand laid her skull forcibly back against his shoulder. “Cope? Watch your language.”
“Uh, no offense, cap. But once her memories came flooding back, she wanted to die again. And I assured her she was very much alive out here, but lamed. Like some of her spirit was missing. Her soul.”
Eli mused, “You still think the soul comment was a strong clue.”
“Hey, I ain’t claiming to know what an AI’s soul is made of. Could be some kind of nanite.”
“Bingo!” Clay breathed in Sass’s ear.
18
Clay followed up with a wildly distracting tongue-tip, the faintest teasing touch to Sass’s ear. He started sashaying their slow side-step for the door. Eli and Cope didn’t notice their exit, Cope still struggling to express his reasoning.
Out on the catwalk, Clay raised her by the waist to swing her forward on an arc. He scampered around, then repeated the move into the officer country hall. A few more sashays, and an order to the computer, carried them through his cabin door, where he was serving for the moment on Ben’s ship.
They left the music behind in the galley. No matter, Clay stopped her and folded her into his arms. “I have a kinky notion, captain. Tell me if this sounds sick to you, or oddly fascinating.”
Sass was certainly curious. She drew away as he pulled a knife from his utility belt, discarded with his work coveralls when he changed into his best Fed garb. He brought knife and bared wrist in front of Sass’s unbelieving eyes. And he sliced across his forearm.
A woman has reflexes. Hers should have propelled her back in revulsion. She should be crying out at him for getting self-destructive again. Though a little slice like that could hardly hurt them. It would heal in moments. And the beads of brilliant ruby blood fascinated her.
He leaned his forehead onto hers. His throaty murmur tingled through her like the bass beat of the music. “Blood to blood? Or just lick it off?”
Hardly believing what she was doing, she seized his wrist, and ran her tongue along the cut, neatly lapping t
he pretty blood. She swallowed greedily. Clean now, his cut was already gone, the skin without blemish. She took the bloody knife and slit her own arm with it. Then cut his arm and held the two bleeding wounds together to mingle.
Suddenly, she stepped backward, shaking her head. She huffed a laugh at herself. She steepled her fingers on his low dresser for balance. A whoosh of woozy seemed to flush right through her. “What…”
“You’ve given me nanites before,” Clay reminded her. “Something prompted you.”
“Yeah.” For a split second, she imagined justifying the logic to Cope. Nah. “You want sex? I do.”
“Thought you’d never ask.” Clay started yanking at his tie.
Sass interrupted him by tugging on his lapels. “Wait. You’re dressed like a Fed. Like a rich Fed.” She ran her hands down his sumptuous suit. They didn’t weave top-of-the-line wool blends or silks on Mahina. The smooth hand of the fabric, its deep navy color, were astonishing compared to most people’s synthetics and cotton. A fingertip reported his crisp off-white shirt likewise exceeded the quality of anything she’d ever found in a store.
“Very wealthy,” he confirmed. “Most guys at the agency lived paycheck to paycheck. In hock to their eyeballs for student debt and mortgages. My boss and boss’s boss could never afford an outfit like this.”
Sass murmured, “You never had student debt?”
“Nor a mortgage,” Clay agreed. “Mama and Papa bought my apartment as a wedding gift, a car for graduation. With no debts, savings piled up. I don’t blame you. Working white collar crime investigation, most Feds, it was a matter of degree, how much they were on the take. The stereotype was justified. I could afford to have principles. My boss couldn’t. My career was a dance of lies from day one. I never accepted a bribe except as part of a sting. Point of honor. Of course, most of the years you knew me, on Mahina, I was running a sting. On Kendra Oliver. I fed the proceeds to the Resistance through Josiah. Kendra didn’t notice, because I lived well on my own money. She assumed I was indebted to her for my nice clothes.”
“The apartment by the botanical gardens,” Sass quibbled.
He sighed. “Guilty. She pulled strings to get me the apartment. I couldn’t resist the baby goats. Special bonus, she hated them.”
“You’re rich. You’re a Fed. But you’re not a ‘rich Fed.’”
“Was that really so difficult a concept?”
Sass drew her hands down the sumptuous jacket to rest on his hips, admiring the fine tailoring that made him look good enough to eat. “First impressions, Rocha. You’re like this alien being. Still are, kinda.” She peered into his eyes apologetically.
“Anything you want, tell me and I’ll buy it for you as a gift. But none of it’s dirty money, Sass. I swear it. The apartment, that’s not money. Everyone in MA gets an apartment somewhere. Kendra called in a favor to land me the best.”
Sass shook her head. “I’m not worried about the apartment. Technically, you’re a settler. It gives us face to have someone honored with the best address in the city. And I bet it really chaps the neighbors to have Ben’s family living there.”
“Another bonus,” Clay agreed with a wink. “Frazzie and Sock whiz by the stuffy Directors, shrieking. But no graft. Simple compound interest, and working year after year, a whole lot of years. Hell, it earned you a starship.”
“Mostly. I inherited some,” Sass admitted. “From my cell-mates on the farm. Never was as good at saving as you.” She shook her head. “What a dumb issue to stand between us. And here I always said I didn’t care about money.”
“How could you not care? Money was the only exit from the tents. And you didn’t have it. And you paid the price. Most people, it turned into a badge of honor, their whole identity. I’m better than the rich because look how I’ve suffered. Then they can’t get richer because they resent rich people so much.”
She abruptly tugged on his tie. “Got it. Bed. Now.”
He chuckled and plonked onto the mattress obediently, as she pulled off his deluxe jacket and dropped it to the floor. “One more thing. I’m not richer than you anymore.”
That diverted her attention from unwrapping her prize. “Say what?”
“While we were gone. The economy cratered on Mahina. The government got acquisitive trying to bail themselves out. Hunter managed to preserve half. But with the ship, your assets are worth more than mine.”
She laughed out loud. “Don’t worry. I’ll manage to lose it.”
“Or I could manage your money. I’ve invested with Cope and Abel and Josiah. I’ll outstrip you again soon. So don’t get used to lording your wealth over me, young miss.”
“What stupid stuff,” Sass marveled. “I’m no richer or poorer than I was an hour ago. Neither are you. Hey! Get busy!”
A couple hours later, Sass draped her arms around Ben’s shoulders from behind, back in the galley. “Hey, handsome! Sorry I’ve been out of my mind. I’m back!” A number of crew gathered for a mid-afternoon snack.
“I’m being mauled!” Ben quipped. “Husband! Defend me!”
Cope smiled his rare slow smile that matched Nico’s warm one. “Nah. You look happier, cap.”
Clay, in workday coveralls again, slid into a chair and lounged in contentment.
“Cope, you’re a genius!” Sass let go of Ben to hug the over-tall engineer instead. “I feel like myself again for the first time since Shiva killed me. Thank you! All fixed!” She beamed at him.
He didn’t seem convinced. “Well…” Cope demurred. “Cap, how’s it going out on the spaceport?”
Sass was momentarily puzzled until Ben replied. “Statue’s still creeping toward us.” He flicked the image back on the big wall display. The 10-meter golden nude of Sass had advanced maybe a dozen meters closer by now. “Wilder and I rigged a tripwire to alert us if it gets close enough to fall on us. What. You were busy.”
Cope pursed his lips, eyes alight. “No, that’s a creative solution, buddy.” He leaned around his husband’s shoulder to address Judge, their crew boss, and two new hires. “Like I always say, plenty of ways to solve every problem. Judge, be sure to brainstorm a few with the gang, right? Not here. No need to piss off the cap.”
Ben shoved him, but accepted the ribbing. “Any one of them could have solved that for me, couldn’t they. Sass, you know Judge. That’s Tikka from Denali,” the twenty-something slender bald woman sketched a wave, “and Flo from MO. Old buddy of Judge’s.”
Like all guys from the orbital these days, the fireplug-shaped Flo appeared 25. He gave a curt nod of respect, his face closed. Ben recruited her crew as well, while Sass was floundering. Aside from the teenagers, Ben provided her a Saggy, a Denali, and another pickup from the orbital.
“Ben, I owe you an apology,” she murmured. “Thank you for covering for me.”
His eyes betrayed misgivings. “We should kill a bottle of wine tonight. Get to know each other again. One on one or couples, your choice. Or, is my husband busy with that characterization thing?”
“Uh, yes!” Cope decided. “Loki is pissed off at us! I should probably pass this back to you for followup, cap. Because most of all he’s pissed at me. Because in effect I deleted his copy of her. I mean, I didn’t. Sass-as-AI did that.”
Sass shook her head. “You really saw her as a person.”
Cope rocked his head so-so. “She was you. A different you. Anyway, Loki probably feels I betrayed his friendship. He decided I could be his friend too. Replace you.”
“Lucky you.” Sass sighed and regrouped. “Loki’s a very nice AI, really.”
Cope nodded thoughtfully. “With the power of a solar system and a starship fleet. Plus whatever he expects to do with that statue.”
Ben interjected, “Any thoughts on that, chief?”
“Move,” Cope offered, arms folded. “Don’t look equipped to chase us.”
“I’m aware of Loki’s power,” Sass redirected, folding her arms likewise. “I noticed that part when Shiva killed seven
of my crew. Not to mention us.”
“How many times?” Clay asked.
Sass pursed her lips at him and didn’t respond. “But what leverage do we have on Loki? The Sanks adore him because he makes everything they need. They can live a life of leisure. I imagine some in Aloha wouldn’t mind his manufacturing power either. He won’t take it well if the Sanks try to leave without him. But he’s a menace.”
“Well, there was that one thing,” Cope mused. “I think he wants to be a person, like you.”
“And give up his power?” Sass countered.
“Probably not,” Clay replied. “No one does.”
Ben clapped Cope on the back. “Keep thinking on it, chief!”
Sass smirked. Cope just tried to hand the challenge off on the captains.
“As a punishment?” he inquired.
“Yes. No. Maybe brainstorm with Hugo and Nico this time, instead of Eli. Oh! When are they presenting anyway? One of us should go watch and encourage him. Rock-paper-scissors.”
Cope glared at him. “I’m going to watch my son present because it’s a big deal to him.”
Ben chuckled. “And I should probably defend our ships against the giant naked woman.”
“And I’ve been AWOL on my ship for months,” Sass sighed. “Time to go mend some fences. Ben, I can defend the spaceport if you want to do family.”
He took her elbow and deposited a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll take you up on that. Good to have you back! Bottle of wine. Engine room overhead, your place after dinner.”
“Deal.” They shook on it.
“One more thing,” Ben added. “Clay, I need you on Thrive for takeoff to Cantons. Abel’s going to fly Cupid. Unless you disagree, Captain Collier?”
“I’d be churlish to argue, after you carried the weight,” Sass allowed carefully. “And I owe it to my crew to meet a new world with them. But I do have experience with the computer reformat, if Loki resurfaces on Cupid.”
Clay raised a finger. “I created the formatting media for Merchant. Unnamed at the time. One button operation to make another copy for Abel.”
