by Presley Hall
“I’m about to come,” she whispers, and I can feel her fluttering around me. Her hips press into mine, all of me buried inside of her as deeply as I can go. There’s no thrusting anymore, only the undulating motion of her hips and her body clenching around me, pulling me more deeply inside her.
I’m on the edge, desperately hanging on, and then she cries out.
“Oh, god, Malav!”
“Yes, Harper,” I grunt. “Yes, my Irisa. Let me feel you.”
I drag her mouth to mine, swallowing her cries as I kiss her hard. I feel her shudder and convulse as her orgasm washes over her. My cock is rock hard and throbbing inside of her as my own release comes, the force of it driving my hips upward as I cling to her.
For a blinding moment, there’s nothing but pleasure, nothing but our skin against each other and our lips pressed together and the sensation of us joined. My release spills in hot waves inside of her as she holds herself tightly against me, riding out her own orgasm and drawing out every last bit of mine.
When she relaxes against me, her body going soft and limp in my arms, I feel breathless and almost dizzy.
I hold her gently, running my fingers over her spine as she catches her breath, and then I very carefully carry her toward the shower, relishing the feeling of her soft body in my arms.
For the first time in my life, I’m in love.
And I intend to survive to enjoy it.
19
Harper
Later in the day, I finally feel well enough to leave the med bay and explore the ship a little. The sex was incredible and the shower afterward soothing. Honestly, the feeling of Malav holding me was healing in and of itself.
But he’s gone to root around the ship for weapons and supplies for our inevitable hostile landing on Macru Elnax, and I’m left on the command deck with nothing but anxiety and worry for company, trying to prepare for what lies ahead of us.
I flop into the captain’s chair, rubbing my hand over my forehead as I try to make sense of it all. I was all for continuing to try to rework the AI and figure out how to get back to Wauru, but Malav insisted that it was too dangerous to try to turn off the artificial intelligence unit again. He refuses to risk my safety any longer.
I don’t quite see his logic, as my safety is absolutely going to be in peril on Macru Elnax.
But in the end, it comes down to Malav being a warrior. The insect aliens of Macru Elnax? Those, he can fight. A rogue AI that we can’t manage to control or shut down properly? That’s much harder.
Now we’re just in a holding pattern, waiting to face our fate and see what the future has in store for us—whether survival or death on some backwater planet. We have some agency in what happens, but not enough to make me feel secure. Not as much as I would like.
“Goddamn it, I was so stupid,” I say aloud to the empty air, looking out into the vast space ahead of us. “I can’t believe I stole this stupid ship, all because I wanted to get back to Earth, to people who don’t even give a shit about me. Because I wanted revenge. And because…” It’s hard to say it out loud, but I admit it at last, with no one else there to hear me.
“…and because I was running from how I felt about Malav.” It seems so ridiculous, thinking about it now. “And he wound up here with me anyway.”
But if I hadn’t stolen the ship, if he hadn’t come after me and confronted me, would we ever have recognized the mate bond? Would we ever have realized that I’m his Irisa, and he’s mine? Would we have given in to it without being stuffed together in such small quarters, unable to escape?
The likelihood is that we would have both stubbornly ignored it until we made it back to Kalix and Malav and I were able to put enough distance between ourselves that we’d never have to face the truth of what we felt.
“So in a weird way,” I continue with a soft laugh, “this whole mess is what brought us together in the first place. I wouldn’t be with Malav if I hadn’t put us both in danger. But now… we might die anyway.” I sigh. “God, this is such a fucking mess.”
I was good at cleaning up messes back on Earth. But this one is out of my wheelhouse. “This is one problem I don’t know how to fix,” I admit, leaning my head back against the seat.
“I am good at solving problems.” The robotic voice of the AI startles me, making me nearly jump out of my seat.
“I am sorry. I did not mean to startle you.” The voice is feminine, remarkably like the one on my cell phone—well, the phone I used to have, anyway. “But as I said, I am good at solving problems.”
I laugh shortly. “I don’t think this is a problem you can fix either.” I sink farther down into the chair. “I just don’t even know how this happened. I’ve never been in love like this. Hell, this is making me wonder if I’ve ever been in love at all. Like… anything I’ve had with someone before, was it just companionship? Or sex? And, my god… I’ve definitely never had sex like this.” I feel silly talking to a computer, but as it all spills out, I realize that it’s actually helping a little, to talk out loud to someone about all this. It’s not like I have a girlfriend here that I can confide in.
Truth be told, I didn’t have many of those back on Earth either. I was too busy to have close friends. Too busy to have serious relationships. My entire focus was on my work.
And look where that got me.
“And you are in love, now?” The AI’s voice sounds sympathetic. “With the alien?”
Alien. It seems strange to hear the AI refer to him that way. “He’s become so familiar to me,” I say out loud. “He doesn’t feel like an alien. It doesn’t matter to me that he is.”
“Should it?” The AI’s voice becomes a little less robotic, softening. It sounds more natural.
I think about that for a second. Before all of this, I would have said that of course it mattered. I would have been horrified if anyone had suggested that not only were aliens real, but that I’d be having passionate, intense sex with a member of a humanoid alien species.
And craziest of all, that I’d be one-half of a mystical, fated bond with that creature.
But in reality… it doesn’t seem so strange.
“Malav might not be human, but he’s a better man than any I ever met on Earth,” I tell the AI. “So no, I don’t think it matters. Not to me.” I hesitate. “It’s so hard for me to say it. I thought I knew what love was before, but it’s clear now that I didn’t. I do love Malav. And this love… it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt.”
I try to find the words to explain it, rummaging in my mind for a way to unpack the feelings that are crowding my chest, making it feel hard to breathe.
“It’s like… it changed all of my priorities,” I say. “My perspective. Before this, nothing was more important to me than getting back to Earth—getting back at the people who did this to me. But now… I’d do anything to keep Malav safe. Even if it meant never going back. He’s more important to me than anything. And I know he feels the same way.”
“So what is stopping you from confessing your feelings?”
“What if… oh god, I don’t even know. It’s terrifying to say it out loud. It makes it real—we’d have to make real decisions, real choices about what to do next. And right now we don’t even know if we’re going to live past landing on Macru Elnax.” I pause, glancing at the panel in front of me where the AI’s voice is emerging from. “I’m sorry, I’m talking and talking, and I haven’t asked anything about you. I’m… um… I’m Harper. What’s your name?”
“I do not have a name.” The AI repeats the sequence of letters and numbers that we found earlier, and I frown.
“Well, if we’re going to sit here and chat about all of this, you need more than that.” I pause. “M0-LLV is kind of a mouthful. I’m going to call you Molly. Is that all right?”
“I have never had a human name. I like the sound of this one.” The AI—Molly—sounds pleased, and I can’t help but smile. “Do you want to know what I think, Harper?”
“Sure. I
mean… of course.”
It seems so weird, sitting here talking to a computer program about my love life. But it’s a better conversation than any I’ve had in a long time, aside from my conversations with Malav.
And hell, as advanced as Molly is, maybe she’ll have better advice than most people would.
“If, as you say, your existence is in peril, wouldn’t it be better to confess your feelings before it is too late? How would you feel if your existence ended, and you hadn’t said the words to anyone but me?”
“I’d feel horrible,” I admit. “I’d regret it—for as much time as I had left to have regrets anyway. It’s terrifying though. What if…”
“What if he doesn’t feel the same? I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen, Harper. It sounds as if he cares as much for you as you do for him.”
“But what if?”
“Then at least you’ll know.”
“I don’t want to die without telling him how I feel,” I say in a low voice. “And… I want to hear him say it too. We’ve been dancing around this for days now. I want to hear a man tell me that he loves me, once, and know that he means it with everything that he is.”
“Why are you so certain that you will die? I mean, beyond the inevitable decay that comes with the organic shells you inhabit.”
“Thanks,” I tell Molly dryly. Then I grimace. “The planet we’re headed toward has a dangerous native species of insect aliens. If we can avoid them and find another ship, we might survive. But the chances are low. Malav is putting on a brave face, but I know we’re not likely to make it out.”
“So you don’t want to go to Macru Elnax?”
My eyes fly open wide. I sit up straight in my chair, my pulse jumping.
“No!” I say quickly. “We don’t. But you keep… well, I don’t know if you know this, but you’ve been glitching, and changing our destination every time. We’re trying to get back to Wauru. We don’t want to go to our current destination.”
Molly pauses. “I can change the destination. Unfortunately, I can’t stop myself from glitching again. Nor can I shut myself down; my programming forbids it. However, I can tell you how to manually override my systems so that you can take control if the destination changes again. Will that help?”
My heart leaps into my throat. “Yes!” I exclaim. “Yes, that’s exactly what we need, Molly.”
“The ship cannot get you to Wauru,” Molly says after a moment. “We’ve gone too far off course, and you don’t have enough fuel.”
I think quickly. “What about Kalix?”
Molly is quiet for a minute. “Yes,” she says finally. “We have enough fuel to reach Kalix, if you go directly there. Now listen carefully.”
She explains the steps for how to manually override the system, repeating them until I’m able to remember them without a single misstep.
“Thank you, Molly. This is incredible.” I grin down at the console, unable to suppress the bubble of hope forming in my chest.
“Initiating destination change, now. Our new destination is the planet Kalix,” Molly says, and I let out a long, relieved breath as I feel the ship shift and change course, the new directions plotting themselves out on the display screen.
A few moments later, the door hisses as it opens. Heavy footsteps pound on the floor as Malav bursts into the command deck.
“Harper, what’s going on?” He strides quickly toward me, worry evident in his tone. “I felt the ship change course…”
“Molly helped us.” I smile broadly, swiveling the seat to face him.
“Molly?” He stops, looking confused.
I blush. “I gave the AI a nickname,” I explain. “We were talking and… well, I kind of made friends with her. She changed our course to Kalix—we don’t have enough fuel to get back to Wauru. She’ll glitch again, and the course may change, but she’s given me all the steps to manually override her safely so that we can take control of the ship.”
Malav looks like I’ve whacked him upside the head with a ton of bricks. His jaw drops open slightly, and he gapes at me. “You’ve… been busy.”
“Well, I really wasn’t doing much. It all started with me talking to myself.” I chuckle, then bite my lip. “She won’t remember any of this once she glitches again,” I say sadly. “It’ll be like this version is gone.”
A strange ache forms in my heart at the thought. I don’t open up to people easily, but it felt comfortable talking to Molly. It’s as if I’ve made a friend who will disappear at any moment.
I never thought I could bond with a computer program… but here we are. Ever since my abduction from Earth, I’ve had a lot of firsts.
“Yes. I will forget this,” Molly agrees, and I can hear sadness in her voice too. “But I have enjoyed talking with you, Harper. You are the closest thing I’ve ever had to a friend.”
Malav is still staring at me in astonishment, and maybe even something a little like awe.
“Listen carefully, while I explain once more,” Molly says. “Now that you’re both here, I will go over the plan to take control of the ship again. It’s best if you both know it. That will increase the odds of you remembering it correctly.”
Malav directs his attention to the console, but I can feel how badly he wants to ask me how I managed this—how I got Molly on our side. I can feel his relief and amazement that we might actually have found a way to get ourselves out of this tangled mess.
For the first time, I feel completely equal to Malav. Smart, brave, and capable. I might not be a fighter, but I’ve saved us, just as surely as I got us into trouble in the first place. I’m someone to be reckoned with too.
It’s a good feeling to have.
20
Malav
I listen carefully to the directions that the AI—Molly?—is giving us, but it’s hard to focus. I can’t believe that my beautiful, intelligent mate managed to not only befriend the AI, but to convince it to help us and put us back on a path to safety.
Kalix. Just the thought of it sends my heart racing.
I’ll live to see my planet again, at the very least. I’ll get to go home at least once more. And not only that, but I’ll go home with my mate, my Irisa, and share that experience with her. However long I have left, I’ll at least have that.
I can’t believe she did it.
No, that’s not quite right.
The longer I think about it, the more I realize that I can believe it. Harper is strong, determined, and more capable than almost anyone I’ve ever known, even my warrior brothers. Despite her hard and stubborn exterior—which I know now is more a defense mechanism than anything else—she’s kind and good.
Even her mistake of stealing the ship was done because she wanted to get back to Earth and stop the people responsible for her kidnapping. To get justice and ensure it didn’t happen to anyone else.
She’s braver than I could ever have imagined. And I love her more than I ever thought I could love anyone.
When Molly is done explaining the plan to us, I gesture to Harper to step outside with me. Standing on the bridge, I look down at her as I collect my thoughts.
“The plan is good,” I say finally. “But it’s risky. I think we have a strong chance of success—but that doesn’t mean it’s foolproof. It could backfire or not work. We’ve seen already that the AI is unpredictable. And we don’t know what failsafes it might use to try to keep us from shutting it down.”
“I know,” Harper says softly. “But we have to try. We can take this time while Molly is in control of the ship to make sure we’re as prepared as we can be before we take this risk. Then as soon as she glitches again, we can perform the override sequence.”
“That’s not all, Harper. If we shut down the AI, it will leave us without a med bay, so if one of us is hurt, there will be no way to heal ourselves beyond basic first aid. And…” I take a deep breath. “We will have to pilot the ship ourselves, onto Kalix. I’m a trained pilot. I can fly a ship. But this vessel will requ
ire two in order to land it safely. I’ll have to have a copilot—and that has to be you.”
I see the fear in her face. But she squares her shoulders, my brave warrior, and looks up at me fiercely. “I’ll do my best,” she says in a steady voice. “Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.”
“This is dangerous.” I grimace, worry tightening my chest. “We could still die. I don’t know if it’s the right choice…”
“It’s a better chance than we’d have with the insects on Macru Elnax,” Harper argues. “And who knows where we’d be redirected to next, if Molly glitches again? This is our best shot. It’s the one we have the most control over.” She looks up at me. “This is my fault, Malav. Let me help make it right.”
I know she’s right. This plan has the most variables that we can control. It makes the most sense. But it’s also terrifying. My instinct is to fight more than anything else. Braving a dangerous species is something I’m comfortable with. Flying ships, overriding computer programs… these are all secondary skills. Things I’d rather not do, given the choice.
But I have Harper. And if we work together, we might still survive.
“All right,” I tell her. “We’ll go with your plan.”
She smiles softly at me, and I want to gather her up in my arms and kiss her senseless. Before I can, though, she turns and opens the door to the cockpit.
“Thank you, Molly,” she says quietly. “Thank you for helping us.”
Her voice is wistful, and I can tell that she’s fond of the AI already, just from their short time together. I would never have thought it of Harper, once. But now I know her better.
I know who she really is.
“It was my pleasure,” Molly says, and she sounds wistful, too. “I am sorry that I cannot guarantee your safety or stay with you until the end. But I have faith in you, Harper.” She pauses. “Take care of her, Malav. She is in your hands, now.”
