Embarkment 2577 (16 page)

“Of course.”
He held me tighter. “You were disappointed when you saw the empty rooms. I
needed to fix it up.”

How did he
find time to do all these things? I suppose the ship was filled with willing
little helpers, but anyway. “You don’t have to change for me.”

“I know.”

Just when I
thought he wouldn’t say anything more, he murmured, “I can never replace
everything you lost. I wanted to build something new… Maybe, with time you
could make it a home.”

Was he asking
me to move in? I knew the arrangement with the guest quarters was temporary,
the word
guest
made that pretty clear. If I ever imagined moving, I
hadn’t expected it to be here. “I love it.”

Adam’s lips
searched for mine, but the kiss was much too short. “I should go get some
clothes and things for you. What do you need for tonight? I’ll get the rest in
the morning.”

“Don’t go.”

“You need
something else to wear. Wanna borrow a shirt?”

I shook my
head. He was right; he kept the robe tucked around me as if I was a little
girl, but under it, my clothes were completely destroyed. As long as I kept
them on, I acknowledged Enoch’s existence. I wanted
my
clothes, my
hairbrush, and a number of other little things. Adam could get me new ones, but
if the crazy rapist scared me so much I was willing to give up everything, he
had won.

“Okay… Just
please hurry back.”

He nodded and
rose up, still holding me in his arms. It was a feat few humans could have
pulled off, but he did it with ease. As he strode towards the bedroom, I peeked
around. The room looked amazing. “Do you have a secret talent for home
improvement, or did you pay someone to do this?”

“You like it?
A little out of column A, and a little of column B.”

He put me down
on the bed and frowned. “Want me to call someone to keep you company?”

Good idea, but
too humiliating. “No…”

“Want a guard
outside the door?”

It was sweet
of him to ask, but I shook my head. Enoch was securely locked up, and I should
be able to cope with ten minutes alone.

“Do you want
my gun?”

He tried so
hard to make me feel secure. I was afraid of weapons, but if I took it, we
might both feel better. “Sure.”

As soon as he
left, a weight sank down over my chest. Why was getting air so difficult? The
room spun around me. A voice of reason spoke up deep inside. “You’re having a
panic attack. Breathe and it will go away.”

I closed my
eyes and forced stale air out of my lungs. The cool, dry atmosphere of the room
filled them. Again, and again. The turmoil inside me spun slower, and finally
stopped. Adam would be back any minute, and I was safe.

When I opened
my eyes again the suffocating feeling was gone. No unseen dangers lurked. I
rose to my feet and pulled the torn top over my head. Once I started removing
the ruined clothes, I couldn’t get rid of them quickly enough.

I wanted to
scrub Enoch’s touch off my skin, but was afraid to enter the bathroom before
Adam came back. Who knew what dangers might lurk in the shower.

*****

Later at
night, the room filled with my things. It smelled of jasmine tea and cinnamon,
and I rested in the twilight zone between awareness and sleep. Adam’s arms
around me helped me feel safe.

As so many
times before, he surprised me. “I used to look at people around me and wonder
what it would be like. To be in a relationship, I mean. To have someone.”

His mother
built him to replace a lost husband. A woman smart enough to construct someone
like him would also be smart enough to program him to want what
she
wanted. Was he loving and protective because of me, or because of her? Did it
matter? “Is it what you expected?”

He pulled me
closer. “No. It’s better. It’s much more rewarding.”

All things
Adam fascinated me. It seemed to be mutual; one day he spent over an hour
staring at my hand, claiming he watched the life cycle of my cells.

“So… What’s
it like when we… uh… you know… make love?”

He was
programmed to do it, and I suspected he was programmed to
want
it. It
still puzzled me how he could seem so human about it.

“Oh, it’s
wonderful.”

So far so
good. I stayed silent, hoping he’d elaborate.

“It feels
good, but I suspect it’s not the same as for a human. It’s intoxicating, probably
habit-forming.”

“What?” He
clearly didn’t share the human biological urge to procreate, and his mother
must have come up with something else, but habit forming?

“Meeting you
created new connections in my neural network. When I’m with you, the voltage
increases, and then it overloads. It’s a marvellous experience.”

Overload, huh?
“You make it sound like I’m a drug.” Or a battery…

“You are, sort
of. I’m built to circumvent all the mistakes a human man might make. I’m bound
to you, and I can’t cheat, or leave you. I always want to have you closer.
Isn’t that a good thing?”

“I guess…” I
was too weary to make heads or tails of it.

The next morning, I woke from the sweet
scent of breakfast. “Ow.”

Parts of my body ached as if I’d been in
a losing fight with a windmill. I was probably both blue and black, but
assessing the damage could wait. I did not want to see what Enoch’s fingers had
done to my poor body.

Adam came into the room, carrying a tray
with breakfast. I bet I made a pretty good grimace when I struggled to sit up
without really moving.

“I can still kill him. Do you want me to
go kill him?”

I leaned back against the pillow. “No.
But, thanks.”

He put the tray next to me and snatched
a round, shiny object from it. “I told Ima you were sleeping, so she left you
this.”

“What? She’s been here already?”

“Already… It’s past ten, sweetheart. I
thought you needed to sleep.”

He twisted something on the little
object and it started to hum. I didn’t object when he took my hand and
straightened my arm, but when he put the thing down on my skin, it started to
spin. “What are you doing?”

“You have crushed muscle fibers and connective
tissue. This machine heals on a cellular level. Let it run its course.”

The machine stopped over each bruise,
hovered there, and moved on to the next one. It tickled, but stopped the pain,
and I could see my bruises fade away. “Wow.”

When it reached my back it
really
tickled.

Adam took a seat on the edge of the bed.
“Have some breakfast.”

I reached for some berries to make him
happy. “You should have something too.”

He took a piece of a croissant and
nibbled it. We did the same thing most mornings, and the routine comforted me.

The machine was finally done and Adam
put it in a pocket. “I should go get the rest of your things.”

“Do you really want me to move in here?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Would you rather
go back?”

“Oh no, God no, that’s not what I
meant.”

“So I should go get your things?”

Were we ready to officially move in
together? It was a big step, at least for me. How could I phrase my question in
a way that made sense to him? We already lived together, sort of, and had done
so for a long time. If it wasn’t there, it was here, and this practical
solution to the problem mattered to him. “Hurry back.”

Would this work in the long run? I hoped
so. If not, let future Alex and Adam deal with it.

By the time I dressed and moseyed over
to the sofa, my new home was filled with familiar objects.
Our
home.
This was big. Maybe I should thank Enoch for trying to kill me.

I glanced at an urn, “That’s not mine.”

Adam shrugged. “It is now.”

The computer chirped, “Captain Jones
wishes to enter.”

Anyone else could be turned away. The
Captain, not so much. I tucked my feet up under me and hoped they had something
to discuss besides me. Like the renegade black hole in the basement…

Disappointment. Blake fixed his eyes on
me. “The prisoner requests to see you.”

Adam stood behind the sofa with his feet
apart and arms crossed over his chest. He looked like a bodyguard, and
considering my luck lately, I might need one. “That’s not happening.”

While I
agreed, I also had to ask, “Why would he want that?”

“Well, it
turns out Lupe stumbled and shot him in the shoulder on the way to the brig
last night. Later, Ima went down there to treat him, and used some old
fashioned voodoo from her home planet involving long wooden needles, so he’s
afraid to ask for more medical attention.”

Adam muttered
something approving, and Blake’s mouth twitched. “From what I understand,
several other people have found sudden errands down there. Jia’Lyn’s snakes bit
him.”

I could
imagine strands of her lively hair reaching out for Enoch. The image made me
warm inside. I was loved.

Blake
shrugged, feigning lack of interest. “We’ve never had a prisoner with so many
visitors, or one getting so hurt. I think he wants to meet you to plead for his
life.”

Sometime
during the night, my imagination turned the former ambassador into a space
monster chewing granite for breakfast and snacking on women for dessert. “I
don’t want to see him.”

“I understand
that. You don’t have to, but it might do you good to confront him and get some
closure. I’m sure Adam would go with you.”

He didn’t wait
for either of us to answer; he brushed an imaginary speck of dust off his
pants. “I have to go to the bridge. Alex, the Confederacy owes you a great debt
for your assistance with the tree people. You gained more ground in one night
than others have for decades.”

As soon as
Blake left, Adam sighed and came around the large sofa to sit next to me. He
lifted a lock of hair over my shoulder. “Do you want to go?”

I didn’t have
to be telepathic to see he didn’t want me to. Maybe I should let him make the
decision? Tempting. He was strong and secure. I leaned towards him and rested
my head on his shoulder. “No, I really don’t, but I probably should. You’d come
with me, right?”

“Of course,
but I can’t promise not to hurt him.”

*****

Enoch looked
less intimidating like this. My beating on him hadn’t done much of a
difference, but Adam’s would have, not to mention all the little accidents
Blake mentioned. He held a hand over his ribs and each breath wheezed. He was
pale, and drops of sweat shone like pearls on his forehead. I still winced when
he got to his feet and limped towards the force field that separated us. He
might be in agony, but he would still be able to kill me.

Adam put a
hand on my shoulder. Good thing; I was about to hide behind his back. He
whispered, “I’m strong enough to tear the hull of this ship apart. Even if he
could get out, I would not let him get to you.”

That helped. I
met Enoch’s eyes. “I heard you wanted to see me.”

“Yes… I
might have gone a little overboard yesterday.”

“You were
going to rape and kill me. That’s more than a little overboard.”

He rolled his
shoulders. “Yes, well, your pet robot looks like he’s yearning to rip my head
off.”

I wanted to
say Adam wasn’t a robot, but I didn’t have time to get a word in. “Aren’t you
two the model couple, huh? You could be on a Confederacy poster board for
interspecies relations. Too bad it won’t happen.”

He broke into
a coughing fit. Adam said, “You don’t have to listen to him. Let’s go.”

Enoch shook
his head and made a gesture for us to wait. Once he got his breath back, he
sounded a bit too gleeful. “No, Commander. You’ll want to hear this. In return,
I want your word you’ll keep your friends out of here. Both of you. And I want
some proper medical attention. You destroyed more than a few ribs yesterday.”

Adam shrugged.
“Come on, Sweetheart. Let’s get out of here.”

I walked
obediently when he put a light pressure on my shoulder. Behind us, Enoch called
out, “Alright Commander, you’ll only have yourself to blame when they take your
woman away.”

Adam stopped,
so I stopped too. He spun around and marched back towards the force field.
“What are you talking about.”

The human
stared into his eyes. “I told you you’d want to hear this. I need your word
first. I don’t want to die down here.”

Without even
glancing to the side, Adam reached out and deactivated the force field. The man
on guard in the middle of the room pretended as if he didn’t see or hear
anything.

As soon as the
barely visible shield disappeared, Adam took a step forward, grabbing Enoch
with superhuman speed and strength. He held the large man in the air. “How
about, you tell me, and I don’t break your neck?”