Page 5 of Mutiny

"Talk to me," Andrea pleaded.

"Get away from him, Andrea," Mei said. "He still has a chip in his brain forcing him to do things. He is dangerous."

"Listen to her," INF-GRA 32811 said. "You're in danger if you get in the way of my orders."

"I'd never get in the way of your orders," Andrea said. "What do you need to do? I'll help you do it."

These human women were brilliant.

She was using her words to confuse his control chip further. It would label her as an asset, making it much less likely that he would be forced to hurt her.

"Prove it," INF-GRA 32811 said as he put one hand on top of her head. "Get your hands on my makeshift focused laser cutter."

So that was the secondary order that had allowed him to hesitate. The pieces clicked together. First,, his control chip was likely forcing him to try to retake the ship, as that was standard procedure. That was why he was in this hallway, as it was the only place that led closer to the ship's core. As soon as he saw the tool Mei had built, his chip identified it as a useful way to cut through to the core faster, and issued the order to acquire it. Then, when it identified that I was free, it issued a secondary order to disable me, creating a stack of orders to obey. Since I hadn't taken hostile action, neither order was prioritized, and he had been able to hesitate long enough for the human woman to catch up with him and enact her brilliant plan.

A plan that became even more spectacular with every action she took.

Andrea dropped to her knees in front of him, unlatched the front of his armored trousers, and looked back over her shoulder to wink at Mei.

"If you don't want a show, it's time for you to leave," she said. "My man has needs."

Then she began to mate with him with her mouth.

There was a loud, sloppy sucking sound, and she gagged as she shoved her head forward on his length. It was startling to watch. I was not aware that was how humans mated. No media showed the proper flirtation rituals for establishing mate bonds with humans, and Sigidi didn't include that information in his detailed report.

Mei let out a strangled sound as she stared at them, wide-eyed.

"Is it normal for humans to mate in that manner?" I asked her. The shows available to watch in our shared media repository featured a wide variety of species, and I had seen a few romantically focused ones. Many ways to initiate mating existed, but most required privacy.

Mei looked up at me, her skin darkening in hue before she lifted her hand to cover her face, not answering.

Embarrassment, my body language subroutine reported.

A low, painful groan and the thud of INF-GRA 32811's body hitting the ground pulled my attention back to him. Andrea stood over him, her hands clutched into fists at her sides, breathing heavily.

"Why do you keep passing out?" Andrea shrieked at his prone body.

Didn't she already know that? I thought her actions had been calculated. If she hadn't been deliberately trying to disable him, what was she doing?

"Haven't you been listening to anything we've talked about in the group meetings?" Mei demanded.

"Those meetings are dumb," Andrea said, crossing my arms. "The men will figure that stuff out for us; we don't need to stress about any of that."

What a strange way to think.

"I don't understand you at all," Mei muttered, then let out a heavy sigh and looked up at the ceiling, and I couldn't help but nod in agreement with her statement.

"Do you know why he passed out?" Andrea asked me, her tone becoming higher in pitch as she focused on me. "What am I doing wrong?"

Her second question didn't make any sense, as she had done everything right, so I focused on answering the first question instead.

"You overloaded his biological suppression system," I replied.

"How do I not overload it?" she asked, making it clear she had no idea what she was doing. "I just want to make this good for him, and I can't if he keeps passing out."

"By removing his control chip," I said.

"Sara needs to do that," Mei said. "You'll have to take him to her."