Page 49 of Her Alien Boss

“Wow. That machine really works. Do you mean the one inside the goddess?”

“Yes,” he says. “You could call this the food of the gods.”

“Ambrosia,” I mumble to myself.

I am starting to feel a little heavy and relaxed. I didn’t know it would feel so transformative to finally get food in me that didn’t taste like the colors gray and beige mixed together.

I smile and there’s a giggle on my lips, a warm haze running through my veins. It feels faintly familiar, but in a way I can’t entirely access. I feel as though I’m trying to remember something, a faint bell is ringing in the recesses of my mind. But it doesn’t matter, I’m sure.

Drak is helping me stand up, guiding me with one hand under my elbow.

“Good girl,” Drak praises. “You are ready to merge with the goddess.”

We go deeper into his ultra secret private office with the heavily guarded doors and the special markings to let everyone know they absolutely should not be there. I glide through the doors with him, feeling almost as if my feet aren’t touching the floor. I can’t feel my body like I usually do. Odd.

“How do I merge with it? More suckers?”

“Oh, no,” Drak says. “Those were training apparatus. For the merging, we’ll make a small incision…” He reaches out with a fingernail that is surprisingly sharp and runs it round in a line from my forehead all the way around the circumference of my skull.

“And we’ll remove the brain,” he says with a smile.

“Remove the brain,” I repeat in my pleasant haze.

“That’s right, and then we’ll install it in the robot, and you and the creature will be the same thing. Well, your consciousness will control the various functions assigned to it anyway.”

“You want to put my brain in the robot,” I repeat.

“That’s right,” he says, his tone soothing and warm and friendly. “Just pop your brain right in there.”

“What brain will you put in my body?”

“You won’t need a body after that, human. You’ll be part of something much bigger.”

“Does Arkon know about this? He likes my body.”

“We will let him keep it,” Drak says. “We can put you on machines to keep the basic functions running even without this delightful little meat computer.”

It feels to me that there’s something wrong with this plan, but I can’t fully articulate exactly what at this precise time. Odd, I know. It’s like my thoughts have been turned down, and the part of my mind that was afraid of things has been completely disconnected. I’m going to join with something beautiful, something bigger than myself. And all it’s going to take is a little cut.

* * *

Arkon

I feel something sever inside me. I am in the midst of helping the juniors recalibrate a joint system that keeps inverting itself, but in an instant I know something is wrong with my mate. She has become something of a constant presence in my mind and body, and her absence is very tangible even at a distance. This is a feeling I have not had before, but I’ve heard of people talk about mating bonds. Hard to tell if it represents something real, or if I’m just starting to get paranoid at not having her right by my side all the time.

I immediately use the intercom to talk to Drak.

“Drak?”

“Hm?”

“Is everything alright with Evie?”

“Yes,” he says. “She’s doing well. Deep in the simulation right now.”

I feel a little intellectually better and get back to work, but over the course of the next hour or so, the feeling grows until I can no longer push it away.

“I have to go,” I tell the juniors. “I’ll be back in a bit. Hold fire on this until then.”