Page 60 of Her Alien Boss

“How would I even start to do that?”

“I don’t know! You’re inventive!”

“I am not going to punish the Fematrix,” I promise her. “Yours is the only ass I intend to spank red and yours is the only…”

Drak chooses that moment to appear through the hole in the wall. He stands there looking very self-satisfied as he decides to speak up.

“Would you please refrain from shouting erotic profanity in front of the entire workforce?” Drak drawls. “I know your little punishment kink is the pretty much the only personality trait you have, but…”

I flex my hands into fists. “I have time to fight you before she gets down, if that’s what you want,” I say. “I need to discharge some of this before she gets down.”

“Relax. The Fematrix has been calmed,” he says. “She’s in a stasis mode right now. I’ve ensured that your mate is safe.”

“She’s not safe, she’s still hundreds of feet in the air. Why didn’t you get the robot to put her down?”

“Because the potential for something to get crushed if the Fematrix lowers its hand toward a solid surface like that of the asteroid is too damn high,” he growls. “I’m looking after your blasted mate, who, by the way, would be perfectly safe if we’d left her brain in the machine. Instead, nooo, we have to put her consciousness in the squishy biological suit that will degrade with surprising swiftness.”

He is helping, and I suppose I could be grateful for that, but he is also an interstellar asshole and he can really go fuck himself.

“Do you know what you need?” Drak says.

“What?”

“You need to get back to war. You were never a businessman, and you were certainly never a boss. You mentor the juniors like a warrior, and you handle the girl like a conqueror. You should be back in a fighter vessel and you know it.”

“Maybe, but that’s not going to change how I want to handle you or her.”

“It would take the edge off. All this tension because our creation punched a hole in the wall and made off with your mate? It’s not that big a deal. In fact, it indicates we’ve managed to fabricate an independent intellect that can connect with another brain outside itself and maintain that connection without physical, uh, connection. The point is, either the Fematrix has consciousness, or your mate has control of it.”

“You think that’s a good thing? We were having enough trouble with one independent intellect,” I sigh.

I am starting to calm down now. She is not going anywhere. The Fematrix has been holding her steady since she took her. I was concerned that we’d have to recall the creature from across the universe again, but the machine is under control. The only thing that is not in control is Evie.

* * *

Evie

In the end, I have to come down. Arkon is getting increasingly annoyed, and on top of that I am starting to get hungry and need to pee.

I listen to him and Drak arguing. I can’t hear all the words. I can’t actually hear most of them, but I get the gist anyway. I was never supposed to have real control of the Fematrix. Which is strange, because they spent a lot of time ensuring I had total control of the Fematrix.

I can see the others down on the ground below, looking a little like ants from up here. The way they move about with six limbs is actually quite cute when seen from this angle. They’re trying to work out how to attach ladders together to get to me. Seems to me they’re going to have to try from the hole in the building I was taken out of, but they seem to prefer working on it from the ground. Engineers do be engineering.

“Evie!” Arkon shouts out to me.

“Uh-huh?”

“We’re going to have a ladder up to you soon. Don’t climb down it. Let me come up to you, okay?”

“I can climb down a ladder, Arkon.”

“I didn’t ask if you could, I told you not to!”

I really don’t know why I am provoking him. Maybe some part of me wants to see what happens when he reaches the limits of his patience and just straight up ravages me.

I look down at him, smirking. I’m lying on my stomach now, actually quite comfortable. I trust the Fematrix not to hurt me the same way I trust my own foot to suddenly not kick me. We are parts of one another.

“You can’t control me now,” I say. “I have the world’s biggest robot friend. You’re nothing compared to her.”