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5
Lyssa
“Hello, Lyssa. I attempted to eliminate your captor, but he moved more swiftly than my calculations indicated. Next time I get a shot, I can assure you he will be eliminated.”
Manik gives me a dour look, though her comments do back me up. She has her own desire to kill him completely absent of my own orders or desires. I asked him to stay silent while I speak to her, as I know the sound of his voice will trigger her.
“Actually, it would be nice if you could land, please.”
“Why would I land? He could interfere with me, as he has interfered with you. I am detecting increased endorphin levels in your voice. That indicates sexual contact. We have spoken many times of your oath to never sleep with another man again.”
Jealous,Manik mouths to me.
I want her down. I want her down so I can make an escape. Being here is dangerous for me, physically and emotionally.
“Computer, I am ordering you to make a landing. I cannot leave this planet without you down here. Transportation is too dangerous. I almost died.”
“Almost is another word for didn’t. I await further instructions.”
“Computer!” I snap her name, but she has actually closed the communication channel. Manik reaches over and snaps the connection settings to off.
“Your computer has gone completely rogue,” he says. “This is why I have never cared for vessels with neural networks. We’ll have to shoot it down.”
“No! Please! She can be reasoned with.”
“She’s not a person. She’s a ship. A ship that is refusing to land. So she’s actually an orbiting hostile force. I will remove any and all threats, Lyssa, including the ones you have mistaken for friends.”
“Computer doesn’t mean anything by it. She just thinks you’re a threat to me and wants to eliminate you from existence. Don’t you see? You’re so similar! That’s why you don’t get along.”
Manik looks at me in disbelief. “I don’t think I have ever heard so many ill-advised words strung together in one sentence before. It’s like you’re asking for something terrible to happen to you.”
“Well,” I shrug. “As you’ve mentioned before. I have a self-destructive streak.”
“What a coincidence,” he says. “So do I.”
I don’t know what is happening between us. We were adversaries, and I think we still might be somehow. But we are getting on in a way neither of us expected, rough sex included.
“Leave Computer alone,” I say. “Please.”
“I am not going to be shot at every time I go outside.”
“Do you think Computer is better at shooting than you are at evading?”
“What a blatant attempt at manipulation,” he laughs.
“It’s not an attempt at manipulation at all. It’s a challenge. One you can rise to or refuse to accept. Because you’re scared. Of a computer in the sky.”
He lets out a shout of laughter and perhaps anger. “Human! Why must you test me this way? Do you wish to hurt all over again?”
I smile and give another of my shrugs. I am enjoying my time with Manik. He is terrifying as a matter of course, but anybody who seeks to travel the universe soon comes to term with the deep and abiding existential terror that haunts every moment.
He grabs me and pulls me close. He has to lift me up almost every time so I don’t have to crane my neck quite so far back to look at him.
“I think you do want to hurt. I think you want me to be the rock you dash yourself against like the ocean dashes herself against the shore. I think you want me to break you.” He leans in close, his voice close to a whisper. “You will not be disappointed.”
I feel a thrill rush through me, one that only intensifies when he sits down and takes me over his knee. This is such a juvenile position for a human, but for Manik it is just a matter of convenience. I let out a sound that probably should be one of fear, or at the very least a plea for mercy. It should not be a high-pitched giggle of amusement.
“Unzip yourself,” he orders. He has forgotten to draw the fastening that holds my suit against my body down, and so now it is left to me to bare myself for him.
