She shrugged. “Nobody else to do it. Since my dad and mom died I’m the number one chief cook and bottle washer around here. Not to mention head mechanic. It’s not so hard, it’s just…” She trailed off and he sensed her worry.
“Go on,” he urged her.
Leita sighed again. “It’s just that I already have one ship out of commission and the one that just got damaged is my main ore collector. It’s also what I’d use as a life raft if I ever had to leave this rock. So I guess it kind of worries me.”
“Let me help.” Pierce was already swinging his legs off the side of the bed but the pressure of her small hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“Look, Pierce, I know you’re programmed to be sensitive to me and let me talk about my feelings, but right now I just don’t have time. Maybe later I can get all girly and cry about it but right now if I don’t get that ship fixed and back in commission my production is going to go way down. I can’t afford to take a financial hit right now.” She finished pulling on her clothes and patted him gently. “You just go back to bed,” she said softly. “We’ll talk later.” And with that she was gone, slipping softly from the door that closed behind her with a breathless whoosh.
Pierce sat still in the bed for a moment blinking groggily, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. Had a sweet young thing just told him to go back to sleep and let her do all the work because she didn’t have time to get girly? He had to grin at that—what a role reversal! How many times had he left the warm bed of a willing woman with the same words—well, not exactly the same words, but the same idea behind them. You go on back to sleep, honey, he’d say, strapping on his pistol and pulling on his boots. Got work to do you can’t help me with. I’ll see you later.
It felt funny to have the shoe on the other foot. Then Pierce realized it didn’t have to be. He hadn’t exactly trained as a mechanic, but he knew his way around a ship well enough, especially something as simple as a droid ore hauler. He knew Leita didn’t believe he could help her but he’d heard the worry in her voice and seen it in the tense set of her slender shoulders. There was no need for her to carry such a heavy burden alone—not when he could help her lift it. Pierce got up and began feeling for his clothes, which Leita had put through the fresher chute so they were clean and no longer smelled like the inside of someone’s armpit. Time this Companion 3000 grew an extra bonus feature that was actually useful.
He didn’t know the layout of the pod and by the time he found the mech bay, down a long twisting corridor, she was already deep in the guts of a machine. Pierce could hear her swearing softly to herself and he saw the problem at once—the droid ship was shaped like a sphere and its stabilizers were shot. Leita was standing on her tiptoes, trying to reach the manual controls so she could winch down the blasters and begin repairs. But every time she reached for it, the ship, which was bobbing gently on its anti-grav field, would roll away from her, like a slippery ball in a pool of water.
“Looks to me like you need longer arms,” he said, coming up behind her just as the round side of the ship rolled away from her reach once more.
Leita jumped. “Oh, Pierce—you scared the life out of me! I thought I told you to go back to sleep.” There was a smudge of grease on one of her cheeks and she looked tired and frustrated and absolutely beautiful.
“Wasn’t sleepy.” He smiled at her and reached down to grab a spare wrench. “Why don’t you let me do that?”
“Look, Pierce, I appreciate that you want to help me but I really don’t think your programming will support this kind of thing.” Leita smiled at him. “But it’s really sweet of you to offer.”
“I’m not offering,” he growled softly, getting in close to the ship so he could reach controls. “I’m telling. And don’t worry about my programming,” he added, seeing her open her mouth to protest. “I’m programmed to do whatever I can to help you and that includes repair work. After all, I wouldn’t be much use if I wasn’t good for anything but screwing all day, would I?”
Leita flushed pink and smiled at him. “I’ve got no complaints.”
Pierce grinned at her, liking the way she could be so wanton during the act of love and look so innocent and embarrassed about it afterward. Last night she’d been a little tigress in bed but today she looked like a naïve schoolgirl—albeit a slightly dirty one from rummaging around inside the droid ship. Leita was a woman of many layers and he found that he liked that.
“I’m glad you’re satisfied,” he said, bending to give her a quick kiss on the end of her nose that made her giggle. “But didn’t you tell me you had another ship that needed fixing too?”
“I do.” She brightened. “Hey, if you can really do this, then we might even be able to get both ships back into action before too long.”
“Let’s go, then.” Pierce turned his attention back to the ship bobbing in front of him while Leita moved down the bay to a similar craft that was also damaged. After a moment, Pierce realized she was humming as she worked.
It took most of the day with only a quick break for lunch, but they got both ships up and in good shape. By the time Leita closed the mech bay door and pressed the button to open the airlock so the ships could go back to collecting, Pierce was beat. His muscles ached and he was grimy and sweaty and tired, but it was a good kind of tired. They’d accomplished something, he thought with satisfaction. It made him happy to see the relief in Leita’s face when the ships had gone off about their business.
“Well.” She dusted her hands together and smiled at him. “That was great! It would’ve taken me three days at least to get both ships up and out to collect again without your help. Thanks, Pierce.”
He stretched, trying to loosen up some of tightness in his shoulders. “Glad to help. Goddess, I’m beat—even my bones ache.”
She smiled. “Well, that must be some ache since your skeleton’s made of titanium, huh?”
“Oh, uh…right.” For a moment Pierce had forgotten what he was supposed to be. Working side by side with Leita in the mech bay, it had been easy to just get into the rhythm of the work and let everything else slide out of his mind.
“What was it like?” Leita asked as they walked down the long gray metal corridor that connected the mech bay to the rest of the pod. “I mean, what was your life like before you came here?”
Pierce wished he could tell her, wished he could explain about the bounty on his head that wasn’t really his fault, his childhood in Star City on Titan, his life, hopping from world to world transporting goods and sometimes smuggling fugitives but he couldn’t. Instead, he shrugged awkwardly and said, “Not much to tell, actually. They grew me in a tank, stuck me in a box and shipped me out to you. And here I am.” He tried to smile at her. “So what about you? How long have you been living out here on the edge of nowhere?”
Leita sighed. “Well, my parents came out here from the inner system—the colony on Old Earth’s moon, you know? It was so crowded and polluted and my dad always said he wanted a place all his own. He saved every penny and had this place built by remote droids—took him years but he got it done. I guess I was about thirteen or fourteen when we finally moved out here.”
“Sounds like a lonely life,” Pierce said.
Leita shrugged. “Not so much while my mom and dad were still alive. Of course, the plan was for me to finish my schooling at one of the universities on Osiris, maybe find a man who wouldn’t mind the solitude to come back here and run the place. I was all set to go when they went out on a scouting trip looking for more ore and well…” She shook her head. “They just never came back.”
“Collision?” Pierce asked sympathetically.
She nodded, her eyes red. “Yup. It’s always a danger when you’re flying through the asteroid field—ships’ sensors will only detect and avoid the big stuff. But all it takes is one little one in the right place to screw you.” Her shoulders slumped and she leaned against the wall. “Schneider and I found pieces of the wreck—the other ships broug
ht it in for weeks after they went missing, along with the ore. But the only thing we found of Mom and Dad was Dad’s favorite hat. He called it his lucky hat—always wore it when they went out on scouting trips.” She made a little hurt sound in the back of her throat that twisted Pierce’s heart. “I knew when I saw it that they were really gone. He never would have parted with that stupid hat otherwise.”
“Aw, honey, I’m sorry.” He put an arm around her and drew her close. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”
“No, it’s okay.” She pushed away from him and swiped at her eyes with the back of her arm. “It’s been almost six years now and mostly I try not to think about it.”
“And you’ve been running this place by yourself ever since?” Pierce asked her as they continued on into the kitchen unit.
Leita made a face as she slumped into a chair at the table. “Well, mostly. I hired a guy right after Mom and Dad were killed to help with the upkeep. He was supposed to be a great mechanic and I paid him a month’s credit in advance just for showing up.” She shrugged. “He left a week later in the middle of the night. It took me a while to recoup the loss and in the meantime, I got a whole lot better at fixing the ships myself. Then, almost two years ago, I tried again—more because I was lonely than because I was desperate for help.”
“What happened?” Pierce poured them both a mug of hot caffeine brew and sat beside her at the table, carefully sipping the steaming liquid.
Leita took a sip of the brew and smiled gratefully at him. “Mmm, this hits the spot. Well, I placed sort of a personal want ad type thing on the Web and after this long screening process, which turned out to be completely useless, I got this guy named Eddie.”
Pierce added some dextrose to his brew to sweeten it. “So, what—he took off after a week too?”
Leita shook her head. “Oh no, not Eddie. He stayed around for a good six months. Got me to trust him, got me to tell him everything I wanted. Everything I needed.” She stared down into the dark brown liquid in her mug. “He…he acted like it was no big deal—what I wanted him to do.”
“What did you want him to do?” Pierce asked softly. He’d felt from the first that there was more to Leita than met the eye. There was something deeper, something darker inside her that craved understanding and exposure, whether she knew it or not. But Leita only shook her head.
“Never mind. The point is, when he left, he took most of the keepsakes my parents left me—the ones that had monetary value anyway—and about six months’ profit. Oh, and he left me a note, telling me what he really thought of me.” She grimaced. “Nice parting gift, huh?”
Pierce clutched the mug of caffeine brew so tightly he was surprised it didn’t break. “That son of a bitch,” he said thickly. “He had no right to do that to you, Leita.” But isn’t that what you’re doing, Pierce? asked a little voice in the back of his head. Taking her for a ride before you leave her high and dry? Pierce pushed it away—he had no intention of hurting Leita if he could help it.
She took another sip of her brew and shrugged philosophically. “That’s when I realized I was never going to be able to keep a man around here—not a real one anyway.” She put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, no offense, Pierce.”
“None taken,” he said dryly, wishing again that he could tell her who and what he really was instead of playing this silly charade. “I know what you mean.”
“That’s when I started thinking about buying a Companion,” Leita went on, smiling at him. “It took me over a year to save the credit but I’m beginning to think it’s the best investment I ever made.”
Pierce felt his stomach turn over again as guilt stabbed him. He hadn’t thought too much about the fact that Leita had spent an enormous amount of credit on a piece of merchandise that she hadn’t really gotten. When he left she’d be out the money and feeling betrayed all over again.
“Hey.” She put a hand on his arm. “You okay, Pierce? You look kind of, I don’t know—upset.” She laughed nervously. “I guess it’s silly to think that though, huh? Are you even programmed for negative emotions?”
Yeah, honey—I got negative emotions. All kinds of ‘em. Pierce tried to smile at her. “I was just thinking that, uh, you seem to have a hard, lonely life out here. It made me…well, sad, I guess.”
“Not so lonely anymore.” She squeezed his arm. “Of course, Schneider and I keep each other company, but I’m really glad you’re here, Pierce. I mean that.”
“I’m glad I am too,” he said sincerely. And I’ll stay as long as I can, he vowed to himself. And while I’m here, I’m gonna do everything in my power to make you happy. Leita had a cold and lonely life out here mining for ore with nobody but the sarcastic Schneider for company—she deserved a little happiness. Yet another job for the Companion 3000, he thought to himself with a little smile.
Chapter 5
Leita found that her days with Pierce fell into a kind of pattern. They got up in the morning and worked in the mech bay if any of the ships needed service or repair. With Pierce’s help, she was able to get disabled ships up and back into rotation in half the time it usually took which increased production immensely. But even if all the ships were running smoothly, Pierce still insisted on finding something to work on. With his help, Leita was able to get to a lot of maintenance projects she’d been meaning to do around the life pod completed as well as some long overdue spring cleaning. Soon everything sparkled and shone and worked right for the first time in years, much to her delight.
In the evenings they watched vids or read and just generally relaxed in each other’s company. It seemed strange to Leita that she could feel so completely comfortable relaxing with a machine, but after a while she dismissed it and just let herself go. Pierce was good company, even if he was just a preprogrammed dildo, as Schneider insisted on calling him.
They took turns with the cooking and Pierce proved his usefulness yet again with his store of delicious recipes. Leita was never sure what culinary magic he would work next with her limited selection of ingredients. He seemed to enjoy her more traditional home cooking too, though she was sure she could feed him burned toast and his programming would make him say he liked it. Maybe not though, she thought, remembering his reaction to the purple nutrition paste she’d made him the first night. For a machine programmed exclusively to serve, Pierce seemed to have very definite opinions of his own. He didn’t always agree with her on everything but Leita found she liked that about him. It made him so much more human—more real.
Maybe it was the fact that he seemed so real that kept her from telling Pierce her darkest fantasies. Leita knew it was silly to worry about being judged by a machine— especially one that was programmed to fulfill all her kinkiest desires—but she couldn’t get the memory of Eddie’s note out of her head. If Pierce had been a little more soulless and a little less lifelike, she probably would have had him tying her to the bed and doing all kinds of unspeakable things by now. But somehow, Leita just couldn’t bring herself to ask for that. Besides, the sex with him was already wonderful—more than wonderful, really.
Pierce was a tender and considerate lover and he seemed to know just when to be a little bit rough, too. They made love often, if you could make love with a machine, and he always made sure she came—an unusual occurrence in Leita’s limited experience. Leita was more than content with the way he loved her, or so she told herself, and there was plenty of time to tell him the desires of her heart later. Maybe when she wasn’t so self-conscious.
In the meantime, she was happier and more contented than she could ever remember being, even when her parents had been alive. The only dark spot in the whole equation was the fact that Schneider still refused to have anything to do with Pierce. It hurt Leita that her best friend wouldn’t relent and give her Companion a chance, but Tarbians were known for their stubborn streak and Schneider was no exception. He’d taken to making himself scarce whenever Pierce was around and even stopped sleeping on his favorite pillow in Leita
’s room. She tried to talk to him about it, but it didn’t help.
“I don’t like him, Leita. There’s something not right about him,” he told her one day, about a month after Pierce’s arrival. They were sitting in the kitchen unit while Pierce took a shower and Schneider was grooming himself as he spoke. “You can fall in love with him if you want, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I’m not in love with him,” Leita snapped. “That would be ridiculous—falling in love with a machine.”
Schneider wrinkled his small black nose skeptically. “So that’s why I always see you curled up on the couch with your head on his chest? That’s the reason you’re always trying new recipes you think he’d like and dressing in those ridiculous outfits to show off your pink nubbly things?”
“I told you they’re nipples and…oh, never mind.” Leita shook her head in disgust. “I don’t know why I’m trying to justify myself to you.”
Schneider’s tail twitched. “Maybe because you know I’m right? The same way I was right about Eddie? I never liked him either, you know.”
“Pierce is not Eddie,” she pointed out in a low, terse voice. “He’s programmed to be faithful and kind and thoughtful. He’s not going to run out on me in the middle of the night.”
“He’s not ever really going to love you either,” Schneider pointed out. “You can’t form a lasting relationship with a machine, Leita, no matter how good it is in bed.”
Leita felt a rush of helpless anger. “You know what, Schneider? I don’t have a choice. If I could find a man to stay around this Goddessforsaken asteroid belt with me, I’d try to make it work. But I can’t—so I bought one. And I know that makes me pathetic and lonely and every other ‘single-girl who can’t find a man’ cliché in the book, but I don’t care. Pierce makes me happy. I wish you could just accept that.”
Schneider twitched his whiskers. “I’ll accept Captain Dildo when I figure out what the catch is. He’s too good to be true, Leita. Somehow or other he’s going to hurt you—I just know it.”
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