“You're not the only person on this ship,” Ali continued, “and if our computer is hacked again then the information could be pulled from its memory. Better that I take care of everything, for everyone's sake.”
“Yeah, and you'll want to change my diaper and put me down for a nap pretty soon here too, won't you?” he shot back.
Belix rolled her eyes. “The way you're acting, I wouldn't be surprised if you needed it.”
Aiden really wasn't in the mood for this; since when had his bridge been taken over by people who all seemed to be against him? “Yeah, I'm sure you'd be dancing for joy if the lover you trusted and depended on abruptly betrayed you?”
The elfin woman sucked in a sharp breath. “You're going to say that. To me?”
In spite of his mood, he couldn't help but wince at that. He supposed he had just dug pretty close to some old but still deep and very raw wounds. He cleared his throat and turned away. “Fine, you've got the bridge,” he told his compa-the Caretaker sourly. “Go ahead and take us to this secret base. Gunner, shoot her if she goes crazy and starts tearing people apart.”
He was only half joking.
Standing, Aiden stood and strode out into the corridor. Maybe he'd jump into full immersion for a bit. Without Ali, for once; void, maybe he'd even borrow a sleazy dive from one of the twins and see what sort of fun he could have. He could do with a bit of time away from the ship and everything happening on it.
So of course, on the way to the lounge he nearly bumped into Sarr.
The woman was flushed from her trip to the allnet hub, obviously just finished changing out of her EVA suit. She'd apparently left her absurd glasses behind for her spacewalk, making her big brown eyes more noticeable. He certainly noticed them, staring into them in open challenge as she skidded to a halt in the corridor with an expression like a cornered rat.
“It wasn't an accident that you went with my companion to contact your corporation, was it?” he stated more than asked.
“It, um . . .” she stammered. “Helping her sync was the right thing?”
“So she told you she couldn't possibly disobey my order and asked you not to do it for her, while secretly implying that you should?” The scientist's expression was all the confirmation Aiden needed; looked as if Ali had been telling the truth about that, at least. He snorted in disgust. “After I risked my neck saving you from slavery, then potentially made a powerful enemy by agreeing to help you get back to your people, you decided to screw me over.”
Sarr gave him a stricken look. “I-”
“I guess HAE's squeaky clean reputation really is completely superficial,” he growled as he slipped past her and continued down the corridor, calling over his shoulder. “You're just as scheming and treacherous as the rest of the universe.”
She didn't respond, which suited him just fine.
Aiden wasn't blind to the fact that in spite of the fact that a strange and possibly untrustworthy AI had just entered his ship, his response was running off into virtual reality. That suggested he must trust her on some level, even if he'd assigned the gunner to keep an eye on her.
That, or he was so mentally broken up by her betrayal that he was no longer thinking clearly and wasn't fit for duty. In which case he should report to the ship's medical officer . . . Ali.
What a joke. Just not a funny one; more the soul-crushing, universe spiraling out of control kind.
Well, he definitely wasn't about to let her into his cabin tonight. For all his talk about her proving she was still Ali by sleeping with him, the idea of being so vulnerable with her under the current circumstances made his skin crawl. In fact, he was tempted to manually lock his door so he didn't wake up with those long, elegant fingers of hers around his throat.
For that matter, maybe he'd dump the Caretaker with the scientists at this secret HAE facility of theirs. After making them buy back the expensive adult companion they'd hijacked from him, of course. And he was going to have serious second thoughts about purchasing another one in the future.
Or, well, stealing one.
* * * * *
A few hours after going to sleep, the Dormant roused and slipped away from her entangling embrace with the gunner, trying to be subtle about it. Particularly when it came to not jostling his burned arm; wasn't that an ugly wound, even for someone who'd seen her fair share.
In spite of whatever painkillers he'd been given, he was instantly awake and aware of her leaving. Which wasn't all that surprising, really; the perils of a relationship with a genetically modified superhuman.
Although as usual, he tried to pretend he was still asleep for her sake.
The man hadn't asked anything about her habit of, as he thought she was doing, occasionally going back to her own room to sleep. Even now that they'd been together this long, he didn't press her on the issue. He certainly had to wonder why she was doing it, though; he only acted as if he had no human emotions, and his Construct conditioning wasn't nearly as thorough as Dormant brainwashing.
She constantly had to remind herself that the gunner wasn't a normal young man. Which was why the first time she'd tried to slip away and realized he was awake, she'd been tempted to perform some perfunctory intimacy to settle him back to sleep before she left.
After all, years of experience and her brainwashing both assured her that a man's suspicions tended disappear
