Especially if the bastard feels he has the right to talk to me like I’m his friggin’ wife.
She set the Centurion down on the orange landing circle as if it were a feather. As she began to power down the engines, the next grappler on the conveyor strip that ran through the middle of the circle caught the craft, picking it up ever so slightly and moving it gently toward the parking deck entrance. Once inside, the conveyor moved it along until it found the first available slot and deposited Stella and her pride and joy neatly and safely into it.
She was still debating whether to cancel tonight as she climbed out and headed toward the elevator. On the one hand, her pride was stinging, and there was this overwhelming urge to cut Mister Special Inspector down a size or two. Let him know in no uncertain terms that today was not appreciated.
But on the flip side of that, she had to grudgingly admit that she’d come to look forward to their nights together. Not just for the erotic adventures and mattress gymnastics, but the companionship as well. When they were feeling it, when they were in that same zone, that same frame of mind, it was as if they were the most perfectly matched pair in the history of the universe. Yeah, maybe it was corny, but it was almost as if their souls merged into one transcendent entity. She’d never felt anything like it before.
Fuck! Am I in love? She reached the elevator and pushed her thumbprint to the reader. God, I sure hope not!
In all her pondering, she never noticed the strange bug alighting on her back. Stealthily, it made its way up to her neck. It was approximately the size of a horsefly and moved as lightly as one. If one were to examine the strange creature closer though, they might be dismayed to discover the winged, multi-legged insectoid was instead a tiny robot, comprised of polymer and plastic.
Just as the elevator doors opened and Stella stepped inside, the bug pierced her skin with a mosquito-like proboscis. “Ow!” she yelled, as her hand went instinctively to her neck to swat away whatever it was that was biting her. But the creature was faster, long gone by the time the flat palm slapped bare skin.
But the damage had already been done. It had only taken a split second to inject the concentrated dose of potent sedatives into her. Even as the elevator door was closing in her face, she was already feeling the first subtle effects of drowsiness.
Through the camera lens eyes of the insect that hovered nearby, Cee Tee had been watching it all from his station in the command AC. He ran one last check on the security override he’d just completed on the Saturn Towers surveillance system, then calmly keyed his mic.
“Alright, guys. She’s on her way up. Cameras are down! Be ready!”
***
Ollie stood under the warm afternoon sun, among the still-smoking debris that was once his pool deck, staring at the mermaid statue partially submerged in the deep end of the pool. Most of the water had leaked out, but about three feet of dirty, brown water remained at that end. Large chunks of magnicrete lay everywhere, the result of pulse cannon fire. Plants and deck furniture still smoldered.
It’d been his sanctuary from his miserable existence of a life. One of Frost’s gunships had blasted it to bits the night before. He’d barely escaped being boiled alive when he’d jumped into the pool to escape the fiery barrage. The mercs shooting at him had cruelly filled the pool with superheated pulse rounds, percolating the water as if it were an ancient coffee pot.
And they’d shot the tits off his mermaid. Adding the ultimate insult to injury, they’d defaced the beautiful statue that had, before last night, overlooked the pool. She’d been a treasure, with a voluptuous body and big, massive, bare breasts. He’d spent many a night sitting in the pool with a hard-on, admiring her, dreaming of her coming to life and sliding into the water to make earth-shaking love to him. Yeah, it was a stupid fantasy for a grown man, but what else did he have going for him?
And now it was gone because of that bastard, Tiger Thomas. He would’ve blown that spacer out of the sky if those bastards hadn’t have shown up and saved the redneck rocket jockey by taking out his cannon batteries and shooting up his property.
What was done was done. There was nothing he could do about it now. All he could do was pick up the pieces and start over. He took one last look at the carnage, sighed in resignation and turned and headed back up toward the house.
As they say … no time like the present.
He heard the screaming even before he opened the door. He knew it was coming and had steeled himself for it, expecting some part of him to feel something still. Pity. Second thoughts? A tinge even of the love he had once felt. Yet, he surprised himself at how cold and unfeeling he was when the moment presented itself. It meant nothing to him as he made his way to the kitchen.
“Wives! Submit to yore husbands!” Gideon’s voice sounded maniacal as it echoed down from the second story. “For tha husband is the head of tha wife!”
There was the sound of flesh impacting flesh. She screamed again. “Please! Stop! God … Ollie, please! Help meeeee!”
Ollie opened the fridge to see if there was anything left to eat. He was hungry after the day he’d had.
“Shut up, ya who-ore!” Another smack, this one even louder.
“Please! Don’t hit me anymore!” she sobbed. Softer now, “I’ll be quiet! Please! Please!”
Ollie found some leftover pizza, delivery from a couple of nights ago. The bitch never cooked. Thus, he was left to fend for himself while she read her smut. He threw several pieces into the food restorer
