"Good morning," Alice said, stretching on the bed. She looked beautiful, even when sleepy, with tousled hair.
"Good morning," I heard myself repeat the strange combination of words. I had an idea what it meant, but nobody greeted one another like this. A stupid smile pulled my lips up, and my cock twitched.
She rose off the bed, wearing some of the new clothing I had ordered on Morrakbarr before we left. The new shirt was short-sleeved, exposing her mating marks, and seeing them on her did something to my insides. It was an undefinable sensation of heat spreading through my chest as if I were internally bleeding, but it made me feel good. Very strange.
"I hope the chair wasn't too uncomfortable?" She stretched again, and her perky little breasts poked straight through her shirt, hardening my cock to a near-painful level. Frygg.
"It was… fine," I managed to reply, watching her as she walked to the bathroom. Her hips swung enticingly. Why hadn't I noticed that before?
"For what it's worth, your bed is really, really nice," she smiled at me before entering the bathroom, leaving me to stare at the now-closed door.
I readjusted my dick because I couldn't sit like this any longer. Frygg. I wondered if there were any pleasure houses on Astrionis. My body was in desperate need of relief, but just the thought of having sex with someone else deflated the body part in question.
"Are you frygging pouting now?" I hissed between clenched teeth.
"What?" Alice called from the other side of the wall.
"Nothing," I yelled, banging my head against the table.
Why was I being tortured like this?
To have something to do besides imagining the human female in my bathroom, naked and soaped, I pulled up several cubes. I checked if there were any new Holostreams from Nock, but if there were, I hadn't received them yet. To occupy myself, I browsed through his older casts, including the one he had mentioned about mating marks.
Not much later, Alice came out of the bathroom, freshly dressed in a shirt with long sleeves, I noticed. Part of me didn't like her hiding the mating marks, but it was probably the sensible thing to do. I had no idea how the humans would react if they saw both of us marked like this.
The comm pinged, a request from an Ohrur, Callopea, another minder. I had worked for him before. I motioned for Alice to return to the bathroom and stay quiet. It seemed like a small miracle when she did.
This was my third minder in a very short amount of time for the same mission. Highly unusual.
"Callopea, did you miss me?" I asked sarcastically.
"As pleasant as always, Xyrek," he responded as his form materialized in my quarters. "I've been ordered to take over for Moddekdum. Before we begin, I need to see?—"
I knew where this was going and decided to go on the attack to get him distracted, "What happened to Moddekdum? He was supposed to replace Possedion, who also just up and vanished. What's happening on Ohrur? Some kind of disease I should know about?" I kept my tone aggressive.
"That is none of your concern, Space Gu?—"
Again, I interrupted him. "I beg to differ. When two of my minders have been replaced within a few short months, it is very much my business. Where are they?"
Callopea glared at me, "We're handling it."
"You're handling it? Funny, that's exactly what Moddekdum said right before there was some kind of explosion and he had to get off the comm."
For a moment, Callopea looked nervous, but then he pulled himself back together. "You seem to be forgetting who the minder is in this relationship, Space Guardian."
"Trust me, I'm not," I gritted out. I had never liked any of myminders, least of all Callopea, who enjoyed reminding me of the power balance between us. This time, though, I asked myself,what power? What is he holding over me, and why do I feel the need to listen to his orders? Strangely, I didn't feel it like I had before.
"I've been sworn to protect the Ohrur, so if they start vanishing around me, I have a vested interest in finding out what is happening," I explained.
Callopea stopped his pacing and regarded me thoughtfully. "I understand your point," he surprised me, "but you have to trust me. We have everything under control. You just need to follow your mission."
"I'm on my way to Astrionis to deliver the humans." I pretended that Moddekdum hadn't changed my orders—a gamble.
"Moddekdum was supposed to inform you that your orders changed."
"He was?" I widened my eyes. "That must have slipped his mind after a bomb went off in his living quarters." I didn't know that for sure, but that's what it had sounded like, that or a missile hitting his house.
It turned out Callopea wasn't as smart as he liked to make me believe, because he fell for both of my bluffs. "It wasn't a bomb, just an unfortunate experiment gone wrong. Moddekdum should have never allowed a scientist to use his house for a trial."
