female but from one of the more masculine female genders.
‘Eden, just for once could we pretend that I’m the captain and we’re about to do something really—’
‘Fucking stupid?’ Eden asked. Eldon felt a vein on his forehead start to twitch as Brett laughed, good-naturedly, of course.
‘Eden, Melia’s our bridge drive specialist – we’ll need her,’ Brett said. Oh go and fuck yourself, you supercilious little prick, Eldon thought. But it didn’t matter, Melia was all his, a fully bonded concubine bought and paid for. He’d paid for her training and neunonics so she could help with the ship’s systems. So she wasn’t just an ornament and sex toy.
Eden glared at Eldon. He was just as capable of waking the fucking cat, she thought as she ran through the pod’s shutdown sequence on her neunonics. Strictly speaking, as the ship’s engineer the pod’s systems were her responsibility but Eden was pretty sure that Eldon had just got her to do it because he knew how much she hated the cat.
The pod creaked open. It needed maintenance but Eden was putting it off as long as possible in the hope that Melia died in a horrible cryogenic accident. Eden had sent the cursory, bordering on rude, wake-up call to the cat’s neunonics. Melia hadn’t responded but the pod’s systems reported that the cocktail of drugs required to bring the cat to fully functioning consciousness had been administered.
Melia sat up in the pod and made yawning a performance that allowed her to show off all her sculpted assets. Eldon turned to watch the show. Even Brett, healthy polysexual though he was, looked around briefly.
‘That is so fucking demeaning,’ Eden muttered under her breath.
‘And yet everyone does what I want,’ Melia said, smiling. The lightly furred feline humanoid’s smile was of course predatory.
‘Only because you pander to some xenophile pornographic fantasy hard-wired into the wannabe masculine since before the Loss.’
‘Come on, Eden.’ Brett said. Eden normally liked Brett, but his want for everyone to get on was starting to irritate her as well.
Eldon was looking at Melia with an expression that bordered on worship. His adoration was shattered by the grateful smile that Melia shot Brett.
It was short walk from the pod to Eldon’s flight chair, but the naked feline made a performance of that. Eden tried not to grind her teeth as Melia put her arms around Eldon and jumped into his lap.
‘We’re in space, baby?’ Melia said, rubbing against Eldon and purring gently.
‘Oh put some fucking clothes on!’ Eden said. Melia bared her teeth and hissed at the human – mostly – woman.
‘Go and fuck yourself, you puritan bitch!’ Eldon snapped at the engineer.
‘Eden, you know that they have different social mores to us,’ Brett said in a conciliatory tone.
‘Would those social mores include manipulating the fuck out of every halfwit with a penis?’
‘They like being looked after,’ Brett said.
‘They like other people doing shit for them, you mean.’
Eldon’s mood had improved with Melia waking up but was now beginning to sour again. He needed to replace Eden but needed to find someone of her calibre that came at her price. He tried his best to ignore her. Instead he focused on the wriggling naked feline in his lap.
‘Will we be docking soon so we can go and do something fun?’ Melia asked.
‘Baby Doll.’ Eldon ignored the gagging sound that Eden was making. ‘We need you to do some work.’ Melia pouted. ‘Did you look at the data packet I ’faced you?’ Eldon had to suppress his irritation as Melia shook her head.
‘I figured that if it was important you’d tell me when I woke up.’ Melia concentrated for a bit. ‘We’re in the middle of nowhere, baby. Why’d you want to go into the Red here?’
‘We’ve been given a tip on a some salvage, Baby Doll.’
‘In Red Space?’ Melia’s purring baby talk had gone; now she sounded more businesslike. ‘Isn’t that like, really dangerous?’
‘Yes. There’s a reason the Church has us stay on the routes marked with the beacons,’ Eden snapped.
‘They’re paying a lot, Baby Doll – they even installed a new bridge drive,’ Eldon continued. Greed and the need to be safe warred within the feline.
‘Enough money to have fun?’ she asked. Eldon nodded. ‘A lot of fun?’ Eldon looked pained but nodded. Eden groaned as she saw her bonus getting smaller. Melia smiled.
‘I’ll go and put some clothes on before what’s-her-face expires in a puddle of jealousy.’
‘While you’re at it, why don’t you fuck yourself?’ Eden suggested.