Nightheart was messaging him. The signal was transferred to Hector at the same time and his partner shook out his hand with a grunt. “The fucker just won’t stop.”
“He wants us for his new project.” Zeph shook his hand as well and the hologram vanished. His biosuit’s nanofibers reknitted themselves around his wrist and returned the suit to its original shape.
Somewhere far off, an explosion rattled the ship. Zeph adjusted his audio intake when the screams began. Screams were a distraction.
His partner strode to the open door and ducked his head into the hallway, checking the length of it both ways. “He won’t take no for an answer.”
* * *
Zeph jolted upright in his command chair. The room spun around him, and all sound was reduced to a distant ring. He tried to listen to everything that was happening within his cabin while the girls ate dinner. Muffled, distorted voices slowly became more understandable as if he had been hearing them underwater and just broke the surface.
His eyes locked back onto the console screen. Janet didn’t trust the android, but he couldn’t blame her. She didn’t trust him either, apparently. He played back the ship’s recorded logs at rapid speed, ensuring he hadn’t missed anything important.
He had a special job for Bin-one, one he was already coding into the android’s systems as it returned to stand before him with an empty tray. He’d reconfigured the highly elaborate coding in his EPED-issued Bin in a way that would result in self-destruction of the robot if it connected to an EPED-monitored network. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like the EPED would ever see it again, but he would take his secrets to the grave. That bastard Nightheart already suspected too much.
Zeph looked down at the dirty dishes on the tray and picked up the cup Janet had been drinking from. He licked the rim and shuddered. Small traces of her saliva burst across his taste buds, emphasized by his nanocells. It fueled him like the coffee-fueled Janet. He left Bin-one behind.
He rushed through the halls toward his lab, cup in hand, the doors of his ship opening and closing as he passed through them. Small bumps pushed and probed the underside of his skin, threatening to tear through while simultaneously fighting to stay contained. The moment his laboratory’s doors shut behind him, he tore through the material of his clothes and wrapped his hand around his engorged dick.
Zeph sucked on the ceramic-like a dog seeking out one last taste of its meal, his tongue swiping inside and over the cup, searching, hoping for more traces of her. He bowed over slightly and pumped his cock. It pulsed within his palm, the metal, and veins under its skin building with pressure. He squeezed his base as the ripples built and spread across his skin. It felt good. Sofuckinggood.
The cup fell from his hand when he came, thudding against the floor as his grunts turned into one long, raspy groan. Seed shot over the ground in thick, clear jets, relieving some of the pressure in his groin.
Zeph straightened in disgust and he wiped the excess cum from his hand over his thigh.
His fist hit the wall. The metal gave out beneath the force, leaving a large dent.
He cursed. Janet could never know how obsessed he was with her, and if he was lucky, wouldn’t remember their interaction the night before. It’d be nothing but a dream induced by stress. But that left him with another concern altogether—his need for her was destabilizing him. She wasn’t giving into him like he’d hoped.
Zeph shoved his free hand into his hair. He needed to rein in his shit.
He kicked his ruined clothes to the side, retrieved the cup, and headed to his storage container attached to his lab.
Inside were the rest of his crew, his androids, his other Bins that had been in stasis since his arrival weeks ago on Kepler. Bin-one had remained on the bridge for added security, but now had a much more important job tasked to it.
The others came to life as he neared.
“Master, what do you need of us?” Bin-two asked. It stepped forward, its facial screen brightening the space between them.
“Follow standard protocol. Put theOppressioninto network lockdown, except for the laboratory servers and the bridge. I don’t want network access given to any other part of my ship, including the crew. No data leaves this ship. Do not respond to any ping requests under any circumstances.”
“Yes, Master.” Bin-two paused for a moment. “It’s done.”
Zeph stared past the android and at the wall beyond, half-focused on restraining the demon inside him, half-focused on the females sleeping in his ship. It was a blessing and a curse being a cybernetic organism. Being alone was as relative as the strength of your connection to technology. If there was even the thread of an electrical signal, his kind connected to it despite any effort not to. The bumps pushing out from his flesh worsened as a chill ran through his body before receding.
Bin-two continued to face him as the rest of the androids filtered out of the space to crew his ship. “Anything else, Master?”
He tore his gaze from the wall. “Don’t allow theOppression’sAI to come back online. I’ll be in charge of navigation and communication” He focused on the sleeping sisters in his cabin. “There are two others onboard with us. They’re not allowed access to any unnecessary technology. You are not to take any commands from them unless it is to their natural comfort. If either one tries to confuse or manipulate you, notify me immediately.”
“Yes, Master.”
“You’re dismissed.” Zeph turned to find a fresh suit of clothes, preferably ones without a hint of lavender clinging to them.
Hours later, he found himself standing outside his cabin’s room, listening again to the soft breaths and even softer heartbeats coming from within. The inhabitants hadn’t left their quarters once. Janet’s smell had very nearly disappeared from the rest of his ship.
She didn’t belong on a planet like Kepler, marrying an imbecile named Steven. Zeph gnashed his teeth together.She belongs with me.
After a long moment, he calmed his kill-codes down and released the excess murderous heat from his system.
