When he first showed up, the thought crossed my mind in extreme detail. I wouldn’t say I had a specific type in terms of looks. There were aspects I may enjoy more than others, like meaty thighs and some nice hand holds around the waist, both of which Roys had in abundance. But regardless of anyone’s taste, Roys fell into a kind of “attractive” category everyone could agree on. Tall, rugged, ridiculously muscular in the way that could toss you over his shoulder and lug you around like a rag doll if he felt like it. But then he opened his stupid mouth and I realized fucking was off the table. Unless gags were involved.
Ryker departed, leaving me to finish up the visors, then all the soaked clothes the droids brought. They offered a larger container too, where I, eventually, scrubbed the clothes under Roys’ supervision. The captain leaned against the threshold with a piece of candy caught between hisslightly crooked teeth. He always carried the damn candies, cherry flavored based on the wrapper design.
“Don’t you have better things to do than watch me do laundry?” I dropped another clean shirt into the pile. Droids took the pile to the dryer every couple of minutes. They didn’t talk, but they had big eye sockets that made them look pitying.
“Anything would be better than monitoring you, but unfortunately, you are in dire need of my attention, seeing as you cannot follow basic orders.” Roys tossed a piece of candy at my head. “How would you like it if you stayed at the habitat tomorrow?”
Roys didn’t miss my hesitation.
“The droids know not to leave the energy shield, but if anything were to get through, they aren’t equipped to defend the habitat. I could leave you to monitor the perimeter, that way I know you won’t wreak havoc out there,” he continued.
“You need me. My tactical scores are better than anyone here, including you.” I scrubbed the visor hard enough that my nails scraped against it.
I wanted to go out there, to see what this world offered, even if it was bad. At least it was natural. At least it would feel more like where we were all meant to be rather than the cold rusting containers I knew all my life.
“Not all of them.” He balanced his weight on the heels of his feet, so we were eye to eye. The blue in his went dark, consuming as deep space. “You have skills, and that makes this all the more annoying. One day, you need to use them.”
Roys’ commlink blinked. The holo screen popped up, and he stood. “One of your buddies is bringing you dinner, but if this isn’t done in time for tomorrow, you won’t be getting breakfast.”
I waved the captain off, who waited for me to share the signature,yes sir,that never came. Darmin never bothered to get it out of me. Was probably too drunk to realize I wasn’t doing it, honestly.
Rolling his eyes, Roys sauntered off, and I spent the rest of my evening cleaning. By the time I finished, everyone had gone to the barracks. Zavir and Ryker took one bunk. Arana claimed the top of the next one, her clothes strewn about the floor. I stripped myself, leaving my clothes with hers before rolling into bed.
The habitat wasn’t large, so the rooms were big enough for our bunk beds to be shoved against each wall and a space between that Zavir would have to angle himself to get through, as well as a desk and a closet. Once the others departed in two weeks, there’d be more space. It was as big as the one I had at the Colony but without the reinroaches. Terrible creatures. Ate right through metal and a bone here or there, and if you found one, that meant there were dozens more.
My commlink buzzed. I shouldn’t have looked because I couldn’t go to bed pissed off. Zavir and Ryker made displeased grunting noises before falling back asleep.
“Tomorrow is going to suck ass.” Arana crawled so half her body hung off the edge to glare at me below. “We’re stuck with Roys because of you.”
My pillow smacked her in the face.
“Ouch!” She wiggled further onto her bed so only her brown eyes were visible. “There may be a way for you to change his mind.”
“Do share how you think I could achieve that.”
“Ask nicely with his dick in your mouth.”
I slid out of bed. Arana squirmed further back in hers. “Hey now, it was a joke. Let’s play nice, Lucky.”
She blocked me from using the ladder. I shoved her back. Squeaking, she held up her hands as I straddled her. “This extreme of a reaction isconvincing me that maybe you actually want to suck his dick and, gah, don’t punch me in the tit!”
“What tit?”
“How dare you! You know how sensitive I am about my beautifully muscular chest. Ouch, Lucky, fuck off. I will kick you off this bed right now.”
Arana did, in fact, kick me off the bed, where I lay on the floor hoping we’d run into one of those man-eating plants tomorrow so it could chew Roys up and shit out his carcass. I couldn’t believe I ever had sex dreams about that hunk of garbage. Then again, maybe that was my mind’s way of making our captain somewhat useful.
Regardless, Arana was right. Tomorrow would suck ass.
03
Iflookscouldkill,Roys would have been slaughtered ten times over.
My glare bruised the captain’s broad back—fine, I looked at his ass six times—since we left the habitat one click back. Our outdated rovers suffered through such thick terrain, so Corporate decided we should cut paths first while neutralizing threats and obtaining scans of the local flora for the survey team once they arrived, but we knew that was bullshit. They didn’t want to risk the rovers breaking, but us? Yeah, we could die and another fool would replace us.
The sweltering day had our exoskins kicking into high gear. Sweat dripped from my eyelashes and squished between my toes. As hot as we were, we couldn’t risk removing the exoskin, although I removed my visor from time to time to wipe off my sweat, much to Roys’ chagrin.
Yesterday, his team came across a plant that oozed acid. It burned through a private’s boots that were torn off before it penetratedher skin. We were careful, and thus, moving at a snail’s pace. The survey team’s job would be to properly catalogue The Planet, but we needed better information on what to protect them from.
