He found himself hovering, staring at the building in the distance. Cursing, he used his code to exit the dome and flew across the icy expanse to the fragment of his original world. He used the same code to land on the grounds. There was no sign of activity on the main level, but he could see a heat signature on the second floor. His wings carried him up to the window, and he blinked when the woman came out of the bathing chamber, towelling her hair dry and wearing nothing else. He paused and stared, but when he felt a burning star under his skin, he turned to leave and used his code to let him pass through the security screens and atmospheric seal.

  On the way back to the station, he let the fire out and relaxed when it stopped trying to heat his skin. He hadn’t felt that for decades. He needed to run some tests and to get his sketching pencils before the image of her disappeared from his memory. He thought the image would be burned in his mind, but he didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

  He cruised through the distance, and the dome opened and closed for less than a heartbeat. Azzul went through the decontamination protocol in his office, and then, he got his art supplies.

  He set up his easel and began to draw the female he had just seen. As he finished the sweeping lines, he smiled, and the bright feeling settled in his chest again. This time was different from the burn of lust. She was art now; he loved art.

  He caressed the wet lines of her hair tumbling over her shoulders, tapped the curve of her breast with his claw, and stroked the curve of her hip. She was fun to look at.

  He sat back and thought about simply selling her. It might be easier for him to just dispose of her that way, but if the brothels of the station took her on, he would see her anytime he visited. He would need to actually speak to her to learn if she could thrive and survive in that situation or if she could be of better use elsewhere in the station.

  Azzul smiled slightly as he moved back from the drawing. He looked forward to speaking with her to find out if her clever curves sheathed a sharp brain.

  He paused and muttered to himself, “Talk to her? Huh. That’s new. Well, I guess I could get a better look at her face if she was dressed.”

  He smiled at his own whimsy. Since his people were officially extinct and he was the last of his kind, the normal reasons for pursuing sex had faded long ago. Procreation was not on the agenda, and moments of pleasure had blurred together. What he had left was his art and the station around him.

  He looked at the easel, and he nodded. “She’s art.”

  * * * *

  Keva ran around the house a few times before her shower had been burned away, and she was messy and sweaty. Two bots trundled up and said, “You will be decontaminated.”

  She stared at them, still gasping for air. “What?”

  “You will be decontaminated. Your quarters are already being decontaminated.”

  She blinked, and they rushed her. She backed into a larger bot that held her in place while beams of light began to scour her from head to toe. Her skin burned as the top layer was burned off, and her clothing was shredded and discarded by the bots. “Hey!”

  “Interference with decontamination.”

  She was outside, exposed, and her skin was being singed at the surface. This was a new low. The bot behind her turned her over, and she felt like a spit-roasted chicken. The only hair she had left when it was done was the hair on her head, but even that was squeaky clean with a different light treatment.

  “Decontamination complete. You must remain here, and clothing will be provided.”

  She stood and shivered, not looking down to see if her skin was red and raw. It felt red and raw.

  They scanned her and kept an eye on her until a small bot approached with what she recognized as a slip dress. She pulled it on, and her skin complained as she smoothed it over herself until she was covered.

  She checked out her arms and legs and acknowledged that she had just gotten a sunburn. Her sex was reacting to the clean sweep the same way it always did. She was wet. She walked carefully back to the house. She could either sit around frustrated at how having everything exposed made her horny, or she could just take the edge off and hope no one was watching. She was pretty sure that the entire place was wired with monitors by now, but the only thing she could do was live her life as usual, for as long as her supplies lasted. She was damned if she was going to whore herself out for a ride to the main station. She was willing to pay for water and power, but she would eat the cupboards bare before she asked for more. Of course, she would be charged for that, too. Fuck, she needed to cum!

  Keva was stopped at her bedroom, and she had to wait until the decontamination bots finished their work. She went to her closet and swayed. Nothing. All of her clothing was gone.

  She stomped to the kitchen and said, “Hello?”

  “Yes, miss?” The voice was deeper than it had been the first time.

  “Where did all of my clothes go?”

  “They were instructed to leave you one item, miss. The rest have been placed in storage as part of the internal inventory.”

  She whirled and checked out the fridge. “Where is the food?”

  “Archived and stored. A ration unit has been installed next to it. Scan your hand, and the food that your body requires will be produced.”

  “And it will go on my bill.”

  “Correct, miss. Anything else?”

  “Yes, how do I find out about available jobs on the station that don’t involve sex work?”

  “You can send me your skill list, and I can look. What did you do prior to our transport?”

  “I did research for a variety of companies and maintained an archive of documents and images that I could access in a matter of seconds.”

  “Interesting. I will see what is available, but the sex work would be the most lucrative for you.”

  “And would drive me into depression and possibly self-harm. Selling my skills is one thing, but sex is intimate, and there is a vulnerability to being on the receiving end that does not sit well with me. It is always something done to me, not with me, and that has left a distaste for sex with a partner.”

  There was a pause. “I believe I understand.”

  “Affection has always been part of that kind of intimacy, and a brothel isn’t the sort of place I could manage that. I can’t imagine many clients into slow dating on a space station.”

  He chuckled. “You would be surprised.”

  “Yeah, I would. But, hey, this is probably costing me a fortune. Thank you for the information. How many days of rations are there?”

  “A few weeks. You will be fine. The overseer of the shattered reaches will not let you starve.”

  “Oh. Good. So, I just have to worry about doing laundry or sudden drafts.”

  The gravelly voice was confused. “What?”

  “Never mind. Inside joke. Thank you for your help.”

  “We are here when you need answers.”

  “Thank you again.” She turned and left the kitchen to take some of the tension out of her body. The sex work wasn’t for her, but she didn’t knock it. She just preferred to finish matters alone. It was embarrassing, but her memory was going to be replaying his voice over and over. She loved a guy with a gravelly voice. She wondered if he even had actual limbs.

  * * * *

  Azzul stared at the com, and he looked at the monitors. They showed her running up the stairs and diving under her covers. He had left the bedding in her quarters as well as the towel and toiletries. Her dress was resistant to sweat and odour and would last her until she got to the station.

  With her under the bedding, he switched to thermal cameras and watched as her whole body warmed and the heat localized between her thighs and her breasts. He zoomed in as she twisted, and the audio indicated sighs and moans were filling the air until there was a short squeak, and she ceased moving then slowly relaxed and lay there getting her breath back.

  He chuckled. Sensors indicated a high release of endorphins and a reduction in tension.

  “Master, what are you looking at?”

  “I am being educated about one human female. She asked me a few questions, and I gained some information about her preferences. A brothel is now out of the question. She will not thrive in that environment.”

  Tellian frowned. “What else can she do?”

  “She is a researcher and archivist. I was thinking she could work with my art collection. I will have to see how she responds to others at a gallery showing, but there is one in a few days.”

  “You are going to offer her a job... working for you?”

  Azzul nodded. “Yes. She is a work of art and deserves to be working at the gallery.”

  Tellian stared at him and then nodded slowly. “You haven’t seen a human female before.”

  “No. Aspects of her are very like the women of my own kind but in miniature.” He sighed. “I will offer her the position tomorrow, once decontamination is over. Please, arrange suitable quarters for her.” He nodded and returned to his office. “Let me know if she speaks again. I wish to become a voice she recognizes.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Thank you, Tellian. You never fail to not ask awkward questions.” He returned to his office and looked at the sketch he had done and the dozen others that had been crafted from his imagination. He did a sketch of her heated body from the thermal perspective and knew he would paint it. He needed to capture those heat centres in vivid colour.

  Two hours later, an alarm that he had set made Azzul lift his head from the painting he was working on. He stated, “Display large screen.”

  The human was bent over the edge of the bed and up on her toes as the colours fluctuated, this time down the centre of her spine, one hand tucked between her thighs.

  He would have to ask politely to find out what she had been doing so that he could determine if a direct view was as tempting as the heat signature.

  When she collapsed on the bed, he sighed and wanted to stroke her brow and smooth the sweat away. He paused. That was new. He hadn’t wanted to touch a female in years. Something about her energy patterns set his sensors twitching. His cranial array had been picking up subtleties when he had been at the manor, and now, he knew where they were coming from. The little human in the house shared at least one frequency with him.

  He couldn’t let her go to a brothel now. Her broadcasts would drive him insane.

  * * * *

  Finally, Keva had exhausted herself, and she crawled into bed to sleep. She was avoiding the rations as long as she could to save her debt. Sleeping was a great way to ignore her body, and now that she was physically satisfied, her appetite was subdued. She dreamed of a shadow with a deep, rumbling voice and woke with a jolt.

  Something was coming.

  She threw back the covers and raced outside, looking toward the station. There were two objects there. One was a small silver ball, and the other was large and dark purple.

  Keva froze. One of the objects had wings, and he was sailing through space. Fucking space!

  She backed away from the force screen that surrounded her house and grounds, and as she did, the creature came closer, and then, he sailed right through the shield!

  He flew around the manor, and then, he approached her, slowly descending. She took in the large spurs at the major joints, the claws, the purple skin, wings, and the fan of spines in a sideways crest on his head. She was pretty sure he was male, but the proof was hidden by a wrap around his hips in heavy silk. It was black and gold, but she was caught up staring at her first actual alien.

  “Um, hello.” She bowed her head.

  “Hello, miss.” His voice reverberated through her in all the right places.

  “You... you spoke to me.”

  He inclined that huge head of his. “I did.”

  “I am Keva Morningwell.”

  He nodded again. “You are. I regret the circumstances of our meeting, but I am Overseer Azzul, owner of all that you see around you.”

  “You’re the... oh, pleased to meet you, sort of.”

  He held out his hand to her, and she extended her hand to him. He lifted her and pulled her against him. The fan of his skull began to glow slightly, and he nodded. “I thought as much.”

  He set her down.

  She hadn’t felt a man with muscles that hard ever. His body was just rigid. She didn’t remember feeling anything below the waist, but she had been held so high that she didn’t think her knees were up to the task of determining whether he had reproductive equipment or not.

  She blushed hard when she figured out that she was trying to analyze him as a possible lover when there was no way in hell that he was going to be after her. He was the overseer, so he could pretty well pick what he liked when it came to companionship, or she assumed he would.

  And dear god, why can’t I stop thinking about sex?

  He stroked her cheek with the back of his finger. “Why don’t we get you to the station where you can have a medical check and you can get some restful sleep?”

  The silver orb nestled against the force screen and pushed through it.

  “Um, you have been watching me sleeping?”

  “There are monitors in every room, as there are in your new quarters. Your clothing has been stored as it is full of foreign bodies and materials that will need to be treated.”

  “But you watched me sleep?”

  “And ease your tension so you could sleep, yes.”

  She covered her face with embarrassment. “Right. Can you just leave me here to die?”

  He let out a harsh sound, and she realized it was a rusty laugh.

  “No, Keva. You belong to me. But, I have need of an archivist and researcher. You will be able to earn extras and luxuries for yourself.”

  “And my freedom.”

  He cocked his head. “Your freedom? It is unattainable. As you gain new skills and are known to be of value, your price will rise. It is highly unlikely that you will ever overshoot your own value with your savings.”

  He put his hand on her shoulder. “Do not fret about what may be. Concentrate on the present. Get in the pod, and we can continue this discussion with full attention after you have gotten a check from medical.”

  “Didn’t the bots scan me?” She looked at his hand, and it wrapped around the socket of her shoulder, and she felt the prick of claws on her spine. His hands were huge.

  Mind out of the gutter, Keva.

  “They scanned but didn’t analyze. They were simply looking for bacterial vectors and microscopic mites. Blood samples and a genetic baseline will be administered, and then, we will discuss your new occupation and the various requirements it will entail.”

  She looked at the pod and at the hand still in contact with her skin. She glanced at the manor. “Can I come back here?”

  “With me. Yes. I plan on using this place as a personal retreat and would enjoy a guide who knows how to make the place work.”

  She blinked away tears. “Right. Yeah. I can help you with that.”

  He frowned. “What happened to your voice?”

  “Grief. Loneliness. Upset.” She explained what was wrong.

  He paused and nodded. “Those can be dealt with later. Get in the pod, and I will propel you back to the station.”

  “How can you fly in space?”

  He chuckled. “It is a manipulation of radiation, but I can also hold my breath for a really long time.”

  Mind out of the goddamn gutter, Keva!

  Chapter Three

  The pod had a seat inside it and not much else. The overseer strapped her in and patted her head then closed the pod, and she was pushed away from her home. There was a sudden drop that made her scream, and then, the pod was moving with an almost imperceptible rise and dip.

  She felt a hum along her skin as she was propelled to her new situation on the station. It kept her from panicking in the pod that seemed large enough for just her. She counted to a hundred, did it again and again and then lost track of how many times she was doing it but kept it up until she stopped moving and bright light streamed in.

  Keva was unstrapped, picked up, and held against his smooth, hardened-leather chest. “I can walk, sir.”

  He nodded. “You can, but you have no footwear and some of the areas I will take you through have rough flooring. So, we will fly.”

  She squeaked. “Fly?”

  He nodded. “Certainly. It is the fastest way to get through the station.”

  He walked to the edge of something, and her eyes were still adjusting, but he fell forward, and she squealed as they dropped, and his heavy wingbeats took up the pulse that kept them off the folk below.

  She kept very still and curled up. When he landed, she held onto her crossed arms and tried to open her eyes.

  Keva heard voices, and her ears wrestled with the alien common languages. She heard the overseer speaking and paid attention.

  “This is the human that I told you about, Dr. Ymil.”

  “He is very small.”

  Her eyes opened, and she blinked at the violent orange furry physician that was staring at her.

  The overseer corrected. “It is a human female. I need a health assessment for her. Average specifications have been uploaded to your systems. Just run the scans. Her skin is very prone to burning under radiation, so watch the frequencies you use. It looks like the decontamination burned her a little.”

  “We can probably repair that. I may need to consult with one of the transport vessels that have a human on board.”

  “Consult all you like, but do not give any of her data away. She is not a commodity; she is mine.”

  The doctor blinked all four of his eyes. “Yes, Master Azzul.”

  “I will leave her here, and only Tellian or myself will come to get her. Do not let anyone else try and remove her.”

  “Understood, Master Azzul. She is your prized possession.”

 

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