A Daphne Adventure: Episode Four
by Ella Drake
Science Fiction
Short Free Read --
Episode Four
Aboard the space cruiser for decaweeks, Daphne managed to remain inconspicuous until the day she met Rolanda in the café.
“Whatever are you doing in the trooper mess?” The blonde ponytailed waitress, newly assigned to this shift rotation, smacked her synthgum and straightened her fiberweave pink apron.
Shifting in her seat, Daphne stared at the yellow jumpsuit straining at the seams with all those curves and didn’t answer. She couldn’t say she ate here every meal because the only person she trusted on this bucket-of-bolts was one very-fine smelling trooper who sat at the next table. He glanced to the side and quirked a brow in her direction as he continued to chat with his fellow troopers.
The female needed to mind her own business.
“You came in yesterday, too. Sat alone and scarfed down the entire tray of slop.”
“Trust me. It’s better than dried worm.” Daphne shouldn’t have said that. Her daddy taught her better. Never give anything away.
“Are you dissing on my cooking?” Rolanda, at least, that’s what her name tag said, put down the tray she’d been carrying and put both hands on her rounded hips.
“You just called it slop.” Daphne continued eating the nondescript mass of protein and pasta. The woman’s head must be full of space dust. This was only a few steps up the food chain from worm meat.
“I can say what I want, but you need to show respect.”
Daphne swallowed and put down her fork. “Listen, blondie. I didn’t call it air-rail kill, so what’s your problem?”
“Aren’t you a prize? Which farm colony did they find you at? They should’ve incinerated those hick overalls when they brought you on board.”
The whiff of that enticing scent of the herb ghahara made Daphne swallow her ready-to-launch insult as a deep voice interrupted the fight before it got good—Rolanda needed a good hair pulling. If overalls were good enough for her daddy, then they were good enough for everyone in the universe.
“I did try to incinerate it, but she rescued it somehow.” Trooper Aspen moved into her peripheral vision, tall, muscular, and all pressed in his pretty uniform.
Her systems roared to life sending blood to her female parts and flushing her cheeks even as an extra dose of territorial urges emitted from her alerted emotional centers. No matter how many times she told her internal systems to stop that foolishness, it continued to happen in his close proximity.
“You know her?” purred the now demure Rolanda. The brashness had left her voice.
The perceived threat was there and Daphne couldn’t stop her sensors from blinking online. Rolanda’s heart rate increased and her chest puffed up, pushing out those globes of flesh on her chest. Lines of data scrolled across Daphne’s visual cortex, scanning the room, mapping the tables, and finding the weakness in her opponent. Rolanda had a slight limp to the left. A kick to that knee would take her down. She stood, sending her chair screeching backward.
She ground her teeth and blinked, hard, to make her systems go off line. She wasn’t made as a damn pleasure droid. This woman was not her opponent.
“I know her. I don’t have the pleasure of your acquaintance.” Trooper Aspen nearly crooned.
Maybe she’d decided a little too soon that Rolanda wasn’t trash that needed to be spaced.
He reached out to shake hands with Rolanda, and the well-endowed bitch caressed his hand rather than shaking it. Her systems came back on line so fast, her systems whirred.
Trooper Aspen’s scent grew stronger as he stepped next to her and slung an arm around her shoulders. A whisper caressed her sonar systems, so low it was nearly a thought rather than spoken. “Take it easy. Your eyes have gone into system’s mode.”
She slammed her eyes shut and slanted her head toward the floor.
He followed it up with a light squeeze of a hug before he dropped his arm away.
“Oh, I see.” Rolanda smacked her gum, tossed her ponytail, and sashayed over to the table full of troopers. The extra swing in her hips showed her as the woman on the prowl she had to be.
Daphne hooked a hand in the strap of her overalls, pulling a hank of her kinky red hair in the process. She’d go for the innocent look that had gotten her out of so many fixes her computational database couldn’t keep up.
“So…”
Aspen grinned, his dimple winking at her. “She brought out the combat mode, did she?”
Her neck craned as she looked into his blue eyes. “Don’t know what you mean.”
For added effect, she plumped out her bottom lip into an attractive pout.
“You don’t, doll-face?”
Whirrrr
She kicked out. He dodged to the side as if he expected her attack.
“Don’t ever call me doll.”
A haze of red flashed the combat instructions scanning through her cortex.
She huffed hard, trying to get a grip on her temper, not wanting to hurt Aspen. She froze. Conflicting instructions coming from her computational centers.
A warm press against her lips wiped her mind clear, empty, and the blood rushed from her overamped lungs and heart to race to those pesky female parts again.
Her arms went slack as Aspen backed away before she’d had a chance to enjoy that kiss.
“Ah. So that’s how to calm you from that fight mode.”
She shook her head and blinked hard, getting her thoughts back in order.
“That was cheating.” Her voice was a husky tenor she’d never heard before.
“If that’s what it takes.” His eyes twinkled, the warmth there different than the iciness he’d shown when they first met, on a planet riddled with carnivorous worms and they’d barely escaped intact. “Maybe we should try one more date. See if we can figure out more about how your systems react to different stimuli.”
There was definitely a naughty lilt to his suggestions, a slight flush under his skin accompanying it.
A red light blinked in the corner of her vision. An alert that she nearly ignored as she sidled closer to him, almost close enough for him to sling his arms across her shoulders again, but then, her daddy would rewire her circuits if she ignored an alert.
She gulped hard when she understood what her subconscious thoughts had deduced.
“You know what I am.”
“Yes. I’ve known.” Aspen grew serious, the grin gone.
“You haven’t turned me in.” She stepped back then ordered her knees to lock. She wouldn’t back away from this danger, not until she understood it. She didn’t want to be disassembled, but she wanted to know what he’d do. Was he a friend? She’d never had a friend before. Only her daddy and he was worm fodder.
“No. I don’t plan to turn you in. You saved my ass. I’ll save your pretty ass, too.” He whispered again, something she should have latched onto earlier. He’d known she could hear a subvocalization.
“I can’t stay here.” She couldn’t look at him when she said it. Rolanda leaned on the nearest table full of troopers, batting her lashes at a tall good-looking hunk who palmed her ass and whispered in her ear.
“We’ll figure it out.”
“We?” She brought her stare back to Aspen who gently brushed her hair away from her face. He didn’t even get his fingers stuck or yank out any like she always did. Who knew such big hands could be so gentle?
“Sure. We’re stopping at Keeley Station in a week. I have a friend there that can help us out. Think you can keep from hurting anyone who touches me until then?” He grinned again, so sure of himself.
Damn if he wasn’t right.
“Aren’t you an arrogant one?” She groused.
“Just calling it like I see it, doll. Let’s go put in the forms for station leave.” He motioned her to follow him out of the mess hall, and she followed, keeping her gaze off the behind of his uniform. Mostly.
Something surprised her circuits so much she was speechless. She didn’t feel the need to kick his ass for calling her the insult “doll”, the name given to illegal pleasure droids.
Huh.
Guess you could teach a cybernetic new tricks.
***
Stay tuned for the next installment!