B785 by Eve Langlais

illogical moment, he almost tugged her back, missing the weight and closeness. “Where do we go from here?”
    “First, we’re heading to an asteroid belt in the Beta quadrant.”
    “Hold on one second. Did you say asteroid, as in space asteroid?”
    “Of course. As Seth told you, you’re aboard the SS Bite Me , which you should know was not my first choice in name, but I got outvoted.”
    “We’re on a spaceship?” She practically yelled the question.
    “Yes.” Why she kept asking, he couldn’t figure out unless she’d sustained some damage to her short term memory banks.
    “Holy shit. I thought you meant we were on a ship, ship. You know, the kind that floats on the ocean.”
    “What an odd assumption.”
    She planted her hands on her hips. “I resent that. I mean, how was I supposed to know we were in space? Last thing I remember, I was a gazillion levels below ground in some secure military base.”
    “They moved you.”
    “Obviously,” she drawled. “Space, huh? The final frontier… Fucking awesome. Can I see?”
    “See what?” She changed subject so quickly, Einstein struggled to follow.
    “The stars, of course. The galaxy. Space stuff. I always wanted to be one of the lucky ones who got to leave Earth, but given my behavioral issues —” She waggled her fingers to simulate air quotes. “General Doom always refused.”
    “I don’t have a viewing screen in this room, as you can see; however, other areas of the ship do have portholes and viewing areas. I will show them to you if you’d like.”
    “Would I ever! Ha. Me in space. Too fucking wild. Hey, does that make me an astronaut?”
    “I guess.” He thought it best to humor her, especially since the idea seemed to bring her so much pleasure, or so he assumed as she began humming the theme song from an old earth television series titled Star Trek.
    “I’m gonna see the stars. Maybe find some aliens. Seek out new worlds.” She sang the words and danced around, strangely elated. He didn’t interrupt. Given her mood swings, he thought it safer. When she stopped spinning, she faced him again. “Well, at least now your whole timeline makes more sense. I guess we can’t just hop a plane and get to my sister. I mean, I assume she’s not on earth then?”
    “Not even close.”
    “She lives on an alien planet? Oh this is getting cooler and cooler.”
    “I wouldn’t call it alien. The biology of it is similar in many respects to earth with adequate gas levels, plantation, and simple animal life.”
    “But it’s not earth.”
    “No, it’s not.”
    “Can I see that too?”
    “We don’t have images stored on this vessel in case we’re boarded by hostiles, but I can describe it to you.” A pity she didn’t have a wireless link, he could have sent her some of the images of their homeworld stored in his memory banks.
    “I’d like that. And I’ll get to live there too?”
    “Once we can ascertain our path is clear.”
    “Awesome.” Her smile stretched and he couldn’t help but reply in kind, her enthusiasm over her new status contagious. “Okay, so back to my previous question before I got distracted. Now that I’m awake, what’s next?”
    “According to our schedule, the ship will enter the Beta quadrant, which is rich in meteors. Several in particular have been marked for exploitation. After we mine some needed ores from the surface, we’ll be heading — ”
    “I didn’t mean for you to give me an actual itinerary.” She laughed. “Someone really needs to teach you not to take everything so literally.”
    A grimace tugged at his lips as she pointed out his flaw. “I know. Seth’s been trying to educate me, but unlike some of the others who’ve found their humanity, mine was completely wiped.” A fact he didn’t usually lament, except for now. He sensed some odd undercurrent between him and the female cyborg. A tug on his senses, a quickening of his pulse, a stir of his usually well behaved cock. He wished he