Damaged Control Read online

  “I will send them the design specs for traditional companion clothing designs. What pallet would you prefer the colours in?”

  “Corals, soft pinks, dark charcoal, and ocean blue.” Etska smiled. “Those would be nice.”

  “Yes, my lord. At once, my lord. I have already found a seamstress among the colonists, and she will be able to assist the design teams in creating fastenings that are suitably convenient for her activities.”

  Athena was standing in front of Etska. “What activities?”

  Tolr looked at her with a slight smile. “Being carried while flying for one. There is a lot of stress on unusual points of fabric in that position.”

  “Oh. That activity.”

  Etska leaned down and whispered, “And it has to be able to stand up to my strength in case I get carried away.”

  She felt her face get hot.

  He smiled and put his hand on the middle of her back. “Let’s go to the office, and we can set you up with a desk and terminal. You can keep an eye on your team.”

  “That is a sneaky way to get my agreement.”

  He nodded as they walked into the house. “I know. I have few matters of recourse when dealing with you. Bribery is the start until we can begin affection.”

  “Seriously, is there a checklist or something?”

  He laughed, and they continued their walk to his or rather their office. It was on the same floor as the bedroom, and light streamed in around them. Their desks were at right angles to each other, and hers was obviously new.

  “Did Tolr have to cut the wood for this himself?”

  Etska held her chair for her. “Of course not. It was in storage, just in case.”

  She snorted and fired up the terminal, staring at the amount of access she had. “When did I get full clearance?”

  “When you became colony controller. I think you were unconscious in medical when I had you upgraded.”

  She didn’t look at him, her fingers flew over the keyboard, and she found out that there were five hundred humans on Hyrnan at that moment. “Do you buy in bulk?”

  He moved from his terminal to look over her shoulder. “I believe in a variety of workers from any given species and plenty of room for advancement. By the way, your team was the first to pay off its bond. Well done.”

  She blinked and chuckled. “Thanks for changing my classification and paying for the new ranking.”

  “The homes for your team members have been ordered, and the transport for the spouse and child is underway. The terms of the contract have been upheld as far as that is concerned. The order for the five thousand Urther’s will take longer.”

  She chuckled.

  “What is amusing?”

  “The pronunciation of Earth. I know that is how we say it, but it is always funny to hear it pronounced in common speech.”

  His fingers moved over the keys. “Things are different away from home. I am very glad you made it to an extraction centre.”

  She sighed and checked messages. There were dozens. “What are these messages?”

  “Open them and find out. Answer them. All of your answers will be sent to the colony administrator.”

  “Oh, geez. You weren’t kidding. You made a new position for me.”

  He chuckled. “You need to be occupied. If I am not agreeing to your roaming the countryside, I need to keep you busy. Your mind is sharp; I have checked all your administration scores; you can do just about any admin job here, so let’s see what you can do. You can meet with any of the colony personnel, but for the first few weeks, I am going to be with you.” He kept tapping away. “After that, you can have meetings here with Tolr as a chaperone.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “So, no privacy?”

  He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Not of the kind that you have been used to. I need to know where you are at all times. You are no longer yourself; you belong to Hyrnan and, therefore, to me. At least until you complete your companion bond.”

  “Speaking of that, I know I gave verbal agreement, but don’t I have to sign a contract?”

  He sighed and pushed away from his terminal. He patted his thighs, and she paused but then got up and sat in his lap. “We don’t need one. You signed a service contract to work on Hyrnan. Within that contract was adherence to all laws and regulations applied by the colony.”

  She nodded.

  “All colonies are expected to surrender any Hmrain-compatible females of legal age who are unencumbered by a mate.”

  She blinked. “Oh. Right.”

  “The renewed and expanded bond was a courtesy. The finder’s fee was given to your team for keeping you alive.”

  Athena looked at him, and she tightened her mouth a few times, trying to come out with some kind of rebuttal. She knew the clause he was referring to. It had been initially enacted on worlds where Hmrain were the heads of government and without a match. It stopped the demand on local women or men to find him or her a companion that would make them monogamous.

  “So, you gave me the credits to send on to my team because you wanted to be nice?”

  He nodded. “I do not wish you to feel taken advantage of. I mean, you are in a position that goes against your original societal norms, but the differences out here go far beyond pronunciation.”

  “I know that intellectually. It is just that this isn’t a position I could have imagined myself in.”

  He smiled and lifted her, arranging her so that her knees were on either side of his thighs. “How about this position?”

  She braced her hands on his shoulders. “Um... not sure.”

  He leaned in and kissed her softly. “How about now?”

  She stroked his neck with her thumbs. “Still not sure.”

  The kiss got stronger, her pulse sped up. She opened her mouth to his and stroked her tongue along his before pausing. “Still thinking about it.” She was panting, and he had narrowed his eyes.

  He wasn’t touching her at all. She was the one holding onto him. She raised her left hand, and his arm moved, but he didn’t touch her. She lifted her right arm, and he remained still but watching. Athena opened the closure of her coverall and peeled it off her shoulders to her waist. Her undershirt was the next thing to go. Naked from the waist up, she leaned in again and kissed him. She reached over and grabbed his right arm and put his hand on her skin. She shivered, he shuddered, and his hand moved over her back. His hand on her back moved around to her front, and the backs of his knuckles brushed against her breasts in turn. When she moaned softly, he shuddered again.

  His hand cupped her breasts in turn, squeezing gently. She grabbed his other hand and pressed it to her skin as well.

  Her blood was rushing in her ears, and she was moaning softly when her coveralls began to slide off her hips. It was nearly a minute before long fingers were sliding against the wet heat of her sex. She pulled away from Etska, pressing her forehead to his shoulder as she focused on the feel of two long digits sliding into her. His hand was cupped against her, so the flexing motion as he slid his fingers into her put pressure on her clit. She heard her vocal moans turn into a higher-pitched whine, and she shuddered rhythmically around his fingers. His free hand lifted her chin, and the kiss that she was treated to was slow and deep. Her body clenched around him again as the kiss sent aftershocks through her.

  He didn’t smile when he broke the kiss and nuzzled her cheek with his own. He murmured, “Still thinking about it?”

  She chuckled weakly. “I am going to have to give it further consideration.”

  He slowly pulled his fingers out of her, and she caught her scent a moment before he put his fingers in his mouth and licked and sucked at the juice she had exuded.

  She blushed and sat up as the shine disappeared under his careful tongue.

  He met her gaze as he lowered his hand. “That distressed you?”

  Athena sighed. “My society had a lot of hang-ups. I am going to have to work thro
ugh them.”

  “Well, you are not afraid of hard work.” He stroked her hair back from her face. “I look forward to your future efforts.”

  She blushed and wondered when it would be appropriate to put her coveralls back on.

  He helped her get dressed, and just as the coveralls were closed, Tolr came in. “My lord, my lady, it is time for the noon meal.”

  She crawled off him and stood next to Etska. She blinked. “Is it lunch already?”

  Tolr nodded. “My lord has asked me to keep you on a strict schedule while you are recovering. I am good at scheduling, my lady.”

  She nodded. “Right. Well, I am just going to wash up for lunch.” She looked at Etska. “You should too.”

  He chuckled and got to his feet, directing her to the lav so she could wash her hands and splash her face before she left the space to wait next to Tolr.

  The green man murmured, “You should have let him go first.”

  She murmured back, “He wanted to watch me bend over the sink.”

  Tolr flushed dark green as Etska came out and wrapped his arms around Athena before patting her backside. “Let’s go for lunch, Athena. We don’t want you getting weak.”

  Athena shrugged, and Tolr led the way down the hall. Her butt was the one thing he hadn’t really gotten a look at. He was settling for groping, for now.

  Chapter Seven

  While they ate Melr’s current offering, Tolr disappeared.

  Athena ate from Etska’s lap, and it did, indeed, slow her down.

  “Where did Tolr go?”

  Etska picked up one of the small finger sandwiches, and he sniffed at it. “I don’t know. He has his own meals and schedules to arrange.”

  They continued to eat, and when she was full, she held up her hand when Etska tried to give her another piece. “Enough.”

  “You are underweight.”

  “Not by much.” She sighed. “I am comfortable with things. I like the muscles that I have gained.”

  “They were a pleasant surprise. You look so slight, but there is strength in you.”

  She snickered. “There had better be. I had to haul Tber and Hivr out of a bog. Those guys are heavy.”

  He grumbled. “You were in the bogs?”

  “For an entire week.” She chuckled and braced her hands on the table to move from the backless couch that he was sitting on to the chair.

  He wrapped his arm around her and used the other hand to continue his lunch. “It is even more amazing that you survived your time as a forager. It is normally assigned to those that lack intelligence but have strength and can follow orders.”

  “Well, we were given a larger bunkhouse with shower facilities, but that could have been because we were mixed sexes.”

  He grunted. “That is standard. The same-sex teams have the advantage of numbers. Also, your combined scores were impressive, so it added amenities.”

  “You have looked into it?”

  “I went over your records last week. For one team to correctly identify the uses of the items that they found is rare. For them to bring back the volume that you did is exceptional.”

  She chuckled. “Thank you. It was like herding cats.”

  “What is a cat?”

  She explained cats to him for five minutes before he nodded.

  “Soft to the touch, deadly, and yet friendly? It sounds like khitan. They fly. Hm, perhaps I should import some.”

  “Okay, sounds sort of similar to cats, though cats with wings would be terrifying. Well, cats with opposable thumbs would be worse.” She snickered.

  He continued to clear the plate, offering her each of the small bites before he took it.

  “So, what are we doing this afternoon?”

  He took a sip of water. “We are returning to the research facility and going through level by level to see what they are doing with your findings.”

  “Yeah, about that. If you designed this place, why don’t you know what all the plants are?”

  “I have mixed and mingled seeds and plants from hundreds of worlds. They landed on this soil and began to grow. Their growth patterns and the end result is not predictable. That is life. It takes strange and unusual pathways. So, we get the foragers in to take samples of what has grown. It is determined if it is stable, can be used for seeding, and then it goes to the greenhouses and the experimental fields for germination.”

  “Like the fruit.”

  “Right. Like the fruit you had this morning. It is good raw, excellent cooked, and oxidizes when juiced into something that tastes completely different. That took experimentation.” He chuckled. “It is my favourite part of a new world. Getting it ready for habitation.”

  Tolr returned, and he had fabric draped over his arms. “My lord, Lady Theena, I have some clothing and a pair of shoes that the facility has readied.”

  The fabric was a nice ombre pattern in ocean blue to cream with coral. She couldn’t see which piece went where, but it looked like she wouldn’t be having a peep show if she wore it. Getting it wet was another question, but unless Etska flew in the rain, it wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

  Athena got up and walked to him, extending her arms. “If you hand them over, I will get changed, and then your eye can stop twitching when you look at my coveralls.”

  Tolr looked a little surprised, but he handed her the fabric. She didn’t look at the overseer. She headed up to the bedroom and stripped, holding up what turned out to be a skirt and a wide breast band with a shoulder strap on her right side. Her abs were shown off to advantage, and the skirt had a sash tied at her hips. The skirt wasn’t going anywhere, but the multiple panels meant that her legs were going to be flashed every time she took a step. The slippers covered her feet, and that was that.

  She looked at herself in a mirror that was uncomfortably close to the bed and twirled around. The panels parted up to mid-thigh, and that is where the exposure ceased. That was something, at least.

  Well, she was dressed to spec as a Hmrain companion, so she might as well return to her Hmrain.

  She walked back to the table out back, and Tolr looked pleased and relieved. Etska got to his feet, and he held her hand before he slowly turned her.

  “Nicely done. The colours suit your skin tone.”

  She chuckled. “Yours as well.”

  “A coincidence.” He chuckled and ran a finger along the bare expanse of her neck and shoulder.

  She wanted to shiver, but he walked slowly around her, touching the exposed skin of her midriff.

  “I do like the design and fit.”

  Athena nodded. “I just have a few tests to do on the fabric, but that can wait until I have a change of clothing. I am guessing that I am wearing the prototype.”

  Tolr nodded. “You are, Lady Theena. They are attempting to have another ready by the end of the day, but this one was the simplest assembly.”

  She played with the skirt and smiled. “I can also fly a rider with this.”

  Etska sighed and wrapped an arm around her waist, flipping her into his embrace. “Let’s wait to discuss your possibility of personal mobility.”

  He spread his wings and launched them skyward. He was always careful to set her head against his shoulder so that she didn’t get whiplash. It was very considerate.

  They headed back to the research building, but this time, he landed on the ground in front of the main doors, and he set her on her feet before he took her hand to lead her into the building. The guards bowed, and there were stares as she passed through the doors next to Etska, but when he introduced her at the front desk, he made things clear. “I am here to speak to the research teams, and the colony controller is here to see what they have done with the forager discoveries.”

  The woman at the desk looked at Athena. “Colony controller?”

  “Apparently. He just made the title up.”

  Etska casually reached around and covered her mouth with his hand. “The
controller is getting used to her new position and several others. We will be on our way.”

  The receptionist blushed as she caught onto the reference, her bright green skin going dark.

  They were in the lift, and Athena bit his hand. He chuckled and released her. She licked her lips. She had been going to lick his hand, but she just knew that he would have enjoyed it.

  “Don’t mock your position. It is important that you have a place here that is outside my bed. Everyone works at a new colony.”

  She nodded. “Fair enough. Try not to remind everyone that we meet that I am here for sex.”

  He shrugged. “It is foremost in my mind.”

  She shivered, and he looked down at her, smiling.

  “Are you cold, Athena?”

  “No.”

  He leaned in and nipped at her ear. “Good.”

  She was going to elbow him in the ribs, but one of the researchers greeted him at the lift, and they were off on a whirlwind tour of the raw materials and mineral labs.

  She listened and smiled along while the researcher showed them the machines that broke things down so analysis could be enacted. It looked like she was getting the full tour.

  It was the same on every level they visited until they reached the textile lab. When they arrived, a cluster of researchers was at the back of the lab, arguing around a terminal.

  Etska looked down at her. “I wonder what they are working on.”

  They walked back to the group, and she cleared her throat. “Status update?”

  The researchers mumbled, and the assistant said, “We are trying to find designs that are going to be appropriate for the new companion’s physiology while taking her skin texture into account. We want to use more than just the two fabrics, so we are having to work on processing again.”

  “Smart. The other ones were kind of prickly instead of a soft fold.” Etska spoke, and he put a lot of rumble into his voice. The researchers all turned around slowly as if caught doing something untoward.

  The overseer looked at them and raised his brows. “So, show us what you are working on.”

  The assistant looked at her clothing and stared at the breast band. “That is not how I imagined that going on.”