Companion 3000

Pierce frowned. “Look, honey, I’ve been meaning to tell you—”

“So it’s true.” Leita felt sudden tears fill her eyes and she brushed them away angrily with the back of her hand. She’d been hoping against hope that she was wrong but Pierce’s words confirmed her worst fears.

“Yeah, it’s true but—”

“You’ve been playing a game all this time—pretending to be a Companion when you’re actually just some guy that got in a box and shipped himself out here,” Leita interrupted him. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Who are you, anyway, one of the employees at the plant where the Companions are manufactured? Or just some horny asshole that thought it might be fun to take me for a ride?”

“It’s not like that at all,” Pierce objected. “It’s true I was in the factory but not because I work there. I was in a shootout with some bastards who wanted to take me in and—”

“Oh, this just gets better and better,” Schneider cut in, lashing his tail in agitation. “Not only are you not what you represented yourself to be, you’re also a wanted fugitive, on the run from the authorities.”

“What? No!” Pierce protested. “Look, Leita, don’t listen to him. He never liked me in the first place. I’m not some kind of fugitive. Well, not exactly, it’s just that I have this bounty on my head—which is not my fault—and I thought this would be a good place to hide while the heat died down. But I didn’t come here on purpose, I just—”

“Oh, I see.” Leita nodded jerkily. “You thought the best way to get away from it all would be to mail yourself to a lonely, desperate woman and pretend to be a sex toy. What were you planning, Pierce? To gain my trust, wait until you thought it was safe and leave in the middle of the night?”

“Well, yes, initially but… Look.” He shook his head. “This is all coming out wrong. If you’ll just listen to me for a minute…” He took a step toward her and Leita pointed the tazer pen at his bare, hairy chest.

“I’m through listening to you, Pierce, or whatever your name is,” she spat. “Everything you’ve told me so far is a lie and I’m not interested in hearing more. And to think, I told you…told you everything. I let you know my darkest desires because you pretended you were a Companion, a machine that wouldn’t judge me. Were you laughing at me, Pierce? Did my sick little fantasies amuse you?” It was Eddie all over again, she thought, feeling the stab of betrayal like a knife to her gut.

“Leita, come on.” His deep voice was beginning to sound desperate. “It wasn’t like that—you know it wasn’t.”

“I don’t know anything about you and I don’t want to know,” Leita said, in a voice that trembled more than she wanted it to. “I can’t believe the things I told you—the things I let you do to me. I…I let you tie me up and blindfold me and…and you used the nipple clamps on me!”

“You liked that,” Pierce objected. “You said it was what you wanted.”

“You let him put clamps on your pink nubbly things?” Schneider interrupted, swishing his tail. “Didn’t that hurt?”

“Shut up, Schneider,” she said, not taking her eyes from Pierce. “The point is, Pierce, I trusted you. I trusted you and you betrayed that trust. You betrayed me.”

“Leita, I swear, I was going to tell you first thing in the morning.” Pierce’s blue eyes were pleading. “Last night changed me—made me change my mind, I mean. Please, Leita, you have to believe me.”

“I don’t have to believe anything you say ever again.” Leita made her voice hard and cold even though she felt like she was dying inside. “There’s a drone ship waiting outside the airlock to take back the supposedly empty box you came in. You have five seconds to get on it.”

“Leita, I’m naked here. You can’t just—” Pierce stepped toward her.

“Oh, yes I can.” She pointed the tazer pen at him again. “Don’t come another step.”

“But I just…” Pierce took another step and she shot him.

“Ow!” He didn’t quite fall on the floor but he staggered and barely caught himself against the nearby wall. The living area filled with the odor of burning hair and a round, fist-sized bare spot appeared on his medium-hairy chest. Pierce looked down at himself in astonishment. “You shot me!”

“Damn straight and I’ll do it again if you don’t get out of here.” Leita motioned toward the airlock. “Go.” She watched with tears pooling in her eyes as Pierce turned toward the airlock door and the waiting drone ship outside the life pod.

He put his hand on the door and turned back just before he opened it. “I know you don’t believe this, Leita,” he said softly. “But this last month and a half has been the best time of my life. You made me feel things…understand things… Hell, I’m no good at this.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I just…just wanted to say—well, you’re important to me and I…”