Companion 3000

Pierce nodded. “Got it. So let’s go to bed.” A wicked smile appeared on his face and suddenly he bent down and swooped her up in his arms, making Leita shriek with surprise.

“Pierce, what are you doing?”

He grinned wolfishly at her. “Takin’ you to bed, baby girl.”

Leita couldn’t help grinning back. Maybe she wasn’t quite so sleepy, after all.

Rustling in the darkness woke him. For a moment Pierce didn’t know where he was, then the warm familiar scent of woman filled his head and he remembered everything. He’d been sleeping curled behind Leita with one arm thrown over her waist, but she was up now, standing beside the bed and dressing. Her side of the gel- foam mattress was already getting cold.

“What…?” He sat up in the dark, taking in the dim outline of her shape as she dressed. “What’s goin’ on?” he asked.

“Oh.” She jumped and put a hand to her chest, clearly startled. “Nothing you can help me with, Pierce. Go back to sleep.”

“What is it?” He couldn’t see her face too well but Leita’s voice sounded troubled. He liked her enough that hearing her sound like that bothered him—bothered him a lot.

“Just…” She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Schneider came to tell me the collision alarm went off. My main droid ship’s been hit by an asteroid. It’s on its way back here now so I’m off to the mech bay to fix it.”

“You fix ships? By yourself?” Pierce couldn’t keep the admiration or surprise out of his voice.

She shrugged. “Nobody else to do it. Since my dad and mom died I’m the number one chief cook and bottle washer around here. Not to mention head mechanic. It’s not so hard, it’s just…” She trailed off and he sensed her worry.

“Go on,” he urged her.

Leita sighed again. “It’s just that I already have one ship out of commission and the one that just got damaged is my main ore collector. It’s also what I’d use as a life raft if I ever had to leave this rock. So I guess it kind of worries me.”

“Let me help.” Pierce was already swinging his legs off the side of the bed but the pressure of her small hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“Look, Pierce, I know you’re programmed to be sensitive to me and let me talk about my feelings, but right now I just don’t have time. Maybe later I can get all girly and cry about it but right now if I don’t get that ship fixed and back in commission my production is going to go way down. I can’t afford to take a financial hit right now.” She finished pulling on her clothes and patted him gently. “You just go back to bed,” she said softly. “We’ll talk later.” And with that she was gone, slipping softly from the door that closed behind her with a breathless whoosh.

Pierce sat still in the bed for a moment blinking groggily, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. Had a sweet young thing just told him to go back to sleep and let her do all the work because she didn’t have time to get girly? He had to grin at that—what a role reversal! How many times had he left the warm bed of a willing woman with the same words—well, not exactly the same words, but the same idea behind them. You go on back to sleep, honey, he’d say, strapping on his pistol and pulling on his boots. Got work to do you can’t help me with. I’ll see you later.

It felt funny to have the shoe on the other foot. Then Pierce realized it didn’t have to be. He hadn’t exactly trained as a mechanic, but he knew his way around a ship well enough, especially something as simple as a droid ore hauler. He knew Leita didn’t believe he could help her but he’d heard the worry in her voice and seen it in the tense set of her slender shoulders. There was no need for her to carry such a heavy burden alone—not when he could help her lift it. Pierce got up and began feeling for his clothes, which Leita had put through the fresher chute so they were clean and no longer smelled like the inside of someone’s armpit. Time this Companion 3000 grew an extra bonus feature that was actually useful.

He didn’t know the layout of the pod and by the time he found the mech bay, down a long twisting corridor, she was already deep in the guts of a machine. Pierce could hear her swearing softly to herself and he saw the problem at once—the droid ship was shaped like a sphere and its stabilizers were shot. Leita was standing on her tiptoes, trying to reach the manual controls so she could winch down the blasters and begin repairs. But every time she reached for it, the ship, which was bobbing gently on its anti-grav field, would roll away from her, like a slippery ball in a pool of water.