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No, nothing, I was just… I stayed back to check…’ Her face scrunched up into a grimace. ‘No, that was just an excuse. Look, I think I’m going to ask to be let out of my contract.’
    Blinking, Aneka pulled herself closer and looked the auburn-haired girl in her green eyes. ‘Why?’
    ‘Well, I feel like kind of a fifth wheel here. Both Bash and Monkey have more experience than I do. You’re stronger. I was brought on for my muscles…’
    ‘And your robotics skills.’
    ‘Haven’t even used those. And… I don’t think Monkey likes me.’
    Monkey liked her. Monkey thought she was so hot he would melt. Apparently everyone knew this except for Delta. ‘Why would you think that? Has he said something?’
    ‘No! Exactly the opposite. He hardly ever talks to me when we’re alone aside from, “Could you pass the wire cutters?” I see him looking at me sometimes and he always looks away quickly. My dad always got red around the face when he was angry and that’s the way Monkey looks when I catch him watching me…’
    Aneka reached out and put a hand on Delta’s arm. ‘My God, girl, stop. Drahain really screwed your perceptions of males, didn’t it?’
    ‘I… What?’
    ‘Okay, first of all, Monkey gets really shy around women he finds attractive. He was the same with me when he first met me, and that was knowing I wasn’t even a Jenlay.’
    ‘He… does?’
    ‘And men who get caught looking at women tend to blush. It’s generally because they’re imagining one or more sexual positions, maybe something more exotic involving honey and a lot of licking.’
    Delta was pretty when she blushed. ‘I’d imagine that she is now imagining something coated in honey,’ Al commented. Aneka tried not to laugh.
    ‘What I’d suggest,’ Aneka said, ‘is that you put some sexy clothes on after dinner and let him know you’re interested. You are interested, right? You’ve looked like you were interested since I met you.’
    ‘I… Well, yes, he’s nice and not pushy like a lot of the men…’ Her eyes widened in horror. ‘I don’t have anything sexy, Aneka. “Sexy” is not a word to describe typical fashion where I come from.’
    Heaving a sigh, Aneka considered some options. Delta throwing herself at Monkey was probably out; she did not have the experience, obviously, and it would likely scare him more than arouse him. ‘Okay, you go get food. I’ll go to the fabricator and get something made for you. I’ll get it to your cabin. You just have to wear it and promise not to chicken out.’
    Delta looked distinctly uncomfortable, but she nodded. ‘Uh, Aneka?’
    ‘Yes, Delta.’
    ‘What’s a chicken?’
    8.8.524 FSC.
    ‘I assume the reason my son is looking blithely happy and making doe eyes at Delta has something to do with you missing dinner last night, Aneka?’ Gillian said as they worked over the flight deck of the Agroa Gar.
    ‘She needed a push, so did he,’ Aneka replied. ‘I fabricated her some thigh-high boots and a corset.’
    ‘A corset?’ Ella asked.
    ‘Uh, yeah… Like that basque you persuaded me to buy on Harriamon, but with more uplift and a far tighter waist. She needed the extra confidence. In case you hadn’t noticed, her breasts sag a little. Probably spending nearly thirty years in high gravity. Anyway, it seems like it did the trick. Monkey looked the type who’d go for the dominatrix look.’
    Ella frowned. ‘No panties?’
    ‘A black thong. She’d have freaked if I’d suggested that degree of nudity.’
    ‘Sounds kind of… covering for seduction-wear.’
    ‘I can queue up the same outfit in your size if you wish?’ Al suggested. The AI was very good at predicting Aneka’s needs and wants; far too good at times.
    ‘See if they’ve got a pattern for a riding crop too,’ Aneka silently replied. Aloud she said, ‘These cable jacks on the consoles, they’re what they used to connect into the ship?’ The black cables were probably useless now; like all the