“Ah, yes, Alex Hawthorne, correct?” asked the staffer from the previous evening, Garrison, as he stood outside his cabin door.

It wasn’t so much the sight of Garrison that surprised Alex as it was the woman next to him.

Quite frankly, it was the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen in his life.

She was tall for a woman. Alex found that he didn’t have to crane his head down much to look at her even from his height. She was on the younger side as well, no more than mid-twenties in age. She had the most beautiful, thick and luscious golden blonde hair that he’d ever seen. It cascaded down to her shoulders in wavy lengths before spilling off and falling midway down her back. She was a natural blonde too judging by her coloring and her immaculate eyebrows.

Her eyes were a stunning green that seemed to capture his attention, threatening to never release it again. She had a cute button nose with just the hint of freckling across it and her cheeks. Her lips were soft, pink, and inviting, and the rest of the skin on her face was without blemish.

That wasn’t even mentioning her body though, which Alex only managed to look over quickly. She had incredible curves and the generous swell under her top hinted at very large breasts.

The only thing that seemed disappointing about her was the fact that she didn’t look very happy at all.

In fact, she looked completely pissed.

“Excuse me, you are Alex Hawthorne, right?”

Alex shook his head, coming back to reality. “Ah, yes, I am. What’s up?”

Garrison gave him a disappointed look and then gestured to the woman. “I’m afraid there was a mistake yesterday. We were supposed to have all the remaining women included in the lottery for your orientation but this one was missed.”

The woman crossed her arms in front of her chest and scowled.

Both Garrison and Alex noticed it but Garrison resumed talking almost immediately.

“Yes, well, we did a lottery to determine who she would be assigned to and your number came up,” explained Garrison. “So I’d like to introduce you to Jenna Whitaker. She’ll be your companion moving forward.”

Alex had to admit that it was a very pleasant surprise. Even though the women from yesterday were all beautiful, Jenna outshined all of them. He thought she would be even more attractive if she would just smile but judging by the expression on her face, a smile wasn’t going to come anytime soon.

“Well, good to meet you then,” said Alex, nodding his head to her. “I was thinking that I wasn’t going to get a companion.”

Jenna said nothing to him. She simply rolled her eyes and sighed loudly.

Garrison intervened at that point. “Go on, Jenna. Give him a hug. He’s going to be very important to your life moving forward.”

That statement seemed to be the tipping point. Jenna took one step back.

“If you think I’m going to give this brute a hug, you’re fucking high,” she yelled.

Alex flinched. Jenna was now looking at him like he just murdered her entire family, and Garrison certainly looked embarrassed as well.

“Now, Jenna, you know the program that you signed up for. This is part of it.”

“I don’t care,” she said, pointing her finger at him. “I’m not doing this. Fuck him and fuck you. I’m going back to my cabin.”

With those words, she spun on her heels and marched away, her incredible ass swaying from side to side enticingly as she walked.

Alex let out a low whistle once she was gone. “I don’t think she likes me.”

Garrison turned completely red and looked at Alex with an embarrassed expression.

“I’m so terribly sorry about this, Alex. We’ve been having . . . some problems with her to put it lightly.”

“What kind of problems?”

Garrison winced. “For one, she’s been almost violently opposed to the program, and I can’t figure out why. She knew what she was signing up for back on Earth, so I’m not sure why she doesn’t want to be assigned to a man. She’s been incredibly hard to work with because of it. She was hiding last night in her cabin when she should have been at the orientation. When confronted about it this morning, she slapped one of my assistants so hard that she drew blood. I’m very sorry about all this.”

“You know, I don’t need a companion,” said Alex, waving his hand. “If she’s that upset to be here, she doesn’t have to be assigned to me.”

Garrison shrugged. “That’s part of the program unfortunately. If she reneges on the contract she signed, the penalties are steep. I think she just needs to be reminded of that and perhaps she’ll come around in time. We can hope at least.”

Alex thought to protest a little more but he didn’t. In the back of his mind, he remembered the words of Doctor Barnes from yesterday, as well as the fact that he might be going back to Earth.

Perhaps Jenna would get her wish after all to not be assigned to him if he wasn’t going to get off the ship once it got to Vesta.

Garrison let out a deep breath and nodded toward his cabin, where Kristina was still charging. “At least you have your I-Mate. Hopefully she’ll do for now.”

With those final words, he patted Alex on the shoulder and left, leaving him more confused than ever.

It didn’t help either that the mention of her made Kristina speak up.

“Perhaps Master would like to use my anus this morning?” she said brightly. “Would you be up for some sexual activity?”

“No,” snapped Alex. “Be quiet.”

Kristina lowered her head, not saying anything more. He was tempted to feel bad but then he remembered that she wasn’t real and that he couldn’t hurt the feelings of an android.

And yet still, there were so many things he was confused about.

What was the deal with Jenna?

How the hell was he going to stop Serrano from hijacking the ship?

And most importantly, what the hell was in his head that made him such a science experiment?”

There were too many questions for Alex at that time, and instead of sitting alone in his cabin with his thoughts, he chose to visit Rick in his cabin just a few doors down.

He found him with just a robe on, wearing a satisfied smile that left little doubt as to what he’d been doing.

“Come in, Alex,” said Rick once he made sure the cabin was in good order. Alex found his I-Mate laying on the bed under the covers while Rick’s companion, Nikki, was trying to comb the mess that was her hair (no doubt from the bedroom activity that had just occurred).

“Sorry for the mess,” explained Rick while looking sheepish. “We’ve been busy this morning, right, Nikki?”

She smiled at him. “Right, Rick.” She then made eye contact with Alex. “Rick speaks very highly of you. It’s good to know he has such a good friend to watch his back.”

“Rick and I go back a long way,” explained Alex. “We’ve been friends for longer than I can remember.”

Alex took a few moments to talk to Nikki, finding her both extremely pleasant and attractive with her shiny dark hair. It was one of the first things he commented on once he and Rick were able to get a few moments of privacy.

“Nikki seems great,” said Alex. “I wish my companion was a tenth as sweet as her.”

Rick gave him a funny look. “What companion? You didn’t get one last night.”

“You’re right. I got one this morning,” said Alex, taking a moment to explain the situation with Jenna.

“So she just ran off?” asked Rick after listening to the whole thing. “And she doesn’t want to be part of the program?”

Alex shrugged. “That’s what it sounds like. I’ll be honest with you. Yeah, she’s a beautiful girl but something definitely seems not right about her. I’m almost wishing that they didn’t assign her to me at all.”

Rick gave him a sympathetic look. “Maybe she’ll come to her senses. And in any case, you still have the I-Mate, right?”

“That’s what Garrison said too,” muttered Alex.

“Speaking of which, did you sample the wares last night?” asked Rick, a smile growing on his face. “I tried mine out. Well, I tried both of them. At the same time, no less. It was a night to remember!”

“I tried mine out and it wasn’t bad,” replied Alex, letting out a matching smile. “It’s still not like being with a real woman but it wasn’t unpleasant by any means.”

Rick started to laugh and slapped Alex on the back. “One step at a time, right? It’s just like getting back up on that bicycle once you fall off.”

They were still chuckling to themselves when Alex received a message on his P-com.

It was Doctor Barnes. A small-figured hologram of the doctor was soon projected from Alex’s wrist.

“Hello, Alex,” said Barnes. “I have some more questions I’d like to ask you. Would you be so kind as to stop by my office this afternoon? Say around 1pm?”

Alex started to nod. “I can be there at 1pm. Do I need to bring anything?”

Barnes just smiled. “The only thing I need is what’s inside your brain. I’ll see you then.”

Just like that, the doctor ended the call and his hologram disappeared.

“That doctor is a weird one, isn’t he?” asked Rick.

“Just a little,” admitted Alex. He hadn’t told Rick anything about the doctor’s findings, and he wanted to keep it that way for the time being.

It still made him uncomfortable thinking about what was inside his skull, and knowing that Barnes had more questions for him didn’t make him feel any better.

Alex spent the rest of the morning with Rick and Nikki (who he found to be as friendly as she was beautiful) before going to Barnes’ office just before 1pm.

Just before he knocked on the door, Alex steeled himself for what was to come. He tried to go inside with patience and a cool demeanor, knowing Barnes was just trying to help him.

However, once he opened the door, that cool demeanor completely shattered.

Alex found Barnes laying on the floor, completely motionless. A small red puddle was just under his stomach. Alex quickly hopped over to the other side to look at him, finding a glazed look on his lifeless eyes and a small knife sticking out of his abdomen.

Doctor Barnes was dead.

Alex didn’t panic upon seeing his lifeless corpse. In his previous line of work, he saw the bodies of the dead all the time and it had stopped bothering him ages ago. He did wonder who did this though because something wasn’t quite right.

The look on Barnes’ face was one of shock but judging by the way the knife was embedded in his stomach (and the way his hand was curled around the handle) someone had went to great lengths to make this seem like a suicide.

But a knife in the stomach was a very painful way to go, usually not attempted by someone with suicidal tendencies. This was murder plain and simple. But who did it?

Alex looked around the room for any clues, finding much of the room in the same state it was in the last time he was here. Whoever did this obviously wasn’t trying to steal anything or it would look more ransacked.

One file in particular caught his eye only because it was the one that pulled up on Barnes’ electronic tablet.

It was Alex’s file.

Unable to resist his curiosity, he picked it up and started to read what Barnes had written about him, his eyes picking up several fragments of the report.

“ . . . my findings suggest that there is something about Alex Hawthorne that is not completely human.”

“ . . . potentially an alien species . . .”

“ . . . recommend he be brought back for a series of conclusive testing . . .”

Alex nearly dropped the tablet.

It was all too much to read. Alien species? Not completely human?

Alex felt nauseous to his stomach. Just what the hell did Barnes think he was?

No matter what he was, there was no way in hell he was going to consent to being sent back to Earth to be treated like a science experiment. Whatever he was, he was going to Vesta to start over.

The only good thing about Barnes’ report was that he hadn’t sent it to Earth yet. That made the next action very easy.

Alex scrolled all the way to the bottom and hit the delete button on the file, erasing it completely.

At least he could solve one of his problems.

Putting the tablet back where he found it (and careful not to leave any of his prints), Alex decided to beat a hasty exit. He didn’t want to be in here when someone else came looking for Barnes, but he also wanted to let the crew know that he was dead.

With Barnes being the second death in as many days, all signs pointed to one man.

Serrano.

If this was part of his plan to take over the ship, he had to be stopped.

And yet, it was as Alex was making his way back to his cabin that he was approached from behind by a group of men. Turning around, Alex found Grant Lido sneering at him.

“Hello, Hawthorne,” sneered Lido as he cracked his knuckles.