“Come on Adam, push harder!” Eve groaned.

  “Fuck, I’m pushing as hard as I can!” I grunted back.

  Eve sighed and stepped back from the kitchenette cabinet, shaking her head in disappointment, “I don’t think it’s going to fit. Don’t we have anywhere else to store it?”

  Finally giving up, I set down the case of Entana candy-liquor I’d received as a gift from Doctor Zyno, “Damn, I wanted it put away somewhere, don’t like the idea of having liquor just sitting out.”

  Eve shrugged, “Why does it matter? It’s not like we ever have guests in our quarters.”

  I wagged my finger at her admonishingly, “You forget, I grew up mid-western country; we had a weird point of pride that we didn’t want to seem like country folk, and having random cases of liquor out skips beyond country to the point of just being a redneck.”

  Eve giggled and leaned up to give me a quick kiss, “You’re so cute it’s dumb—or so dumb it’s cute.”

  Eve and I returned aboard the Specialty Resource and Research Vessel The Radiance with no small sense of accomplishment. We had been down on planet Entana hunting the dangerous Predazoan Gamma-17 for just over 40 days; Eve almost single-handedly found and killed her sister Predazoan, and doing so within such a short timeframe was beyond all estimations. Mission command believed it could’ve taken well over two years to find our foe, so it was obvious how important Eve would be for all our future missions as well.

  Originally, mission command had Eve locked up in a containment cell back when she was just a cute little child-like alien. Me being her handler, I basically lived in that cell with her, but once it was time to head planet-side for the mission, I had to leave the core of Eve behind, only taking some scout-form with me. Some developments with another member of the investigation team caused little Evie no small amount of distress, requiring my return back to The Radiance to find out what all happened with Eve. Turned out, Eve wasn’t just some child-like alien, she was a full, mature person hidden behind all that strange alien biomass, and she said she was in love with me—didn’t want anyone else to ever have me. Sure, I was flattered this impossibly beautiful alien-babe was in love with me, but there was no denying the fact she was the most dangerous lifeform in the universe. Now that her secret was out in the open, however, Eve refused to go back to any containment cell and wanted to head down planet-side with me for the mission.

  Eve was…very persuasive.

  Back down on Entana with Eve, I had to resist her constant seduction attempts, ignore her confessions over being my perfect mate, and fight to try and reclaim my freedom from her insane possessiveness.

  Turns out, I was being an idiot all the while; as crazy as it might sound, I had fallen in love with the most dangerous lifeform in the universe. Eve was my soulmate just as I was hers, and while I still had some trepidation over us being together, I knew I would never love anyone else.

  Still, we weren’t fully together yet; I was still waiting to hear back from mission command on the updates for the safety protocols regarding Eve. I hoped they would relax a little now that we all knew how important she was in fighting our Predazoan targets, but there were still quite a few people in command who feared Eve’s awesome power.

  We’d only been back aboard The Radiance for a few hours now, waiting around for mission command to call us in for a debriefing. I was expecting to be debriefed right away, but since quite a few members of the research team came back from Entana rather drunk, mission command made the benevolent decision to give us an eight-hour shift to get back settled home before we’d be called in for the meeting.

  Eve and I headed back to the quarters we shared to find several dozen boxes and crates of supplies Eve ordered before we went down planet-side for the mission. I’d completely forgotten about our little trip to the supplies manager way back when, but it seemed like everything Eve ordered had arrived.

  Eve had gotten tons of clothes in every kind of style imaginable; she’d done a lot of shopping around Entana for clothes, but now she had outfits that would fit pretty much any style across the Empire—some earth clothes too even. Eve also ordered a lot of decorations and furniture to make our quarters more like a home; she’d changed out the generic ship couch for something that fit better in some cozy den, she upgraded our den TV and got another for the bedroom, upgraded our bed to a king-sized, got a few shelves, cabinets and dressers for our clothes and gear, even a couple rugs and tapestries that made the quarters seem more like a cozy cabin. Of course that was probably her exact intention; Eve had the softest spot in her heart for the country home back on earth where I’d first taken care of her, and it was crazy how our super space-age ship quarters now looked more like a cozy log cabin—there was even a holographic fireplace below the new big TV in the den.

  Eve also altered the study so it was more than just a work desk; now it seemed more like a craft room/art studio with all our supplies and stations spread all over. I was always a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none kind of artist jumping between a dozen different projects, but Eve loved that about me and wanted me to explore all my random creative fancies. I was glad to see Eve bought herself some craft supplies for her own projects; I was sometimes worried Eve didn’t have enough she wanted to do, always saying she just happy to be with me, but now she had a little work desk where she said she wanted to try her hand at making her own clothes and jewelry.

  Before, I said my quarters didn’t seem like much of a home, but now that Eve had it all fully decorated and customized, it seemed every bit like a home to me. Of course, anywhere I’d be with Eve would be like a home; she was all I’d ever really need, all I’d want, she was my safe place—she was my home.

  We’d spent nearly all our free time before the debriefing unpacking and setting up our new home, which was honestly a good distraction because Eve was still chomping at the bit to get me to have sex with her. I swear I could feel the heat of her lust radiating off her while we worked, and she threw me these gazes—mere gazes that easily aroused me. I wanted her so bad—I was desperate for it now, but I was still a little intimidated by her incredible Predazoan power, so I knew we’d need the right time to make it comfortable for me. Eve already said she would let me take control and dominate her for our first time, and I was more than eager to have her that way.

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  “Settle down, boy.” Eve said teasingly, carrying the last empty boxes with her tentacles to the door for the maintenance bots to take away.

  “What, I didn’t say anything.”

  Eve strolled back over and pressed herself against me, wrapping her arms around my neck, “If you want me to behave and wait for you, you can’t go around thinking those wildly lustful thoughts.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “I don’t think it was that bad, I was just thinking how I wanted to take control and dominate you for our—”

  Eve shivered and pressed one of her hair tentacles against my lips to silence me, “That, mmmm, that right there.” She shook her head and chuckled to herself, “That’s enough.”

  I laughed too and kissed the top of her head, “We don’t even have time now; briefing should be in 30 minutes when B-shift ends.”

  Eve looked up at me, eyes twinkling with mischief, “You know…we don’t need to fully have sex yet.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “What are you thinking?”

  Eve shrugged, a little pink blush playing on her face, “30 minutes? More than enough time to give you a blowjob.”

  Now it was my turn to back off, “Down girl, holy shit.”

  Eve pulled away, smiling playfully as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, “Just saying, the offer’s there.” Her smile turned dangerous, “The offer will always be there.”

  ***

  It was my first time in the grand assembly hall, a room three times the size of the normal command center. Apparently for the Gamma-17 mission debrief, they wanted all essential crew present—all researchers, agents, and even the soldiers. This was the big wind-down to the first successful mission for The Radiance in hunting down the Predazoans.

  Down at the front of the room was a row of raised white booths that reminded me of judge seats. Normally the command council was only six people, but now there were 12 people in that command row with various other heads of departments. There was Clandestine Commander Durgo, Captain Seash and Captain Quinna as always, along with Doctors Gorgam, Wit and Kianna. Around the others were Agent Kotlokk and Agent Roote (both of whom I met my first day on The Radiance), and quite a few others I met rather infrequently. Doctor Yun, a beautiful lavender aquatic alien was beside Kianna, and next to her was Doctor Sorra, a blue and green newt-looking alien. The last researcher was a man I barely recognized, someone named Doctor Densdor, a tall, skinny yellow man with long red hair and a beard like a wizard; his skin looked like loose, silken fabric, almost wrinkly but definitely not old. Then there was one final soldier, Lieutenant Bryx, a mammoth of a man—literally, the man looked like an anthropomorphic mammoth with the tusks and trunk, standing on huge stalks for legs with beefy arms, his whole body covered in wooly fur.

  Everyone else was seated in several rows of regular raised seating just like in some college classroom. As always, I went up to sit next to my friends—Doctor Zyno and Doctor Tillia—this time with Eve beside me. A normal briefing usually had 50 people in attendance, always a rotating roster of who was invited, but here it looked like over 150 people were present, over half the population of The Radiance.

  Doctor Wit tapped at his podium, activating a light above his seat to show he was speaking as he cleared his throat and his voice echoed around the speaker system—that all was new too. “We’ll begin the mission debriefing on status code:0012998a, otherwise known as the hunt for Gamma-17 on the planet Entana.”

  From there, Doctor Wit started everything off talking about the investigation down on Entana; with the aid of some hologram displays in the center of the room, he explained our drop sites, the location of the ground teams, the planetary scanners, the command team and primary investigation team, the perimeter teams, our staging locations, our hot-zones, our daily supplies, and then finally mentioned where Gamma-17 was located and ultimately killed. It was all wildly dry, and when he finished it was Agent Kotlokk’s turn—the other mission leader down planet-side. He basically went over everything Wit had, but there were times the two were with different squads so some of the daily details were a little different. There were some robots at the side of the auditorium that seemed to be recording the minutes of the meeting.

  I swear I was about to fall asleep when Eve leaned against me so she could whisper in my ear, “Wanna get outta here?”

  I turned to her with a raised eyebrow, “Really?” I whispered back.

  Her smile was playful, “We could go find a place to sneak off and make-out.”

  I grinned back, “Take you up on that blowjob offer.”

  “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

  Eve leaned her head against my shoulder and held my hand under the long row-desk, trailing her thumb in little circles over my skin. It was that kind of affection I really loved, how Eve would just trail her fingers and nails all over me, put her hands through my hair, give me those random kisses; she really knew how to make me feel loved. I leaned my head over on top of hers, and I could feel one of her hair tentacles reach up to rub at my neck gently.

  Back down on the floor, they started calling on members of the ground teams, starting with the researchers. Eventually it came time for Zyno and Tillia to offer their reports; they stood up in their seats when it was their turn, and some of their reports were displayed on the hologram in the center of the room. They moved on through the ranks, moving next to the agents, then the commanding power armor soldiers, then the marine squad leaders, and finally it seemed like they’d gotten through just about everyone.

  “Specialty Resource Agent Adam and Specialty Resource Asset Alpha-03—Eve.” Doctor Wit announced.

  I was surprised they called us together, but Eve and I stood as one. I tried to pull my hand away so everyone wouldn’t see we were holding hands like a couple teenagers, but Eve wouldn’t let go. “Yes?” I called out, suddenly a little nervous. Before, public speaking never bothered me—as a medic on earth, I had to oversee emergency scenes all the time and dish out commands—but here, now, with Eve holding my fucking hand and all eyes on us, I admit I felt a little worried.

  “Your work with Eve has been beyond superb; there is no doubt the mission would’ve been a complete failure without the two of you working together. As such, we have decided to reevaluate the safety protocols regarding Eve; as of now, she will no longer require a personal escort when moving around The Radiance other than her handler—you yourself. We have also considered your request to make her an official crew member, and while it’s not possible to make a Predazoan an Imperial Citizen and a direct employee of the Empire, we are going to offer her compensation in the form of privatized consulting fees.” Doctor Wit smiled kindly and turned to look at Eve specifically, “As someone who was down on Entana, let me welcome you aboard The Radiance as a proper crewmember.”

  And then they started clapping—slow at first, but people started standing up in their chairs to applaud Eve and congratulate her on a job well done. In response, Eve actually blushed a little and tried to hide behind me.

  Once the applause died down and everyone returned to their seats, Doctor Wit activated another string of holograms—clearly a list of my reports, “Now, let’s just hurry on and debrief your reports.” He smirked, “I daresay if anyone needs a little help in learning how to write a proper report, it’s you Agent Adam.” He shrugged, “But we can’t really argue with results.”

  And that was it; after picking apart my reports, the mission debrief was over. We fully completed our first mission of tracking down an escaped Predazoan, killed her, and ended with nearly the perfect outcome; deaths were minimal, the wounded were already recovering, Eve was basically free now (me being her escort was almost a joke since she always wants to be with me anyways), and while I wished we could talk about having the failsafe bomb removed from her core, this was as good as we were gonna get for now. I could see the researchers look at Eve like she was a real person, and even most of the soldiers seemed to be of the same opinion. Sure, there were a few naysayers in the crowd—I noticed Commander Durgo hadn’t joined in with the applause. But we were exactly where we needed to be with the mission, with command, even aboard The Radiance with our shared quarters.

  There was no reason we couldn’t be together now.