Michel stared out into the endless empty space. With the Halian War behind them, the future seemed bright, fruitful — boring. Sighing, he glanced over his shoulder. Even the hologram of his homeland of Sega-Ma failed to cheer him today.

“Commander Giat?” Central Control hailed him.

Pressing his wrist communicator, he answered. “What is it?”

“The Lady is in holding pattern and has requested a dock.”

“Open the hold.” He’d been expecting Ro back from delivering the Honiker Oil. Ro was his sister Aurelia’s personal droid. Aurelia was currently enjoying a honeymoon in his interrogation chamber with John Blaten, leaving him to take care of the details. He didn’t mind, they deserved happiness. The gods knew they’d waited long enough for the war to end so they could be together.

A buzz alerted him to a visitor at his door. Flipping off the hologram, Michel walked from his bedroom to his living quarters. A touch on the hand scan and the door slid open. “Ro.” He nodded at his visitor. “Did the delivery go as planned?”

“Yes, sir.” Ro gave a mocking salute.

Michel furrowed his brow. Ro was not at all the same droid he’d sent to guard Aurie and he wasn’t sure he was comfortable with the new Ro. “Ro, I sent you as a professional soldier droid to live with my sister. What happened?”

“You live with that woman for three years and see what happens.”

He nodded his head. “Good point.”

Flopping in a chair, Ro smiled. “Besides, Aurelia insisted on some upgrades. She wanted me to be more human.”

Michel scratched his chin. “I heard some mention of a pleasure droid. You didn’t…”

“Pleasure your sister?” Ro wagged his brows.

“Ro?” he demanded an answer. If he had been Aurie’s pleasure droid, John would take him apart when he surfaced from the interrogation chamber.

“I’m innocent.” Propping his feet up on a table, Ro asked, “Speaking of Aurelia, have they come up for air?”

“No, and get your feet off my fucking table.” Sitting in the chair across from Ro, Michel kicked the table. It wobbled on its base but since the durable plastiflex furniture was connected to the flooring, it didn’t move.

“I can get abused elsewhere and enjoy it.” Standing, Ro flipped his hand up in a half-ass wave. “I’ll be in guest quarters if I’m needed.”

Michel didn’t bother to reply. He didn’t know why he was so grumpy. Obviously, he needed some down time. He considered contacting General Valant. With John on board, he could ask for a leave of absence. John was certainly capable of commanding The Quest for a few weeks.

The corner of Michel’s lip curled up as he considered a month in a pleasure house on Ha-Tor Three. He could have a different woman every night, a real woman, not the droids available to him aboard the ship. Lately, he rarely took advantage of the pleasure droids. Even the new programming that allowed the droids to shift into any shape requested barely got a rise out of him. Of course, he’d tested the program. The last droid he’d ordered had a perfect likeness to a certain hot lieutenant. It had been a pleasant diversion to fuck her.

Now, in real life, the lieutenant was an excellent crewmember except for her acid tongue that had, on occasion, verbally flayed men to the bone. The beautiful lieutenant preferred women and that was a fact. Such was life.

A diversion was exactly what he needed. A challenge to stir the blood. At thirty-three, he was too young to lose interest in sex.