We returned to our apartment aboard The Radiance, still lost in the fog of defeat. We collapsed on the couch together, holding onto each other for comfort and security as we took stock of everything that’d changed for us.

  The one and only positive: we were allowed to remain in a relationship together. Of course, I’d have to undergo psychiatric counseling as high-command believed I was being manipulated by Eve, but for now it was a small victory we would accept.

  The intrinsic inhibitor field containing Eve was the development that had totally beaten us. Eve tried to break through the field, grew in size and manifested dozens of tentacles spreading out in every direction, but the field kept her bound no matter what she did. Any spores or separate forms she created would just be pressed back against her skin, usually getting smashed and destroyed against her, turning back into useless biomass to be resorbed into her body. She even tried stretching out a tentacle and then breaking it off, but it was just crushed by the inhibitor field and turned to ooze same as everything else. Eve still had her other powers (her strength, speed, and intelligence) but her greatest ability and our best chance of trying to break free was totally blocked.

  Eve even confirmed her senses seemed to be dulled now, contained as she was; all her senses were diminished, especially the extra-sense as she could just barely sense when someone was thinking around her, and it was muted to the point she couldn’t really make out any detailed information.

  Then we checked out my failsafe and saw it looked like a small silver coin with a white ring around the middle implanted in my neck, completely locked in place. Eve pressed a couple tentacles against my neck so the ends frayed out in dozens of tiny appendages that allowed her to feel around the explosives wiring, and she confirmed it was so entangled around my cervical spin it would be way too dangerous to try and dislodge it now that she was so contained; it looked like there was no way we could remove it.

  But the absolute worst development in all this was the fact we couldn’t touch each other directly; the inhibitor field was always in the way, just barely a ghost of a barrier that kept our skin apart. I could still feel Eve’s heat, I could touch her curves, I could even smell her, but touching her felt like I was rubbing over that strange, staticky film, and even when I tried to kiss or taste her, there was a strange barrier in place that reminded me of licking a battery.

  Eve looked at me with a flat expression, irritated beyond belief after we tried and failed to feel each other’s skin all over, standing naked before me, “You know what was one of the best parts about being a Predazoan? I never had to worry about birth control or condoms; I could always feel you directly against me, and you could always cum inside me without any concerns.” She gestured to herself, “Now it feels like I’m wearing a full-body condom!”

  It wasn’t really funny, but I laughed anyways, so Eve just glared at me and turned away in a pouty huff, and that just made me laugh even harder. I hugged Eve from behind as I laughed, and she tried to push me away, but my laughter eventually got to her so she joined in. We stood there laughing like a couple of naked fools for several minutes, finding a strange sense of solace in the laughter, trying to forget how bound we were now.

  We finally settled back down, and Eve led me to bed, and even though we were desperate for each other, we took our time trying to feel each other. We pressed as much of our bodies together as we could, with Eve manifesting more tentacles to wrap around me. She was slow and gentle as she rode me, trying to feel me inside her every inner-fold. It was still pleasurable, of course, her outrageous body and her tantalizing movements, but the difference between skin-to-skin contact and having this barrier between us was quite noticeable.

  I finished inside her and Eve was beyond relieved to discover the permeable membrane in the barrier over her orifices included her vagina, so she was able to receive my seed directly. She said that would be a victory, at least she could take that small part of me inside herself—something to feel close to me again. Still, it clearly wasn’t enough, and I could see in Eve’s eyes she was desperate for more—and holding herself back from trying to get it.

  We were totally enslaved by the Empire now, and any positive opinions of them I held before had been completely destroyed. I could see now I’d only been shown the shiny outer veneer of the Empire, enough to trick me and entrap me into their service, and now that we were bound they revealed their true face; the totalitarian intergalactic Empire that controls their space by any means necessary.

  Well, it might’ve been a little late to come to that discovery, but it just meant we’d need to start our own little rebellion. We’d play along for now, work as the handler and the asset, take their training and follow through with their fucking psychiatrist, but all the while we’d be looking for ways to break free—looking for ways Eve and I could touch each other directly again, to be together freely and completely.

  ***

  The next few days were rather busy for me, while Eve was either to follow along with her handler or remain behind in our quarters—the old rules of her only being able to walk freely aboard The Radiance while with me fully back in place.

  I had my first session with the alien psychiatrist, a humanoid-turtle mix who looked wizened and ancient and talked way slower than I was comfortable with, but he assured me it was because he was such a good listener. His name was Doctor Jumomo, and while I was immediately hostile towards him and assured him my love for Eve was genuine, he told me that was something we would discover together. During the session he just wanted me to talk about my time with Eve so far, tell me about her and how our daily lives were. It was all rather basic and reminded me of my time back on Earth with my human therapist Sarah—blast from the past there. The hour with the doctor seemed to fly by as I talked about Eve, and I was glad he didn’t offer any judgments or opinions trying to tell me how I was being manipulated, instead he just said he’d see me in a couple days for the next session.

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  After that I was able to collect Eve again and the two of us headed for combat training. The start of our lessons was basically getting a condensed version of Imperial bootcamp, running normal combat drills together, working on intense situational communication and commands, working through simulated puzzles and problems together. I wanted to say how much I hated it, that it was horrible to be just another cog in the Imperial war-machine, but since Eve was with me we ended up having our own kind of fun. We behaved as much as we could, following along with our instructor’s orders, but Eve was flirty and playful all the while. And it wasn’t like our performance suffered for it; same as back on Dream-13 with the War-Sim tournament, Eve could pass any combat sim or situation with ease, dancing through any dangerous scenario like it was a game.

  The training took most of the day, several hours and multiple shifts on the standard Imperial schedule and even though it was all rather exhausting, Eve was desperate to spend time together in bed when we finally returned home. Since we couldn’t actually touch thanks to the inhibitor barrier, Eve made up for it with a new kind of insatiable ferocity, pressing herself against me and wrapping me up in tentacles with an obsessive need. She drained me of my seed as much as she could, saying that was the closest she could be with me for now. Still, with her being contained within that barrier, I only had my normal human stamina to rely on; no more wonder drugs to keep me going all night long. Playing around with all these new limitations, I could see the pain in Eve’s eyes growing every day, and I knew I needed to do something to help out—but help how, I didn’t know.

  We spent several more days following that same pattern; combat and handler training every day with the psychiatric counseling every other day, with nights spent trying to close that physical gap between us as best we could.

  The sessions with Doctor Jumomo were rather strange, he always just had me talk about Eve and our experiences together. I wasn’t sure what kind of game he was playing, maybe trying to make me realize something was wrong with the relationship or trip me up when he discovered some obvious flaw, but so far he just sat there nodding his head as I ranted and raved about how much I loved Eve and how amazing she was. I could admit our obsession with each other was unhealthy, and I knew it was dangerous to bond with a Predazoan who could overwhelm and consume my body or mind, but I didn’t believe I was being manipulated in the slightest, so I really didn’t see the point in these stupid sessions.

  “Is this all we’re going to do, have me come in here and talk about how much I enjoy my relationship with Eve while you sit there silently judging me, finding some way to put a wedge between us?” I asked as we were finishing up another session.

  Doctor Jumomo held up his hands peaceably, “I haven’t made any judgments or confirmations on my end; part of our work will be finding out whether you’re being manipulated by Alpha-03, and we’ll do that together.” He confirmed in that infuriatingly slow voice of his.

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “So you think it’s possible we have a real genuine relationship despite what the Lord Generals and their threat analysis declared?”

  Doctor Jumomo nodded once, “Anything’s possible, and if it’s true you aren’t being manipulated, we’ll work together in properly integrating your romantic relationship with your position as the Predazoan handler.”

  I scoffed at that but didn’t offer any other reply. Basically, the Lord Generals wanted it so they would benefit either way; whether they freed me from Predazoan manipulation or used my relationship with Eve to turn the tables around so I could manipulate her, it didn’t matter to them, so long as we could be properly used.

  I left the counseling session to go collect Eve and head back to combat training, running more drills of being in active battlefield situations where I could still give Eve appropriate commands through the comms. It was all rather ridiculous when I really thought about it, using guns like this and directing Eve how to fight the simulated enemies; realistically we wouldn’t need anyone else once Eve was on the battlefield—and we should allow her instincts to take over to handle the fight however she wanted. I remember how it was back on Entana, how useless those marines and soldiers were, even with their power armor, their repulser field barriers, and the destabilizing acids rounds. There was nothing mere mortal soldiers could do against the Predazoans, not unless their lover royally fucked up and got them all tangled in shady government business to the point she allowed them to contain her.

  It was then I realized I was the weak link in the relationship—like, duh, super obvious. But it was tough to admit how much of a weak link I really was. Everything that had gone wrong was all my fault; forgetting any little mistakes Eve made after the fact—getting angry or letting her emotions overwhelm her, none of that would even matter if I didn’t allow the Empire to put that failsafe in her core way back when, at the start of all this. And from there it just went downhill when I had the cardiac monitor installed, so then Eve was concerned the Empire would try to attack me to get to her—never even worried for her own safety. Meanwhile I had all those little human concerns, worried our relationship might change if we came out in the open about our feelings, all the while Eve had a bomb in her fucking chest.

  I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid to lead us to this point, and I realized I was the one who needed to change—to finally carry my weight in this relationship.

  It was time for me to evolve.

  I was distracted during the combat simulation as I mused over this new revelation and really wanted to tell Eve about it, when suddenly the combat sim completely shut down around us, with the holographic enemies and terrain blinking out of existence, leaving us in the middle of the strangely blank simulator.

  Our combat instructor pulled out her tablet, “Oh, guess we’ll have to call it for today.” She told us.

  Eve walked over to grab my arm as we made our way towards the old soldier, “Why, what’s going on?” I asked.

  She pressed a button on her tablet to display the message as a hologram, “They’re holding a war-council on The Judicator in two hours, requesting all officers, agents, and the head researchers aboard The Radiance to join them. Apparently we’ve got a new Predazoan target.”

  Eve and I exchanged a confused look, “What the hell, what about the massive restructuring for mission operations—all our mandatory training?” I pressed.

  The instructor shrugged, “No idea, this must supersede all that.” She looked back to her tablet and nodded, “Oh, yeah that makes sense. Seems like there’s a planetary emergency; apparently a Predazoan has taken over an Imperial world.”