Page 18 of Cozy Prisons (Human Pets of Talin: Origins #4)

Nataly

Beep. Beep. Beep!

The angry sounds coming from the data matrix analyzer brought Nataly out of the daze she’d fallen into. Slamming a hand down, she stopped the noise, then let her forehead drop to rest on the cool surface of the workbench.

Her sleep had been almost nonexistent for the last few nights. It was too bad Arise didn’t have any alcohol. A shot of something sounded good. Not enough to get drunk, but a good buzz would be nice. Then the sleepiness that came after it.

She hated being stuck in this place where she was too tired to work but unable to fall asleep.

It helped that she had a steady stream of friends visit today and yesterday.

Despite everyone's interrupted sleep because of the distress call she sent out, they insisted on making sure she was okay in the following days. Their comforting visits were probably the only reason she wasn’t an absolute mess.

She didn’t want to admit it, but she wanted Daxus back.

Not only did she miss his companionship, but his absence made her anxiety worse.

Before, it was at such low levels when she was inside her domicile that she barely registered it.

Now it was bad enough to make her feel like there was a low-level emergency buzzer constantly going off in her chest. It reminded her of working with a station's secondary warning systems. They were always going off because something wasn’t in balance, but it wasn’t enough to call for a station-wide emergency.

If only she could turn off her body’s warning system!

Her door display chimed. Sitting up, Nataly turned in her seat and called for the door to open. Hale stood there with their staff in one hand and an information square in the other.

As usual, they looked disheveled and dirty, as if they’d been walking all day. They looked as thin as when they arrived, but at least they weren’t as pale. Decard said Hale acted like walking while mumbling to themselves was their job.

Sima said it seemed more like Hale was saying prayers. Whatever was going on, no one had the courage to ask Hale any questions.

“The midday meal is being served,” Hale said. “With everyone busy, I thought I’d check with you.”

Nataly smiled and pointed to the extra seat Rami brought over when she and Illea had visited that morning.

Hale stepped in and groaned a little when they sat down. “Wow, two chairs. What’s next, stadium seating?"

Nataly rolled her eyes, then pointed to her food prep area where boxes were stacked on every surface. “Are you hungry? Everyone’s been sending me food as if I’m sick.”

Hale's expression turned serious. “Are you sick?”

Everyone else had danced around the subject, trying to ask without asking. They’d made it easy to ignore their inquiries and change the subject. Hale's blunt question caught her by surprise.

“No!”

Wow, she didn’t know she could make one word sound that defensive! She tried again.

“We’re all traumatized in some way,” she said, working hard to keep her voice even and unaffected. “I’m no worse than anyone else.”

Hale didn’t look convinced. “Sure, I guess.”

Time for deflection. “What are you doing still carrying that around?” she asked, pointing to the pole.

Hale gave a little shrug. “They haven’t tried to take it away yet.”

That was about as informative as her answer. “Fair point.”

They lapsed into silence that lasted an entire minute before Hale started to fidget.

Abruptly, they stood up. “I’m leaving.”

Nataly almost laughed. “Thanks for coming by.”

Hale gave a little grunt, then was out the door. She could hear them start mumbling to themself before the door shut behind them.

She’d like to call Hale odd, but who was she to judge?

Alone again, she decided to try eating. Maybe this time her stomach wouldn’t protest.

She didn’t lock her door down because no one was rude enough to simply walk in without pressing the request for entrance chime.

That meant she didn’t expect her door to slide open without any warning.

Blinking with surprise, she watched Daxus stride up to her, looking over where she was sitting at her workbench.

“You have to understand that I was only doing it for your own good!” His angry buzzing rattle filled the room.

Standing up, she backed away and pointed to the door. “Out.”

Daxus didn’t move. “I know you're upset, but even you have to agree that you weren’t behaving rationally.”

Did he honestly think this was the best way to talk to her?

“You. Betrayed. Me!” she said, articulating each word loudly enough to hear over his buzzing rattle.

“Only because you refused to seek out the help you need!” His roared words echoed through her small home.

If she weren’t so angry at him, she’d be astounded to see the cool-headed Daxus this upset. Far from being intimidated by his display of temper, it was helping her remember that the sweet lemon smell tickling at her nose wasn’t to be trusted, just like the Talin it emanated from.

“I will not be treated like a pet. Bodily autonomy is the least of what I should expect from you and everyone,” she gritted out. “If you’re not going to even talk to me as an equal, we’re done! Go, before I make you leave.”

“I need you to understand,” Daxus said, advancing on her again. “You must—”

She was done. “House, intruder protocol 3A!” she shouted, interrupting Daxus.

As she expected, her domicile sprang into action.

The first line of defense was the fire suppression system that emerged from the wall near the food preparation area. The motor on the mechanical arm whirred as the high-pressure nozzle was aimed at Daxus.

“What is this—”

He was interrupted again, but not by her. This time it was from the full blast of suppressant foam to the chest. He let out a surprised yelp and stumbled back a few steps. That carried him to the door, but not entirely out yet.

That was fine because the rodent elimination bots came next. They jetted out from their hiding spots under the food prep area cabinets and charged at him. They had long, thin rods with sparkers at the end.

They jammed the sparkers against Daxus’s legs and hit him with the maximum voltage.

It was only enough to stun a small creature, not enough to do any permanent damage to someone as large as Daxus.

That wasn’t the goal of these bots. The painful jolts from the sparkers make him dance back, carrying him the rest of the way out the door.

“Why are you doing this?” he yelled, keeping an eye on the rodent elimination bots that had stopped at the threshold. They were programmed to leave the house.

“You did this to yourself,” she mocked. “I told you to leave, and you refused. This is the consequence of your actions.”

His voice turned plaintive. “I’m only trying to help you.”

“I get that,” she responded. “But you can’t help me if it means taking away my liberty.”

“Your health is more important than your liberty,” he roared, sounding the angry buzzing rattle again. It looked like he was ready to kick her rodent elimination bots out of the way and try to come back in.

Nope, not happening!

“House, intruder protocol 3B.”

Four rotary bots came to life and swarmed Daxus.

They were substantially larger bots, almost as big as Daxus himself, and made to break up soil and rocks so it could be compacted properly for building.

When Palathum stored the bots next to her domicile, Nataly decided that meant she could tinker with their programming. This was the result.

“You better move,” she warned Daxus. “They’ll chew you up like you’re a big rock in their way!”

Slowly, the rotary bots forced Daxus away from her house. They didn’t stop until he was standing at where the path to her domicile met the larger main path. That was the limit of their range, but because Daxus stood there, they all went into wait mode and kept their sensors trained on him.

They’d stay there until they couldn’t sense him anymore.

“Remember what you said about size and strength?” she called out. “I guess you were right. I advise you to repeat it to yourself until you believe it too!”

With that, she turned her back and walked deeper into her domicile, listening to the door slide shut behind her.

“House, end intruder protocol 3A. House, end intruder protocol 3B. House, maintain protocol 6.”

She didn’t want anyone to get attacked by the rotary bots because they were trying to visit, but she wanted Daxus to think they were still active. Protocol 6 ordered the bots to “patrol” around her house, but not follow or attack anyone who tried to walk around her home.

Standing near her desk, she blinked rapidly, trying to hold back the tears. The smell of sweet lemon had been fading, but now it was back. She hated that it made her feel comforted and helped ease her anxiety.

“Damn it!” she cursed under her breath. “I don’t want to need him. I don’t want to need anyone!”

The question was, how stubborn was she? There was no denying that she was getting worse and needed to do something, but it had to be on her terms. That was nonnegotiable.

“Maybe it’s time to build a miniature distillery,” she mumbled, slipping down into the chair next to the desk. “Alcohol might not be the answer, but it’s definitely a solution.”

She snickered at her bad joke, then started going through her collection of data crystals to see if any of them had a how-to guide to making alcohol at home.