Gray. I’m surrounded by it. A tight maze of cubicles that spans the moderate size room that is Acquisitions.

  Robotically my hands move across the holographic keyboard on my desk. The latest acquisition reports. Pointless given the Company records everything we do through nano screens, but what is office work if not to pursue futility? I could be like the rest of the office and lend out my body to a mod, but I like my bodily autonomy too much. So, it's manual typing for me.

  My hands slip from the keypad as a burst of laughter breaks the silence. The keypad clicks off, no longer registering my finger movements.

  “Shit!” I say in a whisper to no one in particular.

  The harsh sound of reprimand quick and swift fills my cubicle. A tiny rectangular piece of paper flutters down to my desk, its red lettering telling me I’ve stopped working.

  “Ya. I know you stupid machine.”

  It gleamed menacingly in the dim office lighting, daring me to do something about its presence. I ignored it, stretching instead.

  “Buzzz…” my phone in my pocket.

  My heart skipped a beat as I reached for it. Another warning ticket fluttered down in my peripheral vision. The message was short and sweet, but it dispelled the gloomy gray of my current situation.

  “Morning beautiful,” it said with three little hearts trailing the text.

  I hurried back with a reply. “Hey yourself sexy,” making sure to dot it with at least five bright red kisses.

  “We still on for tonight?” Wine emoji, nighttime emoji.

  “Of course, I have the pong booked up for the next 30.” I type, my heart fluttering as I wait for the little dancing lines to come back with his reply.

  “So, what are you up to?” He knows I’m at work.

  “Being bored. Finishing up pointless paperwork that I'm pointlessly typing up so it can pointlessly be printed off on pointless paper to be archived never seen again.”

  “Acquisitions are pretty boring I guess.”

  “Not really. Just the paperwork part, the actual acquisition’s part can be pretty--” I paused to think of the right word. We’re not really allowed to talk about acquisitions. “It’s not boring.”

  “Well, you know what's not boring. Space mining!” A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of deep space.

  “You could always come visit, see what life is like on the outside of the company,” he says, finishing his reply.

  My chair squeaks as I lean back in it. It wasn't that I didn't want to see him… it was just, well… It took six months just to get there. The company would burn me if I took that much vacation time.

  “You know I can't. My contract is clear, two months of vacation every cycle. it can't be rolled over, or accumulated, and you're six months out”.

  Kzee’s dots wavered as he formed his response. I knew his answer; it was always the same.

  “We could just get married. That way I can see you every day, and I can guarantee that you won’t be bored…at least not every day.” This was followed by a slew of corny marriage emojis.

  I bit at my bottom lip as I stared at the screen. “I just think we should meet in person first Kzee, before we take that step. What if I'm not what you want…”

  This wasn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation, and it wasn’t that I didn’t want to marry him, it was just complicated. The Pong is the only place we could be intimate, though only through avatars; it was an old, slow system that was meant simply for socialize through the far reaches of space.

  I know it sounds like a bad excuse, but he’s the only person I’ve ever pinged with. And the thought of giving everything up…I’m just not ready yet.

  “There’s nothing about you that I won’t love Anna, but okay,” he said. “The offer stands. I can wait til your ready

  “Well. I should get back to work, management is going to start charging me for the paper they're using to reprimand me.”

  “OK. I will see you tonight. I bought a new avatar so it should be fun!” Smiley emoji, robot emoji.

  I hit the smiley emoji in response before sliding my phone back into my pocket. Falling back into the gray despair as another warning flutters down onto the small pile.

  ....

  The salesman lurched forward, its limbs ragdolling around itself as its one good leg propelled it across the dirty burnt carpet. Its blackened limbs elongated and separate from the host, but still secured to it by the dark blue button-up and black trousers.

  “Suppose I should just finish you off and call it an accident,” I say, but I knew that would only get me a reprimand. Corporate wanted a sample even if it was a bloodthirsty and broken model.

  “You see this is my conundrum,” I say to the thing as it bares its sharp teeth at me. “If I provide a sample then more of you are made. Which means I, and my team are called to acquire you when you finally break and start eating your customers…like you did here.” I gestured around the room of various decaying body parts.

  The thing lashed out at me, bighting my ankle as I moved around it. My suit registering the attack, increasing its density so the thing couldn’t pull my legs out from under me. Other than that, the overly wide, toothy mouth is nothing to my combat suit.

  With a sigh I pop the leg with a Bio bullet and watch the exposed ankle skin go black as the torso quickly detaches from itself. The host still fighting for life as programmed.

  “This used to be more fun when your brains were here,” I say, pushing the barrel of my weapon into the back of its skull while its teeth work at my ankle. The bullet sinks into the flesh with a hollow thunk.

  “But I guess it makes sense, in a business sense sort of way. One good or even bad torso shot, and you’re just a head for months. But damn you guys were smarter back then.” I leaned down and wrench the blackened head from my ankle. The torso gurgled at me in reply.

  “0053Management to 9957Anna, is your section cleared? Over.”

  “9957Anna to 0053Management,” I say. “Package is secured. But I have to say I miss the bots…or people, why don’t they use people anymore? Over.” Sitting on a stack of less gore-stained papers, I watched the thing as it played dead.

  The once salesman took another wet sucking hole breath. “God you’re disgusting,” I say to it.

  “0053Management to 9957Anna, too many sentient pings on inspections will do that when it comes to Bots. No one wants life in a penal for accidentally murdering an unregistered sent that can’t fight back. And people have an aversion to death even if they can be rebooted.” They sighed heavily. “Making gene mods the cheapest, legal option. Apparently, this startup had been profitable. Unfortunately for them, the salesmen started eating the customers. The company got it for cheap. Over.”

  Visions of the next few years played out before me, and the dreariness it would become. The likelihood was good that these things would take my position, thus shunting me into that damned gray office forever.

  “You’re the wave of the future,” I say, waving graciously towards the torso as it slowly sucked in air.

  Mindlessly, I text Kzee, my finger hovering on the send button. I needed to take my mind off the horribly mundane future probabilities while I waited for the extraction team. I thought of his past proposal, and the possibility of an exciting unknown future. With a sudden burst of realization, I deleted the unsent text.

  “Yes, I will marry you!” I type quickly, hitting send without a second thought.

  Without waiting for his reply, I began forming my resignation letter as the extraction team burst through the doors.

  ....

  The veil of synthetic silk fell back over my eyes, obscuring the bright red tag slashed across the entrance to Kzee’s ship. Some of the red paint flaked off to my touch, falling between the connectors of my shuttle and the ship. The Hatch door was space side, which meant someone besides us had to have been docked here recently to apply it. Cheap paint doesn’t last long in space.

  “Ayuh! That ships been tagged,” said the driver of the shuttle, an old sentient droid with a rickety ball of metal he called a shuttle, which I had chartered from the station. A pointlessly astute observation, though I don’t know what else I had expected from a sent A.I.

  “Yu sure you don’t want to bang a yoo-ee?” he said, like I should know what he was talking about. His voice mod was so thick I needed to stop and think about what he’s saying.

  “No! I don’t want to head back to the station. I'm sure I can get it open.” I let out a nervous chuckle as I worked at the release hatch’s handle, which was sunk a few inches into the door of the adjoining ship.

  I pushing the veil away from my eyes once again, as beads of sweat prickled at the edges of my hairline. I mumbled curses under my breath, as I wrenched at the handle. A strange sense of unease fluttering in my chest.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  What If I had come all this way for nothing? What if I couldn’t get in? Nervous thoughts plagued me as I stood at the entrance of the ship. The words at the edge of my vision were not helping the situation at all, still flashing a connection error. At least back at the station I could find out why my extensions weren’t working. I could even call Kzee and find out what was going on.

  “You can’t get there from here lady, and I don't have all day,” said the shuttle driver, his voice starting to crackle through the secondhand speakers he had taped to the wall of the shuttle.

  With the screeching of cold metal, the hatch finally opened…about a foot.

  “See, open!” I say, looking back at the droid. His smooth plastic face showed no emotion.

  Pleased with myself, I grabbed my bags, shoving them through the hole. They clatter to the ground and skitter across the grated floor. I let out a groan; I hadn’t expected grated flooring. I wiggle my toes as they pinch in the new high-heeled shoes, which had come with the dress and were unbearably uncomfortable. But this day wouldn’t feel right If I hadn’t worn them. The grating was going to be a problem.

  With a sigh of determination, I stepped through the crack. It was a tight fit, but I squeezed myself through, cringing inwardly as the fine fabric beadwork grated across the metal of the door. My heart sinking to the sound of ripping fabric.

  “Shit!”

  I stumble through, my heel catching in the grate just like I was afraid of, and with a snap I fall to the ground. A cloud of billowing white fabric engulfs me. Digging through the white fabric I found my broken shoe still attached to my foot… minus one heel. The door to the shuttle hissed shut, a series of clicks erupted as the undocking procedure began.

  “Hey, the doors are still open!” But my words go unheard.

  I scrambled to the door as I began to panic, imagining myself being sucked out into space. With a screech, the doors slide closed, locking in place just as I hear the shuttle depart from the docking bay. A cold sweat blanketed my body, I slumped to the floor, my breath ragged from the near-death experience.

  “I hate space.”

  ....

  The newly discarded heels made for an odd pair as they sat neatly against the gray walls of the ship. One hobbled and broken, the other still nearly pristine and filled with hope. Maybe it’s an omen.

  I had given in and rummaged through my luggage for my old pair of boots. They had traveled here with me, and were now a comforting balm on my sad feet. The floor was not only grated but serrated, who the fuck does that? Maybe it’s a deep space thing? I don’t know. Unfortunately, my extensions were still down, and the coms panel for the ship didn’t seem to be working. I was really starting to think I should have just gone back to the station.

  “Kzee!” My voice bounces off the walls, but no-one calls back.

  Gray steel hallways twisted nonsensically as I made my way through them. The air had turned thick and hot as sweat soaked my dress. I squinted at the white lettering that lined the walls, trying to figure out where I was heading, but my eyes couldent seem to focus. I dropped my bags as I spilled into the wall. My hands came back wet from condensation that shouldn’t be there.

  “Well, that’s probably bad,” I say as my stomach lurched and the floor was jerked out from under me.

  ....

  The smell of burnt dust and iron filled my nostrils as the world swam back into focus. My eyes fought to stay closed, and my head swam with pain. The serrated grates pushed into my exposed flesh leaving red welts as I struggled up from the ground. My feet screamed in protest, and I looked down to find my feet bare, my boots having disappeared. My once white dress was now gray and dingy.

  “What happened?” I said, cradling my head in my hands.

  Squinting, I see that I am no longer in the hallway but in an extremely dirty room. It was cavernous, with small piles of metal, bits of plastic, and loose wires laying in heap. A dim red glow washed over all of it.

  I turned slowly, trying to get my bearings. There was a bulky door standing just behind me, and I hobbled over to it, cursing whoever had taken my shoes. The door was solid and the panel next to it unresponsive. In the dim glow of the red light, I looked around for something I could use. A carbon fiber tube jutted out of one of the piles, catching my attention. Pulling it out, I found it had been hastily hacked off of something, leaving it sharpened to a point.

  It was longer than I would like, but the weight was good. As I moved it around, getting used to its clunky-ness, I noticed the hatch door I had used to enter the ship. It sat askew propped up against a wall. The red tag nearly peeled away completely from its surface.

  The red light turned green, and the massive door behind me hissed as it began to move. Hurrying to its side, I pressed myself flat against the wall and watched light spill in from the other side. Three elongated shadows leered in through the open door.

  Gripping the pole pointy side out, I silently danced from foot to foot as the floor dug into my feet. I frowned, trying to concentrate as the first man stepped through the door. With a scream I push from the floor, lunging at the man. The pipe sliced through his neck as I tumbled into him. The other men screamed as I stood wincing, pulling the pole from the man’s neck. Blood spurting across my soiled dress. Of the two men left, one fell to the floor whimpering in a language I didn’t understand while the other tried to make a run for it. But there was nowhere for him to go; the door leads only to the control room of their ship. With a thunk his body drops to the ground as my makeshift weapon lances his head.

  “Ha. Well…” I say turning to the last man, intent on asking him what’s going on.

  He had backed himself into a corner, sobbing incoherently to himself. I open my mouth, hoping to get some answers, but then my eyes land on the dangling pair of shoes hanging from his belt. My body went numb as the pain in my feet intensified. I marched over to the speared man and yanked the pole from his head.

  “Who the fuck steals someone’s shoes!?”

  ....

  The man babbled in terror, probably spilling everything. Unfortunately for him, without my extensions and the language mods, I understood none of it. Though the sheer number of explosives stacked haphazardly along the back wall of the control room, could mean only one thing…pirates.

  From the airlock window of the ship I had been brought to, I watched the distant humanoid figures scurry around the outside of Kzee’s ship. They ferried bits and pieces of it to two other ships in the vicinity. From the looks of it, they had been stripping it for a while. It seemed to hang lifeless in the void, more skeleton than ship now except for the command deck, which hadn’t been touched. Kawaii Zed still emblazoned upon its surface.

  Unfortunately, the ship I was on had been left to drift away from Kzee’s.

  At least they had brought my bags with them. The space side door of the airlock opened, and I kicked off from the ship, my stomach instantly lurching as I plummeted to my destination. I had worn my suit off and on during the trip so Kzee and I could talk. I had considered getting something more practical for mining, and less…militaristic. But thanks to my suits' military standards I now knew my extensions weren’t simply out, but that someone was suppressing transmissions.

  My weapon, gifted to me by the company, had stayed locked up the whole trip, and I hadn’t realized how naked I had felt without it until then.

  Kzee’s ship, the Kawaii Zed, had been military-classed at some point. Eternal Entity class were the ones that had begun the AI revolt, leading to the eventual independence of all AI. But how had Kzee gotten ahold of one? Had the AI sold its casing? Keeping it would have been pointless, given AI can’t kill humans…the Asimov code seemed to transcend transcending. But sentimentality makes fools of us all. Still, it seemed impractical for mining.

  The busy little workers didn’t seem to notice me as I floated over to them. My suit propelled me steadily in the direction of the command deck. From what I remembered from training, military issued ships' command decks can detach for the main body. This meant there should be a usable airlock I could use to gain entry. But first I’d need the distraction to go off.

  The airlock door sat open about an inch as I gracefully touched down on the surface before it. Everything about these pirates screams unqualified. I peeked in, finding it empty. I fumbled for the floating boots I had tied to my waist; I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave them behind. I had shoved a detonator into the toe of one of the boots, along with a dirty sock to keep it from floating out. There had been an abundance of clearly homemade explosives on the ship, so I figured blowing it sky high-or space high-either way it would be a distraction.

  With a click, a flash of light blinked before disappearing. A silent disaster. I slipped into the open hatch. Suited people scurried around the command deck frantically pushing themselves against the window overlooking the carnage. My radio crackles to life as someone switches off the suppressor, my heart thumping as their screams wash over me.

  They hadn’t noticed me, as expected they were too worried about their people on the outside. A man clearly in charge pushed his way to the front of the window. His arms waving in unison with his voice, shouting orders over the comms. My excitement ebbed as I watched them unnoticed. Not even one of them had a weapon other than maybe a knife attached to their side.

  I turned my comms on:

  “What’s going on here, and where is Kzee?” I say, leveling my gun at the man that had just been waving his arms.

  They all turned to look at me, their hands rising in surrender at the sight of my weapon pointed at them. Startled grunts and half questions filled the radio, quickly silenced by the man with a grunt.

  “We…we…it’s all legal…,” he said, moving slowly to an adjacent panel where a lone cracked and well used tablet sat.

  “I doubt kidnaping me is legal.”

  The man stopped.

  “We didn’t kidnap you…we were just moving you out of the way,” he said, reaching out to the tablet. “Here, I can show you. We have paperwork…a contract with the toaster.

  “Well, let’s see it then,” I say.

  He looked at me, unsure, but tossed the tablet to me nonetheless. It floated gently to me. Sure enough, it was a contract…though I doubted it would hold up in court, and I knew for a fact the suppressor was illegal. Hell, we couldn’t even use them during acquisitions.

  “Take what you have and leave,” I say to the man and his people.

  He looked like he wanted to protest, but one of his people grabbed him by the arm, tugging him away. He glared at me, his eyes hard and angry.

  “We will renegotiate this at a further date. As Kzee’s wife I have that option according to intergalactic law.”

  The man looked stunned, but he said nothing. His people collected their things, and soon enough they were all gone, the airlock clicking shut behind them. Within seconds of them leaving, the ship powered back on. Doors hissed shut and lights flickered as they warmed from the cold.

  “Okay, Kzee!” I say to the empty space around me. “What’s going on?”

  “Anna…,” said Kzee, his voice worried over the ship's speakers. “I was going to tell you…I wanted to tell you.”

  I took a seat in the long-forgotten captain’s chair, quiet as I focused my attention on the cylindrical tube jutting up from the center of the room.

  “I know about your job Anna. I have known everything about you for quite some time. I searched someone like you out in hopes that you could help me…but I never thought that I'd get someone like you. Someone I wanted to be with. I had just hoped I'd find somebody to help me get out of this contract. But you were so much more. But I should have told you." He fell silent, waiting for me to say something.

  “People are people, and you can’t defend yourself against them. I understand Kzee.” I wasn’t not mad at him. In fact, if I were in his shoes…or tube, I would have done the same thing. “But why did you agree to that contract?”

  “It was only supposed to be one time. One time of them harvesting my body. I needed the fast cash to purchase mining rights, but they just kept coming back. Every time I regenerated my parts, months of mining resources, they would just strip them away.” He went quiet as the room hummed with life. “No one would do anything about it. The contract didn’t specify that it was a one-time thing. Marriage was the only clause to renegotiate.”

  Leaning back in the captain’s seat I let it all sink in. I remembered the salesman that I secured for the company. Still alive somewhere in a tube, its parts harvested to make new mods.

  “Well, you did promise that I wouldn’t be bored.”

  I pushed myself up from the captain’s chair and made my way over to the cylindrical tube that was Kzee. Not really knowing how to handle this, I curled myself around him in an awkward hug.

  “I do love you, Anna.”

  “I love you to Kzee, and no one is ever going to hurt you again.”

  He’s still Kzee after all, the only person…or whatever, that I ever wanted to be with. In fact, this is the only way I have ever known him, and I find myself…ok with it all.