Two weeks had passed since Evan had revealed to Nike the nature of his being and she'd ran away from him in horror. The first week, he refused to even check in with his commander or to go into his mundane accounting job. When he did finally return to his Earthly job, he explained away his absence with having been sick. His excuse to his commander in turn was a system malfunction due to a solar storm had knocked him offline for a while. In either case, he couldn’t admit that his absence was because the woman he'd fallen in love with had run away from him like he were a monster from a science fiction movie. During this fortnight, Evan came to appreciate Boel as more than just a piece of mission equipment. He discovered that it was time to acknowledge that the dog was a living creature, same as he was, and that he deserved affection. Through this reformed bond with Boel, Evan discovered unconditional love from this animal. Also, being a dog, Boel didn’t care if parts of his owner were
Evan felt the rhythm of Nike’s breathing shift as she drifted off to sleep. He reached around and retrieved the almost empty wine glass from her grasp, sitting it down on the end table. At his feet, Boel stirred and yawned and Evan reached out to pat him on the head. “I suppose you want to go out for a walk, don’t you?” Boel let out a low affirmative growl and Evan smiled to himself. He was genuinely enjoying spending time with Nike. She was optimistic about life and the way she looked at him sometimes made him forget that she was a mission objective. Up to this point he had completed all of his missions on this planet with professional detachment, however, he'd expected the final mission to be painfully difficult. But he had become enamoured with the human girl. His assimilation into the human society had been seamless, and no one had noted his presence as that of anything more than another human. That might as well depend on the reason that it was more or less considered a social
“The readings we are receiving from your other unit are sufficient. How has your oxygen filtration system been functioning?” The voice from the handheld communicator was raspy and there was a humming background noise. “Function levels are normal. Optimal setting is at 115% oxygen intake.” Evan Lopez was sitting in the bedroom of his home, reading out loud the statistical information from the display. “You are doing an excellent job, Lopez" the commander went on. "We have new orders for you. Activate code Salem X!” “Yes sir,” Lopez responded and shifted in the chair, which memory-foam immediately conformed to his new position. The order directives showed up on his display the moment the Commander signed off. Lopez stood and looked around the room to check that everything was as clean and orderly as his military training had instilled in him. Then he opened up his closet and unlocked and pulled out a certain drawer. It was filled with exactly the items he needed. Ten minutes later