Page 26 of Under His Heel

“Nope.” Alex quickly shoveled the lasagna into his mouth. He’d kind of wanted the fried chicken instead, but he definitely wasn’t going to complain and risk getting nothing to eat at all.

They ate in silence for a while, until Singh and a man with a full beard approached with their trays in hand. Singh took the seat next to Alex, while the bearded guy sat down next to Tracht.

“Dr. Singh, Mr. Strobel. How are things?”

Alex was afraid that Singh would try to grope him under the table, but she kept her hands to herself.

“I set a broken finger today,” Singh said. “Giehl somehow slammed an access panel onto it.”

“Is he going to be able to perform his duties?” Tracht said, frowning lightly. “Otherwise I’ll tell him to consult with Ms. Espinosa to rearrange shifts to something he can manage.”

That was actually kind of understanding of him. Alex had expected Tracht to rail about stupidity or useless employees.

“Should be fine, it was the pinky on his off hand. But I shouldn’t bore you with my patients when we’re off duty.” Singh turned her attention to Strobel. “Bernd was telling me we might get to see two asteroids collide.”

At this, Strobel grinned widely. “That’s right. Maybe you can convince the captain that we should make a party of it. Once in a lifetime event!”

“Not that I don’t understand your enthusiasm, Mr. Strobel, but beyond my own disinterest, we simply don’t have a suitable venue for such a viewing party.”

“We can hold it in the bridge! Well, we’d have to, since those are the only windows large enough.”

Tracht’s eyebrows flew up. “The bridge? Absolutely not. The security concerns alone!”

“It’ll be fine. We’ll lock down the controls so nobody can accidentally push anything. I’ll have the screens showing a magnified version, and anybody who wants can look out the windows. And if you’re there, you can make sure nobody’s touching anything.”

Strobel and Tracht discussed it some more, going back and forth on the merits of Tracht making an appearance and officially sanctioning such a viewing party.

It all just left Alex confused. Finally, during a brief lull, Alex blurted out, “Is that special?”

Everybody turned their attention to Alex.

“Is it special. Is it special! Asteroids don’t just collide every day,” Strobel said. “They’re thousands of kilometers apart! Statistically, yes, they eventually collide, but we’re talking about statistics stretched across billions of years. In one human lifetime? You’re unlikely to ever see it. The people on Pylos or any of the space stations, they wouldn’t ever be able to see this. None of the space research stations are actively monitoring this region of space. We’re going to be the only ones to witness the collision. This is a kind of rebirth for the asteroids, as two large ones break into smaller pieces.”

He paused, apparently realizing that his voice had risen a bit. The few crew members in the room were staring.

Singh’s laugh broke the tension, and she glanced at Tracht. “Come on. That was a pretty compelling argument. You can’t be antisocial all the time.”

“That’s what Anna always says, and you’re both wrong.” Tracht sighed loudly. “Fine. Arrange the viewing party, I’ll be there. With Alex, since he’s so interested. And with that, if you’ll excuse us…”

Alex was bewildered about what had just happened, but he quickly grabbed the trays and cleaned up. He wasn’t sure about asteroid collisions, but he sure hoped that this didn’t put Tracht in a bad mood.

[Chapter 10]

Three days, and Alex was getting kind of twitchy with how easy-going Tracht was being. Tracht was still making him kiss his boots and help him dress, and Alex hadn’t had an orgasm in ages. And okay, Tracht had Alex kneeling and keeping his cock warmed and fucking Alex brutally at night and—

But Alex was getting to eat more regularly, and Tracht hadn’t threatened him with violence in a while. That had to count for something, right? He was kind of suspicious of it, but he knew he had to take the good stuff while it lasted. He and Nick had learned that lesson really quickly.

Alex did the work Tracht asked of him with as little complaint as possible. Taking notes with Tracht constantly breathing down his neck was one thing, but he didn’t really enjoy wandering the halls of the ship by himself to the laundry room, where a crew member was always around with their own stuff to wash. One evening, Tracht had sent Alex to the canteen alone to pick up their food, and the room had fallen silent for the entire painful duration of Alex’s errand.

Now Tracht was distracted enough by work that he told Alex to go to the gym by himself. Didn’t even force Alex to wear the skimpy outfit. “There’s no point if I’m not there to see it,” Tracht said, and went back to whatever it was that stole his attention.

For some reason that pissed Alex off more. What in the world was so important that Tracht was ignoring Alex?

Alex walked himself to the gym in a huff. He glared at everybody who crossed his path, even growled “fuck off” to one crew member and tensed in horror. But he somehow doubted the crew member was going to run to Tracht about Alex’s rudeness, so he was probably safe.

Working out wasn’t as exhausting now that he’d had proper meals (from Tracht’s fingers) and good sleep (in Tracht’s bed), so he lifted weights for a while before moving on to cardio exercises. He might as well have been a regular guy; nobody else in the gym gave him a second glance with him dressed properly. A few of the crew chatted with each other about the asteroid collision and the small party Strobel was organizing, completely ignoring Alex.

It was kind of nice.

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