Page 4 of Accidentally Abducted

"Zeph, can I ask you something personal?"

"Yes."

"Is this your first time doing this? The compatibility program?"

Heat spreads across my face, and I know my expression has given me away before I speak. "Yes. This is my first assignment."

"Your first assignment," Jake repeats, and something in his expression softens. "So you're basically as nervous about this as I am confused about it."

"I would not characterize my emotional state as nervous," I say, though this is not entirely truthful.

"What would you characterize it as?"

I consider this question seriously. "Uncertain. The situation has deviated significantly from expected parameters, and I am... unsure of the appropriate response."

"Well," Jake says, leaning back in his chair, "here's a thought. What if we just... figure it out as we go? Forget the parameters and the research and the structured assessments. What if we just try to get to know each other and see what happens?"

The suggestion is both terrifying and oddly appealing. "That would be highly irregular."

"Yeah, but regular doesn't seem to be working out so well for your research team." Jake grins at me. "Besides, I'm already irregular. Might as well lean into it."

I look at this human, this wrong, sarcastic, unexpectedly insightful human, and realize that he may be correct. Our research prepared me for Derek Cross, fitness instructor and nutritional influencer. It did not prepare me for Jake Morrison, who finds humor in confusion and asks questions that make me reconsider everything I thought I understood about this program.

It certainly did not prepare me for the way my pulse quickens when he looks at me directly, or the way his smile seems to illuminate something in my chest that I did not know existed.

"Very well," I say, settling into the chair across from him. "Where would you suggest we begin?"

"How about with something simple?" Jake says. "Tell me about yourself. Not the official Nereidans researcher stuff, tell me about you. What do you like? What makes you laugh? What are you afraid of?"

The questions are so direct, so personal, that I am momentarily speechless. Our training focused extensively on human psychology and behavior, but no one prepared me for the possibility that a human might be genuinely interested in understanding my psychology and behavior in return.

"I..." I begin, then stop. "I am not certain how to answer those questions."

"Start with something easy," Jake suggests. "What's your favorite thing about being a Nereidan?"

I think about this seriously. "I like the way our technology responds to intent rather than just command. The ship adjusts to our needs and moods without requiring specific instructions. It feels like... partnership rather than operation."

"That's actually really cool," Jake says, and he sounds genuinely interested. "So the ship knows how you're feeling?"

"To some extent, yes. It can sense stress, fatigue, emotional state. It adjusts environmental factors accordingly."

"What's it sensing from you right now?"

The question catches me off-guard, and I realize I have not been monitoring my own emotional output. "Uncertainty," I admit. "Elevated stress levels. But also..." I pause, trying to identify the other signals. "Interest. Curiosity."

"About what?"

"About you," I say honestly. "About how different you are from what I expected. About whether our research was wrong about everything, or just... incomplete."

Jake's expression softens into something I cannot quite identify. "For what it's worth," he says, "I think your research was probably wrong about most things, but not necessarily in a bad way."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean maybe the fact that you guys don't really understand humans yet is actually an advantage. Maybe itmeans you're going into this without a bunch of preconceived notions about how it's supposed to work."

I consider this perspective. "You believe our ignorance is beneficial?"

"I think your ignorance might be more honest than most humans' supposed expertise." Jake grins. "Besides, figuring things out together sounds a lot more interesting than following some predetermined compatibility checklist."

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