The next morning, I informed the crew that we would be leaving the tower. Everyone was a little disappointed, and understandably so. C.J. had managed to get to level 10 after their group came through to the second floor, and Michael had jumped to level 3 pretty quickly. Tiff and the rest of the crew ensured that C.J. and Michael did most of the killing so they could gain some quick experience.

  “I’ll give you guys a couple more days to do some grinding. Kaj, I’d like you to stay with them, as well as Red and Loren.” I turned to look at Tiff, “Tiff, I’d like you and Matty to come with me.”

  “Why me?” Tiff asked.

  “Yeah, I think I could be of more use here, Cap,” Matty said.

  “Tiff, I want you with me because… well, because fuck ‘em. They need to understand that I will protect Earth, but I have things important to me that aren’t from this planet. Matty, you are my military expert. I know they don’t think I am capable of leading this crew. They don’t think I deserve the Bloodhound, or this armor, and honestly, they might be right. With that being said, it’s too late now; whether they like it or not, I am their best hope at continued existence. So, I want you there to emphasize that point. I also think knowing an ex-military guy is part of the crew will put their minds at ease, at least a little.”

  “Alright, Cap. That makes sense. To be clear, though, I never cared much for the officers or the politics. Not sure I’ll be their favorite either.”

  I looked over at Tiff, and she was just staring at me with a look of pride and for lack of a better term, gratitude. “I understand and agree, Andrew,” she said before leaving the conference room and heading back to our room.

  “Ugh, what was that about?” C.J. asked.

  I looked toward the hallway and shook my head. “Not exactly sure. She seemed okay, though. Right?”

  Michael walked up beside me and gently elbowed me. “Little brother, you are a lot of things. Strong, smart, the captain of a spaceship. Hell, you are even taller and better looking than me now. One thing you are not, though? Is good with women. I would suggest that you follow her and find out what is going on. Take it from your married older brother.”

  “Y-yeah, sure. You all get to work, go grind some levels, and I’m gonna go talk to Tiff. Matty, get packed up. We leave as soon as Tiff and I finish prepping.”

  “Aye, Cap.” Matty snapped before heading off to prep his gear.

  A few moments later, I walked into my and Tiff’s shared quarters. I saw Tiff sitting on the bed, softly crying. “Ugh, hey…is everything okay?” I asked as I sat on the bed beside her.

  “Yes, Andrew. Everything is better than okay.” She replied.

  “Well, I’m not sure how it works on your world, but usually people don’t go cry in their rooms when everything is going good, Tiff. Talk to me.”

  Tiff turned and faced me, wiping tears from her eyes. “Andrew, I never expected this. I never expected us,” she motioned back and forth between us. “When it happened, I was happy. Phylaxians don’t really do personal physical connection. I never had a mother or a father, Andrew. I had acquaintances but I don’t know if I would call them friends. Phylaxians are not guided by emotion; we don’t let it dictate the direction our lives will take.” She raised her hand to my cheek and smiled softly, “But it’s different with you. You care about me on a level that I have never experienced. You want the world to know what I mean to you, how much you care for me. It’s something I have never experienced, and it was just a little overwhelming, that’s all.”

  I raised my hand to hold hers against my cheek. “Tiff, I need you to know that this is something that won’t go away. I felt love and affection my whole life, and I was still afraid to let anyone in, afraid to expose the pieces of me that could be hurt the worst. With you, though, I don’t care. If loving you means being hurt, then I welcome the pain, and I will accept it without regret.”

  Tiff smiled and wrinkled her nose slightly. I chuckled and placed my hand on her cheek.

  “What?” Tiff asked, “Why are you laughing?”

  “Because I realized how crazy it is that I get to see that smile, and that little nose wrinkle every time you’re happy.”

  “It’s just a little thing I do without knowing.” She said, blushing.

  I leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “It’s the little things, Tiff. The thousand little things that remind me every day how lucky I am.” then pulled her in for a kiss.

  “What do you think they are doing in there?” Red asked.

  “Whatever it is, it’s definitely none of your business, C.J.” Loren replied.

  C.J. nudged Michael, “You think she put on the Lara Croft outfit?”

  Michael looked at him and sighed. “What exactly is wrong with you, C.J.?”

  C.J. sniffed and flicked his nose, “Nothing wrong with me, son. I see an attractive woman…err, alien? Is Tiff an alienor an AI? Never mind, doesn’t matter, alls I’m saying is that Andy is a lucky sum’ bitch. That’s all.”

  Kinthragor walked by on his way out of the conference room and looked at C.J., “Pervert.”

  “Hey! What the fuck, Kinthragor? I was just asking a question!”

  BD-001 sat in his quarters on the Emerging Sun as the ship traversed the galaxy on the way to it’s next target. “Chuck! I said sit, not shit!” he scolded as Chuck whined in confusion. A maintenance droid emerged from the bulkhead and began cleaning the mess as BD-001 leaned back and patted his leg to call the dog up to him. “We must ensure that you are properly trained. I cannot give Karis a reason to leave you at our next stop.” BD-001 scratched the dog’s head as he spoke to him. “Do you like music, Chuck? I have some music from Earth that I can play for us.” Chuck tilted his head in confusion as BD-001 spoke.

  “Computer, shuffle music from playlist, Earth Jams.”

  Shuffling music from your playlist, Earth Jams – a computerized voice confirmed

  Elvis sat back and began petting Chuck again as a lively Earth song began to play. The words, you ain’t nothing but a hound dog, rang through the speakers as BD-001 smiled. “This is a fitting tune, Chuck. I like it!” he proclaimed as he listened to the tune. “It is oddly familiar, though I do not believe I have heard this one before,” he mumbled as the song played. “Computer, who is the composer of this tune?” BD-001 inquired.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The composer of the song, Hound Dog, is the human Elvis Presley. Also known as the “King of Rock and Roll.”

  At the mention of Elvis Presley, BD-001 went rigid. His eyes rolled back in his head, and images and scenes flashed through his head. He was on a ship; he had no body. A human male entered the rear cargo bay as music played from the ship’s PA system. Then they were on the bridge, and a Phylaxian woman was there. The human allowed BD-001 to choose a name, to choose his own name. BD-001 felt the sense of pride and honor in this memory; choosing his own name was a privilege.

  In a flash, he was back in his quarters on the Emerging Sun. Chuck was now standing over him, licking his face nervously. “It is okay, Chuck. I am combat effective, do not fear. I am not sure what happened. I seem to have accessed random data fragments, but I am not sure what caused it,” BD-001 replayed the fragmented memories in his head again. “It seems, Chuck, that I was not always BD-001. It seems that in another life I had a name, a real name, a name I was allowed to choose for myself. I was once called…Elvis.” BD-001 scratched Chuck’s head again as the dog leaned into his hand. “I like this name, Elvis.” BD-001 pulled Chuck’s face toward his own. “You can call me Elvis, Chuck. I will remain BD-001 to the others, though. It is better this way.”

  “Well, that is odd…” Natasha mumbled to herself as she parsed the data in the Bloodhound’s primary CPU storage node. “How is this possible? This shouldn’t be possible,” Natasha searched frantically through the data, trying to make sense of what she saw.

  “Natasha? Do you copy?” Natasha heard Captain Dawes voice suddenly through the Bloodhound’s comm system.

  “Yes, Sweetheart, I copy loud and clear. Welcome back.”

  “We’ve talked about this, Natasha! Professionalism matters. Please refer to me as Captain.”

  “Oh my, I guess I was preoccupied, Captain. I do apologize.”

  “Preoccupied by what, Natasha? Is everything okay?

  “Well, yes and no, Captain dear,” Natasha replied. “I was doing a scheduled maintenance of the Bloodhounds internal systems when I stumbled across what I can only assume is some sort of glitch. I am going to investigate further, but I may have to take the ship’s systems offline for a few hours and perform a full parse and reboot.”

  “What was the glitch, Natasha? Sounds pretty serious if you are gonna have to go offline for a few hours.”

  “Well, it is very odd, Sweet Captain,” Natasha said distractedly.

  “I give up, seriously, can you not just call me Captain, or Captain Dawes? I mean, seriously, Natasha! You know that Tiff and I are like, a thing now, right?”

  “Oh! Yes! I am fully aware.” Natasha replied.

  “Well, don’t you think it’s a tad disrespectful to openly hit on her man?”

  “I don’t have a problem with it; I rather enjoy seeing how it affects you.” Tiff chimed in. “Plus, Natasha and I have an understanding.”

  “What kind of understanding?” I asked.

  “She can say whatever she wants; she understands that we are an item and is completely ecstatic about it. She won’t cross any hard lines, but I am okay if she continues to flirt innocently.” Tiff replied nonchalantly.

  “Do I get a say in any of this?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Oh dear Captain, it’s so cute when you realize you have no control. Honestly.” Natasha squealed. “Back to more pressing matters. I identified what I believe to be some sort of glitch in the Bloodhounds tracking and communications systems. As you know, Captain, the ship is continuously tracking and monitoring all members of the crew through the internal comm node that was implanted by Elvis.”

  “Yes, I am aware. What of it?” I asked.

  “Well, the nodes implanted in each of you have limited capabilities. Distance from the ship, external interference, and several factors can cause the connection to drop. Elvis, though, had a direct connection with the ship at all times. I wasn’t able to communicate at all times, but I could always trace his signal, well, mostly. When he was sent to Boutelerien and captured by Karis, his signal was suppressed somehow, but other than that, I could pretty much pinpoint his position. It was a handy capability that Elvis designed himself after receiving his body.”

  “Natasha, while I appreciate learning more about the intricacies of Elvis’s genius, what exactly happened?”

  “Well, that’s the thing,” Natasha replied. “What happened shouldn’t be possible. I received a short ping that seemed to have the same signature as Elvis, which isn’t possible for two reasons. Firstly, Elvis designed and customized his comm signature so it couldn’t be replicated. Secondly, Captain, Elvis is dead. So with that knowledge, the only reasonable explanation is that it was some sort of bug or glitch in the Bloodhound’s systems.”

  “There is no reason to take your systems offline, Natasha,” I said.

  “Sweety, I know you are the captain of this ship, but I would challenge your knowledge on this subject. I cannot allow any bugs to exist in our system. If there is some sort of degradation occurring, it could spread and affect the Bloodhounds’ overall ability to operate at acceptable levels.”

  “I understand that, Natasha, but there is no bug. We just recently learned from Calista Solaris that Elvis is alive.” I replied.

  “Why exactly were you talking to that bitch?!” Natasha snapped.

  “Preach,” Tiff added.

  “Seriously, Tiff?” I questioned. “Look, Natasha, it’s a long story, and I will fill you in on all of it shortly. The short of it is that we have to go to Lucida and rendezvous with Calista. While I was being informed of this, she also informed me that Elvis is still alive and that she knew his whereabouts. I was willing to do whatever was necessary to get that information from her, but now it seems we may have a way to get itwithout her. Can you trace the source of Elvis’s signal?”

  “The signal was brief, we’re talking a microsecond’s worth of data. I can try, but honestly, I need it to happen again while I am actively monitoring the system.”

  “Ensure that you assign a submind to watch for it. If we can find Elvis on our own, it gives us the upperhand in this meeting. Natasha?” “Yes, Dear Captain?”

  “If you can do this for me, I will never again question what you call me. okay?”

  “I will see it done, Captain. You can count on me. I will find Elvis.”