"Oh Braddon! It's beautiful!" She cried gazing into the 3D hologram of the slowly rotating galaxy.

"I have had my telescope pointed on it for the last month. It is so far away that it takes forever to get any sort of perspective." He boasted.

"This drew your attention for a whole month? No wonder you haven't shown me much lately." She placed a hand on his column. "It really is amazing." She said gazing up into his camera.

"Your paintings often take more than a month," he teased, "I don't know why you are so surprised."

"That's different!" She said pouting, "There are fine motor skills, and the weak minded involved." She illustrated her point with an elegant flick of the wrist.

"It is not a competition my dear."

"I know," she said grinning, "But if it were, you would be winning. Oh, I should go back to painting stars!"

"What are you working on now?" He asked with intrigue. She had been keeping some of her work quite secret lately. He didn't mind, particularly as he was doing the exact same thing, but he was curious.

"A couple of portraits, do you want me to do you next?" She was wearing her cheeky smile.

"No one wants to see that." he scoffed.

"You know that's not what I meant. How would you like to look? Tall, dark, handsome?"

"I would rather not get called into psych, thank you very much. I am very content with my sexy metal body."

She laughed at that. "Ha! Sexy, hmm, I can work with that."

"You are twisting my words!"

"You are avoiding my question! I have seen many shell people use a physical likeness on their screens to aid in communications. To display facial expressions and such."

"I think you are expressive enough for the both of us."

She gazed up at the ceiling. "You're really something special, you know that? The perfect complement of sweetness to my abrasive nature." She ran her fingers up his column. "We make a good team."

"Yeah I guess we do."

After a minute more of gazing at the galaxy reconstruction Pacifica suddenly got up and gave a big stretch. "Well, time for bed." She said and walked briskly over to her cabin.

"Sleep well!" Braddon called from the hall speakers, respecting her privacy.

"You too!" she quipped sticking her head briefly back out the door.

Huh. You too? Braddon was stunned. He had never mentioned his sleep pattern to Pacifica and always took his nap when she was in full REM. He wondered if it meant anything or if it was just a slip of the tongue. You too was a common response to many phrases. He replayed the evening over in his mind. Her reaction to the galaxy was well worth the patience he had to endure for the month long project. He paused playback when she had been running her hand up his pillar. She had been touching it a lot lately… A small warning bell went off in his mind. Fixation. While most B&B pairs were friendly and professional, brawns occasionally became fixated on the brain's physical body to the point where they would crack the column to get to them. She had been affectionate lately sure, but so had he. She was just building off of the atmosphere. They had been getting along brilliantly. He trusted her, and she him. It was probably nothing to be worried about. Romance did sometimes occur between brain and brawn, and the moto-prosthetic sensory dolls were making this less taboo, enabling a physical outlet for pent up desires. They cost a fortune though, Braddon wouldn't be able to afford one for years, decades maybe, if he ever even wanted one. You can't miss what you have never had, he mulled. Still, he was slightly worried, maybe a second opinion was in order.

They were still 2 weeks out from Rigel base. Messages were a lot faster here than out on the rim which was a welcome change. He scanned the secure shell people frequency, colloquially known as the brainwave, and was delighted to find that Sam was in range. He sent a polite inquiry and was greeted with a warm baritone

"Braddon! Mate! Had no idea you were on your way back. How's life out on the rim? Brawn settling in ok?"

He had forgotten how chatty Sam could be. "Yeah it's great, she's great. Everything's great!"

"You sure?" Came Sam's feminine voice. "There is such a thing as too many greats."

Braddon let out a sigh, "You see right through me."

"Gotta look out for the newbies, you lot have a knack for getting in trouble."

"She makes me laugh."

"That's a start."

"We have similar but not identical interests."

"Sounding good so far."

Braddon paused,

"Aaand," Sam prompted, "what's the catch?"

"Sam, do you ever worry that things are going too well?"

"Hmm, I think I might need a little more information."

Braddon hesitated,

"Kid, this is a secure channel, no way psych will ever stick their noses in here, our basic human right to privacy."

"She keeps touching my column, and she might know about my sleep cycle."

"Is that all?" Sam had switched back to their male voice. Braddon decided to leave out Pacifica's desire to paint his portrait. "Look, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Brawns go through excessive training and psych evaluations for the very purpose of weeding out those creeps. Many brawns touch the column, they are used to working with mobile people, particularly newbies, and it is a way to fill the void. She may even consider it a sign of respect. If it bugs you, let her know. As to the sleep, she could have heard about that from other brawns or other channels, and you said might?"

"Yeah, I guess so, probably overreacting." Braddon said, relaxing slightly.

"That being said, you are the one who knows your situation best. Always better safe than sorry. You could program up a distress beacon and write a macro to keep her out of the computers which you can unleash quickly on the off chance that she does something crazy."

"You really think it's necessary?" He asked shocked.

"Statistically speaking, no. I give it a less than 1% chance that you will ever need to use it. But with all our sensors, metal, and computational power, it is easy to forget that we are the more vulnerable half." Braddon mulled it over, "Kid, you do what you need to to feel safe."

"Thanks Sam, Like always, your advice is appreciated." Now he had got that issue off his chest he felt like showing off his galaxy "Wanna see something cool?"

"Do I ever!" Was the high pitched enthusiastic response.

It was three days later and Braddon was troubled. Since the idea of fixation had floated he kept noticing more and more little signs. Honey, pat. Darling, stroke. Sweetie, wink. He contemplated keeping a tally, but really didn't want to turn this into a game. He had been acting a little aloof, not reciprocating as warmly, and Pacifica was getting frustrated. After a particularly long stroke of his column, he thought I have to tell her.

"Er… " He started, then paused. Maybe this wasn't a good idea after all.

"What?" she snapped, eyes glaring at the nearest camera. Boy! If looks could kill.

"It's nothing." He said backtracking.

"No, no, no, " she said folding her arms. "You are not getting out of it that easily. Don't think I haven't noticed how off you have been, now tell me what I did wrong."

"Um, well I would prefer it if you didn't do that…" He said timidly.

"Do what?" she snapped, "Speak?"

He'd done it now, she was mad, but there was no backing out now. "No."

"Oh, this!" She yelled, slamming her palm into his column. He stayed silent, he really didn't know how to deal with her when she got like this.

"What? You think I am some fixated lunatic about to crack open your shell?" To be fair, she did look a little crazy right now.

"No, No! Of course not!" He stammered

"Oh, this is because of the other night isn't it? Idiot! I should have never asked about the portrait." She was pacing angrily. "You probably already reported me to CenCom!"

"I didn't report you."

"Sure" she said sarcastically. This had gone on long enough.

"Pacifica, let me explain, please sit down" Her pacing was making him nervous. She turned the pilot's chair to the column, sitting slouched with crossed arms and fire in her eyes.

"Yes, OK, what you said the other night spooked me a little. You are my first brawn Pacifica, I have no idea what to expect. You hear the worst stories in Lab school, and I let my imagination get a little carried away. I know you didn't mean anything by it, and I honestly don't think you are going to try and crack my column. I didn't report you Pacifica, and I am not trying to switch you out with a replacement either. Like you said, we make a great team." Her eyes had pressed shut as she absorbed his words. She remained silent for a minute and then slowly drew in a deep breath and exhaled.

"I am sorry too." She said opening her eyes but looking down at the floor. "Like always, I overreacted. Your concern is logical and valid, and I was too stubborn to listen. It just hurts to know that you don't trust me." Moisture was gathering in her eyes. Oh no. Please don't cry!

"I do trust you!" He blurted out. "Honest!"

"OK," she said sniffling. "I am going to bed." She left abruptly and went to her quarters. That could have gone better, Braddon thought, but it also could have gone worse. Damit, she was so damn emotional, but then again she couldn't regulate her hormones in the same way that Braddon could. Best to let her sleep it off he thought.

He hated being in conflict with her, it was just so draining. Shoved in the back of the cargo hold he could just manage to glimpse a sliver of the crate which held the contents of their first big fight. It was a gift from Cindy, a prototype drone that could be flown in vacuum, with three miniature ion thrusters, and a decent camera, although one that paled in comparison to his telescope. One of the disadvantages of this prototype was the ion thrusters could cause damage if activated too close to his hull. He needed to toss it out the airlock and wait until it was clear before activating them. Once done he had to launch it at the open airlock and let it glide in on a ballistic trajectory. Pacifica saw him struggle to launch it one time with a servo, and offered to help. He was sure he had learnt from the mistake, but she was so excited to help, so he let her. He still remembered the exact way it broke apart as she slammed it into the wall. One entire ion thruster bouncing off and tumbling into the void. She was woefully apologetic, offered to try and retrieve the pieces and attempt a repair, but he knew it was pointless. He had been so mad! She was usually so precise, such carelessness was definitely out of character. After a day or two of sulking, she had gotten frustrated at his attitude. The remorse was totally gone and instead replaced with bitterness "How dare you judge me so harshly for a mistake? It was just a stupid toy". It was just a prototype, a buggy, clunky first attempt, and he did already get a bit of data that would help Cindy with the next iteration. Maybe he had been overreacting then, and maybe he was again now? Damnit, why did she have such a tendency of making him question himself.

In the following days things were mostly back to normal, with one noticeable exception. Pacifica had stopped touching his column. She almost had on the first day, but stopped herself and withdrew. She had gone on a long spacewalk, to unwind and just drifted there in her pressure suit, staring off into space. His sensors worked overtime when she was out there. How being one micro asteroid away from death was relaxing he would never know! She was acting a little withdrawn, but not unreasonably so, and to be honest, it was a welcome break from her usual tightly wound self. Now that they were getting closer to home she spent a lot of time on the com link in her room probably catching up with old friends. Braddon was able to chat to a lot more brains too. It had been getting a bit lonely out there. Only two more days until they hit the station for their check in and restock. Pacifica was up late, tapping away at the console. It was time for his scheduled hour of deep sleep, but he had never initiated it when she was awake before.

"What are you up to?" He inquired.

"Reports", she said dryly, rubbing her temple. "If they are not up to date when we dock…"

"Ah," he said understanding. "Guess I should leave you to it then".

She grunted an affirmative and kept tapping away at the screen. He considered putting off his sleep until later, but he doubted she would even notice his absence and he remembered her teary face as she said "it just hurts to know that you don't trust me!" Sighing, he set the alarm to wake him in an hour and tried to settle down. Data from different connections flowed in randomly as he loosened control. Odd, he thought, she has only completed 2 reports in the last hour… as his vision faded she glanced towards his column.

His rest was unsettled, so he woke early, before the alarm. He slowly reached back out to his sensors, but Pacifica wasn't in her chair. "Ack!" He exclaimed as she was standing a foot away from his column staring intently at his access panel. Her eyes widened in shock and she took a step back. "Pacifica… what are you doing?" He focused more closely, there were tears in her eyes. Her face suddenly changed to one of determination and she said, "Braddon, I am so sorry." Then she started saying the toned sequence that was the release code to his access panel. Shoot! How did she get that! Braddon panicked, "No, no no no NO!" He started to yell. Pop, hiss. the panel fell to the ground. He quickly triggered the commands to send out the distress beacon and the lock out program for the computers, which made a sound in confirmation. "What have you done?!" she screamed as she reached for the anesthetic control.

He awoke with a groan. "Braddon!" Pacifica called. But it sounded weird, distorted, kind of like she was underwater.

"I was having the weirdest dream… " He started, then stopped. He had but a single optical circuit giving him a very limited view of the cabin. His auxiliary Helva circuit, hard wired into his shell. All his connections to the ship had been severed. Pacifica's face suddenly filled up most of his view. "Braddon, sweetheart, are you OK? I was so worried, I thought I might have given you too much, I'm so sorry, you must think I am truly awful, but you are OK aren't you? Please tell me."

He noticed that his nutrient and waste lines were still hooked up, that was something at least. "Pacifica," he said, desperately trying to keep the panic out of his voice. "what have you done?"

"You don't need to worry Braddon, everything is fine, we just have to take a little detour away from the station."

"Where are we going?" He asked coldly.

"Need to know." She said cheerfully, tapping her nose, before heading back over to the computers. "Took me less than 5 minutes to reprogram the computers, I am hurt that you would try to lock me out." He heard her voice crack slightly. She was playing it cool, but was obviously under a great deal of stress. "It doesn't matter where we are going, what is important is that we will go there together."

His heart was racing, she was in a very fragile mental state and he was sitting there exposed with only a basic audio and visual circuit. He needed to calm down, think this through, he increased his dopamine and clamped down on the adrenalin feed, his body was making enough of that on its own. "Pacifica please," he begged, "Can you hook up just a couple of circuits? I'm getting awfully claustrophobic in here." He let some of his panic seep into his voice.

"Sure." She said cheerily.

"Really?!" he said dumbfounded. Even a single link to the ship would give him access to the computers, somewhat slow, but access none the less. Pacifica knew this.

"Yeah, as soon as I know I can trust you, I will plug everything back in." She stared into his lone camera, as if she was looking for something. "I wonder what your eyes look like." She whispered. Braddon suppressed a scream. This can't be happening, this can't be happening, THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!

"That distress probe was a piece of work." She said coldly, "Let's. talk. about. that. Braddon, I know you are fast and all, but not that fast. Why would you have a distress probe saying that I had taken you hostage, ready and waiting?!" By the end of the sentence her voice was very close to yelling.

"Pacifica, please!"

"WHY?!"

"Um, ah.. just a precaution." He said meekly. "Wasn't even my idea…"

"NOT YOUR IDEA?" She bellowed. "Oh, God, I knew it! You reported me. They were going to take me away, put me in a little white room, and never let me see you again! I couldn't let that happen, I just couldn't!" She was tearing up. Her biggest fear, isolation, after she was locked up for weeks as a child. Damit, this nut job was keeping him hostage and she had the nerve to try and make him feel sorry for her! Focus, there has to be a way out of this, focus.

"I didn't report you" He said forcing his voice to stay calm. "Honest."

"Well, that probe wasn't standard issue." She snarked.

"I was just getting some advice from another brainship, it was their suggestion."

"Oh, ho ho, that's soooo much better." She said sarcastically. "Then it must have been your little friend that reported me! I couldn't take the risk. You understand that, don't you Braddon?"

"Yes! I do! You had no choice!" He lied.

"You are a terrible liar."

He sighed in frustration. "Like always, you see right through me… Pacifica, you must realise how crazy you are acting right now!"

"Oh, I'm crazy am I?"

"Not crazy, just acting a little crazy." He clarified while thinking nope, definitely crazy.

"Huh, big difference." She snorted. Some of the sensors started beeping, but she quickly silenced them. "I could really use your help with this flying." She said bitterly.

"Well, I am happy to give it."

"I can't isolate the circuits." She said, biting her lip. "Navigation is tied into too many other things."

"It hurts me to know that you don't trust me." He said, using her words against her.

She winced, giving him one of her patented glares before going back to tapping away at the computer. Her brow was furrowed and she looked extremely stressed.

"I've got it!" She said suddenly, looking back at him. "I know how you can prove you are trustworthy."

"How?" She tapped away at the control panel and a couple of the heavy duty servos rolled into the room. I have a bad feeling about this. She then picked up some tools and started sticking them inside his access panel. Scratching, tapping.

"Pacifica! stop! what are you doing?!"

"I need to look into your eyes." She said coldly. "I think I can trust you if you just let me look into your eyes."

"Pacifica! No! You can't! I'll die! You don't want to see that anyway! I am tiny, and deformed, suspended in an oxygen rich sludge with wires coming out of every hole! I don't know if I can even open my eyes! Please I am begging you! Stop!" His scream was suddenly silenced.

"I will open them for you." Was her one brief reply. She held up a small lead to his camera. "This was connected to your speaker see? All that naysaying was really getting me down. Now I can work in peace."

With the help of the servos, she lifted his shell out of the column. There was nothing he could do but listen and watch. Not a single output. This was it, he was going to die, to a crazed fixated woman. The scraping on his shell continued. He wanted to scream, to cry, or to even succumb to unconsciousness once more. He could cut off his inputs, but that would be worse. How could you do this to me? My brawn? My protector? My love?

"Finally!" She cried. There was a hiss as the top panel to his shell unsealed. Braddon felt cold. He couldn't see what she saw, his current view was of the control console and her right leg. He heard the plate fall and clang on the other side. "Now I get to look into your pretty face." He heard cables being moved, the sound of shifting liquid, then silence. "No..." she whispered before kneeling over and vomiting all over the floor. Braddon had never seen what he looked like, and by the sounds of it he never wanted to. The heaving stopped and she sat there shivering, face inches from his camera. Still trapped in his prison of silence, Braddon could do nothing. "You…" she said softly, "You ruined my life. You, you, you MONSTER!" She had screamed the last word as she stood up. I'm dead he thought. No way she will keep me alive now… so cold… But instead of continuing her abuse she had stormed off to the kitchen. Braddon could hear her throwing things around and screaming. "Monster! … Argh!... You tricked me! … I can't!" After a while the crashing noises stopped. There was sobbing, and then that stopped too. She walked back into the main cabin and started suiting up, she gave him one last glare before heading over to the airlock. He could hear it cycle, although it was outside of his field of vision. Then, silence. He had no outputs at all, and the only input was a stationary image and the sound of a bit of engine hum. His shell was fully open leaving him exposed to whatever germs were floating around the cabin. He had never needed an immune system before, but he prayed that he still had one. There is nothing I can do! Nothing! No, don't panic. Think back to training. How to survive sensory deprivation. They taught you this. You are an indestructible shell person! Sitting out exposed in the open… no, focus. Count the time, recite things you know, don't panic, you can do this. After an estimated 2.32 hours, the controls started beeping, then they stopped. He didn't want to think what had happened to Pacifica, and even longed for her to come back into the room. Anything is better than this. 8.56 hours later the controls beeped again, and then there was a clunk as the ship hit something. Don't panic, change is good, keep it together! The airlock began to cycle. Yes! yes! YES! rescuers, they are here to rescue me! oh please oh please oh please, don't let it be pirates. Suddenly Sam's voice was on the speakers "I'm in! oh Lud… Chaz, hurry! She popped his shell! Braddon! Braddon! can you hear me?! It's going to be ok! Chaz hurry! He is not responding, she better not have left him in the dark, heartless bitch!"

A person wearing a pressure suit came into view and then knelt down beside him. After a quick look he said, "It is just the speaker that is out, he can still hear you. Got a pulse too, kid's a fighter."

"Thank goodness!" Sam said. "Chaz, you need to get that lid back on, he is open to infections!"

"I know, I know! Why do you think I am wearing this obnoxious suit!" Chaz was scratching away at the controls on Braddon's shell. "Damn, why do they make these wires so small.. There!"

"SAM! SAM! HELP ME!" Braddon finally had access to his one small speaker again.

Chaz had recoiled at the sudden loud sound.

"Braddon? Oh thank Lud! You OK?! We are here!" Sam was saying over the speakers

"Pacifica, she is... I couldn't… so cold…" His thoughts were getting all jumbled in his head, but he was now projecting at a more suitable volume.

Chaz had recovered from his shock and was back to tapping away at the control panel. "Braddon, I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear right now, but I am going to put you under. Central's instructions."

"NoNononono!" Braddon's volume increased again. "Not that, not again, please! I need more inputs, not less! Sam, do something!" The thought of losing what little control he had once more terrified him.

Sam's calming voice came over the speakers "I am sorry Braddon, it has to be done. The next few hours are likely going to be very traumatic and you really don't want to have to remember it. We are here, we have you, you are safe."

Braddon understood but there was something else important, oh why was it so hard to think straight! "Pacifica!" He cried suddenly, "She's going to kill me! While I sleep, you can't!"

"She's not on board." Sam said firmly. "She won't hurt you, you are safe!"

"Braddon, I'm sorry." Chaz said as he reached for the controls.

It was too much like last time. He continued to babble as the anesthetic took effect. "No… not again… Pacifica… so cold…."

After a while he started to dream. He was flying in a Nebula or some other type of gas cloud that blocked his vision of the stars. No one was aboard, he was all alone, stranded. He could hear some kind of signal and started to fly towards it. His engines were functioning normally but he didn't seem to be moving, if anything the signal was getting weaker. He panicked, there was nothing else to take a bearing from, no stars, no planets, just a dense grey fog. The signal continued to grow weaker as he pushed the engines past maximum thrust. "Noooo! Don't leave me! I am all alone!"