The Significant (12 page)

      
Isa led Kailynn to her office, which the
Significant had never been in before.

      
The office was mostly bare, with a large
desk on one wall that had four large monitors on it, and a sitting area in the
far corner with windows looking out over the city. However, most of the room
was taken up by the NCB chair.

      
The chair was big, bolted into the floor
and had a large ring around the base and around the headrest.

      
“This looks terrifying.”

      
“It’s quite the machine,” Isa said with a
nod. She patted the ring around the headrest. “Hop in.”

      
“What?”

      
“It’s on lockdown. It’s not going to turn
on. Besides, you need training to operate one of these. I would never have you
sit in it and turn it on.”

      
“Training? Seriously? To sit in a chair?”

      
“It’s more complicated than that, this
chair can put you in the hospital if you’re not careful.”

      
“Then why are you asking me to sit in
it?”

      
“To show you what an NCB chair does. If
I’m ever here and you need my attention, such as in an emergency, then you need
to know how to safely interrupt me.”

      
Kailynn stared at Isa, worried and
surprised. She was not sure how the chair could be that dangerous, but Isa did
have her curious.

      
Kailynn ducked her head under the upper
ring and went to the chair, sitting in it slowly, her hands resting on the cold
metal of the arm rests. The chair’s seat was tilted upward, which caused
Kailynn to slide back until her body was cradled in position. She tried to pull
herself back up, but the chair’s position made it very difficult to move.

      
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to get
out,” Kailynn laughed.

      
“It’s meant to keep you as still as
possible,” Isa said. She tapped Kailynn’s leg. “Put your legs in the cradles.”

      
Kailynn kicked one of her legs over the
slightly-raised middle section of the chair and placed her foot in the covered
area, sliding her other leg into position as well.

      
“There are a lot of settings on this
chair,” Isa started. “Push your head back into the cushion.”

      
Kailynn did so and was surprised that her
head sank into the cushions as a section above her head protruded and covered
her hair, stopping at her forehead. Once the movement above her head stopped,
two rounded points protruded just behind her nape and touched softly to her
hairline.

      
“I thought you said this thing wouldn’t
turn on,” Kailynn said quickly.

      
“It isn’t on,” Isa assured. “When this
mode is activated, it’s called BCS—BioCranial Sourcing.”

      
“What does that mean?”

      
“It’s the mode used for filing documents,
looking up information, composing messages, receiving messages, etcetera. When
this chair is not on lockdown, this ring,” she tapped the ring on the headrest,
“will glow blue and there will be holograms of codes in the area below it. BCS
Mode is dangerous. The chair is connected directly to the brain and, if halted
too quickly, can cause severe headaches, concussion, memory loss, and a few
other problems. If you see this ring glowing blue, and you need to interrupt me
for an emergency, there is a number pad on the back of the chair. The code is
77743. That will start the ten-second emergency shut down.”

      
“When you’re in this mode, what does it
feel like?”

      
“It feels like being suspended in
weightlessness. This is meant to dull the senses to the body and allow for the
brain to process information, which is input through the nodes at the back of
your neck. From that point, it’s a bit like going through documents on a
tablet, only it’s in your mind.”

      
“That sounds confusing…”

      
“That’s why training is essential,” Isa
agreed with a laugh. Her expression fell a little. “Now, if this ring is
glowing red, it is far more dangerous to interrupt me. It’s the same code to
disable the chair, though.”

      
“What mode is red?”

      
“Off-Planet Mode, notoriously nicknamed
Opium.” Isa took a deep breath and gently tapped the ring again. “This means
that my entire body is dependent on the chair to survive. If interrupted in
Opium, it is likely that I will be unconscious upon being released from the
chair and I will need to go to the hospital. I strongly discourage ever
interrupting me in this mode unless there is immediate danger, such as a fire.”

      
“Noted,” Kailynn said, her eyes wide.

      
“If this ring is not glowing at all, I’m
not bound to the chair,” Isa said finally. “You can just walk up and talk to
me.”

      
“So there is a mode on this chair that
won’t kill you?” Kailynn said dryly. She tried to sit up, but her head was
still stuck to the back cushion of the chair. “Okay, how do I get out of the
claw?”

      
Isa chuckled and ducked under the ring.
She leaned forward, pressing her right ring finger to the part of the chair
that trapped Kailynn’s forehead.

      
When her fingerprint was recognized, the
chair returned to its original position, releasing Kailynn’s head. However,
Kailynn was startled by the close proximity of the Elite. Even though they had
been swimming naked together for the previous several days, the way the Elite
was positioned, her hand bracing against the back of the chair and the short
distance between her face and Kailynn’s made the Significant’s cheeks burn
hotly.

      
Her gaze was captured in the stunning
blue color of Isa’s eyes. There was power and strength in her eyes, but there
was also a gentle, warm part of the look, and the combination of the two made
the simple moment overwhelming. Isa smiled, causing light to touch her eyes and
Kailynn’s heart to skip a beat.

      
“Your eyes are beautiful,” Isa murmured.

      
“R-really?” Kailynn said. Her brain had
turned to static. She knew it would be impossible to form coherent sentences.
One word was already a struggle.

      
Isa nodded, offering her hand to the
Significant. Kailynn tried to stop the shaking in her hands as her fingers
closed around Isa’s and the Elite helped her out of the chair.

      
Kailynn knew, in that moment, that the
feelings that had been building in her body when she was around the Elite would
not easily be quelled.

      
She knew.

      
And, based on the look Kailynn saw in
Isa’s eyes, the Golden Elite knew, too.

      
Their fates were already entwined.

Chapter
Ten

      
There was only one more day of rest for
Isa, and then Remus lifted the lockdown on her chair and she was able to work
remotely from home.

      
But, even with Isa working, Kailynn could
feel the air between them getting thicker when they were in the same room.
After the moment of realization she had in the NCB chair, Kailynn had been
trying to spend more time with Tarah and getting to know the caretaker more in
order to distract her thoughts from Isa.

      
Kailynn knew that, no matter what her
body told her whenever Isa got close, she could never pursue those feelings.
Isa was an Elite, forbidden from sexual relationships. To make matters more
complicated, Isa was the Golden Elite—the most powerful person in the planetary
system. And, for added severity to the situation, Kailynn was a Trid
non-citizen with fake papers who was earning money in an attempt to free her brother
and the other Trids who had tried to shut down Venus.

      
Kailynn spent more time around Tarah than
Isa the second week of her stay. The young caretaker never left the house,
ordering in everything that they needed and having it delivered by the robots
that handled such matters in the capital. Tarah was a very talkative one when
the two were alone. She was unwilling to discuss her own life, but she was more
than willing to dish on a lot of the society gossip she heard as a caretaker.

      
“How do you learn about all this?”
Kailynn asked when she heard about the nobleman who was arrested for having
naked pictures of one of the male Elites, named Aolee, and circulating them for
profit, which eventually made it to another planet and sparked rumors about the
possible kidnapping of an Elite to determine how they were made. There had been
a rumor on that planet that the Elites were entirely robotic, and seeing a
creature that appeared human had irked the planetary leaders.

      
“The caretakers have a gossip network,”
Tarah answered. “I hear about it from other houses.”

      
“I thought no one spoke to each other in
the upper levels of society.”

      
“No, I guess not really,” Tarah admitted.
“The only other caretaker I’ve ever met in person is Luska.”

      
“Whose caretaker is that?”

      
“Remus,” Tarah answered.

      
“Then, if he’s the only one you’ve ever
met, how do you get all this other gossip?”

      
“We have our own communication network
through our computers,” Tarah explained. “We have to find some way to entertain
ourselves when the Elites are working all day.”

      
“Damn, that would be boring…” Kailynn
groaned, rolling her eyes. “Then your lives are completely dull. You just sit
around here, gossip about others in high society, and wait for the Elites to
need something. That sounds horrible.”

      
“It’s actually not that bad,” Tarah
disagreed. “For instance, we know before anyone else when something shady is
about to happen in the upper circles of society.”

      
“How does that work?”

      
“Caretakers aren’t just for the Elite.
The Elites are the only ones
required
to have caretakers, but—”

      
“
Required
?”
Kailynn gaped.

      
“Yes. Venus orders that there always be a
caretaker in an Elite house. It’s law.” Tarah explained. “But there are many
noble men and women that have caretakers as well. Isa asked Rayal when he was
caretaker to reach out to other caretakers and keep contact with them so that
he knew what was going on in other houses. Since then, other Elite caretakers
have done so as well, and it has really expanded the network. This let’s
everyone be informed. We’ve helped stop some dangerous deals and illegal
activity because we’ve told the Elites what other caretaker have said.”

      
“Seriously? That’s scary. It’s like every
house has a spy.” Kailynn’s stomach flipped. “Wait, that means that you could
tell people about me being here.”

      
“I guess you have to be nice to me.” She
giggled, shaking her head. “Don’t worry, even if someone found out that you
were here, none of the caretakers would betray Isa.”

      
“How can you be so sure?”

      
“Because Isa is special,” Tarah said with
a gentle smile. “Everyone loves her. They would never hurt her.”

      
The words made Kailynn pause. Perhaps her
attraction to the Golden Elite was just the same thing that everyone else saw.
Maybe her feelings were not that crazy or out of the ordinary with those who
were near Isa.

      
Tarah’s eyes lowered to the table between
them.

      
“Kailynn…” she started slowly, pulling
the Significant’s attention back, “I wanted to thank you.”

      
“For what?”

      
“I’m sure you don’t realize it, but Isa
has been far happier with you in the house,” Tarah explained. “It’s not a big
change, but there are subtle differences. There’s a light back in her eyes that
I haven’t seen in years.”

      
“That might be just because she hasn’t
had to work for a week,” Kailynn said, waving the comment away. She had just
believed that her attraction to the Elite was something that was common and
that she did not need to pay attention to. Hearing that the Elite was somehow
different with her,
happier
at that,
made Kailynn’s heart beat a little faster, no matter how much she told herself
to calm down.

      
“Maybe,” Tarah admitted with a small nod,
“but I don’t think so. It’s hard to explain. Isa isn’t just special, she’s very
different from every other Elite. I think she
needs
interaction with people. Most Elites just work and work and
that’s all they do. Isa needs to interact, she needs to talk to people, and I
think she finds that she can’t talk to me or Remus or Rayal about everything.”

      
Kailynn was looking at the table, her
nerves increasing by the second.

      
She was unsure what it was, but the words
held a lot more meaning than she could comprehend in that moment.

      
“I have to admit, when I heard that you
were coming here, I was nervous,” Tarah said with a guilty chuckle. “And after
I looked at your reviews—”

      
“My reviews?” Kailynn said quickly, her
head snapping up to look at the caretaker. “What was wrong with my reviews?”

      
“Nothing,” Tarah said quickly, raising
her hands. “You can’t always trust the reviews anyway. People exaggerate.”

      
“Tarah, what did my reviews say?”

      
“No, it was just one review, it’s fine,”
Tarah assured, trying to calm the Significant.

      
“Who? Who was it and what did they say?”

      
Tarah was now worried she had truly upset
Kailynn.

      
“Fine, just show me!” Kailynn said,
standing. “Where the hell is the computer?”

      
Tarah quickly stood.

      
“Kailynn, forget I said anything! I
promise, it’s fine!”

      
“Just show me, I need to know what
asshole said what shit!”

      
“That’s just going to upset you more!”
Tarah said, rushing after the other woman as Kailynn remembered that there was
a computer in her room. They both went in, though Tarah continued to tell
Kailynn that there was nothing wrong with her reviews and she did not need to
worry. Kailynn angrily sat in front of the computer and pushed the power button
hard enough to nearly knock the computer over.

      
“I don’t know how to check reviews,”
Kailynn growled. “Pull them up. I need to see them.”

      
“Kailynn, seriously, I’m sorry. I didn’t
mean to upset you.”

      
“Tarah, I need to know what’s being said
about me. It might change the way things are for me when I go back to
Companion.”

      
Tarah stared into Kailynn’s determined
eyes and sighed, nodding once. She typed into the computer and clicked a few
things on the screen. When Tarah sighed heavily and backed away, Kailynn looked
at the reviews, seeing the letters grouped together to form words that she
could not read.

      
“This is pissing me off,” Kailynn
groaned. “Will you just read the bad one out loud to me?”

      
“What?” Tarah said, her eyes going wide.
“No.”

      
“Tarah, I can’t read it. Will you read it
to me?” Kailynn was trying to sound so furious that Tarah would not question
Kailynn’s request. However, after studying the Significant’s eyes, Tarah
understood Kailynn’s illiteracy immediately.

      
“Oh…” She looked awkwardly at the screen
as Kailynn began pacing. Tarah hesitated, looking between the computer screen
and Kailynn before scrolling through the reviews on Kailynn’s Significant page.
Once she found the one she was looking for, she fully regretted saying anything
about Kailynn’s reviews.

      
She took a deep breath, glancing back at
the impatient and irritated Kailynn before bracing herself.

      
“Jacyleen is a pretty, but stupid, girl,”
she started.

      
“What?!” Kailynn bellowed. “Who the fuck
is this asshole?! How much did he write?!”

      
Tarah cringed, thinking about the rest of
the review.

      
“Well, keep going!”

      
Tarah turned back to the screen, rubbing
her forehead with her other hand as she continued.

      
“Jacyleen is not one for conversation.
She would much rather let sex do the talking. She has a nice body and is open
to sexual favors. However, there is a reason her sex fee is lower than most
Significants her age. She is rough around the edges and does not know how to
look for her partner’s pleasure.”

      
“What the fuck is he talking about?!”
Kailynn screeched. “Who is the fucker?!”

      
“She, however, is into fetishes and other
kinks. She is clearly desperate for money, so she will likely work quickly to
get on to another appointment to earn even more, so don’t expect to see her for
very long. Fast, kinky, and stupid, Jacyleen is good in bed, but otherwise, a
disappointing Significant.”

      
“What the
fuck
?!” Kailynn screeched. “Can you see who posted this review? Who
the fuck does he think he is?!”

      
“No, the names are always anonymous,”
Tarah said, getting worried that Kailynn would start throwing things around the
room in her rage. “You know, it’s just the opinion of one jackass. You can’t
always trust reviews. All the other ones you have were good.”

      
“That’s not the point!” Kailynn growled.
“I’m desperate to earn money? I am into kinky shit? What the
fuck
?!”

      
“Kailynn, I need to start making dinner,”
Tarah said, standing. “Why don’t you help me? It will take your mind off it.”

      
“No, it won’t,” Kailynn snapped. “Shit, I
really want to know who this guy is…”

      
“It’s not worth it to get upset.”

      
Kailynn let out a frustrated sound and
stormed from her room, going to the living room and pacing, bellowing about how
everyone was a perverted bastard and that she only did what they wanted her to
do and she ended up being called a slut. She continued to scream about it while
Tarah stood helplessly to the side, wanting desperately to go into the kitchen
and get away from the upset Significant.

      
Kailynn ground her teeth together and,
before she could think better of it, she picked up a pillow off the couch and
hurled it at the wall of windows leading out to the balcony. The pillow hit the
glass and fell harmlessly to the ground, though the automatic door opened
shortly afterward, pushing the pillow aside before closing again.

      
“Is my living room going to survive the
evening?” an amused voice chuckled behind Kailynn.

      
The Significant turned to see Isa
standing in the living room next to Tarah, bemused.

      
“Isa…” Kailynn murmured, her eyes going
wide. She looked at the pillow and then back at the Golden Elite. “I…I mean, I
just…”

      
Isa raised her hand, her smile widening.