Samuel walked back into the workshop and looked over at the pile of garbage he had managed to build over the last two days. He had not worked under a time crunch like this in years, and it was definitely showing. He usually kept everything far more clean than this.

　　He had just slipped out of the clutches of the gargantuan woman in her new bedroom.

　　 When he went and showed her one of the secondary rooms, she was welcome to sleep in; that way, she would not try and sleep in his bed. Some good that attempt and gesture did for him.

　　The moment that he showed her the bed, she hugged and pulled him into the sheets. Wrapping him in a warm, unbelievably gentle embrace and licking the top of his head while grumbling words at him. At least she was still wearing her jumpsuit, knowing he would have faltered if she was naked.

　　 Thank god she seemed to understand that he was not going to have sex with her again; she did not make any attempt at all. It was just cuddling. The Varintol likely was still feeling down about whatever she was crying about earlier. Why her not trying to seduce him bothered him was still concerning. Why the hell did he find it odd? She was doing what he wanted. Right?

　　After she had her fill of snuggling, grooming his hair, and cradling him, she eventually passed out. Denoted easily by her loud snoring and how her plush body practically melted against him.

　　Samuel`s unsealing from the canyon in her chest was not easy, but he did eventually wriggle free and fell to the cold metallic ground.

　　Samuel quickly showered once he slipped out of the room because he was tending to her needs, and the unintended slumber kept him from doing so earlier. The warm water and soap washed away his fatigue. Thankfully, he managed to squeeze this alone time in. He smelled like shit before. How she could stand cuddling him like that was ridiculous. He was well aware the Varintol had far more attuned noses than humans.

　　 At least now, he was well-rested and able to think with a fresh mind.

　　Samuel settled into the chair and ripped his blueprints from the wall behind the workstation. He carefully scanned every detail of them, from the basic sketchwork to the compiled calculations.

　　When the hell did he make these? He must have been so zoned out yesterday he could not even recall having built and designed the translator, nearly to completion, too. In his fog, he even gathered all the jury-rigged resistors, capacitors, and battery systems he needed. Well, shit, maybe he could have had more beer. He only had the first one the Varintol offered before switching to coffee, wanting to stay focused.

　　To his shock, nothing was wrong with any of the plans or the translator.

　　 The solder was well enough done, not perfect, but it would work. The Solid-state battery bank was just off to the side. Samuel looked them over and realized he must have cannibalized them from one of his environmental suits.

　　 He praised his sleep-deprived self for the insight to use Solid-state over lithium-ion or Lithium-sulfur. Solid states were more efficient, resisted cold, heat, and impacts, and could only catch fire if they were set alight. Even punctures would just cause electrical discharge.

　　If the battery was punctured, the Varintol woman would be in for a horrible few seconds; she might as well be wearing an electrical fence until the power dissipated. But that should not be a problem. He had the fabricator create a suitable housing.

　　 It was a simple steel box, but hopefully, that meant she would not break it. Samuel was short on steel reserves as is, and her necklace took up a solid chunk of what was on hand.

　　What did the GU insist on, everything being made from a polymer or aluminum?

　　Steel worked fine for most things and was far more robust. Yeah, it was a bit heavier, but that`s the trade-off you made for having such a high, sheer, and tensile strength.

　　Either way, at least everything seemed sound, and he did not have to start again. All that was left for the night was to finish assembly and test the device. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

　　Samuel quickly finished assembling the translator. He stuffed the reformatted circuit board inside and tightened the screws anchoring it in place. Due to the new housing, he ended up stacking and wiring the remnants of the original together, a few washers being used as spacers. It was rough, but should work.

　　Samuel then sealed and closed everything inside the simple steel case, ensuring he left the bone conduction readers out. They would be needed so she can understand him, and they don`t continue with one-way conversations.

　　Samuel cannibalized one of his old belts to make the actual collar. He did not need it because he almost always wore a jumpsuit or something with strings. He just packed it along with a few pairs of jeans when getting ready to move to the outpost. Samuel was not much of a leather worker and lacked any proper tools for the ordeal. But he could get things done in a pinch. That and the lack of tooling was nothing a few pop rivets and a handy drill could not solve.

　　Before Samuel realized it, an entire two hours had gone by. But it was done.

　　The entire thing was assembled. Samuel set the device down and double-checked his design choices.

　　This had to work.

　　Samuel could not waste any more time redesigning it. Hopefully, the years working as a reverse engineer still left him with some talent.

　　Samuel had built several access ports on the back of the necklace so it could be charged, have new software uploaded, and be opened up if needed.

　　Samuel pressed the on button, and the device spoke to him.

　　"Translator online," the device squawked in a cold monotone.

　　"Fuck yeah, that`s what I`m talking about. Suck it, Carnian manufacturing. I still fucking got it," Samuel boasted, driving a fist into his chest in pride.

　　Carnian Manufacturing was the company that created the original translator. They could eat their heart out. It only took him two days to essentially reverse engineer their tech. Not that their technology was complex; a fucking high schooler could build this, but now it was better, more user-friendly, and more robust. In his mind, he put their horrible original to shame.

　　 Maybe he could sell this design. There had to be others who needed a more sturdy translator other than the Varintol. There had to be a market for more sturdy translators in the universe. However, he would need to rewrite the code, lest the true monster of the universe come at him—-Lawyers.

　　If he did go through that pain, doing so might give him a solid retirement. That was something he could think about once the Representative took the Varintol out of his home, and he was no longer tempted just looking at her.

　　The last thing to do was test the device.

　　"Prepare for function test; Translate Galactic Standard to Varintol Language," Samuel commanded.

　　"Understood. Translating Standard to Varintol for next standard minute," The device replied.

　　Samuel held the devid to his neck and pressed the bone inductor up behind his ear.

　　"Testing, confirm translation," Samuel said.

　　Near instantly, the bone conductor vibrated powerfully and forced the bones in his ear to resonate. The sound of the cold monotone processed his words into the Varintol language filled the room. Not that he was able to confirm the translation was precise, but it was clearly her language. He did not doubt there would be some misinterpretations, but what else could you expect with a translator program a hundred standard years old.

　　"Setting adjustment. Set vocal output to female," Samuel said.

　　He did not want her to sound like some droid; there were enough of them in the universe, and this is—well, was a high-end translator with the option to set an output voice in its code.

　　"Confirmed vocal output adjusted to Varintol Female," The device replied, still in monotone.

　　"Run auto speech program," Samuel said, setting the device back on the table.

　　"Running test," The device chirped before beginning to speak to him in Galactic standard in a woman`s voice.

　　 Not that it really was speaking; it was just raddling off random words with no coherence or direction as it went through every inflection that Galactic standard had to offer.

　　The voice was husky, deep, and plenty loud. It almost reminded Samuel of someone with a voice modulator, but such is the nature of using these things. They took away nearly all of what made someone`s voice theirs. At least it was a woman`s voice for sure and was fitting for the three-meter-tall alien bombshell sleeping in the other room.

　　Samuel swelled with pride, hearing that he knew it worked. All he had to do was give it to the woman in the morning, adjust the bone conduction for her fur, and he was in the clear.

　　"Function test completed, all systems online, battery remaining will last for the next three standard months," the device said, returning to its cold monotone.

　　That is a bit of a quirk. Samuel had not expected it to speak in that monotone every time the device was talking to the user—at least he would know when it was the translator and not her.

　　Samuel shut the translator off and went to the storage room. After the hard work and the success of his reverse engineering, he could use some beer and a warm slanted sofa to melt into for the night.