I am tempted to call Jon Nicholson’s EMP Services fan fiction. Nicholson says in a note that he has “written permission” to “leverage the environments and phrasings” of Jerry Boyd’s Bob and Nikki series. In Boyd’s series, an alien, who is for all practical purposes a human woman with a working libido, engages a mechanic named Bob to help her repair her flying saucer. In Emp Services, an alien, who is for all practical purposes a human woman with an active libido, engages Eric to repair a server farm. Eric and Bob both have geriatric friends and relatives who need treatment by alien autodocs, and they both have friends with handy military skills. Human alien romance ensues and both couples have cute pet names for one another. Both get help by freeing robot AIs. Nicholson tries to imitate Boyd’s fast-moving, breezy style, but he does not get it quite right. Boyd embeds the narrative in slangy dialogue that manages somehow to carry the plot along and take care of needed exposition. Nicholson’s dialogue is awkward, and it lacks needed transitions. I may read more Bob and Nikki, but I will give Eric and Hope a pass. 2 stars. ( )