by C. F. Harris
“You ready?” I asked, turning to look at Kir who was holding his tablet.
“Ready,” he said, then leaned forward. “Is this the comm panel?”
“It is,” I said, watching him and wondering just how much of that comm panel he’d be able to figure out. He was, after all, an alien looking at an alien system in a language he didn’t understand.
Still, for all that I imagined the basic ideas between two spacefaring civilizations would be largely the same. I was curious to see just how good he’d be. He seemed to have something of a reputation among his people, after all.
“Right, so if you dial in the number here. I don’t know what your notation is but it’s in base ten and not proper base eight so… Here. Speak on this frequency and you’ll be able to reach those ships and coordinate the escape,” he said.
I let out a low whistle. What can I say? I was impressed with this guy. He really did know his way around a ship!
“Torvask ships,” I said. “Are you ready to go? Because we’re gonna want to get the hell out of here while the getting is good, if you catch my drift!”
There was a pause where I waited to see if they were going to respond.
“We are ready,” finally came through.
“Good,” I said.
I activated the launch sequence and we were off. The ship rose through the hangar, though before I could actually get the hell out of there we had another surprise. Doors opened all around the place and Kliks in power armor streamed in. Not that it was going to do them a bit of good.
They were hanging out in that damned Klik power armor. I was behind the wheel of my scout ship. It might not look like much, but she was armed to the teeth where it counts. So it was simple enough for me to have the computer target them and start picking them off as they stepped into the hangar.
Though it was interesting watching them moving through the hangar. Like one moment they were all scuttling across the floor like a bunch of insects, and the next moment they were moving up along the walls and even onto the ceiling.
“Now there’s something you don’t see every day,” I said, peering out of the cockpit at the things.
“Doesn’t look like it’s gonna save them,” Kir said, also looking through the window at them.
“Not at all,” I said, smiling as the turrets all around my ship continued firing and relieving the Kliks of their lives.
“Heading out of the hangar,” I said into the commline.
“Affirmative,” the voice on the other end said. “We’re leaving as well. Things just got a little heated in here.”
“I’ll try to keep them off of you,” I muttered as I stepped up the firing and turned to exit.
We burst through, and I fired off a parting gift. The missiles screamed home and a massive explosion appeared where their hangar bay had been.
I powered up the faster than light drive as I maneuvered my ship around behind the Klik ship. I could see movement as turrets turned to track my ship, and on my display I saw their weapons systems powering up.
“Looks like they’re going to bring the party to you now that we’ve escaped,” Kir said.
“Good, let them try.”
A Klik voice came over my comm system. I went ahead and let it through.
“Human craft, desist and return to the hangar bay immediately or be destroyed.”
“Probably giving a similar ultimatum to the people on that other ship,” Kir muttered. “That’s just a transport ship, though. They won’t be able to do much if the Kliks open up.”
“I think they’re going to go for me first,” I said, but not before making sure that the commline was dead. The last thing I needed was for the Kliks to hear my battle plan and get any ideas.
I opened the commline.
“Sorry, can’t land in your hangar. I kind of blew it up. Now I’d like you to send me the location of your home world and defenses, and then I might not blow the rest of your ship up.”
“Unacceptable,” the Klik said.
I saw a familiar power signature. What I recognized as their little trick. Their ace in the hole. The way they were disabling human ships this whole time. Only I knew about it, knew it was coming, and knew what to look for this time around. They weren’t going to catch me by surprise twice.
So I waited. I wanted to give them a little demonstration. I wanted to prove to them how useless their weapon was once they were going up against someone who knew what the hell they were doing and how to counter it.
“They’re about to hit you with their near field interdictor,” Kir said.
I looked up at him and smiled. “Why Kir. If I didn’t know any better I’d say that my dashing pirate companion actually seems nervous!”
He looked up at their ship and sure enough, he definitely looked nervous. He licked his lips and looked back at me.
“That is something that should make you nervous,” he said. “Catching ships unawares with that weapon is how they operate. They’re great at the ambush.”
“Watch and learn,” I said. “I’m about to teach them a lesson about why things work the way they do in this galaxy.”
The beam lanced out and hit my craft. Main power went out and I watched with a calm detachment as all the readouts showing me how much power I had left went into the red. I definitely didn’t have enough energy left for energy weapons. I didn’t even have enough power to use kinetics, but I did have something else. Something that would work far better than a kinetic weapon since they were so cocky that they hadn't raised their shields.
If they had raised shields then I would've had to blast them as soon as I escaped. I was really glad they hadn't raised their shields.
“What are you doing?” Kir asked. “Because if you’re trying to do something to impress me I’d much rather you just destroy the scary Klik ship.”
There was something more to his voice than the simple fear of his life though. I wondered how much he’d been pegging on me being able to destroy the Kliks. It sounded like his people had been pressed back at every turn. Pushed closer and closer to their own homeworld.
I guess that was the kind of thing that could leave some pretty big psychological scars on someone. Even a big and scary pirate like Kir.
“Don’t you worry,” I said. “This is all part of the plan, and I’m sending them their nice surprise now.”
One of the nice things about any human ship was that emergency backup reactors not attached to the mains always had enough juice to teleport someone out of a ship should they need it. That was supposed to be a last ditch escape mechanism, one most pilots didn't care to use considering teleportation’s dismal record when it came to teleporting living tissue, but it was also enough to teleport something else.
I hit a button. Nothing seemed to happen, but a moment later there was a spectacular explosion out the side of the Klik ship at the spot where that beam was firing. Immediately everything came back on. I was weapons hot, and I had every weapon pointing at their ship.
“How did you do that?” he asked, sounding amazed.
“The same way I was able to smuggle a weapon onto their ship,” I said. “They caught me with my pants down last time, but I’ve had plenty of time to think about what went wrong since that last fight. So I teleported a mini nuke into the power center for that weapon.”
“Teleportation,” Kir breathed. “I still can’t believe you have it. Our scientists have been working on it for ages.”
“Yeah, well this is about to get a lot more interesting. Want to see what happens when the Kliks get hit with more conventional weapons?”
“You know it,” he said, his eyes boring into me.
I wasn’t sure if he was more turned on by me destroying the Kliks, or if this was more about watching me doing the destroying. Either way I blushed under that look and was suddenly painfully aware of just how cramped things were on my small flight deck.
So I concentrated on work instead.
I made sure to turn everything up to
full power. I wanted their scanners to realize exactly what they had pointed at them. I wanted them to realize they’d brought a level one civilization battle cruiser to a level three civilization fight.
The Klik voice crackled through my ship again. “We surrender.”
I opened a channel to them. “That’s nice and all, but under human laws of war I’m under no obligation to accept that surrender from a hostile species who’s actively trying to destroy me or capture me. You’ve already committed numerous documented war crimes with that little arena routine you were running on your ship, and as the duly designated representative of the Terran Fleet in this system I am now carrying out the judgment and sentence for those war crimes.”
There was a pause on the other end. I’m sure it was taking them a moment to digest everything I’d just said.
“What does that mean?” a very confused Klik finally asked.
“Means all y’all crabby motherfuckers are dead, and after I sift through the remains of your computer systems I‘m going straight to your home world with a human fleet that knows about your little trick and how to counter it to make sure every last one of you pays for your crimes against humanity.”
“We will die before we reveal our location to you,” the Klik commander said.
“I can arrange that,” I replied.
“Good one,” Kir said once I’d shut off the commlink.
“Thanks,” I said with a grin. “I thought it was pretty good myself!”
I hit a couple of buttons and all the weapons on my ship fired. It was an impressive display. Weapons lanced out and blasted into preprogrammed locations I’d scouted out while I was busy talking. Their engines blew up as a bomb was teleported straight into their engine room. I blew holes in their life support system. I made sure to put a nice big hole in what I assumed was the bridge and was gratified to see Kliks flying out into the void with no power armor or vacuum suits to save their asses. I wondered if one of them was the pleasant individual I’d just been chatting with.
There’d be nobody up there to wipe any computer records when they realized how fucked they were, that’s for sure.
Once I’d finished my work I hit the button on the faster than light drive and my ship jumped an appreciable distance away from the Klik ship. I could see the ship Kir’s people were on also poking along towards me, but it would take them a little while to get here.
“Must be having some trouble with their faster than light drive,” I muttered, then remembered that their ships only had jump drives. “Hopefully the Fleet will be able to hit them with an assist when they get here.”
“The Fleet?” Kir asked.
I grinned. “I’ve already sent a signal off to the Terran Fleet. We’re going to have one hell of a reception here in a couple of hours. They’ll go through that ship with a fine tooth comb and make sure we get all their records. I tried my best to disable them without destroying so much of their ship that we couldn’t go over it. It’s time for humanity to pay a visit to the Kliks.”
Kir let out a low whistle, then he really surprised me by leaning in and hitting me with one hell of a toe-curling kiss!
I probably should’ve been monitoring the situation to make sure there were no new surprises, but I figured the computer could take care of that stuff. If there was something truly dangerous coming our way then the bucket of bolts would be able to warn me with enough time for me to take care of business. Especially against an enemy that had to make the trip into the system from a jump point at less than the speed of light.
Besides, we had a little time before the Fleet got their shit together and got out here to see the present I’d given humanity. I figured that meant we had time for some fun!
24
Kir
I pressed against Dalia and allowed all the pent up tension and emotion that’d been building in me for the entirety of my captivity, of meeting her, of going through that escape attempt that I’d been sure would be the end of us, to finally bleed out.
She didn’t seem to mind. She opened her mouth to mine in a very pleasant discovery and then her tongue was pressing into my mouth.
Well then. That wasn’t something I’d done with the women of my world, but now that she was doing it this thing sent a bolt of surprise and pleasure running through me. It wasn’t something I’d even known I needed until the moment it was happening and I was enjoying it quite a bit, thank you very much!
So I dueled with her tongue. I took that invitation and sighed as I pulled myself on top of her. She must’ve hit a control or something, because as I pulled myself towards her the chair she sat in started to pull back until we were parallel with the floor.
The thing was surprisingly large, and it seemed to be getting larger. I pulled away from the kiss and stared down at it in astonishment.
“This thing doubles as my bed when I’m floating out in the middle of nothing,” she said with a wink. “Makes it awfully convenient when you want to catch forty winks without leaving the bridge, but I don’t think the people who designed it ever had this in mind.”
I didn’t care. With a growl I was on her. I pulled at her threadbare uniform that was tattered in places where it’d caught on something or other in our mad dash out of the Klik ship.
Gods above and below this woman was incredible, and I was going to show her just how incredible she was!
I pressed my hardness between her legs and felt the impossible warmth there. I looked down to where our bodies came together and marveled at the sight. It’d been far too long. First there was the frenzied trips between worlds running supplies to try and keep war torn areas supplied, then I’d been pressed into a penal battalion after being confronted by an officer with more adherence to the rules than sense, and finally I’d been trapped on the Klik ship where I refused to dance to the strings they were trying to tie to me.
Yes, all of that had been terrible, and all of that meant it’d been entirely too long since I’d known the touch of a woman. So I luxuriated in the feel of her body. In the way she seemed to jump at my touch everywhere I pressed against her.
Dalia seemed just as eager. Her hands moved down between our legs as we kissed. I moved up to make room for her, and then I was greeted by that always exquisite feeling of a woman wrapping a hand around my cock. I groaned into her mouth and rolled to the side. There was plenty of room to move around now that her chair had expanded.
It was at that moment that Dalia took control, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that she was taking control. Everything I’d seen of her so far seemed to indicate she was a woman who loved being in control of her situation.
She pulled herself on top of me and bore down on me. It was delicious torture and pleasure as she rubbed against me, and I was so caught up in what we were doing that I worried this might be over far too soon because I was so excited by what she was doing to me.
She reached behind and did something that caused her uniform to split down the middle in back. She shrugged it off and finally revealed her incredible body to me. I licked my lips and moved my hands up to explore those incredible curves.
She was every bit as exotic and amazing as I’d imagined the first time I saw her stepping into the arena, and it was all the more incredible feeling her.
Her reaction was immediate. Again she did that thing where she seemed to almost jump under my touch. She bit her lip and let out a quiet gasp that was music to my ears. A gasp that went straight down to between my legs even as it twisted my guts and encouraged me to do more.
I moved one hand up to her face and cupped her cheek. I pressed a thumb against her lips, and she closed her eyes and opened her delicious mouth and sucked that thumb in. She did things to my thumb that were made all the more intense because I was imagining all the things I wouldn’t mind her doing to another part of my anatomy!
“I need you to take me. Now.”
I wasn’t quite sure what that particular idiom meant. It had all the hallmarks of a bit of idiom taken f
rom one language and applied to another by a non-native speaker, but her body language was all I really needed to get the gist of what she was telling me to do.
I frantically scrambled to pull the rest of her suit off. She helped me by arching her back and giving me an incredible view of her strange alien body that I couldn’t wait to taste and devour, but right now the lust was too much.
It’d been too long. I’d been watching this beautiful woman in action for too long. It was all coming together to have me more turned on than I think I’d ever been, and I couldn’t wait to finally have her.
I made quick work of my own coverings. They were no better than rags, really. All that was left of the penal battalion uniform I’d been given once upon a time in a far off place that seemed like a dream I could barely remember now.
A dream where this incredible woman had come to me, once upon a time, to give me encouragement in my time of greatest need.
I fell on top of her and our bodies pressed together. She seemed so small and fragile pressed against me, and yet I knew that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I’d seen the way she waded into battle and dispatched the Kliks like they were nothing.
I knew she was a warrior. The kind of fighter who would be a true danger if she was ever turned against my people.
Her hands reached down between my legs once more. I groaned at that contact once more. That was something I never got tired of, no matter how many times it happened.
She smiled a secret little smile as she stared up at me.
“Enjoying that, pirate?” she asked, hitting me with a wink.
“More than you could possibly know,” I groaned right back at her.
“Well wait until we really get started,” she said.
She pulled me against her again, and I was treated to the sensation of an impossible warm wetness wrapping around the head of my cock. I groaned again, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head as that feeling overwhelmed me.
Again she was similar to the women from my world, while at the same time being so different that it was like a totally new experience. I groaned as I pressed inside her, but as I did I worried that I might not be able to fit.