Stealing Spaceships: For Fun and Profit

by Logan Jacobs

  I kicked back in the pilot’s chair to rest my feet on the edge of the control panel.

  “But you don’t care?” she said again, when I didn’t answer.

  “Truth be told,” I sighed, “no. No, I do not care.”

  “So you admit it. That you’re a criminal.”

  “I never said that,” I growled. “I only said that I don’t care what you call me.”

  “And just what do you call yourself?” Orla asked.

  “The best fucking pilot in the galaxy,” I said with a grin.

  “Don’t you think that you might be a little full of yourself?” the princess groaned. “Or at the very least, just a little biased?”

  “I do not,” I declared. “Thing is, princess, I hardly ever lie. It makes things too complicated.”

  “You never lie?” the brunette repeated.

  “First off, I said hardly ever,” I corrected. “Not never. And not when it comes to big things. Mostly. Generally speaking.”

  “Unless it serves your purposes,” Orla guessed.

  “Exactly,” I said with a grin. “I feel like we’re finally communicating.”

  “Okay, so if you’re a really good pilot--”

  “The best pilot,” I interrupted.

  “Fine,” the princess sighed. “So if you’re the best fucking pilot in the galaxy--”

  “Princess!” I pretended to be shocked by her language, but she just rolled her eyes.

  “If that’s true, then why aren’t you a fighter pilot?” Orla continued. “If you’re that fucking good, why aren’t you in the service? There are a lot of places that would have you, including the Dominion or the ULA.”

  “Nah, that’s not for me,” I said quietly.

  “You mean that’s not for us,” Honey Bee whispered.

  “I’ve got no interest in fighting somebody else’s war,” I went on. “It’s all the same, and if you paid attention, you might have figured that out for yourself back on Orpheus.”

  “That’s different,” Orla defended.

  “Sure it is,” I said sarcastically.

  “Well, you clearly don’t care about a cause,” the princess said. “So just what exactly gets you out of bed every morning?”

  “The thrill of the chase, sweetness,” I said with a grin. “The thrill of the fucking chase.”

  The controls pinged a warning just half a second before I felt it. The whole ship pitched forward and then rolled to the left. It pitched again as I grabbed the throttle, but I realized that it wasn’t a matter of just holding her steady.

  We had come out of hyperdrive too close to that blasted star, and it was the cause of our turbulence now. People liked to tell stories about how difficult the turbulence had been to pilot through back on earth-that-was, but the truth was, the solar winds in space were on a different fucking level altogether. You might not encounter them as often, but when you did, you had better hold on to your asses.

  The winds from the star pitched the Skyhawk in every direction except for the one we wanted to go. I shouted at Orla to grab on to the arms of her seat for the extra support, and I gripped the throttle to try to guide us safely to the other side of the turbulence. The whole Skyhawk threatened to shake apart, and even inside the ship, we slammed forward against our safety belts and back into our seats again with every pitch and roll of the craft. It felt like my body itself was going to shake apart inside the Skyhawk.

  And then, I felt it happen. I was too busy gripping the throttle with both hands to make sure that I didn’t lose all control of the ship, so when the turbulence shook my shielding glasses loose, I couldn’t reach up to hold them in place. I just felt them slip off my face into my lap, and then they slid onto the floor of the bridge and disappeared underneath the controls.

  Instantly, the ship around me seemed like it had grown ten times brighter as every single detail or every inch of the cockpit was displayed to me. I winced at the brightness but kept my grip on the throttle. I wanted to clench my eyes shut against the brightness and against the feeling of being completely exposed to the world. Honey Bee wailed a warning inside my skull, but she knew that I couldn’t get my glasses back until we were on the other side of the turbulence. The winds were dying down outside now, but I still couldn’t risk losing control of the Skyhawk.

  I glanced at Orla. She stared at me with her mouth open and her green eyes wide, and I knew why she couldn’t stop staring. My eyes had no color at all to them. They were just blank and silvery-white, and the princess knew that could mean only one thing.

  I was a member of the Vespidae collective.

  Chapter 14

  The green-eyed princess instantly panicked. She unbuckled her safety belt and tried to run in the middle of the turbulence, but the ship pitched forward again. It knocked her off her feet, and she hit her head against a rail as she went down.

  “Princess!” I shouted as her body went limp.

  The Skyhawk pitched again, and the movement rolled the princess over onto her back. Her eyes were closed.

  “Orla!”

  “She is only unconscious,” Honey Bee told me. “Perhaps it would be best to leave her that way.”

  “I’m not gonna just--” I sighed. “She already saw me, and I’m not gonna throw her out the airlock, so I don’t know what you expect me to do.”

  The Skyhawk pitched forward again, and Orla’s body slid back and forth across the bridge floor. I veered sharply up and back down again to keep the ship from rolling. If the Skyhawk rolled with Orla out of her seat, she’d probably end up a little worse than unconscious.

  I pulled the ship to the left as the winds calmed. It was just another minute or two before we flew past the worst of the turbulence, and I let the autopilot take over again to keep us on track for the Antioch. I glanced to see where Orla had landed on the floor of the bridge, but the only movement from the princess was a little flutter of her eyelids as she tried to come back to full consciousness.

  I only hesitated for half a second. I almost looked for my shielding glasses first, but I didn’t think there was any point. Even a concussion wouldn’t make Orla forget what she had seen, so I might as well own it. The glasses would still be stuck under the controls when I needed them. Besides, they weren’t the ones who were currently half-unconscious on the floor of the bridge.

  I unbuckled my safety belt and dove across the floor toward the princess. I slipped my arm under her shoulders and took her head into my lap. As I brushed back the thick brown hair from her face, I found the bruise above her ear where she had struck her head.

  “Orla,” I whispered.

  At first, she just moaned again, but her fingers moved slightly at her sides.

  “Time to wake up, princess,” I said.

  I brushed back her hair again, and the brunette’s eyes fluttered open. Orla blinked slowly, and at first, she didn’t seem to remember what had happened. She looked all around the bridge, stared down at her body to see that she was on the floor, and then finally glanced back up at me.

  Her mouth fell open again, but she didn’t scream. Instead, the princess just tried to scramble backward away from me, but I held her tightly to keep her still.

  “You hit your head, so you’ve gotta stay still,” I ordered. “I don’t want you hurting yourself worse.”

  Orla bit her lip but nodded, and my grip on her shoulders relaxed slightly. She reached up one hand to the bruise hidden by her hair and winced when she touched it. The princess exhaled and then looked back at me.

  She moved her hand from her own temple to mine. Slowly, the brunette moved her fingers from my hairline to the base of my eyebrow, but just before she reached the corner of my colorless eye, she shook her head and pulled her hand back.

  “You can’t be,” the princess murmured.

  She acted like she was going to try to get away from me again, so I just held her still and propped her head up a little higher in my lap.

  “Orla, look at me,” I commanded. “Orla!”

&
nbsp; The princess met my gaze and this time, she only trembled but didn’t try to get away.

  “I am not going to hurt you,” I growled. “Don’t you remember how I said that I would have already done that by now? Like when you first threatened me with a shotgun? I didn’t hurt you then, and I’m not going to hurt you now.”

  She nodded slowly.

  “Are you hurt anywhere else?” I asked.

  Orla shook her head.

  “Okay,” I exhaled. “Then just take a breath.”

  “But you can’t be,” the princess said again. “I thought-- the ULA have said for years that you’re… that the…”

  “The Vespidae,” I said helpfully.

  “I know what they’re-- what you’re called,” she fired back. “I was just trying to say that the ULA have always said that the Vespidae aren’t real. That they’re just a scary story made up by the Dominion to keep people afraid. To keep people obedient.”

  “You don’t think it can be both?” I asked. “You don’t think it can be both a way for the Dominion to bring and keep whole civilizations under their control because people are so scared of us, but also be a real thing at the same time?”

  “I always thought my father was lying,” Orla said with a slow blink of her long lashes. “That it was just another… just one more lie in the grand service of the Dominion.”

  “Oh, we’re very real,” I laughed.

  A little light of panic crept back into the princess’ eyes, and I shook my head.

  “I’m not part of the Vespidae anymore,” I told her. “So try not to worry. I’m not gonna take your eyes out and replace them with ones like mine. I’m not gonna implant a chip in your brain to read and control all your thoughts.”

  “I resent that,” Honey Bee chimed.

  “It’s different with you,” I muttered to my chip.

  “You’re not gonna take out all my insides and replace them with artificial parts so you can control my actions like you could with my thoughts?” the princess murmured.

  “Are you making a joke right now?” I laughed. “Guess you must be feeling a little better.”

  “It’s half a joke,” the brunette sighed. “But I’m… well, I’m still a little serious, if I’m being honest.”

  “Well, I’m not gonna do any of that,” I assured her. “First of all, I just don’t have the equipment. And second of all, I’m not even sure the Vespidae do that. The artificial parts, I mean. The chip, they definitely do. And the eyes-- they definitely take your eyes.”

  The princess studied my silver-white eyes.

  “I don’t remember them doing it, if it makes you feel any better,” I said with a shrug. “I just woke up and bam! Artificial eyes and a chip in my head that fries my skull if I over-exert my brain or my body for longer than a human can sustain. That’s half of what the sunglasses are for.”

  “I’m not sure that does make me feel better,” the brunette said as she shifted her long legs against the floor.

  “It was worth a shot,” I sighed.

  “How can you not know about the artificial parts?” the princess murmured. “You mean you don’t have any idea what’s inside of you?”

  “You’ll have to understand if I wasn’t super eager to go to a doctor for an inspection once I got back to my own civilization,” I exhaled. “Everything still works just fine, so I didn’t really ever see the use of looking into it anymore.”

  “But how?” Orla asked softly. “How can you just not be a part of them anymore? I thought that was the whole point of the Vespidae. That they’re a collective-- once you’re in, you’re in until death.”

  “Oh, you are,” I answered with a smile. “How do you think I got out?”

  She shook her head, but I felt my chip groan inside my skull. Honey Bee really hated this story. For as much as she was a part of me now, she was still connected to the Vespidae, or at least she would be if I hadn’t overruled all her controls. And that meant that Honey Bee would chime along just as happily if we were still a part of their collective consciousness, and she wanted back into the fold.

  “But you’re not dead,” Orla said in answer to my question. “So how… how did you escape?”

  “The Vespidae have a collective consciousness,” I explained. “So all their members share that. It’s kind of the whole point of their civilization, and how it functions. But when they bring in outsiders and try to take over their minds and bodies, it can be a little harder. Especially if those outsiders aren’t kids, since kids are more moldable anyway.”

  “So do you mean that they never really took over your brain?” the princess asked.

  “No, they definitely did,” I corrected her. “But never completely. I was always in there, just buried deep, until one day, I saw an opportunity to write over their systems and make them think I was dead. Then I ran as far as I could, as fast as I could, and I haven’t looked back since.”

  “They have no idea you’re still alive, then,” Orla breathed.

  “I’d be in a world of hurt if they ever found out,” I agreed.

  “No, Trevor,” Honey Bee sighed. “We love you. We want you back. We would seek to understand how you escaped so that it never happened again, but we chose you to join us. Forever. Come back to us.”

  “And you’ve just been on your own since then? Without anybody?” The princess’ expression softened, and her green eyes went all big and doe-like.

  “Without anybody,” I said, in the most serious tone I could manage.

  Orla reached up to my face again, and this time, she didn’t take her hand away. She just ran her fingers across the tiny holes in my skull where the shielding glasses plugged in, and then she laid her hand on my cheek. Slowly, the princess slid her fingers to the back of my neck to pull my face down toward hers. I stopped her when my lips were a fraction away from hers.

  “You sure you didn’t just bump your head too hard?” I teased.

  “Shut up and kiss me,” she ordered.

  “You’re the boss, princess,” I laughed.

  The brunette started to say something else, but I stopped her with a kiss. Her lips were as soft as they were full, and as I ran my tongue over her mouth, I was surprised that her lips tasted like strawberries. She kissed me more deeply then, and I lifted her up with one arm before I slipped my other hand just underneath her jacket. I gripped her waist, and she melted against me.

  Orla still had one hand hooked behind my neck, so she slipped the other one toward my belt and slowly reached for the buckle as she continued to kiss me. I pulled back on her hair just a little so I could kiss the base of her neck. I felt her body flush with heat against my lips. The princess finished unbuckling my belt, but I shook my head.

  “Not here,” I said gently.

  I picked the long-legged brunette up in my arms and carried her down the stairs away from the bridge. Honey Bee chimed a warning about my shielding glasses that were still under the controls, but I told her to leave it alone for once. I was about to fuck the princess’ brains out, but I wouldn’t work hard enough to set my chip on fire. Even if I did, at least I’d go out with a bang.

  The princess leaned her head against my chest as I headed to the passenger sleeping quarters. I glanced down at her once as I strode across the main hold, but she just smiled back up at me. Any fear she’d felt when she first saw my eyes had vanished, and now it was like she’d always known.

  I laid her down on the bed and let her pull off my belt. I kissed her neck again and then licked the hollow between her collar bones as I reached my hand down toward the bottom of her jacket. Her shirt came off when I tugged her jacket over her head, and the princess smiled shyly as I ran my hands up the soft skin of her stomach to cup her full breasts.

  “Trevor?” the brunette murmured. “Do you think I’m pretty?”

  “I think you know the answer to that question,” I laughed.

  I moved my lips further down to kiss the skin between her breasts, and we helped each other pull off our pan
ts to throw in a heap on the floor with Orla’s jacket. I slipped out of my vest, and the princess tugged my shirt over my head.

  She ran her fingers over the scars that were slashed across my chest like angry claw marks, but she didn’t ask me about them. The brunette just wrapped her long legs around my waist and pulled me down against her, and then our bodies moved together like they were a single wave.

  Orla reached down to grab my hard cock, but I grabbed her hands and pinned them against the bed above her head. I wanted her to want it so badly that she couldn’t stand it before I gave it to her. She moaned as I rubbed my fingers just against the smooth lips of her pussy, and when she started to writhe underneath me, I grinned and moved down to slide apart her lips with my tongue.

  Her pussy was already dripping for me, so I slipped a finger inside her tight tunnel while my tongue played with her clit. Each time I flicked it with my tongue, the princess gave another little moan, and she wriggled her hips in pleasure. Then, after a few minutes of licking her clit, my tongue replaced my finger inside of her and I grabbed both her thighs to keep her still.

  “Don’t… stop…” Orla panted as I worked my tongue around the inside of her pussy.

  I grinned and then thrust my tongue deeper inside her. Her legs started shaking, and then she screamed as an orgasm swept over her.

  “Oh, Trevor!” she cried.

  She moaned again, and her legs fell back to the sheets in ecstasy.

  “Alright, that’s it, see you later,” I teased.

  “No,” the princess moaned. “Please don’t be done.”

  “Not even close,” I whispered in her ear, as I moved up the bed to press my hard cock against her wet pussy lips.

  The princess reached for me again, and this time, I let her grip me.

  “You are… really big,” she gasped.

  “Guide me in slowly,” I encouraged her.

  “Okay,” she whispered and then she just guided the tip of my cock between her wet lips.

  She was as tight as my fingers had indicated, so I had to move slowly at first. I pulled back out and entered her again, and then with each new thrust, I went a little faster until I had to grab her hair to keep her from just slamming into the headboard with the force of my thrusts.