Orion's Gate

by Sabine Priestley

  It was ten years before I discovered I could allow a woman to service me safely as long as I remained detached.”

  The crushing weight of such a solitary existence made it difficult to breathe. Her existence was the total opposite.

  Vin placed her palms on the cool surface and took a deep breath. His past was literally agony for her.

  “Are you upset?” Armond asked.

  She turned to face him. A week ago, all she would have seen was a cold, detached man. But she knew him better now. Could read the subtle signs of his internal battle. “I’m stunned. I hurt for the life you’ve missed.”

  “I have had a decent life.”

  “A lonely life. And now you’re keeping your psi from me. Why?”

  He reached out and ran his knuckles along her jawline. “Intimacy is not a language I know how to speak.”

  “That has nothing to do with your psi. I can tell the instant you pull back. You did it in bed earlier, and you’ve held it in check ever since.” Something was eating at this man. Something major. “Talk to me.”

  The psi connection had been completely unexpected, but there was no denying the potential for the psi-mate bond with this woman. A bond Armond had spent his life avoiding any possibilities of, knowing it to be impossible. But Vin had somehow breached his defenses, been exposed to his power surges, and lived.

  Could it be due to their bonding potential?

  She looked at him with such open desire and concern. “What aren’t you saying, Armond?”

  “The connection you feel. It is the interaction between your psi and mine.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t get the psi thing.”

  “It manifests in you as your empathic abilities. You may be capable of more, with training. The point is, that connection is indicative of the bond between psi-mates.”

  Her skin began to glow as it had in bed. Thin lines, rivers of light, pulsating across every visible inch.

  He took her hand, such a simple thing, and yet an intimacy such as he’d never thought possible.

  Intimacy. It was a language he’d have to learn if this was more than fantasy. Hope and desire were foreign things to him, and along with them came the surge and release of his psi.

  Vin deflected it easily and stepped closer, the corner of her lips turned up. Their psi entwined in an ethereal dance. One of pleasure and promise.

  “Tell me about psi-mates. What does it mean, exactly?”

  “The bonding process is psi and bodies combined. It is sexual by nature. Pure energy. And permanent.”

  Their psi wound around each other, tightening further. This was an ecstasy many never experienced.

  A low moan escaped Vin’s perfect lips.

  He met her gaze. “Are you certain about this? We will bond if I make love to you again. Psi-mates. That’s a one-way trip.”

  Vin moved her body in a way that screamed desire and sensuality. “Armond, I’m already there. These ripples of light? They’re because of you. Not because you turn me on, but because I love you.”

  The words hit him with the force of a Sandarian summer storm.

  Love.

  Vin tilted her head. “Say it.”

  He smiled, and her eyes widened. It was absurd that he didn’t know what his own smile looked like.

  Joy shot through him, accompanied by another easily deflected surge. The truth was irrefutable. Everything changed in that moment. His future rewritten. “You’re right. This is love. I love you.” Such simple words. Words he’d known he would never utter.

  Her smile was a thing of radiant beauty. “I think the soup can wait. I need you in me. Need that connection to you that will never stop.”

  He cleared his throat as he pulled her closer. “I’m afraid my limited experience as left me a rather inexperienced lover. I want to learn what pleases you.”

  She pressed her finger over his mouth. “You did just fine before. And together we’ll discover how to please each other.” She playfully bit at his lower lip. “So many things to explore.”

  They left a trail of clothes as they made their way to the bedroom.

  Splotches of color danced across his vision as he sealed the door.

  “Do you see that?” She waved the air in front of her.

  “Physical manifestation of our individual psi. Psi that will become one.”

  She took his hand and led him to the still-rumpled bed. Yet another ordinary scene in a normal life, but one completely new to him.

  He guided her onto her back, and she spread her legs and squirmed with anticipation. The light under her skin was mesmerizing. Undulating and beautiful.

  Her sex was closely trimmed. He trailed his fingers over her core, and her responsive moan had his cock pulsing. He stroked her wet, slick folds. The sounds she made worked him like nothing else.

  The thought of her doing that with him buried deep was nearly too much.

  “Armond.”

  He knew what she wanted. Knew what they both needed. He cursed himself for not believing sooner. For not studying the art of lovemaking. “I swear, I am going to spend my days learning how to please you in an infinite number of ways.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, but this can’t wait.”

  Their psi had become entwined like rope, and undulated in an increasing tempo. He placed himself at her entrance and she pulled him in.

  She gripped him with quivering muscles as he began moving his hips.

  Their psi pulsed, and he growled out at the pleasure that radiated through him. Them. This wasn’t him alone. Never again.

  Colors of blue and amber flashed across his vision.

  “It’s getting hard to see.” Even as she spoke, her body matched his rhythm, her need fueling his own fire.

  “We’re merging.” Tension rose; it was impossibly good. Too good. Too right. Faster, his body had a mind of its own as his scrotum tightened and the orgasm exploded.

  Colors burst, and they moved into another plane. Awareness of the physical evaporating.

  “Where are we?” Her voice echoed in his head.

  “This is us. Our essence. That which we are beyond our bodies.”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  It was. They were a part of something. Gossamer strands of stunning colors existed everywhere and nowhere. They were the strands and pulses of light. A web of infinite possibilities stretched in all directions. They were here and there all at once.

  Reality returned in a heartbeat. He lay atop her, his forehead pressed to hers, heartbeats slowing to normal.

  She peppered kisses on his lips, cheeks and chin. “That was…incredible.”

  “There’s another thing that happens with psi-mates,” Armond said.

  “What’s that?”

  “We can communicate telepathically.”

  “But how…do I do this?” Her eyes widened on a grin. “This is so cool!” The way her body squirmed in her excitement sent pulses of pleasure to his core.

  “There are distance limitations,” he toyed with a silky strand of her hair. “but it could come in handy with the competition.”

  The happiness that flowed between them was a force of its own. A beautiful thing. Solid. Energized. Perfect.

  “I never thought I’d end up with someone like you,” Vin said. “I always figured it would be a more…well-rounded man. Someone who shared my love of food.”

  His laugh came from the heart, and was the oddest thing he’d ever heard. “I never expected to be with anyone, but if I had, you would not have been it either. Don’t misunderstand, I love your body, every curve you have is a wonder. It’s your exuberance, your talking, I would not have guessed.”

  “My love of life can be hard to take at times.”

  He caressed her, reveling in her silky skin. “You saved me from a solitary existence.”

  Her love, and her sadness at his past, flowed across their bond. “I bet this bumps our ratings. They’re going to want to watch.”

  “I am not having m
y first days or weeks of real sex broadcast to the galaxy.”

  “Might be fun to look back on when we’re old and wrinkly.”

  “I think not.” He gently slid out of her, and she curled into his side.

  “Your smile is transformative, Armond. And that laugh? I hope to hear a lot more of that.”

  “With you at my side, I suspect you will not be disappointed.”

  Her stomach growled, and she giggled. “It’s time for that soup.”

  Chapter 7

  As they approached the outlander territory, Armond experienced a strong sense of déjà vu. The constellation was the same as it was in their galaxy, which made no sense whatsoever. How could two galaxies have overlapping star systems? Then again, as vast as the universe was, everything was statically possible, as improbable as it may seem. This had to be the perfect example.

  Marty wasn’t wrong in the patrols the outlanders enforced. They were currently docked at Vortran. It was the last populated planet on the fringe of outlander space, and allowed them to monitor the activity without drawing attention. Interestingly, in this precise location in his galaxy was a planet called Vantor. They had nearly identical letters. Another coincidence?

  He and Vin stood examining the holographic map of their destination.

  “How are we going to get into that? We can’t just fly in,” Vin said. “Where do we start?”

  “An exact location will be provided upon your successful arrival on Setara Blue.”

  “Figures,” Vin said. “Okay, how about we hitch a ride? We can take a job on board a freighter going in.”

  “That’s doable, but how will we get back out? I can only assume we will make our presence known when we obtain the next clue.”

  “Steal a ship?” Vin said.

  “What if there aren’t any?” Armond countered. “What we could really use right now is a couple of my distorters. I could simply open a portal and get it.”

  “A portal will be available on the planet’s surface.” Marty sat in a jump seat against the bulkhead.

  Nothing and no one pissed off Armond more than that damnable AI. “You could have shared that with us on Omagar instead of nearly killing us.”

  “You didn’t ask.”

  Vin grabbed his arm before he lost his temper.

  “Feeds are live. If you’re going to get angry, make it flashy. But try not to damage the console.”

  Armond turned his focus to the jump seat and it transmuted in a visually impressive manner, leaving behind a steaming ball of unrecognizable substance. “I could do that to you next,” he said to Marty, who remained seated on air.

  A crackling sound emitted from the speakers, but nothing else.

  Armond’s silent laughter rippled through their bond and into Vin.

  “The viewers are going to love that. Well done. Feel better?”

  “Oddly, yes.”

  “Welcome to humanity.”

  It took two days, but they finally secured positions aboard a freighter going into outlander territory. As far as Armond could determine, Setara Blue was the only destination within the space that non-outlanders could travel to, even as working crew. That in itself was interesting. Probably why it was selected as the repository of the next objective - the contest organizers had to get to it as well. Then again, if they had the ability to create portals in the same fashion he did with the distorters back in his galaxy, there were no limits. Except this outlander business was fishy. Time would tell. Time.

  He thought again about his trip to Sigma Vector 9 to assist Marco Dar and his future mate Zara. They’d said he’d met his mate. That much had come true, and now they were headed into outlander territory.

  And they were planning on using a portal. Interesting.

  The three-day trip was a pain in the ass. Crew quarters were nothing more than bunk beds with no privacy. Intimacy, a key factor for newly-bonded psi-mates, was nonexistent, and they both suffered. The ship’s air was cold, and stank of inefficient scrubbers.

  When they approached the spaceport, reality did another flip. This wasn’t Setara Blue, as they called it here. He knew it as Sigma Vector 9. The downtrodden dump they’d gone to in order to retrieve Marco’s sentient AI com unit.

  So, was it the same space present in two galaxies, or an alternate reality? Could he simply take Vin and leave? He seriously doubted that. Everything surrounding the system was foreign. Somehow this place overlapped, but how? Could this region exist in multiple bubble verses? Armond had no idea how to prove or disprove any of the theories occupying his attention.

  “You ready?” Vin’s voice brought him back to the present.

  Whether or not they were in his galaxy, they had to finish the contest. One thing was for certain: the Corporation would never let him into a place he could escape from. Not intentionally, at least. Did they even know this existed in the Milky Way? “Ready.”

  “They have us on the ship’s manifesto for the return trip in two days.”

  Neither of them expected to be on board.

  “Marty, how do we activate the portal?” Armond asked.

  “Simply enter ‘1618’ into your com and I will bring you back.”

  “Understood.”

  The trip to the planet surface was on a skiff that looked to be on the verge of disintegration. It had seen better days and wasn’t going to see many more. The other passengers were mostly crew like themselves, heading out for some PTO. The groundside spaceport was typical for shipping hubs. Bustling with activity and more functional than ascetically appealing.

  Armond tapped his earpiece. “You with us. Marty?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Well? Where are we going?” Vin asked.

  “Sending your destination now.”

  The coordinates popped up on his com. It was a large warehouse on the outskirts of town. A tingle ran down his spine. He’d never been there, but knew exactly what it would look like thanks to Marco’s description. Was the corporation playing into this on purpose, or was it more entanglement?

  “What’s wrong?” Vin asked, running her palm down his arm.

  “Let’s get a transport and I’ll explain.”

  They followed transportation symbols outside the ground terminal. The air was hot and humid, but the sun shone in the afternoon sky.

  They picked up an open-air automated hovercraft that was about as comforting as the skiff they’d taken down. He wouldn’t want to see the surface of the seats under a black light.

  “So, what’s going on?” Vin asked again.

  “Three months ago I was on assignment with a fellow Earth Protector, Marco Dar. We had to retrieve a com unit.”

  “And?”

  “It was located in a warehouse on the edge of town. This town, on this planet.”

  “But you said this wasn’t your galaxy.”

  “It’s not.”

  “Then how?”

  “I have no idea, but I believe you're going to meet Marco and his mate Zara before this is over. Or, more correctly in this timeline, his future mate.”

  She tilted her head in the way she did. “I’m going to your galaxy? Which is here. That makes no sense whatsoever.”

  “Indeed.”

  “But, if we’re in your space, doesn’t that mean we can get you home?”

  “I’m fairly certain the Corporation would never let that happen. Unless they don’t know, which is possible. This system is the same as in my galaxy, but nothing surrounding it is. I think it best we stay focused on our completion.” He took her hand in his and interlaced their fingers. Such a simple thing to do, but for him it was profound.

  The vehicle pulled to a stop in the unpaved parking lot of the warehouse. The sun was setting, and a few other vehicles were arriving, mostly dropping off. This was a happening place, apparently.

  “We’re here, Marty. Any further clues?”

  “The center of attention is what you need. Take that which has all eyes and don’t get caught, or all this work will
have been for naught.” Marty spoke in a highly inflected mysterious voice.

  “As usual, not very helpful,” Vin said.

  “I do my best,” the AI replied.

  “You’re right, Armond. He’s an asshole.” Vin gave his hand a squeeze and winked.

  “The irony is not lost on me, given that I do not have said orifice,” Marty replied.

  They made their way inside behind a group of scantily-clad women being tailed by some beefy tattooed men. Whether they were there for protection or participation wasn’t clear. The rhythmic beat of music got increasingly louder as they went deeper into the structure. Thirty feet in, and the ceiling opened up. Four stories, all open in the center. Each floor appeared to have a different vibe going. An elevator stood against the back wall, and stairs were scattered seemingly randomly from floor to floor.

  “Don’t hate me,” Vin said, leaning in close enough to be heard, “but this looks like fun.”

  A few weeks ago, he would have disagreed without another thought, but now? Perhaps, under different circumstances. Fun was a foreign concept. He could think of no one better to explore it with than the blue skinned, stereo-voiced woman next to him.

  “Where do we start?” Vin asked.

  He scanned the layout again. “I suggest we hit the top floor and work our way down.”

  Being as it was still relatively early, it wasn’t overly crowded. Heading toward the lift, they passed a crew that was busy setting up for something on a stage against the back wall.

  He used his psi to summon the elevator. They stepped onto a familiar-looking platform. One with seemingly no walls.

  “This is the elevator?” Vin gripped his arm tightly.

  “It’s perfectly safe. Here.” He took her hand and extended it outward until it came into contact with an invisible resistance. “We use this technology on my homeworld of Sandaria.”

  “Good thing this building is only four floors. I’d be taking the stairs otherwise.” She closed her eyes and pressed her face to his chest as they rode up. He breathed in her floral scent; there was nothing he wouldn’t do for this woman.