With a delighted laugh, she spun around, unwrapping herself and capturing the tip in her hands again. She pulled it to her mouth and licked it. “Does that feel good?”
I could barely answer for the sensations shooting through me. Yes.
Then she wrapped her lips around it and pulled it into her mouth, slipping around it with her tongue. I hadn’t realized human mouths were so versatile. And hot. And oh, Great Hive Mother, it was all I could do to keep from attempting to push my flagellum in further.
As if Lise read my mind, she opened her mouth wider and pulled me in deeper, then slid it back out.
When she stopped, it was all I could do to keep from releasing the scent of mourning. But she continued stroking me with her tiny, hot hands. “I wish I could take all of you,” she said. “Can we…I mean, would it be okay if I took just this small part of the end inside me?”
It would require iron control on my part. I could easily damage Lise. She was so tiny and fragile. But I wanted this more than I had ever wanted anything in my entire life.
Yes. Please. I will be careful with you, I promised. Finally, my flagellum finished unfurling, reaching its full length—almost as long as my body.
Her eyes took on a kind of a glazed expression and she whispered, “Yes,” in the same tone I’d heard Alder use when something pleased him.
I fear I will not last long, I warned her. My mating urge is strong in this part of the cycle.
“Shh,” she said, making the hissing noise meant to soothe and quiet. “I want you to feel good. That’s all that matters to me.”
And I you.
“Then let’s see how this works.”
She sat down on the bed, opening her legs and guiding my organ to the opening there. I slid up and down the hot slit until I almost slipped inside. With my own kind, I would have used my flagellum to follow the internal twists and turns until I reached the end of the feminine maze, where I would have deposited my sperm to help create the next generation.
But human females were shallow—at least physically—and I discovered the very end of the canal quickly. Still, every instinct I had told me to continue moving, and so I twirled my organ inside her, pulling back and spinning, twisting, and moving inside her again.
Her gasps suggested she liked the movements, and the hot wetness of her felt better than I would have believed possible.
This time when she climaxed, she screamed, her internal muscles clenching around me, and I felt my own peak begin to surge through my flagellum, moving up the organ in waves of pleasure that washed through me.
Afterwards, my flagellum began to soften, and I pulled it back into its pouch. Lise rolled onto her side, stroking my carapace with her almost-touch. I reciprocated, luxuriating in the touch of another sentient being, until she fell asleep.
I couldn’t imagine anywhere else I would have liked to be.
Until Morpheus began banging on the door and shouting for us to come to the bridge.
20
Morpheus
“Blue, what are our coordinates?” I checked over the flashing screens. This wasn’t right. We shouldn’t have arrived already.
“We have nearly arrived at our destination, Morpheus. We are within 1.0431e-13 parsecs of Nimbus Prime.” Blue rattled off the number smoothly, seemingly unconcerned. Of course, why would the ship’s AI be concerned? She wasn’t the one wanted across the galaxies.
My moxyclorate spiked, sending my internal organs into overdrive.
I tilted my head, looking down at the sensor readings. The back of my skull, though typically protected by an outer helmet, was hollowed-out to increase neck mobility. An evolutionary change in my species so that we could see prey from all angles and be ultra-flexible for flying at high winds and reducing the chances of neck and spine injury. I rolled my neck now and flexed my shoulders, hearing the click-click of releasing pressure from my joints.
“Roughly two Earth miles,” I mumbled, doing the complicated mathematical equation while the humming at the back of my throat focused me. I knew a lot about Old Earth science and math. They were required learning when I was young, still considered the pillar stage. “How the hell did we get here so quickly?” I blasted off the question, standing up and leaning forward, hands digging into the top of the control panels in front of me.
“It seems we entered a currently uncharted wormhole. I have gleaned numerous terabytes of useful scientific data.”
“The gods are not shining kindly on us, it seems,” I muttered, bringing the ship to a pause instead of continuing to advance onto the planet that housed the United Galaxies’ headquarters. The Universal Equality Federation had set up the UG as a neutral zone for gathering planets to draft charters of peace and trade. Armed conflict was strictly taboo, but the UG enforcers always found a way to capture anyone who shouldn’t be roaming free.
Through the curved viewing glass that looked out over the uncountable stars of this galaxy, I could see the distinct lavender gases of Nimbus Prime. I wasn’t cleansed of unpleasant odors, and there was no time to hide in Blue’s bolt-holes. And, to add insult to injury, we were approaching the wrong side of the planet.
The dangerous side.
I needed our captain.
“Blue, keep us stationary. And if you have shielding technology, by the gods use it now.”
“My stealth mode has long been in disrepair, Morpheus, new crewman of Lise.” Blue chimed, and though I didn’t like being called ‘new crewman of Lise’, at least the AI wasn’t calling me ‘Altered One’ any longer. “I can use our reflection panels to mimic the space around us, however. It is not perfect camouflage, but it is better than nothing.”
“Fine, do that,” I thought back to when Lise had set us down on the large meteor for shielding and to take a breather. It hadn’t dawned on me then to ask why she didn’t simply ask Blue to engage stealth. Now I knew the ‘why’.
Jolting from the pilot’s seat, I rushed off the bridge, my metallic wings rising and falling so fast that at one point my feet left the decking and I flew in small, uncontrolled spurts.
The inner and outer lids of my eyes flashed open and closed, allowing me to see and keeping the wind from watering my eyes. The hum I used to focus was a loud chorus of buzzing now. I had to think, we needed a plan. I hoped Lise would be as quick on her feet as I thought she was. She seemed good in a crisis.
“Blue, where is Lise now?”
The AI didn’t answer immediately.
“She is in Evik’s quarters, Morpheus,” she finally replied.
It took me precious time to reach the closed entrance, and I very nearly slammed my hand against the access panel to enter, but then thought better of it.
Alder had said Lise and Evik were romantically interested. There were only a few reasons for the captain to be in his quarters. As I paused, my keen senses picked up sexual pheromones and sweat. Two different breathing rhythms. Heartbeats more rapid than normal.
I had been correct. Lise and Evik had been… together.
At the knowledge of that, faced with it beyond doubt, pangs of jealousy hit me. I was not like Alder, I would not show my emotions on my exterior, but it was undeniable that I had feelings for our new captain. That I craved her, in the same way I once craved my wife.
I had thought these feelings were no longer for me. That my time of intimacy had passed. And, until now, I had been resigned to that fact. I could operate and function. And then this small human female had crashed into my existence.
Raising my fist, I banged on the door sharply.
“Evik! Lise! I need you on the bridge now!” It occurred to me as I yelled and slammed my chitinous, membrane-jointed appendage against the alloy, that I could have asked the AI to alert my shipmates. Instead, I’d raced like a mad creature through the belly of the ship to alert them myself. I cursed internally, berating my stupidity. I had wasted precious time.
“What is it?” Lise’s harried voice carried to me through the barrier. “What happened? Blu
e, sitrep!” she yelled, and I heard scrambling sounds inside the room.
“We are 1.0431e-13 parsecs from Nimbus Prime, Lise.” The AI repeated its earlier calculations into Evik’s crew quarters; the speaker system was loud, piping out clearly despite the door blocking my way into the room.
When the sliding door hissed open, Evik’s scent excretions hit me like flying full force into the thick trunk of a twin Tarangua tree. It was sex, joy, fear, and anxiety roiled into one noxious scent.
I am sorry, my egg sac and chitin sharing warrior as one mate. Evik saw my expression and apologized quickly, ducking his head and gnashing his mandibles to cause a rapid series of clicks.
“Don’t apologize, Evik,” I commanded, clapping him on his approximation of a shoulder. And then I turned to Lise. “Blue thinks we hit an uncharted wormhole. We’ve already arrived at Nimbus Prime. We are, unfortunately, on the outskirts of the planet. The southern pole, nearest to the UG. I have asked Blue to keep us stationary outside of sensor ranges, but it is only a matter of time before scouts pick up our presence.”
“Gods of the galaxies,” Lise muttered. “You three are bad luck.” She tugged down her top to cover her stomach and then swiped a palm across her glistening forehead. She looked… flushed, and even more lovely than I’d seen her before. “You’ve brought me nothing but trouble.”
“Hey, don’t blame us,” a weak voice sounded from behind me, and I turned to find Alder leaning against the passage wall, his skin glowing a very pale silver-blue. “We’re overflowing with good luck. Regular trio of Midas hands that make everything turn to gold. And besides, even we couldn’t create a troublesome wormhole right in Blue’s flight path.” He smiled, a half-born expression that died quickly.
Are you okay, my egg sac and chitin sharing warrior as one mate? I swear that I did not mean to pursue our new captain. I hope that this has not made you ill. The concern dripped from Evik’s words, pulsing through his scent.
“I’m sorry,” Alder said quickly, walking forward and slinging his arms around Evik. “I’m sorry I was such an asshole. You’re my family, Evik.”
Something had happened to Alder. I could feel his magick flowing, waning and waxing like the four moons of my planet.
“Alder, what is wrong with you?” I began, worry coloring my voice, but he turned to me quickly and held up his humanoid hands to wave me off, dismissing my concern.
“I’m fine. My magick isn’t what it used to be, no big deal.” He gave me a wry grin, boyish and cocky.
I wanted to probe further, focus on my compadre and ensure he was not lying, but there was precious little time and space between our vessel and Nimbus Prime.
“Blue, your stealth shielding is still broken, right?” Lise pushed past me and walked briskly towards the bridge. I followed, retracing my steps, with Evik and Alder behind me.
“Yes, Lise. However, I have utilized the reflection panels to mimic our current environment. It is not without its flaws, but we have, so far, remained undetected.”
“Good thinking, Blue,” Lise barked appreciatively, her small frame bouncing as she picked up the pace towards the bridge. Her golden hair flew behind her, long enough to tickle my skin where it touched.
This is not the time or the place for such thoughts, Morpheus, I told myself harshly. But the heady scent of copulation clung to both Lise and Evik and it made it hard to keep my mind on the trouble at hand.
We arrived at the bridge, and the moment we did, the very second in fact, a ship materialized out of hyperspace right in front of our poorly disguised ship.
It wasn’t a UG-branded craft.
It was a Bufo Alvarius design.
The empress had followed us.
21
Tommelise
“Fuck.” I took in the oddly bulbous and bumpy form of the battleship that had appeared in front of us. “That’s one of the empress’s ships, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Alder replied, leaning unsteadily on one of the bridge control panels. “A battle cruiser.”
“They’re still too far out to get a weapons lock on us, but they’re gaining,” Morpheus warned, slipping into the navigator’s chair and checking the system.
“How long?” I asked.
“One-point-five minutes,” Blue and Morpheus said together.
“Give me a countdown every fifteen seconds, Blue. Bridge audio only.” I glanced around my small crew, these three men I was beginning to consider my own, to care about in more ways than I had ever cared for any other crew.
Alder was pale and weak, shaking, and I hoped I hadn’t caused that with my diatribe against him earlier.
Although he sat up tall and strong beside me, Morpheus was damaged, too, changed by his time with the empress’s scientists.
And Evik was so very kind, a gentle soul who would do anything for us.
No way in all the seven hells was I going to let the Bufo Alvarius Bitch Empress get her sticky sucker-pads on them.
Not to mention Blue, who would almost certainly be taken apart to be studied if the empress and her people discovered all the enhancements I’d given her.
Here in space, we were vulnerable—the empress’s battle cruiser almost certainly had more firepower than we did.
But Blue had tricks in gravity that no battleship could match, no matter how much bigger and more armed it might be.
“Okay, Blue,” I commanded, “take us down screaming. And then…” I paused to consider my next words. We truly didn’t have any other options. “Stone them.”
“A Screaming Phoenix into a Basilisk?” I doubted anyone else could hear the surprise in Blue’s voice, but she and I had developed quite a rapport over the years.
“Exactly.”
“Of course, Captain Klein,” she said, reverting to her formal mode as she often did when she disagreed with my decisions. “However, that will deplete our fuel reserves entirely—assuming we’re able to muster the energy for a Basilisk at all.”
“One problem at a time, please, Blue,” I muttered.
“I might be able to help with the energy issue,” Alder volunteered. I glanced over to see that he had dropped into a jump seat, still looking pale and wan—and also weirdly shiny. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I was fairly certain he couldn’t help with anything at all right now.
Shit. He needs medical care…
No time.
“What’s our target?” Blue asked.
“Monitor coms traffic and see if you can find the safest official place to offload our passengers.”
“Roger,” Blue replied.
“Send out a distress signal—let them know we’re bringing refugees.” With any luck, that would keep them from shooting us out of their sky.
“They’ll arrest us all,” Morpheus said darkly.
“One minute, fifteen seconds,” Blue said.
“Strap in, everyone,” I warned.
Flipping open a channel to the cargo hold that currently held the slave women we had rescued, I announced, “This your captain speaking. Please move immediately to the walls and use the cargo restraints to strap yourself in as securely as possible. We will be executing evasive maneuvers in forty-five seconds.”
The empress’s ship might not risk firing on us at all, Evik ventured. She would not want to risk harming the slaves, as they are valuable cargo.
“After we subverted her AI?” Alder laughed. “Fat Felgarvian chance.”
“One minute to target lock,” Blue said.
“If they get a weapons lock on us, they can use a gravity beam to pull us in.” Morpheus’s grim tone suggested he spoke from experience.
“Ready, Blue. Give me a countdown, okay?” I tapped my fingers nervously against the control panel.
“Yes.” My ship’s AI paused, running millions of calculations in a few seconds. “Fifteen seconds to evasive maneuvers,” she announced, her voice echoing throughout the ship.
I hoped to all the gods ever worshiped in any universe that the slave
women had enough time to get themselves belted in, at least well enough to keep them from being crushed by what was about to happen.
And the second we began evasive action, Blue’s makeshift camouflage would be gone. She couldn’t mimic the space around us, not while moving so fast. This had to work.
Blue’s voice returned to speaking only in the bridge. “Burning Phoenix to Basilisk maneuvers starting in five, four, three, two, one…”
Blue flipped so her nose pointed toward the planet and with a quick engine burst, exploded into motion, dropping toward the globe beneath us. Within seconds, we hit the atmosphere hard, the sudden resistance pressing us all back against our seats.
G-forces pushed against us ever harder as the atmosphere began to burn around us. Flames flowed past us, visible as bright orange and blue flickers, burning out Blue’s side viewscreens one after the other. Soon we couldn’t see out of any of them as they were all destroyed in the Screaming Phoenix maneuver. All that was left was the main viewscreen, which I had reinforced after the last time Blue and I had to do this.
Morpheus managed to grate out, “You’re going to kill us.”
Alder laughed wildly in a kind of adrenaline-inspired mania.
Evik simply clicked his mandibles anxiously but didn’t comment on our chances of survival.
“Blue, where’s the empress’s ship?” I asked. Even speaking was hard with this kind of force. If not for Blue’s special shielding, we all would have passed out by now.
“It’s behind us, entering the Nimbus Prime atmosphere at a much slower rate.”
“Good. That should give us plenty of time.”
“Plenty of time for what?” Morpheus asked.
I ignored his query.
“Nimbus Prime has locked targets on us,” Blue said.
“Keep signaling them that we’re friendly and have refugees on board,” I instructed.
“Point of no return in ten seconds,” Blue announced.
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