by Alyx X
What sort of ship was I on? Roe had said that her people were warriors, and maybe these guys were soldiers. Terran hadn’t released any information on Euquanians, so if they knew anything about this new race they claimed to have discovered, they weren’t sharing it. Why had they come to Earth in the first place?
I arrived at a split in the corridor, and the fork to the right led upward at a slight gradient. I hadn’t been here at all—this part of the ship was completely new to me, but it looked pretty interesting. Another of Dad’s random phrases came to mind—in for a penny, in for a pound—and I took the upward fork. After all, life didn’t make itself interesting.
I wandered up the corridor, pretty stealthy compared to the usual way I walked around, and found a room that was empty apart from one guy in a cubicle at the side of the room. He had earphones in, and he was studying a screen in front of him. He didn’t even notice me slip in the door behind him.
Once inside, I turned to my left and withheld my gasp. All of space was laid out in front of me. Stars passed us by on each side, though they seemed impossibly far away, due to our position in Earth’s orbit. I wandered over to the wall that was fully windowed. I’d found the bridge, apparently.
I turned and looked out over the screens and consoles on desks, and my gaze narrowed on the chair in the middle. That couldn’t belong to anyone else but Qui. I crept over to it and sat on the comfortable padded seat. For a while, I just watched space out of the window, but once I’d had my fill of blackness and glimpses of Earth’s dead surface, I grew bored. So much for exploring the stars—what had I been thinking? The stars were boring, although the aliens were still pretty exciting.
Well, the fun ones. Currently, Qui didn’t fall remotely into that category.
Go to your room. I curled my lip. He’d missed his calling as someone’s father. I switched my attention to the desk in front of me. Dials moved and the temptation to flick one of the little switches, or press one of the colored buttons, nearly overwhelmed me, but I didn’t want to accidentally switch the gravity off or anything that might result in Qui building the airlock to throw me out of.
I looked a little bit closer at the screens. They were all powered on, and while most held views of space from different angles, one had a weird diagram of what looked like a planet being fucked with the biggest dildo I’d ever seen. It was a diagram of something almost perfectly spherical with a cock-shaped implement being inserted down into the middle of it.
“Oh, come for me, baby,” I murmured. These were definitely weird aliens if this was their idea of porn. “I hope that thing vibrates,” I added.
Someone opened the door behind me, and I turned around, the question ‘what the hell is this picture?’ on the tip of my tongue, but Roe only glared at me from the doorway.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she said, sounding more like Qui than I’d ever heard. “Come on, it’s time for bed. We need to go to my room.”
13
Qui
I rolled over in my bed, wide awake and pissed about it. Sleep brought oblivion and freedom from thought. Now I was conscious again, and forced to confront my roiling thoughts. Too many of those thoughts were of Emma. They flooded my mind, and I growled my frustration as I threw my blankets back and stood up, giving up on trying to relax. I almost wrapped my fingers around my hard morning cock, but I needed to forget Emma and push her away, not pound her deeper into my consciousness. Besides, I didn’t have time to rub one out this morning.
Instead, I pushed the temperature dial to cold and stepped under the shower spray, the scent of my soap reminding me of the scent of Emma’s skin the last time I took her.
Damn puny human woman.
I avoided breakfast. Roe would probably be there with Emma, and I wasn’t interested in watching those two whisper and giggle again. Not when my weakness was straining to hear what they said.
The bridge would be safest. My heavy footfalls echoed down the corridors, and the junior crewmen I met along the way had no doubt about how to greet me this morning. They each fell to a knee, their heads bowed low, expecting the worst. I walked right on by like I hadn’t seen them.
I shoved the door to the bridge open and my crew turned to look at my dramatic entrance. I ignored their bewildered expressions too. No one here took a knee, and for a moment it irritated me. Everyone seemed to have forgotten who was in charge.
Roe, Fin, Emma.
“How close are we to the warship?” My words were a growl of dissatisfaction. Travelling as slowly as we were was drawing out the time I’d have to spend near Emma, and the pace was threatening to drive my already tightly coiled patience over the edge.
“About halfway there, Captain.”
“What?” Less a growl this time, more a ferocious roar. So far? We were too far away from Earth and too close to our destination to turn back. I tightened my jaw and ground my teeth together, working to calm my rage. I had no easy solution to this. I had hoped we’d at least be close enough to rid myself of the damn woman.
Growling in my chair, I glanced around until I saw Fin, hunched over his screen, working some calculations. I headed in his direction. He didn’t even look up at me.
“Qui.” His one-word greeting was cool and level.
I leaned over his shoulder, enough to intimidate any other man, but the tension in Fin’s shoulders only remained for a moment.
“Talk to me about the cows,” I clipped. “Can we go any faster now?”
It was a distraction. I didn’t want to talk about cows. Earth cattle held no interest for me at all, but what else was I going to do while we were basically crawling through space? As I leaned over Fin, I sucked in a slow, deep breath, trying to catch any hint of Emma lingering on his skin.
They’d been pretty up close and personal last night when I’d interrupted them. I’d stopped to listen before I’d confronted them, feeling like a damn fool as I creeped around corners. They’d laughed and flirted, and he’d offered her all the things I wanted to do to her. Seemed pretty clear she was about to accept all of those offerings, too.
True, I’d been the one to reject her when she’d so clearly chosen me first, but I didn’t expect her to run off to the nearest available cock. I clenched my jaw and tried to redirect my thoughts back to Fin and whatever he was saying.
“They’re too fragile to go faster. They’d bloat and explode at the pressure onboard.”
“What?” The fuck is he talking about? I caught myself. Oh, yeah. Cattle. “Literally explode?” I asked, incredulous. Why had my foolish sister chosen to steal the one thing on that worthless planet that couldn’t handle space travel?
“That’s what all of our projections say, yeah. We’ve run various scenarios through the system, and they all end up messy.” He laughed—the same smooth chuckle he’d used with Emma—and war drums sounded in my head.
My blood and skin heated as my irritation increased, but I couldn’t show him my flaring temper. I drew up a chair to his desk and sat next to him. This wasn’t unusual. My crew was used to me checking out how their calculations were coming along. It helped me identify problems before they became anything to worry about.
But not this morning. I was on a fact-finding mission of a different type. With just one fact: Emma. I leaned closer to him, guy-to-guy. Rightly, he viewed me with suspicion and drew away. I never came too close to my men.
“You okay, Captain?” Fin eyed me warily.
I cleared my throat and found a more casual pose. “Uh... how do you know so much about Earth cattle?” I stopped, frustrated with myself. I’d aimed for small talk and asked about Earth cows again, even though a normal Captain would have moved on by now. I was being far too obvious, but I was too desperate to care.
“Uhh,” Fin paused. “Just from… studying them, at your request. I’ve only learned what the various scenario illustrations show us will happen if we try to travel with them on our ship at speed.”
I nodded like I cared. “And do you kn
ow much about humans?” Yeah. Still real smooth.
He shrugged. “Not a whole lot. I mean, they seem to have the same basic form as us and…” He grinned suddenly, quietly, as if remembering something fondly. “They might be a particularly appreciative race under certain circumstances.”
I clamped down on the growl that threatened to erupt from my chest. “Oh, yeah?” I aimed for casual interest. “Sorry about interrupting you with the human last night. Did you get a chance to taste her?” I leaned closer again. “Does she taste good?” I sounded like a crazy person. No, I sounded jealous, and it was disgusting. Still, I was in too deep to back out now.
He leaned farther away. “I’m not sure I…”
“She likes the vibration thing, right?” I continued. “What did you think of her pussy?” Fuck. I loved her pussy. I felt how silly the question was. I knew they hadn’t had a chance to do anything that drastic before I’d caught them.
“With respect, Captain,” Fin started, but I wouldn’t let him talk.
“Was the human all you thought she would be?” My head pounded harder, my temper slipping from my control. I jerked around at a hand on my shoulder.
“Good morning,” my sister said, her voice smooth and full of the promise of mischief. “Emma said she had a very good time last night.” She directed her comment at Fin, whose skin went one shade darker. “Wondered when she’d see you again.” She dropped her voice, mocking me with her seductive tone. “Maybe our captain is losing his touch.”
Fin paled, the darker red fading to a washed-out pink. He glanced at Roe, then back to me, bewildered and slightly afraid. “Nothing happened with the human,” he said in a quiet voice. “I mean, the captain…” he gestured toward me. “He was there and told me…” Fin’s eyes were widening, he was floundering, and I cursed my sister silently for her games. “He told me my shift was over,” Fin finished lamely.
“Something was about to happen,” I ground out. Even now I could see his hands all over Emma, her legs draped around his waist.
Roe patted my shoulder again. “See,” she said. “No need for you to get so red over anything. Cool down.” At her reference to my flaring temper, I tried to focus and bring it down a level. “In fact.” Roe took hold of my arm. “Come with me.” I looked at her. “There are some things I need to discuss with you about the mission,” she insisted.
I stood stiffly, although I didn’t believe her excuse for making me step away. Still, I was grateful for her lie if it meant I could leave Fin’s side without backing down or stepping my anger back up. I wasn’t in the mood to apologize to anyone this morning. Not that I’d tell that much to Roe.
She took me to one of the crew’s lounges. At the sight of us entering, the lower crewmen in there swiftly left. Seems news of my temper had spread. When we were completely alone, Roe sank into one of the scruffy but comfortable chairs. She indicated an oversized sofa. “Have a seat.”
I glanced at the fabric, stained with a combination of oil, food, sweat, and all sorts of unidentified marks. “And how many diseases would I leave with?”
She leaned forward, her chin cupped in her hand, and studied me. “Have we got a problem, Qui?”
I shook my head. “I’ve had a problem for a very long time. It’s a three-letter word that starts an ‘R’, ends with an ‘e’, and has an ‘o’ in the middle.”
She chuckled. “You keep telling yourself that. But I’m the one who prevented you from erupting on the bridge back there. What would you have done to Fin? Demoted him? Hit him? For what? Taking advantage of the fact we have an available human on board?” She emphasized the word available, and I looked at her in warning as a blast of heat rolled through me.
Roe’s eyes danced. “Huh. Are you having a problem with the fact that I just called Emma available?” She tilted her head, baiting me.
I shook my head in futile denial, and my eyes ached with the effort of meeting her gaze.
Roe’s demeanor changed and she sat straighter in the chair. “You remember we have a mission, right? A job to do?” But her tone was flat, disinterested. Her heart wasn’t in this one.
I nodded. How could I forget? It was the same mission we’d repeated many times over now. Find a planet, and either take the resources, or take the core as an energy source. It wasn’t complicated, and that was the beauty of what we did. Nothing and no one got in my way.
“Okay.” Roe nodded, her face still cool and serene. “But if you’ve let Emma worm her way this far into your head, then yes, we do have a problem.” She looked me over, like she was trying to see inside me. I looked away, crossing my arms. She continued, “I’ve never seen you like this. You’ve always been an irritable bastard, but not over anything that isn’t mission critical. Suddenly a human has you losing your temper on the bridge? In front of the crew?” She shook her head. “It’s not like you.”
She was right of course, though I’d never admit it. Though, we couldn’t let it go on. I needed calm, I needed focus. I needed to fucking conquer, not let some puny human conquer me.
I glanced at my sister again, still so smug, and my anger flared again. “You’re not innocent in this, you know.”
She didn’t even have the decency to look surprised. “No?”
“We wouldn’t have this problem, as you put it, if you’d taken care of it when you said you would.” I nodded. It was technically all Roe’s fault. Surely, she could see that?
She just laughed.
“No.” I didn’t intend her to just brush this off. I didn’t care how bored she was on the ship, she didn’t need a human to play with. Neither did I. “If you’d just done as I asked—”
I cut myself off as an idea hit me. “Forget it. I know what I have to do.”
Roe’s mouth opened and she half stood, an arm out like she’d take hold of me.
“I need to find Emma.” I spun around and left the room, leaving my sister wordless for once.
The human could be anywhere. I checked the dining hall, but it was empty. My stomach growled at the lingering aroma of breakfast, but I didn’t have time to be hungry. I had things to take care of before I could get back to business.
I avoided my room—I’d expressly told her not to go there again—so I headed to Roe’s as the most likely place to find her. Failing that, I’d have to start searching crew men’s rooms, and just the thought of that heated my blood.
If I’d had manners, I would have knocked on Roe’s door before going in, but I didn’t have manners. I had business to attend to and no time for distractions.
Emma was lying on the bed, but her eyes lit up and she stood as soon as she saw me. She walked over to me, her movements slow and sexy, her hips swaying in a way I didn’t want to look away from. Everything about her held so much promise.
“Hello.” Even her voice was seductive. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t be able to stay away.” She pressed her palm flat against my chest, but I grabbed her wrist, not wanting her to touch me—even as I longed for her to touch me.
“I’ve made a decision,” I said.
Emma smiled. “A good one I hope.”
I nodded and looked past her, out through Roe’s window. “I think so.”
She stepped toward me. “And will I agree?”
I still hadn’t released her wrist, and I glanced down at my fingers wrapped around her cool skin. “There’s a settlement on the moon. That’s as far as this ship will take you.”
Her eyes widened. “What? But I thought…”
“We’re meeting a bigger ship nearby, anyway so it makes sense for you to end your journey there.” I met her gaze briefly and grinned a little, but my face felt tight and unresponsive. “You’ve achieved your objective, anyway. You’re off Earth, the stars are right outside. You’re exploring them. Just checking things off your list.”
“I thought I’d be able to stay now that Roe released me.” She reached to touch me again. “I thought we had something, maybe.”
I stepped back and didn’t addres
s either of her comments. “We’re approximately halfway to the moon. Possibly a little over half now. Someone will let you know when we’re closer and tell you a bit about protocol. It will be days, rather than hours,” I added, but I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to reassure her.
With a jolt, I realized it felt like abandonment. She was a human who’d never left Earth, she had no idea about space, and she had no idea what she’d find on the moon. Neither did I, really. My knowledge of Earth’s moon was limited, apart from the research we’d done to tell us where the settlement was so we could be sure it wouldn’t interfere with our plans.
I steeled myself, trying to rid myself of the sudden empathy. Of course it wasn’t abandonment. She’d brought this on herself by sneaking onto my ship in the first place. This was just a lesson she was teaching herself the hard way.
She walked to the window and stood there looking out for a moment. Then she turned back to me. “I can’t change your mind?” Her eyes were sad, and I ached to take her into my arms. I hadn’t heard her voice so unsure and unguarded before—not even when I chained her up in the hold—but I couldn’t let that affect or distract me. One human was unimportant in the scheme of things.
She continued to gaze at me with that pained expression, but I didn’t answer her question. Instead, I turned away and left Roe’s room, sliding the door quietly closed behind me even as my stomach knotted.
I never usually wondered if I’d done the right thing, I didn’t have to, but this time everything felt wrong as I walked away.
14
Emma
I glanced at Roe as I sat on her bed. Ordinarily, I slept on a makeshift thing she had created for me on the floor, but for just hanging about during the day, I flopped on here so we could chat.
My gaze kept straying to the window. Outside, the moon loomed large and round, craters in its surface easily visible. It didn’t get bigger at speed, it just slowly grew as we crept up on it. Every fraction it grew sent another ripple of regret through me.