by Selina Rosen
"I'm fucking covered in shit!" Levits stated the obvious at his usual high decimal range. "God! This just gets better and better." He stomped off in the direction of the showers. RJ picked David up and followed Levits.
"He's more trouble than he's worth," Levits said to RJ over his shoulder.
Right then RJ was inclined to agree with him. She knew that David couldn't control what he was doing, but there was something about having human feces slung all over you that just made it impossible to look at the big picture. It was funny; blood didn't bother her, but shit was another matter completely.
The showers were communal. She cleaned David off then lay him down on a bench and covered him with some towels. She went back to the showers and stepped in with all her clothes on, trying to rinse as much off them as she could.
"If I didn't already hate the bastard I'd hate him now," Levits said standing beside her in the shower rubbing the soap against his nude body hard and fast working up a huge amount of lather.
RJ was silent. She stripped her chain and clothes off and stepped into the shower stream. She held her hand out to Levits, and he handed her the soap grudgingly. He watched as she lathered up. He smiled in spite of himself. Looking at her he almost forgot all about the whole shit slinging incident. He noticed she was scrubbing herself every bit as hard as he was, so obviously she was just as creeped out.
She handed the soap back to him and their hands touched. Their eyes met. He quickly took the soap and looked away. "I had a dream the other day – or night – or whatever it was."
"You did?" RJ asked conversationally.
There was something about being in a shower naked with someone after having turds thrown all over you that sort of washed all other inhibitions aside. "Yes," Levits continued, "I dreamt that you and I were making love."
RJ laughed. "Really? Was I any good?"
"Very good, right up until you pulled my penis off," he said.
"Well, that's a hell of a finale," RJ laughed.
"Remember the other day when I brought up that thing you and I said we were never going to talk about again?" Levits asked.
"You mean about us almost having sex," RJ said.
"That would be it," Levits answered.
Before he could finish what he wanted to say, RJ said, "I once did body detail. The bodies had been left to sit in the rain and then the sun for about a week. The flesh was swollen, putrid, and full of fluids. It slipped when you tried to grab a body. Some of the bodies would just come apart when you went to pick them up. I don't think I felt as dirty then as I do right now," RJ said.
"Nothing quite like human excrement, is there? I realize he has space sickness and all, but of all the things to do, Gee . . .od! this has got to be tops . . ." He realized then what she had done. Once again she had successfully changed the subject. He looked over at her and smiled. "You almost succeeded."
"Not quite though, huh?" she said. She held her hand out and he handed her the soap again. "I'd rather not talk about it, Levits. That's usually what someone means when they say, let us make a pact to never speak of this again."
"Ah, but see, I'd rather we did, and since this wasn't something you did by yourself I think I have just as much right to talk about it as you have not to talk about it." he said. "Ever since it happened we have been at each other's throats, and since I had this dream I think I know why . . ."
"Because you're afraid I'll defrock you?" RJ asked with a crooked smile.
"Try not to make a joke for a few minutes. Please try to talk to me seriously and without getting angry," Levits said heavily.
"That's asking an awful lot," RJ said with a grin.
Levits shot her an angry look
"All right," RJ said reluctantly. "I guess we do need to talk, but do me this one little favor. Let's not have this conversation when we're in the shower naked washing dung off our bodies. Let me get clean, take care of David, and I'll meet you in your quarters."
Levits nodded silently, hoping that he didn't lose his nerve between now and then.
* * *
Janad and Poley had helped him clean the crap up out of the mess hall, and then they had headed for the showers. From the ease with which the girl stripped in front of them Topaz surmised that she, like his military friends Levits and RJ, was used to public bathing. While Poley had a fear of being immersed in water, he was used to showering to get clean. It was obvious from the way the girl was looking at Poley that she either didn't understand what he was or simply didn't care. Stewart had been living vicariously through the robot, and he had not only made him fully functional but had given him an inhumanly large shlong.
Topaz still didn't feel completely comfortable showering with other people, but he wanted the shit off, and he wanted it off now. The girl was beautiful, well muscled, and perfectly proportioned. Topaz didn't even try to act like he wasn't watching her. She looked up at him caught his eye and smiled.
"It doesn't bother you that I'm watching?" Topaz said.
"It would only bother me if you seemed displeased with what you saw," she said with a grin. "You have a pleasant body."
"Thanks." Topaz realized, not without embarrassment, that he had an erection. He hung a washcloth on it, and the girl laughed.
He deduced from her reaction that bathing was a time of playful interaction for her people.
"I can do that," Poley said proudly. He immediately got an erection and hung a bath towel on it.
"Show off," Topaz grunted.
* * *
Levits didn't know how she had managed it, but she was in his room before he was. She was dressed, but he was so used to seeing her in the chain that she might as well have been naked without it. She was just standing there waiting for him. Her arms were crossed across her chest; there was a cool expressionless look on her face. Obviously she wasn't going to make this easy.
Levits was instantly pissed off. "You haven't come here to talk," he accused. "You've come here to shut me up."
RJ glared at him and for a minute he was sure she was going to stomp out of the room. Then she uncrossed her arms and tried to look less severe, which judging from the look on her face must have caused her some sort of physical pain.
After a moment she gave up and just started yelling, "God damn it, Levits! How the hell would you like me to look? Would you like for me to look as uncomfortable as I feel right now? I don't want to talk about it. I thought I made that clear months ago."
"And so we haven't talked about it, and has that helped? No. In fact it has turned us into what we are today; two people who can't be in the same room without fighting. The tension between us has escalated to the point that everyone knows it's there. Even that alien girl knows that there is something between us. We act like people who hate each other, and I don't hate you, RJ. I never could."
"And I could never hate you, but how am I supposed to react when everything I say pisses you off?"
"Have you listened to the way you talk to me, RJ? Are you even aware of how you have been treating me? Like I'm your subordinate, like I'm completely inconsequential."
RJ thought about that for a minute. "I wouldn't talk to you that way if you'd quit contradicting me every time I open my mouth. You disagree with me before I've even had a chance to finish what I'm saying. If I say I'm hungry you jump up and yell, that you can't hear my stomach growling," she defended.
"I wouldn't disagree with you if you weren't such an arrogant bitch!"
"I wouldn't be such an arrogant bitch if you weren't such an ignorant asshole . . . Wait a minute!" RJ took a deep breath. "We're doing it again. Arguing over who's more to blame isn't going to fix anything."
Levits nodded his head in agreement, took a deep breath and tried to continue in a calmer manner. "This all started when you pulled away from me."
RJ sighed. "You see, now that's a big problem, because the way I see it you pulled away from me first."
Levits started to disagree loudly and then remembered his dream. In the dream h
e admitted that he had pulled away from her, too. He quickly analyzed his dream. When he realized what the dream really meant he admitted, although only to himself, that he was in fact the aggressor in their confrontations.
"Only in my head, RJ. I had a doubt, a doubt I would have overcome if you hadn't physically pulled away from me," Levits said. Then added, "So it was your fault."
"My fault! How is it my fault?" RJ said. "For me pulling away in your mind is the same as physical removal; it feels the same to me, maybe even worse."
"Admit that you've been screwing with my head for years. I don't know what you really want, and quite frankly I don't know if I can handle you sexually, or emotionally for that matter. You know how I felt about Sandy, and you know she didn't feel the same way about me. I don't really know how I feel about you, all I know is I don't want to wake up one morning and realize I've fallen in love with you and that you're in love with someone else. Especially if that someone else is David Grant."
RJ laughed, and was immediately less tense. "Levits I could never love David. I don't think that I ever really did. He was the first person besides Stewart that I was ever close to, and between you and me, my father wasn't the warmest guy in the world. I wanted to love David, and since I didn't really understand what love was then I thought that I did. I know better now." She took a deep breath. "I think it's obvious that the reason we are fighting all the time is because we aren't having sex. I admit it. I just haven't wanted to get that close, especially to someone I care about. I wanted to separate myself from everyone and everything, but you wouldn't stay behind, ya bastard, so since you're here bothering the hell out of me, we might as well at least be having sex."
"Once we leave the ship there's probably not going to be another chance for awhile," Levits said swallowing hard.
She made the first move, walking up to him and draping her arms around his neck. "If you're really worried about me shredding your manhood . . ."
"I'm not." He put his arms around her and pulled her to him. He brought his lips down on hers and she responded. "So can we close the door?"
"No, but I'll make sure you forget that it's open."
* * *
Topaz, Janad and Poley were in the rec-room. Poley and Topaz were trying to teach Janad how to play the complicated game of bottle caps.
"So you throw the bottle cap into the cup and that's it?" Janad said.
"You have to make it from the spot the last person made it from," Poley reminded.
"And if you miss you have to take a piece of your clothing off very slowly," Topaz said. Poley started to contradict him. "That's the space rules, Poley."
Janad nodded, and threw the cap in.
"Beginner's luck," Topaz assured her.
They all heard RJ's screams of ecstasy. Topaz looked at Poley and smiled. "Maybe they'll stop fighting now."
"I wouldn't bet on that," Poley said. He made his shot.
* * *
Levits walked into the rec-room looking disheveled and exhausted, and grinning from ear to ear. He didn't even seem to notice the fact that Topaz was sitting wearing nothing but a smile.
"So I see you lived through it," Topaz said.
Levits smiled stupidly his head lolling to one side. "So far."
"I'm so happy," Poley said.
"OK, whatever little tin dude," Levits laughed. He seemed to stop and think for a minute. "I wanted to tell you guys something, now what was it?" Levits seemed to be in deep thought. "Oh, yeah! I slept with RJ." He laughed, went to the drink machine, took out two bottles, unscrewed the caps and tossed them to Poley who caught them.
"It didn't sound like you were sleeping," Topaz said with a broad smile.
Levits just laughed, took his drinks and left.
"That was very primal," Poley said thoughtfully.
"How so?" Topaz asked.
"The male of the species foraging for food to feed the female and the ritual equivalent of pounding on his chest in the presence of the other males to let them know to stay away from what he now considers to be his female," Poley said.
"Very good observation, Poley," Topaz complemented.
Janad just shrugged, bored with all of it. She tossed one of her bottle caps at the cup, and she missed for only the third time. She had taken off both her boots already, so she took off her top slowly as previously instructed.
Topaz smiled.
"While your courtship behavior is more juvenile," Poley observed.
"Here's a clue for you Poley!" Topaz turned glaring at him. "You don't have to speak all your observations out loud." He jumped up, grabbed his pants off the floor and put them on quickly. "I have to go check on David." He left.
Poley shrugged and tossed his bottle cap. It went in the cup; it always did.
"Do you always hit it?" Janad asked.
"Yes," Poley said matter-of-factly.
"So why do you play?
"Because I like to win," he informed her.
He still made Janad uncomfortable, but she no longer feared him.
"What's wrong with you?" Janad asked.
"Nothing's wrong with me," Poley said in confusion. "I'm perfect."
"That's it!" Janad exclaimed.
Chapter Seven
Haldeed woke up first. In the distance he heard machines, big machines. Sounds he had only heard a few times in his life but recognized all too well. He ran to the window and looked out. In the distance he could see a huge flying machine carrying something even bigger below it. He watched in horror as it got closer and closer, and he realized what it meant.
Haldeed ran back to the bed and shook Taleed till he started to stir.
Taleed woke up smiling. He'd slept well enough and long enough that even being awakened with a shake couldn't dampen his spirits. He was warm and dry and well rested, he stretched and thought of the wonderful breakfast he would eat. "See, Haldeed? We have made it. We have escaped, and no horrible fate has befallen us. We haven't angered the gods, and no punishment will come to us," he said smugly
He heard a strange noise, and then Haldeed was frantically pulling him towards the window. Taleed followed reluctantly; he didn't want anything to rain on his parade. He looked out the window and sighed. "Damn! I should have kept my mouth shut."
They dressed and packed quickly and started for the back door. They could hear the village priest in the middle of the town telling the people that the gods had ordered that some of them go to shed blood on a distant world for the glory of the gods. Haldeed started to go towards the town square, but Taleed elbowed him in the other direction.
"We cannot give up now, Haldeed," Taleed whispered in Haldeed's ear. "Not when we have gotten this close. We certainly can't allow ourselves to fall into Reliance hands."
But Taleed, how far will we get when the very gods seem to be pitted against us? Haldeed signed in despair. How can we escape the Reliance and their machines? If we go to them and tell them who you are, they will surely take us back to your father. The worst that will happen to us is we will be scolded.
"No! No, I will not go back. Do you hear me, Haldeed? I would rather be a slave to the Reliance than a slave of the priests. If you are right and the gods are true, then no harm can come to me because I am then a god. I am the chosen, and I shall make sure that no harm comes to you. Now come on, Haldeed, let us not give up without at least the hint of a fight."
* * *
"What the hell are we loading all this shit for?" Levits asked putting yet another pile of pans into the skiff.
"The girl told us they trade goods from their planet for metal. We may need items of value to trade. Theirs is a metal poor planet, therefore anything of metal is going to be of value." She threw the second broken security droid into the skiff. "The cloth, while of some trade value, is mostly there as a cover for the gold, and we sure as hell aren't taking that gold to the planet."
Levits nodded his head in agreement then smiled.
"What?" RJ asked. Then feeling why he was smiling, smiled he
rself. She felt better than she had felt in a very long time and much more relaxed.
"I was just thinking about how surprised David's going to be when he wakes up and finds out everything has changed." He looked at her his face getting suddenly red. "RJ, I just wanted to say that I . . . Well that you really are . . ."
"What?" RJ asked with a crooked grin.
"Infuriating," he said with a laugh. He leaned over and kissed her check. "Did you . . . could you . . ." Levits damned his tongue. He didn't usually have any trouble talking; he sure as hell hadn't ever had any trouble talking to a woman. Except that this wasn't just any woman. This was RJ. It was unnerving to know that she knew exactly how he felt and that he had not a clue how she felt. "Damn it, RJ, do you feel anything at all for me?"