“I love this,” Casten said. “Just enough civilization to keep it from being a total dump, while still giving that old frontier vibe.”
“Along with all the old frontier smells,” Paress said, nodding toward a fresh pile of feces on the ground behind a large ox-type animal.
“All part of the charm,” Casten said happily as Paress suddenly found himself waving away a particularly aggressive fly. Finally, he shattered the damn bug telekinetically. “See? Wonderful!” Casten said with a laugh.
“How far are we from this meeting place?” Paress asked, ready to get away from Casten’s beloved frontier atmosphere.
“Just a little ways ahead…” Casten stopped. He flung an arm out to stop Paress, causing Paress to almost trip.
“What the hell, man?”
“Look! Check her out!” Casten pointed.
Up ahead, sitting sideways on a parked motorcycle was the most spectacularly gorgeous woman Paress had ever seen. And he’d seen a few with all the Blessed girls at the Academy and then in his travels as a Space Knight. But this girl was from a whole other reality.
Under a gray cowboy hat, spilled long blonde hair that gently swayed in the light breeze of the street past a gently curved face with slightly pouty lips, a perfectly shaped nose, and Paress was surprised to see, ruby red eyes. Even the “whites” of her eyes had a light red tone. Under the face was a graceful neck that led to a small torso with very large breasts straining against the buttons of her gray shirt. Her shirt was sleeveless and her arms were covered up to the elbows by black gloves.
Under an almost impossibly tiny waist, she wore a low-slung holster with a gun and a tight black miniskirt so short that her panties were just visible. Impossibly long legs in stockings held up by garters ended in thigh high boots. A pang of memory hit Paress— Jil was wearing something similar the day he first met her.
The girl’s eyes were slightly hooded as they lazily scanned the street. She took a long drag from a cigarette holder of impressive length and exhaled a wispy cloud of smoke. Paress wanted nothing more than to be either the seat of the motorcycle she sat on, or the cigarette holder— he wasn’t picky. It was all he could do not to just stare at her with his mouth agape.
Her proportions were so ridiculously over the top of anything he’d ever seen, they were almost comical. And yet, somehow they were absolutely perfect. Paress didn’t even consider himself a breast man, but he suddenly was now, looking at the large, perfectly formed orbs. The girl was the epitome of sexual attraction.
He grabbed Casten and spun him around so they could start to walk in the opposite direction. He didn’t even know where to start. “Wh—what the hell is she? I mean, you see it too, right?”
“Well yeah,” Casten breathed. “I’m the one who pointed her out to you, remember?”
“My heart’s actually racing!” Paress said. “I don’t understand…”
“Is she a succubus? Those red eyes…” Casten wondered. Such creatures did exist on Galarisa and usually became some of the most in-demand adult film stars and Painted Ladies.
“I…don’t think so…” Paress said. “She looks too human. Or as human as someone built like that can look.”
“My logical self keeps telling me she should look ridiculous with those body proportions, but I don’t care,” Casten said. “Those crazy boobs, tiny waist, amazing ass and long legs. Not to mention her beautiful face. She’s amazing.”
“I was thinking the same thing!”
After walking a few more steps, Paress said, “Screw it. I’m talking to her.” He was thankful his long jacket would hide any embarrassing bulging in his pants.
“Are you sure? Somebody like that… You gotta be perfect with what you say.”
“I know. You’re coming with me for moral support.”
“What? No way!” Casten said. “I’m actually kinda scared! Can you believe that?”
“Yeah! Because I’m scared too. That’s why I need you,” Paress said. He turned around and started walking back toward the girl. The goddess. “Come on!” he hissed to Casten, almost dragging him along.
Casten continued to protest until the girl looked their way, her attention obviously attracted to their loud whispers. He immediately got quiet as Paress pulled him along. As they got closer, Paress could see some freckles on the girl’s face that made her look more youthful and yet somehow even more naughty.
She stuck the cigarette holder in her mouth at an angle as one side of lips perked up into a half-smile. The red eyes widened slightly in amusement as the two hapless guys nearly stumbled up to her. Thanks to the progression of Paress’ powers, he could barely look anybody in the eye anymore— and he knew for sure he couldn’t look in hers. Casten seemed to feel the same way because he could only study the girl’s boots.
“Uh, pardon me,” Paress started, “But I do believe you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I’m a Space Knight, you see, and I and my Companion here have done a lot of traveling. But we’ve never seen anyone like you. You’re truly a vision.” Paress figured it never hurt to mention that he was a Space Knight; it had done wonders in the past.
“A Space Knight,” she said, her voice low, almost a purr. “Yes, I wouldn’t have imagined with that uniform…” She giggled softly.
“Ah, well, yes.” Paress said. He could feel Casten squeezing his arm as if to say, You’re losing her!
“But ma’am, at the risk of sounding cliche, what is the most beautiful woman in the galaxy doing on a planet like this?”
“Only the galaxy?” Paress could see the lips pout slightly.
“The universe!” he amended as she laughed some more.
“Why, waiting for you, of course!” she said, pulling away her cigarette holder so she could lick her lips.
“Really?” was all Paress could say.
“Well, you are a Space Knight. So yes, I think it’s safe to say that I’m waiting for you.”
Hearing this, Paress couldn’t help himself and he lifted his eyes to look into the girl’s. He was greeted by the ruby-red orbs staring back, and inside those orbs he saw small silver half-moons surrounding her pupils. A Mechanism! His eyes darted over to her bare arms of the sleeveless shirt and through the cascading waves of her hair, he could see the Imperial Francescan Seal tattooed on her upper arms. That meant that if he could look inside her shirt (and wouldn’t that be wonderful?), he’d see her name tattooed under her collar bone like a necklace.
“The half-moons… A Lang,” Casten breathed from behind Paress. Apparently he too had got the courage to look at the girl more closely.
“Indeed I am,” she said amiably. “And you are a Machten. Huh, not bad,” she said appraisingly as she looked Casten up and down.
“Thanks,” Casten said haltingly. “Coming from a Lang, that’s an honor.”
Paress remembered Casten telling hims something about designs by Dr. Lang. That they were the best. In fact, he was pretty sure Casten had even said Langs were always gorgeous women. Well, here was a Lang in front of him and he had to admit that Casten wasn’t lying.
“I’m sorry, but what exactly did you mean when you said you were waiting for me?” Paress said.
“Aren’t you our relief?” the girl asked.
“I’m here to relieve Space Knight Jaouen, of #65 Exzenden,” Paress said. “I was told he had a male Companion like I do. Javest.”
She laughed. “Oh no, Jaouen ended up switching assignments with us at the last minute. That was almost a year ago. Does that mean the Academy thinks we’re still in each other’s locations? Communication gets spotty out here, but damn.”
She stretched her long, perfectly formed arms over her head and sighed. Paress was convinced the buttons on her shirt were going to lose the war with her breasts but they held. As he looked at her clothing more closely, doing his best to ignore the body within, he realized he was looking at a Companion’s uniform.
The girl melted off the motorcycle seat and stood before Paress. With
a languid bow she said, “I’m Companion Cassalindre. Cassie. #34 Denxeiter. Space Knight Johnny Vogel.”
Paress was still processing what she’d said about how her Space Knight had switched assignments with Jaouen. Even so, he had the presence of mind to say, “Space Knight Paress Handrel. Companion Casten. #25 Allepexxis.”
“#25,” Cassie mused. “The first major Locke design. And ours is the last. It’s fate, wouldn’t you say?”
“I agree wholeheartedly,” Paress said. Now that he had a little more of his footing thanks to familiarity, he kissed her hand.
“Ah, what a gentleman,” Cassie said. “Such a rarity around here.”
Casten pushed past Paress and hurriedly stepped forward and also kissed her hand. “Paress here is right. You truly are a vision. I’d always been told stories about how your designer is the best of the best and now I see why. Your Glamour is amazing.”
Ah, the Glamour! Paress realized. That’s what made Cassie so perfect. Dr. Lang had obviously built a very high-quality Companion, but it was the Glamour that made everything cohesive and work— taking what would have been an over-the-top sex doll body and making her into something perfect and believable and real. He not only wanted to shake Lang’s hand for making such an incredible Companion, but whoever did the Glamour as well for making it all work.
As if answering his thoughts, Cassie said, “Dr. Lang does the Glamour too. I believe he’s the only Creator skilled in both construction and Glamour. Maybe that’s why it works so well? Unlike other Mechanisms where the Glamour caster has to try to best envision what the Creator wants, Dr. Lang knows exactly what he wants and what he can do. So nothing’s lost in translation, so to speak.”
She smiled, “That said, I have to give credit to Dr. Machten for the quality of your design and your Glamour caster as well. You’re very handsome.”
“Oh, you’re too kind,” Casten said.
Paress rolled his eyes. Casten, the smooth bastard was getting to work again! “You said you were with #34?” he asked. “What’s it like?” Heh, get a Companion on the subject of what she was built for, her Hyper Battle Machine. That’ll break this up. Seeing what Paress was doing, Casten glared at him. Paress smiled back innocently.
“Denxeiter?” Cassie said. She took another drag from her cigarette. “Well, he’s a humanoid type. Armor looks like a knight. Same color scheme as my outfit, of course. Carries a couple sidearm pistols and has a big sword that can be summoned. He’s pretty easy to synch.”
She paused. “There’s something deeper, but I’m not sure what. Something dangerous. But we’ve never had to worry about it. The pirates have never done anything to push Johnny to dip into any of the dangerous stuff. Yours is the dragon, right?”
“Yes ma’am,” Paress said. “Quad drive. Black, heat ablative armor. Shoots a heck of a flame but has other weapons too. Rail guns, for example. And a Mega Particle Cannon. Probably the craziest thing is how he’s got 140 extra trim controls required to truly get everything out of him. I had to be able to use the first eight just to start him up the first time, but since then I’ve figured out twenty more.”
“Like your Denxeiter, Allepexxis is also easy to synch,” Casten put in. “I guess that’s the benefit of having the same creator.”
“Yours sounds way more complex overall,” Cassie said. “I don’t envy you. Denxeiter has a single Main Engine with one core. No extra controls or anything like that. But like I said, there’s something going on deeper. Like he’s not really showing us his full potential just yet. But as far as I’m concerned, it can stay hidden.”
Earlier in life, such a statement would have made Paress wonder if the Machine being discussed was one of the Seven. But he’d heard the same thing so many times, that he just chalked it up to the odd nature of Hyper Battle Machines in general since they were all mysteries in one way or another.
“Yeah, Allepexxis also has some weird secret stuff too,” Paress said. “Each time I master some new controls, I feel like I’m peeling away some layers. When I get to all 140, I think that’s when we’ll find out something really amazing.”
“Or terrifying…” Cassie said softly. But then she said, “So has your Machine started to show any signs of thought? Mine has.”
“Yeah, with ours, he’s started to roar and do stuff like that,” Paress said. “When we first started, he was quiet. Just like piloting any other mecha. But as I’ve unlocked more controls and Casten’s gotten better at synching us, Allepexxis has started to growl and roar and well, act more like a dragon.”
“Really?” Cassie said. “That’s fascinating! Denxeiter is quiet, but he looks around and gives off major vibes if he doesn’t like something. Johnny’s his second pilot. Apparently, he used to talk to the first pilot here and there, but those guys at the Academy who told me that might just be pulling my leg.” At the mention of her leg, Paress couldn’t help but glance down at her amazing limbs.
A slight breeze suddenly whipped up and a ragged, guttural voice said in Paress’ ear, “She ain’t just a pretty face, kid.”
Paress and Casten both spun around, guns in hand. A cowboy in a dusty poncho stood there. “Easy there,” he said in the same rough voice. “Was just havin’ some fun and didn’t mean t’ startle ya.”
Under the cowboy’s hat, two dead eyes peered out and Paress was happy that for once it was someone else averting their eyes instead of him. In fact, the eyes were looking past Paress and Casten and seemed to be focused on Cassie.
“One of these days, you’re gonna get shot doing that,” Cassie said to the man.
“Ain’t happened yet.”
“Well, I’ll be glad to know that I was right along when there’s a bullet hole between your eyes,” she said in exasperation.
Paress holstered his gun and nodded to Casten to do the same.
“You sure?” Casten said. “I mean, well, can we trust this guy?”
“He’s the Space Knight,” Paress said. “That gust of wind just now, that was him. He moves really fast, right?” He looked to the cowboy for confirmation.
“Yeah,” the man said, lighting a cigarette. “That’s about it. That’s my thing. I’m built pretty tough, but we all are, ain’t we?”
Paress didn’t want to share that as Space Knights go, he wasn’t built as tough as most. Casten hesitantly lowered his gun. As he did so, and so as to not make Casten panic, the cowboy slowly moved his poncho aside to reveal an equally dusty navy blue tunic underneath. It was in fact, a Space Knight’s tunic, but the shorter, more simplified version generally used on desert worlds. Seeing this, Casten holstered his gun.
“Apologies, Space Knight, the Companion begs forgiveness,” Casten said with a bow.
“Nah, ain’t nothin. Yer protectin’ yours and I get that.”
As the man spoke, Paress couldn’t help but notice that holstered at his hips were the two biggest revolvers he’d ever seen. They made Paress’ own laser pistol look like a toy and Paress had no doubt that the dusty Space Knight was an expert with them.
“My name’s Johnny Vogel,” the cowboy said and walked forward to shake Paress’ hand and then Casten’s. Compared to Paress’ soft, surgically precise hands, Johnny’s were giant and tough as leather. No, tougher than leather, Paress thought.
“Paress Handrel.”
“Casten.”
“So what’s yer thing?” Johnny asked.
“My… Oh, right. Telekinesis,” Paress said.
“Yeah, I figured it must be somethin’ like that. Y’don’t look like the brawlin’ type.”
Paress couldn’t figure out if that was an insult or not as Cassie said, “Not everybody is a damn neanderthal, Johnny.”
“I ain’t puttin’ the kid down,” Johnny said. “I’m jus’ sayin’…”
“I can make your head explode with a thought,” Paress said. “I don’t really need to be a brawler.”
“Fair enough,” Johnny said. “They wouldn’t a’ sent ya here if you were soft. So what’s yer ri
g?”
“#25 Allepexxis.”
Johnny looked at Cassie questioningly.
“The dragon,” she said helpfully. At Johnny’s blank stare, she said, “Oh never mind. You’ll see it soon enough.”
Paress was usually pretty good with figuring people out. Johnny was an enigma though. There were some aspects about him that were humorous, funny even. His way of talking with Cassie in an almost bickering way reminded him of his own relationship with Casten. But there was something in those eyes that told Paress that if he were to look into them, he’d see something very hard and very dark. As he thought about it, Paress decided that Johnny Vogel was assigned to these remote dustball systems specifically to keep him away from more…civilized people.
Johnny walked over to the motorcycle Cassie was sitting on and opened a leather saddlebag on the back. He fished out some bottles of liquor from under his tunic and put them in the bag. He glanced at Paress. “The place is a shit hole, but that feller over there makes a hell of a gin.” He dipped his head in the direction of a particularly ramshackle establishment that seemed to epitomize the term “hole in the wall”. “I figured I’d get some fer the road as it were.”
“Great,” Cassie groaned. “I thought I’d finally be done with smelling that garbage on your breath and tasting it on your tongue.”
“Nope, no such luck, darlin’,” Johnny said with a grin as Cassie rolled her eyes. “Hell, I might jus’ stop back and get s’more before we head out.”
“Glass bottles can be very fragile. Accidents happen,” Cassie remarked.
Johnny let out a chuckle in response before turning back to Paress and Casten. “Alright fellers, ya ready to head out on this mission or y’gotta know about anything first?”
Paress didn’t find Johnny’s lack of preamble particularly surprising. He got the distinct impression the man lived moment by moment even before he was Blessed with fast speed. He likely didn’t plan more than a few minutes in advance before acting.
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