by Tristan Vick
“Not cool,” Raven said, swiveling back in her chair. “Take a seat.” She nodded at the co-pilot’s chair beside her.
“You certain?” Jegra asked.
“You’re going to need to learn how to fly this thing someday,” she said.
“I am?” Jegra gave Raven a perplexed look.
Raven smiled at her. “I’m offering you a position on my crew. I don’t have a co-pilot and I think you’d make a great addition. Just think about it.”
Jegra’s lips grew tight as her smile stretched far and wide. “Are you serious? You want me on your crew?”
Raven nodded in the affirmative but before she’d even finished answering Jegra’s question Jegra reached out and grabbed Raven and gave her a warm hug.
After the long embrace, Raven brushed the purple stripe in her hair behind her ear and looked Jegra up and down. “Why in the quad are you wearing Nyctan battle armor?”
“I was given a ship,” she said, pointing out the window at the hole in the Subjugator. ”But I’m afraid that’s all that remains of it.”
Raven glanced up at the gaping wound of Dakroth’s ship. “Bold move,” she said.
“It was the Knights.”
“But, of course, it was” she said, grinning to herself. “If I’m not mistaken, I do believe you out rank me now. So, what’s the plan, Sub Commander?”
Jegra looked at her with her most down to brass tacks expression and said, “Get us the fuck out of here.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Raven hit the controls and turned the Skywend about. Taking ahold of the FTL throttle, she looked out at the stars and jammed it forward. In a flash and a crack like a whip the Skywend jumped into FTL.
Hyperspace whisked by in long streaks of light separated by equally long bands of black, empty space.
“So, where we headed?” Jegra asked, curious as to where Raven was taking them.
“Before I got Galahad’s distress call, we were en route to The Cove.”
“The Cove?” asked Jegra.
“It’s an old mining asteroid since turned into a pirate’s weigh station. It’s where all the black-market goods are brought in and out of the system. If Dakroth knew about it, he’d have had it destroyed already.”
“What’s at this Cove place?”
“Not a what, but a who,” she replied. “We’re picking up a Bre’lal woman of some importance. Her family is wealthy and her sister wants her to get home safely after she finishes trading korridium ore for some item of importance. What it is, however, remains a mystery.”
“I thought you didn’t transport cargo you didn’t know the contents of?”
“I don’t,” Raven said. “Unless you can meet my price. Like I said, her sister is rich. So, I made a cool two and a half mill.”
“A million and a half credits to look the other way?”
“Basically,” she said, a coy grin spreading across her face.
“Suckers,” Jegra said.
Both women laughed.
“It’ll be three hours yet. Why don’t you go get cleaned up and slip into something a little more comfortable? I fitted your room with several outfits I think you’ll find appealing.”
“Don’t you mean, your room?”
“Not anymore,” Raven replied. Her amethyst eyes locked onto Jegra’s and she smiled. Her smile spoke volumes and Jegra didn’t know what to say.
Jegra slowly rose to her feet, picked up her jaw off the floor, and placed her hand on Raven’s shoulder. Giving her a firm squeeze, their eyes met and they shared a look of mutual understanding. And, to Jegra, it felt as though she had found her sister from a different mother. “Thank you. For everything.”
“You’ll always have a place here, empress,” Raven said, turning back to her controls.
After exiting the bridge, Jegra went back to her quarters. It felt strange actually being able to say that now; she had her own place aboard the Skywend.
When she entered the room, she found Cassera sitting in a chair stark naked except for her armored boots and the defeated expression she wore on her face. Upon seeing Jegra framed in the doorway, she looked up at her with a look of sheer embarrassed shock.
“I don’t know how to get my boots off,” she said. She sounded like a distraught child who’d given up on trying to figure out how to tie their shoes for the first time.
Jegra laughed. “There’s a trick to them,” she said, kneeling down in front of Cassera. Pressing a button on the side, a latch popped up and Jegra pulled on it. The boot opened up like a ski boot and she slid it off Cassera’s dainty blue foot. She repeated the process with the other foot and set the heavy boots to the side, next to the pile of armor.
“We have three hours to kill,” Jegra informed her blue-skinned companion, gently resting her hands on Cassera’s knees. She looked up into Cassera’s golden eyes and smiled.
“You don’t say?” Cassera said, biting her lower lip.
Jegra’s gaze settled on Cassera’s Prussian blue lips and the enticing pink tongue that she used to lick her teeth with. Becoming aroused, she slowly spread Cassera’s knees apart, opening her thighs and revealing a snowy patch of white hair nestled between her legs. Jegra’s eyes slowly fell onto the patch of white and she licked her lips in mouth-watering anticipation.
Cassera slid to the edge of her chair, leaned back, and closed her eyes to take it all in. The moment she felt Jegra’s wet mouth begin to tease her with feathery kisses and titillating licks, she let out a deep sigh. “Don’t stop,” Cassera said. “Don’t stop till I’m gushing like the waterfalls of Theta Prime and my legs are quivering so badly I can’t take it a second longer.”
Coming up for breath, Jegra replied, “As you wish, my love.”
Three hours later both women lay in bed panting, their chests heaving, and bodies drenched with the sweet residue of satisfaction. They stared up at the ceiling as they basked in the aftershocks of minute orgasms that rippled throughout their bodies.
Cassera reached over and took Jegra’s hand in hers. “That was…” Cassera began, pausing to take in a deep breath, “absolutely fucking glorious.”
“No kidding. It felt like the first time between us.”
Jegra rolled over and, stroking her partner’s blue arm, looked into the Dagon’s sparkling amber eyes. “What’s the policy on your world about the Empress taking on a hetaera?”
“Your majesty is allowed up to twelve concubines of your choosing. They may live in the guest quarters of your domicile but you can never have more in your service than the emperor has in his. So, if, say, he has only five, you can have no more than four.”
“Would you be willing to be my hetaera, Cassera Van Danica Amelorak?” Jegra gave Cassera’s arm a firm squeeze to let her know she was serious about the request and that it wasn’t just any fleeting fancy. It was the closest thing to making Cassera her wife without actually breaking Dagon imperial law.
“As a defector, I’d be killed if anyone found out my true identity. I’m afraid it wouldn’t be possible. And if Dakroth found you were harboring me as your secret lover, there’s no telling what he’d do.”
“I could disguise you. All you need is a new look and a new name. What the emperor doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” Jegra shot Cassera a playful wink.
“Really, is that all?”
“Yes,” Jegra said.
“Well, consider my curiosity piqued. What did you have in mind?”
“How about Dani? Short for Danica.”
“Dani? You know something … I like it.” She bopped Jegra on the nose with a blue finger. “Especially because it’s coming from you, J.”
“Alright, I’ll be your J-bird and you can be my Dani-girl.”
“But, you do realize, Dakroth knows my face all too well.” She sighed disappointedly and looked away from Jegra. “If he should ever find me by your side, he’d have a nuclear meltdown and throw me into his dungeon. Or worse.”
“Well, I was thinking about that. And I know you’re a
gainst modification, but Raven underwent mods and now has purple eyes and lots of cool cyber implants that do God knows what. And she turned out fine.”
“You want me to defile my body so I can be with you?”
“I know, it’s asking a lot. It goes against everything you believe. It goes against the notion of Dagon purity. Of being the supreme race and all that. But, at least, this way we could be together.”
“It does more than goes against my personal beliefs. It would essentially erase my Dagon purity. Permanently. Apologies, Jegra, but I cannot in good faith make such a decision.” There was a long pause between them, and then Cassera added in a rather solemn tone, “But if my empress should command it of me…”
Jegra gasped and gave Cassera an exasperated look. “You know I can’t do that. Besides, that would make me no different from Dakroth ordering you to subject yourself to my aggressive DNA assimilation just to see what it would do to you. It’s not right.”
“Dakroth knew that I would never willfully undergo such a procedure, which is why he ordered me to do so, as his loyal subject. I’m afraid you’ll have to do the same if you want me to go through with enhancements. You must command me to do it, as my empress.”
“That’s not fair,” Jegra said, frowning disapprovingly at Cassera, “and you know it. I would never ask you to sacrifice part of your soul to me knowing you could never get it back.”
“Consider it a lesson, then,” she replied, stroking Jegra’s face gently with fingers as light as feathers. “A lesson in having to make hard decisions as the Empress of Dagon.”
“I hate that you’re putting me in this position,” Jegra griped. She huffed out a puff of hot air and fluttered her bangs.
“You need to stop thinking like a human and start thinking like a Dagon. My people have been ruthless for centuries. You’re compassion, your emotional hesitancy, will only appear to them as weak-willed. It will give Dakroth all the ammunition he needs to plot against you in the hopes of your downfall. Don’t give him the satisfaction.”
“So, what are you suggesting? I act like Supreme Bitch of the Galaxy?”
“Let me ask you this. When you’re fighting in the arena, do you halt mid-bout to apologize to your opponent for bashing them a bit too vigorously or stop because you may have inflicted one too many wounds upon them? No, because gladiators are slaves. And as a slave, you were ordered to fight, and you had no choice but to do so. And I, as your loyal servant, have no choice but to obey your commands. So, for one moment, don’t be my lover. Don’t be my girlfriend. Don’t even be my J-bird. Be my fucking empress.”
“No,” Jegra replied. “I can’t do it.”
“You must. You are the Empress of Dagon now, Jegra. You. Not me. Not anybody else in this whole bleeding galaxy, but you. And it’s time you started acting like it.”
After a long pause, Jegra’s scowl tightened and her jaw flexed. She hated herself for what she had to do but, all things considered, what choice did she have? As Cassera had pointed out, compassion would only make her appear weak. Dakroth would certainly use any sign of weakness against her as a means to twist public opinion and turn the Dagon people against her. Show them that she was ill suited to lead. That she wasn’t worth their veneration.
“Fine,” Jegra reluctantly answered, acknowledging that Cassera was right. There was only the lesser of two evils. Even though she didn’t like it, that’s just how it had to be; it was the only way to be with Cassera, the only way to save her lover from being executed. So be it.
Also, she’d see Hell freeze over before she’d ever let Dakroth play her for a fool again.
With a hardened gaze, she looked over at the lovely blue face in front of her, and ordered, “Cassera Van Danica Amelorak, from this point on you will be Dani Valencia, my personal stylist and fashion coordinator. This will explain why you are always by my side. You will also modify yourself so that the emperor will not be able to recognize you, even should he come into direct contact with you.”
“Good,” Cassera replied, with an encouraging smile. “Now you are talking like a true leader, not a slave who waits for others to decide her fate.” She batted her amber eyes and leaned in, touching her forehead to Jegra’s. “Anything else, my grace?”
Jegra reached down and cupped Cassera’s breast in her hand and stroked her dark blue nipple with her thumb. “Yes, see to it that you get these boobs enhanced. They’re a little on the small side.”
Dani laughed and slapped Jegra’s hand away. “No need to be a bitch about it,” she teased, laughing at Jegra’s joke.
Jegra wrapped her arms around Dani and pulled her in tight. “And maybe some filler for these thin wispy lips of yours, while you’re at it.”
“Oh, hush, you.” Dani laughed and then stopped Jegra’s teasing with a sultry kiss.
After a long, passionate, kiss, Jegra cupped her hands around Dani’s face. “You do realize I think you’re perfect the way you are, right?”
“I know,” Dani replied, gazing back into Jegra’s brown eyes.
“You also realize that I can’t live a life on Dagon Prime without you, right? Not alone. Not with him.”
“I know,” Dani replied in a consoling tone.
“And, you do realize that I love you with all my heart,” Jegra asked, pressing her head into Dani’s just as she had done earlier.
“I know,” Dani answered in a soft whisper.
With one last peck on the lips, Jegra slipped out of bed. “I’m gonna hit the showers. You want to come?”
“Not right now,” Dani replied. “I think I’ll try to catch a bit of rest, if you don’t mind.”
Jegra shrugged and then pulled a towel out of the closet and wrapped up. “See you in a while,” she said, waving over her shoulder as she exited the room.
Once she was gone, Danica leapt out of bed and rummaged through the heap of armor lying on the floor until she found what she was looking for. Pulling out the korridian dagger, she stood in front of the wall and said, “Mirror on.”
Her image appeared on the closet door panel as the 4K reflection of her stared back. Slowly, grabbing her long, silvery hair, she took the knife and cut over half of it off, leaving only shoulder length locks.
Danica dropped her white hair onto the floor and then tossed the knife onto the floor next to it. It rattled to a standstill and she stared at her naked body until she couldn’t anymore.
Tears brimming, she wiped the corners of her eyes with her thumb and turned away from her reflection. “Mirror off,” she said. The image disappeared and she threw herself onto the bed and curled up into a tight ball.
She had never felt so lost and helpless in all her life. She had been the most powerful woman in the Dagon Empire and commanded the largest fleet in the galaxy. Now, she was a fugitive on the run and her only chance of survival was to become the very thing she detested. A freaking mod.
Danica clutched her knees to her chest and did the one thing she hadn’t done since she was a little girl. She cried, her tears brought on from the overwhelming sense of hopelessness she felt. For having lost her way. And for the fact that these emotions weren’t manifested by the Dagon part of her but, rather, by the human part of her. She was changing. Losing herself. And that terrified her.
30
An asteroid the size of a small moon sat in the middle of a vast asteroid belt not so unlike that of Earth’s Kuiper Belt, an extensive ring of predominantly icy planetesimals held in place by the gravity of the system’s blue giant. A little smaller than Pluto, it was called The Cove–the site of a secret smuggling ring and black-market weigh stop for pirates, mercenaries, smugglers, and home to countless other shady business practices. If you needed something, you could probably find it here.
The Skywend approached a stadium-sized opening in the asteroid and slowly started into the dark mouth of the rocky body. Running lights lit up and the Skywend disappeared into the asteroid.
Jegra tossed her still damp hair over her shoulder and leaned
over Raven’s shoulder. She was wearing another smart-suite. However, this one was gray with an orange stripe that ran down the left breast all the way down her leg.
“You smell good,” Raven said quite casually.
“I took a much needed shower.”
Emerging into a large hollow in the asteroid, there was a flicker as they passed through an enormous atmospheric, magnetically variable shield like the type that kept the shuttle bay pressurized but let ships pass in and out. It was the same concept behind how one bubble can pass through the film of another bubble without damaging either sphere. Only instead of surface pressure, they used high-powered shields.
Of course, if your ship was old and didn’t have magnetic shielding it would bounce off the encompassing blue film like a rock ricocheting off a concrete wall.
“Oh, wow!” Jegra gasped as she saw numerous shuttles flying about inside the moon-sized cave. Raven brought the Skywend down on one of the large landing pads attached to what seemed to be a giant casino built right into the inner wall of the asteroid.
Down below, and all around, was a labyrinth of shops and places of pleasure which could satisfy any numerous vices. Jegra saw sex parlors, drug dens, gambling establishments, food places, and all manner of junk dealers peddling their second-rate wares.
“Don’t buy anything from anyone down here except for food. And even then, be sure it’s not still alive.”
“Roger that,” Jegra said.
“Oh, mistress, Jegra,” a familiar voice said, in a pleasantly surprised tone.
“Skuld?” Jegra said, the realization settling in before she even had time to turn around. Spinning around she found the skinny, fish-man in his aquatic breathing gear standing behind her. Leaping up, Jegra threw her arms around his neck and gave him a great big hug.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you.” Noticing a couple of small dark eyes peering out from behind the arch of the bridge entrance, Jegra winked and whispered, “I missed you too, Gyllek.”