Star Navigator

by Naomi Lucas

  Yesne placed the hand of the male next to her into a bowl of water. “Water,” he said. “This is water. Water.” The man’s fingers wiggled in the liquid, he was sitting up, and there was a look of awe on his face.

  “Wha. Wha.” It was a weak whisper.

  It’s better than their crying. At least they no longer cry. Reina snaked her arms around Atlas’s stomach and leaned into his side.

  “Water,” Yesne repeated.

  “Whaaner.”

  “Yes! Water, keep trying.” Yesne swirled the bowl from side to side, some of the liquid sloshed to the ground.

  “Whater.” The male tried again. The doctor preened with encouragement.

  Reina glanced at the female before quickly looking back at the doctor, only to move on the third creature. Another male, one they had extricated from the underbelly, he lay on his cot with a blank stare, only moving when his companions touched him. And they did that a lot, Reina and Yesne often had to separate the three from whatever bed they piled up on together.

  “How are they?” she called out.

  Yesne didn’t look up, his focus on his new project. “Quite great. Growing.”

  “Growing?”

  “They’re growing nails now. It’s amazing. They all have teeth coming in. Water, try again. Water,” Yesne emphasized.

  “Waiter.” The male responded absently, taking his hand out of his bowl and dripping it across the skin of his arm. “Water,” he said perfectly soon after.

  “Yes!” Yesne sat back, placing the bowl on the male’s lap. “Every day, progress.” He looked over at her. “They’re miraculous.”

  “They’re not human.”

  “They will be soon,” he responded with a pleased laugh. “They could be the solution to everything.”

  Reina looked back at the female, who had yet to look away from her or move, and shivered. She tightened her hold around Atlas’s waist, breathing him in, and wanting him to be there next to her like he had promised.

  The doctor continued while changing out the IVs attached to the ‘new’ humans. “They’re sentient–”

  “Sentaent,” the male from before mumbled.

  Yesne kept going, “They can learn. They are becoming more like us every day. Soon they may even grow hair.”

  “If they’re becoming human, they’re becoming more dangerous.”

  “Dang. Dangrous,” the male was repeating words that she was uncomfortable with. Or at least trying to. “Dangerous.”

  Reina felt a chill sweep up her spine.

  “Very good!” Yesne gave the male a sweet candy.

  She looked away and buried her face into Atlas’s back, stealing his heat, and taking whatever comfort she could from his statuesque form.

  Reina didn’t want to admit it, not even to herself. She was afraid–afraid that they would make it to Port Antix and find an ambush waiting for them or that it would be abandoned with nothing left but the stink of corpses. She was afraid of the three squirmers on the other side of the room, and what they could do. She was also afraid of what would happen to them once the Earthian Council took them away.

  Will they send ships out to the fake star-fields and capture more?

  She closed her eyes. Please come back to me.

  Reina had tried to go into the channels of the ship but was thrown out by the chaos and the pain. The ship was still her, and that part of herself was broken inside and out. It had left her shaking on the cold floor of her quarters in shock.

  When she had recovered, she tried again. Each time it filled her with agony. Her skin felt like it was being fried. Reina knew that she didn’t want to continue her life without Atlas in it. And her biggest fear of all was that they would be split apart by those they worked for.

  Her fingers gripped his side, digging into the strained muscle and bunched up cloth. Reina’s ear twitched as the heady rush of a familiar voice washed over her.

  “We can see the universe, we can sail through galaxies, explore uncharted planets, and name the stars. Just the two of us until we reach the end. We can disappear,” Atlas said softly. Reina felt her eyelashes dampening as she tried to hold back her tears. “Like so many others before us.”

  His hand slid down the panoramic glass shield, leaving a sweaty streak behind before lifting away and cocooning her under his arm.

  “You’re back,” she gasped into his side.

  “Don’t cry, sweetheart. I was never gone.” The ship shuddered as it lost Atlas’s protection. Their speed slowly dropped until they were merely shucking along, no longer traveling by light measurements. “I knew you were there.” His other arm shook and lifted from the glass. “I would never leave you willingly.”

  They stood there holding each other, both willing time to stop, so this moment could last for all eternity. Reina couldn’t bear the thought of ever letting him go again.

  Her eyes opened as she realized, for the first time, that she was stronger with Atlas by her side. That she could feel relief in letting someone behind her walls. That life wasn’t as hard as it had to be when you had the right person by your side.

  “I love you, Atlas.” Reina lifted her head and found his eyes. They were bloodshot and beady.

  “I love you too, Captain.”

  She blinked away her tears and they shared a smile.

  “Oh good, you turned yourself back on,” Yesne gleefully, once again, broke the moment. “How do you feel? How is your recovery?”

  Atlas shifted to face him, turning away from the window. “I’ve felt worse.” He left it at that, releasing her to wipe a trickle of blood coming out of his nostril and rip the IV that fed him from his arm. “I see we have new additions.”

  With her hand firmly restrained in his, he led them over to the creatures. The two males stood up as he came close and closed ranks. Streaks of yellow glowed under their skin. Yesne practically fell, rummaging around for his note-screen.

  Atlas stopped short, his muscles strained, the hard edges and planes of his chest stood out as he eyed the males before him. They were taller in stature and slight in nature but the warning in their eyes could only be learned by humans. Reina could physically feel the tension between them.

  “Are they not miraculous? You and Captain Reina did it, now we can bring them home to Earth. They could be the answer to everything.”

  “Where’s my gun?” Atlas asked without taking his eyes off them.

  Reina felt her heart skip a beat. Yesne choked in response. The males they faced didn’t move. She slipped her hand from his and located his gun.

  But she didn’t hand it over.

  Yesne was between Atlas and the males, arguing up a storm. “You can’t kill them! They’re our only proof of what’s out there! The images show nothing except the occasional flash of light and the pirates. Without them, they’ll believe it’s a trap and they’ll send more ships out there to apprehend the perceived threat. More will die. A lot more.”

  Atlas didn’t answer.

  His eyes were charged in crimson and blood continued to leak from his nose to drip onto his chest. Gone were the days where he was airy and blue, and minuscule numbers flowed over his projected skin. Reina wasn’t sure if she would miss that phantom side of him, all she knew was that she wanted him in her life as a Cyborg with blazing eyes, but would take what she could get and what he would give her.

  “What do you sense?” she asked.

  “They’re trying to imitate being human. That what you see on the outside is not the same as what should be on the inside. Their cells are constantly growing and mutating but not like a Cyborg’s. As we speak, these two are adapting to be more like me. I don’t trust it. I don’t trust the implications.”

  “Why?” Reina looked behind the males and at the female huddled on the bed behind them, her long arms hugging her knees to her chest, her body shapeless under a large undershirt.

  “If they can become human, they could become anything,” Atlas answered.

  One of the males stepp
ed forward, his slacks hanging loosely around his hips. She couldn’t help but wonder what was just beneath the clothing.

  When Yesne and I dressed them, they didn’t have sexual organs. Reina had a gut feeling that they probably did now.

  “Do you think they could terraform? They can transform. I wish we had use of the medical bay,” Yesne asked, intrigued.

  “Possibly.”

  Reina asked, quickly, quietly, “Do you think they could breed with us?” She still hadn’t handed him his gun. Atlas looked at her knowingly, and for a frightening moment, with the trails of blood over his face and chest, made him look more like a monster than a man. Her feet twitched to jump back.

  “Pussibley,” the same male said. The yellowish lights on their bodies became a brilliant gold before the color faded completely from their skin. The ship rocked and groaned, an entity in itself all around them.

  Reina hugged her arms around herself, caressing her bionic appendage in comfort. She closed her eyes tight and cooed at the ship.

  I’m sorry you’re hurting. I’m sorry you got stuck paired with me but I’m going to fix you, and Atlas is going to fix you.

  When she turned back the male from before was shuffling toward Atlas, his hand out in supplication, his fingers abnormally long. They grew out like tiny little snakes, and what she could have sworn had been joints before when his hand was in the bowl of water, was nothing more than fluid ripples.

  She interjected quickly, “We have to talk about what we’re going to do. We’re almost to Antix.”

  Atlas wiped the blood off his face with force and it sprayed across the room. He reached forward and grabbed the squirmer’s wrist then let go. Atlas turned to her as if their interaction had never happened. The charged, almost violent, moment gone.

  Reina could see in Atlas’s eyes, behind the crimson veil, that everything was about to change.

  Chapter Twenty-Six:

  “WE HAVE NO CHOICE,” Reina argued. “Antix is the only base within reach, the ship can’t warp, it can’t hold out much longer. I can’t hold out much longer and you, you need help.”

  Atlas and she had left the bridge, leaving Yesne with the aliens.

  “I know. But if we go back we’ll be delivering the metal-eaters right into their hands. Reina, this could start a war.”

  She pulled at her hair, wanting to deny his words, but it was the fear that she had been harboring inside herself. The thing she didn’t want to admit, nor to voice. “I won’t kill them.”

  “You wouldn’t. I would.” Thousands.

  Atlas took his sheet off and wiped himself down, gulping a water canister simultaneously.

  “Did you feel something? When you grabbed the male?”

  “Confusion, fear, want.”

  “Want? You felt want? What did he want?” Reina asked.

  Atlas dropped the dirty sheet. “It wanted to understand. It wanted to be me, I think. And right now, as we speak, its biology is changing. It’s going to have a hell of a time trying to replicate my metal frame,” he muttered.

  “Yesne thinks they could be the cure.”

  “Enslavement, death, the Trentians...can you handle that?”

  “It won’t come to that, you know it won’t. We can’t fight another war, neither could the Trentians. The pirates could have escaped, they could know what we know. If it’s not us, it could be them.”

  Reina found herself locked in his embrace.

  “But can you handle it?” Atlas tilted her chin up and asked.

  “Yes.” I can handle it. Someone has too. I trust myself.

  “Then we’ll handle it together, Captain.”

  She ran her hands up his back until she cupped his neck and pulled him down to meet her lips. Atlas sucked her tongue into his mouth and the taste of metal consumed her. She bit his lip as his rough fingers threaded through her loose hair, he gripped her head, pulling at the curling brown strands and sucked the life-force out of her.

  His hold was painful and desperate. Her nails clutched his shoulder blades, scratching at his skin.

  Atlas released her head and she felt the pressure of her space suit press up against her breasts, followed by the sound of shredding behind her. Cool air touched her spine as he palmed his way up to the shredded material at her shoulders and tore it off.

  Reina contorted her body until the cloth fell in waves at her feet.

  “I missed you,” he groaned, picking her up and carrying her into the lounge, setting her on the table.

  “I missed you too.”

  Atlas grabbed her feet and pulled her legs apart until she was spread breathlessly before him. He pushed between her and snapped her panties off. His hands ran up and down her sides.

  Reina moaned, arching her body off the table, and feeling her body tingle and drip with want.

  She straddled his hips. He ran his heavy cock over her pussy, dry humping, with their bodies writhing against each other.

  Atlas appeared over her, grunting with each teasing thrust, sliding his hands up to tug down her bra and expose her tits. The cool air of the ship made them painfully taut until his fingers pinch them softly. Teasing them like his cock teased her clit, bumping it in rhythm with his hands.

  “The prettiest sight I’ve ever seen,” he rasped over her ear, sending goosebumps down her body, “is watching you come undone under me.”

  The ship croaked and guttered around them. The clang of something crashing to the floor was ignored. Reina arched up in response as Atlas lifted away from her, retaking the heels of her feet in his hands and bending her knees to her chest.

  They shared a heated look. She drowned in the red, possessive, uncontrolled look in his eyes.

  I wonder what he sees in mine.

  With him bearing down on her, her legs spread, pinned completely to the tabletop, Reina clawed at the edge for leverage as Atlas pushed into her. Her hips came off the table as he stretched her open and took her recklessly, sinking into her again and again.

  The smell of sweat and sex perfumed the air, creating a euphoric haze. The loud banging of the table and thumps of her hips hitting the metal top with each thrust filled her ears.

  Reina arched up as if possessed, an electric shock coursing through every fiber of her being as Atlas came deep inside her, burning her, branding her, shocking her as he released himself again and again, thick and vibrating.

  She strained her head from side to side, needing to fall off the edge with him. His hips pivoted upward until the thick, mushroom head of his Cyborg cock hit her g-spot, buzzing against it with short and shallow thrusts.

  Her fingers crushed the metal edge of the table as her body shook with relief, an orgasm ripping from her pussy, stolen by Atlas, and flooding her head as her screams echoed off the walls.

  “Yes,” was the only thing she heard, growling above her.

  Reina pushed him away feeling oversensitive all over but her muscles had lost all their pent-up strain. Without breaking their strangling, wet connection, Atlas lifted her in his arms and sat them on a nearby chair.

  “The Reincarnation.”

  “What?” Reina asked sleepily, her throat hoarse.

  “Should be the name of our ship.”

  Reina smiled. “I like it.”

  “I like it too.”

  And with a sated breath, she found the beautiful oblivion of sleep in Atlas’s marvellously real arms.

  ATLAS REJOINED WITH the ship sooner than she would have liked and within hours they received a hail from the Earthian Council. A company of battlecruisers and freighters surrounded the airspace of Port Antix; they intercepted them and hauled them planetside.

  It was a relief that they weren’t met by pirates.

  It seemed that they had a little luck on their side. Reina stood to attention, having donned her military uniform, and was escorted off her ship by several guards.

  Atlas had stayed behind with the metal-eater-squirmer-mermaid-shifters. They had a lot of names now. No one knew quite what to
call them. Atlas demanded they waited to make any official reports on that matter until their cognizance developed enough so that they could name themselves, as was the Cyborg’s way.

  She was interrogated for days by a multitude of people, about Antix, the pirates, the decision to abandon the setup of the relays, and the damage to the ship until a man in a dark grey suit sat her down and asked her the harder, more dangerous questions.

  Those of Atlas’s resurrection and the creatures they had taken on board. The images were taken, all of them, and then deleted off her ship’s personal databases.

  “Your name will not be released.”

  “I don’t understand?” she asked, putting down her coffee.

  “We need to know that you will never speak of the events of this mission to anyone, ever again.”

  “I can’t promise you that,” Reina sat up. “I need to know my crew is okay, that Atlas will remain my navigator, and that the...the...”

  “Aliens?”

  “Yes. That they will be okay.” She reached across the interrogation table, one that was an exact replica from her last interrogation and grabbed the suit’s wrist. “We came back. You owe me some answers.”

  The suit pinned her with a stare before shaking off her hand. He was older, but not by much, his hair dark and peppered with grey and slicked close to his head. His skin as dark as ebony and his eyes were brown. Although he retained a cooled attitude toward her, she couldn’t miss the laugh lines on his face nor the flash of sympathy in his eyes.

  He looked at something behind her, a glimpse, before he returned his attention to her.

  Reina kept her face stone, but it was harder for her now, she felt so much these days. Emotions pooled from her when she found herself alone, screaming into her pillow during the rest cycles.

  If we had vanished–if we had disappeared–we could have stayed together.

  She missed her makeshift family and would do whatever she could to ensure their safety. Even that of the creatures. The female had seemed like she wanted to approach her, like the alpha male of the group approached Atlas.