The Zone

by Barbara Karmazin

  It was a nightmare come to life. People screaming. Children crying. Sirens wailing.

  She lost all track of time. It felt like she ran forever, ducking and dodging through splintered glass and puddles of black blood. Plasma blasts seared the sky in an insane display of pyrotechnics.

  Each flash exposed a single horrific image. An endless strobe of horror upon horror. Twisted and crumpled bodies slumped on the streets like piles of dirty clothes. Black twisted hands curled up in front of a charred corpse. A man lay in a doorway with his eyeballs burnt out and his mouth stretched in the rictus of a soundless scream.

  A headless child clutched a rag doll to her chest.

  The stench of burnt flesh and scorched hair permeated the air.

  Fire flared up in front and splashed against a wall. Jeresa flinched and stumbled. Derek, the spacer with the dreadlocks, caught her arm and pulled her to his side. Strong arms, warm and alive, tightened around her. “It’s all right. You’re doing fine. We’re here.”

  Derek put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around.

  A ramp. They were in the spaceport, standing in front of a spaceship. Jeresa staggered up the ramp with leaden feet. Derek kept his hand at her back, a warm, reassuring touch. She stopped in front of the closed airlock door.

  One of the spacers reached out and touched the palmlock. The airlock door slid aside. She stepped inside. The spacers crowded in next. And her dogs. Both of them. Safe and alive.

  The outer airlock door sealed itself. Her ears popped while the airflow balanced itself. The inner airlock opened. Jeresa entered. Scrubbed deck plates. Polished panels. Bright lights. Clean and safe.

  She sucked in the air with deep, sobbing breaths. Tears streamed down her face.

  Strong arms enfolded her. She leaned against a warm, muscled chest and cried. The spacers murmured soft, comforting whispers. Gentle hands stroked her tangled hair.

  Star bumped her head against Jeresa’s knee and whined. Gem wiggled her chunky body in between her legs. “Mommy sad. Help Mommy.”

  Jeresa smiled. “I’m fine, Gem. Mommy’s crying happy tears.”

  Hard, strong bodies held her and kept her safe. A large hand cupped her breast. A rough, callused finger touched her nipple. Gentle hands stroked her back and pulled her closer. An erection pressed against her crotch. Two more erections nudged her on both sides of her hips. A fourth erection rubbed at the cleft between her buttocks.

  Jeresa stiffened. Outrage burned through her. She pushed the spacers away and stumbled back against the wall. “I didn’t agree to be your whore.”

  Star and Gem crowded her legs. The hair rose on their backs in a stiff ridge. They growled and wove their heads back and forth between the four men, daring them to approach her.

  Jeresa’s heart slowed down from a thundering roar to a sullen gallop. She sagged against the wall. Gem and Star were with her. She wasn’t alone. They would protect her.

  The spacer captain spoke in a quiet, matter-of-fact voice. “No. You’re not a prost. You’re our new crewmate.”

  Axel! His name is Axel.

  Jeresa sucked in a shaky breath. After all she’d been through tonight, she was lucky to remember her own name, let alone his.

  He tapped his chest. His tunic was torn and filthy. “You needed comfort and we gave you the comfort we would give to our crewmate.” He gestured at the airlock. “We would never keep you here against your will. You’re free to go if you wish.”

  Yeah. Right. Out there in the Zone, her choice tonight was either death or existence as a slave to one of the drug lords. Here, at least, she had a slightly better chance of survival. Only four men to worry about raping her instead of hundreds.

  Except they didn’t try to rape me. They touched me with gentle hands. They protected me and brought me and my dogs to safety.

  Jeresa sucked in another breath. “I’m a crewmate?”

  “Yes, you are. We needed a med-tech and you agreed to join us.”

  She tugged her tunic down from its bunched up position around her waist. “Show me the med section. Show me my quarters.”

  * * *

  She was safe. She was alive. She had a new job now as ship med-tech. Star and Gem had crashed out on the floor in front of her cabin’s built-in bed. Gem’s loud snore filled the air with its comforting familiarity.

  Jeresa sat on the bed and slumped against the wall. She should rest but she was too wired to sleep yet. Too much had happened to her tonight. She kept wanting to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

  Derek, the black guy, was the ship’s engineer. He’d spent over an hour resetting the door’s palmlock and adding a nose lock so that it only opened to her and the dogs. Right now he was running calculations into his hand-comp figuring out what he needed in order to add a sanitary canine waste cubicle for the dogs.

  Now that she had the time to actually sit and look at him, he looked pretty damn good. He stood about five nine. Tight, compact muscles rippled on his back and shoulders while he moved around the room inputting his measurements. He’d been so busy setting up her cabin that he hadn’t even had the time to put on a new tunic.

  Not bad. Not bad at all. Hell, all of the guys looked damn good.

  Derek turned around. He clipped the comp to his belt. A warm, reassuring smile lit up his dark features. “That’s it for now. When you go with Axel to finalize your paperwork in the dockmaster’s office, I’ll be able to do my job here.”

  “Thank you.”

  Derek glanced at the neatly folded tunic and pants at the foot of her bed. “Hopefully, those will fit you until we can buy you some decent clothing.” He backed out the open door of her cabin into the corridor. “Breakfast will be served an hour from now. The galley’s the third door down. Marcus is the ship’s cook.”

  Jeresa raked her hand through her hair. Dried blood, dirt and fire foam had turned it into a tangled mess. She needed a shower. Changing into clean clothes would help her feel better too. “Marcus? He’s the blond guy who looks like a Viking, right?”

  Derek snorted, shook his head and grinned. “Yeah, I guess you could call him that.”

  Chapter Five

  Jeresa set the water temperature for a hundred degrees and stepped into the shower. She grabbed the shampoo and scrubbed her hair first.

  Pure heaven. A girl could get spoiled with this kind of luxury.

  They had no limits on the amount of water she could use. The ship used a three-tier water system. One for waste disposal, another for drinking water, and a third one for cleaning. The used shower water drained through a sonic scrubber that recycled it for continuous usage.

  She rinsed the shampoo from her hair, grabbed the soap dispenser and squeezed it into her hands. A white, viscous glob of liquid that looked like semen.

  The prosts in the Zone always complained about spacers. They said spacers were cheapskates because they usually paid for one prost to service a group of spacers. And it wasn’t just the male spacers who had that bad rep. The women spacers bought single male or female prosts for group sex too.

  Could it be that instead of being cheapskates, this was simply a reflection of their normal sexual practices?

  The image of all four spacers standing around her, holding her and caressing her body, exploded into her mind with sudden clarity. Strong gentle hands had cupped her ass and tits. Four hard cocks had pressed against her, all ready to satisfy her needs.

  They were her fantasy lover come to life in quadruple. And instead of letting nature take its course, what the hell did she do? She pushed them away, yelled at them and accused them of treating her like a prost.

  Oh God.

  Jeresa turned the water off and sagged against the wall. Should she plead temporary insanity and beg them to finish what they started?

  * * *

  Axel came into the galley and sat at the bolted down table. His hair curled at the ends from the shower but at least he was clean and no longer had the sickening stench of scorched fles
h and hair clinging to his clothes and body. Marcus slid a cup of coffee in front of him.

  Coffee. Real coffee for a change. A simple luxury they often went without. He wrapped his fingers around the thick mug and inhaled the steaming fragrance. Little by little, his brain cells started functioning again.

  Garian staggered in, snagged a cup of coffee and collapsed on the bench beside him. In addition to a shower, clean tunic and pants, he’d taken the time to add a bunch of gold beads to his hair. They made a nice contrast to his red-brown dreadlocks and cinnamon colored skin.

  Derek came in and took his seat. He’d taken a quick shower too. Tiny droplets of water clung to the tight black curls on his scalp. He hunched over his coffee, blew the steam from the top and took a cautious sip.

  Axel raised his eyebrows. “No tunic.”

  Derek flashed a sardonic grin. “I caught her checking out my bod when I scanned her cabin for the modifications I’ll be putting in for her dogs. I think she likes me. And the way I figure it, we need all the help we can get to keep her from changing her mind and walking out on us.”

  Garian snorted. “Hmmph. You just like showing off your pecs.”

  Derek’s grin widened into a full-fledged leer. “Nice beads, Gar. They go well with that boner you’ve been sporting for the last hour.”

  Garian peered under the table at his crotch, sighed and shook his head. “I took care of him when I took my shower. He’s supposed to be resting now, not standing up at attention.”

  Marcus passed around plates of scrambled eggs and synth-bacon and settled into his seat with a hopeful sigh. “My father always said the best way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach. I’ll find out what her favorite recipes are and handle all the cooking.”

  He could be right. Marcus’s dad was the best cook across six star systems. He always had happy bed partners staying with him, usually two or three of them at the same time, despite the extra weight he carried from indulging in his own favorite recipes.

  Marcus devoured his eggs and finished off his coffee. Then he sat back and glared at them one by one. “Keep your hands off the chocolates I’m buying her today.”

  Axel adjusted his hard-on to a more comfortable position and folded his hands on the table. “I like her too. A lot. We almost blew it there at the airlock. Don’t push yourselves on her. We don’t want to scare her away.”

  Derek’s grin faded. His face went totally serious. “I’ll keep my distance. I want her to stay too. Any suggestions?”

  Garian raised his hand. “Clothes. All she has with her now are the clothes on her back. When you bring her to the Port Authority Admin Center later this morning and get her officially listed as crew, I’ll make a few purchases from one of the high-class boutiques I saw in that sector.”

  Axel turned to him. “You know her size already?”

  Garian grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “I felt her. My hands know her exact measurements.” He sighed and angled another sardonic glance under the table at his crotch. Absolute yearning filled his face. “I hope she likes us too.”

  A soft chime echoed from the wall. The ship’s computer voice spoke in a neutral baritone. “Newest crewmember has vacated cabin six. Estimated time of arrival at the galley is four Terra standard minutes.”

  Axel stared at their ship engineer. Derek shrugged. “I programmed the ship’s computer to give passive proximity advisories. Just in case we need to get decent and to remind us to watch what we say when she’s around so we won’t scare her off.”

  Of course. Derek was no fool. None of them were. It was a reasonable precaution considering how they’d almost ruined their chances by pawing at her as soon as she boarded the ship.

  * * *

  Jeresa tugged her tunic down with shaking, sweaty hands. Silky indigo fabric caressed the curves of her breasts and dipped alarmingly low, almost exposing her hard pebbled nipples. It clung to her flat stomach like a second skin.

  The pants were just as bad. Tight and supple, the fabric rubbed against her aching clit with every step she took. Not like the oversized tunic and pants she normally wore. The only saving grace was the length of the tunic. It flared out into a soft skirt that ended at the top of her thighs.

  Her shoes, the only pair of shoes she owned, a pair of scruffy, black soft-soled flats, completed her attire.

  Whose clothing had they given her to wear? Were they discards from a previous lover?

  The bright rectangle of the open galley door waited a few steps away. Soft clinking sounds and the delicious aromas of fresh coffee and scrambled eggs told her that the spacers had already begun to eat breakfast.

  She turned the corner and stepped inside.

  All four men jumped to their feet with eager smiles. Their pants failed to conceal the thick bulges at their crotches. They surrounded her. Eager hands pulled out a chair and helped her seat herself.

  Derek, Axel and Garian returned to their hastily vacated seats.

  Soft, gentle voices.

  Ardent appreciation shone in Derek’s dark eyes. “You look great.”

  Axel jerked his gaze away from the plunging cleavage at the top of her tunic and fastened it on her face. A deep flush stained his cheeks. “Good morning.”

  Garian licked his lips. He flashed a radiant and frankly admiring smile. “My baby sister left a few things behind last trip. They fit you a lot better than they fit her.”

  Marcus placed a steaming mug of coffee and plate of fluffy scrambled eggs and crisp synth-bacon in front of her. He leaned over and stared into her eyes with a worried expression on his face. “Milk? Sugar? More salt? Pepper?”

  She gulped and shook her head. If she moved her hand, the side of her arm would brush against his erection. “I’m fine. I like my coffee black. Thank you.”

  Horror flashed across his face. “Napkins.” He straightened up, hurried back to the opposite wall, opened a panel above the food prep corner and pulled out a handful of clean, white cloths.

  His pants outlined a nice tight butt.

  She turned back to her plate, picked up a fork and took a generous scoop of scrambled eggs. They were perfect. Made with just the right amount of seasoning. Not runny and slimy. Not burnt and dried out either. She ate it in alternating bites with swigs of strong, hot coffee.

  Marcus cooked this? Oh my. Damn fine cook. Excellent cook.

  Finished. She sat back and wiped her mouth with her napkin. Four pairs of eyes followed her every move.

  Axel smiled. “Good. Huh?”

  She folded the napkin and laid it beside her empty plate. “Yes, it was. Thank you.”

  Derek moved his chair closer, then ran his fingertip across the top of her hand. The look in his eyes was hot enough to melt steel. “I liked how you made soft little moans in the back of your throat with every bite you took. That was nice.”

  Heat flowed from that simple touch straight to her pussy in a single bolt of pure sensation. She jerked her hands back and folded them in her lap. If she stood up now, she’d probably leave a wet spot on the chair.

  She plastered a bright smile on her face. “What’s the itinerary for today? Don’t we have to go to the Port Authority Office in person in order to sign papers and establish my credentials as your new med-tech?”

  Chapter Six

  The silver-haired clerk behind the counter looked them over with flat, bored eyes. He inserted a data sliver into his console. A holographic display appeared listing line after line of Jeresa’s qualifications and education.

  The clerk frowned. “Captain Axel Dane-Niallsen.”

  “Speaking.”

  “We have a problem.”

  Axel sucked in his breath and took hold of Jeresa’s hand. She leaned into his side and waited. Her hand trembled within his and he gave her a comforting squeeze. They’d gotten this far. No way was he going to let her down now.

  The clerk rested his hand on the counter, palm up. “Ms. Lynnwold has some outstanding student loans. Unless those loans are paid in full, we
cannot approve her employment listing with your spacecraft.”

  Axel looked up into clerical eyes totally disconnected from that open palm. “How much?”

  Clerical lips pursed. The man consulted the columns of glowing figures within the holographic display. “Six thousand for the student loans.” The clerk coughed. “And another four thousand to expedite the process.”

  Jeresa’s hand twitched. She gasped. “That’s robbery!”

  Axel held up his hand. “A few moments of privacy please so we can discuss the additional expenditures.”

  The clerk inclined his head in a barely perceptible nod. “Three minutes.”

  They stepped back from the counter and went out the office door into the hallway. Jeresa’s eyes blazed with righteous indignation. “It’s twice the amount I owe. Plus he wants another four thousand for expenses.”

  Axel ran his thumb across her cheek. “We have no choice. Without a certified med-tech on my crew, the Port Authority will lock my ship down and we’ll lose the ship and all of our money on accumulated dock fees.”

  Startled comprehension filled her face. “It’s not charity?”

  “Far from it. We need you, Jeresa.”

  She bit her lip. “You can earn this money back with what you have in cargo. Right?”

  “We’ll earn twenty times that amount if we can deliver our cargo on time.”

  “But if you don’t have a med-tech today, you won’t be able to leave and fulfill your contract?”

  “That’s correct.”

  She lifted her head. Pride glowed on her face. “I’m an equal member of the crew. This means I can pay this back from my share of the profit.”

  “Yes.”

  She stared at him for the longest time. Then looked away. A slight pink blush stained her cheeks. “Can I ask a personal question?”

  His heart flipped over. “You’re crew. No question is too personal among crewmates.”

  The pink blush in her cheeks deepened into two bright red spots. She lifted her head and stared at him again. “For you spacers, when you’re crew that means you’re very close, like family. Right?”